《33 Risen#re》


 Chapter 1 - 001 - 33 LEAVES THE THRONE

    Talan remained even after the end had come.


    At the centre of everything, at the beginning of all things and the end. It wasn''t his first time in such a place, but he sincerely hoped it would be his last.


    ---


    Talen loved questions, he loved rhetorical questions even more.


    It took a long time to answer a question that isn''t supposed to have an answer, some would search for an entire lifetime with the answer forever illuding their reach.


    But in Talen''s case, lifetimes would be the correct term for he had lived so many different lives already.


    The question this time was one that he''d heard spoken of in every life of his.


    It was a philosophical question so many learned scholars would ponder on for years on end, in their search for answers to the meaning of life.


    And so the question went; Does a circle have a beginning? Does a circle have an end? If so then where can it be found?


    The impossible question; for the beginning is also the end, and the end is the beginning so how can one ever know.


    What might the beginning of a circle have to do with the truth of life?- you might ask.


    The answer will vary depending on whomever you should ask, but if you ask Talen, the god who reigned supreme over all other gods, he''d tell you just one word.


    ''Everything.''


    He''d proceed to look at you pitifully for your ignorance and walk away.


    ---


    Talen had learned the answer so very long ago, at least he thought he did.


    Time had a way of making him look at things differently it always annoyed him that no answer was absolute.


    One day you are so certain that you have the answer and learned the truth of all things, but a few days go by and you come to realize how wrong you were when you look at things from a different angle.


    Talen had grown tired of time always proving him wrong, it was an unfortunate truth that the more you learn, the more you come to understand how very little you truly know.


    For one Telan who had lived for so many trillions of years one would have assumed that there were very few unknowns left for him, after all, he lived 33 lives and by now he was so many trillions of years old that he stopped counting.


    Talen sat, no stood, or rather float at the centre of the 7 universes that made the current heaven/plain and watched them crumble.


    Centuries passed maybe millennia or even eons, Talan didn''t count anymore, he stopped caring about anything, or rather it could be said that he was cursed to never have the chance to care about anything other than himself.


    All things slowly withered away for their time had come.


    The dark suns that lit up the heaven/plain soon lost their light as time encroached upon them snuffing them out, and after that, the unseen black holes that sucked and destroyed all things met their end.


    Then he saw it everything had turned into nothing and began to converge on the centre of everything, you see that was the secret, a circle has a beginning and that beginning was at the centre from the centre it expands outward forever until it stops and collapses upon itself.


    The answer stared all those that were looking for it in the face, yet it remained hidden.


    Such is the eternal cycle, such are the truths we all hope to learn, they are so obvious but remain hidden in plain sight.


    Talan watched the shattering with joy as it took everything with it, he could easily survive the collapse of this heaven and watch as it would reconstruct and become greater than it was before, but that would be beside the point for he wanted death he desired it with all his being,


    His 33 lives were pure misery, it was the curse that made it so...


    It was the curse that subjected him to the unjust hatred of all beings.


    It was the curse that forced him to live on the icy edge of solitude, he had grown used to it, but it was like a wound that could never heal.


    His greatest desire as a person was to be able to spend just a few moments with someone and share a glass of wine, without them trying to jam a knife in his throat, but the world always denied him, and he had made it his eternal quest to die a permanent death.


    The solution to breaking the curse illuded him and left him a broken man, a broken god, even as the self-proclaimed greatest god of all he was unable to break a single curse that had been with him from time immemorial.


    He was so very tired of it all and so he began to pool all the decay and destruction energy from the crumbling heaven onto his very being to bring about his end.


    It wasn''t his body that needed to go but rather his soul, it was so troublesome to have an indestructible soul that even gods couldn''t hope to scratch.


    A smile soon came to Talan''s face as he felt the life draining from him, he had forgotten what it was like to smile though in truth the only times he felt enough joy to smile was when he stood over a hated enemy''s body.


    There were still a few that he wished to kill, others similar to him, that could never die a true death, and so they reincarnated throughout the 33 Neather Heavens/Plains, but if he could die and face oblivion it was the better option.


    The light quickly faded from his being and his body began to fade as Talan felt himself fading into nothing, that was when he panicked. "DAMN IT, NOOOOO...", one last scream slipped from his being, resonating in the very fabric of the nothingness that would soon form a new heaven.


    ---


    I descended into the room once more I can always enter the room if I wish, but there was always the chance that I would enter the other way.


    It was when ever I died.


    I sighed with a pitiful expression for I failed yet again, I wanted to scream at the top of my lungs, but I knew that it was pointless I quit doing things that couldn''t change anything a long time ago, only children threw tantrums.


    I opened my eyes in this world of mine, well it is better described as a room, a room with only me, with every me, it stretches beyond the vision of all, but it is still merely a room, with twisting torrents of green light like an aurora spiraling endlessly with a darkness that every me dreads.


    I slowly looked around taking it in I don''t know why I even got my hopes up after all I always fail when it matters most.


    The room was the same as always 33 seats forming a circle around a throne, I call them seats but truly they will make all kings and queens feel shame, by their grandeur, and there I sat it was my turn on the throne.


    I got up slowly and let my old bones adjust as I climbed down the steps and made my way down before the first.


    I lowered my head in tribute to the first he never had a name he was just a stillborn you see, the first was always quiet, always silent, his eyes never opened in all my lives he just lay there on his seat still as the day he was born, but he was the first.


    All the me''s know only one thing about our first self, and that was our name, we don''t know how we know it, but it''s always there staring us in the face.


    I walked to the second and lowered my head, he too had no name he starved to death in his third year.


    I once more lowered my head before the third he was only nine when he died, he looked up at me with his demented eyes his name was 1079, at least that was the best name he was given, sold by his parents and raised in a cage to fight for entertainment.


    He died against two dire wolves and a hound, took out the wolves first it was the smarter option, but he got caught by the dying wolf''s jaws, just a little mistake, and the hound ripped his throat.


    We all bow a little deeper to the third he thought us how to fight he was the first warrior.


    I continued my rounds; some were more tragic than others some only lived a thousand years before they went mad.


    It happened frequently amongst the first 17 whenever there was a crisis the others would try to seize the throne, whenever the throne keeper made a bad decision they would whisper in their ear, everyone with a different opinion constantly driving each other to madness and an early grave.


    There were only two amongst them that lived properly and free, for some reason those two were cut off from the room during their lives, there was (The Hundred Lives) Lucien Vizsal and (The Risen) Kaladin, their lives are the only haven for us the only lives without being unjustly subjected to the hate of others, the only lives in which we had love without hate and friendship without betrayal, it had its hardships but all did work out in the end.


    I finally reached the 18th seat and there I dropped to my knees and kowtowed three times to him Arodil (The Demon of the End) that was the name given to him, his seat was decorated in ruin, he looked down at me and offered me his hand, "Rise Talen Haltz (Chaos Bringer)", his voice was as deep and majestic as when he sat upon the throne.


    When I stood back up he looked with his ice-cold blue eyes and met with mine then he settled back down to continue his rest.


    His seat was as majestic as the silver throne, only his was as dark as the lightless worlds with the souls of a trillion-trillion mortals, a trillion immortals and a million gods, in his reign upon the throne he erased every cultivator in every world on every planet, in every realm.


    Not a single cultivator survived for what they did to him, it was with him that everything changed he was the first to become an equal of the heavens, and he ruined that heavens/plains shattering.


    In all of creation only he could destroy that which was already destroyed, he was the shatterer of shatterings.


    After Arodil left the throne, he ensured that none would try to take the throne from another, but he let the others continue their whispers, but since then the rest continued to rise against the heavens and reach the peak of all existences all until 28 where we thought that we had finally found love how foolish we were.


    I stood before 28 but he showed no sign of noticing me he remained in his seat with his hands wrapped around his legs rocking back and forth like a mad man.


    "Oh Ella, my sweet little Ella¡­. I failed you¡­. I failed you.", he sobbed his voice ringing in the room but no one stopped him, the pain resonated in us all we are all one after all, "f-f-f-forgive me, forgive me¡­.." his sobs continued to echo in the room like always but we could never tell him to stop for it was a wound in our very being one that even time could never heal, it was the wound of watching trust turn into betrayal, love turning into hate, of having hope turn into dust.

 Chapter 2 - 002 – SAMSARA

    Just as I took a step away Killian (28) looked up at me like a startled rabbit, "KILL HER,", he roars at the top of his lungs, "FIND HER AND BREAK HER TO PIECES SKIN HER ALIVE AND CRUSH HER BONES AS SHE WATCHES, BURN EVERYTHING SHE LOVES BEFORE HER EYES AND MAKE HER BEG FOR DEATH LIKE A WHORE BEGS FOR A MEN, BEFORE GIVING HER OBLIVION.", a fire as fierce as a hundred suns burned in Kilian''s eyes the only times, he gained some clarity was when he spoke of killing her.


    Just seconds later though the fire left his eyes and he curled up on his seat begging for Ella to forgive him.


    I remember being Killian I wasn''t far from the realm of godhood when I took my own life but I still remember how fierce he was in that life I remembered when gods shuddered in fear too afraid to meet my eyes for fear of being burnt to ashes.


    I walked all the way to 32 not meeting 29- 31, Killian''s death drove them mad so mad that for three lives I took my own life as soon as I could, hoping that the pain of the flesh could balance out the pain of the soul.


    Once I finished paying my respects, I went towards my seat with the circle complete, my seat reflected myself like the others seats did, it held storms that tore the sky, it brought stillness that ravaged the ocean and fierceness the razed the lands, ice that burned like fire and space that crumbled into nothingness hence my title Chaos Bringer (The breaker of the natural order).


    As soon as I took my seat, with the exception of my demented selves, all those until 17, all eyes focused on my right and to number one''s left, it is there that the new seat will arise, risen 34 and in time he would gain a name and title.


    He would be the new me, he would be the same only different, it was difficult to explain....


    It was the expected occurrence we had grown used to, but we did have another speculation of our own, we learned the plains we were being born to are known as the 33 Neather Heavens.


    With each life we were reborn into one of the 33 Neather Heavens/Plains, only two of my selves were different, after 33 lives it could mean our end or the restart of the cycle, that would mean number 1, but we held no expectations of him, his mind was always still so it might be number 2.


    We kept our eyes fixed waiting for our new self but we soon began to worry nothing was happening, new life was not taking root and we were not being pushed into a slumber to await rebirth.


    "Did we succeed in killing ourselves?", asked one of the demented between fits of laughter, "Or did we mess it up and ended up locking ourselves in here."


    "No,", answered the sixth his eye filled with a mad light and his head kept drifting in every direction, ", this is the same thing that happened when Lucian and Kallidin lived, we were cut off from¡­"


    A loud sigh was heard coming from Kallidin both he and Lucian didn''t speak much, they didn''t experience the torment of the curse like the others did during their lives so they preferred not to interject when they didn''t experience the misery themselves you could say that they felt like outsiders to themself which was a very strange feeling.


    Even they noticed the oddity of the curse when they took their seats they would give advice to the others on how to court a girl or make a good friend.


    But the same acts that could get them to bed a girl would often lead to a girl trying to stab them or an act of sincerity to make a friend would lead to the person developing a sense of anxiety and wariness and an act that would usually lead to slight wariness would lead unprecedented hostility.


    It could only be described as a curse, a curse that we discovered in our undying and unchanging soul, and yet with all our knowledge combined we were unable to lift it, there was an oddity to it as if a part was missing, but that was impossible.


    At least we all believed that to be true.


    ---


    "The throne is still active.", said Lucian after Kallidin sighed, ", which means that someone can take the throne at any time."


    The first 17 all seemed to go still at once asides from Lucian and Kallidin who looked at their stronger selves helplessly as all the demented seemed to foam at the mouth while thinking of taking the throne.


    "It''s mine.", shouted several at once.


    "I deserve it the most,", shouted 14, "I was stronger than all of you if you give me the throne I can become even greater than End."


    All the demented shuddered when 14 said that, they knew that End deserved the utmost respect even though they were mad, but when they looked at End, they noticed that he did nothing seemingly not even caring and they all sighed in relief.


    "Well, that settles it 14 is absolutely banned from now to eternity if he runs his stupid mouth like that, he''ll get us all killed and that would just be embarrassing." Said 6 with a cackle.


    "Hey, shut up 6 I''ll have you know that every version of me has channeled my mouth when bad-mouthing our enemies because I am truly fearless." Said 14 proudly with a puffed-out chest.


    Everyone from 13 to 2 turned at 15 all through to 33 even Talen and End turned their heads away and began whistling refusing to meet the eyes of the demented, earning the hearty chuckles of Lucian and Kallidin, the two of them never held back on their emotions like all the others did as they didn''t have to during their lives.


    "Well, that settles it all numbers above 13 are banned from taking the throne." Said 6 with another cackle, ", all in favor raise your hand."


    14 closed his eyes and smiled smugly he helped all those above him on so many occasions he especially loved telling his enemies how he turned them into cuckolds and how they were raising his children for free, so he naturally thought they would help him and when he opened his eyes, he was startled to see 32 hands raised in the air.


    All those from End to Talen didn''t care much about the throne and those from 15 ¨C 18 just felt like rolling with it and cast themselves off. "Ah fine whatever but whoever gets the throne shouldn''t come running to me to tell our enemies about why their sons and daughters look so good with our eyes.", he grumbled.


    "Then it should be me.", cried out the 3-year-old number 2, "I had the shortest life and I have plans.", he began laughing with his whole body.


    "Great plans last time I starved, this time I''ll make everyone else starve yes, I''ll eat all the food before their very eyes and let them beg me for the food, I''ll let them watch as I grow fat and they grow thin¡­.hahahahahahahahaha.", a three-year-old laughing like that was enough to make anyone feel their hairs spike up and their bodies shiver but to everyone, it was just another Monday, and this was only the trillionth time they had heard 2''s world starvation plan.


    It was number 2''s solution to all things, if things don''t go your way, starve as many people as you can.


    "I think 2 needs to be ruled out," said 4 with a fake scholarly vibe around him as he coughed into his fist and then put on a pair of spectacles.


    "We have always been men of impeccable style, fitness, and exceptional looks I will not allow us to blow up into a balloon it is preposterous and utterly unacceptable. All in favor of eliminating 2 raise your hand,"


    Once more 14 looked around as the hands were raised for a vote, but as he looked around he felt like he had gone mad everyone below 13 aside from Lucian raised their hands he also raised his hands but no one else.


    "Have you all gone mad." He cried, ", you won''t choose me because of my bad mouth but you on board with galactic starvation across the heavens."


    "Oh, of course, they aren''t on board with galactic starvation, they all just far too shocked to voice their disagreement." Said a voice that filled the room.


    "To shocked! Why the hell would they be to sho¡­" but as soon as he looked at the source of the voice, he realized it was one he had never heard before one none of them had ever heard before.


    14''s eyes opened wide as did all the demented their eyes now fixed upon the first seat.


    Their prime originator the stillborn in the seat.


    "Hi, it''s truly lovely to finally be able to speak to all of you, you are all me after all, oh I think that I forgot to say my name.", he smiled and looked around the room.


    He was was truly a sight to behold and his seat that had always been dull and lifeless suddenly awoke it appeared as majestic if not more than even the throne.


    It looked wide enough to fit a million people yet it appeared tailor-made like a glove crafted specifically for him, it made no sense how could a stillborn child fill a throne that could fit a million people.


    He sat with his legs folded and he scanned each of his faces like a king amongst himself.


    His silver eyes glowed with majestic silver light and his short silver hair was clearly seen cascading from his head and sweeping all around his seat.


    "Hey, first me," number 14 called out, "Are you a girl?", he couldn''t help but ask he was struck by the beauty of his living first self, he had never seen such a sight in all his lives.


    The first frowned and shook his small head, "I''m almost embarrassed to call you me, why don''t you use your eyes before you run your mouth."


    Number 14 glanced down at the body of number 1 and noted a special member and sighed in relief, he would have felt all kinds of weird if his first self was a girl.


    As he looked on at his new self or rather his oldest self he was certain that many beings would call the very act of looking at his first self, blasphemy if he wasn''t cursed. That''s how beautiful he was.


    "As all of you can probably guess by now, you have lived 33 lives and died, that is who I am, one that even death cannot take for I am Samsara and nothing can hold me not life and certainly not death and that throne is mine so none of you should fuse over it."


    "You are all me after all, now then, all in favor of me raise your hand," when he finished speaking a pressure was released by his body, and to the wonder of all, they witnessed an impossible event.


    One that would anger the very heavens and in some way their curse made sense with what they had witnessed, the first was certainly a new-born, and yet he was already a god, even they could hardly tolerate it, they had done so much to touch on that peak and yet the first was born there.


    And just like that, it was unanimous, and Samara was Risen by 33.

 Chapter 3 - 003 – THE CRADLE

    Samsara lived 33 lives and he remembered only one thing from his first it was his name, it was always there glaring at him he knew not why or how he knew.


    He knew only that his name was a part of his very being, he always found it intriguing when he would hear the lectures and read the writings of great experts in all the different heavens regarding the concept of samsara.


    It was a rule they often spoke of, one that transcended all rules, and yet it was the most basic and simplistic rule of all existence.


    And so, the rule went that all life from the very beginning of its birth proceeds towards death, ironic isn''t it, we are all born dying, and so the opposite must be true as well for nothing exists without an equal and so death always proceeds towards life, ironic again isn''t it, we die and we immediately become the life of another.


    Across the stars and heavens this rule was always spoken by even the greatest of existences, but little did they know that they had been heard by Samsara himself the first being in creation to be born a god, and a special god he was by all standards a god that was life and death itself, a rule that could never exist in any world he was eternal when all else was not.


    And this is his story; the god that should not have been.


    ---


    Samsara float from his seat and landed upon the throne, a strange sight it was most certainly, to witness a newborn child fill a throne and exude the aura of a god.


    It was part of the reason why all of his past selves agreed to his ascent, that aura he exuded was that of a god, and a newborn child, it was an impossible existence, but since it was themself, it only seemed right, who else could be so great from birth besides themself.


    Samsara laid back on his throne and waited it would be a while before his rebirth, a billion years could pass by in this place and he would hardly notice, though he was curious about what his next disappointing parent or owners would be like.


    Every life would be like that it was definitely a part of the curse that plagued all of his lives the one time he saw his parents happy to see him born was because he was a healthy strong baby.


    The type that slave traders would pay well for, he remembered his father''s smile and his mother she didn''t look as ecstatic about it like his father but he could see that she was happy.


    That is exactly why when he found them three decades later he smiled happily as he dismembered their three children in front of them and then proceeded to have them mutilated.


    A silly smile appeared on Samsara''s face as he recalled that time, whoever said that revenge only leaves you empty.


    The truth of the matter was very different revenge is probably the most fulfilling activity in existence it''s just that because we devote so much of ourselves to revenge that once we accomplish it, it''s like reaching the end of the road or finishing the last page of a book that you loved reading it leaves you without any direction to go.


    Then he felt it the synchronization was starting, "Well me''s it looks like it''s starting, I wonder what our dear old parents will be like this time I look forward to the day we kill them and bring them their greatest scare.", a smug smile formed on his face.


    Laughter soon swept the room, ''In which life was it that I gave up believing in people.'' Samsara wondered to himself.


    But after a while, he just shrugged ''It wasn''t my fault anyway, they all rejected me first so why the hell should I give a damn, it is simply how the world works for me the only joy I am allowed to experience is when I bring everything to ruin.''


    Then it began Samsara felt that he was about to come alive, by now he had grown used to the sensation of being born, slowly crawling out of the darkness and into light and taking in that first breath of pure burning oxygen through his nose and mouth, that''s why children cry so much just after birth it''s like being attacked by a savage storm of fire that rocks through their body for the first time.


    His eyes opened and as he took in his first sight of this new life he was immediately baffled. He was in the centre of what he would have liked to call a room except it felt boundless, he was lying in a cradle, and on his chest, a small orb was slowly sinking into his flesh.


    ''No woman screaming or panting like she''s about to die,'' he thought in wonder, ''Don''t tell me that I''ve been born into some strange plain with weird rules about birth, seriously what is this place, with the hell is that orb thing,'' he quiver around slightly but failed to move properly.


    As the orb sunk deeper into his flesh he felt surprisingly giddy, ''This thing actually feels pretty good, it''s like it''s filling me with... life,'' he narrowed his eyes in wonder but he failed to shift his head to get a good look at the orb.


    ''Blasted synchronization hurry up, or I''m going to miss something important,'' he complained.


    He really wanted to move his head, but he still had hours of synchronization to go through before he would be able to move his body, then he noticed a man looking down at him with a smile on his.


    "Finally. Bahahaha¡­" he laughed aloud and reached into the cradle and pulled Samsara out and into his arms, "My little boy you''re finally back."


    ''You can''t fool me you bastard just what are you planning to do with me I swear I''ll kill you if¡­'' But Samsara''s thoughts cut off there because of two things that simultaneously happened.


    The first was that he felt the man''s cultivation and it scared him to near death, even if he combined a hundred of his strongest selves he wouldn''t be able to match up to this man and second he noticed streaks of water running down the man''s face.


    The man then looked at the surprised look on his son''s face, and immediately a radiant smile filled his face. "Did you notice how awesome your daddy is kiddo?" He snickered and raised Samsara up in front of him and pulled him into another hug.


    "Hahaha, well of course I''m awesome there''s no one in this world that can match up to your daddy. Well, there was your mommy.", he said with a sad sigh, ", I wish she were here right now she''d be so happy to see you back amongst the living and she''d probably be better at this than me."


    Samsara kept his eyes focused on the man that most certainly was his new father and couldn''t help but feel utterly confused. This was a first even for him all he wanted to do was raise his hand and pinch himself to reassure himself that this wasn''t a dream because at this moment he felt afraid.


    Afraid that he had fallen into a delusion, the first time it happened, it lasted for at least a billion years, and when he broke the illusion it was not pretty for that heaven.


    This father of his seemed to love him and he could not accept that it wasn''t possible, and all that he felt now was dread because he was certain that in no time at all something would ruin this love he felt.


    ''Don''t believe it, don''t accept it, you know that it''s not possible, it''s all a lie, remember Ella remember her broken body and her dead eyes that is what awaits you,'' The voice of 28 resounded in his head he knew better than any how that hope for love and acceptance could break a person.


    As Samsara was carried around a coffin made of a black material came into view, surrounded by a darkness that seemed even darker than the dark world he was in.


    "Ah you noticed that did you, you know for a baby you''re really quite sharp though I suppose that as a god it''s only natural for you to have such a keen sense." He sighed once and looked at the coffin and, in his crystal, blue eyes a longing gaze could be seen.


    "That is actually a gift for you to open one day when you''re older but it will probably be a long time before you return here if ever, well I do hope that you retain these memories it''s said that some immortals can remember things from the time they were one or two so maybe you will remember this when you''re older."


    Once more Samsara looked at his father, he was finding it hard to make sense of things the most important thing was that he was not just born, his mother was nowhere to be found and according to what his father was hinting at she was dead but she died a long time ago, which made no sense at all since he was definitely a newborn.


    ''This is great he thought to himself, so many new questions, so many new things to be learnt and best of all," Samsara wriggled internally as he felt the power coursing through his new body, '', I''m a freaking first-grade god, all I need to do is take the next step and I''ll have my old strength back.''


    "Well now it''s time for us to leave and remove that curse on you, I would have removed it sooner but if I had pulled it onto myself, I doubt I would have been able to gather everyone''s essence to restore you," unknown to the god his words shook Samsara''s entire world.


    "Now then, I''ll release the time stagnation but since you''ve been in this state for so long, you''ll arrive a little while after me so don''t be too scared when you''re alone.", after that he kissed his son''s forehead and began their departure.


    Samsara and all his incarnations shuddered, his father knew of the curse and had a way to remove it no rather transfer it.


    ''That can''t be,'' he wanted to cry out.


    He had hungered for all his lives to find a solution to his curse but here it was solved in an instant, but then the voices in his head regained their calm and silenced him, the truth was obvious it had to be a lie if he spent trillions of years researching this curse how could anyone else have a better grasp of it then himself.

 Chapter 4 - 004 – THE GOD REALM

    On the edge of the first universe, a man appeared he had scarlet hair that fell to his shoulders and a pair of crystal blue eyes, the man that stood above all, the first God is his title and there are none who are his equal he is also known as the sinful god Adolin Morningstar.


    Upon his return from the first universe over a dozen gods were waiting for him on the transcendent world, it was named such for this was the place all the universes would spit out newly born gods, though it had been a long time since a new god was born.


    He frowned at this and moved towards them, "Virtutous," he called out to the virtue''s god, ", I remember saying to keep this from the seven virtues and seven sins.", when he mentioned the sins, he looked to the Azure dragon Kalatis and frowned once more he was the only god that had permission to assemble the sins besides himself.


    Virtutous remained calm with Kalatis to his right and Chastytas (the goddess of chastity) to his left, the three of them slowly made their way before the sinful god.


    "Explain!" Adolin wasted no time and demanded answers.


    Contrary to his expectations it was Chastytas that spoke and the two besides her glanced at her nervously. "Well, you see it''s kind of my fault that the plan got out but before you get mad, only the virtues and sins learned of it." She spoke while trying her hardest not to stammer, it wasn''t that she feared Adolin nor did the others, it was simply that this was Adolin''s lifelong mission, and the more people that knew the truth about it the more danger it would bring to his son.


    Adolin kept his gaze locked on her and she hurriedly let out the truth, "Well you remember three thousand years ago before you went in to wake up your son you told me that since you took my chastity I should try having a child or two, and so I did, I had three children with Virtutous.", she glanced sideways to look Virtutous.


    She was still a bit embarrassed to talk about her sex life as the goddess of chastity she held it together for trillions of years and despite all of Adolin''s charm which he had used on every god and goddess, she managed to endure and keep her chastity for longer than any of the other maiden gods, until Adolin finally begged her on his knees and told her truth that he needed to draw a sliver of her vital essence to revive his son, after that it still took a bit of convincing but she allowed it to happen.


    So, she continued, "When I was giving birth the first time Love, Kindness, and Humility were attending to me and they asked how you managed to convince me to¡­y-y-you know..." she whispered that last part at a barely audible sound, ", at the time I was giving birth, I couldn''t think straight so I accidentally told them a little and after that Humility was spending time Anuka (Pride) and he told her about it and before we knew it the entire group knew so we just told them the whole truth and afterward they said they would help."


    "Well old friend there are others that would gladly help you with this if you asked, but if it''s just the lot of us I''m sure the secret will be safe.", said Kalatis the Azure dragon as he shrunk his form and curled up onto Adolin''s head.


    Virtutous started grinning like a child, well he always liked keeping the form of a child one could easily mistake him for a twelve-year-old boy, "Besides the mistake we made, with the help we received from the others we came up with a plan one slightly better than yours."


    At that Adolin raised his eyebrows, "Very well go on, but do remember that I''ve been researching this since the beginning of the current heaven I wonder how you improved my plan in a mere three thousand years." He didn''t hide any of the sarcasm as he spoke.


    "Come now don''t be like that, it''s actually simple why you didn''t think of this, it just goes against your nature to share the load so we came up with a method to share it instead of pinning it all on you."


    "No absolutely not I showed you how it works every time we enter and leave the presence of someone the curse increases the wariness, they hold towards us, and the stronger the person the stronger the curse becomes."


    Virtutous sighed, "Just listen to Kalatis he''ll tell you about a little cheat he figured out..." but just then new energy was discovered by everyone and almost instantly everyone presents attacked the hostile energy that appeared, the seven sins and virtues, Kalatis, Virtutous the ice and fire phoenixes that had remained quiet until now and also the lightning keirin unleashed an attack.


    Adolin had been expecting this from the start so with a simple wave of his hand he scattered the attacks and stood before his son.


    Samsara held his breath for a moment he just entered a new life and already he was surrounded by existences that even at the peak of his powers he would have a hard time fighting one on one, and besides his father, there were a few that would have been too much, by now he had gained a bit of control of his body and he slowly analyzed the ones he would never have a chance against starting with Chastytas, he then looked to the phoenixes, then Virtutous and finally the little dragon that sat on his father''s head.


    His quick glances and the order in which he looked at them didn''t go unnoticed by anyone, even Adolin was surprised in just a glance he had figured out who all the biggest threats were, he then fell back into his cradle.


    "Well little one you really are something special but don''t be frightened they made a mistake, none of them will attack again.", he stated the last part a little louder while gently gazing at his son.


    Samsara took notice of his father''s features for the first time and he to admit that he was a lady killer, he had a smile that could dismantle anyone''s guard but frankly, Samsara hated men like him, they would always humiliate him when they got a chance even if he looked amazing his curse would always repel women, and other good-looking men would always try to show off after his failures and mock him, well it rarely ever ended well for them.


    "My lord," one of the sins Avarice rushed to his side, ", is this your child my lord I don''t get why he is so hostile my lord did we do something wrong?" he asked worriedly with his head lowered but he kept casting wary gazes at the cradle.


    "No," he spoke so everyone could hear him, ", this is the curse we spoke of it invades the mind of those around him and makes them perceive him as a hostile enemy, and every time you enter and exit his presence the effect will increase.", everyone eased up slightly but they still looked at the cradle with wary eyes especially after they noticed how keen Samsara''s perception was.


    Samsara was eager to gain full control of his body as a god he knew it was possible to change himself as he saw fit, but he still had a few hours before he could gain such control. Then he saw someone come up to his cradle and peek at him.


    She had the appearance of a child, a cute face and flowing golden hair and her body was completely plain it made one think of holiness and purity, "Hello little one my name is Chastytas, what''s your name?" she asked with a somewhat forced smile it could be seen that she was trying her hardest to push down her wariness when she looked to Adolin so he could give her the child''s name.


    "Samsara.", he answered quickly, ", his mother chose it for him.", he answered with a bitter smile.


    "Well, if you put aside the scary curse, he is quite cute,", she said and picked him out of his cradle and ruffled his short silver hair.


    As she spoke Anuka (Pride) came over and looked him over, "Well I suppose since he is my lord''s child, I''ll give him a passing grade but, if he had my golden eyes instead of those silver one''s and he came out of these hips he would be cuter.", she spoke with a serious voice and swayed her hips as if to show that they perfect for popping babies, ", and I''m pretty confident that if it''s my lord''s baby inside me it will be born with a cultivation of the second level of the god realm, unlike this barely acceptable child."


    The other gods all stared at her with incredulity, it was a well-known fact that the greatest cultivation a child of gods had ever been born with was the second level of the immortal realm, there were still three whole levels above that before reaching the realm of the gods and the only god in existence to break through the second realm and into the third is Adolin Morningstar.


    Their gazes on Samsara were complicated, sensing the divine aura he radiated left them with complicated emotions, becoming a god had been a series of impossible tasks and tribulations for them and yet now there was a child that experienced none of it, yet had a power close their own.


    They could understand why Adolin didn''t let them in on the secret, if the other gods learned of his existence they would go mad to discover the cultivation technique in Samsara''s cells.


    "Now, now my dear,", said Humility coming next to her, ", no need to boast about your genes we''ve had six children together now only one of them was born an immortal."


    "That''s only because your humble genes drag down my prideful ones, but if it''s my lord''s baby inside me that child will be the pride of the universe,", she then turned around to look at Adolin who was just watching them with an amused smile, ", my lord I request to bear you a child to show this humble idiot of mine your greatness.", she said with a proud and boastful expression.


    Samsara silently sighed as he heard this, it was something common amongst immortals and even gods to share their partners and have children with different partners, it would be strange if a bunch of people that can live indefinitely for a trillion years only ever had a single partner.


    As soon as her request was heard Adolin asked aloud, "Kalatis you have a plan that I still haven''t heard."


    Several laughs were heard but Anuka didn''t mind, "Just you guys wait one of these days, his baby will come from these amazing hips of mine." She said with a pout while staring intently at Adolin, it was something that made everyone curious about the sinful god he had taken many partners, but he never allowed any of his partners to bear him a child, he was the only god like that, at least that''s what she thought until she saw the child.


    She wondered just what kind of women could have gotten him to give her a child, but she would never give up on having his child now, she was certain of it, if she could bear her lord''s child it would be the ultimate source of her pride and with it, she could grow once more perhaps reach the peak of the second level of godhood or maybe even enter the third level and stand as her lords most trusted subordinate.


    Yes, that would bring her pride beyond belief she thought with a smile.

 Chapter 5 - 005 – CURSED

    Adolin moved into a shaded area on the plains and enjoyed the light winds ruffling his hair as he leaned against a tree.


    "Well go on then,", he sighed and waited for Kalatis''s explanation.


    "You could at least sound a bit more optimistic.", grumbled Kalatis as he rolled of Adolins head and took on the shape of a man sprawled out in the grass.


    "I''ve already considered splitting the link with multiple people, but it won''t work, it will pass on to me because our blood link exists but as for anyone else, they may be able to take a sliver of it but that''s all, even if we have your control of vital essence by splitting it between me and a none blood linked person, too much of the curse will stay inside him."


    "Well thanks to you we are all linked to him aren''t we, to revive him you utilised essence that belongs to all of us, through that, I can use my primordial essence technique to build a link between all of us that will be just as effective as a blood link.", said Kalatis with a smirk he glanced at Adolin as if saying it''s alright to start praising me now.


    Adolin however wasn''t having any of it, "That will leave us with over twenty cursed gods Kalatis, do you realise just how dangerous that would be without a doubt each of us will become hunted, I will be fine but what about everyone else, what about you, once we are cursed it may take some time but we will eventually lose control and began hunting ourselves."


    "I''m the greatest controller of pure essence, while I can''t stop others from hunting us, I can at the very least ensure that we won''t attack each other, that way we can band together to keep ourselves safe, the prophecy says that the calamity of the gods will last for no more than a million years so we only need to protect ourselves for a million years."


    Adolin looked at Kalatis with wide widened eyes, "How did you¡­"


    "None of us here are idiots Adolin, don''t insult our intelligence, When all gods willingly surrender their purity, the god''s calamity shall begin," Kalatis recited two of the verses from the prophecy, ", we all put it together you were obsessed with taking everyone''s purity but you never forced anyone to do it, and this curse is what will bring the calamity but that''s fine after all you have done for the other gods you deserve to be selfish for this once, which is why we all willing to help with this old friend."


    Adolin sighed, "Looks like you guys won''t let me win this argument," he said with a gentle smile on his face, ", then tell me how you will stop us from trying to kill each other?"


    "When we are all linked up I''ll pull up my essence inside your son with it I''ll be able to draw a little bit of spiritual essence from everyone in the link and with that essence, I''ll forge a few soul avatars and it will be bound to everyone''s soul, so we will always be in each other''s presence so every time we split up and come back together it will be as if we never left each other''s side, it will hold so long as we come into contact with each other every 100000 year''s so we should be fine."


    When Kalatis saw Adolins contemplating face he let out a little sigh and immediately jumped up and floated in the air before shouting in a booming voice, "Everyone in position," he shouted enthusiastically not giving Adolin any chance to change his mind.


    His mouth curved into a smirk as he stretched out his hand and blue ripples stretched across the plains it wasn''t very often that he would get to display his might like this, as the ripples spread out the laws started to squirm and crumble all around them. When the world settled down a great runic circle had formed and all the wild energy waves vanished, Kalatis stretched out his hand once more and twenty rods of a strange black and blue color shoot out at each of the gods present.


    The gods grasped onto the strange rods that had thousands of tiny runic flows built into them and began moving around the array once they located twenty points in the array that looked like a little hole in the fabric of the world they simultaneously planted the rods in the holes, one-half of the rods seemed to vanish while one half remained it was clear to all that that was an array that utilized the powers of both the plain and the void, everyone positioned themselves slightly behind the holes and began pouring their energy into the rods.


    Each rod trembled violently as space tried to seal itself, but Kalatis was waiting for this and immediately the runic flows began to glow sucking the energy from both plains and merging them together. All twenty rods emitted an azure beam, the beams split into two flows one that entered the gods and one that flowed towards the centre of the array, and just before the flows meet a new force acted on it twisting the beams to spin furiously in a circle.


    "Adolin the bridge is ready, when you begin so can we," Kalatis spoke calmly and used his energy to place Samsara in the centre of the ring.


    Samsara watched the process carefully from his cradle he was slightly disappointed by what he saw, the god Kalatis was merging Celestial and Genesis energy together from the void and material plain, whilst it was his first time seeing someone other than himself capable of harnessing and merging the two energies, he couldn''t help but sigh at the fact that this god that held more power than any of his incarnations still needed tools to do such a simple merge of energies.


    Kalatis frowned, for a second it felt like the child was looking down on him and his essence manipulation technique, but a second later he shook his head, no that can''t be what would he know about the difficulties of source energy merging, one day when the brat was older and understood what source energy was, he would surely come begging him for lessons on how to use a single source energy let alone merging two different source energies, just like half the gods out there.


    Samsara quietly watched as Adolin began placing items while chanting a spell, once more surprising him, because the words he spoke were the chants of heaven, these words are always hidden to cultivators, it''s impossible for a cultivator to learn them without the retribution of the heaven, the only other way is to become an equal to the heaven, in that way you can take parts of the heavens hidden knowledge, but


    Adolin was definitely not equal to the current heaven, which meant it was impossible for him to be alive.


    Samsara eventually shook his head and calmed down there was way too much that he didn''t know about the current heaven and its occupants. When the heaven chant was completed the spinning, vortex descended and wrapped itself around him like a cocoon, the energy slow ate away at him and penetrated his entire being, his spirit, body, and energy were undergoing a baptism as the curse was being ripped from every cell of his body and soul.


    It was an excruciating pain but not a single gasp let alone a scream left his mouth, it had been a long time since pain was able to affect Samsara. He endured through the pain, racking havoc on his every cell and for the first time ever he felt the release of his curse, the vortex slowly left his body it had taken on a murky and distorted color and shot outwards into the twenty surrounding gods, the distribution of the curse was even across all the gods a twentieth fell on each but due to their varying power, the intensity of the curse differed.


    Chastytas, the fire and ice phoenixes, Virtutous, Kalatis, and finally Adolin had the most intense auras and for the first time Samsara got to experience the fear and hatred that so many people had shown to him, and for the first time he could understand why they always showed him such hostility, it was like their very presence was eating away at his sanity his father''s aura in particular, despite it being toned down by twenty times, it was slightly stronger than his was, a moment later a piece of his spirit was mixed with all of the god''s spirit and split between them embedding a mark on all of their souls.


    Samsara felt a jolt of fury and jealousy at this, for all his many lives he had always been alone with just a single exception, he would have given anything to have just a single companion through his life but here all of them were in it together from the beginning, two tears silently made their way down his face, it was always like this the world always made fun of his suffering, what he would give his everything for, others would obtain from the very beginning.


    But at least from now on, he would be free from the curse that plagued his very existence, he silently consoled himself with that though.

 Chapter 6 - 006 – THE GODS WAR (1)

    The gods all went silent and watched each other with wary gazes, it was a strange feeling that surrounded the gods, just moments ago they were all getting along just fine but suddenly it felt like they couldn''t show their backs to each other without being attacked even by those who they had known for trillions of years, it was especially so when they looked at Adolin the eldest god.


    They could hardly believe the hostility that came from him, he was the god that all gods even if they hated his guts they still respected him, yet right now, he seemed like a monster, they tried to rationalize and recall all that they were told about the curse, but it was like the curse was pushing aside their common sense.


    They were all looking around at each other with unease when suddenly Anuka shot out in the direction of Adolin, everyone looked on with fright unsure of whether they should join her or not but, just as they thought they were about to see a blood bath she came to a stop, her golden hair that resembled a river of molten gold flowed gracefully down her back and seemed to become a part of her armour trembled.


    She bent down on a knee and looked down at her feet in shame, "My mind, my body and my soul belong to my lord, it has been my greatest pride to always serve my lord, and yet on this day I wavered I ask my lord to serve punishment."


    Anuka lowered her head even further as she trembled in shame, she pledged on her pride to always serve faithfully and yet today she almost went against her pledge she even doubted him for a second, the curse was no excuse for such a shameful act, as a god of pride how could she allow such a thing to control her and shake her resolve.


    Adolin had spent a lot of time coming up with methods to suppress the effects of the curse when he looked at Anuka he couldn''t help but feel moved by the strength of her pride.


    He bent down and cupping her delicate chin, raising her head to meet his eyes, "Punishment my dear is what I should be given for having doubted you, it is my greatest honour to have had you by my side all this time little Anuka, your act today should be rewarded if nothing else."


    Anuka eyes seemed to swell with pride when she heard her lords'' words and when the word reward was said she seemed to glow with radiance, "My lord if you must reward me, I would gladly bear you a child.", her whole body squirmed in delight as she spoke.


    The space seemed to echo continuously as all the gods heard the words ringing in their ears, even the tense situation seemed to disappear. Lusty was the first to start laughing and her melodious voice caused all the others to calm down and retract their auras.


    "I''ll have to teach you my techniques to suppress the feeling the curse gives you, we are lucky that the curse won''t intensify, with my suppressing technique it should be easier to handle.", said Adolin as he strode over to his son who had fallen unconscious after the ceremony.


    "For now, we need to head to the portal to send my son to the mortal realms, we only have a few hours before it closes." He spoke resolutely and lifted his son who had passed out after the curse was extracted.


    As much as he wished to keep Samsara with him he knew that the life they were about to experience was something no child should have to face.


    He looks so much like his mother he thought with a melancholic expression. His mother had hair like the fairest of snow although his hair was silver it still resembled hers in all honesty it was easy to mistake him for a girl, Adolin chuckled softly as he secretly hoped that Samsara would live a good life in the mortal realm and return home, but secretly he also feared the day he would see his son again.


    Prophecies were cruel things that left so much out, and only the facts that made one act, he let the gods know about the prophecy, well some of it, so they could prepare for their potential end but he did keep a bit of it to himself, in particular, the last words.


    ---


    IN THE FINAL HOUR SHALL THE ELDEST GOD FALL


    NOT BY HIS ENEMIES


    NOR HIS FRIENDS


    RATHER


    SHALL IT BE BY HIS BLOOD


    ---


    There were so many ways to interpret the words and if it should happen that his son would take his life he held no qualms with it, he only feared that his son would somehow come to hate him, he had devoted his life to his son, he didn''t know if he could bear the hatred of the one, he would do anything for.


    "My lord," Anuka interrupted his thoughts bringing him out of his stupor, ", when can I receive my reward?", her eyes sparkled in anticipation.


    Adolin sighed inwardly, and placed Samsara in her hands, as she wrapped the unconscious child in her embrace, he whispered in her ear a secret that he shared with only three others, "My son was born cursed and his mother gave her life to buy a chance for him to live, I couldn''t bear to have such a thing happen again little Anuka never again."


    As he joined the others Anuka''s eyes flashed with pride, she didn''t know how much he told the others about his past, but that last part was for her alone, he shared with her his fear. A bright smile that could outshine the radiance of a sun blossomed on her face as she shelved her thoughts of having a child, for now anyway, she found a direction for herself to wipe away that fear of her lords before bearing him a child, yes that was most certainly her path forward.


    ---


    Anuka appeared before a vast colosseum, it was designed for the battles of immortals and some lesser gods so naturally, it was the size of a world. She wore her armour that wrapped itself tightly around her curvy body, although it looked like fine silk on her body the material was incomparably tough while also flexible with detailed images moving across the clothing, it depicted her rise from a lowly mortal who was whore serving noble lords and here rise to godhood. Some would feel pity for her mortal days, but she held only pride for her past.


    In her arms a golden cradle was shut tightly making it impossible for anyone to see the child inside directly, dozens of concealment spells were tightly wrapped around the two of them as they made their way through the colosseum, only a few of the gods remained, the most important of them were watching the portal carefully.


    The portal was one of 15 universal treasures, devices born at the creation of a plain the universal treasures are indestructible objects that can be used by anyone even an ordinary human it just becomes limited in its ability based on the evolution of its wielder.


    The World Splicer is useless in combat, but it enables the god''s realm to open channels for communication to lower realms, whilst gods cannot descend to the immortal or mortal realms without their cultivation being removed it still allows for communication between the realms.


    Due to the prophecy of the god''s war, most of the gods began taking measures against the upcoming war, by creating legacy grounds to guide new generations the legacy grounds were being placed throughout the five universes and at the same time the gods decide to send their new-born children into the lower realms to grow properly.


    In the gods and immortal realms, progression was much too easy and with the million years before the war ends it was enough time for fifth-grade immortals to be born, with a slight hope for new gods, but the gods weren''t too optimistic about new gods being born it had been over 30 trillion of years since the last god was born and no one knew the reason.


    The gods had a habit of creating trial grounds, in the lower realms and sending their children down, while it appeared impossible for new gods to be born, the gods were still happy to have apostles, they would grant them a little bit of power and in return, they would serve the god, the apostles would be able to break the immortal boundary and become a lesser-god, their power would forever be stuck, and they would never be able to beat a new-born true god, but they would gain eternal life.


    Almost all cultivators that reached the limit of the immortal realm were happy to become apostles since it appeared impossible to become a god.


    As Anuka moved forward she could make out several of the gods factions that still remained, the Imperial forces were closest to the portal which left a frown on her beautiful face but it didn''t hinder her and she continued moving without a pause in her step, other than the Imperial forces several other factions were still close by, The Olympian Council, The Norse Tide lead by Odin, The Fallen Angels with the devilishly handsome Lucifer at its helm, in one corner the Akashic Snake was curled up watching idly as if bored by the current affairs when one of the gods made an announcement that caught everyone''s attention.


    "A void tear has been formed in the god realm!", the gods were calm in the face of this news it was only a matter of time before it occurred, and due to their communication with the lower realms that had already received many void tears, they had all the relevant information they could need.


    The void tears were brought about due to the instability of the plain, but the truly horrifying thing about the void tears were the beings and creatures that would come out.


    The beings that would appear held energy that was different compared to those from this heaven even their centres of power were usually completely different making it hard to judge the combat strength of enemies but the same went for the enemies, also the invaders would be unable to replenish their energy naturally while they were in this plain.


    Many of the gods however were happy to see war again, under Adolins rule wars amongst the gods were forbidden, and the first time in forever they would have the opportunity to do battle again, but above all else, it was said that occasionally the energy of the invaders was compatible with the cultivators.

 Chapter 7 - 007 – THE GODS WAR (2)

    Hearing this Anuka sighed inwardly, chaos was sure to rain due to this in fact, the sins, virtues, and beast gods that had taken on the curse were some of the most elite gods if they were to band together without Adolins help just the nineteen of them could come out victorious in a battle against 100 gods with a similar rank, with the exception of a few faction leaders, not to mention Adolin being the sole third-grade god in existence.


    While the gods were tied up in their discussions Anuka reached the central area of the colosseum and paused after this it would be impossible for her to remain undetected the wards were far too numerous here and all the gods'' gazes were fixed on this area, once she lifted her veil they would feel her hostility, at least for now they would just be wary of her but not hostile.


    Adolin had wanted to come himself but under the insistence of everyone he chose not to go, the hostile aura he gave of was at least a hundred times stronger than the rest, the moment his presence was felt all the gods in the colosseum would have attacked him without a second thought, whilst he would be able to handle it easily and protect his son at the same time if the energy from the attacks entered the portal it would definitely cause a disruption and make it impossible to use the portal without side-effects.


    Anuka volunteered to get Samsara to the portal, whilst everyone prepared a distraction, after reaching the portal area she only waited a few seconds before receiving the signal. Anuka revealed herself to the gods and stood in front of the guardian god beast Cerberus, streaks of red fire could be seen moving along his godly body, the flames hot enough to burn a star, and his three pairs of glowing eyes were fixed on her.


    He frowned as he saw Anuka and so did the other gods the aura she was giving of made them all wary and they subtly put pressure on her, the aura''s of over a hundred gods was no joke but Anuka moved as if nothing had happened, strolling around like the heavens were hers to do with as she pleased.


    "I have come to transfer this child to the mortal realm.", Anuka spoke as if she hadn''t just been hiding a few moments ago as she conversed with the guardian.


    "That child is not yours," Cerberus spoke with one of his heads moving closer to the cradle and sniffing it while the other two heads were still fixed on Anuka with a tread of caution in their eyes.


    "This is¡­" he stuttered as he figured out the scent of the child but at the same time he was confused, one scent was one he had never sniffed before in his time as a god, he knew the scents of every god but the one scent was certainly a gods but one he had never encountered, as for the other it was a surprise to him, he stuttered out the name, "A-A-Adolin Morningstar."


    Cerberus was looking wide-eyed at the cradle as if seeing the unbelievable, the eldest actually had a child, his dark skin also seemed to go slightly pale as he remembered a few of his fond memories with the gods, while he was somewhat happy for eldest, there were few gods in the crowd that didn''t have the best relationship with Adolin who looked on with scorn one particular god was the Imperial god.


    The Imperial god scanned the surroundings and was gleeful when he couldn''t detect Adolin nearby, now he had the chance for vengeance since Adolin killed his dual cultivator partner and lover, he always wanted to take something Adolin treasured and destroy it, in the process he managed to kill a few of the sins on certain occasions but he was incapable of giving the sins a true death like what Adolin had done to his lover.


    It had to be known that achieving godhood with a dual cultivation partner would make their powers eternally bound if one of them were to die it would become impossible to progress forward, losing his partner made it impossible for him to progress and he had a high chance of achieving third-grade godhood. He would do anything even if it would result in his own death to make the sinful god grieve, and since he refused to have children with anyone it meant that his first child would be very important to him.


    Not a second after he heard the guardian''s words, he charged towards the cradle without a second thought he wanted to take the child before Adolin and make him beg on his knees before killing the child.


    As he approached Anuka already made her move she opened her hand and a mini sun appeared in her hand in the next instant it struck the Imperial god knocking him back a good distance as the fires lit up the world, parts of the colosseum were melting due to the intense heat of a simple spell from Anuka.


    "Is that all you''ve got, so much for the pride gods power." The imperial god sneered and mocked the attack, as the god of pride Anuka found it hard to take such an insult but then she smirked and let out a little chuckle.


    "Laugh while you can Rufus due to that last move of yours, you''ll never get to laugh again," Anuka smirked and pointed above his head with a look of derision.


    Rufus looked up to find Adolin looking down on him, and he cursed silently as he realized that Anuka''s last attack was just a signal for Adolin to appear and take care of him, from the start they had predicted his movement. He brandished a silver sword with blue patterns that resonated in the air as laws of destruction and severance wrapped themselves around him answering his call with utmost loyalty.


    His aura began to crack the world as he unleashed a mighty force that struck Adolin and obliterated him but in the next instant Adolins body reformed, it was only natural it was impossible to kill a god with such simple attacks although the speed at which Adolin reformed left the other gods shivering, there had been very few instances when they witnessed the eldest god battle on the occasions that he did, it always became an unforgettable sight that would brand itself in their minds.


    It was then that Adolins aura burst forth and an entire quadrant of the colosseum world started to collapse on itself, it was then that the unbearable aura of Adolins was felt by the gods present, without hesitation the unnerved gods all began casting spells and launching attacks that completely destroyed the order of the laws on the world and just as all the attacks were about to land, Adolin released a breath and with a simple twist of his wrist, the numerous and unfathomable attacks converged before him.


    "Yang Arts of Totality Divergence"


    "Yang Separation"


    "Purification"


    He murmured the words of three ultimate arts nonchalantly and turned the attacks into a spiraling vortex of pure yang energy that radiated with white light. "That attack of yours wasn''t half bad Rufus sadly your still far too weak but rejoice you will be able to join your lover in the afterlife."


    "Although it is ironic that both of you would die for the same reason.", he moved the ball of yang energy and began to focus it on Rufus.


    "What?" it wasn''t only Rufus that was shocked at his words but so were the other gods.


    "I suppose you did always want a reason for why I killed her, now you have it, she learned the secret of my son and tried to use it against me just as you did. So, your fates shall now be the same."


    He directed the orb of yang energy that was compressed from a hundred gods'' attacks and flicked it at Rufus.


    Rufus was thrown from the planet and into space in a second, on the surface he looked perfectly fine but internally all three centres of his power were being violently pulled apart, that this was the art of yang separation, an art that is capable of splitting the balance between yin and yang, without the balance nothing will be able to exist and in Rufus''s case it was all the more lethal due to the extreme yang body he developed as a dual cultivator.


    When Adolin caught up, Rufus began to move his sword once more an incomparable force began to lock Adolin in place as Rufus began a mesmerizing sword dance that ripped open space and released a violent torrent of destruction on Adolins body, in a moment Adolins body became a bloody mess.


    "World Sunder" he roared and unleashed his full-powered attack on Adolin ripping his body in half, his attack landed and the two halves of Adolin were ripped apart and turned into pulp under the violent space torrents. Rufus sighed in relief thinking that he had managed to buy himself some time but in the next instant his relief vanished.


    "You recovered from my attack quite quickly but like I said you are still much too weak." The soft voice of Adolins echoed in his ears and he turned to see a glint of malice in Adolins eyes, it was completely different to Adolin''s usually indifferent eyes that just made it seem like he was a bug undeserving of attention.


    Seeing these eyes Rufus did not cower or show any fear, instead, a feeling of pride shone through him, for he knew that in his final moments he forced a greater existence to take him seriously.


    "Goodbye."


    "Art of Yang Desolation."


    "Yang Bindings"


    "Yang Link"


    "Yang Dispersal"


    "Yang Destruction"


    After forming the spells, chains with hooks planted themselves in his body, his spiritual sea, and his mana pool, the chains pulled him apart from the inside out, then white lights shone throughout the god as all the essence embryos of revival that Rufus created were pulled into the binding, when Rufus thought the pain couldn''t get any worse his very being started to disappear, piece by piece slowly and painfully and for the first time since he became a god he cried out in pain, he looked up to see Adolin his lips were moving slowly but he couldn''t hear the words, it felt like an eternity had passed for him.


    Slowly he was able to hear the words of Adolin it felt like days passed between each syllable, but he managed to make out the words eventually, "I wonder if you are still feeling that so-called pride of yours, by now I imagine that it must seem like I''ve been torturing you for eons but it has barely been a second, however, it''s not that your perception is wrong your entire life is being undone, everything that you''ve ever been all the uncountable stories spoken about you are being ripped from the past, and soon all of your accomplishments will have been forgotten by lesser beings, the only ones that shall remember you will be the gods, and they shall speak of the tales of Rufus the Imperial god who fought the eldest god and fell, but just a little secret between you and I, I hope that you understand I didn''t even try to beat you in our battle and the reason is simple, what god squashes a fly with all of his strength."


    Finally, the yang energy of Rufus had been ripped out of time, ripped even from the clutches of fate, and the destruction of his yang energies began, without the yang energies the remaining yin energy fell apart and the last remnants of Rufus the imperial god was no more.


    When Adolin returned the colosseum world was practically gone not even ruins remained, the remaining sins, virtues, and beast gods were engaged in a battle, the portal was still open and sadly Anuka was still there with the cradle in hand, the remains of the dead Cerberus were at her feet, he would revive from one of his revival essence embryos anyway so it wouldn''t matter, the problem now was that Samsara was still in his cradle besides Anuka, it was then that Adolin realized that the portal became unstable, if Samsara were to enter it now the safest outcome would be for him to be tossed into the vacuum of space, in fact, one of the least scary scenarios was him being thrown into a star, though the possibility was low it was one of the more favorable outcomes.


    Adolin descended next to Anuka on the edge of the portal, sensing Anuka''s dismay he spoke soothing words, "It''s not your fault Anuka it was an impossible task, to begin with."


    "You plan to go through with him don''t you, my lord." She spoke without taking her eyes off the portal.


    "Mm," Adolin did not refute, "Give him to me it''s my duty to take care of him." He spoke knowing that it would mean losing his cultivation as a third-grade god.


    "Y-Yes, it is your duty as his father to take care of him," Anuka spoke resolutely as if she had come to a decision herself.


    Hearing her tone, a frown formed on Adolins face and a feeling of anxiety kicked in he watched with fearful eyes as Anuka open the cradle and pulled Samsara into her embrace, "Anuka what are you doin..", but before he could finish, he felt his lips being locked by her, she seemed to pour all of her strength into that kiss because when she pulled back her beautiful face was flushed and she panted heavily.


    ", but I also have a duty to care for you my lord, and all the things that you deem important.", she turned around and walked resolutely to the unstable portal, "Take care of yourself, my lord, on my life I will protect him and one day we will return together."


    She held Samsara tightly placing his face on her shoulders while gently cupping the back of his head as she jumped into the portal.


    As Adolin watched a pair of silver eyes open and gazed into his eyes, Adolin felt that he was dreaming as he saw a little hand reaching out murmuring a word that felt foreign on its lips, "F-father¡­" then he blinked and his child was gone along with Anuka.


    Adolin cast his away from the portal and looked at the broken universes and remembered the times when there were more, he watched the universe''s hoping to find his son''s presence, but even for him, it was a foolish hope.


    But as his gaze drifted he saw the weave of fate becoming tighter on the plain like it would be ready to pop at any moment, and when he taught of the weave of fate that bound his son, he felt rage like never before for it was a fate, he with all his power could not even scratch the surface off.


    "If this is the fate you have been granted son, then you must fall to a place no god wishes to go, become a pure mortal and begin the climb, climb like your life depends on it until you transcend all things for that is the only way for your survival."


    He turned around and gathered the sins, virtues, and beast gods, with the void cracks appearing it meant that the gods of the other plain would soon be arriving


    ---


    Year 302 trillion since the last shattering (L.S).


    The year in which the descendants rained down upon the countless worlds, and also when the war of the gods began.

 Chapter 8 - 008 – FALL (1)

    Anuka blinked slowly as she woke, she stifled a yawn and wondered when was the last time she had actually slept, it must have been a few millennia at least, she saw a grey world all around her it wasn''t large or anything in fact it seemed completely empty, it felt as if she was standing on the clouds as grey mist swept around her.


    It was only then that she noticed a very important detail this world was made of pure genesis energy, one of the primordial energies, even gods would find it extremely excellent for tempering their bodies.


    Just as she was about to soak herself in the energy, she heard loud panting and few muffled cries.


    She moved through the mist searching for the source of the sound, when she saw the most beautiful woman she had ever seen, even she felt slightly inferior to the beauty with long silver hair and unfathomable silver eyes that seemed able to see through her even though she was a second-grade god she felt completely see-through at the moment, not even Adolin could make her feel so vulnerable, it was then that she realised a problem her cultivation hadn''t dropped she was still a god.


    Looking at the beauty she could make out similarities between her and Samsara, until now she been worried that she lost the child but now she heaved a breath of relief if this was his mother then he was probably safe here, it was then that she heard the beauty cry out once again, and she noticed two ethereal chains that seemed to both exist and not exist at the same time as they bound the women, the chains were forcing their way into this world through a hole which was slowly closing.


    "Would you mind giving me a hand?" asked the beauty, "This space is just lacking a bit of energy, genesis would be for the best, but I suppose astral would be just passable." She asked nonchalantly like it was nothing.


    Anuka felt very confused, did this woman think genesis energy would be handed to her so easily, it was a treasure revered by gods, and astral energy was the closest energy to genesis energy it was what gods used to cultivate their bodies. "What happens if I don''t help?", Anuka was still a little uncertain this woman resembled Samsara quite a bit but she couldn''t be certain and for some reason, she was exhibiting the same behaviour of the chains existing and not existing at the same time.


    "Nothing much really," the beauty answered sarcastically, ", I''ll just get sucked out of here then my little world here will fall apart and after that, we will both be left to the icy clutches of the void or chaos if that''s what you call it, where we will both undergo the ripping torrents that will grind us into nothingness, of course I know how to turn my body ethereal so I''ll last until my energy runs out while you''ll end up dead permanently, and finally I''ll die and be revived again in one of the 33 Neather Heavens, I could go on but you do see my point."


    Once again Anuka was floored, how could someone be so nonchalant in such a situation, and also, she said something about reviving and the worst part was the void, this woman spoke of things she could hardly understand in a simple conversation, the void was treacherous and even gods would never venture in for more than a few years.


    "Who are you exactly? Are you Samsara''s mother?" she asked for a sense of assurance.


    "First you jump through a chaotic portal with me then you don''t even recognise me and now you''re asking if I''m my own mother, of course not.", Samsara cried out as the chains began to tug on him again.


    Anuka looked wide-eyed at him realising for the first time that the beauty was, in fact, a man, she couldn''t remember the last time she felt so embarrassed, a slab appeared in the mist behind Samsara shaped like some sort of sacrificial altar, she slowly poured in astral energy and only after Samsara cried out for her to move faster did she reluctantly empty out almost her entire astral energy fortune.


    "Ridiculous utterly ridiculous, this the definition of idiotic, no imbecilic, the behaviour of a moron¡­" Anuka continued to hear various synonyms for an idiot as she returned to Samsara''s side, just as she was about to ask what the chains were that he was swinging around he asked her a question that puzzled her.


    "Do know what kind of idiot uses chaos breakers to bind someone?", seeing the blank face on the blonde beauty, Samsara cursed himself for always knowing more than everyone around him, "These chains are used to bind and stabilise an entire plain, it ensures that the void cannot," he clicked his fingers as he tried to come up with the perfect analogy and suddenly his eyes lit up, "pop, yes that''s right pop, so it ensures that the plain does not pop like a balloon with all it''s insides spilling into the void slowly returning to nothing."


    Anuka was mesmerized by the new information, it was something that she had never heard of before, and if true it would become a major topic of study. "Are you really Samsara?" she asked with uncertainty, he certainly had the right appearance, she wasn''t surprised about him looking like an adult or a woman after all gods could change their appearance as they wished they could be male or female, both even young or old it just came down to their preferences.


    What truly took her by surprise was how knowledgeable he was, according to Adolin his son was in a death-like state which is why he froze an entire universe and sealed it off with his son inside making it impossible for him to age and decay all in order to preserve his son''s life.


    This would have made it impossible for him to know anything much less about universal secrets.


    "I''m honestly not too sure myself.", his answer left her puzzled, "Although I think that I probably am," he further confused her when a sudden twitch ran through her his entire body and his hand was inches away from her hit Anuka when he got back control of his body.


    "Sorry about that," he wore an apologetic smile on his face, "It''s different this time," he spoke while tinkering with a few panels on the alter, "Usually I''m a newborn child fresh from the womb, and the child dies before my soul settles in it."


    "It tends to feel like wearing a set of slightly baggy clothes, don''t get me wrong the quality is usually good it just doesn''t feel perfect, but this time it seems to be crafted to perfection it''s like wearing a body-tight suit, its different from normal, so the sync is taking a little longer than usual and there are a few side effects." He said hinting about the strange twitch.


    "What do you mean?" Anuka was looking at him wide-eyed trying to determine the truth, if someone had taken over her young masters body, she would have to exercise them at all costs.


    "I have lived a very long life, much too long a life so much so that I just want it to end, I have a theory that while my body was there frozen in time in that universe, my soul was not, it travelled across the 33 Neather Heavens, well this is my first time being in this one after my birth and there were two lives that were in different plains so 30 Neather heavens would be correct, each time a new life a new body but always cursed."


    "But now I can feel it a perfect sync between my soul and body, this is what any ordinary person would feel like in their original body."


    "Then can you tell me how old you are?" asked Anuka the weariness in her seemed to be gone but she just wanted to have some form of confirmation.


    "I haven''t lived a life that allowed me the luxury of keeping count, I don''t know really, 50 trillion maybe a hundred possibly more.", she kept a careful watch on his eyes, he tried not to meet her eyes but every time she looked in them, she could make out traces of pain, sorrow and above all loneliness.


    "In all, that time did you ever have a family or friends or a companion?" she was looking for something, something concrete to reassure her at this point she didn''t want to make a mistake with her lord''s son, while his eyes told no lie she still needed something undeniable about him, the only problem was she didn''t actually know him.


    Samsara could make out that look in her eyes of one who was convinced but just lacked the most important evidence, she needed proof

 Chapter 9 - 009 – FALL (2)

    Proof he wondered inwardly what can I offer her as proof. The thought of family made his eyes waver and he felt a sense of loss even after all this time he could not let go of that past.


    Anuka didn''t miss that sense of extreme hatred that came from him it was there for just a second before it vanished.


    No, he thought he couldn''t bring himself to speak of his family before he settled those matters permanently, but there was something else.


    "You have my curse," he said softly.


    "You''ll find that having a family isn''t in your cards, if you''d like you can force a man to impregnate you, but even your own children will hate you so honestly, it''s pointless," he spoke with a bitter smile.


    "Truthfully, taking that curse of mine is probably the biggest mistake you''ve ever made, unlike me you know what''s it like to have companionship, to live without it is going to be the hardest thing you can possibly imagine."


    Anuka could tell that he was hiding something but the truth was clear in his eyes, that curse was truly unfathomable but that pain in his eyes it was always there, and she could even feel excitement pouring from him as he spoke to her, as if speaking to her was making him happy.


    In one moment, she felt happy for him and in the next she felt dread for her future, what kind of torture would one have to endure, that being interrogated would make them happy.


    It wasn''t like she was having a conversation with him; she was judging him and if he was even the slightest bit suspicious, she would have killed him without a thought and yet still he smiled joyously.


    "It must drive a person mad to be alone for so long!?"


    Samsara merely chuckled at her words, madness was his one true companion, even now he didn''t know if Anuka was a delusion his mind had made up or if she was real, he wasn''t even sure if the events in the god realm were real.


    "Will it be¡­", just as she was about voice her question as if he read her mind he answered with a gentle smile.


    "Don''t worry too much it''s only a twentieth of its full strength, and I might be able to teach you a few tricks to suppress it, with how weak the curse is my suppression techniques will be much more effective, at worst you won''t be able to properly interact with people a grade below you but I doubt you''re going to make any real friends either, for the most part, people will just tolerate your existence."


    "You''re an entire grade lower than me." She said it was surprising that he wasn''t treating her any different from before since the curse was on her.


    Samsara sighed internally, it was his curse, to begin with, and currently, he was back in his original body, he had tried to the words of heaven to remove the curse several times before but he always faced a problem the curse was incomplete.


    It was only now that realised the other part was on his original body, and he couldn''t remove one without removing the other, it was like a lock with two keys, but he had no idea that there was another keyhole.


    In fact, he was certain that it would take him no more than a dozen years to decipher the key to completely remove the curse.


    "Yes, I am," he admitted while his hands continued to dart across several panels on the altar. ", but the curse is mine, to begin with, I''m so used to it that there is no way it can ail my mind, you should know that curse also makes one think less of themselves as well, and secondly we are in the void right now."


    "The curse is formed from the words of heaven within the Neather Heavens, so it will always have an effect there but once you exit it, the words of heaven become useless, or rather they are unperceivable by beings that aren''t born within the Neather Heavens." he explained.


    "This curse will cause you more problems than others because you''re a god of pride but at the same time it could also aid you in breaking through."


    As Anuka thought of this she realised the opportunity this curse would present her as the god of pride having her self-esteem lowered would be detrimental to her progress but should she overcome the effects it would strengthen her pride, she was certain that overcoming this obstacle would make her an equal to gods like Kalatis.


    She even held the hope of being able to enter the final stage of gods, she gripped her fists and steeled her resolve, she would do this while protecting her young master.


    While Anuka was busy in her thoughts, Samsara began a full scry of the heavens to choose his landing point but he found that the situation of this universe was anything but optimistic, it looked ready to be erased by the void, "Why are there only 6 there should be 9, eight in the least," she heard Samsara''s cries of outrage and decide to peek at the panels, he was using.


    She was surprised to find that the panels were scrying tools and large-scale scryers, even in the god realm there weren''t more than a hundred divining tools that could do such large-scale scrying.


    Each panel displayed one of the six universes it merely highlighted the mortal and immortal zones of each universe, which was already an impressive feat, and Samsara had accomplished this feat in only a few minutes, if Anuka had to put his ability on a rank board as a scryer he would easily enter the top 3 and this included the gods in the second-grade and even his father.


    At the central point of each universe, an intersection point could be seen, this was the point on which all the universes converged to create the god realm.


    It had to be known that each universe existed in the exact same place overlapping each other, and the layout of the universes was a very messy, wibbly-wobbly, 3-dimensional map with some portions belonging to the mortal and immortal realms without any fixed order or pattern.


    Anuka noticed fate strings on Samara''s hand which surprised her even more, to have accomplishments in both fate laws, scrying, and divining were unbelievable even to a god, one can read the past, present, and future while the other could gather the information belonging to the past and present of every world.


    It was because of this that it became impossible for people to learn both it broke the balance of the world and damaged its fabric. Therefore it usually came with serious repercussions for the user and yet he was fine.


    "Young master please allow me to explain the situation of the six universes." After Samsara gave a nod she began while keeping an eye on the fate strings.


    She knew that the universes were in chaos and he would have a lot of questions and so she started with the most obvious things he would want to know.


    She picked a panel and explained, "This is universe one, in truth, no one knew anything about it until recently except your father he always referred to it as the cradle but no news ever came from it, this universe has been frozen for 300 trillion years and your body was sealed within."


    Samsara''s eyes flashed that time period was too long, he didn''t keep count of his age but he was certain that it couldn''t be more than 150 trillion years, for now, he could form a few theories for the time-lapse but he had no way of proving or disproving his theories for now.


    Next Anuka picked up two of the panels, the ones that truly concerned Samsara because there were enormous problems in these universes.


    "This is universe four and five, four is known as the Dreaming Sea and Five is known as the Domain of Pride," she spoke proudly, from this Samsara could tell that the universes were named based on the greatest gods that came from them and Anuka was obviously from the fifth.


    "The borders of these two universes that separate the mortal and immortal realm are broken, in there the immortals took control of everything and unfortunately due to this the universe stagnated only 380 gods were born from these universes to date and I was the very last.", it was only natural that she would brag about her every accomplishment as the god of pride so Samsara didn''t bother stopping her and continued listening with a smile on his face.


    "In all the universes besides the first, you will find tears like this," she pointed to tiny little red specks on the maps that Samsara had failed to notice until this point, ", these are all void tears and from them, all sorts of beings and creatures come out including invading forces from other plains, so far the only universe that has been able to handle them is the Universe of God." She pointed at the sixth universe.


    When she noticed the raised eyebrow of Samara she giggled and her voice was like music to ears, "We gods gave it that name, to date it has produced over 80000 of the 102000 gods from the god realm and the leaders of all the factions have risen from that universe."


    "What about my father?" asked Samsara the word father still foreign on his tongue, it felt strange just using the word, in his past lives his parents were always the greatest disappointment.


    "No one knows he hasn''t told anyone not even Kalatis the dragon god, after your father he is the oldest god and your fathers'' closest confidant..", Samsara laughed inwardly as he noticed her inner turmoil even her facial muscles twisted as she spoke Kalatis''s name.

 Chapter 10 - 010 – FALL (3)

    "No one knows he hasn''t told anyone not even Kalatis the dragon god, after your father he is the eldest god and your fathers'' closest confidant.", Samsara laughed inwardly as he noticed her inner turmoil even her facial muscles twisted as she spoke Kalatis''s name.


    The lowering of one''s self-esteem was already taking effect on her, while the curse would not affect those around her while outside the void, it would still have a mild effect on her, just speaking the dragon god''s name and Samsara could sense a feeling of inferiority, he didn''t point it out to her, he already helped her by giving her the hint, the rest would be up to her.


    He turned his attention to the void tears there were tens of thousands of them, by the measure of an entire universe the space those tears occupied could be considered inconsequential but the truth was that those tears were making the plain unstable, which worried him greatly especially since one of his strings were tugging greatly on the tears, he knew that he would be involved in them from the moment he heard of them but now he was certain that something important was going to happen to him due to the tears if it was good or bad he had no idea.


    When he turned back to Anuka he saw her fixed on the seventh panel that depicted the god realm looking at it in disbelief, "What''s wrong?" he asked dreading the answer that could make a god afraid.


    She didn''t answer and pointed to the god realm, in it there were 18 red specks, "We just left the god realm, and just before we did the first tear opened how could so many have opened up!?" her question was rhetorical but Samsara had an answer.


    "I have two theories but it''s probably both," she looked at him with tight fists hoping for an explanation that made sense, "We entered that unstable portal and it''s very possible that we interacted with time laws and if that''s the case we might have been slingshot many years into the future."


    Anuka looked at him wide-eyed, "Even so it would take almost a billion years for so many tears to appear in the god realm, then the million-year prophecy is over.", she spoke with worry in her voice.


    At that moment one of the fate strings on Samsara''s hand snapped, "200 thousand years," he murmured.


    "No that''s too short, the stability of the god realm would have had to have fallen drastically for so many tears to appear, even we gods aren''t capable of that."


    "No gods aren''t but the Heaven can." Said Samsara as he pulled out the two chaos binding chains, "Theory number 2," he spoke like a learned scholar, "These chaos binders came from the god realm, and with the 200-thousand-year lapse since we left, it would make sense."


    "Well on the bright side the other gods would be too busy battling the plainer invaders to focus on all your companions, so I''ll assume that they are fine for now."


    "We need to go back, the war will be entering the middle stages now I can help them, even you can," said Anuka at a loss.


    "It''s true that we can return but as we are now, we''d only get in the way or did you forget the effects of that universal treasure once we re-enter the heaven, we will lose our cultivation, you''ll most likely be at the lower end of the immortal realm and I''ll be close to the top of the mortal realm, but honestly I''m going to destroy this cultivation of mine and start off from scratch anyway and so should you."


    "NO! Absolutely not we only have nine hundred thousand years before the time is up, it takes a million years for a mortal to reach godhood and that for a genius even an unparalleled genius would take eight hundred thousand years to reach the god realm!" Shouted Anuka hysterically, "Even if we breakthrough, we won''t be able to do anything in the later stages of the war as newborn gods, it is better if we return restore our cultivations and push ourselves to reach the peak of our strength."


    "We have plenty of time a few thousand years and I can definitely become a god again."


    Even Anuka as a god of pride felt embarrassed by his bragging such a thing was not possible, "Madman." she murmured not even caring that he could hear.


    "Oh Lady Anuka, I''m definitely a madman," he spoke with a smirk on his face, ", but let me tell you a little something about all those so-called genius''s that could shake the heavens, unlike all of them I have made entire universes freeze and set all of creation to burn, there is not a single genius that can enter my eyes because when compared to me all of creation is nothing in comparison, you say nine hundred thousand years is difficult I say it''s easy it''s so easy that in fact¡­" as he was about to finish his monologue that even he didn''t understand why he was speaking with such arrogance, the fate strings on his hands all snapped and the words in his throat turned into a screech, like a dying cat.


    "I take back what I just said, it''s going to be very, very difficult for me," Anuka could almost see blood pouring from Samsara''s eyes as he repeatedly muttered, ", my heart bleeds," on a loop.


    "Change of plans," he muttered with a dejected look on his face, the fate strings were searching for a path so that he could survive the million-year prophecy and as it turned out it was anything but pleasant, naturally he was tied to the prophecy like strings that were tied to a bloody kite.


    "It''s going to be easy for you to reach godhood again Lady Anuka, remember you were a god so you don''t have to have to waste a second on learning new arts, you just have to focus on perfecting your cultivation, and when we return if you use one of your revival embryo''s you can restore your old cultivation level in a few centuries, as a former god it should be easy especially with these." He reluctantly pulled out three orbs each one the size of his palm and tossed them to Anuka but the look on his face made it seem like she had just robbed him.


    When she caught the orbs, she almost lost her mind at their contents, she looked at them like they were unprecedented treasures but also like a time bomb.


    The orbs held energy from each of the great sources Genesis, Cosmic and Celestial, for each one of these treasures'' gods would fight savage battles across the god realm, and here she had all three and in a vast quantity, the largest she had ever seen was about the size of a finger, but her hands could barely wrap around these orbs.


    No wonder he looked at her like she had entered his grave and stole his bones and used them for a potion.


    After that, eight new objects appeared, "Are those essence revival embryos?" she asked with surprise, she only had six of those in the god realm, but these embryos were all different from the usual.


    It was like a bunch of black and white energy twisting and turning constantly with an azure blue light spinning inside releasing a pulse similar to an essence revival embryo.


    "Essence revival embryo," Samsara muttered with a wronged expression, Anuka couldn''t help but admire how cute the pouting Samsara looked, but his next words almost made a god feint, "I wish this was something as common as that."


    Anuka wanted to scream, in what world are essence revival embryos common, gods could only form one upon entering godhood and another two when breaking into the second god rank, and the odds of successfully creating one was extremely low, and even gods considered it a long time to create it artificially.


    "It is basically the same thing the only difference is that it has been given an ethereal form that allows it to become soul tethered," Samara explained while watching the ethereal embryo, it looked like a thick liquid constantly changing shape due to high-frequency sound waves hitting it.


    That''s when something clicked inside Anuka''s head she had been wondering where this grey world came from and seeing these new objects, it made no sense, Adolin didn''t give him any items, and yet he was pulling out treasure after treasure.


    Finally, Samsara mentioned something she didn''t expect him to a soul tether, and for once it was something she knew off.


    A soul tether would ensure that a god would be able to keep their equipment even if they get killed when they revive the equipment would reside in a special place close to the soul, experiments were done on mortals and immortals to see if they could carry the objects on to their next lives after reincarnating, but every experiment ended in failure.


    The soul tether would break, and the object would remain behind after countless attempts the gods either gave up or put it on a hold until they received some inspiration.


    "If you make something ethereal it can pass through reincarnation.", Anuka surmised.


    "A good deduction but there is a limit to how much you can bring through even for me."


    "But how?" asked Anuka for the first time she learned of something that piqued her interest to the highest degree.


    "Ethereal laws," said Samsara, ", those laws are all the way up there with Genesis, Celestial, Cosmic and Fate laws it''s interwoven with the Void/Chaos as well so even I''m not great at it."


    Anuka felt like reality was imploding on her she had no idea that such laws existed except for fate laws, Genesis, Celestial and Cosmic weren''t they just energy sources.

 Chapter 11 - 011 – FALL (4)

    Anuka felt like reality was imploding on her she had no idea that such laws existed except for fate laws, Geneses, Celestial and Cosmic weren''t they just energy sources.


    As Anuka watched the pulsing embryos as she heard Samsara chanting.


    "Created through Geneses¡­."


    "Forged through Fate¡­.."


    "Let the will of rebirth take hold and,"


    "Be born in the name of Samsara¡­."


    At that moment the eight embryos began to shift taking the form of people each one with their own distinct features and aura''s. At the same time, Samsara''s cultivation dropped from the first god realm to the fifth mortal realm.


    Soon several bodies formed and began to move around, each one in perfect sync with all the others.


    "Ah wow, imagine if we needed number 2, we''d totally be asking to get killed, as if we aren''t already in enough danger." Said 14, "That kid would have the entire heaven starve before he''s satisfied and we''d have to deal with a revolt from the masses." 14 spoke like it was only right that he was chosen over that little starvation lord.


    "Only you can trash talk yourself and feel proud.", said Talen, while leaning against the central altar, it was curious to him that both 14 and Lucian were required after all they could be considered weak when compared to some of the others.


    The other interesting choice was Killian even after his revival, he remained catatonic, curled up on the floor without giving any attention to his surroundings.


    The rest were from Arodil''s time onward, starting with Arodil (The Demon of the END) and three others, including Talen all of them had achieved the state of being an equal of the plain they were born in.


    "Hey, 14 and Lucian you''ll come with me to universe six." Said Samsara.


    "No, you can''t go to universe six young master, it''s the worst place for you to go.", Anuka said firmly, while she was still confused with what was going on, she knew that the most important thing was to stop Samsara from going to the sixth universe.


    "Isn''t it the universe of god, how could it possibly be bad for me to go there?" he asked with curiosity.


    "There was an incident with a large batch of children that were sent down into that universe and it caused a lot of problems that aren''t even fully resolved to this day and it''s been almost a million years since then, if they find out that you are a gods child, they will kill you without hesitation."


    The gods were not very interested in the lives of their children, so they didn''t mind the actions of the sixth universe, in fact, they applauded such behavior, a hard life would create stronger warriors so many gods sent their children to that universe, if they survived then they were worthy if they didn''t then they weren''t up to the task and they died.


    "It doesn''t change the fact that I have to go there, there is something for me to do or find in that realm and I''ll fail if I don''t take this risk," he could feel that pull of fate practically dragging him there he didn''t remember the last time he was pulled so hard by fate, ", it will be okay," he reassured her, he could see her worry growing, ", I''ll have 14 and Lucian close by in case I need them."


    "I have a name you know," cried out 14, "My name is Penn." He stood proudly with a puffed-out chest as if there was no better name in the world, the others wondered why it was necessary to use an ethereal embryo on him.


    They averted their eyes, they were insane when they were Penn, and they choose such an embarrassing name for themselves.


    "Penn?" asked Anuka still trying to make sense of what was happening, "Like the tool mortals use to write?" she asked tilting her head to the side as if pondering something while her hair fell over her shoulder and onto her chest.


    The blood vessels in Penn''s head began to pop and he gritted his teeth.


    "Here we go again." Said Lucian, an exasperated look on his face.


    "Penn means invincible in ancient Darlick, it is the epitome of all awesome names and perfectly symbolizes me, an invincible champion that went undefeated through life, until I committed suicide, but I had my own reason for that so I was still undefeated." Even when he mentioned his suicide, he didn''t lose out on any of his boastfulness.


    Hiding her shock at his reveal of information Anuka kept a straight face and sighed, "And here I thought Penn meant that you were very knowledgeable, maybe even the greatest scholar in the heavens.", a trace of a smile could be seen on her lips like a child enjoying a practical joke.


    "Ah yes, the lady goddess is correct," Penn cried out enthusiastically, ", in ancient Darlick Penn means unmatched scholar it was my mistake." He said with a hearty laugh.


    Once more the giggle of the goddess echoed in their ears, but this time Killian moved, his eyes fixed on Anuka, "She looks¡­. ah¡­ s-s-she feel like.", he reached out a hand as if trying to catch the stars.


    "ENOUGH KILLIAN," roared Arodil, ", the past is the past stop bringing it up." Arodil''s aura was sharp and his voice cold not leaving any room for discussion, and his other selves all agreed with his decision.


    The light which had just returned to Killian''s eyes went out and he trembled, "Y-Y-You''re right I''m s-sorry.", he muttered and curled into a ball again


    "What was he trying to say?" asked Anuka with a frown.


    "It''s nothing don''t mind it he just has a thing for beautiful blonds.", said Penn quickly with his best smile and an apologetic look.


    Anuka frown but didn''t pursue the matter, "In any case don''t you think that you should introduce yourselves, after all, any friends of the young master are friends of mine?"


    "We are Samsara." They all spoke together.


    Seeing her confused look Samsara explained, "They are all my avatars and they can also act as extra lives for me if the need arises."


    "No, I''ve seen avatars before, but these... all their auras are different, and they each act like a different person."


    "Well, we are each based on one of our past lives, one life one person, and through our lives, we''ve been many people." Talen patiently explained.


    Anuka could vaguely understand what was happening, in a few studies done by some bored gods they had discovered that when intelligent beings undergo extended periods of isolation, they can develop split personalities.


    Currently, she was observing an extreme of the situation not only did Samsara have multiple personalities he even gave them life; a unique personality was one thing, but unique auras were an entirely different thing. She realized that her question earlier about being alone for so long would make someone mad was an understatement.


    Had she not witnessed their creation herself she would never be able to bring herself to believe that all those people were avatars they were all far too life-like.


    "Enough of this we should get moving now we''ve already been in the void for weeks and I''d rather we don''t use up all the energy in this little world of ours." Said Mitrax (the divine artisan) he was a burly man yet still had pretty good looks.


    "I suppose myself and Arodil will be taking universe 4 and 5 it will be the most dangerous and since we were the strongest it will be best if we go there." Said Talen, excitement could be seen in his eyes as well as the rest an eagerness to experience a world in which they weren''t hated without reason.


    "No, Talen you will come to universe six with me and enter the immortal realm while I enter the mortal realm with Pen and Lucian."


    "Then who will go to universe five?" asked Talen.


    "I will." Killian spoke with a bit of clarity for the first time, "I can feel it fate is pulling me there.", he spoke slowly but each word of his was clear.


    Samsara turned to Anuka, "I need you to go to the fifth universe with Killian."


    "I swore that I would protect you, I swore it to your father on my honor," Anuka cried in outrage, ", I must remain by your side young master."


    "Once we leave to re-enter the heaven, it''s going to attack me I have enough protective treasures to protect myself from the onslaught, but since you now carry my curse you will be attacked as well, by sacrificing most of your remaining cultivation you can make it through, but if we go together everything will be focussed on us, we''ll be dead for sure."


    "Besides I need you to take care of Killian for me remember if my main body is killed, all you have to do is bring one of my avatars and they can restore me."


    Anuka gritted her teeth and looked dejected but finally accepted after a lot f discussion, Samsara could hear her muttering the word useless under her breath.


    He sent two of his other avatars to universe 2 and 3 and then he gave a special mission to Mitrax he had to investigate the problems of the plain, there was a very big problem that none of the gods had even realized.


    This universe had experienced a total of 15 shattering''s and yet there were only six universes, as the central Heaven of the 33 Neather Heavens, it should have had at least eight universes, with a low probability of ten and yet there were only six.


    Before the others left, he gave them each roughly the same amount of Geneses, Cosmic and Celestial energy that he gave to Anuka, which left him with pieces about the size of a finger, it was enough to support him through the mortal realm.


    Five portals opened in the grey world, Anuka looked back at Samsara, bidding him farewell before stepping through the portal. One by one the portals closed until only one was left.


    "You didn''t have to act like such a fool in front of her," Talen chided Penn.


    "I just wanted to see her smile, even if you guys don''t want to admit it, she does feel familiar." He replied with a smile. Earning him a scowl from Talen.


    Samsara looked tired, "That''s enough it can''t be her she''s long dead and even if she reincarnated, she is someone else now."


    "Is that why you were so happy when you spoke to her and shared all of that information so freely with her," Penn looked at Samsara, "Even I''m not so stupid and na?ve to do something like that if you didn''t think she was the same person why would you share so much with her especially the energy sources."


    "The past is in the past, it''s about time we get moving.." Lucian grew tired of the topic he knew that they could argue about it endlessly and didn''t want to waste any more time.

 Chapter 12 - 012 – FALL (5)

    "Is that why you were so happy when you spoke to her and shared all of that information so freely with her," Pen looked at Samsara, "Even I''m not so stupid and na?ve to do something like that if you didn''t think she was the same person why would you share so much with her especially the energy sources."


    "The past is in the past, it''s about time we get moving." Lucian grew tired of the topic he knew that he could argue about it endlessly and didn''t want to waste any more time.


    "It''s time, to fall.", murmured Samsara as they stepped through the last gate, he sighed while looking at the grey world, geneses energy was hard to come by and the grey world had almost consumed all its energy.


    As soon as they re-entered the heaven the tribulations of heaven were felt, a small fissure opened and Talen went through it his destination was the immortal realm, while Samsara, Lucian, and Pen continued into the mortal lands.


    The storm was drawing ever closer as the three sped through the space, when the first traces of black lightning appeared a string of fate on Samsara''s finger snapped, he looked at Lucian quickly and nodded.


    "In time we will surely be reunited." Lucian bade his farewell quickly and fell through a fissure.


    "Damn it, this is not fair!" Pen cried out in anguish, but he didn''t stop his movements the survival of the original depended on him. "I''m so going to be a sacrifice; I swear one day I''ll make the Heaven''s rue its treatment of me."


    "Probably," Samsara didn''t deny the possibility as they fled, the effects of the portal were starting to take effect and his limited cultivation was falling once more.


    His speed began to slow and the first bolt of lightning struck him.


    The tribulation thunder was far too powerful to be blocked with simple energy and he knew that he had to sacrifice even more of his cultivation to divert its power.


    In an instant several apparitions of himself appeared, all of which held his power and the tribulations slowly took each one down.


    Pen grabbed onto the nearly drained Samsara, "How long until we leave the tunnel?" he asked while glancing at the last of the strings of fate attached to Samsara''s hands, a trace of worry flashed through his eyes.


    Now that Samsara was no longer a god his body was beginning to revert into a baby it had only been a few minutes since they entered the tunnel.


    "I can''t be sure," he pulled out two ethereal treasures from his soul, using the energy of the first one he managed to slow down his body''s regression and he cast the other to stall for time as it hindered the tribulation.


    "We have half an hour before I compete reverting.", he spoke quickly, "You must move faster."


    Penn was panicking but still pushed forward he looked on with worry Samsara was already at his limits and it wouldn''t be long before the tribulations caught up, "Blasted Heavens," he cursed.


    He began chanting a lightning sutra, with his current power available he wouldn''t be able to stop the tribulation only lessen its effects, he kept twisting his body to avoid the tribulations but most of the time he was unsuccessful and was forced to use his body as a shield to protect Samsara.


    When the full half-hour passed, he held a beautiful baby in his arms, with long silver hair and eyes that shone like a full moon, "If I was a girl in this life Kaguya would have been a good name," Penn chuckled to himself.


    The tribulation seemed to have stopped, but he furrowed his eyes it stopped too suddenly, that''s when he felt the space tunnel collapsing from all directions and a tread of tribulation lightning snuck in through a gap he blocked it with his body just in time, but as he rejoiced a dozen more appeared landing on Samsara''s body.


    He sighed while looking at his now lifeless body, the one string of fate completely broke off while the other gripped onto him, a white light enveloped Pen''s body and his body faded away, next Samsara opened his eyes to see more flashes of lightning.


    "Damn it, you go too far," he shouted at the Heavens, it was a creepy sight to behold, a baby shouting in fury like an adult, the chaos breaker appeared in his tiny hands and he hit a few strands of lightning away, ''Ha, that actually worked.'' He exclaimed inwardly.


    He knew that it had only bought him a minute at best after Pen used himself to restore Samsara it had given him a boost in strength, so he poured everything he had into the final string with only one thought optimal survival, it was pointless if he survived the tribulation, but landed in a place where he couldn''t progress or got injured or killed upon his arrival.


    Sadly, his cultivation was not enough, and he pulled out the only two ethereal weapons he possessed an enormous broad sword and a spear, both weapon types were specialized for slaughtering a large number of enemies.


    But to his surprise, even the fate bound to these godly weapons was not enough and he had to sacrifice a full set of ethereal armor, all that remained in his soul, was his last three ethereal revival embryo''s, his three energy sources, and lastly his trump card that he had created with a great deal of inspiration from the plain in which his past self-Kallidin was born and once he left the space tunnel the grey world would also return to his soul, just like that in the span of a few hours he had used up trillions of years of treasures and resources that he had accumulated across multiple lives.


    He could hardly believe that his survival had required the sacrifice of several godly weapons, truly on this day his heart bleed profusely, and even with all he had sacrificed, there was no guaranty of his survival.


    The fate strings wrapped tightly around him and pulled him across space leaving not a trace of his existence, it was from this that Samsara was able to deduce that what used up most of his power was in fact the erasing of his existence the only possibility for that would be the search of powerful gods, it was no wonder that he had to use up such treasures.


    On the highest pyramid of the Clovis Civilisation, a ripple appeared in the air, not a space ripple but one formed from the rewriting of fate.


    From this ripple, Samsara appeared floating in the air and he gently fell onto the soft grass in a garden, it had numerous pathways and great hedges that formed lustrous green walls, and arrangements of beautiful flowers filled the garden, even to a casual observer it could be seen how meticulously the garden was tended too.


    With the final wisps of fate energy that was still enough to make all mortals look on in awe Samsara did a basic reading on the will of the world, it would be just enough to tell him his situation.


    In the garden he had detected a few auras but without any soul force it was impossible for him to probe or check on their energy, this terrified him, he still held a great deal of fear to strangers, it slipped his mind that the curse was gone.


    He managed to climb to his feet and move around, by pouring his remaining energy into his feet, but he could feel the regression of his body fighting against his efforts to stand and walk.


    There were two figures sitting at a table in the garden, they appeared to have been on a date, their hands could be seen wrapped around each other''s as they sat across each other, but Samsara gulp as he noticed both their heads turned in his direction and their eyes were fixed on him, as the last of his power vanished, he lost strength in his legs and fell flat on the ground like a helpless toddler.


    He had not a single doubt on his mind, these people could erase his bones with just their aura''s alone, he cried inwardly in relief that they didn''t perceive him as a threat, and a feeling of wonder enveloped him as now looked at them with starry eyes.


    He remembered the curse was gone, is this how ordinary people treat strangers he wondered, just a little guarded but no killing intent.


    His eyes moved to the door that led into the pyramid structure and another five people were slowly walking towards him, if he had to guess based on their attire the three beautiful women looked like maids or attendants, while the two men looked like butlers, but they moved with the grace of a silent assassin.


    It was then that his fate reading completed, and his tiny little heart almost gave out, in what world is this optimum survival he wanted to scream this was insane.

 Chapter 13 - 013 - EMPRESS TALIYAH

    It was then that his fate reading completed, and his tiny little heart almost gave out, in what world is this optimum survival he wanted to scream this was insane.


    As for what could make the heart of a former god almost stop working it was this world, no to be correct, it was this universal civilization the two people that were on a date in this garden, were beings that had two centres of power in the immortal realm with only one remaining in the mortal realm and based of the readings they could become immortals at any time they liked.


    As for the maids and butlers, all of them were in the seventh-grade with one maid that even stood at the peak of the seventh in all aspects, but if that wasn''t enough this entire world had almost a hundred thousand seventh-grade mortal cultivators.


    He glimpsed across the balcony of this high pyramid that stood almost a kilometre high and looked at all the buildings between, large roads of smooth steel ran in every direction as far as the eye could see, all the buildings were built in a pyramid shape and large spaces were left in between each monolithic pyramid.


    In the distance, large cranes could be seen shifting granite bricks the size of a small house and in the outer district, the streets were busy with people and large mechanical trains that glided with magnetic force across the steel streets.


    This was easily the most prosperous civilization Samsara had ever seen, the city that he was in certainly covered every inch of the planet was not what made him think that but rather the number of cultivators here, the lowest cultivation base in this place was fifth-grade.


    This all came from his fate reading and he also found something of interest worth investigating on this world, and that would be a tread of a world tree, it was something which was very strange and suspicious.


    But all that had to wait as he was in a very dangerous place one misstep and death would take him, he once more began to curse the fate strings that brought him here and this very precarious situation, as the greatest the cultivator that ever lived he only had one plan currently and believed that it might just work.


    Look cute and act cute, and hope that they are baby loving people.


    ---


    Three hours earlier.


    The Clovis Civilisation.


    One of the rooms lay barren with just a simple tarp on the floor, in the middle of the room sat Empress Taliyah, her expression sombre while looking at a panel on the room wall.


    It appeared to be a normal wall but on it were twelve frames each one with a picture, some boys and some girls, their hair was all golden, just like their father Taliyah always wished that one of her children would inherit her hair but sadly their fathers genes were too strong.


    Half of them did inherit her eyes a murky blue that could be mistaken for a light grey.


    Behind the panel was a series of sarcophagus all created by master craftsmen, one lay empty while only three were full, the others only had pieces within.


    Over the course of the past month, she sat by the side of each one and now she sat at the centre wishing her lost children good fortune wherever their souls might be after experiencing rebirth.


    Outside the doors two maidservants stood quietly, they sighed from time to time at the actions of their mistress, every ten years she would this on the 18 month of the galactic calendar she would enter the room and exit on the first day of the nineteenth month. (The final month of the galactic year.)


    The Empress had been born as an ordinary mortal in a simple village on one of the worlds owned by the Clovis Civilization and yet she had such unfathomable potential that she climbed to the top of the world in a short sevent hundred years, anyone who reaches such a stage before becoming a thousand years is immediately accepted by the immortal civilization that supported this empire.


    The Empress had ended up meeting the Emperor on an expedition in which he was hiding his identity and it was a meeting that she would never forget, a meeting in which she had embarrassed herself beyond belief, but a few centuries later she found herself married to him.


    In the room were their fallen children, not one had survived, the maids sighed pitifully, it was a taboo for cultivators to grow attached to their kin in high society, and they could see the reason before their very eyes now, even the children of the emperor could not guaranty their survival in this world, and loving ones children was only inviting misfortune to one''s self.


    She made one last prayer and a wish in the last minute of her time and left the room.


    As the two maids waited, the head maid arrived before and as if on cue the door to the room opened and the Empress exited, the head maid bowed slightly, "His majesty invites his Empress to dine with him for breakfast."


    The melancholic expression of the Empress faded when she received the invitation, her husband always did this on the day she left the room, he would set an entire day aside just for her and she couldn''t help but break into a smile as she thought of him.


    "Your majesty I''ve drawn a bath for you and prepared a dress that his majesty has made for you.", the Empress giggled inwardly as she saw her maid''s expression of envy.


    It was hard to come by good men and even harder to come by good nobles let alone an emperor, he even made her a set of clothes by his own hand.


    "Let''s hope that the dress is not like the last time.", she spoke with a mischievous smile and even the maids couldn''t help but giggle out loud.


    The dress previously had a flaw, the tread started to fall apart as soon as she put it on so the maids had rushed to repair it, when the Empress tried to tease the Emperor about his terrible dressmaking skills he laughed but when she mentioned how the maids fixed it, he shot them a look of frustration.


    It was only then that they realised the bad seam work was intentional and the emperor was planning something purvey with his wife, but they ruined his hard work.


    Under a gazebo in the Estol gardens, Emperor Albus stood in his golden robes, and his right hand was placed on his sceptre, the shaft which had carvings of a mighty snake coiled around it, it reached his waist and the top held an orb that emitted a purple light.


    It wasn''t long before he saw his wife, even now after five thousand years he still felt nervous watching her come closer to him, it was pitiful that an emperor would feel that way, but she was just that beautiful.


    Her perfect bronze skin looked as if she had spent weeks in a forge to create it, but he knew it was just her natural colour, and those light blue eyes that reminded him of their time in the storm isles of Caplid when they met, he looked at her hair and suddenly felt slightly sad, she used to have the most lustrous black hair in all the world but in her grief half, her head became a snowy white.


    It didn''t take away from her beauty in fact it only personified her beauty, the stark contrast between the black and white was incredible to behold and her maids did a great job of styling her hair, a thin plait with one side white and one side black, and the remainder of her hair was pulled forward and formed a tiara that looked to be made of black and white vines.


    Most importantly was her fiery red dress he made, he didn''t do anything like last time he still remembered his punishment from last time, she had given him a show that would make even gods salivate and froth, and he felt like the tallest mountain in all the worlds could not compare to him for those moments, and when he thought he was about to become the envy of gods she left their bed and told him to sort it out with one his concubines.


    But he didn''t dare to, his intuition told him that even going near his concubines would be a death sentence from his wife, not wanting to have a premature death he used miss palm and her five friends.


    "Husband," she called out as she reached him, she pulled him into a deep kiss not caring about the onlookers more than a minute had passed before they pulled apart, "I''ve missed you Albus.", she spoke coquettishly as she locked her arm around his intimately.


    Albus took a deep breath after that kiss, marvelling at how passionate she was even now, he really was lucky to have her as his wife and he was glad that she still had some of the village girl inside her, women raised in high society wouldn''t even think of giving a small kiss in public let alone something so intimate.


    They walked around the garden for almost an hour making small talk but mostly enjoying each-others company, before sitting down for their meal, however just before the meal was served a new presence was felt in the garden.


    The presence held no cultivation but there was a dept to it that left them surprised they turned their heads in the direction of the presence, to find an infant sprawled across the garden floor, when they came into the child''s sight, they noticed a tinge of fear on the child''s face.

 Chapter 14 - 014 - THE CIVILIZATION OF CLOVIS (1)

    The presence held no cultivation but there was a dept to it that left them surprised they turned their heads in the direction of the presence, to find an infant sprawled on the ground, when they came into the child''s sight they noticed a tinge of fear on the child''s face, which quickly change into one of excitement, they assumed due to the child''s eyes that sparkled.


    The maids and butlers moved to capture the child, when they got close the child looked at them and they could hear the child''s heart beating like a crazed drummer striking his drums.


    His gaze seem to travel to the balcony and even the maids and butler stopped moving as they observed the child pulling himself through the dirt, it seemed the child was quite intelligent and planning to escape by going over the balcony, although it wasn''t likely since the child seemed incapable of moving.


    But next the child''s hands seemed to give out and the wailing of a child sounded throughout the garden but soon the wailing stopped as they investigated, they found the child had fainted.


    It was no lie the great Samsara had truly fainted, never before had he felt at such a loss, or so insignificant the pressure of being in this world nearly killed him, the sheer number of supreme overlords in this world scared him to death and he had nothing left to protect himself with, he wasn''t even sure if his avatars would ever be able to make it in here and find his body to revive him if he were to die.


    As the head maid reached the child she picked him up with gentle hands and scanned him after confirming he was a mortal with no cultivation she looked at the oversized silver robes on his body in surprise she had never seen such fine materials in her life.


    "Your majesties it is an ordinary child, however these garments are incredible, I doubt that I could damage it even if I used all power." She spoke after probing it and presenting the child to them, while the emperor had his gaze fixed on the robes the empress only had eyes for the child in her maids embrace.


    "Give me the girl," she spoke in a voice that broke no argument, as the maid handed the child over she did correct the empress with a slight blush, "This is no girl my lady," she said as she stepped back, she didn''t blame the empress for her mistake even she thought the same until she checked, the robes prevented all forms of probing so without looking it was impossible to tell.


    "Oh," the empress lifted the robes and glanced between the baby''s legs, "I guess that when he is all grown even all the boys will be turning in his direction." She giggled and lifted her hand to cover her mouth.


    "Husband," she turned to make a request of him but was surprised to find a serious expression on his face, "What is it?" she tactfully changed her question as she noticed his solemn expression.


    "All of you leave and do not mention a word of this to anyone, this is an imperial order from your emperor.", he spoke solemnly and the butlers and maids present were surprised by the intensity of the Emperor to the think that he even gave them an imperial order even the Empress was startled.


    Only when they were alone did the emperor speak again and even then before he spoke he set up barriers to prevent being overheard, "Do you remember the history of the Golgoth empire?"


    The empress nodded her head they were one of the seven universal empires no less than the Clovis Civilisation, but they had been completely eradicated from the world it happened almost over 900 thousand years ago but its downfall was still affecting the current political structure of the world.


    "Although, the details of their fall is still unknown to me."


    The emperor nodded, "Yes the great families have hidden as much as they could about it, but the fall of that empire happened for a reason and it was due to a piece of cloth just like this one."


    The Empress frowned, how could an entire empire fall due to a piece of clothing, she admitted that it was a treasure since a seventh-grade elite could not damage it.


    Albus reduced the potency of his immortal grade mana into a peak seventh-grade humans and as it struck the fabric the energy seemed to melt into a liquid and when he used his immortal energy it shattered like glass as it struck the robe.


    He sighed as he looked down, he had confirmed it with that test, "This is the result of the energy from a mortal and immortal making contact with the energy of a god." He said.


    "Energy of a god!?" she exclaimed, "Are you trying to say that this child is.." she looked at Samsara with a complicated expression, even she knew of the chaos brought about by the god children. Even in the little village, she grew up in stories of the god children coming to get the naughty children were told.


    "I''m afraid that it''s very likely, although it is of slightly lower grade than the last piece it is still something that the other civilization fought through bloody battles to obtain, however in the end it turned out that all the universal civilizations had been played by the god child who the cloth belonged to when all was said and done the child took the cloth and fled into the immortal realm."


    "My predecessor from the 51-core generation encountered 15 god''s children only two of them survived to the seventh rank and together they went on a rampage in one of the sub empires, they killed almost sixty seventh-graders before they were stopped and killed, and the other empires also found a few god children, but since then very few have been found."


    "When the civilizations heard from the gods that their descendants would come to our worlds they were all ecstatic and thought the gods were honoring them but it created chaos, they even preferred the plainer invaders over them, in the end, it was agreed that no one would help the god children ever again."


    He looked at the child with a heavy heart, it wasn''t in his nature to harm innocents, but this child would bring a catastrophe to the world, he had a vague feeling in his gut that he was right. As someone of his position he had come to trust that feeling, it never let him down.


    As he began to prepare an attack that would painlessly kill the child he saw the eyes of Samsara open, looking at him intently, he felt himself being pulled into those eyes as if the endless stars of all the worlds could be found within, but he steeled his resolve.


    A teardrop fell from Samsara''s eye he had done no wrong he had no curse and yet it was still the same, all he could do now was set a curse, in the moment of his death it would be triggered and use his life force and blood to mark his killer, it was a curse-filled with all his insanity, even gods would go mad if they tasted his insanity and this man, would bring ruin to all he loves and care''s for after killing him.


    That would be all he could manage in his current state, he could see a number of emotions on the face of Albus Clovis, from guilt to pity to unwillingness but he didn''t care if he were to die as he was now for having done nothing his curse would destroy this man, such would be his revenge.


    He had heard most of what they said but he hoped like a fool that he wouldn''t be able to do it if he opens his eyes and looked at him, what kind of man could kill a child while looking it in the eye.


    ''Am I being punished for those innocents that died during my attacks against my enemies? But that makes no sense, why were they never punished for what they did to me.''


    His mind began to collapse, and he found himself curled up into a ball on the throne in his mind wondering if he were dead.


    ''Hahaha are you feeling bad for yourself?'' one of the voices laughed and the rest followed mocking him.


    His past selves'' voices echoed in his head all their voices seemed to fix on him in the throne.


    ''Someone anyone help me, just this once!''


    "Hahaha you''re gonna die, it going to be even faster than number two." Number 4 climbed out of his seat and crawled towards the throne.


    "You should just leave the throne it''s better if one of us takes it, we are much more suited to be in control." Number six-spoke and the others seemed to echo his words.


    The light in the throne world slowly dimmed and number three stood right at the foot of the throne.


    Number 3 had only been nine when he was eaten alive, "I was the first warrior, the throne should be mine, don''t you think."


    "I''ll cut our enemies apart," he spoke in his immature voice but a deep-seated hatred could be heard in his voice, "I''ll dine on their flesh and feast on their blood, JUST GIVE ME THE THRONE!"

 Chapter 15 - 015 – THE FATE SPINNER

    The light in the throne world slowly dimmed and number three stood right at the foot of the throne.


    Number 3 had only been nine when he was eaten alive, "I was the first warrior, the throne should be mine, don''t you think."


    "I''ll cut our enemies apart," he spoke in his immature voice but deep-seated hate could be heard in his voice, "I''ll dine on their flesh and feast on their blood, JUST GIVE ME THE THRONE!"


    "No, I''m next the throne is mine next, it will be mine all mine.", cried out number 2 in joy, "Yes, great emperor kill me faster so that I can be born." Number two cried out with his hands raised in celebration.


    From the throne Samsara glanced to one of his later selves, the ones who kept their sanity, all his greats were gone but the others were still powerful he pleaded with his eyes for help.


    "Do even remember our names?" one of his past selves asked.


    "Of course, I do," he answered, but as he tried to recall the names of his past selves, his mind drew a blank his mouth moved wordlessly at a loss.


    "Please you are me, so help."


    "We can''t even help ourselves without our names, for now at least we will not try to take the throne." Said one as he sat back in his seat.


    He laughed inwardly at his own insanity; he had even forgotten his past names, so they refused to aid him. He even abandoned himself in the end, ''How pathetic I must be!'' he cried miserably. He closed his eyes and waited for the death blow to come but after seconds had come he grew impatient and open his eyes.


    Before his very eyes a tall and graceful woman in a fiery red dress stood with her back to him and her one hand raised, he couldn''t see her face, but he could feel the fury coming from her.


    He also noticed that a red handprint was on the emperors'' face and he was looking at the empress with a stunned face.


    "Since when do we even contemplate killing an innocent let alone acting on it, Albus."


    "He is a god child Taliyah," Albus spoke still stunned by his wife''s reaction, and he could feel the sting on his face wasn''t getting any better, this is what happens when a warlock marries a saint, they would always lose in physical strength.


    "His kind brings chaos, should the other civilisations learn of his existence and that we harbored him they will use all their means to crush us."


    "Then we tell no one, we keep this secret hidden, the loyalty of my maidservants and your butlers is unquestionable, and even now they only have suspicions at best but no proof."


    "What of the child Taliyah he can''t stay here, no one below fifth grade is allowed on the homeworld, shall we smuggle him out and abandon him on some random world, it would be better if he died than to live such life."


    After pondering for a moment Taliyah smiled while looking at Samsara, "You''re right such a life is worse than death," she looked back to her husband meaningfully, ", as such I''ll raise him myself, I''ll raise him to support our empire."


    "You mean to make him a prince.", Albus spoke in realisation with a stunned expression.


    "Yes, it''s the only excuse for me to raise him myself, and besides I miss having children of my own." She looked into Samsara eye''s and gently raised him.


    "From this day forward as The Empress of Clovis and in the Presence of His Majesty the Emperor I claim you as my own, I shall name you Lirian after my late father."


    She caressed the smooth silver hair on Lirians head, "Perhaps one day the people of this empire shall know you as The Silver Prince.", she said as she pulled him into an embrace.


    "Taliyah I promised you that I''d find a cure, one day we can have children again,"


    "Yes you did, and I have waited for millennia," she stepped forward and caressed her husband''s face where she had slapped him, "I know that you have tried but somethings are fated, I doubt that I will ever bear you another child that is not deformed."


    Albus looked away dejected, this was his one failure as a husband, due to his marriage to Taliyah there had been many dissatisfied people, there were a lot of furious noblewomen and worst of all was his trusted uncle, due to this they managed to get close and give her a poison the likes of which they had never been seen before, it was completely undetectable and she lost the ability to have proper children.


    Even when Albus managed to contact the immortal realm the details of the curse had baffled them and left him with no hope, in his retaliation he slaughtered as many of his suitors that he could get away with killing, unfortunately, the restraints on an emperor are tighter than any chains and as for his uncle he still lived in a dungeon deep beneath the world where no light would ever reach him.


    Due to his uncle being a Saint with an extraordinary healing ability he ensured that every day his bones were stripped from his body and regrown, in an endless cycle of torture. Even after searching his soul, he couldn''t find the cure for the poison, there were so many barriers on his soul that pushing a rough soul search would kill him.


    "Very well, but you know the rules, a leader must not be pampered or spoiled, they must be forged in fire, without exception," Albus finally conceded he knew that he couldn''t deny his wife of this not after her proclamation.


    He truly hated the curse and all those involved in its inception, if not for it he would have had no need to take in a few concubines to produce heirs, he knew that even though Taliyah understood and accepted it, it always did bother her.


    He looked at Lirian, he still feared what he might bring in the future but he relented, he murmured softly but Lirian still heard his words, "Do not die on her child, perhaps you are fated to be her salvation, perhaps you can give her what I cannot." He sighed and turned around.


    The Domain of Pride


    The Immortal Realm


    In a location on the edge of the world where life was none existent, the strings of fate moved on their own, a great weave existed in this place and it began to unravel, a black castle floated through the air, occupying the empty space.


    Hundreds of thousands of souls floated about moving objects around, it was a strange scene despite all the movement and the souls moving about in excitement silence filled the hall.


    In the centre of the hall concentric layers of stairs led to a throne.


    Upon the throne sat a beauty clad in black clothing and silver-colored accessories, her black hair flowed down her back and onto the throne, and in her blue eye''s images of the past, the present, and the future were displayed, and around her billions upon billions of strings of fate could be seen.


    Her fingers danced through the strings and struck certain chords, she played the world''s most impossible instrument, the instrument of fate, and she did what even gods would call impossible, she struck the strings like a harpist without equal and divined the future.


    Katerina paused and a smile blossomed on her face, "Finally my love you have arrived." She whispered softly.


    At that moment a wisp of a wisp of a soul darted to her, "Mother are you speaking about father?", the wisp asked the soul shivered and became filled with light.


    "Yes, your father has come little one, he has finally come to this heaven."


    The wisp spun in circles like a hyper child, "When can we meet him, I want to see him, maybe father will forgive you when he sees me." The soul spoke ecstatically.


    "No, your father is a kind man little one, it is for that reason that he will never forgive me."


    "As for meeting him, that will happen in due time although we will soon be meeting a familiar face." She spoke with a smile and her gaze landed very far away on the figure of Killian and then her eyes moved onto Anuka.


    "Even I did not see your arrival little pride, but I suppose that this also a part of fate." As she spoke her eyes moved to each of the avatars in all the universes.


    "You were truly so very alone my love, you even managed to truly give life to your delusions." Her eyes moved once more landing on the sixth universe, "You are so predictable my love even without divination I knew you would go there, and it appears that my preparations have paid off and you have found yourself a mother."


    Her eyes flickered once more a radiant blue erupted from her eyes as she spoke words of prophecy.


    THE SILVER PRINCE IS BORN


    BE WARY OF YOUR STEP


    FOR IN HIS WRATH


    THE SEVENTH PEAK SHALL FALL


    THEIR FALL SHALL BE LIKE


    DROPS OF RAIN IN A MIGHTY STORM


    Her eyes moved once more to another part of the universes mortal realms, and in the future, in one of the great Civilisations as a princess was born, millions of the strings of fate around her began to twist violently, the little princess died but another took her place, "Be born again Elsie of the eternals.", she pulled back from her vision of the future.


    Katerina slid from her throne and heaved heavy breaths, it was no easy task to move the souls of one of her kind across plains, her gaze once more fell upon Lirian, even with the protection he had created it just barely turned him into a blurry figure in Katerina''s eyes.


    "Have fun, my love, I do hope that we can meet again someday."

 Chapter 16 - 016 – THE CIVILIZATION OF CLOVIS (2)

    Lirian woke up in the embrace of empress Taliyah''s maid servant, it had been three weeks since his arrival.


    The life of the emperor and empress was busy, and it would still be another week before their departure. To make matters more complicated on the homeworld of Clovis no one below the fifth grade of cultivation was allowed on the world without special permission, and children were not allowed to be born on this world.


    The rules were rather strange but Lirian had a few suspicions on it, and he had to admit that this civilization left him impressed with its progress.


    In particular, was the fact that it still existed, by all means, a world developed to this degree should have long since ascended to the immortal realm but yet this world was still anchored to the mortal realm, it was proof that this civilisation had great attainments in the study of the universe''s rules.


    He could feel his body being rocked back and forth, it was very excessive, and he could tell that this maidservant was doing it on purpose to wake him up.


    Sure, enough the moment he opened his eyes he was greeted by a bright smile from the maid, "Oh lookey over here, our pretty young master is awake," she said with a grin that Lirian had come to know all too well over the past few weeks.


    If there was one thing he learned about this raven-haired maid called Anya it was that she was without a doubt what one would call a pedophile, he hadn''t ever seen a person in all his years that would be ecstatic to clean after they peed or pooped themselves, but this lady would always have a grin as bright as the sun when she changed him.


    "Young master it''s time to give you a bath and change your clothes.", Lirian could swear that he saw her eyes glow as she spoke and before long his small body was bare and held tightly in her bosom.


    When they entered the bathing room a huge bath the size of a small pool was prepared and hot steam filled the air, the smell of bath salts and perfume permeated the air, and as little droplets of water condensed and trickled down the walls Anya expertly removed her clothing leaving only her linens on while still holding Lirian.


    She entered the water and released a happy sigh as the hot water touched her skin, and she slowly put Lirian in the water. He hummed happily as he soaked in the water, luxury like this was truly amazing.


    He closed his eyes and drifted off as Anya gently washed his body while panting like a beast, Lirian was truly scared for the day that his hormones started to work, it wasn''t that he had no desires to fulfill, after all, it would be amazing to be able to have a willing sex-partner after all these years, but this woman beautiful as she was, would definitely eat him alive.


    After a while she let him float in the water a little, she had started to do this after their first few baths together, he was only a few weeks old but he had been able to keep his balance in the water if that wasn''t a show of early talent than she didn''t know what was.


    After a few minutes of Lirian drifting through the water she began to snicker loud enough for Lirian to hear her, and as a feeling of foreboding washed over Lirian he felt the water all around him ripple.


    He tried to make a dash to the side of the tube but with his still developing body, it wasn''t possible so he did the only thing he could.


    Just before the wave-tossed him through the water he reached Anya and caught onto her hugging her chest tightly.


    He had fallen into her trap, Anya had long since noticed how intelligent her young master was, she did genuinely want to see how good his survival instincts were, but she also wanted to see him use this opportunity to have her own fun as well.


    Lirian could hear her heavy breathing as he clung onto her chest, even though she had her linens on, once wet it was as good as see-through and he was certain that this woman was on fire right now from his little actions, and he had to admit although her chest wasn''t big in any way it was like a firm and soft cushion that any man would love to sleep on.


    Since this was what she wanted anyway he held her chest tightly and pressed himself against her, "Hehe I will be able to make a pervert out of you," she said with a gleam in her eyes as she snickered.


    "You like them huh,", she lifted Lirian out of the water with one hand pointed to her erotic breasts, "You can suck on them if you want," she said bringing him closer to her nipples, ", but there''s no milk in there for you, sorry but I haven''t had any children."


    "But don''t worry once we get to get to Xelia we''ll have a whole bunch of wet-nurses for you to enjoy suckling on little guy.


    After a long bathing session, Anya pulled them out of the water she giggled as she dried up Lirian, his skin had become crinkled after the hot bath and he resembled a dried-up prune.


    The room Lirian stayed in was fit for a king, with a large four-poster bed that could fit at least 12 adults on it, on the walls pieces of art were strewn about in gilded frames and red carpets were draped over the floors and the small flight of stairs in the room.


    To hearths burning silently and filling the room with warmth, Lirian really liked this room. While the Clovis civilisation had technology that could easily provide warmth, there was something aesthetically pleasing about a burning hearth in a room.


    Anya placed him on a cushion and prepared to change him, but as Lirian was enjoying the heat he felt those sinister eyes on his little member, ''NO!'', he shouted internally this beast was about to do something to him.


    In his moment of desperation he did his best to take aim with his little pistol and fired wave after wave of yellow liquid, but to his dismay not only did Anya dodge every single one of his attacks she even grabbed a cup from the side and caught every drop without making any mess at all.


    "Haha," she giggled, ", you''re really talented little guy if you can fire like that now I can only imagine what it will be like when you are all big and strong." Her green eyes seemed to hold an even more sinister glow in them.


    Just how did my strings of fate bring me to this sinister woman, he cried in lament. Although he''d be lying if he said he didn''t enjoy her presence, if he still had his curse this woman wouldn''t even spare him a glance and if he was strong she would have been trying to kill him.


    Just then she spoke pulling him out from his thoughts, "You know young master when you grow older you going to have to please a lot of ladies, and while the size isn''t everything it certainly leaves a bigger impression on some women." As she spoke her hands moved with a claw-like motion as if she was about to grab onto his little member and stretch it out.


    At that moment Lirian the immortal who lived for countless years did the only thing he could, forcing tears into his eyes he began wailing at the top of his lungs. Lirian had never been able to use this trick before and he was pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness.


    Not five seconds passed before the doors to his room opened and the head maid Belinda came in with the other maid Helen. "What in the world are you doing to make the child cry like that?"


    Anya looked up innocently, "He just started to cry all of a sudden maybe it''s growing pains." She offered innocently.


    Lirian shot her a dead eye and as she got closer to try and pacify him, he wailed louder, until Helen came to his rescue and began dressing him up. As soon as she took him away, he ceased his crying causing Belinda to furrow her brow at Anya.


    "You weren''t testing your funny fetishes on him were you?" she questioned harshly.


    ''You know about her fetishes and you still left me alone with her.'' he cried to himself.


    "Of course not," Anya cried out with a perfect expression of innocence, even Lirian would have been fooled had he not been the one on the receiving end. He had to admit that she was quite lovely to look at and her fair skin coupled with her big green eyes and shoulder-length raven black hair made her look like an exquisite doll.


    As she spoke she snatched him back from Helen who simply sighed when the crying started up.


    Lirian blinked in surprise when he felt Anya''s conscience touching his for a second, he froze thinking of ways to counter her, he was immediately afraid thinking that she was going to take control of his body, but to his surprise, he heard her voice.


    ''If you ever want to have a nice bath like earlier again, you better stop crying.''


    To her surprise her words had an effect, a look of contemplation could be seen on Lirians face before he stopped crying and a bright smile lit up his face, a child''s laugh soon filled the room and his little hands kept grabbing Anya''s cheeks.


    Belinda and Helen looked surprised at the sudden change in attitude and while Anya seemed just as surprised she was inwardly startled, she had long since realised that Lirian was far from ordinary and extremely intelligent but this was out of her expectations he reacted so quickly with a complete change in attitude it scared her a little.


    She then recalled all the things she said out loud to him and her face went slightly pink, '' all those embarrassing things I said does he know what all of it meant,'' she anxiously lamented while rocking him in her arms.


    Lirian was unaware of all the thoughts running through Anya''s head but he was certain she would have to look at him differently now, at least now she would know that he was not an empty-headed child, and on the plus side, he would get to enjoy those baths with her. It was a win-win situation for him.


    A few minutes later a knock was heard on the door and the two butlers came in, over the past three weeks the three maids and two butler''s that were there when he arrived had all been staying in the same suite, none of them had left even once and he had naturally learner their names as well, the head butler was Andrew and the other one was Cain.

 Chapter 17 - 017 – A DIFFERENT LIFE

    The butlers wore formal attire at all times, black pants with a white shirt and an overcoat, all the seams were done with a golden thread, and from what Lirian had come to understand, wearing gold showed status in this society, the emperor and empress had formal attire made up completely from gold, and they were the only ones who could wear such clothing.


    Different stations of rankings could wear gold on specific parts of their bodies, in the emperor and empress''s outfits what showed their status was the golden shoes they could wear.


    The only people allowed to wear have golden seams on their clothes were the emperors and empress''s most trusted aides and their status was above most nobles, from what he had understood if they were to go to one of the lesser world''s controlled by the Clovis Civilization, they would be given complete control of such worlds.


    Of course, most of what he had learnt was from the stories?Helen and Anya would tell him every night, Jack the Fool, was a story about a man named Jack who knew no fear and made a dress entirely of gold for a princess that he had taken a liking too.


    To shorten the story, by making a dress entirely of gold he had offended many nobles, the princess he admired had lost her title and Jack the Fool had his head chopped off.


    It made for quite a bedtime story but there were enough facts mixed in for Leylin to understand the deeper meaning of the story, and from it, he could even glean a little bit about the brainwashing methods of the Clovis Civilization.


    It was very common for the bedtime stories of children to have some form of propaganda mixed into it.


    Andrew walked in with a folder holding some papers and Cain was holding a circular disc in his hands, Lirians eyes widened for a second when he saw the object, but he?hid his expression. He was amazed to see such an object it was made with a sleek design and?some very good materials.


    With just a glance he could tell that it was fate forged, such objects are extremely difficult to create and extremely difficult to replicate, and even if replicated it would never be a perfect replication.


    Lirian was incredibly surprised to see one.


    When Anya noticed the disc she pouted, "I can believe it, are they really going to make us take an oath with the disc again." She said clearly dissatisfied about the appearance of a disc.


    Andrew smiled gently at her, she was the youngest of all of them and she had only been working for the empress for a little over a decade, so she still wasn''t completely clear on some of the rules.


    "It''s just a part of the regulations we learned something too important and dangerous, so we can''t afford for the word to get out."


    "Hump," she snorted not even try to hide contempt, "It''s not like any of us will ever let the news out, even if we report it to any other Civilization they will want us to forfeit our lives simply because we didn''t report it immediately."


    "I wonder if all the children of gods are as smart as this little one." She wondered aloud.


    "Quite now," Belinda chided, ", it''s because of people?like you that speak about things carelessly that we have to take this oath."


    "Still, I do wonder what the empress is thinking, there are millions of talented orphans out there for her to adopt, there are even hundreds of noble families that would gladly give her a child of theirs to her to raise but she sets her eyes on the one that can get all of us killed." Said Helen with a sigh.


    No one retorted it was a simple truth, and none of them were fools, it was practically impossible for someone to bypass the defenses of the Clovis Home-world? and the defenses were all passed down from the immortal realm so even immortals wouldn''t be able to send something without being noticed.


    So, the only way a child could have gotten through the defenses unnoticed?was with the help of a god. Although the emperor and empress didn''t tell them that it was a god child they easily made the connection.


    "Well at least he''s cute," chuckled Cain as he walked towards Leylin and pulled on his cheeks, Cain had grey skin with red markings around his three eyes and all his front teeth were sharp fangs.


    Lirian stared at Cain with interest as his cheeks were repeatedly stretched in every direction, both Cain and Belinda were of different races from the rest, Belinda was some form of reptilian, human hybrid, and the only feature gives her away was her vertical eye slits, other than that she appeared completely human, while Cain had a completely different appearance.


    There was an infinite number of different intelligent races so it came as no surprise to Lirian, his only surprise was the lack of discrimination, especially in mortal realms there would almost always be racism amongst the different races. It probably had something to do with how many worlds this Civilization conquered.


    Lirian noticed Anya glancing at him from time to time, she seemed to be anxious, he sighed inwardly it seemed that he made her a little wary of him.


    "Let us get this over with quickly.", Said Helen, she quickly made a slit on her finger and allowed some blood to flow into an ink bottle, afterwards she grabbed a quill and dipped it in her blood she slow read through the files Andrew brought before signing it in her blood.


    "The contracts are fine," she said after which everyone quickly copied her and signed their own contracts in blood.


    When they were all done the five contracts were placed?and the disc was placed on top of it, the five of them poured in a little?energy and the disc began radiating a white light that enveloped all of them.


    Lirian watched in silence, he noticed several treads of fate wrapping around each of them, to anyone with a good understanding of fate laws the strands would have been visible. ''So, it was a fate forged oath disc," he sighed, ''it must have been a nightmare for whoever created.''


    Lirian was extremely impressed, if the Civilization could create a fate forged oath disc their knowledge of fate forging would have to be extremely great, or they had one very lucky opportunity to create or find one.


    "Urgh," Anya moaned in frustration, ", every time this thing feels like it''s strangling me." She started rubbing her neck and twisting it around.


    "You''re exaggerating Anya," Helen said with a sigh, "Now that all of this is taken care of I''m going out to get a drink, I''ve been cooped up in here for far too long." She rushed towards the doors and push them open, they swung open with a heavy thud and Helen ran out like a convict that just earned her freedom.


    While the room slowly emptied out only Anya remained still holding Lirian tightly, unknown to her he was staring fixedly at her neck where she kept messaging herself, he had finally been intrigued by Anya, she was messaging herself where the fate string had wrapped around her, this meant that she probably has some talent or sensitivity to fate, he reached out with his small hands and pressed it against her neck.


    At that moment Anya looked at Lirian wide-eyed, a silver glow wrapped around his body, and all the energy in the room started to move around her neck while being dyed silver, a silver radiance grew stronger around Lirian until even his eyes began to glow, he pulled as much energy as he could and used it to soothe Anya.


    Anya had started off startled, and finally let out a moan of relief as the energy erased all her pain, she looked down with a strange expression, "How did you do that little guy, all the doctors always say that there''s nothing wrong whenever I ask them to take a look at me after I take an oath."


    She ran a hand around her neck and smiled pleasantly when she confirmed that all the pain and irritation was completely gone.


    Lirian wasn''t surprised at what she said, curing an affliction caused by fate is beyond the knowledge of mortals and even amongst immortals, the knowledge is scarce. He had developed his technique so that he could break through any oaths that he took.


    After snapping the fate string an ordinary person would suffer a severe backlash, but his technique removed the backlash, allowing him to freely violate any contract he made with fate as the witness.


    He blinked his eyes weakly and buried his head in Anya''s bosom as he passed out, it was still too much for him to manipulate the energy in the world, this little stunt had completely drained him.

 Chapter 18 - 018 – THE EMPRESS’S WISH

    Taliyah had been carrying out her tasks as empress dutifully over the past few weeks, at the same time she had been forging an identity for Lirian in the world of Xelia, it was one of the better worlds for education in the Clovis Civilisation while its laws were a bit more relaxed, due to that she had no problem with forging an identity for Lirian on that world.


    There was a sudden knock on her door and a moment later her husband entered her study with a servant following behind him pushing a small cart with trays of food and a pot of silica rose tea, one of her favorite drinks.


    "You haven''t slept in weeks my love¡­" Albus started but was quickly cut off by Taliyah, "I will sleep when I''m done, there is still too much to get done."


    Albus sighed and clapped his hands to dismiss the servant, as soon as the servant left he pulled the device out of Taliyah''s hands and continued forging the identity as if he had been the one doing it the entire time. "Eat." He said pointing at the food, while he continued her work.


    "Since you''re doing that I can start with the next thing,"


    "I''ve already prepared the route to smuggle him off-world and I assume that you want him to join the batch of orphan children that are being transported from your homeworld to Xelia."


    "Am I that easy to read?" she asked with a pout that made Albus smile.


    "I''d be a failure of a husband if I could understand my wife.", he spoke with a little smile to divert her attention while putting the finishing touches on the forged identity.


    "To think the good girl, I met all those years ago is so good at forging identities, you''ve gotten better at it, if I didn''t know better I''d think you were an expert." He spoke with a teasing smile.


    "Shut up." She said with a small blush on her face as she poured two cups of steaming hot tea, "When do plan on forgetting that?" she spoke with a wrong expression.


    "How could I possibly forget my first meeting with my wife." He laughed and took one of the cups of tea from the desk.


    Taliyah blushed again at the embarrassing memory from when she was young, both she and Albus were on the same world searching for a very expensive plant, and they both found it at the same time after a short fight in which both of them realized that it was a hopeless fight she lied about her background.


    She had done it on several occasions and had a very well thought out and convincing story to tell about her being a princess candidate of the Clovis Civilisation, she remembered so clearly how he pretended to be scared by her identity then he tossed her his ring and asked her to look inside for his gift that he was giving her as an apology.


    She remembered being so proud and moments later she peeked inside the ring and almost had a heart attack, she had found the documents of his identity showing that he was an official prince of the Civilisation.


    Thankfully she was a saint while the prince was a warlock, so she managed to escape, and their next meeting happened about two decades later.


    Before long they were happily conversing and enjoying their meal, Albus sighed in relief as he continued to complete the identity for Lirian, his wife had really covered every minute detail to cover up Lirian''s past.


    She made a large donation to give orphans a better life on her homeworld, something that many nobles do to gain a better reputation.


    She even had a batch of children brought to a higher world, and as an excuse, she could always say that she wanted to do more for the children of her homeworld which would earn her an even better public opinion.


    She had one of her most trusted aids that was stationed on her homeworld for its protection to create a fake identity for Lirian and he also placed a transmat portal on the ship for a small group of people to get on and off the ship unnoticed.


    In this way, they would be able to get Lirian on the ship, and when the ship arrives at Xelia she would be able to go straight to the orphanage find Lirian, then she would make an announcement to officially adopt him. It was like that saying, ''The best place to hide something is in plain sight.''


    Albus looked at Taliyah hesitantly but he didn''t hold back when he spoke, "Taliyah it''s not too late to change your mind about this, if you disagree with killing the child then we can place him on one of the lesser worlds where the most he''ll be able to do is raise to the seventh rank and possibly become an immortal one day."


    "NO," answered Taliyah firmly, "I have already declared him as my own."


    "I know what it is that you fear Albus but I assure you that I will raise him properly as a guardian of our realm, on my honor as the empress should he turn against our people then I will end him myself."


    Albus fell silent, a short while later they finished their meal and prepared to leave but before he left, he paused at the door, "Taliyah please, try not to get to attached to him like¡­."


    "Like with our children!" she spoke sharply, "I can understand why you don''t get attached Albus but never ask such a thing of me again."


    Albus sighed and walked away he was raised in a cultivator family and for cultivators who live such long lives, there are rules so that they can have peace of mind, one of those rules is to never get attached to your children until their power is close to your own.


    An ordinary seventh-grade cultivator could live for 150000 years, a warlock such as himself could live for at least 200000 years, and his wife as a saint could even live up to 350000 years, in their life lime they could have enough children to populate half a world and if they were to get attached to all those children it was the same as digging a hole in one''s heart.


    The journey to the peak of the mortal realm is a perilous one and the emperor could not allow a weak child to take his throne when he ascends to the immortal realm, thus it was his duty to be heartless in his choice, a good leader requires strength, talent and above all else wisdom, despite all the power his empire possessed it was foolish to believe that strength meant right, all those places with such beliefs had long since been brought to ruin.


    In order to ensure the survival of his empire he could not pamper and raise an heir, his children had to be cast out onto the many worlds without any support, and only after achieving specific attainments were they allowed to return, they could not even use the influence of the empire to protect their lives as such a thing would disqualify them from becoming a prince/princess of the empire.


    The Empress however was different, she grew up on a lesser world as an ordinary mortal with a large family, her values were different and while she understood Albus''s standpoint she still remembered the days when she was young and longed to marry the farmer three fields away, and after that, she would have many children with him and raise her children as her mother had raised her.


    Of course, her fate had been completely changed, but she would never forget her roots, from their children none had graduated from being candidates, not one managed to live through the trial and it always made her despair.


    Despite all the pain that it brought the empress she never stopped each time she lost a child she raised the next diligently until she lost the ability to bear children and since she had never expressed any interest in having another child.


    The Emperor sudden stopped in his steps as his thoughts reached this point he walked back to Taliyah''s study, "You never expressed any interest in adopting a child before, can you tell me why you are suddenly so determined to adopt this child?" he asked with urgency, there was something strange going on but he couldn''t quite make it out.


    Taliyah looked at him a melancholic expression, "Before our date on the roof when I was visiting our children I made a prayer asking to have a child once more, and just hours later a new-born appeared before our very eyes in an impossible way, it''s like an actual god answered my prayers."


    He nodded his head and left with his head lost in thought, ''Could it really be just that? A god answering a prayer or could it be fate taking its course..'' He wondered but ultimately, he could not make heads or tails of the situation the only thing he was certain of was that Lirian''s arrival was definitely no simple coincidence.

 Chapter 19 - 019 – A DIFFERENT LIFE (2)

    It had been a full month before Lirian saw his new mother again.


    His eyes snapped open when the doors to his room were opened and the empress walked in gracefully with her long golden dress trailing on the floor behind her, the gold suited her bronze skin well.


    But Lirian couldn''t say that he was a big fan of the golden colour, and this place was filled with too much off it, even his bedding was golden, and despite his cute face he was getting tired of seeing his reflection in every single thing he looked at, he was surprised that his diapers weren''t golden, and he was afraid that his clothes and underwear would be gold when he grew up.


    Thinking of his diapers, Lirian felt depressed it was so disgraceful that he had to shit himself and he had serious plans of becoming a genius that could walk at two months and be potty trained in three.


    He sighed in lament at his new goals that were purely embarrassing as his mother raised him up and kissed his face a dozen times while laughing at his reactions.


    "Sorry that I couldn''t be with you more, and I''m sorry but we''ll have to part ways for another three weeks, but after that you''ll be able stay by my side for as long as you like," she went on to grumble about a few things, from it Lirian understood a few things, such as birth being forbidden on the home world as well as all super and advanced worlds.


    This meant he had to be smuggled of world.


    Taliyah smiled gentle when she felt Lirian''s grip on her hand tighten. Even Lirian didn''t realise it, from the moment Taliyah started speaking about them separating his little hand seemed to tighten on their own.


    "Don''t worry little one," she picked him up and held his face just an inch away from hers, "I''ll be sure to send one of my personal maids with you, Anya seems to like you a lot and she keeps bragging about how much you''ve learned from her."


    Lirians grip loosened and she was slightly surprised if not for Anya''s progress reports she would have been shock, as it turned out Anya wasn''t bragging at all.


    The child was able to understand her while still so young, and a week ago Anya said that he had started to crawl and earlier on this very day Anya ran to her practically skipping with joy as she said that Lirian was starting to stand on his own and that he even stayed upright for a full five seconds.


    The other thing that Taliyah was surprised about was that he never cried for anything, apart from whenever Anya would dress him up. She furrowed her brows as she wondered just what that little vixen maid of hers was doing with her new prince.


    She thought of how to discipline that maid of hers, the new prince wasn''t her toy, a thought of tying her up and spanking her flashed in Taliyah''s head before she buried it. Knowing that little vixen, she would probably enjoy it.


    "Mommy heard that you can already crawl, will you show mommy?" she asked and placed him on the floor with an excited look on her face.


    If Taliyah wasn''t so excited, she might have noticed Lirians red face. He felt so embarrassed he was the greatest god in all of existence and now he was being cheered on by an empress to crawl, for a second, he almost missed his curse. In the past he would always pull the world energy around him to use a technique called forced growth.


    Since he was always abandoned it wouldn''t raise any suspicion but right now, he was planning on living a proper life so he could experience every stage of his life, when he got bored of crawling around his room Taliyah open her arms and called him back, but before she could pick him up, he grabbed her two hands and stood on his feet while wearing a little smile on his face.


    Embarrassing as it was Lirian couldn''t deny that he did enjoy the attention, not to mention the faces people make when playing with a child, he wished he had something to record all their funny faces it would make a great record book.


    He had to thank his godly constitution for his quick development and from what he could tell it would be a short week before he would be able to walk.


    As he looked at Taliyah, he expected to be praised for being able to stand up but on the contrary she looked down cast as she lifted him up into her embrace, with on hand holding him up and the other stroking the back of his head.


    "I don''t how well you understand me little one," she said pulling him back and looking in his eyes, ", but no walking not until you see me again."


    A million thoughts flashed through his head and he seemed to understand what she meant, when a parent raises their child there are a few milestones such as the first time a child rolls, crawls, stands, walks and their first words, and because of his fast development Taliyah missed most of them.


    He placed a hand on her face as he looked at her and for the first time, he felt truly unbelievably lucky to have met someone, looking into her deep blue eyes he felt like he was peering into her soul and saw somethings that made a few tears fall from his eyes unconsciously.


    ''So, you''ve lost your only children too, and you''ll never have another. I suppose that we make quite the pair.'' He saw the genuine love that she felt for her children and grief their loss caused her, he didn''t think that her grief could compare to his own after all that pain drove him to complete madness even making him commit suicide several times, but there was a resemblance of his own grief.


    Taliyah hugged him tightly once she saw the tears roll down his she thought that her telling him not to walk made him sad, and she felt guilty for making such a demand but in the next second her mind was completely blown away.


    "...walk¡­. for¡­. mommy¡­only." four words left Lirian mouth causing Taliyah to shiver. The words were broken and Lirian face was buried in her bosom, but she could still make them out.


    Lirian knew the effect his words would have they were his first and one of them was mommy, and he said it for Taliyah as much as he did for himself, it was an acknowledgement from him, declaring that she would be his mother, the very first person he would ever acknowledge as his mother and she would be the third person in his life that he would protect with his life.


    "Lirian, can you say that again for mommy.", still shocked and barely able to believe that he spoke, Lirian shook his head before burying it in her bosom again and trying to sleep.


    The moments that followed made Lirian sure that he wasn''t going to get any sleep for a while, because Taliyah dashed in very non-empress way till, she reached Anya''s room to tell what happened.


    Lirian felt her glare and was already feeling sorry for his little guy, it seemed like Anya didn''t like the fact that his first words were for the empress and she would surely be taking it out on him when she baths him dresses him up in the future.


    As for the others they only looked on surprised when they heard that Lirian could speak and as for the emperor Albus, Lirian could see a new worry line form on his forehead as he received the news. Lirian did feel a little bad for the emperor, after all he was literally a walking time bomb and his development was insanely fast.


    The one thing that he felt redeemed the emperor in his eyes was his love for Taliyah, he wondered what his mother could have done to get the emperor so infatuated with her, because with just a glance he could tell that he was like lovesick puppy when he looked at her, and his mother''s reaction to the emperors was no less than the emperors.


    It did kind off make sense to Lirian though only a lovesick fool would be willing to risk his entire empire to satisfy his wife.


    Well, it seems that this is going to be different kind of life he thought to himself as he went to sleep late in the night.

 Chapter 20 - 020 – THE ROAD TO XELIA (1)

    As the new day came Lirian was already being smuggled away by a party of three, Anya, Belinda, and Cain. He was surprised when Cain insisted on carrying him, but after a few short minutes, his interest in Cain''s race and his three eyes disappeared as it seemed that the only thing the guy did was pinch his cheeks constantly.


    Even his godly constitution couldn''t stop his cheeks from becoming a rosy colour, Lirian inwardly cursed, ''There are only two possibilities for his behaviour one he is a brutish warrior that only knows how to use his muscles to destroy everything, two he is a brutish pugilist that only knows how to use his muscles to destroy everything.''


    After a few hours passed the smell of the sea struck Lirians nose, when he looked up he could see the great green ocean covering everything in his sight. On the beach, the ocean water lapped against the shore and a salty smell filled the air.


    They soon approached a simple wooden house with a simple yet modern look, it was a big difference compared to the pyramid structures in the city, the house had a short flight of stairs to climb before one could enter as the house was built on wooden stilts to prevent floods during the high tide.


    The house was very simple inside with the exception of the isolation formation that was set up inside the house, to keep it clean and fresh, everything else was as simple as it could be, there were no beds and only a few sleeping mats, and the most basic of furnishings so that a person could live inside it.


    They slowly climbed to the second floor of the house which made a lot of creaks even with the silent footsteps of everyone, as they advanced through a narrow hallway Belinda put her hand against the wall and twisted a wall lamp, after three twists the ceiling opened up and a staircase came down leading into an attic.


    ''Not as simple as it appears." Lirian chuckled inwardly, at first he couldn''t detect anything special about the place and he was wondering if they came to the wrong place.


    When they got up the only thing inside was a platform linked to a large circular device. Belinda quickly opened a small panel and choose the coordinates that they were relaying to.


    [Beep, beep, beep]


    [Alert, Authorisation Confirmed}


    [Alert, AI Taking Over]


    {Welcome to the Emperor''s personal teleport channel, all personals memories of the location will be removed your memories after relay}


    {Level 10 Authorisation Detected, memory wipe canceled}


    {Please step onto the platform for weighing}


    A neutral voice spoke instructing them on what to do. They all quickly got on the platform and waited for the scan to complete.


    {Warning, Warning, Warning}


    {Spatial devices detected, place your devices in the glove compartment for safer travels}


    {Weight Confirmed, Coordinates Confirmed}


    {Warning, insufficient energy to make jump, please replace energy cells}


    It took a few minutes for them to complete the preparations, meanwhile, Lirian was trying to inspect to device, unfortunately, the only thing he could confirm was that the technology was extremely advanced and from its energy reading it was about as efficient as a spatial device could get.


    {Gate opening, please prepare for jump}


    The energy built up in the centre of the device and ripples could be clearly seen as if someone threw a stone into still water, as the ripples spread out further a purple light could be seen.


    {Gate Opened Successfully, please have a safe trip}


    {ETA 82 hours, 42 minutes and 19 seconds}


    Lirian could feel protective energy surrounding him and realised that they were all protecting him at once, as they stepped into the portal a feeling of suffocation came over Lirian as well as a feeling like he was being pulled by his legs and being swung around.


    Since he had a lot of experience with the feeling it just left him feeling a little dizzy and made his stomach turn, when he got rid of the feeling he looked around and realised that he was in a room identical to the one they came from, if not for the fact that he could no longer smell the sea he would have thought that they had never left.


    Cain was still holding him and eyeing him warily, Lirian felt puzzled when he heard Anya giggle, "If you feel like barfing little guy Cain would be very happy to get showered by you.", she spoke teasingly while laughing at Cain.


    Cain looked at her with incredulity, as if she had just wronged him, and for a short moment Lirian considered it as payback for all the cheek pinching, it wasn''t every day that an opportunity to barf on someone came, but in the end, he decided to maintain his dignity, as a god it was beneath him to be so petty.


    He shook his head and muttered, "No... barf.", by now they had all heard that he could speak but it was still a little surprising.


    When Lirian looked at Cain again he noticed that all three of his eyes were teary and he pulled the little Lirian into a crushing hug, "Did you hear that Anya he loves his big bro Cain so much that he even spoke for me and stopped himself from barfing."


    "Little guy, your big bro has your back for life," he released Lirian allowing him to breathe again, " , you''re the best little guy ever," it was then that Cain went to pinch his cheeks again to show his affection.


    ''Screw a god''s dignity.'' Thought Lirian as white light erupted from his mouth.


    Cain easily dodged the attack and laughed. Lirian sulked in his arms as his attack had failed and his cheeks were being pulled once again.


    After a short while, they got onto the platform and repeated the process before jumping again, after three more jumps they stopped.


    Despite how quick each jump felt to them a lot of time had passed, with their four jumps it only felt like twenty minutes, but twelve days had already gone by.


    This time they appeared in a luxurious penthouse on a space station, through the window an entire steel city could be seen with countless space ships moving around, and as Lirian looked around he could make out at least thirty different races walking about and this was only with a single glance.


    There was so much going on that he wanted to start asking questions about this place, he really wished that he wasn''t so small, it made it impossible for him to ask what he wanted to without being looked at with suspicion.


    Anya was carefully watching Lirian and when she saw him looking outside she could see his excitement as his big silver eyes darted around trying to look at everything at once, and the cutest part was his little feet which couldn''t stay still as he looked outside, if Cain put him down Anya was sure that he would have tried to run through the window.


    She took him from Cain and walked over to the full wall made of glass, "Do you want to know about this place?" she asked, she knew that if anyone heard her asking Lirian they would think that she was just playing around with him and not take it seriously, but she was certain that he understood most of the things she told him.


    At her words entered his ears Lirians eyes sparkled and nodded repeatedly with a big smile, the language was still a little difficult for him but he had come to understand a good deal of it, she smiled at him gently and proceeded to tell him about the space station.


    Anya pondered silently as this place did have a very rich history and she knew only a few things about the station. She exclaimed inwardly as she remembered of something.


    "First you should know the name of this place it''s called Quaria''s Basin and it''s as old as the seven Civilisations, but before that, I''ll tell you a story, it''s a very special story because it''s a story told to all adults to teach them a few lessons, and if you ever join any organization with a great political background they ask you questions about this story."


    Lirian looked up surprised, it did sound like a joke. A story for teaching adults a lesson was a funny idea and that this story was taken so seriously even by dirty politicians was hilarious.


    "It''s the story of Quaria the great diviner, the pioneer of the interstellar age, we also call her the mother of all riches, because with the power of divining she became the mother of the seven civilisations."


    At the mention of a great diviner, Lirian took a breath diviners were rare and to become a great divine meant that she ascended to become an immortal, for a diviner the only way to increase one''s strength is by interfering with and pulling the fate of others into oneself but the real challenge was interfering with the fates of people on their level, this is why ascending as a diviner is almost impossible the difficulty of ascending is several thousand times harder than normal cultivators, that is without mentioning that diviners have no combat powers against people of the same level, which is why when they interfere with the fate of such people they are usually killed.


    In all his lives Lirian only knew of one person that was capable of such a thing, she was the woman he had loved, the woman who bore him a child, and the person whom he hated more than any other, the fate spinner Katherina.


    He listened attentively to the story that followed, because there was no one else other than her that was capable of becoming a great diviner, and he would bet his next 100 lives that she was the great diviner called Quaria.

 Chapter 21 - 021 – THE GREAT DIVINER QUARIA

    Cain and Belinda were busy setting up the portal that would allow Anya and Lirian to jump onto the passenger ship, while Anya sat by the window with Lirian on her lap and began her story.


    "It has to be known that the story of Quaria is a legend unto herself, every movement of hers has been recorded and spoken of for the past 52 billion years, she was a genius that never fought a single battle, and she laid the foundation for the power of the 7 great civilisations to prosper. Even before her ascension as an immortal, she was titled as a god by the people."


    "Her every step brought revolution and new life blossomed in her shadow, there are a thousand stories that I could tell you about Quaria, there is the story of the creation of the seven civilisations, or the road to heaven, how she conquered the immortal realm and bound it to the mortal realm, or I could tell you how a lowly mortal made a deal with the gods, all of these are her greatest feats but today I shall tell you of the days when we began to travel amongst the stars and Quaria''s ascent as an immortal."


    It all began 52 billion years ago, even back then the world was old, at the time the people had become aware of the neighboring worlds and they knew many legends of the higher realms, in those times we called the Immortal realm the great paradise or heaven as it was the place where all the greatest cultivators went never to return.


    What place other than heaven could be so great that even great emperors and empresses would not want to return.


    As the people dreamt of entering the higher realms it soon became apparent that the resources of a single world weren''t enough to create more than 5 immortals in a millennium, it''s during this time that the rulers of many worlds began creating great teleportation arrays and traveling to new worlds to conquer them so that their empires would prosper.


    It was during this time in which blood baths that could dye an entire ocean red that the great diviner Quaria was born, it was said that within her eyes all the knowledge of the universe was open.


    With her knowledge, she brought equality and justice for the common people and she enforced the law even upon the leaders of her world, there were many that wanted her dead.


    Quaria couldn''t fight such is the curse of all diviners, but in her wisdom, she had created 52 guardians that protected her and the realm with their help all her enemy''s schemes were thwarted, and she became the sole empress of her world Altrose.


    At the time the most worlds ever conquered by a single world was only in the double digits, it was a simple truth of the time that traveling across worlds was extremely costly, and simply controlling 10 worlds was already a difficult task.


    Quaria saw the problem that her people faced and she began creating a great fleet with vessels designed in strange shapes that no one could understand, but her people knew that she a genius and aided her in her task and one day she assembled several million warriors and under her command, they entered the monolithic vessels.


    The 52 guardians each manned a vessel, and even with all their faith in the great diviner even they were doubtful of the things she said. On that day the countless people of Altrose gathered at the capital and received an imperial decree from the empress herself.


    ''Look to the sky and do not look away.'', the people were baffled but still, they obeyed, and soon after came the moment in which her people called her goddess for the first time, for the sky held 52 monolithic vessels each as large as a city.


    She had not just taken her people to the sky''s she had taken them beyond; she opened the road to heaven a place in which only gods could tread.


    Within the first vessel Quaria placed her great divining mirror it stood within the centre of her room on a silver platform it looked like a basin and it is said that she would poor the purest of waters within before she looked into the basin to divine the future.


    In the days to come a great conquest began with each world conquered a hundred new vessels were created and soon the number of vessels could block the sun from the sky.


    When the number of planets reached 9200 Quaria stopped the conquest claiming that it was almost time for her to ascend and she made another proclamation, that the world she lived on would ascend alongside her.


    The news of her ascent came as no surprise to most people but the news of the ascent of the world left even the 52 guardians in awe, until then the ascent of worlds was simply a myth that no believed but now it was being told by the diviner herself.


    She spoke of many things and passed on a lot of knowledge to aid the people in her absence and finally, in the end, she gave another revelation one that set the stage of the current world.


    ''In my absence wars shall break out anew, brothers and sisters shall take each other''s lives in the name of power and fortune, friends shall slit each other''s throats for profits and chaos shall descend again.''


    ''However, I shall not leave my people with no hope, of the 52 original vessels 7 have fallen but their guardians remain I shall leave them unto you to guide you and bring you peace.''


    ''And lastly, for all that I have given to you I would ask of you my people, my descendants to do me a favor, of the remaining 45 vessels from the first fleet I have scattered them across the system in places that you will one day find useful, I ask of you to take care of my ships as I have left a basin within each one.''


    ''Of the 45 ships only one shall stand against the tides of time, only one shall see the birth of a true god.''


    Those were her final words ever spoken in the mortal lands and it''s there that one of Quaria''s stories ends.


    But it is not where our story ends, the seven guardians would one day become the seven emperors of the seven civilisations, and starting from that day the great expedition of the universe had begun, countless people from countless worlds searched in the hopes of finding the ships, billions of years passed by and only a few dozen had been found, at this time the seven civilisations had long since diverged from each other and thousands of generations had passed.


    The civilisations began to accuse each other of hiding the ships and wars broke out between the civilisation, in the end only 14 of the known ships remained and countless worlds had lost all of if''s life some worlds had even been destroyed in the battles.


    Due to the endless slaughter, the leaders of the seven civilisations impeached their leaders and executed them as well as many higher-ups. The damage caused was beyond anyone''s imagination and a peace treaty was formed to prevent further loss.


    In the treaty they agreed to turn the ships into space stations where people of all races and civilisations could freely travel to, to do trade, and live. The 14 stations were each titled Quaria''s Basin and it so happened that even with the expansion of every empire the locations of the ships were ideal as the centres of trade and commerce and you will also find that most of the former nobles, leaders, and even a few old emperors/empresses that chose not to ascend into the immortal realms have chosen to live out their remaining years on these stations, hoping that any children they have may become the god spoken of by Quaria.


    When Anya looked down at Lirian again she noticed that his eyes were shut tightly and his little hands were curled into fists, she sighed softly as it seemed that such stories couldn''t be appreciated by children, she wondered what he was dreaming of that made him clench his fists so tightly.


    Unknown to her Lirian was seething with fury as he heard the story, the more he heard the more certain he was that Quaria was Katerina, he hated that such a bitch could be revered like a god by people.


    She didn''t even hesitate to sell out her own daughter and yet she spoke about protecting her people and descendants, the hypocrisy of her words made him want to explode with fury, but for now all that he could do was shut his eyes and calm down, and he silently prayed to meet her again, and since he had last met her he had been diligently creating a method to kill her permanently, and after testing it on three of her comrades he created the spell of oblivion successfully.


    Once he reached the third immortal rank if he should meet her in this life he would permanently erase that stain from the world.

 Chapter 22 - 022 – ROAD TO XELIA (2)

    "Are you done with your story?", Belinda called out, "The portal is fired up and your jump can happen at any time."


    Anya went inside the penthouse with Lirian, the insides shouted high class from all angles, even the lights were intricately shaped with inlaid gold patterns running through it, the others were lounging at an open bar and the smell of potent wines filled the air.


    Anya looked at the portal they brought warily, it was different from the others they had used to come here, those were able to transfer to any relay portal they locked onto but this one was a fixed portal, it could only relay to one place and that was the fixed portal placed on the passenger ship.


    Fixed portals were a lot more stable, efficient and faster than ordinary portals, but due to the lack of flexibility, it was only used for important tasks or in strategic locations, in this case, Anya was preparing to jump on to a ship moving faster than the speed of light without a fixed portal the jump would be impossible.


    Anya was certain that even if she was unsuccessful, she would survive after all she was a saint, but she feared that she might not be able to protect Lirian as they jump.


    "AI what the odds of success?", Anya asked.


    {Beep, checking clearance¡­}


    {Your odds of success are 100%} the AI informed in an overly cheery voice.


    "Why do you need to check my clearance?" Anya asked with a frown.


    She hated the AI of emperor Albus Clovis; he gave it a horrible personality module and if someone didn''t have a high enough clearance it would make up its own answers.


    {The emperor has only made such information open to people with high enough authority, anyone without enough authority will be given a 100% success rate} as the AI spoke Anya could swear that the AI was snickering.


    Her lips twitched uncontrollably as she cursed at the emperor and AI.


    Cain and Belinda heard it all and they were both silently snickering at her plight, after all, Anya was the newest of all the maids and butlers so her authority was the lowest.


    "Watch and learn newbie this is how it''s done." Cain looked at her smugly with a face full of pride, "Ai calculate the odds of a successful jump."


    {Beep, checking clearance¡­}


    {100%} came the reply this time they all heard a devilish giggle coming from the AI.


    Anya immediately broke out into a bright smile and started laughing at Cain, "You''ve been a butler from 300 years before me and your clearance is no higher than mine, you''ve been wasting your life old man."


    Cain looked down his mood now despondent, he just wanted to look like a capable senior, but his dreams were crushed, he walked away despondently and started drawing circles in the air.


    ''All that he needs now is a cigarette and scraggly beard and he''ll look like your typical middle-aged man.'' Lirian thought inwardly.


    "AI calculate the odds of a successful jump.", Belinda said with her position as head maid she knew that she had the clearance, but until now she was gleefully enjoying the torment of her juniors, after all, she was way too familiar with the personality that the emperor designed for the AI.


    {Beep, checking clearance¡­}


    {Tsk. Party Pooper recognised} the AI said hatefully, {Odds of success are at 63%} after that the AI went silent.


    Belinda frown as she heard the new name the AI designated to her, ''At least it beats Poop Licker.'' She thought with resignation.


    Meanwhile, Anya was heaving a sigh of relief since the success rate was over 50%, she was happy.


    {Beep, portal detected}


    {Initiating Relay}


    {Jump will occur in: 3:26}


    Lirian was soon placed in a golden cradle, it reminded him of the one he had in the god realm, after he was placed inside, it was sealed resembling a ball and with that, he couldn''t sense the outside anymore. He shut his eyes and went back to sleep.


    Anya stood at the portal in silence patiently waiting for the gate to open when only ten seconds remained, she covered the cradle with her energy and watched the familiar ripples of the portal as it opened.


    "Good luck," shouted Belinda, ", and remember if anything goes wrong with Lirian miss Taliyah is going to kill you."


    A second later Anya stepped through the portal and the familiar tugging at her feet could be felt, it didn''t even feel like a second had passed when the gate opened and spat her out into a dark room.


    The cradle appeared beside her and she sighed in relief, she opened the cradle and checked on Lirian, to our surprise she found that Lirian was still sound asleep, ''Wow this kid must have a gut of steel to not wake up from that.'' she thought with surprise.


    Anya shut the cradle, and opened the panel at the door, after checking that the outside corridor was clear she moved stealthily inside the steel corridor the corners of the roof had lights lighting up the corridor and the metallic walls served to reflect the light.


    Since it was a simple transportation ship there weren''t many guards present and Anya got past them with ease, she quickly found the room with all the children, there were over a thousand children sleeping in pods all of them orphans from the wars on their world.


    Anya found an empty pod and placed Lirian inside it, she then put his cradle into her spatial storage and faded into the shadows as she crept back to the room, she arrived in to announce her arrival on the ship.


    It was impossible for the portal to have been placed on the ship without anyone knowing, that''s why as soon as Anya got Lirian in place she made he presence public to the ship.


    Not a minute had passed when the captain arrived, he was dressed in his navy-blue uniform and had a rather large mustache.


    He approached Anya cautiously scanning her clothes to determine her rank, and when he noticed the gold seams on her clothes, he took a deep breath and looked at her with reverence.


    The golden seams represented only the aids of the emperor and empress and if the women in front of him were on his home world she would have the authority to take control of the entire planet.


    "Your excellency may I inquire what brings you to my humble ship, if there is anything I can do for you please let me know so that I may be of service.", he spoke politely, it was well known that the aids of the emperor and empress had all kinds of strange personalities.


    If he wasn''t mistaken based on her description, she seemed to be Anya a.k.a the phedo...no he scram internally and shut down the thought in its track, who knows if she had some mind-reading ability. He sighed in relief as he thought that he was too old to draw her attention and he was secretly glad that he didn''t bring along any of his children on this mission, he wondered if this was the danger his superior warned him about before he left.


    Anya scrutinized the captain, sadly he wasn''t to her taste so it would be no fun teasing him. "Are you aware of the reason for your mission captain?"


    He nodded his head and answered, "To my knowledge, this has been organized by her majesty the empress, her majesty seeks to give the unfortunate children of her home world a chance at a better life."


    Anya simply nodded and did not refute him after all that was the story they were creating and wanted the public to believe. "Indeed, it''s good that you pay attention to the news, however you ought to know that there are some nuisances that oppose her majesty''s position, whilst they are unable to do anything to her majesty in the open, they still may attempt to attack her reputation by obstructing some of her projects. Hence I am here as insurance."


    That last part was true while the emperor had killed many of his past suitors for their attack on the empress, there were, unfortunately, those who belonged to the super worlds and he could not afford to sour their relationship, especially by killing their empress candidates who were elites amongst elites, as such they never gave up on pushing the empress down in secret.


    The captain sighed he had grown used to the politics of the upper echelons and this wasn''t his first time being dragged into a storm. ''Kira is right I''m getting too old for these things perhaps I should just retire after this.'', he thought.


    "I see, I''ll have a room arranged for you, I guess that we''ll all be in your care."


    Anya nodded and silently watched as the captain pulled out a cigarette and left the room leaving a trail of smoke behind him.


    She looked outside at the distant stars and a little smile appeared on her face, "Now don''t disappoint me I''ve been itching for a fight it''s been too long since I''ve gone out for a stretch."


    Two red blades appeared in her hands one short and one long, "Perhaps we''ll taste a little blood in the coming days." the sword hummed in her hand and she smiled, it had been a long time since she last fought, at the time she was still unable to hear her blades but now it would be a completely different game.


    As the saying goes, ''When a saints sword sings, the melody of death begins.''

 Chapter 23 - 023 – THE ROAD TO XELIA (3)

    Just minutes after the captain left an attendant entered the room when she saw the two red blades and took a step back and muttered a chantra to calm herself. The room was filled with blood lust and she felt like if she took a wrong breath, she would die without even knowing how.


    At that moment Anya turned around and smiled at the attendant with a mischievous smile, "Sorry did I scare you.", she spoke in an innocent voice, as she put her blades back into their sheath and strapped them onto her belt.


    "N-n-n-no y-your excellence," she stammered out with batted breath, a slight tremor still passing through her body as she avoided Anya''s eyes to afraid to meet them, ", t-the captain told me to show you to your room."


    "I see," tilting her head to one side and letting her hair flow over her shoulder Anya put on an enthusiastic smile, had the attendant not felt the blood lust earlier she would have thought the scene cute, "Why don''t you give me a tour of the ship first, I''d really like to get to know you better.", Anya spoke coquettishly not bothering to hide her interest in the pretty attendant.


    The attendant nodded repeatedly as her body shivered not daring to say anything that might upset Anya, "As you wish, your excellency."


    In her mind the attendant began plotting out the route, making sure that they would pass through the most populated areas of the ship.


    As they walked around the ship Anya barely paid much attention to what the attendant said, every so often she would touch the attendants'' shoulders or poke her on the side, she watched as the attendant squirmed, every time one of those shivers ran through the attendant''s body Anya felt a surge of pleasure.


    It only took a short hour for the tour to finish and they arrived at a room adjacent to the captains, "Oh the captain didn''t offer his own room," Anya spoke teasingly sending cold chills down the attendant''s back.


    "The captain asked me to show this room and his, your excellency, you''re free to choose whichever you like more."


    After a quick tour of the two rooms Anya smiled thinking of that cheeky captain, while he was ordinary to the eye, she still remembered that while he was respectful to her, he wasn''t pressured by her presence.


    She chose the first room, that captain really is cheeky she thought, both rooms were identical with a lovely hot bath in the center of the room, a view into the spiraling galaxy, and a large bed fit for a king, the only difference was the captains few belongings and the stains on his bedsheet.


    Anya jumped onto the bed like an excited child and looked at the attendant, "What''s your name child?"


    The attendant found it ironic that she was being called a child by someone that looked to be barely in her teens but she did not refute it, "Klara your excellency."


    Anya frowned when she answered, "No-no-no that won''t do you should call Anya."


    "That won''t be appropriate your excellency.", she quickly stammered.


    "It''s appropriate if I say it is now call me by my name little Klara."


    "Y-yes m-miss Anya." she stammered out.


    Anya frowned at the formality but decided not to refute her, "Very well then, I hope that you will accompany me for all my meals in the days to come." she said with a teasing smile.


    Klara nodded and quickly withdrew from the room.


    In the days to come Anya spent a lot of time with Klara, she had a lot of fun asking her questions that made her squirm and when she was bored, she would take a walk around the ship, unlike the captain the entire crew was afraid of her it was one of her guilty pleasures to sneak up on the officers as they were slacking off, playing games of cards or dice.


    Their ability to feign that they were working and hiding the cards and dice always left her in awe, but it didn''t stop her from shooting them knowing smiles.


    As each day passed the crew slowly grew tenser, each day closer to planet Xelia meant that it was that much easier to run into pirate ships, and the fact that one of the empresses'' aids was alongside them while it could be reassuring it also meant that something none of them would be able to handle could find them.


    Five days later Captain Klint, stood at the helm watching the monitors when one of the navigators spoke urgently, "Sir a warp disruptor has been detected, it''s too late to change course."


    The captain looked at the information calmly as he pondered his course of action, his ship only had an X-gen271 warp drive it was one of the best that money could buy on the open market and it was a source of pride for him, but under a warp disruptor it could blow up, ''how I wish that I could get the most basic military warp drive,'' he lamented.


    "Cut the warp and push the shields to maximum output," he ordered rapidly in seconds the entire crew were moving, being a transport vessel had its pros and cons the cons being that the ship had limited firepower the pro being that its shield was extremely durable, ", and someone get her excellency."


    Klara perked up his words, "I''ll go," she said quickly and made her way down the ship, Klara''s transformation over the past few days was shocking, at first, she seemed terrified but after two days she seemed to glow as she walked confidently around the ship. It was apparent to all that she had become a loyal pet to her excellency.


    As they left warp, they were surrounded by 15 fighter pilots and one mother ship, Klint sighed with relief when he saw the number, it wouldn''t be easy but he was certain that he could break through them in a few days.


    ---


    Over at the mothership one of the men came up to the captain, "It''s the right ship cap shall we open fire on it.", he asked with sparkling eyes.


    Captain Bazok looked at this new recruit with concern, in his eyes he saw only one thing a desire for the entire world to burn.


    Bazok walked away and slumped down in his chair as he contemplated, the job was a big payer 500000 credits was the basic reward and the reward for none contact with the transport vessel was triple that figure, he called it a job but it was more like a job forced onto him under duress, unfortunately, it wasn''t possible to be a pirate on a busy route without big backers.


    The payment was great but also scarry he felt like he had gotten involved in something too big, to act with no contact was a very profitable choice he just feared that it might be a terrible mistake and the scariest part was that he had no information on the transportation ship even the people that gave him the mission left him in the dark.


    "Tsk," clicking his tongue in frustration Bazok picked up a communicator and sent a projection call.


    ---


    Captain Klint was waiting for something to happen when Anya arrived with a red-faced Klara, Klint shook his head wondering how they found time to fool around in such a situation, as he was about to speak to her a projection appeared in the room.


    They all stared at Bazok intently, he had an ordinary face with messy hair and the only notable thing about him was the missed piece of his chin.


    Bazok didn''t wait for them to speak, "Listen up I''m being paid good credits to wipe your ship, crew, and cargo from existence, and contacting you has already lowered my reward, so give me one good reason not to blow your ship into oblivion."


    Klint heaved a sigh of relief, at least he isn''t a trigger-happy fool he thought, "This ship is under the jurisdiction of her majesty Taliyah empress of the Clovis empire.", he responded proudly after all the empress was a native of his home world, so the pride he felt at saying those words was immense.


    Bazok froze in place and looked around with wide eyes, those bastards sent me on a suicide mission he cursed inwardly.


    Taking a very deep breath to calm himself he spoke again this time with no attitude, "If I may be so bold as to ask for proof?", he asked hesitantly.


    "Allow me to introduce you to her excellency Anya, one of the empress''s most trusted aides.", he gestured at Anya and smirked at the frightened Bazok.


    Bazok lost count of how many times he cursed internally at first, he thought that it was a pretty good job with high returns, but now he realized that he was caught by temptations hook, the value of this mission was at least worth half a billion credits anything lower and no one would even have the thought of messing with the royals, but if he had been given the actual figure that this mission could get him, he would have fled the system without batting an eye.


    He thought very carefully on his next words, the only thing he knew about Anya were rumors the only one of any value was that she was a seventh-grade saint and her combat class is placed at A+ in the universe while he as a sixth-grade psychic would barely pass as a D+ combatant.


    He looked at Anya and could see her teasing smile as if this entire thing was just a game to her, "Your excellency if you could provide me proof of your identity, I would gladly cooperate with you by giving you all the intel on my employer, in truth I didn''t even want to do this mission but I didn''t have any choice, I hope you can understand."


    Anya''s expression didn''t change much in fact the only change seemed to be her smile that seemed full of delight.


    "Prepare to open the hatch and shut down the shield.", Anya commanded and turned around.


    "Your excellency what are you tryi...", Bazok tried to ask with a hint of worry.


    "Oh, I''m coming over to prove my identity.", Anya chuckled.


    Bazok looked at the people in the room and was surprised to find them all as still as corpses no movement could be seen as they all just stared at Anya fixedly before he could protest or say anything the call ended.


    In the room, everyone stood in dead silence as they heard Anya''s chuckle people carried out her orders without question to afraid to disobey, as they watch her back all that they could see was red, red so dark that it resembled the bloody oceans of Katan, as she strode to the hatch their hearts palpitated and their lives felt insignificant.


    After the hatch opened and Anya left the ship was still and silent, after a long time one of the vice-captains spoke in a shaky voice that lacked any strength, "What the hell was that?"


    Klint looked at his offices their bodies were all stained red he could still see beads of bloody sweat flowing from many of them even he wasn''t spared, "That was a seventh-grade saint''s law of slaughter it didn''t even touch us," he spoke in a shaky voice, just being in a close proximity left them soaked in their own blood, "I''m warning all of you now no matter what do not even try to argue with her about what she did to us!", his voice was unusually grave as he gave his warning.


    Klint thought about the fate of that poor soul in the mother ship, he was only a projection so it was impossible for him to have felt that blood lust, but without a doubt his fate would be pitiful.

 Chapter 24 - 024 – THE ROAD TO XELIA (4)

    As soon as she stepped into the hatch Anya wrapped her body in energy to protect herself from the vacuum of space, as she waited for the hatch to depressurize, she felt her blood boil.


    She knew that pictures and most information about her was scrubbed from the publicly accessible internet, but to think that that insignificant germ had the audacity to ask for her credentials.


    As soon as the pressure left the room, the hatch opened up and the black space welcomed her, she drifted off under the absence of gravity''s embrace, as she left the surroundings of the ship the shield reappeared.


    As she drifted closer to the enemy ships the laws of the world began to tremble in the empty, currents of pure red seeped into the black nothingness changing the very fabric of space, on the ships all those below the third-grade had burst into lumps of red meat their blood became vapor and merged with the red currents ignoring the walls of the ships.


    On the ship Bazok had fallen into a stupor, it was hopeless, it would take five minutes for the warp disruptor to shut down and by then his entire fleet would be dead, all the officers he had painstakingly recruited would be dead, his life''s work gone.


    As panicked shouts filled the helm he walked out, as he stepped out of the helm he found more dead crew members, their bodies were either mushy pulps of meat or shriveled up corpses that looked like every cell had been wrung dry.


    He felt droplets of blood creep through his skin and it took all he had to stop the red currents from pulling him in. As he thought that things had gone as bad as they could get the red currents flared up again, wrapping around the shriveled-up corpses and filling them with life, as they came back their energy surged even the weakest had the strength of a third-grader the mobs of dead soon began to overwhelm the remaining crew members, only Bazok and a few of his stronger officers didn''t have any trouble with the mobs, but it still pained them to cut down the people they had known.


    Outside Anya began to focus her energy on her long blade the red currents wrapped around her blade and soon she heard the familiar hum of the blade as it cried out in ecstasy, she smirked as she prepared to unleash her new power for the first time.


    As she raised her blade up high, a sudden chill traveled through her body and she turned around to face the ship she came from, the chill quickly vanished but she knew it was no illusion of her mind, for just a single second she had felt as if she had been seen through entirely and deep in her mind an image of two pure silver eyes appeared.


    She didn''t get any time to ponder as her moment of distraction had not gone unnoticed by the ships, fifteen beams of energy, each one capable of razing an entire block in a city to ash converged on her figure, with a single swift motion she pulled out her short crimson blade and danced the form of return, each beam rebounded back with three times the energy and crashed into the ship''s shields.


    Then with a brandish of her blade, she spoke with reddened eyes, "Now Scream The First Note of Death" her long sword released a savage scream and the red currents around the blade spasmed violently, it shot across space and enveloped the fifteen ships entirely decimating the shields and ships alike until finally, it erased two-thirds of the mothership.


    Anya reached out to the red currents and used it as a medium to speak after all her voice couldn''t travel in space, "There I have given you proof, is it enough?"


    Her mocking voice traveled into the ears of the few survivors that had been sucked out of the mothership.


    ---


    Deep within the transport ship in the pod room all the energy in the surroundings had turned silver and in it, the battle outside was clearly seen and reflected in Lirians eyes, ''I see, so she is a saint but she also has great attainments in energy if she continues down this road it should only take her a few centuries to become a pseudo esper. It seems that all those who are directly under the emperor and empress are exceptional talents, well except for Cain he is just a muscle brained pugilist nothing special about him at all.''


    Once the battle ended the energy returned to normal and Lirian shut his eyes allowing the pod to put him back to sleep.


    ---


    When Anya returned to the ship, she ordered the crew to retrieve any survivors and took a trip to the pod room she did want anyone paying it too much attention, so she walked by it quickly sizing up all the pods until she spotted Lirians there was no change to it and he was sound asleep.


    She let a thread of her energy seep into him to inspect his centers of power but there was nothing, but it didn''t remove her suspicion, she still remembered when he took control of all the energy in a room and bent it to his will and used it to heal her.


    She was certain that it was him earlier but she had no idea how he did it, she could only sum it up to be some mysterious power of a god child.


    Shortly after she returned to her room the crew members brought her the only survivor of her attack.


    He was a smart one as soon as he saw the image of Anya floating towards the ship, he put on a space suit and jumped out of the ship, if Bazok was there he would have recognized the man to be the new recruit he just hired.


    "What''s your name boy?", Anya asked.


    "I''m not scared of you!" he shouted fervently while ignoring her question, ", my masters sent me here and if you do anything to me, they will hunt you down and kill you."


    Sadly, for him, he didn''t get the intel that Anya was one of the empress''s aids.


    When he noticed Anya frowning at him, he went on with fervent passion, "My masters have shown me their powers and their all-out attacks are just as strong as yours, just try to kill me and they will come for you."


    Anya looked down at him with pity in her eyes she understood what was going on, he was most likely a spy planted by Bavoks backer to keep an eye on him and warn them if he tried to flee.


    She also understood his fervent eyes as he spoke of his master''s powers, he had been made into zealot by them at a young age by displaying their might in front of him, it was a brainwashing tool that all organizations used to ignite the spirits of their young and in some cases such as the pitiful fool in front in front of her, they became fervent followers of those powers and practically worship them like gods.


    "All-out attack," Anya murmured in amusement her teasing smile soon blooming on her face, "You poor, poor little child, that hardly qualified to be an attack I was just swinging my sword with a little bit of strength behind it, I''d die of shame if I had to use a proper attack against a bunch of germs like you."


    The crew that was still in the room with her felt their entire bodies shiver at the thought whilst part of them wanted to believe that she was exaggerating they couldn''t think of any reason for her to lie after all that one attack had shaken them to the core.


    In truth Anya wasn''t lying in the slightest, even though she was furious at Bazok she would never go all out against lesser beings, she merely wanted to test out her new strength using her weaker attacks and it left her quite satisfied.


    She turned back to the man but his fervent eyes still shone, it wasn''t so easy to shake the faith of a zealot, "You''re lying you cannot compare to my masters, the only reason the civilizations stand above my masters is because of your numbers, my master''s reign supreme in this world and they will rescue me from your clutches."


    "Who are your master''s child, which organization do you come from?", she asked.


    "I will never betray their trust!" he shouted, "They are the most magnificent beings and they will protect me from your filthy touch."


    "Too bad kid we could have done this the easy way but if you change your mind be sure to keep quiet until I''m done with the torture, I don''t like being interrupted when I''m having fun."


    "You guys get out of here; I doubt your weak stomachs will be able to handle what I''m about to do," she shouted at the crew as she dragged the young man across the floor and dumped him in her tub.

 Chapter 25 - 025 – THE ROAD TO XELIA (5)

    In the ship bone, curdling screams could be heard it lasted for a full hour, and all of the crew were shivering.


    Captain Klint paced up and down on the deck with a pair noise-canceling headphones to stop the sounds from reaching his ears, the other members had followed suit with music playing on their headset to offset the screams, it was scary, this was an enormous ship yet those screams echoed loudly throughout the ship.


    At some point, they even heard the captive trying to scream out information but before he could string together two words his screams would rise to even higher volumes.


    Unfortunately for Klint, he couldn''t avoid the screams entirely as every few seconds he would have to listen out for Anya''s commanded, she had ordered the ship to remain where it was until she extracted all the necessary information, that kid was truly unfortunate to survive he thought with a sigh.


    He took off his headphones after an hour passed and he received a summons to Anya''s room, as he got close a bloody smell mixed with the smell of shit and urine wafted into his nose making him involuntarily gag.


    When he got into the room it was surprisingly clean at first glance, as he scanned the room for the corpse, he noticed a large mat on the floor he hadn''t put in here, and on closer inspection, he took a terrifying step towards the door, it was no mat, rather it was a human fleece.


    His eyes involuntarily quivered as he realized that the boy had been skinned alive, as he calmed his breathing, he saw something else the bones from a hand each bone laid out individually without a single shred of muscle or a drop of blood left on it.


    As he stared at the bones, he realized it made up five fingers and the palm, with the last of his courage he looked into the hot tub it was filled with red water and a disfigured corpse was floating in it.


    He turned to face Anya but dared not to even look above her feet, earlier he had been fine in her presence but now he couldn''t even hide the shivers from her. He didn''t even want to imagine the pain of having one''s bone being cut out from their flesh while they were alive.


    "Your orders!", he couldn''t muster up the courage to say anything else in her presence.


    "It''s as expected there are hundreds of groups in the surrounding area all waiting for us, they all seem to be conscripted by some small black-market group called the Black-Hand with a dozen seventh-graders supporting it, from now on we will move without the warp for the next five days and we''ll be hunting the hunters, I hope to remove a hundred fleets in that time, after five days we will visit their home base and erase those idiots."


    There were many things that Klint was skeptical about but he wisely shut his mouth and left.


    The way Anya saw it she had two options, one was to announce her presence to the next fleet they met, and immediately the danger would pass, the moment that it was known that aide to the empress was onboard the people plotting in the shadows would back off.


    The reason was simple if it was an ordinary ship destroyed the empress would get bad PR for not providing sufficient protection and getting a thousand children killed and the most, she would be able to do in response is launch an investigation to hold a few people responsible, however since Anya was on board if anyone were to attack her the empress would have every right to launch a full-fledged investigation and accuse the instigators of treason for attacking the empire itself.


    If Anya revealed herself it would be a deterrent but no one would get caught, hence she decided to keep her presence hidden and become the hunter.


    The days slowly passed and in just three days they had managed to wipe out over a hundred fleets, with her [Blood Drain Resurrection] skill she had easily brought pandemonium to the ships followed by her [First Note of Death] slashes that left no room for survivors. It took her mere minutes to clear out all the enemies.


    Due to so many fleets disappearing it wouldn''t be long before the Black- Hand discovered that something was wrong so Anya moved up her plans and attacked their base.


    As they drew closer to the Black-Hand they discovered a large rock floating in space, it was large enough to build a small country, on its surface great steel structures were visible and a series of lights flashed directing ships to the hangar.


    "Your excellency this is a neutral station on the edges of the Primus and Cordula star domains, it is a major hub for white-orichalcum and caltun trading and there are seven major financial groups with branches here...", Klint continued to read out all the data on the station like a secretary.


    As he finished the comms rang and a projection appeared, "I am commander Etlexa, your ship has been in orbit of my station for the past two hours please state your intentions or leave, if you do not cooperate, we will blow you out of the sky." a pink-skinned woman with blue hair spoke solemnly on the projection.


    Anya walked up to the projection and placed her hand on the biometric scanner, "I am enforcement personal #012 of the Clovis empire Anya Capriska, hand over your command of the station, or I''ll turn your little rock into a slaughterhouse."


    The commanders'' eyes widened slightly as she read all the data coming in on the feed, she looked like she had taken a bitter pill as she forced a smile and looked up changing her tone of address into a more respectful one, "Your excellence please understand that this is a neutral station I cannot hand over..."


    "Tell me is there a section in my credentials that says illiterate?" she cut off the commander, "Do you think that I cannot read that this is a neutral station, do not waste another second of my time or I will not stay my hand."


    Anya''s tone brokered no argument, the commander gritted her teeth as she unwillingly signed over her command, at the same time she made a few hand signs to her workers to inform the people on the station.


    As soon as Anya took command, she issued her orders, "Shut down the hangar I want no one coming in or going out if any ships take off blow them out the sky, and if a single ship should escape, I hope that you have all written your wills."


    "Stay here and wait for my return," she ordered Klint and headed for the hatch.


    In the pod room Lirian opened his once more, she left he thought in silence. Since the first time he looked at her battle Anya kept scanning over his location while she was in battle making it impossible for him to watch her but now, she had left the range of the ship, unfortunately, the station was out of his range as well, he would only be able to observe a little.


    The energy around him turned silver once more the station was reflected in his eyes, but he couldn''t make out any details, but after a few seconds, a vision of severed strings filled his vision. He shut his eyes and took a deep breath to calm his eyes.


    It seems that these eyes of mine are quite special I can see the strings of fate with them but it''s far too much for my mind to handle, something like this is just barely possible for a third-grade transcendent esper with a focus on the mind, a hundred severed treads means death to all, a thousand means a slaughter however if there is a hundred and one or a thousand and one it means fate can change, just that the likelihood of such change is very low.


    Lirians eyes sparkled, this was a very great opportunity for him to gather fate particles but first, he would need to confirm if the tread count had that extra tread of fate.


    He opened his eyes and did his best to capture the image in front of him, only two seconds passed when a blood vessel in his eye popped, he shut his eyes again and sighed in relief. The blood seeped out of his eyes but he used the surrounding energy to erase it.


    He looked back at the image with his bloodshot eyes but this time nothing happened, the stress on his body probably stopped the vision from occurring but he already knew that the fate of the people down on the station could be changed.


    He was thrilled to have found a place to gather a lot of fate particles, in essence, all beings have fate particles surrounding them it is something that one gathers through the course of their life, these particles are what give people a peripheral sixth sense that allows them to predict certain dangers or survive harsh tribulations and, in all transactions, it is unconsciously exchanged.


    These particles are like an unspoken form of currency that very few know exist and there are very stringent rules that these particles follow, for example, due to Lirians speed at crawling, standing up, and talking he had earned a great deal of praise from his mother and those around him, by praising him they had inadvertently passed on some fate particles, if the praise was from an ordinary person it wouldn''t be very important but the praise of a seventh-grade empress and her aids is something that most practitioners in the world would die to hear its value was incredible, to seventh-grade practitioners such as them the number of particles was minuscule, however to Lirian who had spent every last bit of his accumulated fate to reach the mortal realm it was an insane figure of fate, more than any ordinary king would have accumulated in a lifetime.


    Most people have no idea how to use and manipulate fate so it only acts as a passive boon that enhances their luck to a degree but to Lirian it was very valuable, without it he would have never been able to scry outside the ship and watch Anya''s battles or what was about to happen at this station, and this was just a simple application of fate particles.

 Chapter 26 - 026 – THE ROAD TO XELIA (6)

    If I want to save all those people and gather some of their fate particles, I will have to save their lives from Anya and the only way to do that is to find her targets before she goes on a rampage.


    I don''t have enough fate particles to find even one seventh-grade practitioner, so the only way is to resonate with Anya''s fate particles and point her in the direction of her targets but I will definitely be discovered considering her latent talent with fate.


    He put his two little hands together and peered into the well of silver energy this time it fixed on Anya as she drifted towards the station. As he fixed his gaze on her, he looked at the fate around her and was pleasantly surprised, if someone from a dozen star clusters away could see fate particles and looked up at the night sky, they would mistake her for a star.


    He touched his fate string and began to pull it in odd patterns with every touch it would make a sound like a high-pitched musical note after a few seconds he looked at Anya again and smiled, his fate string was releasing the same tune as hers and it resonated with arcs of silver and red that were completely unseen by others.


    Anya stopped suddenly she had a strange feeling it felt almost dangerous but at the same time soothing, she could see a red and silver apparition touching, pulling and pushing on each other, she had a vague feeling that the red represented herself but she feared to touch it, it seemed so fragile like the smallest touch could snap it and if that happened she was certain she would die, as for the silver treads they seemed identical to hers the only difference that it seemed indestructible when compared to her own.


    She glanced back to the ship it was just a dot in the distance now but she could sense it, this power was Lirians and there was no malicious intent behind it, it felt like the power was guiding her and showing her what to do, all her life she had vaguely felt a type of power around herself and it only grew stronger as she fought in every battle and the few times she lost she felt it shrink but no matter what she had never been able to control it.


    For the first time she felt a small portion of that power igniting and in her mind''s eye several images began to appear, she followed the images and floated closer to the station, when she was high above the city and the artificial atmosphere, she guided her slaughter currents into the city and wrapped them around her targets it was strange how clearly she could now visualize and see them, she thought that it was a pity that only nine of the leaders were present as her energy wrapped around them.


    As the energy snaked in and caught the nine leaders of the Black-Hand they were located in different parts of the city but at the same time their energy was unleashed across the city and all of them shot into the sky in surprise which quickly turned to horror.


    They all noticed each other and converged the look they all held on their faces were the same of pure horror, based on what had happened they realized that they had been attacked at the same time and the remnants of the red slaughter energy they all held were identical, indicating that it was a single person that locked onto their location and tried to kill them, the worst part was that they had felt the danger from that single attack.


    On the ship Lirian retracted his consciousness from Anya and plopped back in his pod its effect were slowly putting him back to sleep, he had used up all his fate to pull that stunt, and now he was slightly regretting it.


    At the moment that those nine idiots released their energy to protect themselves they caused a lot of damage, this station wasn''t built to handle the strength of seventh-grade warriors and as a result, they caused a lot of destruction, in that single instant almost 3% of the population died and the battle hadn''t even begun.


    ---


    Anya felt the connection with Lirian disappear, she was left with a feeling of fear and curiosity, whatever Lirian had done had made her feel extremely vulnerable of course she could have cut the connection at any point but if it had been someone as strong as her she was certain that she would have died without putting up a fight and it terrified, but more so was her curiosity, if he was capable of such things as a new-born child what would he be like when he grew up.


    She put her thoughts on the side temporarily as she watched the nine figures approach her, she pushed her mental energy onto them despite their resistance it still penetrated them and she inspected their centers of power.


    Five warriors, three mages, and one psychic she realized and frowned, "Are there no Saints, Pugilists, or Warlocks in your organization?" she asked with contempt.


    The nine leaders looked at each other with surprise, wondering if she was some wondering practitioner looking for a challenge, which could explain why she was attacking and her strength put her in the elites of the second accord, thus she asked if they had any second accord members.


    One of the mages flew in front of the rest, "My apologies madam we do not have any second accord members in our ranks, if there is nothing else, we would like to return and repair the damage caused by..." she bit her lip and clenched her fist tightly underneath her black robes, "... our haste to meet you respected madam.", she forced the humble words out of her mouth but it tasted foul, she could tell that the raven-haired women was a second accord combatant, at least a B-class combatant, to reach such heights she would have to be from a noble family or at least serve one, it was in their best interests to not provoke her.


    Anya looked down at them with a false smile on her face and began to giggle loudly in their faces, "Curious," she murmured, ", so very curious." she said loudly this time and looked at them like a bunch of prey.


    "Madam, what is curious?" she asked in normal voice but inwardly she was screaming, she could feel the killing intent wash over her and behind the other eight leaders of the Black-Hand began to circulate their energy, it was clear that a fight was about to break out.


    "It is not madam, foolish mage, to you I am your excellency Imperial Enforcer Personal #012 of the Clovis Empire Anya Capriska."


    The faces of the nine instantly sunk, an Imperial Enforcer was way out of their league, "What I find so curious is that even organizations with a thousand-second accord members wouldn''t dare to act out of line in front of the empire and yet you little pig-headed fools actually dared to make an attack on the reputation of the empress herself, so what is it that gave you the guts."


    "Your excellency," one of the men came forward and bowed like a child before his parents, ", this has to be a mistake we would never dare, we are just a small organization in the black-market, we handle small jobs and minor assassinations on lower-world warlords, the most we do is manage the pirate ships in this area, the only current big job we are carrying out is worth 200 million credits to..."


    "Destroy a transport ship and its crew.", Anya finished for him, and all the others looked at her in shock, "Like I said attacking the reputation of her majesty the empress."


    The leader looked up shocked, he had vetted the job a dozen times from different sources it was just a ship with supplies to a battlefield of an advanced civilization, it was just to cause a couple of hiccups in their war supplies but nothing more, if they were found out a payment of half their money earned from this job, would be paid to the advanced civilization and all would be well, they would have still profited big time.


    He didn''t get time to think anymore because before he could react he could see his body floating while he fell, strange that''s not possible were his last thoughts.


    The blood from his body turned to vapor and surrounded Anya''s long blade, once all the blood was extracted and the body a husk, she dropped it to join its head, she looked down and shared a cheerful smile, "Don''t worry since you were all being used, I won''t kill all of you, how about the last one standing gets to live."

 Chapter 27 - 027 – THE CHILD OF THE EMPRESS (1)

    "Will you finish each other off and give me less work or will you all come at me together, I''ll keep my word and let one of you live either way.", Anya watched them patiently from above.


    It didn''t come as a surprise to her as they began to argue amongst themselves, there were too many groups out there like this, they were a group of profit-seeking individuals that use their power to push others to obey them and form these groups, but there would never be loyalty between the members-only benefits.


    The thing they valued above all else was their own lives so in a situation like this they would turn on each other.


    "I''m one of the founders of this organization, it should be me that lives.", said one of the warriors.


    "You may have been one of the founders but since then you only collected your dividends and threw exotic parties every other week without doing a bit of work.", said one of the mages his eyes growing cold.


    "Do have any idea how many investors I attracted through those parties at least thirty percent of all investors were brought in by me alone, you have profited from this and lived luxurious lives, I think it''s time you thanked me for granting you all such a good opportunity," he spoke resolutely not even feeling ashamed of his words.


    "Stop," the mage that spoke to Anya earlier interjected, "She is just one person, if we fight each other, it will give her what she wants, she probably only made that offer because she can''t handle all of us together if we fight and win our organization will have to break up but if we surrender it will be the same thing, I say we fight and after the battle is over, we all go our separate ways."


    The eight all looked at each other, with determination while they were not the best of friends it would be a lie to say that they had never had a few good moments together.


    They formed a typical formation that any cultivator would know, warriors in the front, the psychic in the center to control the field, and the mages at the back to deal explosive spells at the right moment.


    Anya took particular notice of the psychic, psychics were split into two categories mental or force, mental psychics were able to act as a communication relay for entire battalions in a war, a team with a mental psychic was at least twice as effective as one without, they were also rare and valued very highly by even the seven civilizations.


    Mental psychics were also the backbone for any large organization and the empire, their main jobs were to ensure effective communication across the universe and there would never be enough of them in the world.


    As for force psychics, their main use was on the battlefield, with their force control they could intercept attacks with ease and push opponents into disadvantageous positions for their comrades to exploit.


    Based on the psychics'' position, she was certainly a force type and on the entire field, she was the only one that Anya considered to be worth more than a germ.


    Anya waited for them to prepare a series of expansive armor, robes, weapons and staffs appeared, as they equipped themselves Anya didn''t move but watched with anticipation, the last time she fought against several seventh-grade cultivators she had received three severe injuries, back then she had still been an empress candidate and her techniques were flawed but now they been refined close to the pinnacle of all mortals and she wanted to test herself to see if becoming the aide to the empress had been worth it.


    The four warriors dashed forward but they kept trying to lag behind each other and their dash slowed down, as each one of them tried to avoid being the first to make contact with her, Anya frowned at their lack of teamwork and trust, two bolts of lightning shot out into the air and as they approached the warriors the bolts stopped and expanded into a blinding light.


    ''How childish,'' Anya mused and shut her eyes, she had gone under extreme sensory deprivation training that required her to use only her raw instincts if she failed, she would have been dead a long time ago.


    She readied her long sword and determined the positions of the warriors, she pushed herself towards them with her eyes shut and slashed her sword.


    Clang.


    The crisp sound of steel striking steel rang out the warrior that blocked the attack felt both his arms shake to the bone and under the pressure he was no longer able to stop the pull of gravity and he was sucked down onto the surface at a breakneck speed, his descent left a trail of fire in the sky and the impact made the entire station shake.


    He climbed up from a crater with his shape it took him a full five minutes to regain his senses and looked up at the battle taking place with horror, it was just a single strike and it left him bloodied. He grabbed his spear and looked at the shaft at the point of impact a web of cracks spread, he looked at it regretfully it had cost him 10 million credits to get this weapon and one strike rendered it useless.


    He looked back up and to his horror, he saw a trail of fire in the sky, he immediately decided to escape this was a losing battle, Malisa, their mage, was wrong the women from the empire could erase them with ease.


    In the sky Anya watched the warrior crash she quickly moved back and avoided two flaming balls of fire and the sword of one of the warriors, but she barely regarded them and looked to the psychic, "Your judgment is good if you hadn''t stopped my attack your warrior would have been smashed to paste."


    The psychic was looking pale she had prepared that forced barrier since they flew into the sky and Anya''s single attack had crushed it and injured their warrior.


    At that moment Anya ducked down as a warrior thrust his spear at her heart from behind, Anya spun gracefully in the air and aimed a devastating kick to her opponent''s neck, she looked like she had dodged but it was merely the psychic pushing her back but the force of the kick still remained and knocked the warrior away and the pressure pushed the air out of her lungs.


    "If you can keep this up, I''ll save you for last," Anya said brightly, but her words only made the psychic gloomy, it was clear to her that Anya was not taking them seriously and till now she still hadn''t seen or felt that red energy and she was wondering if she could keep it up as the battle proceeded. She did her best to intercept every lethal attack and she would constantly put pressure on Anya''s blade to steer it off course and redirect her attacks but the more the battle carried on the more energy she had to use to redirect Anya''s blade but even with her increased expenditure, it felt less effective every second.


    At that point, the three mages flashed forward and from three sides monolithic balls of flame assaulted Anya.


    ''Sun Rupture.''


    As the flames closed in on her Anya dashed to the central point where the three flames would converge and drew her short blade.


    From the outside everyone watched the flames explode, two of the remaining warriors readied their next attack and as soon as the flames cleared up they would ram their blades into Anya.


    Once the fire began dissipating, they moved in an attempt to stop Anya from having any room to breathe, their blades flashed in the light of the fire and when they approached Anya, they received a fright only her clothing had a few fringed strands but she was perfectly fine.


    Anya flashed them a smile, "Say, good-bye.", she giggled and the flaming energy in her short sword moved into the long sword and the power of three, ''Sun Ruptures'', was amplified by three as it left the long sword.


    Even for Anya, this amplification was a bit overtaxing on her energy but she had to meet the conditions or it wouldn''t release the built-up energy. The fire swallowed the two warriors entirely and continued onto one of the exhausted mages.


    While the fire had still been around her Anya had felt the mage that had spoken to her when she arrived flee, she dashed over to the last remaining warrior but instead of attacking she yanked the spear from her hands.


    "Tsk.", she clicked her tongue and scoffed at the mage, she bellowed into the air, "A mage with barely any attainments in-laws dares to try and conceal themself from me."


    She raised the spear, and filled it with piercing and destruction laws until it threatened to fall apart, and launched it at the mage, Melisa had no idea how she had been discovered but when she saw the trajectory of the spear, she manifested all her energy into a defensive barrier, however it proved futile as the spear ripped through it like paper and shredded her heart it continued down and the first warrior who had been preparing to flee didn''t even get a chance to react as the spear ripped through his head.

 Chapter 28 - 028 – THE CHILD OF THE EMPRESS (2)

    From the original nine only three remained they were still caught up in trying to understand how the ''Sun Ruptures'' had been reflected back to them and they barely even registered the deaths that followed.


    All it took was one mistake, no not even a mistake but a misjudgment of the situation and five comrades died in seconds.


    Anya floated above them and could see the look of people with no hope left, one mage, one warrior, and one psychic, it was ironic that once those three titles were the pinnacle of power but as time flowed and the world advanced such people would die so easily.


    The mage had a look of hopelessness on his face, he looks pretty Anya thought for a second but didn''t think too much of it, there was always a look of beauty to those who had become desperate she thought.


    "Even if your power is from the second accord, this is still not possible, y-you must have taken the road of transcending the first step to immortality," he spoke in a defeated voice as if the world was unfair, they had just taken a job with a slightly large reward, it shouldn''t have been like this.


    Anya looked at them with pitying eyes and shook her, they had given up already so there was no need for her to force things anymore two of them would die and she''d take the last one prisoner, "No I''m nowhere close to transcending," as she spoke a slight tremor passed through her body as she remembered the time that the empress had shown her the power of a half-transcender, they had gone to a barren planet with no purpose and she unleashed her full strength.


    In those moments Anya thought only of death as her skin began to peel back from her body and her every cell longed for release, after five seconds had passed the entire world had turned into a pool of lava and floating debris, according to the empress the mortal realm cannot handle such power as it damages the world instead of helping it, thus all those who complete the immortal transformation are rejected and pushed beyond the realm veil.


    "The powers of the second accord are split into realms just like the first accord, warrior, mage, and psychic realms are split into, elementary, basic, intermediate, advanced, and perfected. To the outside world, only the most prestigious of military offices will ever receive a second accord cultivation method and the highest will be basic, to those of the outside world they will only see the power of the basic second accord combatants, however even to royals such as myself the perfected techniques are pipe dreams, we fight and claw our way up the ladder and only those who are selected as emperor/empress candidates are gifted advanced techniques."


    "The difference between a first accord and second accord member is vast, but I suppose the key difference would be that a warrior of the first accord infuses the energy of the world into their every cell and releases it to deal damage, however for a saint such as myself the energy is a small part of our strength, rather we infuse the very laws that govern the world into our every cell which results in our every move bending the world to our will."


    "I see," the mage said dispirited, his skin slowly started to resemble a dried-up prune, he looked at his hands and realised that a red vapor was flowing out of him towards Anya, he didn''t even have the power to fight back as he looked at his two remaining companions, he saw that the warrior was also releasing a red vapor like him but the psychic was fine.


    "Dying to an advanced saint I suppose it can be considered our honor," he said with a withered chuckle.


    "Hehehe," Anya giggled, "What do scumbags like you even know about honor," she laughed at him like he was silly.


    "But you should know a little secret about me," she spoke with a teasing smile on her face, "I''m no advanced saint... I''m a lot more, I stand on the crossroads to the third accord."


    He looked up at her with the last vestiges of his life, to cultivators like them reaching the second accord was a lifelong dream that only the luckiest could achieve, the term saint, pugilist, and warlock were the highest they ever dreamt of but attached to the third accord was a myth, or rather a legend that they could hardly fathom the only term they knew of that realm was esper nothing more nothing less.


    The next second his body dried up and fell to the ground, as it hit the ground it broke apart like crumbling rocks and dust filled the air, not long later the warrior fell and only Anya and the psychic remained.


    The psychic looked at her with agitation, "I thought that only advanced techniques are passed down,", she spoke hesitantly, because it sounded like Anya had revealed a secret that even the empire didn''t know and if that was the case she might just go back on her word and kill her.


    "Hehehe," Anya giggled, ", are you scared?"


    The psychic felt her heart racing, and as the fear surged inside her Anya grew closer and put her hand under the psychic''s chin, "I never break my word silly."


    "My power is no secret to the empress and the reason is simple while it''s impossible for the empire to pass on anything above the advanced methods there is no rule forbidding us from creating our own techniques, of course, it''s not an easy task and those that do mostly end up killing themselves or causing irreversible damage to themselves so it''s very rare for someone to take such a risk."


    "Now come along silly it''s time for us to leave."


    The psychic looked up in surprise, ", but you said..."


    "That I''d let you live," Anya cut her off and frowned, "I never said that you''d be free."


    "But cheer up silly, now that you''re my prisoner you will get the opportunity to meet the empress herself, I suppose that it''s only right that I congratulate you on this opportunity." she smiled brightly and wrapped her in her slaughter energy.


    She looked down and shook her head as the energy wrapped around her, one move to escape and she didn''t doubt that energy would start to drain her, "I don''t get it what could be so important about a transport vessel, what does it have to do with the empress?", she cried out in despair.


    "Oh," Anya gave her a meaningful look, ", I guess that it''s my fault for not saying anything it''s not like it''s some big secret and soon the whole universe will know about it anyway," Anya looked at her big-eyed like a child who caught doing something naughty.


    "If you must know that ship carries a bunch of war orphans and the empress plans to adopt one of the children on that ship."


    "Your crime is the attempted murder of the future child of the empress."


    The psychic''s eyes turned wide and she looked at Anya in horror, "N-n-n-n-no, please, please just kill me, I''ll do anything please just kill me quickly." she started shouting in terror, a millennia ago she had seen a broadcast that the empress had released it detailed the torture and killing of one of the women that had conspired to leave her infertile, after five minutes she had been unable to watch anymore and that broadcast had lasted for three months, the only moments more terrifying than the screams were the moments when there were no screams.


    If she were to end up in the empress''s hands, she didn''t think she would even be able to last that first five minutes.


    Anya knocked her unconscious before she tried to use the slaughter cage to kill herself, she shook her head and looked at all the dead fools, ''They thought that the survivor would be lucky, they are so stupid,'' she thought to herself.


    She was only beginning her journey as a cultivator when the empress was poisoned and she had watched the whole broadcast of course it took her many years to do so, the images had been very disturbing to her back then but it''s what thought her the most about torture, deboning a living person was one on her favorite methods and she had learned it from the empress herself.


    She collected the unconscious psychic and headed back to the ship, from the beginning to the end she never bothered to learn their names, none of them were worthy enough for her to remember even the psychic was just a little more than a germ to her, why would she have ever bother to learn the names of such filth.

 Chapter 29 - 029 – THE CHILD OF THE EMPRESS (3)

    When Anya returned to the ship, she ordered them to return to warp speed they had already wasted three days and they were going to be late to meet the empress.


    Klint pulled up the projector and contacted the station commander to let her know that the station was back under her control since Anya didn''t seem to care about it.


    He ordered the warp drive to be heated and sighed in relief, this journey of theirs had been very taxing on his mind and his entire crew, they were going to take a long vacation after this, due to doing something so dangerous he knew that empires generosity would know no bounds.


    Anya locked her new prisoner in her room, it was unfortunate that she would have to keep an eye on the prisoner personally, it meant less time for her to fool around with Klara, but currently, she only had one concern on her mind, she needed to visit Lirian.


    The familiar feeling of a ship entering warp filled her stomach and from then she waited for the crew to rest before she snuck down to the pod room.


    She quickly found Lirians pod and opened it, in the darkroom Lirian opened his eyes even in the dark a faint silver glow filled his eyes as he looked at Anya intently, he played the part of a child and reached out both of his hands to Anya.


    Anya hesitated for a bit but still picked him up, she found it hard to say no to those eyes, "I know you understand me little one so tell me why you did that or how you did that, or at least what it was that you did?" she kept babbling, it was a strange feeling to interrogate a baby.


    If I told her how I did that we''d be sitting here for a few days, and my vocabulary of this language is not so extensive that I can just say anything, not to mention that such knowledge coming out from my mouth would terrify her or anyone.


    He did have an excuse though and it wasn''t a lie, "I... want... see mommy soon, so... I make Anya... move quick."


    It was no lie even the last part was only a half-lie, his main reason for interfering was to gather fate particles, but it was also to speed up Anya if things happened without his interference two days would have been wasted there, and while almost 30% of the people on the station died in the aftermath of the battle, he still reaped much more than he spent.


    She could feel his steady heartbeat against her chest as she held him tightly, his head on her shoulder as she rocked him around, there was no lie or deceit in his words, he only held the desire to see his mother.


    It was so different from the world of power she had grown used to, where every single action from someone could be seen as a multi-layered trap, she wondered if this was the reason the empress insisted on raising her own children, it was the only place in the world free from deceit.


    "We''ll see your mommy soon," she said while stroking his back, she remained there for a very long time unaware of the time passing outside.


    Hours had passed before she retired to her room, with a wet patch on her shoulder she rubbed the liquid and sighed, ''It seems he''s a drooler.'' she mused to herself.


    She looked down at her clothes and frowned there were a few singes on the fabric it wouldn''t be suitable for her to wear it anymore after she changed into a new outfit, she prepared to burn her old one but as she looked at the little wet patch on it, she stored it away.


    The next few days were uneventful and asides from contacting the empress to let her know of the situation and soon the ship brook through the atmosphere of a planet, the gravity stabilisers worked to remove the pressure from the people on the ship, and before long they were docking in the hangar of planet Xelia.


    Several small crews stood outside including a military unit, waiting for the main hatch to open, once the hatch lowered a single group enters in hazmat suits and a couple of medical instruments, no one would be allowed to enter the city if any foreign diseases were found onboard or if any crew members had a contagious disease.


    After several minutes of check-ups, the ship was given permission to disembark and the crews came on board, they worked effectively to empty the cargo, and finally the most important cargo was being taken off, the children.


    The military convoy moved to Anya addressing her formally, they had all received instructions prior to their arrival that they would be under her command.


    She had them pack up all the pods and move them to the vehicles they prepared, as that was getting done, she walked over to Klint.


    "You did well on this little trip of ours Klint," she said cheerfully not even regarding the tremors running through Klint''s body.


    "It was my honor to serve your excellency over the past week," he spoke humbly and stopped his voice from trembling.


    Anya raised an eyebrow at him and her playful thoughts took control of her, "If you feel that way, I suppose I can have you take on the position as my chief pilot, and you can keep your crew, you''ll be given one of the best military-grade cruiser ships and you''ll make like thirty times more than you currently do."


    "NO!", Klint shouted frantically, then slapped his hands over his mouth as he remembered who he was talking to, ", w-w-what I mean your excellency is that, I''m old, I plan to retire; my friend Kira keeps reminding me that I ain''t getting any younger and after this last heart-pumping trip I''ve decided to take his advice."


    Anya giggled and her voice echoed in the hangar to the members of the crew it sounded like nails being knocked into their coffins, however to all those unfamiliar with her it sounded like a summer tune.


    "I''m just pulling your leg stop fretting," she laughed, "I already have a personal pilot and his skills are way better than yours, no offense," Klint felt the corner of his lips twitch and had the urge to punch her in her face but the fear wiped those thoughts away.


    "Relax, the empress was happy about your performance so I just came to let you know to stay put for the next week, someone will contact you, be sure to give them the details of your entire crew the empire always repays its friends."


    She turned to walk away, a few steps later she turned to look at Klint, "Have a happy retirement I''ll let the people handling your pay-check know they might throw in a hefty bonus."


    ''Dammit, now I really have to retire,'' Klint chided himself.


    When she was walking away the only person from the crew that wasn''t completely terrified of her approached her, "Miss Anya," she spoke hesitantly, ", will I ever see you again?"


    Anya looked at the attendant Klara, "Sorry, probably not." she answered honestly.


    Klara looked down saddened, Anya was terrifying to her at first, but surprisingly she didn''t force her to do anything, most of their time together was them mainly chatting, while Anya did tease her a lot it had mainly been over the shirt and nothing too invasive, in the end to her Anya seemed to be a very inquisitive person with zero boundaries and she never sugar-coated anything.


    "Here, give me your hand," Anya said after a while and placed a bronze pin, with two small planets and a star on it, "If you want to, you can take that to planet Arnor in the Vulcan star domain, with it you can get a job anywhere you like definitely something more to your taste, if you keep this job with that personality of yours it will just ruin you."


    Before Klara could say any thanks, Anya had already walked away and got into one of the military vans, Klara watched her back with shaking eyes, and held the pin tightly in her hands, "Thank you," she said ever so silently, in the manner of her homeland she got down to her knees and kowtowed three times in Anya''s direction.


    She didn''t care about the strange looks people were giving her and got up, making her way back into the ship with a single goal, to resign.


    The silent thanks didn''t go unheard by Anya but she didn''t stop it wasn''t her style to stop for thanks, she always did things the way she wanted to, she didn''t need the gratitude of anyone, soon she spotted Lirians pod, and thought back to his answer if only the world could remain so simple as a child wanting to stay by his mother''s side.

 Chapter 30 - 030 – THE CHILD OF THE EMPRESS (4)

    It was an important day on Xelia and it was a day that would be written into history, the news channels were constantly filled with interviews, discussing the upcoming events with the various politicians.


    Currently, the president of Xelia, Juel Merdoff had taken a spot on the show for a five-minute interview.


    "Next on Xelia live we bring to you the president of Xelia himself Juel Merdoff."


    The president walked out in front of the cameras and took a seat across from the reporter.


    "Thank you for having me, I''m glad to see you here Natasha I watch your broadcasts all the time, well most of my cabinet push your stuff in front of me and at this point, I don''t who does more work, you or my entire cabinet combined.", he joked and smiled for the cameras.


    The reporter laughed softly but in a second her serious face was on, "Mr President since we have little time for this I''d like to get straight to the point, we''ve been hearing a lot about a visit from the empress of the empire and the people are dying to know the details and what this entails for Xelia."


    The president nodded his head and wiped the smile from his face, he pushed his tie into place and faced the cameras seriously, "The answer to all your questions is a simple yes, the empress will be coming to Xelia however it''s not for a simple visit as she has issued orders for a full-time retinue of servants to be positioned in the imperial manor, and all the servants have been given a twenty-year contract. It appears that the empress will be staying here for a while."


    The reporter couldn''t hide her surprise but she still continued with professionalism, "Is this the reason for the truce between you and Morgan, I must say that your seize fire with him has been a source of public criticism and many of your supports now think that you are planning to go back on your promise for better inter-galactic trading rights."


    Juel looked around with a trace of discomfort on his face, "Yes this is the reason, as all of you know we are Xelia and while I maybe it''s president in the eyes of the empire I''m nothing more than a glorified house keeper for the planet, and when the real owners come home, it is my duty to present a spotless home to the owner."


    The mood on the air turned awkward as the president referred to himself as ''glorified house keeper'', the reporter pushed forward to get past the situation, "Mr President do you have any idea why the empress has decided to temporarily settle down on Xelia?"


    "Not exactly, the details have not yet been disclosed to me, however, what we do know is that the empress''s aide Anya Capriska arrived earlier today on a transport vessel for war orphans from the empress''s home world after speaking with a few members of the crew we were unable to learn much, they seemed to be unable to say anything the only thing we know is that their ship had been delayed by three days, and as everyone already knows we prepared for the empress''s arrival three days ago but it was unfortunately delayed till today."


    "Now I know that everyone has their speculations on the meaning of this but that is none of my business, I just want to point out to everyone that your empress will be here and I hope that everyone can be on their best behaviour to present our world to the empress."


    "Thank you, Mr President, for your words we will return after the break at Xelia Live."


    ---


    As soon as the president left one of his secretaries handed him a tablet with a sat feed on it one massive command ship could be seen in the centre of a fleet with 50 flagships and 300 motherships escorting it, and that was just the empress''s personal guard.


    "Have the city hangars been emptied out?"


    "Yes sir, and the hangar has been prepared for her majesties arrival."


    "Good, send a message to the fleet and tell them that we are ready to receive her majesty."


    Once the message was sent out, he rushed towards the city hangar prepared himself for a long ceremony and waiting for the fleets to dock but to his surprise only the command ship descended into the atmosphere, the rest of the fleet remained in a fixed formation and rotated in the skies even the people could make out the ships as they hovered above the world.


    As the command ship entered the hangar waves of air rushed to the people making their clothes flutter wildly in the wind, and the ocean outside lapped backwards as waves formed rushing against the tide.


    The ship docked and the massive hatch locked into the hangar forming a perfect ramp down from the ship, and from there fifty servants dressed in court formal clothing rushed down with their leader and went to the president to receive instructions and after pointing out the vehicles arranged for the empress, he turned to the other servants and rushed to prepare the empress''s walkway.


    A golden carpet woven out of gold with exquisite designs was rolled from the hatch to the limousine that waited, the rest of them pulled out trumpets and lined up alongside the carpet not daring to set one foot on it.


    The leader of the servants stood by the hatch as a team inspected the limousine. When he got the signal that the vehicle was safe, he raised his hand to his head and saluted, "Attention!" he shouted and his voice carried throughout the hangar.


    "Positions!", at his command the servant all moved in unison the left leg straight the other pointed forward, they cocked their head over their right shoulder, and their trumpets positioned before their mouths.


    "Begin!" the sound of trumpets being played filled the hangar one would have been loud enough but fifty made most people incapable of hearing their own thoughts.


    On the ship, Belinda stood beside the empress a small smile could be seen on her lips as the empress placed noise-cancelling headphones over her head.


    "Your majesty," Belinda spoke in the empress''s mind, "Don''t you think those will ruin your hair, it took a full hour to get it to sit right."


    "Tsk.", Taliyah clicked her tongue, "Do you know that in the court every single person agrees with me that a violin is the is the classiest instrument that is portable."


    Belinda rolled her eyes and thought here we go again.


    "After that, I tried to petition everyone to change the welcoming ceremony of royals to use a lovely soothing violin instead of a loud ear bleed inducing trumpet, but only 70% agreed to it, and as you know for ancient customs unless it''s completely agreed upon by everyone it cannot be changed, and thanks to that we have to endure this mind-numbing sound that makes me want to claw out my ears."


    "So, yes Belinda I know that it will ruin my hair a little but I do not care and send a message to the barker have him skip my hundred titles and just do a simple introduction.", she knew that it went against tradition, but she was feeling impatient, all of this should have already been completed days ago.


    In the hangar, the trumpets quieted down and their leader pulled out a short walking cane, he tapped it trice against the ground.


    ~Tap.


    ~Tap.


    ~Tap.


    "Introducing the Saviour of Scavanor, The Giver of...", as he was about to continue, he felt a tread of killing intent from his back, it was because he tried to start with the titles of the empress despite being told not to.


    "~cough~cough~," he cleared his throat and continued, "The 8th Empress of the 52nd core of the Clovis empire, her majesty Taliyah Clovis."


    Taliyah walked forward and down the ramp with the confidence and grace befitting her position, a golden muslin dress wrapped around her eloquently, it wrapped around her neck and left her shoulders and back bare, and two matching gloves on her hands.


    Her bronze skin was the envy of every woman and the desire of every man, her hair of white and black was braided beautifully and looked like a magnificent crown unto itself. Lastly upon her head was The Gilded-Rose Crown, which only the empress could wear.


    When he finished the barker fell to one knee raised his right fist to his heart and curled his head down, soon every person present followed his every action.


    Taliyah stood motionless and after an appropriate amount of time passed, she gestured with her hand, "You may rise."


    After her brief words, she walked down the golden carpet when she reached the limo, she waved in greeting to the president and stepped into the limo.

 Chapter 31 - 031 – THE CHILD OF THE EMPRESS (6)

    Most of the day had already passed when the escort arrived at, ''Wildders Home for Children Foundation'', it was the only orphanage in Xelia''s capital. It was also the place where all the children were placed temporarily.


    Anya had been lounging in the directors'' quarters and she was impressed with how luxurious it was, by now all the children were removed from their pods, fed, and dressed in good clothing, the oldest ones were around 15 years while the youngest were just infants.


    Anya moved down the halls to greet the empress when she noticed the convoy closing in on the orphanage.


    "Your majesty, ", she did a small curtsy to the empress and joined the other aides behind her, the golden carpet was laid on the ground once more and the empress crossed it until she entered the doors of the orphanage, within a crowd of people awaited her, reporters stood at the ready, and the children of the orphanage were lined up along the walls standing respectfully.


    After a long bow to the empress, they all returned to their feet and stood in solemn attention.


    Taliyah could feel their hunger for a story but she was in no mood to put on a long show, since she had claimed Lirian, she hadn''t spent more than a few hours with him and two months had long passed, it was time for her to be a mother again and she wanted it to be done quickly.


    She waved her hand to gather everyone''s attention, "I''m sure you all have many questions for me," she said with a charming smile, ", you have five minutes to ask me whatever you want, after that all of you should be able to show yourselves out, now you may begin."


    The reporters all raised their hands silently, it was very unlike reporters but they were trying to behave the most frantic of them were repeatedly trusting their hands up down while bouncing on their feet.


    On the right side, she spotted a dark-skinned lady in a red coat standing calmly, at once she understood that she was the reporter the president planted to ask her the question that needed to be asked, "You in the red coat."


    "Your majesty, we have all been curious as to why you are interested in a couple of orphans that have come in from a lesser-world?"


    "These children do not come from any ordinary lesser-world but my home world, it is for this reason that I have brought them to Xelia to give them a better chance at life, it is the least that I can do for the children of my planet which is why I will also be donating 10 billion credits to the ''Wildders Home for Children Foundation'' for the improvement of their lives."


    Her donation was enormous it was more than some galactic conglomerates made in a year, and even as the empress it showed a lot of sincerity, that amount turned the orphanage into one of the richest organizations on the planet in a heart-beat.


    Taliyah continued answering questions, five questions later she selected a reporter that seemed as if he would have fit if he didn''t ask his question, "Your majesty, people all over the world have been guessing that you will be adopting one of the children, could you confirm or deny this speculation."


    The hall fell into silence as they awaited the empress''s answer.


    Taliyah wasn''t surprised that people were able to connect the dots, "It has been a long time since I have had a child of my own, and after a lengthy discussion with my husband we decide to adopt a child, and raise that child on Xelia."


    Before the reporters could jump onto their next question she clapped her hands together, "That will be all."


    The reporters looked unwilling and that gaze filled with hunger still burned, as the empress, she had long learned that journalists were like worms with an ever-growing appetite, the more you feed them the greater their hunger, they were impossible to satiate.


    When the room cleared out, the director ran behind the empress she looked like a dog that had received a treat, "Your majesty, it is my greatest honor to serve you, I will be certain to put your very generous donation to good use for the betterment of the children."


    "Oh, I''m sure you will," said Anya as she stepped up from behind, ", you know I have been searching for years for a bottle of 62-thousand-year Vincent scotch," she smiled at the director, "Oh, and did I mention that I managed to find one earlier today, it was delightful by the way, even I''d feel a hole in my purse if I bought one.", she flashed the director a mocking smile.


    "I still have half the bottle, your majesty, we should enjoy it later."


    Taliyah felt her face muscles cramp up as she continued to force a smile, it was all too common for directors of NPO''s to embezzle funds, but as long as they did their job properly, they turned a blind eye to such activities.


    Anya wouldn''t have done anything if she had just found the wine but that entire room was filled with treasures, she even took the job of liberating many of the things for herself, it was always fun to steal from a thief because they couldn''t even complain about it without causing problems for themselves.


    The director''s face sank as she heard Anya, losing the wine made her feel like she had been sucker-punched in the face, there were only ten bottles she had been able to track down, and that was the only one for sale, and she bled her coffers dry to get it.


    "It was a gift that I received from a very generous man," she lied with a straight face, "I had been planning on opening it on a special day, and having the empress here today was the perfect reason, unfortunately, that no longer seems possible." she gave a dry chuckle.


    "That must have been a very generous man let him know that Anya Capriska would like to thank him personally for such a lovely gift."


    "I will." she answered with a strained smile, "Your majesty may I take you to see the children."


    "Yes, that would be lovely, I''d like to see the younger children, the younger the better."


    "Certainly, your majesty,", she looked at the empress fawningly, "If I may be so bold as to speak of one of the children," when Taliyah nodded, she took it as her cue to speak.


    "Whilst these children have only been here for a day, there has been one notable child amongst them." Taliyah''s eyes lit she was certain that they would speak of her Lirian.


    "When my staff saw the child, they mistook him to be a girl at first, he is just the most beautiful thing like the incarnation of the gods themselves, and he behaves like no other, he never cries and eats his food without fussing and his eyes, your majesty, by the gods it''s like looking into the spiraling galaxies with every star shining brightly."


    Hearing that description Taliyah was certain, it could be no one other than her Lirian, "Take me to him at once."


    Even the president was taken aback at the directors'' words and filled with curiosity, because along the way she had practically been boot-licking the empress but even then, she had not praised the empress in such a manner.


    In a room on the upper floors Lirian was being carried around by a caregiver and three others surrounded him, they had been taking turns to carry him and they were trying their best to entertain him, and it seemed to earn his favor.


    The thought made him feel very complicated, it was a completely foreign concept to him and as he enjoyed it, he slipped into his throne world in his mind to speak to his other-selves.


    As he looked around, he realised that all his past selves were looking at him coldly.


    "Hey, what''s going on?" he asked, he still remembered the last time he was here, but even so they shouldn''t be treating him with hostility.


    "WHY!?" one of his selves shouted.


    He looked around in confusion.


    "We would have done anything," one said.


    "Given anything," another continued.


    "Just to have one person in this filthy world treat us like a person."


    "All this time you remained asleep,"


    "You don''t even understand the pain we suffered,"


    "So, why do you get to experience the love, adoration, and fawning of others,"


    "While we suffered our whole lives just to survive,"


    "How is it fair that you get to reap the benefit of all our years of gathering knowledge,"


    "Without experiencing the same pain as us."


    Lirian looked around in confusion, he could hardly believe the words he was hearing coming from his past selves they were all him after all, it didn''t make sense they had always been there for themselves, but now they were treating him like an outsider. "I have always been here, I may have seemed asleep, but I was always awake but unable to say anything..." how could they not understand that he had, had it the worst of them all like a silent observer always watching and feeling their pain but being unable to do anything about it.


    "SHUT UP, YOU LIAR!"


    "GIVE US THE THRONE!" they roared.

 Chapter 32 - 032 – A SHAKING THRONE

    In the centre of the throne world Lirian sat in his throne and for the first time in many lives he felt truly panicked, never before had he been attacked by himself, and if one were to ask even the survivors of his attacks what it was like, the memory would leave them drowning in their own sweat, and the idea of more than two dozen of that same person would leave them dead from fright.


    It was fortunate that the throne could only be relinquished willingly or he would certainly have lost it.


    The world around him trembled and the thrones of the others encroached on his that sat in the centre, only the thrones of those that left and Kallidins and Penn who had been asleep since he gave up his life remained fixed in place.


    He looked at the approaching thrones, he could never hate them for their actions, but never before had he imagined that he would fear them, they had always been there for each other, but now there was something they all wanted more than anything.


    It was the freedom to live the life they always wanted, one that was free of endless loneliness and suffering.


    He cast one more look at his past selves and he felt knots of pain in his heart, he knew what it felt like to be abandoned by all the world, but he never imagined that he would do it to himself.


    He retracted his consciousness and as he opened his eyes two streams of tears poured down his face, the room was completely silent and as he looked up, he saw a ray of gold rushing towards him, then he saw a familiar face smiling at him.


    "Hush now little one, it was just a nightmare," Taliyah said as she wiped the tears away and held onto him tightly.


    ''I wish that it were so mother,'' he thought as he grieved, ''I wish that it was only a nightmare,''


    It was only then that he stopped and looked again, he realised that Taliyah was holding him in her arms, he wrapped his arms around her neck and buried his head on her shoulder. ''Yes, for the first time in all my lives I have a mother, perhaps not all is hopeless.'', the thought calmed him down slightly.


    Taliyah turned around to face the director, "I think you were right director; I have no need to see any of the other children, he will be mine from now onwards."


    The room was strangely quiet everyone had seen what had happened, the door opened and the empress entered, not even two seconds later Lirian started crying and it was odd, they had never seen a child cry silently, that was something that only adults did.


    But the strangest part was the empress''s reaction, before even a tear could fall, she had already grabbed the child from the care-givers hands and wiped away his tears.


    It was as if she already knew the child, and several thoughts filled their heads, the child was from the empress''s home-world, so could it be possible that she had a love child with someone on her home world and did all of this to legally adopt him.


    It didn''t even cross their minds, that the empress was infertile at that moment.


    "Uhm, your majesty will you be going to your manor?", the president asked as he pretended to not notice the odd behavior of the empress.


    "Yes, I think that it''s time I retire for the night, it''s been a long day."


    "I''ll have the cars readied," he said and head out of the room.


    ---


    An hour later they arrived at the manor, two massive black gates swung open and welcomed them, a beautiful garden spread out with neatly trimmed hedges and three four-meter-tall fountains sprayed water.


    The president pulled up first and opened the door to the entryway, they walked up to a grand staircase that had a single aisle, it had wooden rails and a red carpet flowing down, once they reached the top of the first flight of stairs, they turned to look down at the entry hall that could easily hold a thousand people and from the ceiling, a large majestic chandelier hung, after the first flight of stairs the stairs split into two and wrapped around the walls to form the mezzanine.


    "I suppose that you''re a good glorified house keeper," Anya whispered to the president as she walked past him, and admired the manor, it was very different from the home worlds architectural design, but it felt very homey.


    President Juel grimaced when he heard that unlike the others when he spoke on the news, Anya was already on world and she didn''t have anything to do so she had heard his foolish choice of words.


    "Your majesty you must have had a tiring day, I''ll be taking my leave now, if there is anything that you need anything at all please let me know." he bowed humble and waited for the empress to dismiss him.


    "I do need just one thing, arrange for a few wet nurses to come here my son is in need of his meals, you may leave."


    ---


    From there the days began to move slowly.


    The empress sat in her room quietly as an old cot was brought in by the servants, she looked at it fondly, and a trace of melancholy, her eighth child had used it, Sicilia was a very talented child, almost as good as she was, but during her two-hundred-year princess candidate trial, she died.


    That was almost two thousand years ago, she had raised her on this world and she had a great life here, she hoped that Lirian would enjoy it as much as Sicilia did.


    She had the cot placed at the foot of her bed, it might be her inner village girl thinking, but she never felt comfortable with her children sleeping in a different room, it always left her restless.


    One morning Lirian woke up in the dark hours of the morning, he still felt despondent, his current frame of mind was slightly fragile, he had everything he ever wanted but now he had also lost something important to him.


    The brightness of his eyes had dimmed from before and Anya especially had begun to notice it, he was a baby with depression, so no matter how much she tried to figure out what was wrong with him it proved futile.


    He sat up in his cot and leaned against the bars, he didn''t recognise the material but it did carry a lovely scent, that vitalized his body, he looked up at the various lights that decorated the ceiling, even while they were off a faint gas could be seen shimmering inside them, it looked like little stars.


    He noticed a trace of movement in front of him but he didn''t bother with it and continued to stare blankly at the lights.


    Taliyah picked him up brought him to her lap, "Little one, what''s the matter, you''ve been very sad since I came for you, are you angry with mommy for taking so long?", her beautiful face held genuine guilt.


    Lirian was still figuring out the language so a lot of it went over his head, but he still understood the meaning of her words, "No, never... angry.", he replied after some time.


    It still took Taliyah by surprise when he spoke and it impressed her that even though his sentences were broken, they were never completely incoherent. "Then are you sad about something else is it that nightmare you had?"


    He looked down from the ceiling and saw the worry on her face and wondered what it would be like to get a bit of her wisdom, he didn''t know how to resolve a conflict with his only friends but it seemed like something an ordinary person should be able to do, the light around him went silver and he reached out a hand to touch her temple and a little spark crept into her mind revealing images to her.


    Lirian used a simple soul share ability to show her a little of what had happened.


    Taliyah lost her breath as she felt her vision fade, then she stepped into a world of black and dark green arouras swirling around, and in the centre, she saw the most majestic throne she could imagine and it reminded her of Lirians eyes, and on it she could see Lirian sitting, his whole body trembling as the world shook.


    Great fissures opened up beneath her feet and she could see dozens of other thrones closing in on Lirian each one was far more majestic than even her own and the emperors and she could feel an oppressive might surging from every throne.


    She could hear the people on the throne shouting like starved animals, ''Give us the throne!'', ''It belongs to us!'', ''We worked for it.'', ''You have no right to sit there!'' the voices, reverberated in her soul, even though she didn''t know the language they spoke she still understood every word.


    The voices were endless and filled with a desperation she couldn''t fathom, but oddly enough Taliyah felt a familiarity with them all, but before she could do anything she felt the world tremble and the columns in the world began to crack, suddenly she was falling uncontrollably down a fissure and the world seemed to crumble all around her.


    When she opened her eyes again, she saw Lirian staring into her eyes, "No, nightmare... it real."


    "Are those the bad people?" she asked still uncertain of what had happened, that vision left her in awe, it was so vivid and real like an entirely different world, and the hardest thing for her to understand was the silver energy that rippled around Lirian and flowed according to his will.


    "No, they are..." he thought hard for the word friend but, he didn''t know it, ", like... mommy.... and Anya," he said pulling his hands togethe

 Chapter 33 - 033 – WALKING DAYS

    ''Like me and Anya,'' she thought in silence wondering if Lirian thought that she and Anya were friends, it even cracked her up a little.


    "They are your friends?" she asked hesitantly, they seemed more like enemies in that place and she remembered that look of terror in Lirians eyes.


    Lirian nodded silently, "I don''t think friends should say such things to each other, maybe they weren''t really your friends?" she said hopelessly.


    Lirian sighed and dropped his head, he was asking for too much, there was no way she could understand the situation and what they meant to him.


    As that despondent look crept back onto Lirians face Taliyah felt like a failure, she couldn''t be certain but she felt like that world had a deeper meaning to it than she could possibly imagine, he was a god child and there was bound to be several mysteries about him, her only guess was that, that world was somehow linked to his godly parents and it was also possibly part of the reason why he was sent to the mortal realm.


    "You know I used to have other children before you," she spoke after some time had passed, ", I only ever got to have 12, as the empress I couldn''t have as many as I''d liked to have, only one at a time, it''s a rule to prevent the leaders from getting too distracted."


    "Sometimes I would get into arguments with them, you see as my children it is an obligation of theirs to become a prince or princess candidate, it was something that they couldn''t understand and they didn''t want to do, so I was hard on them, always making them study and train so that they could survive their trials, but I failed to realise what they really needed, it was just someone to be there for them when they felt pressured and scared."


    "It always clawed at my heart when I lost a child and it ate at my conscious, this one question would play on repeat in my head, what could I have done better to ensure that they came home to me, even to this day I ask myself that question because even now I don''t know the right answer.", the more she spoke the more it sounded like she was talking to herself.


    "The only thing that I learned I could do is, give them the best first twenty years off their life before their trial begins, I may not know how to help you little one, but I can promise you one thing if you ever need me, I will be there for you no matter what happens."


    "Those people that you showed me, maybe they aren''t your friends but if they really are then one day, I''m sure that if you keep trying to make-up with them as I did with my children one day it will pay off, and they will come back to you."


    Lirian could make out her implied meaning, she was desperately hoping that this time she would get to see her child return to her safe and sound.


    With that said Taliyah put Lirian on his own two feet and let him hold on to her fingers, "Do you remember the promise you made with mommy?"


    Lirian nodded, when they left, he promised not to walk until, he saw her again he slowly raised his legs to stretch them out, his muscles were still tight and it would take a bit of practice before he could break them in.


    He released Taliyah''s hands and took a shaky step forward, he carefully moved one foot in front of the other and after eight steps he lost his balance and fell, that was better than I expected for a first attempt he thought happily, without realising it his mood had improved if only a little bit.


    Taliyah watched on happily, as Lirian climbed back up and walked, fell, and got back up repeatedly, when he finally stopped he had been able to walk across the room from one end to the other and back without falling.


    Finally, he rolled over on the floor and heaved heavy breaths of relief, and allowed his sweat to roll down his face, Taliyah picked him up from the floor and smiled at seeing how hard he was trying, "Since you worked so hard, it''s time for you to have a good meal?"


    Due to his quick development, he was a very hungry baby and he was glad to find that he had four wet nurses always waiting on him, milk was a baby''s life and he had four sources, there was a slight difference in the taste of their milk, so he made sure to rotate between his different suppliers.


    A month quickly passed and he had finally been able to walk steadily around his home, it was unfortunately very big and it could take him entire hours to get from one end to the other, today was also the day that his first goal was accomplished.


    Gone were his days of shameful pooping himself, he had done it, the toilets were now within his reach, of course, there was the added difficulty of climbing it as his head could barely reach the pan he had to grapple the seat and pull himself up, then there was the other problem, he was so tiny that it was difficult to do his business without falling in, it was at this point that he forced his new body to learn how to do splits so that he could get it done without going splash in the toilet.


    At six months he was used to strutting around in the corridors, by now everyone was familiar with Lirians antiques, his bathroom splits were a source of constant conversation, and the source was his mother, she had been both insanely proud and amused when she found out, and the news spread to even the servants and if he wasn''t wrong, they seemed to have pictures, the source of those could have only ever been Anya.


    From all the aides of his mother, he spent a little time with all of them but Anya had made frequent visits to him, a month after they arrived his mother had started to get busy again, just because she was no longer on the home-world didn''t mean that all her work had vanished and she frequently had to deal with ambassadors and foreign nationals.


    This left Lirian with tons of free time to explore the mansion by himself, of course at all times there would be someone following him around for his safety.


    Today he had a very special task as he stepped up to his room doors, a little biscuit sat in hand which he continuously nibbled on with his first two teeth that had just poked their way out of his gums.


    He placed the biscuit on a pedestal and dragged a chair to the door, it took him a full ten minutes to move the chair, the bad thing about having good furniture was its heavy weight.


    After climbing the chair, he pulled the handle and pushed the doors apart, as he got off the chair, he looked at the spot where the chair belonged, I''ll just leave it to the adults to put it back in place he shrugged and picked up his half-eaten biscuit.


    In truth, he wasn''t supposed to be eating anything solid yet, but when no one was looking he would sneak biscuits from the kitchen and place them in his clothes and he would later hide them in his cot.


    He had grown tired of only milk and his baby food was almost flavorless, he needed new flavors and he had what was definitely the best kitchen on the planet in his home, there was no way he would miss the opportunity.


    He skipped his meeting with the wet nurses, he had important matters to attend to, those pictures of him needed to stop and the perfect opportunity had arrived.


    Apparently, the manor was lagging behind in the current fashion trends of Xelia, his mother was all too happy to do a big scale renovation of the manor and the renovation included all the bathrooms.


    Today he walked with purpose through the halls, the servants all nodded politely or smiled at him, some even offered to carry him around but today was not a day for such things as he cut across the atrium and found the plumbers.


    He walked up to a burly man in a long-sleeved red-check shirt, and a tool belt wrapped around his waist, a group surrounded him as he pointed at a drawing and explained what they were doing. Soon he felt something on his shin but didn''t think much of it, but soon the constant taps were annoying and he turned around to see what it was.


    At first, he saw nothing then he lowered his gaze slowly until he saw a child that could barely even reach his knees. It took him by surprise to see such a small child and seeing how adorable the child looked raising her head to meet his gaze, his heart melted.


    Lirian had wanted to look firmly at the man and give him his new task, but his intimidation plan failed as he could only meet the man''s shin with a level gaze, and as he slowly tilted his head further and further, he felt like he lost all his authority as he had to hold his head at an almost 90-degree angle just to see his face.

 Chapter 34 - 034 – A CHILDS ASPIRATIONS

    It had always been his way to intimidate those around him, the only way to stop people from giving in to their foolish tendencies of trying to kill him on sight was to put so much fear in them that the thought of acting against him would give them an instant seizure.


    Even while looking up, he held his composure, "Are you, Bob?"


    By now everyone had noticed the one and a half foot tall Lirian, and his standoff with their boss.


    Lirian could already hear them whispering to each other, "How old is that kid?", "She''s so cute?", "She''s so small."


    Lirian felt his face twitch, the other problem with this body was that every bloody person mistook him for a girl. "Yes, I''m Bob," the plumber answered and crouched down, even crouched he towered over Lirian, "Who are you, little girl?"


    Lirian could make out a smile behind the beard, but it did nothing to calm his fury, his hands curled into little fists as he shouted, "I. Am. Not. A. Girl."


    "I am Lirian named after my mother''s late father, and son of the empress." he heaved a heavy breath.


    "How old are you?", one of the workers suddenly asked, he couldn''t hold back his curiosity, everyone turned to look at him as if he did something wrong, ", uhm, sir Lirian?" he added hastily.


    "Six months old, do you have a problem with that?" he asked while puffing out his small chest.


    "Nope, nope... no problem at all," he looked around before adding, ", Sir Lirian."


    "How may we be of service Sir Lirian?" Bob asked hastily trying not to show his surprise.


    "I need a toilet," he answered instantly.


    "Uhm, sure I can have someone take you to the toilet," Bob said, still trying to wrap his head around the fact that he was talking to a toddler.


    "Do I look like I need someone to take me to the toilet!", Lirian shouted frantically.


    The workers wisely avoided the question, well all except for the one that asked him his age, "Yes!" he said and quickly slapped his hands over his mouth.


    Lirians eyes twitched, "You''re walking on a thin line buddy!" he shouted.


    He took a step back, "I''m so sorry, I didn''t mean to say that it just slipped out of me, please forgive me... sir Lirian," he added after a pause.


    ''Deep breaths Lirian, deep breaths.'' he thought to himself to calm down.


    "I need you to put in children''s toilets in the bathrooms."


    "Our plans have already been approved by the empress," said Bob, he pulled out a piece of paper and showed Lirian the seal, "This is her majesties seal..."


    "Yes, I know," said Lirian and he pulled a ring he had tucked into clothes out, the ring had the same symbol as the wax on the plans, ", and with this, we can change the plans, my mother lent it to me." he lied through his teeth.


    Bob thought about it, "Okay everyone let''s take a break while I contact the boss to make a couple of changes to the plans."


    Even though they had been dismissed they still stood around the sight of Lirian was just too shocking for all of them, they had all heard about the empress adopting a child but the news hadn''t given them any details, it also wasn''t very often that one got to see a six-month-old child talking.


    "Which bathrooms would you like us to change?" asked Bob.


    "All of them, every last one. When the plans are ready send a servant to me so that I can come to approve them." he turned around and strutted away with his hands tied behind his back.


    When he got back into the mansion, he found Anya standing in his way and a smirk on her face.


    She had seen the whole thing and watched in fascination as Lirian pushed the plumbers around, she was very impressed with how well he prepared for the task, he even stole one of the empress''s seals, a pity it was a fake while being processed the fake seal would be discovered, it was a trap left for any ill-intentioned staff members and the details were identical to the real seal, and would only be discovered in a scanner.


    "That was well done but your seal is a fake, I never thought I''d see you using it though."


    Lirian realised he was still holding the ring; with a little sleight of hand, he switched the ring with a biscuit. "I don''t know what you''re talking about.", he knew that the ring was a fake and that the plan probably wouldn''t go through, but he was going to continue disrupting the plans until he got his way.


    Anya raised a brow at his skilled fingers, "You aren''t supposed to be eating that?"


    "It''s delicious and baby food is bland, if you want to take this away from me, you''ll have to fight me for it."


    Anya stepped closer before Lirian could blink the biscuit was in Anya''s hands, she took a bite out of it, "Delicious," she said with deliberate emphases.


    Lirian looked at her with teary eyes and aimed his hardest kick at her shin, the moment his leg hit hers, it felt like he had kicked a wall and he fell flat on his butt, "Stupid, Anya." he cried out.


    "Fine, stop crying and I''ll let you have one."


    "Really?", Lirian looked up with large watery eyes.


    "Yes, but only one," she said, those eyes were damn cheats in life she thought to herself.


    "Perfect," said Lirian as he got back up, his fake tears gone he pulled another biscuit from his clothes and began nibbling on it.


    "How many of those do you have?", Anya asked, she felt sour at how well she had been played.


    "It''s my last one." Lirian lied and began to eat happily.


    "Don''t get happy so quickly kiddo, your mom ain''t gonna let you off the hook after what you''ve done."


    Sure enough, when he got back to his room his mother was sitting on the bed looking at him with a serious face, ''Oh no, I really did it this time,'' he thought to himself.


    "Mommy I can explain..." but before he could say anything he felt himself floating in the air and he landed on her lap.


    "Fine, but I''ll still explain myself afterward," he said and crawled over her knees. A burning sensation soon filled out his bottom.


    He only received a few shots, but he knew that it would be unpleasant to sit down anytime soon, his mother obviously held back a lot, if she accidentally used even a little of her real strength the only thing left of him would be Lirian paste.


    "What did you learn today?" Taliyah asked.


    "That using mothers ring without permission is wrong," he said while standing up straight, he didn''t let his voice shake even slightly as he spoke which earned him his mother''s approval as well as Anya''s, while he was mischievous, he never tried to shirk off taking responsibility and even as he got his butt paddle, he didn''t let out a single cry.


    Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Anya looking into his cot, she pulled up the mattress and found an assortment of biscuits, "I knew all the jelly-jams couldn''t be finished." she cried and looked at Lirian with a wronged expression.


    Taliyah''s lips twitched, "Lirian have you been stealing food from the kitchen again?"


    Lirian slipped his hand over his butt afraid of getting another shot, "I can''t help it, it''s delicious.", he said righteously.


    "Now, Lirian I''ve told you many times that food is for grown-ups."


    "I am like a grown-up, I can walk by myself, I can speak," he thought silently, ", better than some adults I might add, and I can go to the potty by myself, so how am I not like an adult," he said proudly.


    Taliyah and Anya both tried their hardest to stop their lips from curling into a smile and it resulted in a slight twitch. Watching him stand so proudly made them proud but also confused at the same time, after all, his point was completely flawed but coming from a toddler it seemed almost convincing.


    "You are only one and a half feet tall; your average adult is at least five feet tall.", said Anya.


    "That''s a superficial reason." he immediately retorted.


    "You don''t even have any teeth," she snapped back.


    "Ha," Lirian barked and opened his mouth wide, and pointed to his two little teeth that started to poke out of his gums, "I do have teeth."


    "You lack manners and your etiquette is non-existent," said Taliyah after some deliberation, it might be a little harsh to say but she couldn''t afford to start losing to her son in arguments when he was still so young.


    Lirian grimaced, that was very true, after all in all his past lives the entire world hated him, he didn''t care to learn such useless things, and his mannerisms were like a barbarian, it was pretty hard to unwind trillions of years'' worth of bad habits in a few months.


    "Secondly, you are uneducated and last but not least you are still only six months old."


    He wanted to retort to both of those, but that would completely blow his cover as an immortal reincarnator.


    "If you can learn to behave yourself, then when you turn two, I will get you some instructors to begin your basic education before you start school," said Taliyah, in truth she had been planning to begin his education at two all along, but his learning speed was far too incredible.


    "I''ll behave if you teach me how to read and write mommy."


    Taliyah raised her eyebrow at his attempt to negotiate with her, "Just a few minutes in the morning and in the evening before I go to sleep," he pleaded, learning the new runes and sentence structure would take him some time the sooner her started the better.


    "If you teach me then I can spend my time in the library reading books, if I''m reading books, it will give me less time to... do other things." he shrugged helplessly.


    "You drive a hard bargain young man, but very well we have a deal.", a beautiful smile appeared on her face and she offered Lirian her hand.


    Lirian grabbed her hand and shook it which startled her, then she laughed, "You really don''t know any etiquette, you''re supposed to kiss my hand little-one."


    "Oh, I forgot," he said and quickly kissed her hand.

 Chapter 35 - 035 – THE CRADLE OF LIFE

    "Now I just need to tell them to stop with the plans you told them to make," Taliyah sighed.


    "Wait, mommy can we please get the children''s toilets." he pleaded.


    Taliyah narrowed her eyes; she didn''t fancy the idea of having two toilets in a bathroom in didn''t seem elegant at all and it would only be a temporary requirement for him anyway.


    "Do you know that every servant has the pictures Anya took of me," he said in a wronged voice and stared daggers at Anya. This was something he genuinely felt aggrieved at.


    Taliyah put her hand to her mouth to cover up her giggle, she had seen the pictures, they were really cute, just the image of Lirian doing a split over the toilet made her crack up.


    "See, even you laugh when you think about it!" he shouted in outrage.


    "Sorry dear, but it is cute, I have even put a few pictures in our photo album,", she chuckled softly, as Lirian slowly went red in the face from embarrassment.


    "No, mom, please don''t do this it''s so embarrassing," he ran to her and hugged her leg tightly while looking at her with his watery eyes.


    "Your majesty, don''t fall for that, he seems to have realized that his eyes are lethal weapons capable of lowering all defenses, and he uses it extremely effectively.", Anya chimed in, she was completely against the idea, those pictures were a source of entertainment for her everyday life.


    Taliyah pondered in silence having two toilets in a bathroom, would make it look like some kind of community restroom, "Very well, I''ll have one of the rooms converted for you," she said to Lirian, ", you can select one of the rooms closer to our room."


    Lirian glance at Anya, as she popped his jelly jams into her mouth and smirked, "I choose Anya''s room, it''s perfect for me."


    Taliyah furrowed her brow and looked at Lirian with a dangerous glint in her eyes, he grabbed his butt, the burning sensation was yet to dissipate and he feared another round of it, "If children get punished for making trouble so should adults, and it''s all Anya''s fault."


    Taliyah was conflicted, she had allowed it to happen in the first place, and based on his logic she would have to punish herself as well, she saw Anya staring daggers at Lirian and he was looking around all smug with himself.


    In a sense it reminded her of how she would argue with her brothers when she was small, she was the only daughter in the family and her brothers treated her like a little princess, but that didn''t mean they never had their fair share of fights.


    "Lirian you may choose any room that isn''t already occupied by someone."


    Lirian wanted to complain but wisely kept his mouth shut, he had to accept that adults were unjust in their ways it was just the way the world worked, "Fine," he grumbled, ", the room next to the nursery will be fine."


    A week slowly passed by and Lirian finally got to see his new bathroom it was done perfectly, there was a kid''s size tub, which was a relief the one in his mother''s bathroom was like a swimming pool though he enjoyed swimming it was not as relaxing as sitting in a normal tub, and most importantly he could use the toilet in peace, they had to actually customize the toilet to make it slightly smaller for his use, even the standard children''s one was too big for a toddler.


    After that his lessons slowly began, every morning his mother teach him the letters, it was a very difficult language even by Lirians standards, it had 92 runes,714 symbols, but at least it had a simple 10-digit number system, the language was also split into low-chant, standard-chant and high-chant, the low chant was different between each world, every world had its own diversified words that mixed into the language and that is why every world''s low-chant is slightly different.


    Standard-chant was what Lirian had learned and it was the most important one to know, it is the chant that has remained unchanged since its inception and is used as the galactic language, and finally, the high-chant is only used by those nobles who want to be all fancy, it''s also used in all decrees issued by the empire.


    Taliyah had ensured that he would learn all three, at least for his time on Xelia he would need to know its low-chant while the other two were important to his future.


    One morning Lirian walked into the dining room, breakfast had just been served and everyone was absorbed in their lavish meals, he looked on enviously, his mother still forbade him from eating grown-up food so as he walked, he swiped a few things, his new stash location was his bathroom as Taliyah had started to check his cot every day.


    He sat down next to Anya and a servant brought him a cup of cocoa, it was the only thing with flavour he was allowed to have and he treasured every sip.


    Anya watched him carefully he had started to make it a habit to sit next to her and attempt to swipe some of her food, she figured it was his retribution for eating all his stashed biscuits. He was very subtle about it also, the moment she took a moment to enjoy her meal, he would swipe something away.


    Anya was astonished by his quick hands but not as much as his ability to store everything away, his clothes were tailored to be tight-fitting but he still managed to hide things in them without anyone noticing or messing himself, then he would proceed to eat his hard-earned food over the course of the day, pulling it out like an endless food dispenser.


    She didn''t feel like ratting him out, after all, he was showing a skill that she approved off.


    After the meal he started wandering the mansion and finally, he took a rest in the ballroom, it was kept extremely clean and the wooden floors sparkled endlessly, Lirian sat down cross-legged in the room.


    There was a constant temptation to him, to cultivate, he had all the necessary resources but there was a huge problem he had never faced before, it was impossible to cultivate without the techniques and while he had those in abundance it was impossible to use them without raising suspicion, especially since the only techniques he would consider were esper techniques.


    The other thing that scared him was that he constantly had to suppress his body, one born with a cultivation level would have an innate cultivation technique inscribed into their very being, and it would ensure that even if someone lost their cultivation over time they would return to their natural state and for Lirian that state was a first-grade god.


    It was a first in history across all plains, and if he began his cultivation now and they scanned his DNA it would reveal his identity, there was a spell his father placed on him before he left the god realm to ensure no one could find out anything about his godly cells, but he still wanted an additional back-up because even the empress wouldn''t be able to stop the people attempting to study his body if word ever got out, by studying him and using his flesh samples it would be quite easy to create a unique cultivation method and if there was one thing he knew, it was that at their core all great cultivators had practically no morals.


    The other problem that he figured out was that prince/princess candidates were forbidden from cultivating until they were twenty and began their trials. If he did cultivate, it was very possible that his mother would be forced to disown him.


    He did however have one thing that could help him sort out most of his problems, he looked into his throne world and shut out the noise made by the others, and extracted the last of his treasures from the soul vault.


    In his hand what appeared to be a spark of electricity floated, he didn''t worry about anyone seeing it or detecting it, this was what he considered his ultimate creation of all, he killed hundreds of gods and done countless tasks for billions of years across multiple lives to fashion this singular spark.


    He called it, The Cradle of Life, and in it lay all the knowledge he had ever collected across all his lives, as a god one''s memory is almost infinite and a god''s ability to process information is incalculable, while he could recall almost everything about his past lives that was important, there were many things of less importance but necessary for survival and this spark possessed that knowledge and processing ability, and one of the most important things to make it was the sacrifice of his own life and the embers of a dying plain.


    The spark was made by him, for him alone, no other being in existence would even understand what it was. He held it tight and soon the spark traveled through his body and soon his mind and body went through a change.


    When he opened his eyes again a language of his own creation appeared in his eyes.


    [Host Detected...]


    [System start....]

 Chapter 36 - 036 – THE NEW PRINCESS

    [System integration success]


    [Welcome back host]


    Name: Lirian (Samsara, The god of rebirth)


    Status: Mortal/Healthy


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    Body: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 7


    Mana: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 2


    Mind: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 35


    [Level of Threats detected on your fate string is currently low, however, there are very dangerous times detected in your future. (43 billion Fate particles are required to do a scry.)]


    Fate Achievements: Unknown (Currently calculating...)


    Systems Fate Particles: 103 trillion


    Hosts Fate Particles: 4 300 000 000


    [Ten thousand godly essences have been detected in your body currently all have been drained and lay dormant, activation of a single essence will require at least 15 trillion fate particles.]


    AVATARS STATUSES


    Talen Haltz (Chaos Bringer) - Healthy


    Arodil (The Demon of the END) - Healthy


    Lucian ¨C Healthy


    Mitrax (the divine artisan) - Healthy


    Killian ¨C Mentally Disorientated/Healthy


    21 ¨C Healthy


    23 ¨C Healthy


    ---


    Lirian looked at the systems fate particles in surprise, not even 0 .00001% of his fate particles crossed over he did the calculation in his head and estimated that he had been asleep for almost 63 trillion years this time it was the longest since he created the system.


    The fate particles were the main backbone of the system, it was required to enable all its high processing power but currently, it was too low, 100-trillion fate particles is the natural amount held by any fourth-grade immortal, which meant that his processing speed wouldn''t come close to a god.


    The system had incidentally been inspired by the plain he had lived in as Kallidin where every being was linked to the system, his however was exceptional in its ability to wield fate, that was the core design behind his system to utilize fate particles, by using it he could avoid locking himself in a diviners esper technique, which would give him zero combat ability.


    By using it he could enjoy the perks of being a diviner while being able to protect himself, he looked at his fate particles happily, which was mainly from what he had earned at the space station.


    The godly essences didn''t bother him too much, he had no intention to become some cheap imitation, he already found uses for the essences it would greatly aid his Nirvana body esper technique the essence of elemental affiliated creatures was a requirement and now he had the best essences he could hope for lying dormant inside his body.


    He looked up at the threat detection and happily spent some of the systems resources to look into it.


    [Error, Error, Error...]


    Lirian frowned and looked at the messages


    [Fate scry has been subverted, the strength of the interference belongs to a fifth-grade immortal, skill level is estimated to be without equal, conclusion this is the work the fate spinner Katerina, her signature fate weaving patterns were detected.]


    Lirians eyes bulged out of his sockets, of course, the only threats that he could currently face would come from an eternal such as her, but still, the cost to scry was far too low if he was dealing with a fifth-grade immortal the cost should be hundreds of trillions, for Katerina one would have to multiply that number by at least a thousand if they wanted to glimpse at her plans let alone get a proper look.


    He could hardly believe that he had already been detected by her despite all the counter-measures he put in place.


    [An image has been retrieved as well as a timeline.]


    "Bring them up," said Lirian


    An image of a woman with crimson-red eyes appeared in his eyes, ''So it''s Elsie,'' he thought quietly the way to recognise an eternal was through their eyes once you see the colour of their eyes, you would never see a colour similar to it so if you see that same colour again it means that you are looking at an eternal, ''The Blood Monger'', she was like a cockroach as far as he remembered, her attacks were quick and deadly and she could heal from a single cell with her techniques but compared to him her abilities were laughable, and the laws she specialized in were slaughter, shadow, desiccation and consumption.


    Of course, she would have some new tricks up her sleeve, but so did he, he had killed her three times in the past, those eternals had a fun time attacking him in the past, during his eighteenth life, he had thought them off true terror and ever since they started to tread carefully around him but when he found the opportunity to ruin them, he did.


    He didn''t worry him too much but the one shielding her Katerina, gave him reason to worry about their plans, she was the only one of the eternals that he regarded as a genius on his level.


    "Show me the timeline."


    [1000 years, only after 1000 years the incident will not occur.]


    Lirian sighed it appeared that was all he could get, in any case, a thousand years was more than enough for him to reach the pique of the mortal realm and even if all the eternals were to gang up on him in a fight, he would only feel pressured it would be far from enough to make him feel fear.


    He simply needed to make sure he didn''t ascend to the immortal plain ahead of time, "System are there any other threats."


    [None with a high chance of lethality, and knowing these obstacles will cause a deviation, all paths of deviation lead to a horrible ending, it is advised to go on without observing these timelines.]


    Lirian contemplated silently, this must be the result of my fate interference when I fled into the mortal realm, I burned up all my fate and all my treasures for a chance at optimal survivability, by doing that I burned all my other bridges and locked myself onto this path, he sighed as he thought of the implications, it felt like he bought a one-way ticket on a burning train.


    There was one thing that he feared now, his optimal path didn''t mean that it was optimal for the people around him, when he used up his fate, he didn''t even think about the fact that he was no longer cursed or of the possibility that there may be people he''d want to protect.


    ---


    The Immortal Realm


    Katerina sat on her throne, the threads of fate constantly spinning around her and creating patterns, it formed a dress around her and protected her sacred body from the onslaught of time.


    She had been truly surprised, something that never happened to her in the past, "My love your skill in scrying has increased by bounds without measure, but sadly you still fall short."


    She reacted late and an image slipped past as well as the timeline, it was an unforeseen event and one that could damage her plans, unfortunately, she could not accelerate things any further, Elsie''s death in her current plain was certain but it would take a long time before she was reborn here, it would be 900 years before she could arrive.


    "Perhaps this too is fate," she quietly murmured.


    Her gaze swept across the mortal plains and an idea formed, with Elsie''s abilities being as great as they were she would be noticed but she needed to ensure her quick rise in the ranks, she moulded countless threads together to create a future to aid in Elsie''s growth and to have her quickly accepted.


    "This is all I can do for you, my love; enjoy the future I have crafted for you," she said a small smile on her lips.


    ---


    Lirian had been contemplating in silence, he hadn''t moved an inch since he entered the ballroom and several hours had gone by, the more he thought about it, the more he realized that the only way Elsie could pose a threat to him, was if she gained control of an entire empire and to do that, she would have to become an empress, it only served to motivate him to continue down this path as a prince candidate.


    Days began to flow and within a day he was able to learn how to read, it would have taken him a month without the system but with such an efficient system he only needed minutes to understand the language.


    Of course, he pretended to take a month, he didn''t want to give his mother a scare, as long as the progress was gradual it wouldn''t be too suspicious.


    When a month passed by, he entered the library for the first time, it was massive, a fifth of the manor was used up by the library, Lirian decided to take it easy for the first few months as he read through simple books for children.


    It was amazing how many cultural references were hidden in the books made for children and he spotted them all to paint himself a better picture of his current world.


    The months passed by and gradually he began pulling out the big books much to the horror of the old and grey librarian that spent his entire life taking care of the books, unfortunately for him he received instructions to give Lirian access to whatever he wanted.

 Chapter 37 - 037 – FOUR YEARS LATER

    Benedict was crying out in his heart as heard the sound in the library, his withered white hair fell to his chest his white beard stretched to his stomach, in all his life he had never cried as much as he did since Sir Lirian entered the library.


    He could hear a book being ripped to shreds and then being slammed around, he feared the entire bookcase would fall over, and his heart pained him like never before as the sound of ripped paper filled the room.


    He could rebuke most people but not the child of the empress, he rushed to look at the catastrophe occurring, and sure enough, it was one of the old books, with an aged spine and almost four times the size of the young master. A historical masterpiece that had survived for millennia he was proud to have a book as old as that one in his archives, and now it was ruined, even worse it wasn''t the first ageless masterpiece ruined by the hands of the young master.


    He had tried buying new books and due to the funds, he received from the empress he had acquired numerous new collections, he continuously tried to promote them to the young master but unlike other children he held no adoration of new and shiny things instead, he would look for the oldest and most valuable of books.


    "Y-young master what travesty did the book commit this time?", he asked failing to hide several sobs of pure grief.


    Lirian released the torn-up pages and looked at old Benedict, "I hope that those are tears of joy, for me sparing you from reading that travesty, it doesn''t even deserve to be called a book, truth be told calling it one would be an insult to all other books in existence."


    "Y-y-yes, t-these... are tears of pure joy," he sobbed even harder, he hated his child so much and all he could do was let out heartbreaking sobs in his presence.


    "Good, good, I''m glad you feel that way, in all honesty, it would be too good of a fate for it if I use it as toilet paper so I''m just going to burn in my hearth at least it will provide some usefulness before it disappears."


    Benedict jumped with agility an old man should not possess at the torn-up papers, grabbing everything he could into his own two arms, he sniveled and cried as he cradled the torn pages and broken spine, he looked at Lirian like some monster and fled the scene.


    "That''s the eight-time you made that poor old man cry," said Anya she had been standing behind a row of books and watched the scene with pitying eyes.


    "It''s not my fault that old man collects such inaccurate biased rubbish, he should be sincerely thanking me for stopping other people from wasting their time with those books," said Lirian, he had grown taller over the past few years but he was still short for his age.


    "It used a dating system filled with errors, if I followed it up to the current times, I''d be three years in the future, its star maps have way too many missing pieces and if I followed its star map to get out of the Garo star zone and into the Opal star zone, I''d end up in the Arami asteroid belts."


    "If that old man spent more time traveling and less time collecting useless books he''d know, no wait if he followed his books to go on his travels, he''d be dead, smashed by some asteroids and his empty body would be floating in dead space."


    Of course, due to his system, it was easy for Lirian to make all those calculations and find the errors and if he pointed out all the historical errors they''d be standing there for days.


    "That''s a weeks'' worth of reading time I''ll never be getting back, he should be glad that I only ruined that book."


    "A week, that book was like four times your size!" exclaimed Anya in surprise.


    "Oh, it was very derivative, it stole half its words from other books, all things I''ve browsed over," he lied to hide his abnormal reading speeding, in truth the book only took him an hour to read through.


    A few minutes later he was called to his room.


    "Again Lirian," Taliyah snapped from the start, ", this is the twentieth book in the past six months, and it''s the eight-book that cannot be purchased again."


    "Well good riddance, the less of those books in existence the more people will thank me for saving them from months'' worth of wasted reading time," he said quickly. ", and I''m okay with receiving my punishment, at least I made a contribution to society by getting rid of that filth."


    Taliyah took a very long breath to calm herself, she could feel her bones shaking, she wondered where she went wrong in raising him, she did her best but it didn''t stop her from hearing at least a dozen complaints a day, ''Your majesty, Sir Lirian felt the pictures in the dining hall had no symmetry to them, so he ripped them down and threw them into the hearth.'', ''...Lirian found a chipped cup, so he tossed out the whole set, it was a three-thousand-year-old set, the last one made by Carol Hartigan before he died.'', ''... Sir Lirian has set fire to the hedges in the atrium, he claims it was an accident.'', ''...another one of the front garden fountains seems to have imploded on its self we suspect Sir Lirian.''


    "242 antiques, 7 fountains, 58 books, 14 teachers, 302 accidental fires, 111 staff panic attacks, Lirian these are all things you''ve ruined, destroyed, or caused; do you have anything to say for yourself, anything at all?", Taliyah shrieked in horror, by the gods she loved her son, he was a brilliant genius the likes of which no one would ever compare to, a child that would make any parent proud to no ends, but his ability to make her have anxiety was incalculable, she feared saying that to his face because he would probably say, ''it is calculable we just need...'' and he would proceed to make a list of instruments and tests that need to be run.


    She felt that dealing with a rebellion was easier than dealing with him.


    She knew the saying that geniuses were eccentric, but when she looked at Lirian she just wanted to cry, he was only 4 and a half years old, what would it be like in the future, would garden fires turn into a city decimating fire or worse.


    "Honestly mom, I did you a favour with all those antiques, most of them looked like a dumpster would be too good for them and the ones in sets became valueless when a single piece got a chip or scratch on it, as for the fountains, I was just testing energy control, by blocking the water spouts, the pressure did the exploding, in truth the real crime there is the water pressure, why is it so high, if it''s focused it could cut a person in half."


    "The books were atrocities, as for the teachers it''s not my fault they were so stupid, the fires were accidents, it''s not easy to control energy without cultivation, and the staff get scared of things very easily.", only the last one was a lie, in truth sometimes, he''d get annoyed that he couldn''t cultivate and his other selves were still boycotting him, which resulted in him releasing his horrifying aura by accident.


    Taliyah did a very unempress like action by face palming, why did I ask him if he had anything to say, of course, he did, he always does without fail, she still remembered his first math teacher the best in the star cluster, he was a space navigations expert, he also specialized as a mental psychic, a month into the lessons he came crying to her with his resignation letter.


    He had a complete mental breakdown, he quit his job and went to live in the wild, when his former boss found him, he cried like a baby saying that a two-year-old monster showed him how futile and insignificant his life''s work had been.


    Every etiquette teacher, rage quitted on her calling Lirian a barbarian, the language teachers had taught him diligently and praised his learning ability, the history teacher was also ecstatic about him and filled with praise. The only two positives.


    "Lirian over my knees this instant," Taliyah said with shaky breathing and her beautiful lips pulled into a thin line.


    A few minutes later she left Lirian lying down on his bed with his butt raised in the air.


    She went back to her office with Anya beside her, in truth she wanted to scold Anya for letting him do all his mischief, "Why don''t you stop him, Anya?" she asked.


    "Would you prefer that I did that, your majesty?"


    Taliyah turned to look at her like she asked the stupidest question in the world, "Your majesty, he only gets up to so much trouble so he can spend a little more time with you,", Anya added, ", haven''t you noticed that he only started to get out of hand when you gave him his own room."


    Taliyah sighed as she thought about it, when he turned two, she turned the nursery into a proper room for him, and since then they spent less time together in the mornings and evenings, and because she got him, teachers, she stopped teaching him as well.


    "Are you sure?" she asked, her eyes filled with guilt.


    "Do you know that he smiles every time you call him up to his room to get punished for his misbehavior, either he is a masochist or he feels happy to spend time with you."

 Chapter 38 - 038 – NINE YEARS

    A week later while it was still dark and everyone slept, Lirian felt a faint touch on his feet, and soon it broke out into a full-on tickle, he thrashed wildly and jumped back with his blankets draped around him.


    He turned to look at the intruder, "Mom!" he cried out in surprise, even the dark couldn''t hide her beauty, and her bronze skin held a glow that needed no light to be seen.


    Taliyah giggled at his surprise, "Come with me dear, I have a gift for you."


    Lirian got up, he noticed that it was an hour earlier than when he usually got up, he rubbed his eyes and followed behind her quietly.


    They soon arrived in her courtyard, it was large open space with well-groomed grass and a lovely view of the sky. Sometimes they would lie down on the grass and just watch the stars, and his mother would occasionally point out the different constellations, and tell him stories about the ones she had visited.


    "Are we going to stargaze, isn''t it a little too late for that, the sun''s going to come up soon."


    "No dear, go and sit in the centre of the yard and close your eyes I''ll bring your gift in a second."


    As Lirian obeyed Taliyah brought out a simple wooden box and stood in front of him, "You can open your eyes,"


    Lirian saw the wooden box and could guess what was inside it, with a small smile on his face he took it opened it to see its contents.


    A short wooden sword, the blade was only a foot long and with the handle, it was about one and a half feet long, the perfect length for the current him, it was made of a jet-black wood and it was very heavy, on the crossguard his name was engraved in an extremely elegant hand, it was so beautiful that he wanted to put it in a glass case and leave it in a display.


    "Did you make it yourself mom?"


    Taliyah smiled gently only nodding in confirmation, "Do you like it?"


    "Mom, this is the kind of thing you should hang up around the house, it''s a million times fancier than all those antiques I got rid of," Taliyah didn''t know if she should feel proud of his compliment or angry at his mention of the destroyed antiques.


    "Yes, mom I love it," he said hugging it tightly, this was the first practical gift he had gotten until now it was mainly toys that he never touched.


    Taliyah smiled, seeing his genuine joy, he looked happier than he did receiving any other gifts, ''Boys will be boys,'' she thought. "It''s made out of black oak, it''s one of the naturally hardest woods, it can even crush a steel sword with ease so be careful when you use it.


    "Does this mean I''ll be getting a sword instructor," he asked without any enthusiasm, in truth the thought bothered him, his skill with a sword was in a realm that most gods couldn''t hope to reach, he certainly needed to temper his body to use his techniques but to receive guidance from someone he''d consider a talentless novice didn''t thrill him.


    Taliyah could see his lack of interest and shook her head, "No, I won''t be hiring any instructor to teach you this."


    Lirian narrowed his head in surprise, "As the empress and your mother it''s my responsibility to ensure that you are capable of fighting your own battles, and as I am a sword saint, I would like to think myself competent enough to teach my own son, don''t you agree?"


    His eye''s sparkled and the silver glow intensified, Taliyah recognised it as a sign that he was excited, she smiled as she thought about his reluctant expression from a minute earlier, Anya was right she thought.


    "Do you mean it, when do we start, and how often will train?" Lirian let out a flurry of questions.


    Taliyah smiled and explained, "Yes I mean it, we''ll start today and we''ll be training every day, but there are a few things you must-do if you want to learn from me."


    "First, you must get up on your own and arrive here every morning at the same time, if you are late by even a second there will be no lesson."


    "Second, I will teach you 25 different sword forms but you will decide how to use them, in combat I will give you no guidance it will be up to you to learn while fighting."


    "Thirdly, if you ever drop your sword while we spar," she paused and gave him a meaningful look, she was uncertain of what his reaction would be to this last rule but it was necessary, ", you will pick it up and use it to break one of your fingers."


    "Lastly, if you cry out in pain during our lessons, we will cease to have them permanently," she was surprised by his lack of a reaction to her words. "Did you hear me little one?" she asked hesitantly.


    Lirian nodded, her rules were child play compared to the punishment he used to push himself through.


    "Lirian, do you understand why the rules are important?"


    He nodded slowly, "The first rule is discipline, being on time is a show-off one''s dedication."


    "The second, you will not guide my technique or give me combat advice because while imitating someone with great skill can make someone stronger, it will block their road to becoming a great cultivator, an imitation will always just be an imitation, one who imitates others is bound to fail as a cultivator. My way must be my own."


    "The third rule is mainly for my own benefit, one who loses their weapon in a real battle will almost certainly die, compared to that my punishment will be light."


    "Lastly, to learn the feeling of pain in training will be my own fortune, I will be lucky to learn such a feeling before I enter a battle, and crying out in pain will be unbecoming of me as your son and a prince candidate."


    Taliyah nodded pridefully, he truly was brilliant, and his second answer left her in disbelief, it was a wisdom that most cultivators don''t understand until it was too late in their journey, and yet the way he spoke told her that even at his young age he understood the value of those words.


    "To be so young and to understand so much is your greatest fortune little one," she said proudly, ", now draw your sword and come at me, before I teach you, I must see how good your natural movements are, the better you are the better forms I shall teach you."


    Lirian smirked and pulled the wooden sword, it was heavy, in his small body it reminded him of a heavy sword, as his hand wrapped around the hilt a cold rush filled his body, and a refreshing burst of energy filled him, it was like he suddenly jumped into freezing water, and his every cell sparked with life.


    He chose a simple sword style that looked a little clumsy but was very effective at throwing an opponent of, it was unimpressively named the wobbly-sword, but he''d fought against immortals that honed it to unbelievable levels.


    Taliyah watched his approach unimpressed, on some level she expected him to be a genius in the sword and his footwork left her disappointed but in the next second she was surprised, she had to block seven quick strikes, if she had been a normal adult, she doubted she would have blocked more than three of his strikes.


    She was only using her hands, she wouldn''t dare to use her weapon against Lirian, not even a stick from a tree, when a weapon entered her hands, she tended to forget about everything else around her, it was like she would enter another world, and besides she had long ago seen a new path as a sword saint, but without wielding a sword, she didn''t understand it yet but she hoped to grasp even the slightest bit of that path.


    Lirian stepped back, he suddenly took several steps and kept shifting his weight to each side, he looked like a drunk man trying to keep his balance, but this time Taliyah did not underestimate his approach, as he struck at her waist from the right, she blocked it with a finger, and he took a rapid two-step to the right spun around and flourished his sword at the back of her knee.


    Taliyah watched his rapid change with awe, and his attacks spiraled in, due to the hight difference it would be foolish of him to attach her upper body so he had been attacking her knees, while every attack failed, he kept moving with perfect judgments, retreating at the perfect moment and striking relentlessly when given an opening.


    She didn''t even catch him with her feints, when an opening was too good, he retreated instead of advancing and on occasion, he even created openings on himself to draw her in, Taliyah began to feel like she was fighting a veteran, she realised that even his clumsy footwork was a deliberate choice to throw her off which side he would strike from.


    After 45 minutes passed Lirian began to breathe heavily, even for him going up against a half-transcender was tiring, his every strike against her felt like he was attacking a mountain, and he filled every strike with his full weight, his arms were slightly numb and his breathing became labored.


    He had learned a lot about his mother''s cultivation path from this and sighed in pity, she was taking the wrong path, a very common mistake in saints that specialized with weapons, becoming the sword is the road to godhood, it was still far too early for her to try it.


    Such was the deception of the heavens, it would often give its wielder hints to their paths but in the incorrect order, it was the cultivators'' duty to figure out the correct path and pass or take the wrong path and fail.


    He wished he could say something about it to her but it would probably be better for her if she learned the truth by herself, it was like he said, ''My way must be my own.'', the same applied to all cultivators and making mistakes was often better than making none.


    Like that his routine had changed and remained like that for several years to come but shortly before his tenth birthday a new adventure would arrive for him, the world of schooling, another first for Lirian.

 Chapter 39 - 039 – BEYOND ALL MEASURES

    It was a week before the opening ceremony and Lirian sat on the roof of the mansion a pair of binoculars in hand and he looked over into one of the neighbours'' homes, the distance between the mansions was enormous but he had a great a binoculars that Anya had given him for his last birthday.


    He felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see Anya standing there, she glanced in the direction Lirian was looking and could easily see everything going on, she could even hear the yelling if she didn''t block it out.


    "Did the husband get caught cheating again?" she asked with a slight smile.


    "Yep,", Lirian replied, ", poor guy." both of them said together and chuckled.


    The couple they spoke of had a tendency to cheat on each other all the time, the wife had a strange tendency to bring home different men, while the husband repeatedly brought home the same women, the husband also sucked at cleaning up after himself and his wife always found out, while he remained clueless of his wife''s affairs.


    The neighbour was one of those front-runners on the galactic markets for Xelia, and while he was a genius businessman, he was a useless detective.


    The wife would always use his affairs as ammo to leave him defenseless and play the wife being cheated on, it was a very entertaining show for Lirian and Anya.


    "I think that it''s becoming too repetitive, maybe we should give the husband the ammo he needs,", said Lirian.


    "But that will ruin it, if he''s too dumb to figure it out it''s his own fault."


    "Yeah, but I can predict how the whole fight is going to go by now, it''s not as entertaining,", Lirian complained.


    After contemplating Anya said, "Then send it to him, hopefully, he uses it to its maximum potential," she chuckled.


    Lirian tapped his watch and a few data packets were sent to the neighbour, he looked through the binoculars at the husband, unfortunately, he had none of his devices on him, "Looks like that fight will only happen later," he said with a sigh.


    "Anya, can you bring me down, it''s a long way down and my mom said she has something to speak to me about?"


    Anya floated down with Lirian in her arms, she still looked exactly the same as the day he met her, fair skin, rosy cheeks, cherry-like lips and flowing raven that looked like a waterfall of darkness, and out of everyone in the mansion, he was the closest with her, she even helped him get away with a few very big problems he caused in the house.


    Since his training with Taliyah begun, he didn''t cause as much trouble, but it was impossible to stop a river from flowing and the things that he did were a lot more destructive, only during these cases he was genuinely experimenting with his powers and the accidents were real accidents.


    The best part of all about Anya was her height of course, to Lirian his height was the biggest problem, he was surprisingly average when he ran a diagnostic with the system it told him that the energy of the world and the food of the mortal realm were almost useless to him, and as he thought of it made more and more sense, after all, he was originally a god and it was only the god realm that could properly nourish him.


    The reason that it bugged him so much was that it made his body extremely lean, and by lean he meant the type of lean girls pursued for their own bodies, and it caused him to look more and more like a girl when he looked into a mirror, he often couldn''t believe what he saw.


    Part of the reason he enjoyed Anya''s company so much was that she was only 5''2", while the next shortest person in the mansion was at least 5''10".


    They soon came to Taliyah and Anya put him down from the princess carry she was holding him in, "Good, Lirian I''ve cleared out my entire day, we''ll be spending the entire day together.", she said with a warm smile.


    "Are we going to see another troupe perform, no offense mom but that last one was boring, aside from the part where the dire wolves got lose.", in truth the dire wolves getting lose was his doing to this day no one knew who the real culprit was, and they never would.


    Taliyah''s face cramped up, just once she wished she could say something to Lirian and not get a judgemental answer, "No dear, today we will be staying home, our training has been going on for over five years and our spars have never been for more than an hour, I''ve noticed that it no longer tire''s you at all, so we''ll be having a very long spar today, no stopping until you faint from exhaustion."


    The spar soon began, and because Taliyah had given the entire staff the day off, many of them came to witness the spar, the occasional servant would catch a glimpse of their spars while cleaning up, and many rumors about Lirians skill were spread, it had to be known that even the weakest servant was a third-grade cultivator, so they were all interested in seeing a genius, even all of Taliyah''s aides stood together to watch.


    Among them was her chief aid Belinda and Helen, as well as six others, they turned one part of the yard into a little tea garden and watched while sipping on piping hot tea.


    The spar soon began and Lirian moved conservatively, if he was going up against an army of normal people, he''d be able to go on for days with ease, but against his mother, every second of his was filled with tension and he had to put his best foot forward with every action or he''d end up lying down in the mud.


    It was a strange feeling to have so many people around him but not trying to kill him, even though he knew they wouldn''t dare to, he couldn''t stop himself from constantly being on guard.


    When he stood with his sword raised, all his ineloquent characteristics seemed to disappear and he became the epitome of elegance, it was only him his sword and his opponent, he rushed forward and used the sword form with the most power behind it, ''Breaking Tides'', it had eighteen moves to it and for the opening strike, he used the ninth move.


    He knew it would be an instant failure, and just before the sword met Taliyah''s hand, he pulled out from the strike barrelled on the ground and used the, ''Rising Tide'', another form its only use was for fighting opponents bigger than oneself.


    He was only using the forms his mother taught him, but when he used it all the wasted movements were wiped out and he advanced releasing barrage after barrage of attacks on her.


    Their audience watched in silent awe as the two danced around the ground, Taliyah only used her hands to seamlessly deflected attacks, while pushing her advantage and pushing Lirian back.


    The aides watched on silently, but two of them were frowning slightly, it was Anya and another aid called Jane, they were the only two saints and they didn''t like what they were seeing, the empress''s movements were beautiful, but it was only that, if she fought either one of them with those movements, even if she was a half-transcender, she would lose.


    As Lirian fought on, the openings in Taliyah''s style became more and more apparent, becoming the sword is truly only meant for the gods he lamented in silence, their movements were more like a dance than ever before and their feet seemed to drift above the ground in perfect unison as each attack was perfectly diverted or parried.


    In eyes of the beholders, it appeared like two tides constantly lapping against each other and harmoniously parting ways, soon Lirian saw an opening as Taliyah raised her hand in a vertical slice, and he used a technique that only those who are perfectly matched in skill would ever use against an opponent, and it could be called a desperate move, taking the enemies sword.


    He moved in perfectly giving Taliyah no chance to stop her attack, he brought his shoulder into her strike, and a sickening crunch could be heard as his collar bone snapped, fresh blood flowed from his body and he felt his left shoulder dislocate, with his right hand he thrust his sword forward heading straight for Taliyah''s heart.


    He thought that he had won but the natural reflexes of Taliyah were beyond any mortals, and even in her shocked state she stopped the sword.


    The eyes of the aides flashed in astonishment and even Anya was shaking from what she had seen, at that last second before he struck Lirian hesitated and his body slowed down, he probably didn''t even notice it himself, but if he didn''t hesitate that attack would have connected.


    Anya knew well that in the entire Clovis empire as far as skill was considered she was recognised as the very best and the empress took second behind only her, they were both prodigy''s that made the empire weep with joy, but the raw skill Lirian showed put them to absolute shame if they were prodigy''s what word could fit Lirian.


    His skill with a sword was unbelievable and he could control energy while having no cultivation at all, not to mention his wisdom and knowledge that was beyond his age, the thoughts of all present were identical at that moment, Lirians adoption was the empires greatest fortune, and with the wisdom, he shows, passing the two-hundred-year trial should be easy.

 Chapter 40 - 040 – SYSTEM UPDATE

    It was an ordinary day like any other, the empress had given the entire staff the day off but no one left.


    We all wished to see the results of her son''s training over the years.


    He had always been an exceptional trouble maker, while smart for a child and having a heaven-granted beauty, we all only saw him as a special child, but it was only that.


    However, it was on that day that our hearts were changed, and our understanding of the world changed forever.


    It was a truth to every cultivator that the laws would only move on their own in the presence of a god, it is a sight all cultivators wish to see, it is a reality we all wish to make our own, but on that day, we saw the laws themselves rush to the empress''s son, not only did they embrace him, but they fought to get closer to him, and yet they dared not grasp onto his skin.


    As if touching his flesh would be the greatest of sins.


    His blood that spilled on that day remains on those very grounds, the laws refused to allow anyone to touch it, not even the empress herself.


    I will never forget that moment when the empress''s son''s collar bone snapped and his left arm became unusable, he climbed off the ground and made not a sound, no cry of pain, not even a complaint, he said only one word...


    -an entry in the journal of Antonasia the warlock, the eighth aide of the empress.


    ---


    Lirian fell to the ground, his hand still wrapped around the black-oak sword, in his every lesson no matter how hard he was pushed not once did he ever let go of the sword.


    He climbed to his feet and felt the burning sensation in his arm, as he moved, he felt the bones grinding in his shoulder, he felt pain much worse than this, never could something so small make him even flinch.


    Taliyah still looked shaken by what she had done, she had given him a few fractures in the past but this was a different level of injury, she even drew his blood, "L-Lirian, that''s enough for today, let''s get you healed, then we can go and do something together afterward."


    Lirian looked to her and smiled, "Again!", he shouted, pointing his sword towards her.


    His words were like a bell, ringing directly above the heads of all.


    Taliyah froze, "You''re injured little one, let''s take a break!"


    Lirian shook his head, "I''m not injured, I''m lucky to feel this pain while it is only training, it''s just like I said about your rule''s mom, feeling pain in training will only help me when I''m in a real battle."


    "Again!" he shouted once more.


    A melancholic smile appeared on Taliyah''s lips, "Very well.", a wooden sword appeared in her hand and she pointed it at Lirian.


    Lirian smiled at the gesture, to raise one''s weapons against a lesser opponent was a sign of respect.


    At that moment Lirian eyes moved separately, one eye on her feet and one on her sword arm, he began a basic analysis of her movements, until now he had only seen her wield her sword to show him the sword forms.


    Their dance begun again, this time sword met sword, and waves of pressure were redirected into the ground, Taliyah stayed on one spot and allowed Lirian to take the initiative, she didn''t want to accidentally do any more damage.


    Lirian took on the ''Pensive Swords'', form and approached, it was difficult to use with a broken arm, the form was designed so that the sword wielder would hold the hilt with one hand and the tip rested on the forearm, allowing one to maintain their guard while steadily advancing, but he held the sword steady and moved forward.


    The ground hardened beneath his feet, just enough to give him more speed, and tiny currents of air formed pockets in the air where he stepped, ''The Feather Falls'', his sword moved and a dozen unpredictable strikes rained down from above.


    Taliyah used, ''Dancing Leaves'', to block it, her eyes narrowed as the elemental laws subtly moved around Lirian, then his moves got faster and faster and she saw traces of the lightning laws enhancing his nerves, his every move caused the laws to change.


    She blocked his next strike and locked him down, but he channeled his full weight into his sword, and using it as a lever and Taliyah''s sword as a fulcrum, he spun around Taliyah''s blade and swiped at her throat.


    A quick step back and a sword slap later, she sent Lirian rolling on the ground, another crunching sound was heard and she noticed that he used the opportunity to push his shoulder back in place.


    He clenched his fist happy to have control of it again, but he could hardly move the hand, his broken collar bone was the real problem, and if he forced himself to use his hand it would make his recovery even worse.


    Their spar went on for hours, the sun soon reached its peak and crawled back down, but they still went on, their feet weaving in and out elegantly as they cut patterns into the ground, like a seamstress stitching patterns into clothes.


    The sun had long gone as he launched another flurry of strikes, at the same time Taliyah released a quick stream of strikes that Lirian completely failed to follow, a loud crunch was heard and splinters of wood flew around courtyard.


    He jumped back and held the pummel tightly and looked at the broken pieces of his sword with a heavy heart.


    "You did extremely well, little one, I''m very impressed with your ability, you have gone beyond even my wildest imagination, let''s end this for today." the pride she felt at that moment could only compare to the day she became empress.


    "When you meet my old master in your school, I''m sure he will be equally impressed with your outrageous skill," she said with a smile.


    Lirian was slightly unwilling but nodded, he was drenched in sweat and his collar bone needed treatment, as much as he wanted to continue, he knew his limits.


    He had heard his mother mention her old master many times, he was one of the most respected men in the empire and the advisor to several emperors and empresses, until he retired during the reign of Albus and Taliyah, he pursued his dream of becoming a teacher.


    As soon as he turned around the fatigue washed over him, and his tongue felt like a dried-up leather, he gave a quick order to one of the servants and looked at his system.


    Name: Lirian (Samsara, The god of rebirth)


    Status: Mortal/Slightly Injured


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    Body: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 20


    Mana: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 14


    Mind: Mortal (Suppressed godly constitution) - 56


    [Level of Threats detected on your fate string is currently low]


    Fate Achievements:


    Heavens Bane (I)¨C You have survived the onslaught of heavens wrath; you are now immune to 5% of all heavenly tribulation damage.


    Born a God ¨C You are the first born god in all of creation, your bodies limits are not restricted by the constraints of cultivation.


    First in Existence ¨C you are the first born god as result due to your unique existence the heaven places its boon upon you, you will gain insights into the laws of the world faster than any other being in creation. (2x learning speed)


    Heavens Chosen ¨C the current plain has a task for you that aligns with your future, the path will be yours to choose, until the task is completed the heavens greatest boon shall be placed upon you. (10x all fate particles collected.)


    Without Equal ¨C you have a natural gift to comprehend and understand the world in all its layers, there has never been another with such insight. (10x learning speed)


    Source Knowledge ¨C you have grasped the knowledge of genesis, cosmic and celestial, all energy centre''s benefit from these knowledge''s (1,15x cultivation speed, as you grow stronger so will you cultivation speed)


    Systems Fate Particles: 103 trillion


    Hosts Fate Particles: 8.9 billion


    [Ten thousand godly essences have been detected in your body currently all have been drained and lay dormant, activation of a single essence will require at least 15 trillion fate particles.]


    AVATARS STATUSES


    Talen Haltz (Chaos Bringer) - Healthy


    Arodil (The Demon of the END) - Healthy


    Lucian ¨C Healthy


    Mitrax (the divine artisan) - Healthy


    Killian ¨C Mentally Disorientated/Healthy


    21 ¨C Healthy


    23 ¨C Healthy


    ABILITIES:


    Samsara''s Vision ¨C you have the eye of a god capable of viewing the fate of the souls around you. (The mental strain is beyond your current ability to handle, recommended to shut of your optical nerve for 200 years before attempting to use the ability.)


    Energy Control ¨C you are able to bend the purest form of energy in your surroundings.


    ---


    The years had given him much, the Heaven Bane, came as no surprise to him it was certainly not his first time seeing it and he knew it wouldn''t be his last.


    Born a God, was a pleasant surprise and he was already seeing it in use, a mortal without any cultivation had a natural limit at 20 for their body, mana, and mind, however at his young age his body already reached 20 and an adult is at least five times stronger a child on average, while his mana was still low it was only natural, mana took techniques to build up and his naturally increasing mana was incredible, his mind was unbelievably strong for a mortal, the limit before one breaks into the first-grade is 100, on each centre of power and yet he would be able to reach those limits without cultivating and the moment he started he would immediately break into the first realm.


    First in existence was no surprise to him, as a being evolves down their own cultivation paths, they would become a unique existence, the more unique one becomes the harder it is for them to further evolve, too even out the field the heaven aids their path, of course, Lirian knew the true reason behind the heavens aid.


    Heavens chosen, the first time he saw it he thought he was tripping, and when he confirmed it, he laughed like a mad man for hours on end, it was the most ironic joke he had ever seen, the heavens had cursed him, made him immortal and forced him to live a life of misery and yet now it had the audacity to name him a chosen.


    He knew that the heavens were like an information form or a program doing things to ensure its continued operation, it had no moral understanding of right and wrong, it only knew to ensure its continued operation, but that didn''t stop him from hating it for handing him a deck made up of only jokers for his entire life.


    The last two were also expected he didn''t care too much about them, they were just passive boons, he had tons of techniques to ensure his fast growth, and as for his fate particle collection, the past few years had been very fruitful, he had gained so much from just the praise of those around him and as he looked at the new notifications, he became much happier.


    New fate particles started to pour into him from all the aides and servants that witnessed his spar, it seemed that he had made a very deep impression on them today.


    The item that left him with the deepest impression was his Samsara''s Vision, it would prove very useful but at the same time it posed a problem, it was unique to his natural cultivation and if he used his Samsara esper cultivation technique, he wouldn''t be able to use his ''Eight Truths'' perfect esper technique, and unfortunately, his ''Samsara'' technique didn''t come close to his ''Eight Truths'' technique.


    He only had one choice and that was to fuse the two together, he estimated that it would take at least 3 quadrillion fate particles to complete the analyses and come up with a decent path for fusion obtaining such a number wasn''t impossible, he already knew he could get it thanks to the heavens chosen boon, but what he would obtain was the bare minimum and he wanted more than that.


    Under the influence of such thoughts, he began to plot out his future course, his time in school would present an opportunity, but the students in the school would reach the third-grade at most and there were too few teachers to farm fate particles from.

 Chapter 41 - 041 – A FEAR OF THE HEART

    Lirian was in his room with a dozen servants around him, even his mother and several aides were there, the aide Antonasia was inspecting his wound. She was a warlock and like most warlocks, she had an insatiable curiosity for knowledge and her specialisation lay in alchemy.


    "It''s a clean snap," she said after a quick check, ", I can give you a pill to heal it right away, or you can do the natural recovery it will take about six weeks."


    "Let it heal naturally," he answered and shifted on his bed, he had lost count of how many pillows had been stuffed under his shoulder and after a certain number, it caused him even more pain.


    "A good choice," she smiled approvingly, ", I''ll have a sling made for you,", the luxuries of healing medicines were not supposed to be allowed to prince candidates, but she did so anyway, after seeing him today she had a feeling he would choose the natural route.


    To have your injuries heal naturally was a sign of respect to your opponent, and after his battle today she could tell that despite his lack of grace he had a degree of honour to him.


    Soon the room emptied out and only Lirian and Taliyah remained, "That move of yours was very bold if you fought a real battle like that..."


    "I would have lost my arm," said Lirian, "I had to make a bold move to take you by surprise but I still lost anyway, that''s how it goes sometimes doesn''t it, you put your everything into one move but no matter how desperate and bold the move is you fail all the same.", he gave a dry chuckle.


    "If you didn''t hesitate that would have been your victory," she said with a smile, but beneath that was a wild tremor in her heart, to be beaten by a child in skill was a server blow her confidence.


    Lirian furrowed his brow, "You don''t need to make me feel better mom, I lost this time, I''ll try even harder in the future."


    "Little one, can I ask you something?"


    "If it''s about those laws that I used while fighting, I''m not sure I know either mom, it just happened!", he knew that was very strange and he had little control over what happened there, in truth the system had two theories, one was that it was the intervention of a god which was almost impossible, the other was much more likely, the 10 000 godly essences inside of him were all dormant however even in its dormant state the laws were attracted to the essence and revered it.


    Taliyah nodded, "Sleep well little one, you should rest up well for the week, starting next week you''ll be busy in school."


    The next day a servant brought in all the fragments of the broken sword, not even a splint was missing, it was the order he had given before he left the courtyard, he placed it all on his desk drawer and over the week he slowly put it back together.


    It was a difficult task to complete with only one hand, but he didn''t want to wait to restore it, it was obviously unusable but he had no intention to use it any more, after putting it back together he got a glass case and put it on a display stand.


    A week later Lirian lay sprawled across the back seats of a limo, with his head supported by his right arm, and his left arm in a sling was holding onto a drink, he sipped it through a straw as the limo crawled through the traffic.


    "Are you planning on tucking your shirt or at least buttoning up your collar and sleeves?", Anya asked irritated at his unsightly clothing, it had been ironed and fresh but now it was filled with wrinkles.


    "Nope, it''s uncomfortable," he replied and lazily took a sip of his drink.


    "It''s not going to look good when you put your vest and coat on."


    Lirian scoffed, "It''s a hot summer day, only a mental patient would wear such things in this weather."


    Anya frowned, "You can get away with dressing casually at home Lirian, but out here your dressing also represents your mother, if you are dressed badly, your mother will be criticised for it."


    "Tsk, fine, help me sort out my clothes,", he clicked his tongue in frustration.


    When he was done setting his clothes, he stretched out and took his place across the seats again.


    He caught Anya''s eye and he noticed a glint in hers, ''Here we go.'' he thought.


    "Does stretching across the seats like that make you feel taller than you are?", she asked teasingly, she was also frustrated with his lack of grace, it was no wonder why all the etiquette teachers had quit.


    "Says the short nation.", he retorted, and tried to hide his grimace, there was something about occupying multiple seats that made him feel bigger than he was, but he''d rather die than admit it to anyone.


    "It is cute and adorable, for a lady to be short Lirian," she glanced at him and giggled loudly, ", but when a boy is short it is just hilarious."


    Lirian looked away and focused his gaze outside the window, but Anya was far from done teasing him.


    "But it should be okay if you remain so short even when you are older all you''ll have to do is show the girls the results of all my massages over the years, of course, you''re too young for that now, but a few years from now I bet you''ll come running to thank me."


    He felt a shiver run through his whole body; those massages were his definition of a guilty pleasure, one that he didn''t want to live without and would never admit to wanting.


    "Oh, forget about it, for now, there''s something else you should know, someone that you know quite well is going to be a teacher at the school, in fact, I''ve seen to it that they will become your homeroom teacher."


    Lirian looked surprised he doubted it would be any of his personal teachers, they were incredibly qualified, he doubted they would lower themselves to teach in a high-world school, and other than that he didn''t know anyone from outside his home, "It''s not you, it is?"


    "No, of course not I volunteered to guard you at the school but that''s all, I bet that you''ll be surprised, oh here''s a hint, it''s someone you know but you have never learnt their name."


    ''Only to be my guard,'', he chided inwardly, '', more like so that she could watch a bunch of pretty young children to get herself off too, that paedophile.'', there was no way she could ever convince him that she wasn''t one.


    Lirian eyes opened wide, "The neighbours! no that''s not possible, how could a teacher afford to live so close to us."


    "That teacher''s name was Hira Jenkins, and her ex-husband is the director of Xelia''s largest inter-galactic trading corporation."


    "It''s only been a week since I sent those pictures and they are already divorced!" he exclaimed.


    "That''s not all, the most surprising thing is that she walked out of the marriage and got absolutely nothing."


    "This sounds like a fun mystery to solve while I''m there, but would you mind telling me why you put me in her class, if she finds out that I sent those pictures she is going to hate me."


    Anya chuckled, "While I doubt that she knows who sent the pictures, just by looking at the angle she would be able to tell that it came from the manor."


    "Anya, I hate you,"


    "Don''t be like that, remember you''re a prince candidate, being stuck in a messy situation is a good way to discipline yourself, and one day when you become a prince, you''ll think back to simple problems like this and laugh about it."


    He was busy glaring at her hatefully when the limo came to a stop, Lirian looked up at a 50-story skyscraper that covered an entire block by itself, that would be his school starting from that moment onwards.


    "This next part you''ll do alone," said Anya and she vanished into the shadows.


    It was a very strange feeling for Lirian, he had spent his entire life alone, but for the past ten years he had always had someone accompanying him and at his side and now he was alone once again, he oddly felt slightly frightful, he wondered if the past ten years were just a delusion he dreamt up, it wouldn''t be the first time his mind did such a thing, and the moment he entered those halls the people would storm towards him with weapons and try to kill him with every fibre of their being.


    He looked back at the limo, ''No it can''t be the driver would have tried to kill me while I was in the car or he would have driven off a cliff at some point, no unless the driver is just some automaton, I created to do tasks for me.'', he shuddered violently and walked back towards the limo.


    "Take me home!", he shouted in a fit of desperation, that was the only place he was safe, and it was where he needed to go, even if it was a delusion, he would rather stay in it.


    At least there he would have salvation, he felt himself being pulled apart by contradicting thoughts in his head, some told him that it wasn''t a delusion and some told him that it wasn''t, in his desperation he found it odd that his other selves were quiet and as he blinked into the throne world, the black winds had broken free from the green arouras and wrapped around him.


    In those moments, the insatiable madness and dementia began to encroach on his mind that had become unstable for just a moment and he could no longer tell the real and the fake apart.

 Chapter 42 - 042 – THE EMPRESS’S TEARS

    Anya hid in the shadows waiting in anticipation, Lirian always caused a spectacle where ever he went and she didn''t doubt that the same would be true here, but then she heard his beat changing pace and saw a layer of sweat formed around him.


    It was like she was looking at a regular child and soon he stopped approaching the school but his breathing became labored and he began to look between the school and limo, suddenly he made a mad dash like a dying dog towards the limo and shouted to go home.


    She looked around for his source of fear but there was nothing anywhere, and she doubted that he didn''t want to go to school, she knew him well enough to know that if he didn''t want to do something he would be very vocal about it.


    They were just talking moments ago and he was perfectly fine but suddenly he was acting like a child, like a real child too afraid to face his first day of school.


    She hopped into the limo, "Lirian wha..." she froze in surprise as Lirain shoved her off.


    "GO AWAY!, you aren''t real, I learned it early this time, the last time it was a billion years that you trapped but not this time..." she watched in horror as he shouted and smacked himself like a mad man.


    She pulled up the sound partition and grabbed onto Lirian, his ramblings filled her with disbelief.


    "Lirian, calm down I don''t understand what you''re trying to say..." she tried to reason with him but it fell on deaf ears.


    "Oh, you don''t understand!" he barked, "Well, let me tell you what I understand, you are just an illusion a figment of my imagination, you know how I know..."


    "BECAUSE THE WORLD HATES ME, EVERYONE HATES ME, I JUST TRY TO HELP THEM TO BE ACCEPTED BUT THEY STILL ALWAYS WANT ME DEAD,"


    "I NEVER DO ANYTHING WRONG, BUT THEY WANT ME DEAD ALL THE SAME," he roared at the top of his lungs.


    "Lirian please I''m right here, calm down," Anya pleaded while holding onto him tightly, she thought he was possessed by some soul life form but her inspection showed that he was perfectly fine.


    "THAT''S HOW I KNOW THAT YOU CAN''T BE REAL, NO ONE IS EVER HERE FOR ME, NO ONE EVER WANTS ME, NO ONE COULD EVER BARE TO BE IN MY PRESENCE, DON''T YOU REMEMBER MY 3RD , NO MY 2ND OR WAS IT MY 3RD LIFE," he smacked himself repeatedly as he tried to make sense of which life it was and he hit himself so hard that she heard a small crunch on his skull and a trickle of blood flowed from his temple, "MY PARENTS PUT ME IN CAGE AND MADE ME FIGHT WILD CREATURES FOR ENTERTAINMENT, I STILL REMEMBER AS THE BLOODHOUND SUNK IT''S TEETH INTO MY THROAT TO QUENCH ITS THIRST AND MY HOT BOILING BLOOD SPILLED OVER MY SHOULDER AND GUSHED ONTO THE GROUND, AND THE CROWED THEY LOVED IT THEY WATCHED ME CLAWING FOR BREATH AND THEY CHEERED. YOU ARE JUST AN DELUSION SO LET ME GO." he struggled in vain against Anya''s hold.


    As she tried to make sense of Lirians ramblings, a storm of images cascaded in her mind, and she saw a child, no more than nine years old, and extremely thin and frail like he had never eaten a decent meal in his life.


    The gate to one side of the ring-opened and the child walked in with nothing but a steak knife in hand, and as he walked in a death chant started in the crowd, "Die you rotten piece of filth."


    "Death to the boy."


    On the side, she heard someone say, "I can''t believe that filth is still alive after all these years, if it were up to me, I would have gutted him a long time ago."


    "Don''t worry I heard they prepared two dire wolves and a bloodhound today,"


    "So, he beat five in a row last time."


    "Yeah, well they''ll be setting all three on him at once this time."


    Anya moved with the crowd and soon she started to chant as well, "Death to the boy.", she didn''t understand why but it felt right like that boy deserved the most miserable death possible, and soon the battle started.


    With nothing but a steak knife in hand, the boy faced the three creatures, he moved around on the field and moved between the creatures dodging their joint attacks and slamming the steak knife where ever he could, it could barely cut through the creature''s skin and with each strike it bent out of shape.


    Strangely enough, when the boy dodged the crowd didn''t cheer but every time, he struck they held their breath and prayed for the savage creature''s lives, Anya too felt the same, "I wonder what kind of woman could give birth to such filth!" she shouted and oddly enough the people in the illusion answered.


    Anya looked up to a see middle-aged woman with a large banner, on it was an accurate image of the boy''s face with a pike rammed through it, she led the chants of wishing the boy death.


    When she looked back at the arena, she saw one of the wolves receive a server wound to the throat and its blood spilled like rain and sizzled on the ground, the boy flipped backward and rammed the blade into the throat of the other wolf, but this time the steak knife snapped.


    Blood poured from the wolf''s throat but it pushed forward and gripped the boys'' arm with its teeth and started to rip into his flesh, as the boy struggled the crowd went wild, Anya cheered at the top of her lungs as the bloodhound crept up to the now desperate boy its huge maw opened wide and it chomped on his knee.


    The sound of bones breaking echoed and the leg was ripped from underneath the boy, he stumbled without his leg and fell over the wolf''s grip on him slackened as it fell down dead-on top of him.


    The boy cried out in pain, "Help, someone help, anyone help," but his cries of despair were laughed at Anya ridiculed him and laughed at his pathetic display.


    The hound pushed the wolf''s body off him and as the boy tried to push the hound back with the tiny handle of the knife, it sunk its teeth into his throat, he trashed on the ground meeting the eyes of all present and his sorrow only grew, they cheered loudly and happily at the hound''s success, at the very last second before the light in his eyes faded, Anya saw his eyes, it wasn''t silver but, at that moment, she was certain she knew those eyes, the vision disappeared and she was left shivering.


    She didn''t understand what was happening, but she could hardly believe the words she had said in that vision, and at the end, she knew the boy he might have looked entirely different but he was Lirian without a doubt, the same Lirian she had helped to raise and that she watched over every day for the past decade.


    She pressed down on a nerve in his neck and put him to sleep.


    She picked up her communicator and called the empress, "Your majesty, something happened with Lirian, today, I''m heading back with him. I think you need to hear the things he said."


    Until now all the strange things he said and done were just strange so she would look past it, but today his words frightened her and that vision made her uncomfortable, it was like it was her but at the same time it wasn''t her, she felt her every instinct screaming at her to see the boy dead, and she still felt that way, but knowing that the boy was Lirian made her angry at herself.


    She soon placed him on his bed at home and left the room with the worried empress, "Tell me what happened Anya?"


    "Your majesty, it would be best if I showed you.", she bowed down and opened her mind up allowing her memories to flow around the room, Taliyah saw the entire trip as they went to the school and then the entire panic attack Lirian had and finally she saw the vision that Anya had, from the moment she saw the boy in the arena she couldn''t take her eyes off him, she could feel it deep into her bones, that boy was Lirian.


    Tears fell from her face and she sunk into her seat, she didn''t know what to make of the strange words he said, he spoke about multiple lives and a billion yearlong delusion, even immortals didn''t live that long, and lastly, that vision it was another child but no matter the appearance she was certain that it was him.


    Seeing such a thing happen to her child made her remember things she didn''t want to remember, it was her worst nightmare taking form, and what scared her more than anything was the possibility that Lirian had been lying and using her all along, playing on her sympathies.


    It was the hardest thing for her to think of and it was worse than losing all her children all over again if that was the truth then she didn''t know what to do with herself, she doubted that she''d ever be able to trust someone ever again.

 Chapter 43 - 043 – LIRIAN THE ETERNAL (1)

    Lirians Throne World.


    The encroaching thrones all froze in place and rapidly fled to the edges of the world, in the centre a black mist shrouded Lirian, and his other selves watched in dread.


    Too afraid of the mist, they had all tasted of its demented fruits, it was a disease they all carried, it was the corrupting madness, it was always here in the throne world locked in its cage, waiting silently for true panic to take hold of the host.


    Its attack would be abrupt, and it would pounce on the host if they should show the slightest of weakness.


    Their minds were broken enough without the mist''s touch, any more exposure, and the madness would take them as it had so many times before.


    Kaladin opened his eyes and sighed, Lucian and himself were different from the rest, their minds were whole and complete, while they had known fear and despair, they were never completely broken like the rest.


    He stood up from his throne and walked into the mist, his figure was that of an unbending tower as he stood at 9 feet tall and his body was a massive and unmoving boulder, he stepped up to the centre throne and put his hands on Lirians face.


    "Boy,", his deep voice carried throughout the entire world, ", remember the system was crafted for this purpose, use it as it was meant to be used."


    "No," Lirian cried out, ", the system will break the illusion, if it breaks then, I''ll lose her, I''ll lose my mother, Anya, and all the people I created.", he shouted in the mist.


    "You won''t know what''s real and what isn''t until you use the system, but trust me boy you will be happy with the results."


    When Lirian looked up again Kaladin had returned to his throne, his eyes shut, he would be asleep for a long time, while his mind was stronger than the rest, he was still weak in comparison.


    He felt lost, he wanted the illusion to continue but he hated it, all the same, he could only keep living in an illusion for so long, it would inevitably fall apart.


    "System, perform a mental recalibration."


    [Host are you certain, the cost will be 10 trillion fate particles, Y/N?]


    "Yes."


    The cost was immense, and if he had begun his cultivation, it would have cost at least ten times more, the greater his cultivation the harder it is to break his delusions.


    ---


    When he opened his eyes, he was back in his room, as he shifted around, he could feel that his hand was still healing, he took a sniff of the bed and the scent of his mother entered his nose, she had spent a lot of time in his room, to take care of him while his arm was broken.


    ''It wasn''t an illusion.'', he thought happily.


    He jumped out of the bed and went running to find his mother he still needed to confirm that it wasn''t an illusion.


    He pushed the door to her study open and ran in, "Mom," he called out cheerfully, but in the next second his heart sank.


    She sat alone in the room; her hands that were usually always busy with something were empty right now, she sat motionless with her face buried in her hands.


    "Mom," he called out hesitantly.


    "Am I?", she asked after a long silence.


    When she looked at him Lirian could see that her eyes were red from crying and her beautiful face was streaked with dried-up tears.


    He winced at her tone of voice, he had never heard her so furious, and her question left his mind in chaos, as he recalled everything he had shouted at Anya.


    He felt himself quiver and shake, and for the first time, he felt like a real child caught in a lie and too afraid to tell their parents the truth.


    "What''s the matter, you are usually so fast to answer me and defend yourself, why aren''t you answering me?", when she shouted the doors slammed shut and Lirian detected an isolation barrier from in the room, so no one could listen in.


    He wanted to say something but he didn''t know where to start and as the silence filled the room he trembled like a leaf in the wind and his eyes turned misty as he saw his mother, her eyes were dripping with tears.


    "Tell me what you meant, was what you told Anya a lie or the truth?", he could see a trace of hope in his eyes as if begging him to say it was just a lie, he made up to get out of school.


    He opened his mouth repeatedly but he could barely form any words, "T-t-truth." he stammered out with all his courage, he felt like he''d have more courage in the presence of a million gods.


    She sunk to her knees and sobbed even harder than before.


    "Was everything until now a lie, you must have had a good laugh as you watched me faun over you and take care of your every need."


    "No, these past ten years were the first time in my felt that I was ever treated like a person, it''s the first time I ever got to experience a childhood where no one tried to kill me just for existing and it''s all thanks to you mom.", tears spilled from his eyes and his nose felt all clogged-up as he sniffled and spoke.


    "You gave me a home and a family and so much more that I could have never hoped for in the past but most importantly you loved me like your own and you could never imagine what these past few years meant to me,"


    "I was born with a curse, Anya must have shown you the images that I accidentally passed on to her, do you know what my parents named me ''#~''@¡ê4''."


    For the first time his words got a response it was mainly because, Taliyah didn''t understand the name it sounded like an entirely different language.


    Lirian smiled bitterly, "It means filth in the language of that world, it wasn''t just that life, but all the lives I''ve lived I was given names with similar or worse meanings, and you saw how the people wanted me dead, I was just a child, I think I was nine years at the time, my parents raised me in a cage and if I performed well they would reward me with the bones of the food they ate but I didn''t know any better in fact I was grateful to receive such scraps, it was a hundred times better than my life before where I starved to death at three years old, and that is how I was treated wherever I went no matter what I did, all the good and bad people of an entire world could put their differences aside if it meant killing me."


    "But all of that changed in this life, my father was able to remove my curse and take it on himself, he knew that he couldn''t keep me near him so he sent me down into the mortal world, you''ve probably even heard of my father''s name he is the eldest god Adolin Morningstar."


    "When I entered the portal, it was unstable, and based on my estimations I was slung across 200 000 years, that''s the day we met and it''s the day you had no reason to help me but you still did.", he fell to his knees as he sobbed as he spoke of that day, no one in all the worlds would ever be able to understand what that single moment meant to him, it was the first time in his life that someone had nothing to gain from him and still chose to spare him.


    "All the time we spent together over these years was not some grand lie that I devised," he stepped towards his mother and took her hands in his own, he didn''t care about the pain in his broken arm as he held her hands tightly and looked down too afraid to meet her eyes.


    "You are the first person in all my lives that I can call mother, and by a measure of all mothers in the world, I''m the luckiest person in the world to have a mother such as you, I doubt there are any other people even amongst the emperor''s and empresses of old that would put up with all my antics.", he added with a slight chuckle.


    She shut her eyes and tears still fell from her eyes, "Do you know what day it was when you appeared in the gardens of the imperial pyramid?" she asked.


    "No," Lirian answered shaking his head as tears uncontrollably rolled down his face.


    "It was the day that I came out of my seclusion, every decade since I lost my last child, I would spend an entire month praying by their sarcophagus''s, on the day I left I made a wish to whichever god could hear me for another child, and hours later you practically fell from the sky."


    "Of the many things I ever imagined not once did I ever think I would raise a man as old or older than the seven civilizations as a child.", Lirian sighed in relief as he heard her voice grow slightly warmer.


    "Little one, I need some time, this is all a lot to digest even for me, go to your room I shall come to speak with you again later.", she truly had no idea what to do, she only knew that at that his tears were not fake and it was all she had to reassure herself that everything was not a complete lie but it was still not enough to settle her heart.


    Complicated, as Lirian left both the empress and himself thought that one word.

 Chapter 44 - 044 – LIRIAN THE ETERNAL (2)

    Lirain wondered his room aimlessly, his head a blender of thoughts, all messy and hard to make out.


    A single fear kept creeping up in the back of his mind, ''...what if she decides she doesn''t want me anymore and kicks me out.''


    Several times he packed a few clothes into a bag and unpacked it, turning his room into a mess.


    ---


    Taliyah fared no better than Lirian, her mind swirling in chaos but as she did her best to calm down a few things he said fit into place in her head.


    The eldest god Adolin Morningstar, she knew the name, he was always revered as the greatest god until 200 000 years ago, when he betrayed the gods, along with the sinful gods, the virtuous gods, and the greatest noble-beast gods.


    From what Lirian had said, his father took on the curse in his place, and from what she had seen in the vision it was clear as day that those who are cursed are seen as the enemy of all creation, which would explain why the gods call him a traitor.


    She thought of the things he had said and wondered what his real age could possibly be, could he have been a god in a past life, as she thought of that, ridiculous as it was, she could imagine him as one. ''If he was a god, how am I to treat him.''


    After all, cultivators worshiped and revered the gods, it was the final goal for all of them, and yet it was an almost impossible task to accomplish.


    After a long time, she got up and went to visit him, his room was a complete mess with clothes and bags lying all over the place, and he was sitting on his bed holding a glass case, inside it was the sword that she gave to him when he was four.


    She was surprised to see it whole; she couldn''t help but feel happy to see that he had restored it and after a quick inspection she found that it wasn''t missing a single splint.


    "Little o... uhm... Lirian," she said and walked in slowly, "You should have thrown it away I can always make you another one."


    He smiled, albeit a little bitterly at how she addressed him, she usually only used his name when she was mad at him or it was something urgent, "I told you when you gave this to me it''s the kind of creation that deserves to be displayed."


    "I suppose that it makes sense now, why you were so good at everything you did and why you try so hard to seem like an adult. You probably never needed my help."


    "No, I didn''t," he replied honestly, ", but I enjoyed every moment of it, however mother you shouldn''t feel too disappointed even amongst my kind I''m still a genius like no other," he smiled slightly smug, he had never had the opportunity to brag about himself in the past, and it felt oddly satisfying to him.


    "There are other others like you?", she asked in surprise.


    He nodded, "They call themselves the eternals, each of them have done things that have changed entire worlds, but like the rest of the world they have always been my enemy, if you want to recognise them you have to take note of their eyes, they all have slightly rare eye colours at first glance but if you take particular note of their eyes, you will find that the colour is completely irreplicable, a shade of a colour that can never be remade by even the god of all artists."


    "If everyone in your past viewed you as an enemy does that mean that you were always alone?" she suddenly asked, the question felt like a revelation to herself, it didn''t even occur to her at that moment, and to her surprise, Lirian shook his head.


    "There were a few exceptions, in the grand scheme of things, the times that I had someone with me can''t even make up a slight fragment of my life, and yet those times were..." he shut his mouth he didn''t want to speak further, losing the times he had some companionship was some of the hardest things he had to face, it was what truly pushed him into madness time and again, "Forget it, some things are best left in the past."


    Taliyah''s instincts took over and before she realised it, she had wrapped her arms around him and hugged him from behind, "If you can''t tell me about your past then you can show it to me like you did with Anya?"


    He shook his head gently, "That memory that Anya saw was an accident, and we are lucky that it was only an earlier memory of mine."


    "Mom, in one of my past lives I was known as the god of despair, can you guess why?"


    Taliyah shook her head, but her eyes had grown wide at the revelation, ''You really were a god!''


    "It''s because the punishment I used on my most hated enemies were my memories, after experiencing it they would go mad, they''d kill everyone they ever knew, and ruin their great and mighty names, others would even take their own lives."


    "My memories are a curse and they are also dangerous for the world, there are secrets about me that must never be known to anyone, I know that you want to know about my past mom, I''ll tell you what I can but there are some things about me that if known will bring ruin to the entire world, not mortals, immortals or even gods will be able to stop themselves from coming after me."


    "I-I see...", she said softly, a ball of dread filled her heart as she thought of what he could possibly know that could make gods go crazy, "Then can you tell me how many lives you have lived?"


    Lirian smiled slightly, it was a simple question on the surface but for him, it was a very complicated question, of the eternals there were a few he considered cockroaches but to the eternals he was something much, much worse, even with those cockroach-like bodies they created, at least if he dumped them in a star or stomped them flat, they''d die, but to them, he was the thing of nightmares.


    Even if their power was several stages above his as long, he had a cultivation they could never be sure if he was dead, even if they dumped his body into the largest and hottest sun in existence or used the power of a god to kill him, they would go mad in their quest to confirm his death and when they were finally confident in his death, he would pay them a visit and reap some lives.


    "I''ve lived many lives but if we are being technical, it''s only 33 lives I''ve lived, and this life of mine is very confusing as well, it can be considered, my 1st, 33rd, or 34th, depending on how one looks at it."


    Taliyah nodded but felt uncertain, it was truly as he said, confusing. "Lirian there is one more thing I''d like to know, did you ever plan on telling me the truth?"


    Lirian felt himself shake, "I wanted to honestly, but I was afraid... if you learned the truth about me, I was afraid that you''d hate me, so no I would have probably never told you." he answered honestly.


    She let go of him and hurriedly began to leave, "Put all your clothes away, and get ready for school tomorrow, you''ll say that you had a complication with your arm which is why you missed your first day."


    When she left, he looked around hopelessly, he was being honest, but it still hurt her, ''....being normal is so complicated, in the past, the world was just a single shade everyone was my enemy but now there are too many shades to understand and I''m still in my home, what is the real world going to be like?

 Chapter 45 - 045 – FATE

    The morning arrived quickly for Lirian, he didn''t catch a wink of sleep as he was too busy thinking of a way to make up with his mother, this revelation was way too sudden.


    He was distracted at breakfast and didn''t try to swipe anything from anyone''s plate, he was now old enough to eat whatever he liked, but he still made it a habit to swipe whatever he could.


    He kept stealing glances at his mom but said nothing of importance, his behavior was noticed by everyone and they were all watching with bated breath, for his grand scheme of the day but nothing happened at all.


    He was dressed properly and to everyone''s shock he was wearing his gold earring, it was a remarkable piece, on his right ear it was a short golden thread about a finger long and a round globe, the globe was barely the size of a pearl and had a detailed engraving of the home-world on it, but Lirian always refused to wear it claiming it was a chore to take it off every evening, clean it then put into its special case for the night and put it back on in the morning every single day.


    The earring is the only gold piece that a prince/princess candidate may wear and his earring with a globe of the home-world is the proof that he is the empress''s child.


    A few minutes later he was lounging in the back of the limo, the same as the day before and Anya was there as well but it was oddly quiet.


    He felt Anya''s constant gaze but she said nothing the entire time, "Just ask me what you want to know already?"


    "The empress told me not to say anything about what happened yesterday, and since you are still here and the empress hasn''t changed her mind about keeping you around it means that whatever you told her majesty was good enough for her if it satisfied her majesty, it''s good enough for me," she said tactfully, but she was pouting slightly.


    Lirian sighed and lifted the sound partition, "... but you''re still curious so go ahead and ask no one will ever know what I tell you."


    She smiled brightly at his words then as she thought about what she wanted to ask the cheer vanished, "When I was in that vision, it felt too real and when I spoke to the people in it, they responded, also when I was there, I don''t know why but the boy in the arena..." she paused to catch Lirians eye and spoke hesitantly, "I-I wanted to see him dead, why did I feel that way but your mother didn''t?"


    Lirian raised an eyebrow but wasn''t too surprised, "You have a natural affinity with fate laws, so instead of observing you accidentally projected yourself into the image, it wouldn''t allow you to do anything significant but you could still interact with what you saw and glean information that existed in that place, as for the boy you came into contact with his curse because you projected yourself there, and as you can probably guess the boy''s curse makes everyone hate him!"


    He was surprised to see how maturely she was taking the news, her expression barely changed, "I take it that everything you said yesterday was true." it wasn''t so much a question as it was a request for confirmation.


    Lirian only nodded in response.


    "By fate laws do you mean that I can divine the future?" she asked suddenly, she was handling the new information quite well because it made almost everything about Lirian fit into place, and helped her feel better about herself until now she had felt inferior because of his talent that made her feel like she was a headless duck with no direction.


    "Tsk,", he clicked his tongue and scoffed, "I swear every person existence hears fate laws and thinks of seeing the future, such utter stupidity has led to the death of almost every talented fate wielder."


    Anya looked wide-eyed at him, she was used to his rebukes about many things, but she had never seen him get so riled up over something, "Forgive me for my ignorance, oh great one.", she said sarcastically and rolled her eyes.


    "Sorry," he said apologetically, ", fate is cruel to its wielders the first time someone tries to steal fate''s secrets, it shows them a future as horrid as it can and pretends to be their friend."


    "Those who see the future fate gives them often try to change that future, but it ultimately leads them to create that future, the problem is that it''s almost impossible to change fates web and the more you rely on it the more you are controlled by it."


    "Also, by becoming a diviner you lock off all other parts, while time will never touch you and you''ll never need a thing to continue living, your actions will be restricted."


    Anya was confused in the stories and information she had discovered the only use of fate laws was for divining or predicting events.


    "Fates real power lies in its ability to gather information, and perform unexplainable acts, for example, fate forging is a power of fate, if someone makes a sword normally you channel your energy into it to release a stronger attack than normal, however, if someone creates a sword with the right fate achievements and imbues that achievement into the sword with fate forging you can create a sword that passively increases the attack power of its wielder without utilizing their energy."


    "And information is the greatest thing you can get with fate laws, all things in the world have a fate string down to the simplest of life forms, every planet, and entire star systems, even the entire universe, with enough fate particles, you can attach your string to a something and learn everything you want to about the world."


    "Imagine if a team goes to a new world and searches for decades to find a mineral, but with a scry of the planets fate string you can learn if the resource is on the planet in an instant and with a deeper dive you can find its location and if you push deeper, you can find the quantity of the resource on the planet."


    "And if you want to learn the number of cultivators on the planet and their levels all of it can be seen, with greater insight you could even learn of the different divisions on a planet, you can turn the impossible task of conquering a world into a simple game of chess."


    Anya''s eyes rounded as she thought of the possibilities fate held and a craving for its power festered inside her, she had an immediate urge to dive into it.


    Recognising the look in her eyes Lirian panicked slightly, ", that said, using fate is dangerous, to access fate you first have to pull on your own fate string and manipulate it and that''s dangerous, to every person touching their fate string is difficult and to those that succeed the first thing they learn is how weak their fate string is in their own hands, it''s a thousand time more fragile that a tread of a spider web, pull too hard and you''ll kill your self, or worse if you accidentally release the natural tension your body exerts on the string you can unravel your life, it will make it like you never even existed in the first place."


    Anya nodded like a diligent student getting tutored, "So if a fate string is so delicate does that mean I can kill someone by pulling on theirs?"


    "NO!", he shouted, feeling himself have a mini heart attack, "Never try to pull on someone''s string of fate unless you have like 100 billion years of experience under your belt and I mean that literally, your fate string might be fragile in your own hands but to another person, it''s harder than the toughest diamonds and if you make a mistake, you could give your entire life''s memories to someone else, the perks of fate manipulation are immense but so are the risks."


    "If you really want to learn how to use fate strings, just wait for me to complete my 200-year trial, by then I should be able to stop you from making a mistake."


    Anya raised an eyebrow, looking very amused, he seemed oddly similar to his normal self yet somehow different, that ungracefulness of his was still very apparent but he felt like he earned the right to be as ungraceful as he wished, not to mention that she loved what she had just learned, from what she could understand of him the previous day, she was almost certain that he was once a god and getting direction even from a former god was an opportunity any cultivator would die for.

 Chapter 46 - 046 – THE LATE COMER (1)

    The early morning traffic was crazy and they arrived at the school entrance a little late and several students were walking around, it was a school filled with elites and almost everyone came with a private limo or a vehicle of their own.


    His arrival wasn''t too conspicuous, and only those paying attention noticed the emblem of the empress on the vehicle.


    Many people anticipated that the empress''s child would be attending the school this year, he''d be turning ten and all the rumour about him made him out to be a genius, but when the silver hair and eyes, spoken of in the tails of the empress''s child, didn''t appear on the first day they assumed he''d only be coming in the next year.


    Once the limo stopped, he contemplated the first step he needed to take, the first part of his plan was to meet the principal of the school, Telamon Dao, his mother''s former teacher, after her announcement of raising Lirian on Xelia he requested to be transferred to planet Xelia and became the headmaster of the school, with his connections and past it was an easy thing to do and it surprised no one.


    In truth people considered him to be a doting grandfather figure to the children of the empress, as he would always watch over her children as they grew up.


    Anya vanished from sight just like the previous day and watched Lirian.


    He stepped out of the limo in his formal attire, black pants, a formal white shirt, a tie with red, black, and silver, his vest and blazer were black with a red lining along the sleeves and the inner held a silver fabric, it was all tailored to his body precisely, and lastly, his golden earring hung from his right ear as he strode up to the doors, but suddenly he stopped with a slight frown and Anya felt herself panic that there was going to be a repeat of the previous day.


    [You have stolen the heart off Lin Ming +4 fate particles]


    [You have stolen the heart off Jarred Conner +5 fate particles]


    [You have earned the envy of Helena Slate +4 fate particles]


    [¡­]


    [¡­]


    Lirian frowned as he looked at the system messages, he knew that mortals were easy to influence, but all he had done was walk without interacting with anyone, the fate particles he earned were low but if the people maintained their feelings towards him, he would receive the particles every single day.


    What had truly made him frown was the names of the people whose hearts he had stolen, all the names belonged to boys, and what scared him the most was the last message he received.


    [Karen Judith has spotted her boyfriend looking at you, she has deemed you her nemesis +100 fate particles]


    ''I was released from the shackles of hate and now I have dawned the curse of earth-shaking beauty, what will I ever do with myself.'' he mused to himself, when he reached the glass doors a couple of boys came up to him all taller than him and puffing out their small chests.


    "Hello pretty girl, I''m Kli..." but before he could introduce himself, he was cut off.


    "GIRL! Did you just call me a girl!" he snapped at the boy and shouted frantically; his reaction made the entire group of boys backtracked.


    "Let me tell you something mister," he stepped forward and poked the daring boy on his chest, "The next time I hear someone call me a girl I will drag you into my home for a little session of torture with my personal maid and trust me when I tell you the world will never seem the same way when she''s done with you!"


    Anya froze when she heard him say that, ''...he doesn''t have a personal maid...'', her eyes opened wide as she realised who he was talking about.


    Lirian turned around from the group as felt a very angry gaze on his back and fled into the school, as he walked through the doors, he took note of his appearance in the door''s reflection, ''I need to cut my hair, that should be helpful.'' he thought.


    His words were heard by everyone at the entrance and he looked at the system to see its changes.


    [You caused Jarred Conner to feel embarrassed of himself, +200 fate particles]


    [You have stolen the heart of Karen Judith +10 fate particles, you have turned Karen Judith from nemesis to friendly +1000 fate particles]


    [¡­]


    [¡­]


    Many of the people''s emotions flipped but what scared him were the ones that remained the same, he was happy to see that many of the boys were embarrassed it gave him a lot more fate particles but it was a once of thing.


    The sight of so many emotions appearing on the system also left him in wonder, in the past, it was always, hated, feared, angered mortal enemies, nemesis, those were the emotions of everyone he interacted with, but now he had variety.


    Playing the emotions of the people around him in school seemed to be a good method to gather points, but if he actively tried to make people feel a certain way about him, he would end up fuelling them with his own fate particles and instead of earning he would be spending a lot more that he gathered.


    The corridors were wide and lockers lined the walls, he didn''t even know which class he was in and he kept looking around as he tried to figure out where he was going.


    He climbed several floors and along the way, he passed many dojos and several indoor gardens, a floor wide field, and many different sports fields, but he still failed to find any semblance of a school, his presence caught the attention of many people but he dodged them when they came to speak to him, he had no desire to speak to people he''d have to look up to, to talk with.


    It wasn''t too late so at least there weren''t too many people, the most surprising of all though was when he came across a group of true elites, people that were raised on super worlds when they saw him they all stood respectfully and slightly bent their necks before continuing with their day.


    He touched the earring and was impressed with its power when he felt tired of trying to figure out where to go and decided to ask for help, he spotted a group of kids, around the same age as him, and amongst them, he spotted an elvish boy who was slightly shorter than him, he walked hurriedly with sparkling eyes in his direction.


    "Hey you, elvish boy wait up," he called out.


    The boy turned around and so did two girls that were with him.


    "u-uh... w-were you... ¡­ c-calling me?" he stammered out nervously once he looked at Lirian.


    "Hey, relax man I just need to ask you something, really quick," Lirian said, doing his best to sound friendly.


    The two girls beside him frowned at first, but then the one girl slapped her hands over her mouth in shock and pointed at the earring.


    "Hey you''re not allowed to gold," said the other girl with brunet hair, but she seemed slightly scared like being caught speaking to him would cause her problems, when she said that the boy looked equally terrified.


    Lirian chuckled, but before he could say another word she continued, "The mother at the orphanage always used to tell us the story of Jack the Fool, and one day she even told us that it was based on a real story if you wear that the empire will..." she looked over her shoulder and realised that their little conversation was making a scene.


    She quickly made a slitting motion over her throat.


    "Commoner buffoon, stop breathing the same air as the prince candidate." the voice of a woman echoed in the hall and a group of beautiful ladies walked into the corridor.


    "Sir Lirian, please forgive the foolish commoners, they don''t learn manners in the orphanage, nor do they have any understanding of social hierarchy."


    Lirian raised an eyebrow, it seemed that there were some competent people around, he glanced at the young woman, she was in her late teens and had black hair, on her left ear he spotted a golden earring, on the orb he identified that it was the Eden super worlds map engraved on to it.


    He taught to the list of names he was given of all the important figures of his generation and quickly identified her, she was one of six candidates in the school and he was the seventh.


    "No need to rebuke them miss Edith, it was I who approached them, and as I''m sure you''re aware my mother is a proud supporter of the scholarship program for the unlucky children of the world," he said with a smile that was not a smile.


    "Forgive my manners, I merely wished to offer my help to the empress''s son and got carried away," she said tactfully.


    "I appreciate the gesture, if I need your help in the future, I''ll let you know, but for now I would like to get back to my conversation," he said dismissively.


    The sound in the hall returned and people dispersed as the princess candidate, Edith, left, she came in a rush to try and score a point on the new candidate in school but he rebuked her and made her back down with a single sentence.


    In the school, most candidates were treated like royalty so the only ones that could stand against them were other candidates.


    "Forgive me for causing that scene," Lirian apologised sincerely, he really wanted a friend that was shorter than him and he had to make it work.


    "You, you are a prince, not a pr..." the elvish boy spoke suddenly with a bit more confidence than before, but Lirian grabbed his mouth with his good hand.


    "Don''t finish that sentence," he said, ", don''t even finish it in your head," he warned.


    The boy nodded his head but his long antenna-like ears were flushed red all the way to the tips.


    "Could you point me in the direction of the office I missed the first day and don''t know where to go for my classes."


    "I think it''s the eighth floor." the pink-skinned girl said, Lirian wasn''t certain of her race, pink skin, and purple nails, with a single horn.


    "You think?", he asked.


    "Sorry, it''s only our second day, we still don''t know our way around." the elvish boy said quickly.


    He looked at them curiously, they were new here, which put them at the same age and they were orphans, "You three wouldn''t be from Willders...", before he could even say the name of the orphanage, they were nodding away.


    "Did any of us happen to share a ship ride when we were babies?", he asked with a grin.


    The brunet girl and elvish boy both nodded their heads vigorously, they had grown up hearing stories about the time they traveled with the empress''s son and it was surprising to see him in the same school as themselves.


    "I guess that we might be classmates, I''ll see you later."


    "Sorry about earlier," the brunet girl blurted out.


    "hahaha," Lirian chuckled, "Don''t be, if anything I owe you for helping me score a point on that petty girl, I swear if all the other candidates are like her then the empire is in trouble."


    He turned around and checked the system, he scored ten thousand fate particles of that girl, and when he multiplied it by the heavens chosen it was a full 100 000 effortless particles.


    He also took note of those three''s names, the brunet is Hinata, the elvish boy is Pollock and the pink girl is Eido."


    The system gave him a brief warning that his future actions could turn the brunet Hinata into an enemy, but the danger level was negligible.

 Chapter 47 - 047 THE LATE COMER 2

    The bell rang and soon the entire school went silent, Lirain sat in the office feeling bored as he waited for someone to show him to class.


    After a while a secretary came to him, "Sir Lirian, please follow me your new class, 1-A." she said with a forced smile.


    He followed her but it seemed like she kept stalling, as they passed each class her pace seemed to slow, "Do all the staff here avoid taking students to class, or is it only you, because if it is I swear that you''ll earn the love of every student." he joked when she seemed like she going to start dragging her legs.


    She chuckled along, "Trust me after you go to class, you''re going to curse me for not keeping you out longer."


    "Why is that?"


    She looked around as if uncertain if she should speak, "Oh, it''s just that your teacher is currently going through something in her personal life, and she''s been, let''s say a little unpleasant to speak to and to listen to, oh and also to be within throwing distance of her markers."


    "Oh, that doesn''t sound very professional to me, I was told that this is the finest school in the system."


    "I''ve heard all about you Sir Lirian..." she started.


    "You mean from the twenty minutes I was made to wait before you came to take me to my class.", he interjected and chuckled.


    Her face went a little red, "You''re even smarter than they make you out to be Sir Lirian, but please go easy on her, I''m sure that within a week she''ll be fine."


    "Don''t worry too much I promised my mom that I''d do my best to not make any of my teachers cry, so I''ll be on my best behaviour."


    When they reached a door with the class sign, ''1-A'', the secretary knocked on the door.


    "Who is banging on my door!?"


    The secretary opened the door and walked in front of Lirian, "Kira, this is your new student he was absent yesterday."


    "Oh yes I know who he is, the great new prince candidate of the empire and my former neighbour!" she shouted.


    "She is drunk.", he said immediately, ", very drunk," he added as she did a bow that was too deep for someone of his position to receive. ''She has definitely realised that the pictures came from my home.''


    "Oh good, you know him, I''ll take my leave then." said the secretary and she scurried off.


    "My apologies miss Hira, my childhood was very sheltered, I have never met any of my neighbours'', it''s unfortunate that I was never able to make your acquaintance," he answered with a slight smile.


    She frowned when he finished and she let out a burp. She wanted to pick on anything she could but ideas were slow at the moment.


    "Uh-huh," she snapped and pointed at him, ", ''Sir Lirian'' would you care to explain to your class what gave you the right to skip the first day of school, while they had to sit through the dull and excruciatingly long orientation that the principle insists on putting every student, and teacher through every year!"


    ''Lirian take deep breaths, very deep breaths and remember your promise, I will not my teachers cry, I will not make my teachers cry, I will not make my teachers cry.'' he muttered to himself.


    "I received a severe injury in training and my arm is not in its best condition, due to a complication I skipped school.", in the end, he couldn''t control himself, "As I''m sure anyone with half a brain cell would have noticed by now," he said with a strained voice and pointed at his arm that hung in a sling.


    "You have a major attitude problem, remember that here I''m the one in charge so as punishment you can teach the class while I go and rest my half a brain cell." when she finished she stormed out of the classroom.


    He was dumbfounded he imagined it wouldn''t be great to be in her class but this was more than he expected, she was still in the middle of her break down and it didn''t seem like it was going to end anytime soon.


    ''hmm... this could work in getting the principal to meet with me.'' he thought silently, if he played his cards right, he could get the headmaster to meet with him before homeroom ended.


    The entire class was laughing and amongst them, he spotted the trio he met earlier, "Was she like that yesterday?", he asked with a friendly smile that worked on everyone in the class, the perk of his looks was that most people would find it hard to dislike him.


    The entire class started laughing even harder and he stood there waiting for an answer, one of the girls answered him eventually, "Sorry, Sir Lirian, we are just glad it wasn''t one of us that she lashed out at today."


    "And frankly you were lucky, yesterday she gave every girl a new name, she said we could make it our permanent names after our husbands call us a prostitute."


    One of the guys jumped in, "Yeah and she gave the guys names too, she said we can use them to become the best pimps in the world."


    "Wow, she is in a bad place. Did I miss anything yesterday?"


    "Nah not really, miss Hira wasn''t lying the orientation was excruciatingly long, we only spent about thirty minutes in class at the end of the and half of it was miss Hira coming up with creative names for all of us."


    "Did she mark the register?", he asked with a grin and ran to the teacher''s desk, she did tell him to teach the class so she should have no problem with him going through her things.


    "No, not that I remember, why?" he asked.


    He opened up the register and found that it was empty and grinned, "Because, I have been appointed as your teacher for the day and it looks like our teacher forgot to mark the register yesterday, and I think that it''s only right that I cover up for our teacher''s mistake and mark everyone present including myself."


    "That''s not right.", one of the girls cried out.


    "Oh, come on, please look away just this once for me, I''m a prince candidate and a perfect attendance will look better on my report card at the end of the year." he flashed her a smile and could tell that his eyes were working their magic on her as she wavered.


    "It takes a lot of courage to stand up to me, so if you let me get away with this, I''ll vote for you to be the girl class rep."


    "F-f-fine, but just this once." she stammered.


    "Hey, no fair how can you offer her something but not the rest of us." one of the boys shouted.


    "How about I owe everyone a favour then, you can cash it in whenever you like." his words earned the approval of everyone and he soon put a tick next to his name.


    He went through the list and called out the names of each person, it was a small group, there were only twenty in the entire class.


    "Karen Eden" the girl that spoke to him when he first entered the class responded.


    "Lucas Klutz" the dark-skinned boy that told him about the boys getting pimp names raised his hand.


    "Sarah Jane" the girl he promised to vote for as class rep raised her hand.


    He found soon came across two people with the same family name and they were sitting together, ''Shen Lim and Shen Xie.''


    "Are you two siblings or cousins?" he asked.


    "No," Shen Lim answered, ", it''s just a very common family name on our planet," he explained.


    "But we grew up together our parents are business partners, so we always ended up playing together." Shen Xie added, her voice was very squeaky.


    "Oh, the clich¨¦'' childhood friends that end up becoming a couple later on in their lives.", Lirian announced loudly and chuckled.


    The class laughed along and teased them. Lirian chuckled as they both went red. ''Ah, it''s so easy to tease children.''


    He soon got to the trio he met earlier, Hinata, Pollock and Eido.


    When he finished the list, he noted that all the surnames were familiar, two people were from super-world royalty and eight were from advanced world royalty, six were from extremely wealthy families and then there were the three from the orphanage on scholarships and finally, there was him.


    It could be said that every person in this room would have great future prospects, even the orphans wouldn''t have been allowed into this school if they didn''t show some potential, since none of them shed their family names to become a candidate they would never succeed as the leaders of their worlds, but gaining a high position was not out of the question.


    ''If I can figure out a way to whip them into shape or rather to see reality for what it is, I just might be able to hold some influence over them, and when it''s time for me gather support before my ascension to the throne, it might be possible to use them, that is provided they survive to reach such heights, well in any case if they die it would mean that I just wasted a little time on them.''


    The more he thought of it the more he realised that this school was a treasure trove to form future connections in, and this school kept students for up to two hundred years, he was curious as to how many important figures were in the school.

 Chapter 48 - 048 – THE LATE COMER (3)

    The desk of miss Hira was cluttered and Lirian took a while to sort through it, he picked up the school handbook and browsed through it. Miss Hira was just their homeroom teacher and they would have to go to other classes but they were given no direction.


    As he flipped through, he found out that the first hour and a half of the day would be spent in the homeroom, and he was happy to find that reason was something he was very familiar with.


    "Alright everyone step away from your desk platforms for a moment." as he waited for them to move, he looked through the drawers until he found a switch, he tapped it and the desks began to descend through the platform and a cover closed the top of the platform, with another tap of the switch several cylindrical chambers came down from the roof and lock into the platforms.


    "Everyone take out the suit from the chamber and go into the changing room at the back of the class, girls on the left and boys on the right, and do not put the mask on until I tell you to."


    The first lesson could be said to be his specialty and that was cultivation, in was the reason that they would spend so much time in the homeroom, an hour of cultivation.


    When they returned, he started his own personal lecture, "Those chambers are designed to help you on your road to cultivation, and all of you will spend an hour in it every morning, while good grades are important the most important thing in our world is cultivation, it is what will determine a great deal of your future and anyone attending this school will certainly have a great future, so long as you are able to become successful cultivators."


    "Now before we begin you need to know the basics of what you will be doing in those chambers, as all of you know every cell of our bodies can gather, hold and release energy, however, there are 108 key points on all living beings where the energy is most focused and these are the points we must focus on."


    "The points are split into three categories, body, mana, and mind, each one has 36 points of focus, during the next few years we will be focusing on opening these energy points, opening them means taking control of the energy flowing through them."


    "The average person only has 5-8 points naturally opened and to use an elementary cultivation technique you will have to have 4 points of any category open, the school however will not give out the techniques unless you have opened at least 4 points of each category."


    "Inside the pods, a fluid will surround you and it will gather data on your energy points, while inside you have only one task and that is to rotate the energy in your bodies around your energy points, the machine''s AI will show what you need to, and with its help, you will be able to determine which energy points are ideal for you to use, and which ones will prove more difficult to use."


    "You can use this data to determine your future cultivation paths, now remember even if you have four energy points open in any category, do not try to cultivate, if you make a mistake, you can damage your energy points and in the worst-case scenario, we will have to clean you of the walls of the pod when you self-implode also by beginning your cultivation you will lose all progress you made on opening other energy points."


    They all excitedly climbed into their pods, pulled their masks down, and allowed the blue fluid to surround them, Lirian sat on the side not bothering to enter his own, he was born with 107 energy points open and the last energy point would take him a few more years to open.


    He was extremely happy with his body, his cultivation road had never been so easy in the earlier stages, and the longer it took to open all your energy points the harder it became as time passed on, it could take millions of years for someone to open all their energy points.


    When you consider that opening energy points is very time-consuming, and that you never have a guarantee that you will get a better technique, and that the time that it takes to learn and master new skills, also that every time you get a new cultivation technique you will have to restructure your accumulated cultivation before you progress any further, it was not every cultivator''s favorite pass time.


    After 45 minutes he turned off the pods, they were a bit late due to their teacher not caring to do anything with them so he had to stop them early.


    As he looked through the results, he was only impressed by one score and it wasn''t the highest scorer with 13 open energy points, "Karen that''s an impressive 13, it seems that the Eden super world has been feeding you all the right things, you have 6 on mana, 4 on the mind and 3 on the body, in a few months you should be able to receive your first technique."


    He then focused his gaze on Hinata, "A big congratulation to you Hinata, you are the first in our class that will receive a cultivation technique."


    She was embarrassed as all eyes fell on her, and her cheeks turned rosy in seconds, "If you go to the office and submit your request, you will be free to choose whichever path you want, think about it carefully, this will affect your entire life, but don''t take too long you have a head start on the rest of the class but achieving first-grade will still take at least three years to achieve."


    He gave the results to everyone and there were no underperformers, the lowest was eight and that was 9 members of the class, and while a few of them had 12 energy points open no one else met the requirements to start cultivating.


    He started to grin slightly for the next part, it was the key to getting the headmaster to visit him personally, he needed to cause a scene, one that would help with spreading his fame but also give him infamy, and what better way to do that than to get a bunch of snot-nosed brats from the great civilizations riled-up.


    In truth, there was something about the headmaster that bugged, but he couldn''t quite understand why, the only thing he had to base his feeling on was the system, after all, it told him that if he could unravel the secrets of Telamon Dao by himself, it would provide the necessary fate particles to ensure he could complete his ''Samsara'' and ''Eight Truths'' technique merges.


    He grinned slightly and began, "Those of you from influential and wealthy families shouldn''t be happy with your results, after all, you''ve been raised on many delicacies that make it easier for you to open your energy points it''s incredibly sad that all of you have opened so few energy points by now," he sighed while doing his best to look at them with pity


    "In the future, you will find it more and more difficult to open more energy points as well, as for those that can''t afford such delicacies,", he glanced at the students on scholarships, ", so long as you achieve a 70% average you will be granted some items, weekly, to aid you in your cultivation and with every 5% increment you will receive better rewards."


    Everyone was frowning when he finished paraphrasing what he read in the booklet, the influential and wealthy didn''t like being called out as people that bought their success and the scholarship students were terrified by what they had to achieve just to even out the playing field by a little.


    "Hey man," Lucas called, ", why didn''t you go in, I would like to see how the child of the empress does!", the entire class shared his sentiment and murmured in agreement.


    "Sorry, but I''m a prince candidate all data on me is strictly confidential, in this entire school the only one privy to some of my information is the headmaster." he smiled and answered.


    "I bet you''re just like the rest of us, hell it would be embarrassing if someone raised with the empire''s best resources couldn''t beat our classes highest, no wonder you don''t want to show your results."


    Lirian merely chuckled at his response, "I''m afraid that as a prince candidate, I''m forbidden from any form of cultivation before I reach twenty." he answered perfunctorily but he didn''t stop himself from sounding condescending, not could rile up a person more than making them feel small.


    "Come on what''s the matter are y..." before he finished, Lucas got the shock of his life as the entire room became filled with silver energy and the power surged all around him.


    "If you are unhappy, why don''t we play a little energy tug of war, I may not be a cultivator but controlling the natural flow of energy and utilizing it has been something I could do since I was two, you should be capable of stealing this much energy away from me if everyone works together.", he said with a mocking tone, if he told them that he could do such a thing from the time he was born he feared that they would lose all motivation of cultivating.


    The energy surrounded them all and engulfed them, it pushed them to their knees and they all fought in vain to stand up against it, "What''s the matter this is just energy in its purest form, surely all of you are capable of controlling it to, all you need is a basic understanding of energy control to do this, I''ll even make things easier for you if all of you together can take away 1% of the energy I control I''ll allow all of you to treat me like your dog."


    He slowly increased the pressure on them and spoke of energy control as if it was the easiest thing in the world and even after several minutes passed none of them managed to utter a word in response, as he stood calmly challenging all of them.


    The door slammed open and the headmaster of the school rushed in, he felt a tremendous pressure in the school but he couldn''t understand it and soon half the school was filled with silver energy, that''s when he realised that someone was using energy control, the big problem was that he didn''t recognise the energy source and he rushed to confront the source, he had a heart attack when he saw which class it was in.


    After his many conversations with the empress, he knew that she was extremely attached to her newest child, if anything happened to him while he was at the school, she would not let him off easily despite him being her teacher.

 Chapter 49 - 049 – THE LATE COMER 4

    [Nine Seventh- grade cultivators are heading in your direction], the system alerted him, but Lirian didn''t ease up his pressure but rather continued to steadily increase it, in other parts of the school he felt some of the teachers and the older student trying to dispel his energy control, but so far only the teacher had success.


    When the door slammed open, he turned around and nodded to the principal, "Good morning, headmaster Dao," he greeted casually, but inside he rejoiced at his success, things were going smoother than he had expected.


    "Boy release the energy," Telamon spoke solemnly.


    "Of course," Lirian smiled and casually released the energy, albeit he did it slowly and made no intention to hide the fact that he could release it at any point, he was sizing up Telamon to try and figure out what was it that made the system caution him against this man.


    To someone that could call the empress for a casual chat Lirian had no choice but to be respectful, when the energy disappeared the students in the class were all drenched in a cold sweat, the other eight cultivators arrived in the class in time to see the energy dissipate around Lirian.


    "Just what were you doing here boy?"


    "I was merely teaching my class, my teacher is ''drunk'' and she asked me to take of her class!" he answered with a smile.


    The principles eyes narrowed, he didn''t like what he was hearing one bit, "And tell me boy does teaching also involve pushing your classmates to edge of death."


    "Oh that, was just me giving them a light punishment for attempted treason."


    Principal Dao narrowed his eyes and glanced between the stupefied students and the guardians of the school, who looked equally stupefied, "Treason?" he asked dumbly.


    Lirian put on a bright smile, "Yes, and as a result I demonstrated to them, the reason why some people," he pointed at himself with a smile, ", are granted ''confidentiality'' and others are not." he announced with a strong incline of his tone on confidentiality.


    Telamon Dao glanced at the pods in the room and managed to understand the situation, he had seen Lirians scan from years ago, he had 72 naturally opened energy points it was a marvel he had never heard of before and it had to be kept a secret.


    Lirian had naturally fooled the pods when tests were done on him, he imagined that having 107 opened energy points would be overdoing things, and having 72 open was the bare minimum required to activate an esper technique.


    "Yes, some things must be kept ''confidential''," he remarked, "No one is to speak of this incident to anyone," he spoke to everyone present including the students.


    "Not to be disrespectful, Your Excellency Telamon, but this is not the court of the emperor, where an unfortunate event can be suppressed on a whim, and also I truly wish for this news to travel far and wide."


    Telamon couldn''t help but notice a faint sense of hostility from Lirian and he couldn''t understand why but his instincts scream danger. He glanced at him with a frown, "You almost killed your fellow students this will..."


    "Now that''s a stretch," Lirian laughed, "I merely disciplined my fellow students, in the future, they will learn to appreciate, respect, and most importantly uphold the rules of the empire, because when they do not unfortunate things will occur, as the advisor to 5 leaders of the Clovis empire, don''t you think that this a lesson that many learn all too late in life, and today I have taught it to these children at such a young age, it is a lesson they will never forget and one day they shall come to appreciate it when they learn the truths of the world."


    Telamon''s frown only deepened the more Lirian spoke, it reminded him of those sly foxes he constantly dealt with in the great halls of the imperial palace, ''He is different from the other children of the empress I dealt with, he is going to be very difficult to control. A child so young should not make my bones quake and my fears run wild.''


    "Very well," he answered, ", in the future when you teach your lessons make sure not to shake half my school."


    His words had an effect on Lirian and for the first time he also frowned, "Only half?" he asked with genuine disappointment on his face.


    He sighed as the incredulous looks of disbelief fell on him, "I suppose that the tale of me doing something most third-graders strive to achieve will only be half as epic as I imagined." he dreuled out a long sigh.


    Telamon had only spoken a few words to him and already he could barely stand the boy, "Taliyah did a good job raising her other children, but it seems that she has been unable to raise you properly like rest."


    The glow around Lirian grew in full force and he felt a rage in himself that he didn''t know existed come forth, this time the entire school trembled as he leaped before the principal, "Be careful of the words you say about my mother, and remember that one day I won''t be so powerless, pray to the gods that day doesn''t come, or you will curse your parents for having..." before he could finish his words, he felt a tremendous energy seal him and he lost control of the energy in the school, it made him incapable of uttering even a sound.


    "Silence Lirian," he heard Anya''s voice chime in the classroom, "Your excellency Telamon, forgive him for his words, the empress often speaks very highly of you and like any child, Lirian tends to get jealous when the empress speaks highly of anyone other than himself."


    There was a lot of tension in the room as Telamon scowled at Lirian, "Taliyah did mention that he was always a handful, be sure to discipline him more in the future.", he released his seal on Lirian and left the room without looking back.


    Lirian scowled and looked at the system, he had riled up that old man so hard and spent a small fortune to make him launch a small attack but Anya''s intervention stopped it from happening, he could have easily taken 100 billion fate particles in that encounter and it killed him that he failed.


    Something unexpected happened, when he met the principal, he used the system to see how much a fate read would cost him, and it was a whopping 500 trillion, that wasn''t too surprising he was the advisor to several leaders of the empire the secrets he carries are immense, the thing that irked him was when he tried to do a fate read on him that involved his mother, after all he was the teacher who guided her and made her into the empress, the horrific part was that the price would cost him 80 trillion fate particles, which meant that he carried a secret that was unfathomable about her.


    He was all the more determined to learn his secrets, the fate he would be able to earn would be immense if he could unravel this mystery by himself, there was a fine line he needed to watch out for with his quest for knowledge, by using fate particles one could obtain a great deal of information but if someone learned the information naturally they could earn more fate particles than it would cost them to steal it and he needed hose fate particles desperately.


    Anya pulled him out of class and concealed both of them in the shadow, "Have you suddenly gone stupid, do you know how important it is that you make a good impression on that man and you actually dared to threaten him, do you have any idea how important it is to your mother that he approves of you."


    "What do you think your mother is going to say when you get home today, she is going to be furious when she learns about what you did."


    "Firstly, what I did today was all part of a plan to instantly gain reputation and secondly there is something strange about that man."


    "He is Telamon Dao, there is nothing strange about him, he is a good man he was the advisor to several leaders of the empire, he raised your mother and after your mother became empress, he retired to do what he loves, teaching, honestly he took on the role as a teacher to help protect your mothers'' other children and teach them properly, he is respected throughout the empire and try to understand that he choose to help your mother over ascending to the immortal realm."


    "Do you realise that his profile makes no sense, every single person that sits beside a leader is a monster that other monsters fear, people, tell their children stories about them so that they behave, and that man who managed to serve five generations of leaders managed to have such a great name, that tells me only one thing he is exceptional at deceiving those around him, he is a monster the likes of which even you should fear."


    Anya frowned and also felt slightly hurt, he didn''t even try to hide the fact that he saw her as a monster, she knew that she was no holy saint but to hear that from his mouth it felt oddly painful, she shook her head before his words made any form of sense in her mind, his words always had a convincing edge to them but she would not fall into it this time.


    "Do you know what I think?"


    "I think that you''re scared because you don''t know how to make up with your mother, so now you are trying to make a mystery where there isn''t one so that you can distract yourself from the fact that you don''t know how to make things right with her, and on some level, you think solving this mystery will make her proud of you and forgive you."


    "But listen to me Lirian, your mother thinks of Telamon like a father, if you run around saying things about him and threatening him you really will hurt your mom, and it will become impossible for your mom to forgive you, I can cover for you this once but I won''t always be able to, I hope that you can understand that before it''s too late."

 Chapter 50 - 050 – TELAMONS PLANS

    Lirian gritted his teeth as Anya vanished again.


    ''You''ve lived for trillions of years but can''t even think of a way to make up with one person.'' he inwardly chided himself.


    [Gift your mother with an esper technique.]


    [Give your mother guidance on her cultivation path.]


    He sighed and looked at the system''s messages, the thing about fate is that even it is incapable of understanding emotions.


    The first option would be very inconvenient, as the only esper techniques of the empire belong to the immortal realm, and the explanations she would have to give on how she managed to acquire such a thing would be almost impossible to explain.


    Also activation of an esper technique requires very rare and/or special items that are difficult to find even in the immortal realms and the last reason why he didn''t want to do either of the two was that it would make it even more apparent that Taliyah isn''t really his mother.


    Giving her guidance would just serve as more evidence that he wasn''t her child, to begin with and that he never truly needed her help.


    He sighed and walked back to class, the entire class had recovered by now, he walked back in and smiled as if nothing significant happened.


    "I hope that all of you learned a lot from today''s lesson."


    They all nodded repeatedly like obedient little lambs, they had seen and heard everything today even when he threatened the principle, one of the most respected men in the universe, and they all felt like he was a madman, the one thing about a madman is that they almost impossible to reason with.


    The best method to dealing with a madman is to give them what they want and avoid them like the plague the rest of the time, but Lirians next words shattered that plan.


    "Now that all of that is out of the way, how about we decide who our class reps are, I nominate myself as the boy and would like to nominate Sarah Jane as the female," he said with a smile that despite what happened managed to calm many of those in the class.


    It wasn''t even a contest as they simply accommodated his wishes.


    "There we go Sarah, remember that I always keep my promises, and all of you can ask me to do any one favour for you."


    The school day passed quickly they met a couple of teachers and tests were done to determine the level of knowledge of the students.


    The school had an individual student-focused program, to determine the students'' knowledge and put them in classes suitable to their level, while the class would be class 1-A, each individual student could end up in completely different classes depending on their focuses and level of understanding on each subject.


    Lirian chose to mainly focus on history, politics, languages, and business, history was always necessary to any politician and as a prince candidate politics was essential, he knew politics, in theory, he read plenty about it when he was bored in his past lives but it wasn''t something that he could never put into practice and the same went for business, and languages was another essential, knowing the main language of the world wasn''t enough, there were many races out there and with his position, it was important that he be able to hold a conversation with those races without the use of a translator.


    Other than that, as an extra activity he took on sword classes because he couldn''t spend all his time at home anymore, he couldn''t practice as much as he liked to, but with those classes, he would be able to get an hour or two of practice in everyday asides from his early morning practice.


    As for maths, physics, and chemistry he wouldn''t waste his time listening to people talk about crafts that he had long since mastered.


    ---


    It was late in the afternoon when Hinata arrived at the office, she presented her pod logs to get her cultivation technique, it was a big decision for her, but because of her background, she didn''t want to waste a second of her time.


    Especially after the scene this morning, she had never felt such fear in her life and she never wanted to feel it again, and at the back of her mind, she felt the sparks of ambition and desire for that power that made her feel so insignificant.


    That was the power of a mage she thought to herself and when she reached the office she made her request, she followed behind the secretary for a while, however when they reached a door she found that it was the principal, "Did I do something wrong?" she asked wondering what she could have done to get in trouble.


    "No not at, the principle wishes to discuss something with you, and when he''s done he will give you a technique that is more suited to you."


    She went into the office feeling very curious as to why she was getting special treatment but she wouldn''t be foolish enough to turn down the offer, the principle was a living legend that served the empire for ages and even raised the current empress.


    The office was oddly simple, the walls were painted white, a single desk and three chairs sat it the room along with a cabinet.


    "Miss Hinata please take a seat." the principle told her with a gentle smile that even his large white mustache couldn''t hide.


    "Good afternoon, Principal Dao," she greeted politely.


    "You''re from the new prince candidates'' class aren''t you, how are you feeling after this morning''s incident?" he asked with grandfatherly concern.


    Hinata was surprised, it was rare for anyone to show concern to an orphan even in the orphanage, on her first day alone she had been insulted at least a dozen times but the teachers didn''t care a bit and didn''t spare her a glance, "I''m okay, it was scary at first, but that''s when I realised what I want to become."


    He nodded with a smile, "That''s very good, it takes most people a long time to figure out the path they wish to take, but can you tell me what you thought of the prince candidates'' actions."


    "He was just using his power to abuse everyone in the class so that we would obey him, it so unfair that someone like him got to be taken in by the empress.", it was the first time she had voiced that thought of hers, all her life she had heard of the child that was chosen by the empress and she felt jealous deep down, and when she was the first person to have the chance to get a technique, she felt that the empress should have chosen her all those years ago.


    She felt that if she had been chosen, she would have definitely had the same power as Lirian and she would be able to use it properly instead of bullying others.


    Telamon nodded and secretly smiled, "I''m glad that you feel that way, after today''s incident it convinced me that that the prince candidate is a problem that needs to be monitored if you could keep an eye on him and report everything, he does to me I will give you guidance as a cultivator and in ten years when he leaves for his trial, I will ensure that you get a basic cultivation technique of your choice and over the next ten years I will give you extra resources to cultivate with."


    She didn''t even think twice, before narrating their meeting in the morning and everything that he did in class, "But, sir what should I do to learn more about him, I''m a commoner with no background he won''t want to include me in his group."


    Telamon smiled happily only a commoner would be so easy to control, "Don''t worry about that, your talent speaks for itself, as the first cultivator in our class he would be happy to include you in his group, as a prince candidate he needs to create a group of talents to surround him and protect him."


    Hinata nodded as she thought about it, she didn''t understand why Lirian had to do such a thing but she wouldn''t doubt the words of the principle.


    Telamon pulled out a circular device and put it on his desk, "I just need you to take an oath on this, that you won''t tell anyone about your tasks and that you will do your best to fulfill any tasks I give you, the effects will wear off when you reach the second-grade as a cultivator."


    She picked up the oath disc carefully and made the oath it, she felt like she would be gaining a lot more from it than she was giving.


    When she finished the principle took her to the room with all the cultivation techniques, she had chosen the path of a mage so he made her hold on to a few different scrolls, they were all pristine and seemed untouched by time as a mystical aura surrounded each one.


    Every time she touched one, she felt her open energy points spin slightly, she had lost count of how many she held onto when the principle told her to open up a scroll, on it, she felt the energy swirling around and connect with her energy points it continued to build up for a while when she felt a burst of energy enter her body.


    The principle took the scroll back and put it back in its place, he congratulated her on officially becoming a cultivator and sent her off, he laughed to himself as he thought that she was the easiest servant he ever got.

 Chapter 51 - 051 – HIERARCHY

    On his way home the system sent him an alert, and he saw a bunch of fate particles pour into his pool.


    [Telamon Dao has begun to take precautions against you +500 000 fate particles]


    [Your actions have made an impression on Hinata +50 fate particle for making an enemy]


    He silently contemplated the two notifications, Telamons''s reaction was something he eagerly anticipated and it turned out as he had hoped, it was Hinata''s notification that puzzled him or rather the timing of it.


    If she had taken him as some form of an enemy it should have happened when he harmed the class, but only appeared now, a thought suddenly occurred to him and he chuckled as he put it in place.


    Hinata must have gone to get a cultivation technique, and Telamon must have used the opportunity to make her into one of his pawns, and from now onwards she would report his every action to the headmaster, he thought with an amused grin.


    He thought on it for a bit, someone like Telamon would never put all his eggs in one basket so there would have to be others he would plant to keep an eye on him. He was pretty confident that the only ones in his class that could be controlled were the scholarship students the rest were too high profile and the resources he could offer them were not enough to tempt them.


    When he got home it was very quiet, the servants all nodded to him respectfully and took his bags up to his room as he made his way to his mother''s study, he knew that he was going to be hearing an earful for what he told the headmaster, he couldn''t control what came over him when Telamon spoke badly about his mother and a piece of the old him came out.


    When he reached the study, the doors were sealed and two of his mother''s aides were standing guard as usual, "I''d like to speak with my mom," he told them.


    "Sorry she''s in an important meeting it''s been going on for hours," Antanasia said to him with a friendly smile, since the duel with his mom, Lirian had noticed a big change of attitude in the aides especially, usually they treated him indifferently, but after witnessing his skill they became slightly warmer towards him.


    "I''ll let her majesty know as soon as she is done, but you shouldn''t wait meetings like this one can sometimes go on for weeks if not months." he nodded silently it wouldn''t be the first time something like this happened, "How was your first day of school, I hope you left a good impression?" she asked curious about the event of the day.


    "I''d rather say that I left a lasting impression on the entire school," he answered with a chuckle, after a few exchanges he headed up to his room and began his research.


    So far, he had only pointed out the families of the students in his class and for the next few days he had to compile data on all the members of his class and slowly gather more data on the people in his school, this was the basic procedure for anyone from an influential background.


    Every star zone is controlled by a super world, a star zone is comprised of multiple star domains which are controlled by the advanced world, and these star domains are comprised of star clusters that are controlled by higher worlds, below high worlds are the lesser worlds that control solar systems, and lastly are the lower worlds that rule over a singular world.


    This is the natural hierarchy that all the universal civilizations use and at the very top of the hierarchy is the home-world of each civilization, within the Clovis empire there are over 1200 super worlds, each super world holds between 3-8 advanced worlds.


    In total there are over 6 million planets belonging to the Clovis empire, currently, Lirian found himself in the Opal star zone currently ruled by the Eden family, that is the family that the princess candidate Edith belongs to as well as Karen Eden in his class although they are distant cousins at best, the other member in his class from a super world is Lucas Kluts, he is from Garo Star zone the Opal stars zones closest neighbor.


    The girl class rep is Sarah Jane she belongs to the Jane family and is from one of the higher branches in the family, the Jane family is in control of the star domain they are residing in incidentally the Jane advanced world was one of the first supporters of his mother when she was building her influence to become empress.


    Part of the reason he offered to support her to become the class rep was that he knew that with her home field advantage, she would have used it to become the class rep and the system viewed her fate string and determined that it would have been hers even if he didn''t help her.


    As for Shen Xia and Shen Lim their parents were business partners marked in the top ten most wealthy businessmen in the entire Opal star zone.


    The rest of the class had similar backgrounds and most importantly was their positions within their families, the branches they came from all had a middle class standing within the family it meant that they had the potential to rise to high positions in the family but they could also sink in the family.


    The more he looked at it the more certain he became that his entire class was designed with a very specific set of people.


    He sighed softly and turned off his computer, he had spent hours to find all the relevant data and he even used his mother''s clearance to get some of the information, if anyone found he would get into a whole world of trouble, but he doubted it, he''d be willing to bet money that he could hack a system designed by a god, and to his knowledge, the main databases of the six civilizations were granted to them by the gods.


    There was an entire epic story about it called ''God''s Greatest Gift'', every night for four months his mother would spend at least half an hour reading parts of the story to him. His lips curled into a smile as he remembered simpler times.


    He tapped his watch and looked through his messages, his class had already made a group and he could see their childish banter filling the hologram, he swiped it away to check his messages from his mother but when he opened it there was nothing.


    He frowned as he looked at the empty hologram, in the past whenever she was stuck in a meeting Taliyah would be sure to wish him a good night in a message, but it was already late and the sun would be coming up in just a few hours, and yet there was no message.


    He could feel his mind suddenly exploding from the inside as a hundred dark thoughts started to creep through him, and the voices, he could hear them starting again, and their whispers grew louder and louder in his ears, telling him what he feared most.


    ''You lost her trust and now she doesn''t want you anymore.'' he could number 4 cackle like a lunatic.


    ''Mother doesn''t want us anymore because you broke her heart.''


    ''Antanasia was lying about mom being in a meeting because she didn''t know how to tell you that mom can''t stand to look at your face.'' said number 6.


    ''I don''t think she lied about the meeting,'' number 4 said while wearing his spectacles, '', the meeting is probably her talking to the emperor and them deciding on how to dispose of us now that she knows the truth.''


    "SHUT UP, SHUT UP, SHUT UUUUUP," Lirian roared at the top of his lungs and smashed his head with a fist.


    He sat with clenched fists and took continuous deep breaths to calm himself down, but despite minutes passing the voices continued to speak drive him mad.


    He walked to the glass case on display in his room and took the small wooden sword out, he ran his hand through the engravings of his name that ran in a circle.


    As he felt the emotions poured out by Taliyah in the engraving it managed to calm him slightly, "She will not abandon me, she will not, she won''t..." he began to mutter to himself.


    He continued to clutch onto the sword and sunk into his bed, he rocked back and forth with the sword held tightly in his embrace saying the same words over and over again until he managed to fall asleep.

 Chapter 52 - 052 – THE CANDIDATES GAME BEGINS

    Lirian climbed out of bed in the early hours of the morning like always, his head was aching and from the previous night and he wished that he could go out and grab himself a drink to dull the pain.


    He carefully placed the sword back in its case and dressed up for his morning training, he was soon frowning outside his mother''s study the meeting was still going on and that meant they would have no training for the day.


    He went out to one of the other courtyards and did his training alone before getting ready for school, at breakfast he didn''t even try to sit properly and ate his meal while leaning over his plate, it always helped his mood when he noticed the irritation of the people around him, and in the last few minutes, he dropped his eating utensils and ate the last bit of his food with his hands directly.


    He almost broke into a fit of laughs as he watched the eyes of the aides'' twitch uncontrollably at his lack of manners, but when he looked at the dropping fate particles he decided to stop, that was one of the problems with fate if you do something to evoke a reaction purposely it will cost you fate particles, his only solace was that since the difference in life hierarchy between him and the aides was too large it didn''t take too much of his fate particles.


    Before he got dressed, he called one of the servants to give him a haircut the shoulder-length hair of his was definitely part of the reason everyone mistook him for a girl and it was time for it to go.


    He sat down on a chair and allowed the servant to cut his hair as he relaxed comfortably, and after ten minutes he looked into the mirror, and only one word coursed through his mind like a bolt of lightning.


    "KAWAIIII!" he shouted as he looked at the mirror, "Holy freaking crap, I look more like a girl than ever before."


    He could hardly believe it was himself in the mirror, the shortened silver hair emphasized his lovely and smooth snow-white skin to an entirely new level, he now thought of himself as a porcelain doll as he looked at his reflection and ran a finger across his soft face.


    "Truly I am cursed by beauty," he muttered and the servant couldn''t help but nod in agreement, he really tried to give him a more boyish look but it completely backfired on him.


    "Sir Lirian if you are determined to have a more boyish look, I could shave your head." the servant offered.


    "No way am I going bald, not a chance of it!" he cried out, in all his lives he never once allowed himself to go bald and he''d be damned if he allowed it to happen in this life.


    He climbed out of the chair and went to wash up.


    As he was leaving for school, he checked his watch again but no message appeared so he decided to take the initiative and messaged his mom wishing her a good morning.


    He kept checking his watch every five seconds for the reply, Anya who was watching kept gritting her teeth feeling irritated at his behavior, ten minutes later he finally got a reply.


    ''Sorry the time just slipped by me, I didn''t realise that a day already passed, have a good day in school.''


    -M


    He breathed out in relief and finally managed to settle down, the voices finally quieted down and he could hear himself think again.


    His arrival caused quite the scene, after the events of the previous day news had spread like wildfire amongst the students about him being the source of the silver energy that damaged the school.


    Along the way he could see looks of detest, it was mainly the younger students that looked at him like that, but the older students looked more envious than anything, some were even nodding in respect, it was only the ones that understood the difficulty of energy control that had no qualms with him all, however, there were very few of them in the entire school.


    He entered the elevator and when he reached his floor, he found two people blocking his path as well as an entire entourage of their followers.


    He identified both of them very quickly, Edith the princess candidate he had already met and the person next to her made his mouth sour, he was a seven-foot-tall high orc with a monstrous size, easily the most famous prince candidate on the planet.


    "Greetings miss Edith and sir Tobias," he greeted them with a smile, he intended to create a meeting with them at some point in the week but he was happy to see them ahead of schedule.


    Tobias jumped in front of him with his arms wide open, "You''re so cute," he bellowed at the top of his lungs and tried to grab Lirian in a crushing hug.


    "Tsk," Lirian clicked his tongue and delivered a sucker punch in Tobias''s face, and the hulking giant tumbled backward on the floor, he got up like it was nothing but he grinned from ear to ear as he looked at Lirian.


    "My eyes say one thing about you, but nose shouts that you''re a boy," he laughed and continued to look at Lirian with starry eyes.


    "Keep thinking such things and I''ll make sure you stop being a boy," Lirian scoffed at him and aim a kick between the high-orcs legs.


    Tobias dodged quickly and laughed it off like a silly joke, he was impressed with Lirian from the beginning, he was especially surprised that such a small person could send him sprawling on the floor with a single punch.


    Edith rolled her eyes at the display, she had expected it since she called Tobias with her, after the previous day, she could tell that Lirian was smart and that was enough for her to approve of him, she had deliberately given him exactly what he needed as ammo to win against her, it was a tactic she used on every candidate in their first meeting.


    It gave them a sense of superiority to her and made them lower their guard against her in future confrontations and it made it easier for her to get closer to them, people like people they are superior against, and to date that tactic always worked for her.


    "Candidates are not allowed to cultivate..." she began.


    Lirian stopped her promptly, "Yesterday you interrupted my pleasant conversation and today you state the obvious, miss Edith I do hope that you have a reason for these... interruptions." he wanted to say for annoying him but that wouldn''t be very cordial.


    Edith gave a charming smile, "I am curious as to how you were able to utilize energy control on such a large scale without any cultivation."


    He looked at her and smirked slightly, she felt a slight jolt in her nerves when saw that smirk, and for a fraction of a second, she felt a fear she couldn''t understand, but as if it was a delusion in her head the feeling vanished and she forced her smile to stay plastered on her face.


    "I thought all candidates were capable of something so simple." he answered with a smirk, "Or is it that you are questioning the ethics of the empress and her aides?" he asked with a dangerous glint in his eyes.


    Despite the uncomfortable pressure, she felt Edith didn''t waver, "Due to the results of her majesty''s previous children, there are many superpowers that believe she might hide the details about you while secretly helping you, and after your stunt yesterday many of the powers are especially concerned. I imagine that as we speak, they are pushing for your capsule data to be released to the public and you can probably guess who is leading the charge against her majesty,"


    Lirian frowned but stopped putting pressure on her, as he realized what her words meant, the meeting his mother was in was most likely because of him and now she had to endure a whole load of political pressure because he was trying to build up his fame.


    But the worst was that he had given his mother''s greatest enemy a weapon, Efrideet Capriska, she was a front runner for the empress''s position, but Albus had beaten her to it and chose his mother to become empress over Efrideet.


    Efrideet Capriska the diviner, as a diviner her road to power was the most difficult it could possibly be, and to break through the sixth-grade limit to the seventh she desperately needed the authority as the empress to have any hope of breaking through the into the immortal realm, but that possibility disappeared when Taliyah became empress, leaving her extremely bitter and vengeful.


    A thousand years later she broke into the seventh-grade but her progress completely stagnated and it became almost impossible for her to ascend any further.


    He looked at Edith with a complicated gaze, "Thank you for telling me this," he said after a while, he couldn''t figure out why she was helping him, but then he realised that his thinking was too small, his mother was from a lesser world that fell under the jurisdiction of the Eden family, her achievement helped the entire star zone get a better reputation, therefore it was only natural that they would help his mother and him in turn.


    "I knew you would be smart enough to understand.", she said with a smile, he smiled bitterly as he thought of how short-sighted his actions were, for the first time he realised how annoying politics can be, there was a big difference from reading about politics and actively playing the game of politics.


    "Now that that''s settled would you join me for lunch in the cafeteria," it sounded like a question but Lirian realised that if he declined it would make him seem ungrateful but he still hesitated he knew that as the empress''s child his presence at a table had a special value.


    Her smile didn''t faulter as she saw Lirian deliberately taking his time to give her an answer, "I''ll call Media and Wentian, and if Tobias calls Cole, it will be all the candidates in one gathering," she offered.


    "There is still one missing from your list," he said.


    "Oh, that self-declared candidate is an imbecilic, she doesn''t understand what it means to be a candidate, she could learn a lot from Cole but sadly her brains don''t seem to be able to work, she thinks that being a candidate is a privilege, but she is unable to understand why every citizen of the empire is allowed to become a candidate but so few ever take up the role, but don''t worry when she hears about our meeting she''ll come running and force herself in."


    He was secretly surprised and very impressed by her intelligence, he even felt embarrassed about his previous attitude towards her and that''s when it clicked in his head, "You played me like a fiddle and let me win that first round." he chuckled as he realized the truth, she was very smart, it was no wonder she could get all the candidate to meet with her.


    "Oh, so you figured it out," she smiled without a care that she had been figured out, ", politicians need to learn how to read the waves, it has to be a give and take, there can never be a tide that never collapses." she added with a smirk of her own.


    "Is that something your father told you?", Tobias asked, now that Edith finished what she wanted to say, he stepped out from behind her.


    Edith nodded slightly, "Although I was too small to understanding the meaning when he told me."


    Tobias gave a hearty laugh, "It beats what my ass of a father told me, at least it wasn''t bad advice."


    "He told me that there are two types of people I must always avoid, horny men and petty women."


    As the two began to walk away Lirian called out to them, "There is something I''d like to discuss during lunch,"


    "I''ll take that as a yes to my invite, so what is it you want to discuss?" she asked curiously, she was hoping it wasn''t something stupid like the idle gossip that goes around the school.


    "Actually, I''ve learned something interesting and would like your help to confirm my discovery,"


    "What would you like our help with?" she finally started to feel genuinely curious about him.


    "What I need is simple actually, I''d like to see your class registers as well as all the other candidates," he said with a sincere smile but his words caused both Edith and Tobias to completely stop in their tracks.


    "You already figured it out!" Tobias said dumbfounded and even Edith looked at him with widened eyes as if she was seeing him for the first time.


    "Well, I only had a suspicion, but your reactions confirm my theory."


    "I suppose that our meeting will go better than I expected," Edith said with a smile, inwardly she was still shaking, she could hardly believe that he discovered and figured out the first and most important secret of a candidate within a single day.

 Chapter 53 - 053 – CULTIVATION

    Edith and Tobias left in a state of shock and their followers followed behind them.


    The class was already full and miss Hira was in class when Lirian arrived, the students in the class were not too happy to see him, it was bad enough when they were almost killed but the response they got from their families when they reported the occurrence from the previous day left all of them with a bad taste in their mouths.


    Every last one of them without fail heard the other side frothing from joy, when they mentioned that the prince candidate could use energy control, they didn''t even care that their descendants had been pushed to the edge of death, and when they mentioned the justification the prince candidate used for attacking the members of their family they went star-eyed and praised the prince candidates'' actions.


    They went so far as to tell their descendants that they had to get as close to the prince candidate as possible and do their best to please him.


    "Look at you, the late prince candidate, first you come to school a day late, now you arrive last to class, and here I thought candidates were supposed to be model students.", miss Kira began, she was furious with Lirian if not for his antics the previous day she would have been as drunk as a fiddle today but the headmaster found her and forcefully detoxified her.


    If she hadn''t had an impressive track record and held the position as the best historian in the school she would have been fired on the spot for her behaviour and it was all Lirians fault that she got into such trouble.


    "One minute later and I would have marked you absent," she said and flipped open the register but she quickly glanced up and looked at Lirian furiously, "Please do tell me at what point in time you magically appeared on the first day in school,"


    "Oops," Lirian feigned a look of fright, ", I heard that you were drunk on the first day so I hoped you wouldn''t even remember, but I guess the jig is up." he chuckled and looked at the class with a small smirk, "Don''t worry guys even though miss Hira found out, I''ll keep my word and do all of you anyone favour of your choice,"


    He was unbothered by the hateful looks they gave him for throwing them under the bus with him, he hummed cheerfully and took his place, he wasn''t in the mood to make his teacher cry, he had more pressing matters to think off.


    The bell rang and homeroom started, all the students lined up and went into the pods while Lirian sat on the side in silence and flipped through the pages of a historical drama, he could finish it seconds if he liked but he liked taking his own time with such an enjoyable book.


    Miss Hira was just slightly impressed that Lirian explained the details of pods to everyone the previous day and got them to use it properly she kept glancing at him and could notice that while reading he was also using his energy to take control of one of his energy points and he didn''t appear strained at all while doing it.


    It didn''t stop her from hating him and everyone from the manor for destroying her marriage, but she could respect his talent if nothing else.


    When the students left the pods, they were all drained from the effort and she began to take their questions and instruct them on the paths best suited to each of them.


    Pollock rose his hand slightly a little embarrassed to be asked such a basic question, but in the orphanage, they are only thought basic language skills and math, as far as cultivation knowledge they only knew what they had learned from stories, "Miss Hira, sir Lirian told us that 12 points of any category will allow us to have a perfect cultivation, but I would like to know why we have another 24 energy points on every category?"


    "A good question," she said pointedly before any of the privileged students could laugh at him, "12 energy points is the foundation of all first accord cultivators and to open 12 points on all three categories will qualify you to be the most elite of all first accord cultivators."


    "Let''s take two elementary body cultivation techniques like all elementary techniques it will use four energy points each, the first technique will focus on your shoulders and the joints from your thighs to your pelvis, this technique is used to increase bone density and toughens up your body."


    "Our second technique will focus on your two palms and your two elbows; this technique will give you explosive strength in your arms while only slightly strengthening the rest of your body."


    "Any cultivator with these eight energy points open will be able to use both these cultivation techniques, however the catch to using multiple techniques is that it will increase your time to ascend in your life hierarchy,"


    "Using two techniques will take twice as long while using three will take four times longer and a fourth will take eight times longer and so on,"


    "This is a part of the reason people open more energy points, the more points open the faster your ability to gather energy and the higher-level techniques you can use, for example there is an intermediate technique that focuses on eight points the same eight points from the first two elementary techniques I told you about but as in intermediate technique it combines the two methods and allows you to enhance your body strength and arm strength without wasting any time."


    "As for why 12 energy point techniques are called perfect, it''s because this is the natural limitation placed on all beings by the heavens if you try to cultivate a technique with more than 12 energy points you die." she said strongly to caution them against such thoughts.


    "This rule applies to all three branches and all of you would be wise to trade in your contributions to the empire to learn these techniques, if you make a mistake while experimenting on your own, it could ruin your entire cultivation journey, on your body you will find that all perfect body techniques touch on the spine, all perfect mana techniques touch the dantian, and all perfect mind techniques touch the brain, if you damage the three energy points on these parts of your body you can forget about ever becoming a respected cultivator."


    Even the students from prestigious families began to nod along as they learnt a few new things from the lesson only Lirian noticed the small lies she had put in there.


    The lies were no doubt created and put into the student''s program by the empire, and he wasn''t even sure if the teachers knew the lies they were telling to their students.


    The first lie was about 12 energy point techniques being the limitation placed on all living beings, in truth the next level technique required 16 energy points from two different branches, combining them results in what the people of this plain call the second accord, well that was just one of two requirements, the second requirement is imprinting laws into yourself.


    From this, he gathered that all information pertaining to the second accord is kept under strict lock and key by the empire, only those with utmost loyalty would be allowed to access such knowledge.


    It was a very good lesson in his opinion he doubted that he''d be able to explain it so simply given his extensive knowledge on cultivation techniques. As soon as homeroom wrapped up the class began to break up and go their separate ways.


    Just before he left Karen and Lucas came to him albeit hesitantly, as much as they didn''t like it, they had to do what their families told them to, "Sir Lirian would you mind if we join you for lunch in the cafeteria?"


    He wanted to mess around with them a bit but he didn''t have the time to, "Sorry, I already have an arrangement planned for today, but you are more than welcome to join me starting tomorrow, lunch will be on me." he generously offered.


    On his part it wasn''t too generous he had a monthly allowance of 10 000 credits, and after he looked through the cafeteria prices, he realised just how much it was worth, the cheapest meals were as little as 6-cents and the most expensive deluxe meals didn''t cost more than 3 credits.


    When he looked at the basic cost of living, he was amazed to find that 50 credits are enough to see to an entire families'' necessities, the real pricy thing on Xelia was the rentals and land, and since his mother moved here ten years ago, the value of such things increased by almost three times.


    ''Now that''s what I call presence,'' he thought silently

 Chapter 54 - 054 – MEETING OF THE CANDIDATES (1)

    Lucas and Karen were pleasantly surprised by the positive reply, they were expecting him to say something snarky like he did when speaking to the teacher, but oddly enough it didn''t make them feel any better in fact it made them start to fear what he had planned for lunch the next day.


    On his way out more than one of his classmates asked to join him for lunch, and before he left, he found that his lunch breaks for the next week were already filled up, the reason he agreed to all of it was because of his meeting with Edith and Tobias in the morning.


    With that confirmation he came to understand just how important his class would be to him throughout his entire journey as a prince candidate, and that it would affect his entire future, it was ironic how much of his life was already planned for by the Clovis empire.


    From the moment someone dawned the title of candidate it could be said that their lives no longer belonged to them alone.


    For the morning he only had the simple classes that require him to study but not much else, when lunch time arrived, he was one of the first in the cafeteria, and it was magnificent, a proper class cafeteria that served both affordable meals and expensive meals, customers choice as they say.


    Along the wall there were many special rooms that people could book in advance to enjoy their meals, every room had plenty of space and a single glass wall could be transparent if you don''t mind people watching and it could turn opaque to block out the eyes of others.


    He, however, wasn''t heading to the special rooms on the edge of the cafeteria but rather to its centre, there he found the room that can only be used by candidates exclusively.


    He walked into a cosy room with a hearth releasing a live fire in the centre, and several comfy sofas and a table, it was made for a maximum of ten occupants to enjoy.


    He went to seven of the pads and ordered a deluxe meal, it was a full 3-course meal, that allowed you to choose whatever you like, when the others arrived, they would be free to choose what they wished to eat.


    Not a minute passed and Tobias walked in, Lirian sighed in envy as he saw those thick orc muscles that dwarfed his waist, and jumped onto his couch and stretched himself across it, he had no intention of humiliating himself by letting his short legs dangle in the air while the others could sit with their feet touching the ground.


    Tobias took a seat and when he noticed that it was a deluxe meal, he simply swiped and chose his food of choice, when Edith entered, she looked at the meal options and gave Lirian a simple nod of approval but said nothing.


    The same went for Media a green-haired girl from one of the fairy races, and Wentian a 13-year-old boy with sharp features and long hair tied in a ponytail, they only looked at him curiously but said nothing else.


    Finally, Cole came in and nodded his head in gratitude when he saw the meal, Lirian looked at the gold stud in his right ear, it was all he needed to identify a self-declared candidate, unlike the rest of them he came from a common background and even spending a single credit wasn''t easy for him.


    "I think we should start, I''m sure Indra will force her way in at some point but she doesn''t belong here yet so it doesn''t matter if we begin without her," said Edith already excluding the last candidate before she even arrived.


    "Speaking of people that don''t belong here yet," Wentian spoke and looked to Lirian, "I get that as the empress''s son he has a higher value, but it still breaks the rules to bring him in now," he said with a grievance, it took him two years before he could get into the candidates'' meetings and he wasn''t happy about a newcomer taking a seat on his second day in the school.


    Lirian looked around curiously and took a sip from his berry blast drink that just came up through the floor, "I''ve heard many rumours about you being a genius, amongst others," said Media her voice soft and slightly squeaky, ", so I doubt it will take you more than a year to figure out the first secret, but until then I agree with Wentian you don''t belong here yet," she said.


    "Rumours?", Lirian said with a faint smile, after hearing her mention the first secret he realised that it was a test to determine if a candidate was worthy to speak to other candidates on equal ground and he knew that he already passed that test so he didn''t waste his time frowning.


    "Could you please tell me about these rumours, I always love to learn about myself from other sources," he chuckled and gave her a smile.


    He noticed that all the candidates seemed to have a bit of a more mature vibe about them, but still, Media was only a 12-year-old girl and she couldn''t stop her face from blushing a green colour when Lirian smiled at her, "There is one about you being a destroyer of sacred fountains, apparently the number of fountain replacements and repairs from the empress''s manor has single-handedly revived the water fountain industry.


    Lirian looked away and whistled softly, he didn''t realise that such rumours had spread, "Is it true?" Tobias asked with a silly grin on his face as he sipped on his drink.


    "I will not confirm nor deny any such accusations," he said while avoiding eye contact and all of them chuckled at him.


    "Sir Lirian I hope that you do not think me rude for saying this, but I''m afraid that I must agree with Wentian and Media on this, you do not belong here yet," Cole spoke very respectfully as a self-declared he knew that he didn''t have any backing and had to tread carefully, but he still couldn''t allow the first rule to be broken because of someone''s status.


    Lirian chuckled softly and smiled, "No need to be so respectful, I understand what you''re saying, so let''s not beat around the bush, you need only ask Edith and Tobias if I belong here."


    The three of them quickly looked between Edith and Tobias and were surprised to see the two of them looking at Lirian with amused smiles.


    Tobias gulped down his drink and gave a hearty laugh, "Honestly Media, the rumours about Lirian being a genius are not bullshit, this morning he gave Edith and I the mother of all heart attacks, honestly I can still barely believe it, it took Edith seven months to figure it out and the senior candidates at the time were in disbelief at how fast she put the pieces together."


    The three of them were in a state of disbelief as they heard Tobias confirming what Lirian had implied, it was something that Cole had taken almost two whole years to figure out, Media had taken a little over a year, Tobias was actually considered very fast by learning the secret in nine months but sadly for him Edith was in the same year as him and her accomplishment towered over his.


    Edith leaned forward on her sofa and looked at Lirian intently, "Although Lirian I am curious could you tell us how you figured out the first secret so quickly." she couldn''t hide her eagerness as she spoke.


    "Gladly," he answered with a smile, ", but first I would like to ask all of you to do something for me.", they all nodded eagerly to hear the method of a true genius.


    Lirian opened his watch and sent a packet of data to each of them, "As all of you can see there is a list names in the data I sent, Cole has 17, Media, Wentian, Edith and Tobias have 16 names each."


    They were all frowning slightly as they read through the names, every single one was familiar to them, because the family names belonged to people from their class, but they found it strange that no first names were on the list.


    Tobias and Edith frowned slightly as they looked through the names, they both found exactly 16 names in the list that matched with the family names in their class and not one name overlapped with each other, "What is the meaning of this?" she asked with a frown, "Why are there no first names on the list and also how do you know our class registers, all that information is strictly classified?", due to the high profiles of every member in the school most information on them is kept locked down because if such intel got out it would be easy for people to target the students of wealthy families to earn a quick ransom.


    "Oh, I don''t know your class registers at all, I simply took an educated guess of which families have placed their children in your classes," he answered with a smile.


    "A guess," said Cole with incredulity, "How is something so accurate a guess?"


    "I do recall saying an educated guess," he chuckled, "It''s actually something very simple, I swear that you''ll kick yourselves in the butt for not figuring it out sooner."


    "Stop beating around the bush and just tell us," cried Wentian, he was unable to hold back his curiosity any further.


    "Okay fine," he said reluctantly, "I followed the money."

 Chapter 55 - 055 – MEETING OF THE CANDIDATES 2

    "Huh," they all frowned and looked at Lirian with incredulity, "What the hell does money have to do with the register?" Wentian frowned at him.


    Even Edith couldn''t understand the logic behind his words, how does money play into the register.


    Lirian leaned across his seat lazily and yawned, "Don''t fret so much I''ll explain, and don''t feel too discouraged about this, after all, I had a home-field advantage vs. All of you, well except Cole and Indra, but given their none political backgrounds it can be argued that they aren''t to blamed for not figuring it out."


    "So, only someone raised on Xelia with a political background would be able to use the method you did," Tobias concludes narrowing his eyes.


    "Well, I wouldn''t say only those people can, it''s just that they are far more likely to figure it out," Lirian nodded slightly.


    "Shortly after my mother announced that I''d be attending the school, I was keeping tabs on the local news and articles about the school as I did a bit of research," the others nodded it was not an uncommon task for someone in a political family to thoroughly investigate every place they set foot in.


    "It was then that I discovered some donations that had been made to the school, and when I read the article, it spoke about a couple of the families that have deep friendships with the school, and their donations to the school were listed as PR stunts, an all-too-common occurrence in politics, at the time I didn''t think too much of it, until last night when I went through the register of my class."


    "I noticed that some of the names were the same I had seen in the article so went back and checked it out, and as I looked through, I noticed that every single name matched someone in my class."


    "After that, I looked for the years that all of you entered the school and looked for donations and I found an entire list of donations that appeared shortly after your families announced your attendance of this academy."


    He sent out another packet of data to each of them to show them the amounts that were donated after they entered the school.


    "Tobias and I started in the same year how were you able to sort out the list of classes so accurately after all the donations don''t list who they are made for?" Edith asked.


    Lirian only chuckled and took a refreshing sip of his drink, "As Wentian mentioned earlier I''m from the direct royal line which makes me have a higher value, and since you are from a super world your value is higher than Tobias who comes from an advanced world."


    "Did you really manage to do all this in only one night?" Median asked.


    "I even got an hour of sleep," he chuckled lazily.


    "I can''t believe that I didn''t realise every slot in our class had been bought and decided before we even got here," Edith murmured, "I thought the empire decided the families that would be involved in our development."


    "I think that''s asking for much don''t you think, the mortality rate of a candidate is abysmally low, why would the empire waste its precious time carefully deliberating about who to put in the class of every candidate throughout the empire, they outsourced it to the families to use as a form of entertainment, and it''s the best form of entertainment in the world to the families it''s a game with real stakes and it could change the direction of their entire houses."


    "You''re saying that we are their entertainment," Cole asked with a spark of rebellious fire in his eyes.


    "Why shouldn''t we be seen as a form of entertainment to them?" he laughed and the others frowned.


    "Can''t any of you imagine how hilarious we must look from above, a bunch of children without any real power, playing a game as old as the six civilisations, I mean look at us we are taking ourselves so seriously in this school and working so hard to make a deep impression on the civilization as a whole, but two hundred years later when our trial ends, we''ll be lucky if even one of us can survive, those who look down on us from above might as well be gods and we are the cattle they graze in their fields."


    His laugh was like a lunatic as he thought of the scenery from above, after all, it had been his favorite pass time activity as a god to watch the lives of lesser beings as they try so desperately to make themselves great, they would betray their leaders saying they lacked ambition only to be betrayed by their own subordinates that would later claim that they lacked ambition and the cycle would go on nearly endlessly.


    "The only difference is that we can stop being the cattle and become recognised as a true prince or princess of the empire," said Edith as she regained her calm, as she looked at laughing Lirian she could see why he didn''t care about sitting around properly and acting as the perfect doll in front of them, it was because within his first day he took several steps ahead of the rest of them, he didn''t need their approval they needed his.


    "True," he calmed his laugh, "but can you picture how they will laugh when we speak all big in here like we so great only to die in the trial or worse to tap out halfway through because it was too much for us to bear."


    His words left a silence in the room, it was now clearer than ever to all of them how terribly small they really were, they families with power were by slots in their classes for their descendants to enter, and since they were actually spending money on something like this it meant that they were invested in each candidate.


    The students in a candidate''s class were sent as spies to determine the value of the candidate, but they also acted as a form of support for the candidates, and the two-hundred-year trial, as well as the two-hundred-year course of the school, were inter-connected.


    All the students in their classes have positions in their families that would either rise or fall depending on the success or failure of the candidate, should the candidate survive the trial those students would be given higher statuses in their families and it would be up to them to work with the candidate to elevate their position to higher places.


    This was the first secret of every candidate; your class is your future in an extremely literal sense and it was there that Lirian had made his first mistake with his little attack on them.


    The silence was heavy in the room as everyone contemplated the news, it was a completely different angle from what they used and it completely changed how they saw things.


    It was Media who broke the silence after a while, "It seems that the rumors about you were severely understated," she said with a smile.


    "Even rumors have their limits, eventually people will call them made-up fables if it surpasses their common understanding of the world," he responded in kind.


    The rest all felt themselves going red in embarrassment for him, he was truly one of those legendary characters that knew not of shame. How could they not realise that he was praising himself with that reply.


    The food that everyone ordered started to come up through platforms in front of their seats and as everyone started to eat their own meals Lirian felt his mouth-watering, he always felt that others ordered the food he really wanted and he had poor taste in his food selection.


    He eyed Tobias''s purple Mantri steaks and did his best to stop his drool from flowing.


    Wentian was looking at his ramen with a disheartened face and didn''t seem all that interested in eating it.


    Tobias took a nice slice of his meat allowed the meat to melt in his mouth, he looked at Wentian, "What''s got you looking so down?"


    "It''s probably because the slots for Media''s class were worth almost three times more than his," Edith said with a playful smile.


    "It doesn''t make any sense we are both from high worlds why are her slots worth so much more than mine," he cried in outrage.


    "It''s probably because she''s from six-star zones away it, since this star zone doesn''t have too much interaction with the Nebula star zone her presence here is an anomaly it makes her far more interesting to watch and her attitude towards the people here represents her star zones attitude towards the Opal star zone," Tobias said thoughtfully.


    "I don''t see why the figure discourages you so much after all Coles is much lower than yours but he seems unaffected by it, it makes him seem a lot more princely," Lirian added.


    "Easy for you to say each slot in your class was worth almost 13 billion credits, it even blows Edith''s figure out of the water by more than 15 times." he cried with saddened eyes.


    "A direct royal line candidate is rare so it only makes sense that the value is much higher, besides try to bear in mind that while the value of my slots are extremely high it doesn''t mean that I have students in my class that are worth 13 billion credits after all they are still only ten years old, only time will tell how competent they turn to be."

 Chapter 56 - 056 – THE MEETING CLOSES

    "A direct royal line candidate is rare so it only makes sense that the value is much higher, besides try to bear in mind that while the value of my slots are extremely high it doesn''t mean that I have students in my class that are worth 13 billion credits after all they are still only ten years old, only time will tell how competent they turn to be."


    Lirian words seemed to help their mood a little as Wentian decided to eat his meal, he looked down at his ramen and frowned as he noticed a few of the toppings were gone and so were three slices of the meat, he knew that he didn''t touch his food yet and it was there when he checked a moment ago.


    "Did someone steal my food?" he asked with a puzzled look.


    Tobias laughed at the stupid question thinking it was a joke but when he looked down, he noticed a piece of his Mantril steak was missing he glanced up and looked around curiously wondering just how it vanished when he caught Edith''s eye.


    "Half my pot of steamed vegetables is gone too," she said with a wronged expression and Lirian would swear that he saw little tears in the corner of her eyes.


    ''I thought children are supposed to hate their vegetables, I thought they were supposed to do a victory dance if they got away with eating their veggies,'' he thought silently and raised his fork with purple Mantril steak to his mouth.


    "Yeah, me too, a piece of my brisket is gone," Lirian joined them, it wasn''t a lie, a piece of his brisket was gone and sat happily in his belly. He had been sure to swipe a little from everyone except Media.


    As he cut a slice from his brisket he turned to look at her and chewed on it slowly, and as they realised that she was the only one that didn''t have anything missing they looked at her with strange gazes.


    "W-w-wait it wasn''t me," she stammered as everyone focused on her, while looking at her he slipped a piece of steamed vegetables into his mouth wondering if she''d notice.


    But before anyone could do or say anything the door to the candidate''s personal room slide open, and the last candidate Indra came in.


    She strolled in with her head held high, with her nose pointing up as if she was too good to be in the same room as them, "It looks like all the school snobs are gathered together, and after what I heard about you, I''m not surprised that you fit right in with them," she said pointedly to Lirian.


    Lirian raised his brow slightly and smiled on in amusement, "Oh, I''ve been called much worse," he chuckled, ", but it seems the rumors are wrong about you, I have heard that you''re an imbecilic but it seems that your sheer stupidity makes such an impression that people forget to mention how dreadfully annoying you are," he spoke down to her in a mocking voice.


    Her guts to walk in and pick a fight surprised him, it told him that she was either very stupid or very brave, there was also the third option, that she was so stupid it made her brave.


    Media sighed in relief as everyone stopped focusing on her and watched the exchange between Lirian and Indra, she wondered how everyone lost a piece of their food but she didn''t and she carefully scrutinized the room wondering where the missing food went.


    After a few more exchanges Indra took her own seat and prepared to get her own meal when she frowned and looked up, "Are you guys patronizing me, I can afford my own meal." she said with self-righteous anger as she saw the deluxe meal worth 3 entire credits.


    Lirian looked around at the others, and aside from rolling their eyes like they were used to it, he could tell from Ediths twitching hand that she was struggling not to facepalm.


    "You know I''m terrible at being courteous but even I know that it''s basic manners to pay for the meal if you want someone to join you."


    Indra scoffed, "Hearing the word manners come out of your mouth is a joke, considering what you did yesterday,"


    Lirian gave a half-smile, "What I did was create a spectacle the likes of which have never been seen before," he quickly added, ", if your jealous you can just say it."


    "The only thing I am jealous about is that the empress chose you, if not that power of yours would belong to someone else, someone more deserving,"


    Lirians calm and playful attitude vanished in all but an instance and cold fury surged through him, the air stilled, even the fires that danced in the hearth stilled as if afraid, "This power is not the creation of anyone other than my me," he said strongly and even his voice seemed to deepen and age.


    There were many insults that he would tolerate but one about his power was one he would not tolerate, as much as he loved his mother, even she had absolutely no right to make any claim over his power and his quest for knowledge.


    Many of the worlds he had lived in were not as advanced as his current world and knowledge was scarce, to become literate was one of his hardest tasks, when he had no one to teach him, a study of a single language could take him decades and that was only for the easy languages, the techniques of his were almost all self-developed and those that he stole were refined and polish to the realm of perfection.


    There was not a being in all of creation that had any right to claim that they created him his power and skill, all of that came from excruciating mental and physical labor on his part, and he''d be damned before he allowed anyone to take credit for his ability.


    He especially hated it when someone would think themselves more deserving of the power he had, it made him sick because he knew that anyone else would have given up if they were in his place.


    Silver energy built on his fingertips and he pointed slowly at Indra, the pressure that descended on her made her squirm and slowly her whole body began to tremble like a leaf in the wind, and she broke out into a sweat that drenched her entire body and soaked her clothes.


    "You can say what you want about me having fortune that I didn''t earn, you can even say that I do not deserve to call the empress my mother and you might even have a point on those, but you have no right to even begin comparing your skill and talent to my own and the next time I hear such words leaving your mouth I wouldn''t care if the emperor himself was your father you wouldn''t leave my presence alive." his voice echoed in cold fury in the ears of the other candidates and even the regular students that watched the meeting through the transparent windows felt their bodies freeze up.


    The candidates in the room had wanted to see the silver energy up-close, but they regretted having such a wish, even the seven-foot-tall mountain of a high-orc Tobias couldn''t stop his bones from quaking, this was even more terrifying than that time when he was a child and he was brought to witness the power of a seventh-grade warlock.


    He felt a killing intent in those words that could make entire worlds seem small in comparison, and it became apparent to him that despite Lirian teasing them about energy control being something easy that he thought all candidates could use, it was definitely not the case.


    Before she fainted and soiled herself Lirian decide to pull back the energy and release it, and his eyes steadily took on its calm radiance again.


    Indra fell face forward onto the floor and no one blamed her, she was an annoyance that was already in the school for 6 years and didn''t understand the first secret of the candidates, but they still felt slightly bad for her.


    They only felt the leaked energy and it scared them, while she was the main focus of the energy, they examined the room in silence and were surprised to see that everything the energy had touched had been weathered away as if it had faced a hundred storms.


    When the lunch break ended Lirian remained in the room intentionally as the others left, when the room emptied out he shut the door and turned the glass opaque, "A room for the privileged candidates," he whispered softly.


    "A room in which we can enjoy silence while discussing our plans,"


    "You great families really know how to stroke the egos of your children and use their egos against them,"


    "Because the thing about a silent room is that even if just a whisper you are easily overheard," he whispered into the hearth


    "I hope that you paid very good attention to my words and I hope that you will pay even closer to my next words,"


    "I will play along with your games after all you have every right to do so but I will warn you now, I will not fall in the trial and I am not your toy to be played with and maneuvered as you see fit."


    "I am the one who will ascend the throne of Clovis and should the day come that I learn of your games it will not end well for any of you," he chuckled softly and paused for short while.


    "Laugh at my words while you can but remember them in a few thousand years when I take my place on the throne," he said sharply, while looked up and his eyes took on their bright glow once more as he looked into a spiritual marking and he glanced to all the different markings that lined the room, "The others might be blind to your tricks but understand that energy control is not my only trick in the bag."


    He smiled and strolled out of the room while tossing the last slice of meat, he had stolen from Wentian into his mouth, he knew that his last trick would be giving all the families a big scare and he secretly laughed as he imagined their stupid faces contort.


    Little did they know that they had just fallen into an information loop trap that Lirian had set up.


    Now that he was done with the meal, he started with dessert.

 Chapter 57 - 057 – EDEN

    Lord Callum Eden was enjoying a bountiful dinner during a hard-earned break when one of his advisors barged into his room.


    "What brings you here so suddenly Milan?" he asked with a puzzled expression, he''d be lying if he said he wasn''t a little angry about his dinner being disrupted, but no one that worked around him was incompetent which meant that they would only disrupt him if it was necessary.


    "There is something you need to see my lord," she said, ", It would be best if you watch it to the end before commenting," she added quickly, it wasn''t that what she brought was extremely urgent but it might have implications on their star zone.


    "Is it to do with her majesties brat again, I will admit that his energy control is exceptional but that''s all it is it won''t cause us too much stress in the long term." he chuckled, that child was truly a genius but he also caused so much trouble on his first day in the public eye.


    "Yes, my lord it is, and today''s news is a little troubling," she said.


    He gestured for Milan to help herself to a drink as the footage began to play, he frowned at first when he saw that Lirian was sitting in the meeting of candidates, he remembered even now how hard he had to work to sit in meetings like those, and when he saw Edith say nothing about his presence in the room, he felt slightly disappointed in her, she ought to know the rules better than anyone.


    As the meeting began, he smiled in approval as the younger candidates began to voice their opinion but he was surprised at first by Ediths and Tobias''s lack of reaction, it was then that he thought of the impossible.


    A few minutes had passed and he confirmed his suspicion the little candidate had already learned the first secret after a single day and his approach was completely different from the usual, it was something that he himself had only realised a while after he officially stepped into the political field.


    He was impressed without any doubt and he even started to look past the candidates'' ungraceful acts that went on in the room and smiled as he heard the candidate mention that everything was set up by the great families. It was extremely impressive to witness how deep his insight went into the families'' reasons for turning their lives into a game.


    When the last candidate entered, he broke into a smile at the appearance of the fool, in truth while Tobias was the most popular in the public, it was Indra that most of the nobles enjoyed watching because of what an idiot she was.


    He witnessed the energy control in awe and sighed in pity at how quickly Indra was shut up, he was looking forward to one of her speeches about equality no matter one''s position in the world, but she almost soiled herself after saying a few words.


    Those speeches of hers were always so much fun to listen to and he would never be able to stop himself from laughed when they occurred, it was simply against all logic to treat everyone equally, a businessman would get a little bit of respect for providing jobs to people, a doctor would be well respected for saving lives and a soldier will be revered for fighting for their people.


    You can''t give an ordinary person the same respect you give to someone who actively works towards bettering the lives of ordinary people.


    He thought that it was over when the children began to leave, they even had to carry Indra out.


    He looked away to Milan who was sipping on a whiskey and her glass was slightly icy as she cooled it in her hands, "There wasn''t anything too concerning," he said, "if anything I''m more convinced than ever that we may have a serious contender for the throne in a few hundred years."


    "It''s not over my lord, and the most interesting part is coming up." she said with a slight smile ", you will find that he is about to become the talk of all 42-star zones that set up a mark inside that booth."


    He turned back to the recording and watched as Lirian began to seemingly talk to himself, he wondered if the kid was crazy, but soon he realised that the boy was practically speaking to him directly and all the others that were spying on him, at first, he thought that maybe the empress had broken the rules and told him the truth about the booths real use, and he even started to chuckle slightly.


    It was then that a few words made him stop, ''...laugh while you can...'' he frowned and looked down only to meet the boy''s eyes and for a second it felt like he was really being looked at and he watched as he did the same to every mark in the room.


    He felt his veins go cold as Lirian finished and he looked down in contemplation, "Did you also..."


    "... feel like I was being looked at directly, yes and so did everyone who saw the footage before me, and after contacting some of our friends in the Garo star zone we confirmed that it wasn''t only us that felt that way," Milan quickly said.


    Callum shook his head and smiled, "I doubt that there has ever been a candidate that got so much attention so fast, I mean it''s only the 3rd day of the school year at this rate he might even enter the eyes of every star zone in ten years."


    Milan started hesitantly, "My lord what that child did is not something I can even understand," she hinted at the strange feeling she got when that eye fell on her, "It''s beyond ordinary, I''m curious about something do you think that the empress choosing to adopt such a child was truly a coincidence because the secrecy of his days before he entered the school was already suspicious it''s starting to feel like this child''s appearance on Xelia was set up!" she finished hesitantly, she knew that her lord and the empress had a good friendship and it wouldn''t sound so good to voice out something so conspiracy-like, but she felt it was her duty as an advisor.


    Callum calmly nodded, "What you are thinking is most likely true that child was planted on that ship by her majesty, but I''ve already had several teams investigate the world the child came from, and it would appear that her majesty has done a good job of faking his appearance, so no one can accuse her of tampering with the candidate games."


    Milan nodded in relief, "The zone will start to get pretty busy once word of this gets out, how are we to proceed?"


    "For now strengthen the guard on all planets with level 5 priority and above and let the Xelia family know that we''ll be adding to their guards, we have to ensure that there is as little damage done to the planets by any troublesome visitors."


    "It should be at least a year before any trouble starts, but just to be safe put up an additional guard around Lirian, I''ll inform the empress."


    "I think it will be best to do the same for all the candidates," Milan added her voice seemed to soften slightly.


    Callum didn''t miss that detail and frowned, "It seems that you have started to worry about her," he did not approve of this small change.


    Milan glanced at him with a little anger in her eyes, "You asked me to keep in contact with her, what did you expect would happen." she said coldly.


    He sighed softly, "You might as well ask her what she thinks of him while you''re at it, also speak to the child we put in his class, it''s important that we learn everything we can about him," he added.


    She nodded silently and left to begin the preparations.


    Callum returned to eating his meal while lost in his thoughts, he was known as one of the best info brokers in the empire, it made him very certain that the empress cleared up well behind the trials of her new son, but he only had one fear, the diviner that hated the empress, if there was anyone that could drag out his origins it was her, Efrideet Capriska. He didn''t know the details obviously but if the empress felt it was necessary to hide his origins, then she would have a reason.


    By all means, her actions of attacking the empress''s reputation was frowned upon by a vast majority of the current super-worlds but she was also a living legend, to have become a seventh-grade diviner was a feat beyond belief, there were only 4 such cases throughout the entire history of the six civilizations besides the great diviner Quaria, due to her accomplishment, there was a big split in the opinion of the nobles towards her.


    Some believed that she deserved to become empress because of her strategic value in the empire, whilst others supported the current empress after all it was emperor Albus that won the race to become emperor and he was free to choose any empress candidate to become his wife and even the previous empress had approved of his choice.


    Due to their conflict, many nobles were preparing for a potential civil war to break out, even after many negotiations Efrideet insisted on a vision she had seen, she claimed that she saw the empress bring down destruction on the lands of her people.


    She even went so far as to say that the empress''s actions would cause a war with one of the other civilisations and that her attacks were to stop the empress from bringing such a future to the world.


    The words of a diviner were scary and some believed her, while others thought it was just a scam so that she could take the throne.. If not for how highly she was valued, she would have been executed a long time ago.

 Chapter 58 - 058 – SIX MONTHS

    Lirian looked at his constantly decreasing fate particles, his little stunt did not go without cost, he had purposely used his fate particles to look into those spiritual markers, by doing so he was able to gain a basic understanding of all those that watched his recording and as expected it spooked the hell out of a lot of them.


    He completely depleted all of his acquired fate particles and spent 20 trillion from his system to maintain his data gathering, it was not nearly enough but if there was one thing Lirian was it was brilliant, the reactions of those who saw the recording fed him plenty of fate particle so used all the particles he was gathering to perform a self-sustaining fuelling loop.


    All the fate particles he was gaining would be used to ensure the continuous running of the information gathering from the recording, he doubted that any of them even realised that they were being spied on.


    Currently, his gains were a lot more than his expenditure, but once word of the recording got out and people stopped being so surprised by it his gains would drop which is why he didn''t take in any of his earned fate particles for now, he didn''t need it anyway.


    His biggest contributor was the heavens chosen boon without it the loop would have cost him far too much, but for now, he was glad to have such a valuable source of information.


    When he returned home, the situation was the same as the previous day, his mother was very busy dealing with many different officials that he had managed to fright and he doubted that she would be free anytime soon.


    Six months slowly went by under the current circumstances.


    It was so early in the morning that not even the first traces of sunlight appeared on the horizon when Edith arrived at school, she had made it a habit to be the first to arrive, she would always be in the school before even the boarding students could climb down from the 30th-35th floors.


    She sat in the private room reserved for the candidates with complex feelings, the hearth burned ever so faithful and washed away the cold air allowing her to remain lost in her thoughts, these past six months were different.


    She remembered what it was like to be the star of the zone, while Tobias was known well by the public and spoken of by the nobles, she had always been a core subject of their attention but in recent months that spotlight lost its glow in comparison too the burning sun that was Lirians fame.


    She would always think back to her father''s words of the tide, without realising she had given way to tide far greater than her own, and it seemed like that tide could continue to rise endlessly, she would have been happy if she felt there was room for her to help that tide grow and stabilise itself at least then she would have still been fulfilling a purpose but as things currently sat Lirian seemed to be in perfect control of everything.


    The worst part was that she found it impossible to hate him, despite how arrogant, disrespectful, and insensitive he could be he never stroked his own ego by belittling his seniors and he was extremely helpful, in the past six months she found herself thinking in critical ways she couldn''t have imagined before.


    She looked at this special room made for candidates and thought that it was the perfect place for the great families to watch their little toys play, but she felt that the others would laugh at her for thinking such things but in the corner of her mind she choose to be more careful of the words she spoke in this place.


    Media entered a little later and smiled in greeting as she ordered a warm beverage and sat in front of the fire, the days were currently cold and she slowly warmed her hands in the fire''s light.


    "I''ve been hearing from my family that the security around the Xelia families star cluster has been increasing by the day and it''s been happening around the entire star zone," Media said as she got her drink and took a small sip.


    Edith nodded, "Yes, apparently the entire zone is about to get a lot of visitors and some of them could be dangerous, they will begin arriving in the next 12-13 months and the situation should remain the same for a few years, I doubt that it will change before Tobias and I enter into suspended animation."


    Media nodded as she got the confirmation she was looking for, she assumed that her family would be happy with her information gathering, having a direct confirmation would always make the information more valuable, "I''ve heard that this has something to do with Lirian it''s hardly believable that he caused such a stir." she mused softly.


    Edith also shook her head, "I''m not too sure about that but my family has been asking me a lot about him, but they aren''t telling me the reason."


    The door opened again and Tobias came in taking up the entire doorway and Wentian followed behind him with Cole they were all dressed as if it was summer and they took the seats furthest from the fire.


    "Why are you guys sitting so far away it''s pretty cold?" Media said and lifted her drink to show them the steamrolling into the air.


    "We use the cold to temper our bodies, it is what will make us true warriors," said Tobias in his deep and powerful voice.


    Edith chuckled, "Boys will be boys," she said and shared a look with Media and they giggled as they noticed the boys'' legs filled with goosebumps from the cold.


    When Lirian came in he was dressed in his proper winter outfit and a silk scarf of red and silver was wrapped around his neck and the word ''With love from mom.'' were seen clearly on it, it was also hand-stitched.


    Most of the ordinary students in the school would probably laugh at him for it if he wasn''t a prince candidate while anyone from the great families with parents in important positions would look on in envy even his fellow candidates couldn''t help but feel jealous of course they would never admit to it.


    Lirian took a seat near the fire while frowning and folded his scarf neatly, to make sure the words were all visible as he sat it down and ordered himself breakfast.


    Cole hopped out of his seat and jumped into Lirians, the couches were pretty big, and in the past few months they had all gotten over their fear of him, they learned one rule, you can say whatever you want to him so long as you weren''t making light of his ability or say that he was undeserving of his power you could joke around with him and all would be fine.


    "What''s got you looking so grumpy today?" he asked with a chuckle.


    "These damn great families are a royal pain in the ass!" he exclaimed loudly, "Because of their crap I haven''t been able to see my mother for a few weeks, and even when I do see my mom, I can only say a few sentences to catch up before she has to enter another meeting."


    It was really starting to annoy him, especially the fact that things hadn''t been fixed up between him and his mother, it seemed that everything was okay on the surface but the problem was just shelved temporarily and if he couldn''t find a solution it was only a matter of time before it blew up.


    Edith glanced around the room with a trace of worry, she feared that the families could hear that and she was surprised to see that it wasn''t only her looking around warily, as she thought about it, she realised that she wasn''t the only one that was more restrained with her words.


    He truly made her feel complex emotions, on one hand, she envied his relationship with his mother and she also felt somewhat grateful to him, since he arrived, she had more contact with her mother than ever before in her life, it was annoying at first because the main subject was always Lirian, but recently her mother would give personal calls occasionally to catch up with her for a few minutes.


    Cole was the sole person who pondered on it deeply unlike the others he was an ordinary civilian from a normal family, when the school learned of his talent, they recommended that he declare himself a candidate but other than that his life was still pretty much the same.


    "If you really want to spend some time with your mom, just buy an easy to eat meal and target one of your moms small openings in her schedule to eat with her, it''s what my mom does to spend a little bit of extra time with my dad," he shrugged, he didn''t know if such a tactic was possible with someone as important as the empress, but it was all he could think of.


    Lirians eyes sparkled and he looked at Cole like he was his savior, this entire time he was thinking that he had to do something big and grand, but it was just like cultivation, things had to be repaired in small steps if you want to fix a sword you don''t melt it down in the sun, you use a furnace.


    Cole felt himself blush at the look Lirian was giving him and it didn''t make sense he liked girls but Lirian somehow had that effect on anyone he met they couldn''t help but feel strong things about him especially when he looked at them so intently.


    After an embarrassing few seconds Cole turned away looking flushed, "This is why I think of you as my closest friend," Lirian added with a chuckle, his reaction was genuine but he had to add that so that he could have his own fun.


    "Hey I thought that I was your BFF," Tobias added with a saddened expression.


    Lirian tilted his head slightly at the giant of a man, "Not a chance in hell," he said coldly.


    "Why are you always so mean to only me, I didn''t do anything wrong to you," he cried out with teary eyes.


    Media giggled loudly, "I think I know why," she paused deliberately with intent and gave Lirian a sly smile, "I have noticed that Lirian hates anyone taller than himself, and the taller you are the more he hates you, in short, he as an inferiority complex when it comes to height,"


    "Th.At. Is. Ri.Di.Cu.Lus." he snapped and swiped her drink from her hand and took a long sip from it, ", and I''m not returning this." he said while taking another sip.


    By now they had long since figured out who the food thief was after all it only started after Lirian became a candidate it didn''t take a genius to figure it out, but to their dismay, they could never spot him doing it, and eventually, they just gave up and began ordering a little extra food on the side.


    While he was enjoying Media''s drink everyone''s eyes were glimmering due to the revelation and it felt like a veil had been lifted especially for Tobias who had received unjust treatment so far, but he couldn''t help it that high orc physics were so stocked.

 Chapter 59 - 059 – FINDING THE GAP

    The day passed quickly and Lirian found himself closing his history book, today''s lesson was something he had been looking forward to it was one about his mother and her discovery.


    She had become a princess and empress candidate through different means after all for the most part lesser and lower worlds had very little to do with the political structure of the world, the real powers only started at the high worlds and above.


    His mother grew up on a colonial planet called Scavanor and it wasn''t very well developed despite being a part of a lesser world. She grew up on a farm with many brothers, but during a conflict between two sects her home village became collateral damage and most of her friends and family died, only two of her brothers survived along with her, but they both died as they tried to take revenge against the people that ruined their lives.


    At the age of 105, she reached the fourth-grade as a cultivator across all three centres of power which gave her enough power to avenge her family and brothers, with that in mind she began a slaughter and slowly killed every person that so much as sold a grain of food to the sects, after slowly backing them into a corner she picked of any important personal in their sects and finally she led them into a series of traps she had prepared.


    When she completed her revenge, she was said to have gone mad for a few years before she was dragged before the powers in control of the world she came from, she was going to be executed for her crimes, but after discovering how shocking her talent was, they reported it to the empire and the advisor of the empress Telamon Dao received her and requested to become her teacher, and under his guidance she reached the fifth-grade before the age of 160 years.


    She had met the conditions to become a princess, at least the second condition, which was to reach the fifth-grade before the age 400 years without the aid of the empire, it was without a doubt one of the fastest speeds in history and it got her the attention and support she needed to become a real princess of the empire.


    It wasn''t anything he hadn''t heard of before but it was his first time reading it from the history books directly and learning it from this point of view, when his mother told him the stories, she always toned it down and she rarely ever spoke a word about her family.


    He left school like always with Anya accompanying him and told her about his plan to get to speak with his mother, but she shook her head softly, "Her majesty''s schedule is far too busy unless you can stop someone from contacting her it will be impossible, and she will be furious about it afterward, honestly, I doubt she''s going to have any free time for a few more months and if you pull any more schemes it''s only going to make it harder on her majesty.", she glanced at him pitifully.


    Since his first few stunts he had been well behaved for the most part but she could tell that he was restraining himself to lessen the Emperess''s work.


    "The biggest problem is Lady Efrideet, she won''t relent a bit on your pod data despite her majesty making it clear that only when you are about to leave for your trial will your pod data be made accessible to the public."


    Lirian sighed as he thought about it, unfortunately, he had no choice but to reveal 72 open energy points, it made it possible for him to explain how he opened another 12 to bring it to 84 energy points, and it would allow him to freely expose his esper techniques when he returns from the trial. After all, 84 energy points are the minimum requirement to use an esper technique.


    Lirian unconsciously gritted his teeth together as he realised how frustrating it was going to be to come up with a good plan to spend some time with his mom, without getting into too much trouble.


    He partially wished to reveal his pod data but the main reason he chose not to was the system''s warning cautioning him against such a decision, such potential was a scary thing, and it was likely that even the current prince''s and emperor candidates would try to move against him if they felt threatened by his existence.


    Currently, the only problems he was facing was political, and those few opportunity chasers that would try to abduct him and use him as leverage against the empire, but their numbers were manageable and the empress''s personal guard that remained stationed above the world had dealt with almost all those threats so far and the few that slipped past them were caught by Anya.


    When he returned home, he got a hold of his mother''s schedule and began to look through its contents for an opportunity but it wasn''t so easy, even the hours in which he usually sleeps were packed with meetings, for a seventh-grade cultivator it was enough to sleep once a year so there was no need for constant breaks, and finally, after some time he found his opportunity there were many meetings being rescheduled.


    He quickly found the meetings that had been rescheduled the most, since they were being rescheduled it meant that they were the least important of the lot and it would make it his only opportunity to free up some time.


    He looked through a few of the meeting topics and researched many of the people involved and after a couple of days, he found an opportunity in two weeks.


    Two weeks passed in the blink of an eye and Lirian had learned all he could about the meeting, it was two policymakers in rival factions, and they were both after the same set of funds, their meeting had been rescheduled 7 times already and he doubted that it would be done again.


    He came back from school early and began his first step, he turned to Anya and looked at her with his most pleading look until she finally submitted to his request of distracting the guards, it was his only problem, the two aides that always blocked the doors even if they had a more favorable impression of him now, it didn''t mean that they would allow him to break the rules.


    "You know Anya I don''t say this enough but I''m so glad to always have you by my side," he said with a warm smile.


    Anya looked at him coldly, "Try saying that when you don''t need my help with something," she chided him and proceeded with her task that she knew was going to get her into so much trouble.


    He watched carefully from around the corner as Anya chatted with the other aides and she drew them slightly to the side while keeping their attention away from him as he crept up to the doors and slide inside unnoticed.


    The first thing he heard was two voices arguing over each other, in all honestly it sounded like the argument was long forgotten and they were competing to see who could be the loudest while shouting random words, and he could see his mother with her eyes closed and messaging her temples while slightly shaking her head she didn''t even notice his presence as he walked in.


    He walked forward careful not to make any noise until he was within range of the two projections, they both started at the sight of him, no one else was supposed to be present at the meeting much less a child.


    "Ahem," he cleared his throat and Taliyah quickly looked up at him and her pretty face contorted into a furious frown as she looked at him.


    He quickly continued before she could say another word, "Mrs. Cauthon and Mr. Lee my mother is growing tired of your continuous bickering and absolute stupidity."


    "You see it seem that your brains have shriveled up so much that you have forgotten to think about why both of your factions exist, it''s because both of you are necessary to keep each other in check, so if one side disappears so will the other, now I understand that both of your factions have such limited intelligence that you are incapable of funding your own projects so you come crying to empire to provide for every small thing,"


    "So, this is how things are going to go, the two of you are going to try and use those limited brain cells of yours to come up with a compromise to share the funds and if you are incapable of doing such a simple thing, there is a list of over 300 people with an interest in your positions, of which there are 13 who are more than capable of doing it,"


    "So, do what you can to make sure that your compromise works because if you don''t my mother will find someone else who can, and you will also lose your jobs, it will not be some simple demotion."


    "Do your best because your continued existence depends on how well you compromise," he said finally with a large and sweet smile that left the two dumbfounded they didn''t understand how such horrible words could come out of such a lovely face, they had never been spoken down to like that in their entire life.


    "Wait, what do you mean by our continued existence..." Mr Lee tried to say but he was rudely interrupted by Lirian who answered with a sweet demonic smile, "Guess!" and he cut of the projection.


    "How was that mom?" he asked with the best smile he could put on, but like always she seemed like the only person in the world immune to his adorable smiles.


    "....surprisingly effective and well thought out," she answered begrudgingly.

 Chapter 60 - 060 – A TRUTH FROM THE HEART

    "How was that mom?" he asked with the best smile he could put on, but like always she seemed like the only person in the world immune to his adorable smiles.


    "...surprisingly effective and well thought out," she answered begrudgingly, she wished that she had the time to do a little bit of research between her meetings.


    "You are supposed to be in school," she said with a dissatisfied tone as she looked at the scarf he was wearing, she was lucky that she had made it before he even started school, or she wouldn''t have been able to make him one since all her time had been taken up thanks to him and his little stunts.


    "You had better have a good reason for skipping, Lirian, or else," she left the implied punishment to his imagination.


    "I''m at the top of my class in everything so skipping a day won''t do much and besides it was the only opportunity for me to spend some time with you," he said helplessly.


    Her eyes softened slightly, "I''ll have the chefs prepare us something to eat so we can enjoy a meal together." she relented to his little request.


    "No need for that," he said quickly and pulled out two burgers wrapped in a paper and set it down on the table, ", by the time a meal comes down you''ll have to start another meeting."


    She glanced at the food wrapped in wax paper and frowned, it looked like the cheap food people sell on the street corners.


    "Come on mom, when is the last time you ate a simple meal prepared by a food vendor on the side of a street," he asked with a little smile on his lips as he watched her changing expression.


    "Lirian I have a personal cooking staff, to prepare my meals, and how exactly am I supposed to eat this, there is no plate or cutlery, there isn''t even a serviette to clean up any mess!" she yelled in outrage.


    Lirian chuckled softly and opened his wrap, he reveled in the smell of barbequed meat and lifted the entire burger to his mouth to take a bite and he let out a groan of pleasure as the cheese mixed in with the meat flavour and melted in his mouth.


    Taliyah felt herself losing her mind, it was no wonder that all the etiquette teachers left while calling him a barbarian, the only thing that you eat by hand is a cocktail item, it is small and bite-sized and even then, it is always served with a skewer, but to eat a main course meal like that drove her mad.


    As she watched the look of delight on his face as he bit into it, she felt herself get slightly tempted, but damn it she was the empress and it was her job to set an example.


    "There is no one watching mom," Lirian said as if reading her thoughts, ", and I mean you''re the empress if you can''t even eat however you want to what''s the point of all your power," he tempted her further with an extremely exaggerated reaction to the food.


    She glanced around the room carefully and slowly picked up the cheeseburger and unwrapped one side of it and took a very lady-like bite from it, even while eating she kept looking around the room like she was doing something bad.


    But she quickly grew so engrossed in the taste of the common food that she hadn''t eaten for thousands of years, then she started to devour it like a starved wolf, when she heard Lirians chuckle she came back to reality and realised that she didn''t even keep her proper sitting posture as she ate and she had slightly leaned forward, it felt so relaxing to not be completely stiff like some automaton while eating.


    ''No,'' she chided herself, '', I am the empress and I must always do things in a representable way.''


    "Mom, can you guess what it means to become a god?" Lirian asked suddenly he lowered her guard and now it was time to speak about what really mattered.


    Taliyah felt that strange feeling of excitement wash away, as Lirians words forced her to think about things she had been trying to avoid but she knew deep down that this was why he came here, it was also because of this that she had been making herself seem busier than really, she really was, deep down she wished that had never learned the truth about him but that ship had sailed and now she had to confront it.


    "There are of course many obvious things that define a god, but there are couple things that one must learn to become a god," he continued, ", one of those things is to free one''s self from the opinions of the masses," he lingered on his words and caught her eye.


    "Those who fear being judged will never become a god, for a god is one who truly reigns supreme over the masses they are not some king or queen who is both above and below their subjects, they truly stand above all others and must never subject themselves to one beneath them."


    He went silent and looked away awaiting her response.


    "You have told me about what it means to be a god, but tell me Lirian do you know what it means to a child?" her eyes shone with a dangerous light and Lirian wisely shut his mouth.


    "A child is meant to be weak, foolish, and na?ve, this is why children need their parents to raise them properly, it is not a child''s responsibility to make their parents feel needed, a child is meant to lie to their parents when they break something they shouldn''t have or if they did something that could get them in trouble but a child is not supposed to lie about who they are and what they truly need."


    "Do you think me so cruel, that after raising you for ten years, I would have cast you out of my home without a second thought if I had learned the truth about you?", her eyes stung as she posed the question to him because she feared to hear the answer herself, once the truth about him came out she noticed that he refused to lie to her and she feared that brutal honesty of his.


    She waited for him to respond but when she looked at him, she could see his entire body trembling and he looked away from her in shame, it was an answer without words and it made her heart sink.


    ''Maybe Katerina was right about me,'' he thought, '', the reason that I was always alone, maybe it was to protect other people from me, maybe it''s because deep down I deserve to be alone and if I had let Ella become her own person maybe she would have thought the same about me.''


    As his thoughts went there even the voices of the others ceased and backed away, they didn''t like those thoughts it made them remember things they would rather forget. Things that would make them want to kill themselves, things that made them kill themselves.


    Lirian forced himself to think of those thoughts, it hurt more than any other but it was the only way to get the others to shut up and let him take a breath, images of a girls broken and lifeless body flashed before his eyes, then the madness that came with it and piles of corpses that he used to decorate her grave.


    Last he remembered as his hand sunk into Katerinas flesh and he boiled her insides slowly with fire that could erase a star, her cold blue eyes looked at him spitefully, "You deserve to be alone for what you turned our daughter into," she spat venomously.


    His eyes burned with fury at her unjust accusation, it was her that got Ella killed but she blamed him for forcing her hand, how could she possibly understand his desperation, she had no right to judge his desperation, and the madness took hold of him completely, making him think things he did not want to and as his final resistance he turned his entire body into a spiraling flame without control and incinerated an entire star zone of that god realm as a lowly immortal.


    He pulled out of those thoughts and took deep breaths to regain his calm, it wouldn''t last long but at least for now his thoughts were clear, "I have not been allowed to trust any other, I don''t really know how to do that, it''s a concept as foreign to me as the mountains are to a fish in the deep seas."


    "But that said, there is only one thing that I can say, while I have never had any intention of telling you the truth about me I am glad mom," he paused to look at her and spoke honestly without any deception.


    "I am glad that you learned the truth about me, I am glad that I do not have to hide my true self from you any longer and most of all if you still want me after this I would be the happiest person in the world if you still want to get to know me as your son that you raised..." he took one of her hands in his own and looked deep into those blueish- grey eyes.


    ".... because even if you think that I''m lying the truth is that I will always need you, no matter who I was or who I become, that will always remain true."

 Chapter 61 - 061 – SUSPICION

    "I am glad that you learned the truth about me, I am glad that I do not have to hide my true self from you any longer and most of all if you still want me after this I would be the happiest person in the world if you still want to get to know me as your son that you raised, because even if you think that I''m lying the truth is that I will always need you no matter who I was or who I become that will always remain true."


    It was his turn to wait for her and he stood respectfully but he couldn''t hide that small tremble in his legs and the anxiety in his eyes.


    Taliyah fell silent and minutes passed as she collected her thoughts, the seriousness with which Lirian was speaking made his sincerity clear and she felt as if he had aged a thousand years before her very eyes as the immature and slight childishness vanished from him.


    It made her realise that currently she was the adult and he was the child he might have once been a god but currently he was the one without any cultivation and she was a partial immortal and it was about time that she acted like the adult.


    "I can''t say that things will go back to normal Lirian, but if you would like we can work on it, so long as you can answer one question for me!"


    Lirian perked up and waited with batted breath, "Do understand the real reason why I was, no why I am so angry at you?"


    Lirian nodded his head with a guilty expression, "It isn''t because I kept everything a secret, it''s because I didn''t trust you enough to tell you the truth by myself."


    Taliyah nodded, "Good, now go to your room and do your homework, I''ll be sure to set aside some time in my schedule so that we can talk and catch up in the future."


    He nodded his head and followed her instructions, he thought that fighting gods was draining but this definitely took the cake, he felt more fatigued than ever before, just as he reached the door a thought occurred to him, "Mom you told me that you made a wish before I arrived in the gardens of the great pyramid!"


    Taliyah nodded simply and looked at him curiously wondering why he brought up that topic all of a sudden.


    "Can you tell me exactly what you wished for?" his eyes were focused with a seriousness she hadn''t seen before.


    "I wished for a child that could survive the tribulations of the candidates'' trials," she said in a sorrowful voice, those trials were what took all of her children and it was what she feared most in this world.


    A heavyweight seemed to fall on Lirian as he forced Samsara''s Vision to activate for a second and he confirmed his thoughts.


    "Is something wrong Lirian?" Taliyah asked as she noticed his face was tied up into a tight frown.


    Realising his mistake, he eased up his face and shook his head, "No it''s just curious, very curious," he lied, he didn''t want to lie to her anymore but with what he was thinking he didn''t have a choice, whether he was right or wrong about his speculation it was bound to drag up old wounds for her and he didn''t want to be responsible for that.


    He turned around and left quickly, when he looked at his mother''s fate particles, it was very low, due to this civilisation having such an extensive reach over the universe the people of the empire had a lot more fate particles than normal, an ordinary seventh-grader would usually have about a 1 billion fate particles and someone like a king would have about 1 trillion, but here he found that an aide like Anya held about 100 trillion fate particles which is equivalent to an incredible third-grade immortal or a bottom of the barrel fourth-grade immortal.


    For Taliyah as the empress she should easily have about 10 quadrillion but her fate particles were just barely double Anya''s when he checked, if he was assuming correctly then when he got rewritten into the Clovis Empire''s great garden, it wasn''t merely his usage of fate but it was also her wish pulling him there, it was a special property of fate, that allowed it to grant a wish in exchange for fate particles, the problem with it is that it acts at random, and even a fate spinner would find it impossible to use fate to create a wish, and amongst diviners, there was the saying, ''Be careful what you wish for.'' because sometimes fate would grant your wish but if you didn''t have enough fate particles it would burn your fate string and kill you.


    What he truly found curious was the details of the wish, ''I wished for a child that could survive the tribulations of the candidates'' trials,''


    While the death rate of the candidate being so high it wouldn''t have been too surprising if she found some once in a millennium genius, but the fact that the wish chose him and pulled him meant that it was something only he could handle, and that is what made no sense to him.


    While casualties were high in the trial, there were many people that survived, and not that he wanted to brag, but if other mortals could survive it, he most certainly could.


    The only thing that made sense to him was that someone was targeting the empress''s children during the trial specifically and it was so unfavorable that he was probably the only person that could have a chance at surviving it.


    At that moment a notification suddenly popped up on the system.


    [Fate applauds your deductive abilities and rewards you +1 billion fate particles]


    He watched as the particles multiplied by ten and let out a sigh of relief, he was glad that his conjecture was accurate but it also made him nervous, the only relief he had was that he still had nine years to figure out who it was, but he couldn''t let his mother know about it, it would only cause her more stress and fear.


    It was even possible that she would disown him, just so that she could protect him from her enemies, but he was not going to allow that to happen, he had to play by the other party''s rules if he wanted to catch them in the act and get proof.


    It was still early in the day but he felt exhausted when he reached his room, he slumped down onto his bed and gave a quick glance at the display case on the side there was one new thing to his collection in there, it was his old sling that he wore when he started his school year.


    When it came time for him to take it off his entire class signed their names onto it and so did all the candidates with the exception of Indra, she avoided him like the plague.


    ---


    Taliyah was pretty distracted after Lirian left and she was glad to have a few minutes of peace before the storm continued.


    She noticed that Lirians cheeseburger was sitting on the table in a half-eaten state, she glanced around the room carefully, to make sure no one was watching and she picked it up gently and bit straight into it.


    She hummed in satisfaction as she got to dine on something so simple and ordinary, she was so used to those perfect meals made by the chefs that she had forgotten that common food could taste so good, despite its disproportionate layering of flavours, she inhaled the food in no time and sighed in regret as it got finished so quickly.


    Knowing Lirian he probably left it on purpose to tempt her, she couldn''t help but chuckle at his attempt to make her feel normal.


    It was then that she realised something important that she had overlooked, ''How did Lirian get past her guards stationed at the doors?''


    She snuck up to doors and peeked outside and was surprised to see her guards standing there as if nothing happened, "Would the two of you care to explain how Lirian snuck past the both of you and got into my study?"


    The two of them glanced at each other thoughtfully and had a moment of realisation, they found that Anya was acting rather strange earlier as she spoke to them and they just assumed that she was drunk, they quickly told Taliyah about it and a few minutes later Anya came in dragging her legs like a guilty convict.


    "I admit guilty," she said grumpily, "I''ll accept whatever punishment her majesty says is necessary."


    ''This had better be worth it,'' she thoughts silently.

 Chapter 62 - 062 – ASSAILANT

    Trees withered and lay bare for all the world to see, but eventually, new leaves bloomed again, the leaves grew vibrant and released a sweet smell onto all that passed through its shade, once more the trees did wither and the sound of crackling leaves could be heard as each passerby crunched on the parched leaves.


    Three and a half years quickly passed by and Lirians fourth school year was quickly coming to a close, the traffic on Xelia seemed to only get worse over the years, as they sat in the crawling traffic the sound of glass shattering caused Lirian and Anya to turn their heads, someone had done it again.


    A second-grade cultivator had rammed into the side of the limo and pushed herself through the reinforced glass as Anya sealed of the assailant''s movements Lirian gathered the energy around him and poured the undiluted energy into the woman''s body, she couldn''t resist under Anya''s seal.


    Her body started to contort and if Anya hadn''t been sealing her movements she would have trashed violently, a minute of the torture passed by until life was completely drained from her body and Lirian nodded in satisfaction as his fate particles increased.


    He shot a quick glance outside and chuckled while resuming his relaxed posture in back seat of the limo, "There is a sniper at three O''clock," as he spoke the sniper fired out a bolt of wild energy from his weapon, it had enough power to kill a third-grade in a single shot but Anya merely raised her hand and caught the energy beam.


    It crumbled to dust in her palm and as she was about to turn the sniper into a pile of bloody mist another energy beam took the sniper in the head and turned him into a headless corpse.


    Anya gave a quick glance at the new comer who killed the sniper, it was one of the guards assigned by the Eden family and there were several officers in uniform standing behind him, they quickly took control of the panicked crowds and got the traffic moving.


    Lirian lounged on the seat and casually flipped through a page of a lovely novel he had been reading recently.


    "Could you at least show a little more concern when someone tries to kill you!" Anya complained about his laid-back attitude.


    He looked at her in amusement, "If I concern myself every time some small fry, that doesn''t even know who they are being used by tries to kill me I''ll never have a carefree moment,"


    "And besides," he smiled as the cool summer draft entered the limo, ", it''s nice to read a book while enjoying the breeze, from time to time."


    "Speaking of which we need to get another new limo, I swear this must be like our 12th replacement already," it was a bit strange being rich, the limo could easily be fixed but it seemed that high society had some policy about never fixing something if it can be replaced.


    It''s not like money was ever a problem for Lirian, with his monthly allowance alone he could buy two limo''s every month and still have extra credits on the side for his own personal enjoyment.


    They reached the school almost half an hour later than usual thanks to the delay, due to his late arrival he wouldn''t be able to meet the other candidates so he went to class directly.


    The first one to greet him as he entered was obviously his very delightful teacher, she never missed an opportunity to scold him, "Late again, I''m not even surprised by your lack of time management skills Lirian."


    "Aren''t you delightful as always miss Hira," he said sarcastically, "Another idiot tried to kill me today, so bite me if I''m a few minutes late to class."


    It wasn''t like homeroom was important to him anyway it was just a lecture about cultivation that he already knew and using the pods to either open energy points or cultivate which he wasn''t allowed to use.


    "With an attitude like that I''m wouldn''t be surprised if hundreds of people tried to kill every day, I myself feel the urge to strangle you at least a dozen times a day," she retorted, not even caring that he was the target of an assassination, it was already like the hundredth attempt since he started in the academy and it wouldn''t be the last.


    Lirian had met a match in this teacher of his, if he wanted to get personal about her failed marriage, he could but that would just ruin the fun of the game, the way to make a teacher cry was to make them feel stupid and incompetent or to just frustrate them to the point of tears, making things personal ruined the game.


    "Tsk," he clicked his tongue and greeted his classmates as he went to his seat.


    Most of his class had already entered the realm of cultivators, and the remainder were all at the threshold, they just needed a little more time and they would successfully become cultivators.


    He turned and flashed Hinata a quick smile before turning around to face the teacher, she had become a cultivator at record speed it only took her one and a half years it earned her a great deal of attention, after that she expressed her interest in joining his clique, he natural allowed her into his group, and made a habit of feeding her idiotic stories to tell Telamon.


    He smiled happily as he thought of how frustrated Telamon would get as he heard story after story that did nothing to help him understand Lirian, by now Telamon most likely realised that Lirian figured out that Hinata was his spy, but what gave him a real headache was the fact that all his other little spies were saying the same things and he would have no clue as to how Lirian figured out the identity of his spies.


    As he looked at the system with a pleasant smile, he heard miss Hira beginning her lecture.


    "Soon all of you will be official cultivators but that is only the beginning of your journey, once you stand at the boundary of the next life hierarchy ascension you will all be required to stop and earn the cultivation techniques for your other centres of power."


    "It is important to remember that by advancing a single centre of power to the next level it will make it much harder to cultivate the centres of power that are not yet developed."


    This was a very common problem amongst uneducated cultivators and those from undeveloped worlds.


    Balance is always required and without it, the results are terrible, even with a perfect body technique, a person would only be able to push themselves as far as the fifth-grade, and that is the absolute limit, once the body reaches that level it will completely suppress the other centres of power.


    Without mana, the body loses its ability to gather energy and without a developed mind one becomes incapable of intelligent thought, to be blunt they become mindless animals and once their energy reaches zero, they die.


    The process is similar no matter which centre of power one chooses to focus on if only one centre is solely focused on then the other two will be suppressed.


    This is why people chose one centre as their focus and they utilise the other centres of power to stabilise themselves by finding cultivation techniques that have synergy with their focused cultivation path.


    For example, if a mage focuses on ice magic, they will learn body cultivation techniques that grant them greater resistance to temperature fluctuations and they will learn train their mind with techniques to better see and understand the ice laws allowing them to better imitate the real nature of ice.


    There were other reasons to temper one''s other centres of power as well if someone neglected to train their mind and faced a mental psychic of the same level, it would be easy for the psychic to attack their mind and completely shatter their consciousness before they even moved.


    Miss Hira said something along similar lines to the students and she quickly added, "Starting from next year we will be going through autopsy records and scans that detail the erosion of your other centres of power if you only focus on one, and there will be a few dissections that you will be doing to confirm your knowledge."


    "Lastly, all of you have to enter the first-grade before you return for your fifth year if you do not you will be held back a year because starting from next year you will be required to go on expeditions together under the leadership of the candidates," she said glancing at Lirian.


    It was usually the student''s job to guard and protect the candidate but in Lirians case she couldn''t bring herself to see him needing the guards it was probably a first for a candidate to be so capable, at least it was a first for her and she had thought well over two hundred different candidates in her life.


    Lirian nodded in acknowledgment, this was one of the more important tests to determine the capability of the candidates as leaders, Cole, Media, and Wentian had gone through their first expedition while he was in the school, Media graded horribly, she lost three members of her class at the time and even considered dropping out as a candidate due to her failure.


    As for Wentian he lost a single member, it certainly lost him some points but he was still graded pretty good, losing one person was pretty common, as, for Edith, Tobias, and Cole he heard their stories, they were born to lead and scored very high on their tests without a single casualty occurring.

 Chapter 63 - 063 – THE SEALED CANDIDATES

    The final day of the year soon came and it was going to be a unique one, it would be his first time witnessing the suspended animation of a candidate.


    As he sat in the personal room of the candidates he turned to Edith, "Tell your family that I said thanks for the guards, lieutenant Hakuro came to my rescue yet again today," he said with deliberate exaggeration.


    Edith raised her brow, "Another one?", she asked in surprise, the attacks were getting more and more frequent on Lirian, it wasn''t uncommon for a candidate to be attacked but the frequency at which he was getting attacked was startling, it was the third attack this very week.


    "No need to look so concerned," he flicked her forehead and grabbed a few grapes from her plate.


    "It''s just a bunch of probs to see how well we react, and they are trying to figure out my exact number of guards, it should be a few years before anything drastic happens."


    "You are taking these attacks to lightly Lirian, maybe they want you to let your guard down so that they can take you by surprise at any moment!" she cried indignantly.


    Lirian shook his head, "It''s not like it matters whether I raise my guard or not, if a fifth-grader comes at me I''ll be royally screwed no matter how many plans I make, in the end it all comes down to whether or not they can stall Anya, and beside while these probes make it look like they want me dead that''s definitely not the case, they want me alive to use me as leverage and given my mother''s history it''s likely that she would give in to almost any demand to have me safely returned."


    "Put bluntly even if they do get me, I''ll be perfectly fine," he shrugged his shoulders and sat down.


    "Do you really think that?" she questioned him.


    "What if they force a slave seal on your soul, or they use some brainwashing method to turn you into a spy or worse,"


    "You can''t keep acting like you''re invincible Lirian, it might be true while in the academy but in the outside world you''re just a slightly bigger ant."


    Lirian was touched by her concern but he still frowned, he didn''t like being called an ant, even it was the truth he was once a god and to regard a mortal as anything more than a speck of dust felt like a humiliation to himself.


    "You''re are getting to emotional Edith, what happened to the calm and collected girl I met all those years ago, besides think about it if I somehow get killed it will mean less competition," he added with a chuckle.


    He triggered an unexpected reaction from Edith, she pushed her food and let it all spill on the floor while grabbing her steak knife and she pounced onto him shoving him against the seat and she stabbed the knife directly above his ear and in the couch.


    There was no killing intent behind her actions so he didn''t bother to dodge her, "Since you dying is such a joke then maybe I should kill you right now," she whispered while looking into his eyes.


    "You can go ahead if you want to," he said raising his neck slightly to reveal his artery, "Even it''s just a pencil all you have to do is stab it right in and I''ll bleed out in a few minutes," he whispered softly and she could hear that teasing tone underlining his voice.


    She felt her hands tremble and a hint of desire crept in, if she killed him then she would become the star amongst the candidates again, they would speak of her daring act and there would be no punishment even the empress had to abide by the rules, candidates were allowed to scheme and kill other candidates if they deemed it necessary, but as she looked into his eyes, she knew that it was impossible for her to do such a thing even if she wanted to her body would never obey her.


    "Lirian you''re an asshole," she breathed heavily and cursed him as she saw his mouth curl into a smirk, from the start he knew that she couldn''t do it, he was well aware of how she felt about him.


    The door slide open and Tobias came towering in, he saw Edith sitting on top of Lirian with a steak knife in her hand, "Am I disrupting something?" he asked quizzically, he was uncertain there were many such scenes over the years with candidates attacking each other especially Lirian, he was never one to hide his true thoughts and more than once it resulted in a knives out brawl.


    On the other hand, Edith was never one to get physical unless absolutely necessary and from how they were looking at each other he found it hard to judge what he was really looking at.


    "No, nothing at all," Edith answered and climbed of Lirian.


    Tobias looked around carefully but didn''t comment any further, "That''s good the headmaster wants us to gather at the bridge it''s time for Indra to go into suspended animation.", he could feel the tension in the room and backed away, "I''ll see you guys there."


    When it was just the two of them again Edith looked away from him, if he knew how she felt and still said such a thing to her it meant that he was only playing with her emotions.


    "Have you ever killed someone?" Lirian asked although he knew the answer already.


    "I''ve seen plenty of people die and I''ve killed a number of creatures," she answered with a scowl.


    "I''m asking if you''ve ever killed a person with your own hands," he moved in front of her faster than she could react and grabbed the hand in which she still held the knife, and plunged it into his own palm.


    "Have you ever parted the flesh of another living, intelligent person," with the same hand that was dripping golden droplets of blood he held onto her tightly not allowing her to release the knife or pull it out of his palm.


    "The course for candidates teaches us many things about politics and how to act, but it doesn''t teach us how to survive in the trial, it doesn''t teach us how to take lives," he spoke slowly, and watched as she trembled slightly as his blood flowed on to her and dripped onto the ground.


    "Trust me Edith I don''t take my life lightly I have too much I plan I to do, to let some fools take it,"


    "In two-hundred-years I plan on showcasing myself before the empire and I will give them a show that they will never forget, if you want to be there as well you better learn to do this by yourself," he said while releasing her struggling hand and showing her the gaping wound in his palm and the blood that covered his entire hand.


    "It would leave a foul taste in my mouth if you aren''t there to see it."


    When Lirian left Edith felt her breath growing erratic, he really knew how to be intense at times, she didn''t know whether she should feel excited or scared of him, was he telling her those things to help her because he cared for her or was he just being helpful in his own way.


    She had no clue what he was really thinking she never did but it didn''t matter because she trusted him.


    Lirian walked down the bridge slowly as he stared down at the area below, there were several bridges like this throughout the school and they looked down onto an area with many transmat gates, they were the gates that lead to the outlier worlds in which the candidates would undergo their two-hundred-year trial.


    He clenched his left fist a little, the nurse that treated and bandaged his hand gave him an earful for what he did but finally let him leave when he mentioned Indra''s suspended animation.


    When Tobias saw the bloodied bandage on his hand he looked at Edith in shock, "Did you really stab him?" he whispered.


    "Yes, she did," Lirian quickly beat her to answering and laughed while she glared at him, it technically wasn''t a lie after all she was holding the knife.


    Wentian laughed heartily, "Serves you right, finally someone got you, did you tell her that her butt is looking larger than normal?"


    "I think that you''re going to be next person to get stabbed," he said after glancing at Edith, her eyes had a devilish light in them as she glowered at Wentian.


    Telamon came in and put on his most grandfatherly smile as he walked in with Indra following on his heels.


    "It is time for another candidate to enter in to the suspended animation and await the trial of candidates, at every institute we gather the candidates for two decades and when that time passes we send them of onto their personal journeys in a batch."


    He pressed the button on a panel and the opaque glass wall behind him went transparent to reveal five crystal embers floating the room with white light cascading of its surface each one had a person sealed within and Tobias and Edith called out a few of their names "Marakov, Silica, Kiazen..."


    "Are they the previous candidates?" Media asked in wonder as she looked at the beautiful embers.


    "Yes, they were the ones here when we first arrived." Tobias answered.


    "Indra, I trust that you''ve said your goodbyes before coming here," she nodded slightly and didn''t look at the other candidates, they never had a friendly relationship to begin so she had nothing to say to them, especially Lirian she still had nightmares about that day, in that pure silver energy she saw horrors and atrocities she could never fathom.


    The candidates merely nodded to her as she glanced at them one last time and walked into the sealing room, several minutes passed and a new ember floated up into the room and sat beside the others, Tobias and Edith held their breath as they watched the familiar scene, in the next year it would be the two of them going up there, floating in a ball of ember.


    "I guess that when you guys come out you''ll have to tell me what''s it like to be sealed," Lirian said, his final year in the academy would also mark the year that the current batch of candidates went their separate ways on their trials, so he had no need to wait in the ember.


    He gave a quick greeting to the headmaster and walked away as all the others continued to stare at the floating embers in wonder, such things couldn''t hold his interest it was too simple.

 Chapter 64 - 064 – THE FINAL POINT

    Over the years things had slowly returned to normal in the empress''s manor, she pushed through all the accusations laid on her about foul play in the candidates'' games, and with time even Efrideet was forced to stop her malicious attacks.


    Taliyah regretted not killing that woman the moment she became empress; her advisors and husband made a big deal about how it would negatively affect her reputation, but they failed to mention the continues problems she would cause.


    Of course, an empress ought to show mercy at times but that one moment of mercy had led to over three thousand years of annoyance so far and there would certainly be no end to it until Efrideet was dead at her feet.


    She looked at the pod data with a worried glance, 72 open energy points was already a terrifying number and in the past years Lirian had admitted to her that the number was fake, for a second she thought that he used some godly technique to make it look like more energy points were open in his body than there really were but the truth was sometimes terrifying.


    She had managed to open a total of 63 energy points in her lifetime, which was on top of her 23 naturally opened points giving her a grand total of 86 open energy points but he told that 107 of his energy points were open and that the last one could open at any time.


    Due to that, he had been holed up in his room over the entire school holidays, he didn''t even come out to celebrate his 15th birthday at the beginning of the year, while he had been found on the first day of the nineteenth month of the year his official birthday was in the new year when he was adopted.


    While lost in her thoughts she felt a sudden change in the energy within the entire manor, it was being compressed tightly and the walls of the manor began to rattle violently, she could hear her teacup chattering away and her desk slowly began to tremble.


    She followed the source and found that all the servants and her aides were moving in the same direction, the disturbance was alarming and it wouldn''t be long before it spread to the neighboring manors and mansions.


    When they saw that the energy on the top floor had been completely dyed silver they all sighed, it was Lirian again with one of his experiments, when they saw the empress, they quickly went back to their own work, they knew that she would take care of it and Lirian would be unable to sit around for a day or two.


    Taliyah didn''t care that he was a former god anymore, he wanted to be a child so she punished him like one when he misbehaved, she pushed through the energy and got into his, "Lirian we have spoken about this a hundred times already, no more..." she stopped in a stupor and looked at him, ", are you cultivating!" she shouted.


    Lirian opened his eyes slowly to look at her, he frowned as he heard her words it was the most important part now and he couldn''t afford to break his concentration, what was worse was that his mother was disrupting the natural flow of the energy and it was affecting his progress if he failed now it would set him back by a decade.


    He furiously shook his head but Taliyah kept disrupting the energy flow, "Stop breaking the flow," he yelled quickly hoping it wouldn''t damage his concentration, he didn''t have the time to be respectful and in that single instant, he almost lost control.


    Taliyah frowned but stopped fighting against his energy control and slowly the tension on his face vanished as the energy rushed into him, on closer inspection she realised that he wasn''t cultivating but rather using the energy to do something.


    A loud pop resounded in the room and every glass object shattered violently, the glass shards shred through the bed and curtains and rammed themselves into Lirians body, but he merely started to laugh wildly.


    Taliyah looked on with worry, she tried to use her energy to stop the glass shards, but the energy disappeared as if it never existed, ''a tribulation'', she realised.


    She couldn''t feel any difference in Lirian at all his life hierarchy was the same as before an ordinary mortal but she couldn''t understand why he triggered a tribulation.


    Lirian started to laugh erratically and his laughs began to sound like a man experiencing an orgasm, one after the other he seem lost in absolute bliss as the glass continued to shred through his flesh and vibrate as it sunk deeper and deeper into his flesh.


    "YES, YES, YES!" Lirian howled in ecstasy, ", that''s the freaking stuff," he murmured with a shaking voice like a drug addict that was getting his first taste of crack in years.


    Lirian could feel the energy coursing through his body, it was so desirable and his entire body yearned for it, all he needed to do was grasp onto it and start to fill his body it was that simple.


    The voices screamed at him to grip onto the power and take it for himself, he created this wild surge and it belonged to him, as the shards buried themselves deeper into his body he laughed more and took pleasure in the pain it was truly bliss.


    He contemplated on what techniques he should use to absorb the energy, he couldn''t use any esper or second accord technique he didn''t have the time to set up for them and by the time he was ready to use those techniques, the energy would fade away.


    As he made his decisions, he felt all the energy around him being siphoned away and a blood-curdling rage took over inside of him, "Who dares to take what is mine!" he growled, his eyes had lost their clarity and he looked at the person who took his energy away savagely, all he wanted to do was rip the thief''s throat out and pummel them.


    As he unleashed his killing intent the system released a shock throughout his body that stabilized his mind, he blinked in surprise, "Mom," he whispered while looking at her distraught face.


    Trickles of cold sweat came rolling down her face and she sunk to her knees while trembling, she had stopped him from absorbing the energy because the consequences would have been severe for both of them, she couldn''t allow it to happen but as soon as that killing intent feel on her she felt like a little child all over again.


    She remembered well, how the fire fell on the fields like rain and traveled across the ground like the tide, it swallowed person after person, and her youngest brother who was out in fields melted into a puddle in a single second.


    That was just the beginning of the nightmare as more and more elements fell onto the village from above, the people fled in a panic and caused only more deaths.


    The killing intent reminded her of that day when she saw so many things, she couldn''t even fathom, for in that killing intent she saw the embodiment of savagery and destruction, there were images of beings dancing in her head, dancing with the laws and riding them like the tides, there were tens of thousands of them all attacking a single figure shrouded in death.


    With the smallest of movements, he broke their godly formations, and with a single hand, he crushed their throats and made them crumble into dust.


    A god brandished his sword at the man, but he just shrugged as the sword smashed him in the chest with one hand he caught the god and completely overpowered him, he pulled the god closer and bent his neck in an odd angle, and buried his face in the god''s neck.


    Streaks of divine ichor poured into the man''s mouth and stained his perfect white teeth all the while he smiled in pleasure while a motley cloth of flesh hung from his lips.


    He moved again and pulled out his own sword this time.


    When he swung his sword the world parted for him and blood rained down on his body, it sank into his flesh, and streams of steam rose up from his body fuelling his power, with every kill he only grew stronger and his blood lust became insatiable.


    Piles of corpses began to litter the world behind the man, it slowly grew larger and larger no matter what the gods did they were only adding to the growing mountain but still they rushed in blindly like they had lost all reason in the face of the devil.


    He stepped forward onto the sea of blood making great ripples that formed violent tides of red, coursing into his body endlessly, and raised his hands with an ecstatic look on his face.


    He closed his fists with deliberate slowness as the gods who saw this began to flee in terror and cowardice, he smiled at their futile struggle but he had finally grown bored of the weaklings.


    When he clenched his fists tightly the skies went dark and the stars were snuffed out leaving not a trace of light as every part of the world collapsed upon itself and reality folded in defeat.


    In the end, not a single god could withstand his simple strike and withstand his imposing pressure.


    The man in the shadows remained alone and his laugh echoed in the nothingness like a resounding bark, it was a laugh she had come know well a laugh she had come to love.


    When she came to, she was lying on Lirians bed it was a complete mess, the bed had been shredded to pieces and Lirian was watching over her with worried eyes, his body was covered in golden-red blood but the glass shards had all vanished as soon as the tribulation passed.

 Chapter 65 - 065 – THE GOD WHO WAS ALWAYS ALONE

    When she came to, she was lying on Lirians bed it was a complete mess, the bed had been shredded to pieces and Lirian was watching over her with worried eyes, his body was covered in golden-red blood but the glass shards had all vanished as soon as the tribulation passed.


    Lirian grabbed her head and examined her blue eyes, they were trembling wildly like a pond that had a rock suddenly smash into it, "What did you see?" he asked worriedly from her reaction it was not something simple.


    As Taliyah sat up, she couldn''t find it in herself to feel amused at Lirians actions, he was like the parent getting worried about a child, she leaned over to the side and she felt her stomach turn and as she leaned over acid, food, and bile raced up her throat and spilled all over the floor.


    She looked at Lirian weakly and understood what he meant when he said that his memories could drive even gods to madness, she had barely even seen a few minutes and she felt unstable.


    "What did you see?" he asked again, this time his voice was gentler and he held her hands tightly.


    Taliyah struggled to find her voice for a bit, but she slowly began to describe the events in as much detail as she could handle, she spoke of the battle and the gods she saw do battle and finally, she spoke of the things she had seen Lirian do.


    Lirian nodded along and listened to her story, "Those weren''t gods," he finally said when she finished, "Gods don''t ride the laws, you could say that the laws beg the gods to step on them, it''s a world of difference and if you ever see it, you''ll be able to tell the difference in a heartbeat."


    "What was going on there why were you in such a situation?" she managed to ask.


    Lirian stopped to ponder on it for a moment but gave up very quickly, "I honestly can''t remember the number of times I''ve been such a situation is countless."


    "You erased an entire star zone in a flash!" Taliyah cried out, how could one possibly forget doing such a thing it was insane.


    Lirian sighed, "Forget about it, I''ve done more than destroy a few star zones in an instant on multiple occasions, but you got lucky mom, if that was an actual battle of gods your mind would have collapsed," he said severely.


    "I remember saying that no one is to enter my room until I come out on my own," he spoke with a little anger in his voice, so far, the visions he accidentally shared were still okay.


    If it was anyone other than his mom that saw this one they would have died, witnessing all those laws was too much for a mortal and if she was not a half immortal she would have become brain dead from that scene.


    "Hey, young man remember who the adult is over here, and if I hadn''t come in you would have ended up cultivating, do you even realise what would have happened had you done that?" Taliyah yelled at him as she recovered, ''god my ass'', she thought ''no child of mine is going to raise their voice with me.''


    Lirian froze up and glanced at her, "You''re kidding right!?" he asked in surprise.


    Taliyah shook her head, "Just after I entered you started to laugh like a crazy person and you were moving your energy points to begin cultivating, I absorbed the energy before you could but that''s when you..." her voice trailed off and she saw Lirian sink into a chair.


    "I managed to open my last energy point, but it was the first time I succeeded in doing it while still an ordinary mortal, so I couldn''t use my energy to suppress the tribulation, not to mention that I was using external energy to complete opening the energy point," he said thoughtfully.


    "At that moment the purity of the energy that was created was so potent that it was more like a drug to me and it made me lose my rationality." he quickly came up with a theory.


    To have lost control like that scared even him, if not for the system shocking his mind at the moment before he went out of control, he didn''t want to think about what he would have done.


    "Thanks, mom," he whispered softly.


    She climbed onto her feet, but almost instantly staggered and sunk to her feet, the experience left her drained, Lirian jumped to help as soon as he saw her falling but almost immediately fainted himself.


    The cuts were quite deep and there were many he lost a lot of blood during that tribulation but now that it had passed all the wounds healed but that didn''t mean that he got his blood back, without the worry his body lost its tension and he passed out on Taliyah''s back as he tried to help her up.


    She pulled herself up and caught Lirian before he fell to the floor, ''he''s still so small," she thought as she lifted him up, 14 years old and he failed to reach that five-foot mark.


    She touched his face and rubbed the dried-up blood on his fair skin, it always amazed that such a cute face could get into trouble so often and she still found herself in disbelief that she was raising a god.


    His hands were so tiny and his body small, but most of all he always did things to get her attention, ''A god in need of her attention,'' it sounded like a joke in her head, over the years Lirian had shown her very little of his past, he tried not to unless she pleaded with him to do it but even so she knew that the only things he showed her were the more pleasant ones, but from her perspective they were miserable, he was always alone.


    Alone trying to learn new things, he''d celebrate his successes by himself, he''d pour goblets full of champagne and wine and toast himself until he''d collapse from the alcohol, he''d seen the mortals do it when he spied on them so he copied their ways.


    The main thing that he''d do is show her the memories of every time he solved a new impossible question, they were his favourite activity to pass the time, they took long and distracted him for long periods of time but he''d never give up until the answer was found.


    He always skipped to the final part and he''d describe the many mistakes he made along the way, until finally he had his eureka moment, that was the part he''d show and excitedly tell her about it.


    She could hardly imagine sitting still for an entire century to solve a single riddle of the universe and yet he would sit for tens of thousands of years working on a single problem all by his lonesome self.


    No one to speak to, no one to compare his notes with, no one to pat him on the back when his work ended in failure or a little bit of encouragement from a peer, it was just him and his research, truly he was a lonely god.


    When her strength returned, she carried him in her arms like she did when he was just a baby, she took a glance around the room and was reminded of his dedication to knowledge, he told her of how he was killed in his fourth life for trying to learn how to read.


    It was an ordinary class for children and he hadn''t accepted that he couldn''t be around others at the time, but he tried his best to avoid people if it was unnecessary so he hid in a tree and listened to an old man lecture a few children and made them draw the letters in the sand, he''d been doing it for weeks and he felt that his work was better the other children''s so he tried to show his work to the old man, hoping that he would be willing to make him his student.


    But the old man and the students didn''t like how good he was so they tried to beat him, and in his rage, he killed all of them, but when the people found out they hunted him for months until he was exhausted and they killed him.


    His room was a representation of his dedication to knowledge, on the one wall there were a bunch of devices he had built, a quantum computing device that didn''t lose out to the ones used on advanced worlds, and he built if from common parts found on Xelia, the sheer value of such a device was equivalent to several hundred million credits and he built it with a little over 200 000 credits.


    The most impressive device of all was the energy condenser, he built twelve of them and according to him in a hundred years each one would produce a vial of seventh-grade energy, when she checked it the first time it only had first-grade energy and yet now it was on the cusp of entering the third-grade.


    The two other walls were filled with boards and a hundred different calculations all being done in a specific order or simultaneously to achieve one answer.


    She understood all of it, Lirian did say it was simple and only done based on the limited materials he could afford but it was still impressive and she had no doubt that one day his genius would benefit the entire empire.


    She carried him away and left him with Antanasia to get some rest, she just said that one of his experiments went wrong again and left her to take care of the rest.

 Chapter 66 - 066 – COMBAT CLASSES

    Lirian woke up and walked out of the room, it was late in the night and he needed some fresh air, his body had healed perfectly and someone had cleaned up all the dried blood of him and put on a fresh set of clothes.


    The wounds caused by a tribulation would heal as soon the tribulation came to an end, however, it did nothing to remove one''s exhaustion or replace what you lose during the tribulation, so if someone loses a limb it will be gone forever, but any superficial wounds would heal.


    The study was empty when he got down, so he went out into the courtyard, the ground remained as it did after his spar against his mother that lasted for an entire day, the grass grew in patches highlighting the land they had stepped on, from above it looked like a crop circle burned into the ground.


    The laws still shrouded his blood that fell on that day and shone under the light of the stars.


    Lirian grasped onto the energy of the world and he let out an intoxicated moan as it coursed throughout his body, this feeling was like the bliss that only a drug could provide and he felt more tempted than ever before to begin his cultivation.


    He forced himself to release the energy around him and the rush faded away leaving his body in a state of limbo, he sunk to the ground and let the small winds curdle his hair as he gazed up into the night sky.


    He smiled with satisfaction as he gazed at his fate particles, he had done what he needed to do, his achievement of opening all 108 energy points as a mortal, it gave him 1 quadrillion fate particles, if he hadn''t originally been a god, he was sure that he would have gotten a thousand times more than that, but he didn''t complain, it was the easiest particles he ever collected.


    He quickly transferred it into the system and sighed in happiness as its calculating speed reached that of a fifth-grade immortal.


    ---


    It was a bright and sunny day when, and Lirian was happy that he didn''t have to start his school year with a fiasco, there were no fools throwing their lives away by trying to abduct him but it didn''t stop Anya from feeling stressed.


    "Do you think that whoever has been behind these attacks is going to make a move?" he asked in the quietness of the limo.


    Anya could feel it in her bones, something big was going to happen soon, she always trusted her instincts on matters like this, and after Lirian told her that her affinity with fate made her sixth sense a lot sharper than the average person she had all the more reason to trust in this feeling.


    She pulled a case out of her storage ring and gave it to Lirian.


    He opened it curiously and picked up its contents with fascination, "An energy module weapon, it''s illegal for me to be running around with this, this is only available to the planetary guards and military offices.", that she was letting him have something as dangerous as this meant that something had her spooked.


    "Her Majesty told me to only give it to you if I felt it was necessary, now don''t go flashing it around and keep it in your bag at all times." her voice was filled with heavy concern, this feeling was worse than she expected, in the beginning, she doubted that anyone very important would move against Lirian but the feeling she was getting made her feel that her judgement was wrong.


    Lirian tinkered with the energy weapon for a little bit, it was something really dangerous for him to be carrying around, a single shot from this thing would easily be able to level the entire academy and if he focused the beam onto a single spot it could blow a hole 3km deep into the crust of a planet.


    He did find it strange that she was so concerned because he barely felt any danger at all even the system didn''t detect anything worthy of worry.


    He put the blaster away and carried on with his school day, his class was very different now compared to five years ago, now that everyone had officially entered the ranks of cultivators, they were a lot bolder and pumped up with confidence.


    But they still trod carefully around him, even with their newfound power it was impossible for them to forget that first day, the power they currently wielded was pitiful in comparison, which served to drive them even harder to push themselves.


    There was a lot of talk about the expeditions they would go on starting this year and within five minutes of the first lesson they were all put into mandatory classes for combat training.


    The class quickly left for the 28-floor training grounds.


    "At least it will be inside the school," Shen Lim was saying to Lirian as they rode the elevator, ", imagine if we had to go out into the sun in the middle of summer, I bet they wouldn''t even allow us to use some sunblock."


    "I heard that they turn up the heat on the 28th floor during training, we''ll probably be wishing for the sun when they are done with us," Lucas added from the side while chewing on a piece of gum.


    "By the way, I heard that we are getting some retired squadron commander as our teacher for combat training," he told the class.


    "He isn''t just any squadron commander," Sarah Jane said excitedly, "He''s from the direct line of my family, and was the head of the lords personal guard at one point."


    The students were all excited as the elevator stopped, as soon as the doors opened waves of heat slammed into them, the air was rippling around them from the constant heat creating visible waves in the air.


    They all took a deep breath and adjusted themselves to the hot and thin air before moving out, one of the boys Mordred laughed as they were moving out and everyone stopped to look at him.


    As he noticed the stares he laughed a little more before explaining, "If we really have a former squadron commander from an advanced world, the other classes are going to die of jealousy when they find out." he continued to laugh as he thought about how he could rub it in his ex-girlfriends face from class 5-C.


    Most of them just shook their heads at his pettiness, it was no secret that he had a bad break-up with Mizuhara in class 5-C, she spread rumors everywhere about him being equipped with a small weapon and rumors like those never die down.


    They soon arrived at the training area, the area was covered in a layer of soil and not a single blade of grass could be seen other than that there was a series of different courses for students to try as well as a stack of different weapons lined up for combat training.


    Miss Hira was already waiting for them besides the new instructor as they lined up, she came forward to introduce the instructor, "Everyone I''d like to introduce you to former squadron commander Alastor Jane," she smiled brightly almost fawning over him as he stepped forward with a bright smile.


    He had short blonde hair and a towering body of pure muscle that could crush mountains as if they were made of twigs, she touched his arm as he came forward and flashed him her best smile.


    She was being so obvious that even the students found it hard to watch, she was a beautiful woman by any person''s standards and she knew well how to flaunt herself but to her dismay, Alastor frowned slightly and dismissed her.


    He slowly walked forward and went past each student as he passed each one, they started to tremble violently and as they sunk to their knees, he moved onto the next one not saying a word to them.


    It was done with perfect measure and his pace didn''t change one bit but the students fell one after the other like dominoes.


    Lirian cursed him inwardly as he approached, he was leaking a little bit of his saints'' grace energy to pressure the students as he walked past them and as he reached Lirian he strode by leisurely.


    As the energy seeped into him Lirian did his best to stop it from affecting him, he continuously suppressed it but the energy of a grade-seven saint was no joke and what was worse was that the ass put even more pressure on him than any of the other students and he had started to pressure him when he was still five students away.


    Lirian clicked his tongue in dismay as he folded under the pressure and it was even faster than the other students, before the commander even stood in front of him, he fell to his knees without any breath.


    He had the excuse that he wasn''t a cultivator but it still felt like crap to him, after all, he was forced to endure more pressure than any of the others and for longer but it looked like he folded in less than a second.


    When he looked up Alastor mouthed a few words to him and smirked, before anyone noticed he moved past Lirian to stand in front of the class.

 Chapter 67 - 067 – Odd Behavior 1

    Miss Hira was the only one to notice the peculiarity, she had no love for Lirian that''s for sure but she didn''t like what she saw the commander mouth to Lirian.


    ''You''re a toy, let''s see what you can do about it,'' after that he smirked and walked away, she didn''t understand what the commander was trying to say but it clearly managed to rile up Lirian.


    As commander Alastor, walked away, he suddenly raised a hand to his head and grimaced, casting a quick glance back at Lirian with a puzzled expression.


    He didn''t understand what he had just done it was like something had come over him but he couldn''t explain it, he shook his head focused on the students once more.


    Lirian climbed back to his feet slowly, he was well aware of everyone''s reactions to his little stunt with the information loop, there was more than a 99.99% laughter rate and as he looked through the information loop, he found one with Lady Elizebeth Jane and Alastor Jane.


    The two of them sat close together, sipping on tea as they watched Lirian make his speech.


    The commander started to address the class. but Lirian paid his words little attention to him and focused solely on what he recorded through the information loop.


    ''He looks pretty close to the Jane family head,'' he thought, he chuckled at the last part when he fixed his gaze on the two of them, Alastor crushed his cup of tea in shock, in his defence it wasn''t an uncommon reaction.


    Lady Elizabeth maintained her regal appearance, but she couldn''t help but pull her face into a frown.


    It was his first time seeing Lady Elizebath, his mother had told him a lot about the Jane family, they had a very close friendship, after all the Jane family had been the first advanced world to declare their support of her candidacy as an empress candidate.


    Lirian had been elated, the information gathering loop had gone very well even better than he had expected almost 30% of the high-ranking nobles had seen it including the emperor.


    He was the only one that didn''t outright laugh at his words, after all, he knew of Lirians origins as a god child and about his pod data so by all means his talent did give him a very good chance, at becoming emperor, and from his constant conversations with Taliyah he knew how intelligent Lirian truly was.


    Lirian got back in line with the class as Alastor took his place in front of them, "Split up into groups I want the warriors, mages, and psychics to form their own groups." his deep voice carried across the training ground with ease and the students quickly scattered.


    A group of 9 warriors, and two groups of five, there was an odd balance in his class usually psychics were the least common but his class had 5 psychics and 5 mages, he remained in place by himself as the groups settled down and waited for commander Alastor.


    Alastor nodded as he scanned the students, "I have prepared three different courses for each class group," he pointed at the longest and hardest of the obstacle courses.


    "That one is designed to draw out the potential of a warrior and only the warriors will go through it, as a warrior it is your job to stand in the front and take the heavy blows if you make a mistake, it will put your entire team in danger, always remember that as a warrior you are the front line if you crumble so will those that stand behind you."


    "As for the rest of you while the warrior''s course isn''t as easy as yours that doesn''t mean you get to enjoy a simple course," his voice boomed as he shouted at the mages and psychics.


    "Even if your body is not your main focus, you must still train as if it is, on the battlefield a single slip up on the front line can leave you wide open for an attack, and without time to build up a force barrier or a spell you''ll die before you can blink,"


    "I expect every single one of you to pass through that obstacle course with flying colours and if you struggle with any part use your mana and force fields to come up with something creative, in the field of battle that is what matters the most, to be able to adapt to any situation is the duty of the mages and psychics."


    Just as everyone was about to move he gripped onto his head again as he grimaced, like he had an intense migraine.


    Miss Hira came to him as she noticed, she gently put a hand on his arm, "Is everything alright commander?" she asked with a voice full of concern.


    "It''s nothing," he said practically shoving her away, he looked around at the students and when his gaze fell on Lirian he felt a strange force acting on his mind that he couldn''t control.


    His gaze suddenly became calm and he felt the gritting pain in his head ease up as walked forward to stop the class, he knew that he had to follow his instincts, to stop the strange sensation.


    "Before you start there is something I would like to show all of you, it''s something else that all of you will have to learn in combat training and I think that the prince candidate will be the perfect person to do the demonstration." he turned to Lirian and with a small smile on his face, he motioned for Lirian to come forward.


    Lirian walked forward, wondering what was wrong with the commander, he was sweating and as far as Lirian could tell there was nothing the commander did that could make seventh-grader sweat.


    While lost in his thoughts an object came flying at him, if not for his inhuman reflexes he didn''t doubt that it would have hit him even if it was blunted steel, it could have easily left a wound on him.

 Chapter 68 - 068 - Odd Behavior 2

    Lirian grabbed onto the hilt of the sword that came flying his way and spun it in his hand with a little flourish to show off a little of his skill, and he quickly examined the sword, it was steel forged but with a blunted edge and its quality wasn''t all that great.


    Alastor narrowed his eyes at Lirian''s speedy reaction but quickly moved on, "I have heard that you attend sword classes in the academy," Lirian nodded his head but didn''t like where this was going.


    Alastor chuckled, "Your instructor says that you always train in a private room, and you never accept spars,"


    Lirian glanced around the field with a look of contemplation, it was true that he didn''t accept any spars, but that was only out of necessity, this civilization was too advanced, they already understood how laws react to gods, when he fell into deep concentration while sparring it wasn''t uncommon for the laws to react to him.


    He had to keep it hidden, the first time he was lucky that it was only his mother''s direct aides and servants if word of it had gotten out people would make the assumption of him being a god child, as of right now no one would even have such a thought running through their heads after all god children were not a common sight.


    Whilst he didn''t want to reveal it his reason was being eaten away by his rage, if it were his past lives, he could just run around killing anyone and everyone as he pleased but now there were too many restraints.


    The lack of bloodshed was so strange and foreign to him, as a cultivator, he had to learn patience but these twenty years felt like torment to him, no cultivation, no scenes of mass bloodshed and worst of all no new research for him to work on it was suffocating to not be able to enjoy any of the things he used to do.


    It could be said that this commander had come at the right time for him to vent his frustration.


    "I assume that you must have some amazing techniques that you don''t want to show anyone but you''ll have to show your class what you are made of if you want to lead them." this time even the students could make out the mocking tone in the commander''s voice.


    Karen went to Sarah''s side in the psychic''s group and whispered, "Has Lirian done anything to get in your family''s bad books?" she asked with concern, she had been reporting everything she learned to the Eden family and they often gave her intel as well but there was no word of him having offended the Jane family.


    "No," Sarah whispered back, "I haven''t heard anything," she frowned at the commander''s behaviour, for someone in his position to be disrespectful to Lirian, was no different than the Jane family disrespecting the empress herself, if it was some child from the family, it could just be passed off as the child being disrespectful or arrogant.


    Karen looked to Lucas in the Warriors group and shrugged her shoulders and he did the same to her, it was apparent that no one knew anything about what was going on.


    Lirian felt the blood lust grow inside him and struggled to get it under control, as his body began to tremble from the excitement, "Well that is part of the reason," he answered with a thin smile and a hint of contempt in his voice.


    "I wouldn''t want to dishearten the people around me with my skill, but since you want to feel depressed about your life achievements, I''ll be more than happy to make an exception." he looked at the commander with a condescending smirk.


    As soon as his words carried around the grounds the students sighed inside, ''Evil Lirian was coming out to play,'' they had come to terms with the fact that he sometimes acted in a completely different way from normal almost like he had a personality problem.


    One was straightforward and honest, while the other was a hard hitter that was much too straight forward and very condescending in his ways, that was just two of the different personalities they had noticed, but they were his most frequent ones.


    As for the others, they could be a little more complicated.


    "I see that the rumours are true you do not know the meaning of respect," Alastor kept calm in the face of the insult but his voice still carried a willful sneer.


    "My mother taught me that respect begets respect, it seems your family was incapable of hammering that lesson into your thick skull," he replied with equally willful contempt.


    Sarah who was watching with a bit of anxiety felt herself shake with a little anger, Lirians last insult went too far, he practically insulted her entire family and everyone that supported or respected the commander.


    "That''s enough with words, you wanted to see my skill with a sword so come and let me show you the difference between a genius and a frog in the well," he walked forward with a clumsy grace that was painful to the eye of the beholder, and he flourished his sword around as if he was a fool with no training.


    Alastor watched in contemplation, Lirians approach baffled him his every step seemed like it was full of grace but in the next step he broke stride and resumed the graceful steps in the next, it was like watching the most climactic part of a movie only for a sudden ad to pop up and erase the tension you built up, but it happened on repeat not allowing you to see what comes next.


    It felt like it could be the work of a genius of a fool, unwillingly he chose to believe it was the former, he quickly suppressed his strength and moved to intercept Lirian and deal the first strike, it was a strange choice as the senior it was looked down upon as a disgraceful act to be the first to strike a junior.

 Chapter 69 - 069 – THE WAY OF THE SWORD 1

    Lirian frowned and took a step back, he was used to always being attacked first in his past lives, he managed to react quickly but it was a surprise to see someone from a great family acting dishonorably.


    ''Maybe, I pushed him to far,'' he thought and adjusted his posture.


    Alastor opened up with a simple sword form called ''A Thousand Cuts'', it was mainly built up of slashing techniques with a total of 27 movements, the form was made to make the opponent slowly bleed out over the course of a battle.


    Lirian shifted his posture from the ''Wobbly sword'', and matched Alastor''s form perfectly, the harmony of their strikes rebounded of each other, and with every strike it looked like two balls running into each other at the exact same speed, as the balls struck each other they would immediately go their separate ways.


    Lirian glanced at his system and smirked, his body reached 87 over the years, his mana hit 50 and his mind broke 123, his strength would no doubt surprise Alastor, he even felt Alastor probe his energy centre''s only to find that Lirian was naturally so strong.


    His pupils shrank, the strength behind that little body was hard to believe, but he had done a proper probe and found nothing out of the ordinary.


    As he grew bored of using a single form Lirian switched it up, he continued using the same type of slashing attacks but moved his feet closer and closer to Alastor''s to trip him up it was a sword form more suited to a short sword called, ''Locking Vise'', where you keep close to the opponent by locking their feet.


    The form was designed to prevent one''s opponent from making any big moves, by keeping them pinned down.


    Alastor had to admit that Lirian had talent, being able to mix different forms while still so young was a marvelous achievement worth celebrating.


    He quickly imitated Lirian and implemented another form into his movements and pushed Lirian back, and almost as quickly Lirian started to add more forms into his footwork and strikes.


    It appeared like an overwhelming tide of strikes moving in on every opening like steel attracted to a magnet, and suddenly Lirian kicked his ankle and knocked his sword to the side, without even realising it Alastor fell into Lirian trap.


    He became so focused on trying to figure which forms each move was coming from due to Lirian mixing in so many that he failed to realise that Lirian switched to a single form and completed every movement in sequence, which created a massive opening that even a toddler could exploit.


    As he saw Lirian''s sword thrust coming closer he washed away the combined sword forms and entered into the next stage of swordplay, Free Striking.


    Sword forms were just a guide for someone to learn how to use a weapon, combining multiple forms showed great skill, especially for someone of Lirians age.


    In truth, most people took about twenty years to study the forms before they ever attempted to fuse them, as a mistake could cause many problems to the muscles.


    Form fusing was a very delicate process, that people would deliberate carefully on for weeks before attempting to fuse them, form fusing depended more on one''s control over their own body rather than just incorporating different styles together.


    One''s height, physical strength, dexterity, insight into the way of the sword, and several other aptitudes could influence the success of form fusion.


    Form fusing took even the most talented of people about a century to master, but that was just the baby steps of swordplay, Free Striking was where real swordplay began.


    Alastor pulled his legs and arms in and grasped the pommel of his sword with both hands and cleanly intercepted Lirian''s strike, a clean and crisp ring sounded across the field and the screeching swords came to a standstill as they pulled apart.


    Miss Hira''s eyes quivered frantically, to call it an embarrassment for the commander to use free striking against a student was an understatement but what was even more terrifying was Lirian himself.


    Not only did he force a seasoned combatant a saint no less, which is the class most proficient in close combat to use Free Striking but at the very last second, Lirian washed away the forms as if it were second nature for him and entered into Free Striking.


    She''d dare to say that the ease with which he did it put even the commander''s grace to shame.


    The forms use a series of movements to build up tension in the muscles, the build-up of tension increases the power behind every strike and as a battle continues the tension grows with it.


    By combining forms it is easy to mix up the tension in one''s muscles and in doing so reduce the effectiveness of the forms and in many cases it is possible to pull a muscle or create knots in the muscles and in bad cases, people would tear their own muscles.


    For a 14-year-old child to already effectively mix forms perfectly was incredible but to reach Free Striking was impossible without a great amount of experience.


    Free Striking is when someone gains perfect control over their every muscle allowing them to create the tension in an instant without using the forms to build it up, it''s a level of control that takes the very best at least a century to master.


    Free striking is the most important discipline for any close-ranged combatant as it allows them to freely attack however they wish to, hence its title of Free Striking.


    "Why do you look so shocked already?", Lirian asked rubbing his chin while looking at Alastor''s trembling eyes, "It''s just Free Striking, honestly if this already shocks you, I take back what I said about you earlier."


    "You''re not a frog in a well, but rather a worm whose heads been stuck beneath the soil unable to experience the light of the sun, how pitifully ignorant you are!", Lirian sneered not even pretending to hide the disdain in his voice.


    "I hope that you don''t hold onto a cup of tea with what I''m about to do next, we wouldn''t want you crushing it like a fool," he added with a derisive chuckle.


    The students didn''t understand enough to understand just how exceptional Lirian''s performance was but they were in absolute awe of his skill he managed to push back the commander several times and force him to try harder, in their books Lirian already won, but the last insult Lirian threw out flew over their heads.


    Even Alastor paused for a second, narrowing his eyes as he wondered what Lirian was saying when he remembered his reaction to the footage of Lirian, his eyes trembled as his face lost several shades of color going pale.

 Chapter 70 - 070 - The Way Of The Sword 2

    "How the hell do you know about that?" Alastor tried to shout but his booming voice had lost its power and carried weakly, everyone saw his reaction and was stunned that the weakest insult got the most severe reaction.


    "Guess!" Lirian answered condescendingly with a large grin stretching across his face.


    Pollock looked at the scene and murmured, "Evil Lirian is gone and Devil Lirian has taken his place."


    Modred nodded in agreement, "Never thought I would say this but I think we are going to miss Evil Lirian.", the orphan boy and the noble boy had a moment of coming together as Devil Lirian took his place on the battlefield.


    Lirian charged forward with a wide grin on his face and he felt the growing blood lust intensify as he spun the blade casually.


    He gave Alastor no room to think as he pushed his skill to the next level Tension Forms, what would happen if free striking was mixed into the forms, the answer was that every strike would release its maximum potential and Alastor could feel it, he had no idea how Lirian had the stamina to keep it up.


    Especially in the heat of the training field where the air was thin, but not one strike from Lirian had anything less than his full power.


    This was as far as Lirian could push his body all those years ago when he fought his mother, from the first strike against her he used the Tension Forms, and for his current body, it was as easy as breathing.


    When he reached this stage, he battled with himself to stay in control it was at this point that his mind would become so focused that the laws would move and he had to calm himself to keep in control.


    Alastor quickly pushed himself to use Tension forms but not a second later the air around Lirian changed entirely and ripped forward with a savage form, that Alastor had never seen before.


    He recognised the change in the air around Lirian to be something many steps ahead of the current level, it was ''form and man as one'', it was when one merged a form into their body, but not only that, Lirian was merging with a self-created form.


    Self-created forms were only made by masters with a deep understanding of a weapon, he could hardly believe what Lirian was doing and he was in disbelief as it was completed successfully.


    Alastor re-adjusted his entire self and used one of his very own forms to merge, but as he met Lirian''s strikes he cursed savagely in disbelief, the form Lirian created was in a league far beyond his own.


    Lirian had taken centre stage and his every move completely outstripped Alastor, it started off like a duet dance but Lirian outstripped him in every way and made it into a solo act, even the savage strikes looked like works of art, as his sword spiraled and left streaks of light in the air the entire class was taken aback by its beauty.


    "Devil Lirian has left the building and Monster Lirian has taken his place," Eido squealed in the warriors'' group, Lirian''s entire body was emanating a savage aura and releasing intense waves of hea.


    Steam poured out of his mouth with every breath, and the steam seemed to curdle around him wrapping him in an illusory cocoon of cottony steam, it sent chills down their backs as they watched him slowly vanish into the cloud.


    "Would anyone in our class be able to beat him?", Hinata asked in the mages circle, she looked on enviously at the ability Lirian displayed and she couldn''t help but envy, ''If only I had been taken, that power would have been mine.'' she thought willfully.


    Shen Xie scoffed at her, the common girl really was a fool, "As he is right now, I doubt our entire class combined could beat him even if he doesn''t use energy control against us."


    Hinata frowned in indignation, "No way, we are all cultivators surely..." she tried to reason with the other mages.


    "Stop being such as idiot and recognise your limit''s he is a prince candidate, he''s in a league all by himself, and besides for mages like us it''s a pipe dream to go up against him," one of the boys said abruptly.


    Hinata was always going on about beating Lirian and putting him in his place behind his back and they had seen what happened to the poor mage in a higher grade that tried to use her ability against Lirian.


    Lirian effortlessly turned her energy against her using energy control on her body and made the spell go out of control while still in her body, she was in critical condition in the hospital and her days as a cultivator came to an unceremonious close.


    Lirian slammed the sword forward paying no mind to the growing cracks on its surface, with every swing he left arcs of brilliant light in his wake.


    He felt elated as he lashed out, for the first time since his rebirth, it send droves of ecstasy coursing through his body, the more he fought the more he missed the smell of fresh and hot gushing blood.


    He stepped forward with a wild and savage aura enrapturing him, "I told you that I''d show you the difference between a genius and trash," he mocked as he brandished his sword with his full strength.


    Alastor blocked the blow but he was stupified when the entire blade in his hand bent out of shape from where Lirian sword had struck it.


    He felt furious as Lirian gave him no room to breathe, he was a genuine monster, and that aura of his felt more savage and brutal than any cultivator he had ever met, he could vaguely make out a blood-red vapor surrounding Lirian.


    Luckily for Lirian, Alastor was too furious to pay it much attention, for the law of true massacre had shown a slight trace of its self in response to his intense blood lust.


    Alastor only wanted to claw out those silver eyes that looked down on him with disdain, ''If I were to use just a sliver of my real strength,'' he thought and slowly he felt his reason fading away.


    When he looked at Lirian again, he suddenly felt a strong desire to see him dead, he didn''t care about the consequences and let that strange feeling take control of him once more.

 Chapter 71 - 071 – The Plotter In The Shadows 1

    Alastor was furious as he fought Lirian, ''This is utter bull shit,'' he could''t stop himself from thinking such things as he fought the little monster, a child that could barely reach his chest and whose body looked fragile as if the smallest winds could carry him away, ''How the hell can he outmaneuver me in a battle of skill.''


    As he got pushed further and further back, he cried out in anguish, and delt a devastating strike.


    The energy poured out of him uncontrollably, as the blueish energy of his saints grace energy emerged it tore the air apart and released waves of destructive energy onto the surroundings.


    It was like a well of concentrated gravity appeared, pulling all things towards it, the dust on the ground came pouring into it, creating a massive cloud of dust around the azure blue energy.


    [Dodge with all your power], the sound of the system rung in his head, just a second before Alastor released the attack.


    Lirian felt a sudden surge of danger and his eyes lit up with power, he''d been in dangerous situations countless times, by now he had perfect control of his fight or flight response.


    His eyes sharpened with a rare seriousness as he responded, with a calm grace he reached out to the energy of the world and bent it to his will with energy control.


    He let the energy flow into him and focused all of it on the sword, it was already on the verge of shattering, so he gave it one final task before it met its end.


    He shifted himself to the side of Alastor, grasping the sword tightly with both hands he brought it down onto the ground.


    ''Boom,''


    The ground erupted with rocks flying wildly, but suddenly the rocks shifted direction mid-air, gravitating towards the pillar of azure blue energy that had been released.


    Lirian glanced back as he rocketed away, as the energy was released he felt a pull tugging on his muscles, as the gravitational field of the ground and the blue energy battled over which one should pull him.


    He felt his fall suddenly slow down under the battling energy''s, using energy control he tried to break down the laws, but that was impossible, energy control only had an effect on lawless energy.


    He felt a tremor of rage as he glanced at Alastors with frosty eyes, he could hardly believe what had happened.


    Not only did Alastor use saints grace energy against, he even used the advanced sword techniques that only saints could use, insight harmony.


    The gravity that he felt acting against him wasn''t some simple usage of laws, but rather a law brought about by achieving insight harmony, it was the perfect technique to force an opponent into a battle.


    Had Lirian not acted so quickly he would have been caught in its suction power, then shredded into pieces, he didn''t even want to entertain the thought of the current him trying to defend against it.


    Defend against a seventh-graders saints grace don''t be ridiculous, that attack could level half a city despite it being just a sliver of his power.


    Lirian looked down at the pummel of the sword in his hand, the entire blade had been turned into dust by the undiluted energy he used.


    As the azure energy soared through the air, it finally stopped pulling on him, and he felt himself move again as only one source of gravity acted on him.


    Lirian shot out into the air and came tumbling down onto the ground with a heavy thud, he was certain that he fractured a bone or two as he pulled himself out of the little pit his crash had made.


    The sudden attack washed away his intense blood lust and forced him to think carefully about what had happened, for a split second he entertained the thought that his curse had returned but he quickly shook his head.


    ''It would explain why the commander did something so stupid though,'' he lamented, ''In any case, this is going to have some serious consequence, the commander just tried to kill a prince candidate,''


    '', and if I recall correctly he''s from the Jane family, I''d heard that mom has a very good relationship with the family head.''


    Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he walked out of the cloud of dust around him with mild tremors coursing through his body.


    He noticed some eyes were looking at him in shock for having dodged that attack the rest of them were watching the energy released by Alastor in horror, forget the school half the city would disappear if it made contact.


    He felt his breath catch in his chest as the reality struck him, he dodged the direct attack, but once it popped, he''d be a goner along with every member of the school.


    As much as Miss Hira wished she could stop it she was only a fifth-grade mental psychic it was beyond her ability and just as everyone thought all hope was lost Anya appeared in its path and extended a single hand out.


    That energy that seemed like certain death to everyone else was held back by her with absolute ease, as the blueish saints grace interacted with her red slaughter saints grace it was crushed by overwhelming might.


    Anya usually lounged around on the higher floors of the school, where the other guards and guardians of the several candidates and important students would spend their entire day.


    Today however she couldn''t shake off that bad feeling she had been having, she knew that she gave the blastors to Lirian as a last line of defense, but it didn''t make her feel at ease even one bit.


    She felt like her paranoia was unfounded but she still decide to stick close to Lirian for the next few days while hiding in the shadows, and she was currently extremely glad that she did.


    As she glanced at Alastor her green eyes morphed into a bloody red colour, he was lost in a stupor as he realised what a stupid thing he had done, he didn''t even understand it himself.


    Bloody currents surged out of Anya and she appeared before Alastor, the red currents wrapped around the two of them, as it sealed him off, she dealt a devastating blow on his solar plexus, he didn''t get a chance to react as she rained down blow after devasting blow, even his saint''s regeneration skill couldn''t keep up with the pounding as he quickly turned into a bag of meat and blood.


    Despite them both being saints Anya was in a class of her own, when he was unable to breath properly, she let the blood currents that surrounded them dissipate, if she hadn''t sealed of their little fight her blows would have erased everything in sight.


    When she finished, she hurried to Lirian''s side, she knew that he was fine, if not Alastor would have already become sustenance for her bloody world.


    "I hope you didn''t kill him!", Lirian said as she arrived.

 Chapter 72 - 072 - The Plotter In The Shadows 2

    She looked at him with raised brows, based on his personality she expected him to want Alastor dead unless, "Do you want to kill him?" she asked with a cheeky smile.


    "Very much," after entertaining the thought for a bit, ", but we can''t," he spoke with a heavy look in his eyes.


    Shortly after he landed, he activated Samsara''s vision, he saw something concerning, it had been a long time since he saw something that could truly cause him a problem and he didn''t like it one bit.


    "He was being controlled by a diviner, and this is a double layered trap they set for us." he truly hated all the diviners; the ignorant ones were too stupid and the smart ones were truly smart, there was no in between when it came to their kind.


    They all knew how to expertly layer their plans so even an unsuccessful plan turned into a success from another angle.


    Anya looked at him with a stiffened face, since finding out his real identity it was hard to not believe his every word, "How do you know?"


    "His fate string has a very thick white residue on it, it''s the result of having his fate string tugged on in a very violent manner, and the only type of person capable of doing such a thing is a diviner."


    Just as he finished speaking he saw movement coming from the floor''s entrance.


    Almost half of the entire staff and all the guardians of the school appeared rushing down in a hurry, the power of the seventh-grade being unleashed gave them all a heart attack, they evacuation the entire school and came running to the source afterwards.


    Lirian walked up to the front with a slight limp, the fall busted his knee, it wasn''t serious but it still hurt, "Late as always," he commented when the headmaster and the other guardians got with earshot.


    He glanced at the only guardian that had an excuse to be late, Geratos, he was an ancient pure breed Ent, with a huge trunk for a body, and many stray branches sticking out of his head, even as a seventh-grade being he was just as slow in his ways as a baby entling.


    "Better late than never," one of the guardians Kristan said with a hearty chuckle not minding Lirian''s attitude he was already aggravatingly used to it.


    "Certainly," Lirian answered, ", if not for Anya being my guard then not just the entire school but a good portion of the city would have been in ruin, so sure why not, better late than never!" he reprimanded them without a care of who was the senior.


    "It''s not your place to reprimand my staff child," Telamon rebuked him.


    "I don''t see why I shouldn''t you clearly aren''t doing a good job at making them do theirs," he gritted out through clenched jaws.


    "Anya is only here to act as my guard when I''m moving between school and home, her job is not to protect me from the traitors you hire to teach the students." he huffed with flaring nostrils.


    Most of his anger was fake after all he knew that Alastor was being manipulated, but still, there was a part of him that was genuinely angry.


    He had almost been killed if not for his incomprehensible combat experience he would have died without even knowing it.


    Anya gripped his shoulder and pulled him back, "Stop Lirian, the problem is already resolved," she whispered softly.


    "Resolved my ass!" he cursed loudly, "I would like to know how someone that tried to kill me, got the perfect opportunity to on their first day in the school, it sounds awfully convenient." he announced loudly.


    As the last word got out of his mouth, he felt a hard smack on his face, he looked up at Anya with a clenched jaw as the stinging pain coursed through his face and rung in his ears, "Don''t you dare make such an accusation!" she scolded him.


    A trace of fury flashed in Lirian''s eye, but as he looked at Anya he averted his gaze quickly, he couldn''t bring himself to lash out at her, he cast one last look at Telamon who only looked at him coldly the entire time and left with a scowl sprawled across his face.


    He couldn''t be bothered with what anyone else had to say, he walked away from the scene in a cold fury, the more he learned about Telamon Dao the more unsettled he felt.


    The system suddenly rang and he saw a name he wished he didn''t.


    [Efrideet Capriska has observed you, she feels anger +0 fate particles]


    That blasted diviner, this entire fiasco was probably her set up by her, he though in silence.


    He had been sure to do his best to avoid the gaze of diviners, even with his information feedback loop he made sure that it didn''t activate in the presence of diviners, the last thing he needed to do was show them new tricks especially one so advanced.


    The most annoying thing was that it was so difficult to steal fate particles from them, it was a perk of being a diviner and while the system acted as type of diviner it couldn''t grant him that perk.


    ---


    Anya watched as Lirian walked away, he looked at her like she had betrayed him but she had enough of his baseless nonsense about Telamon, she bowed her head in apology but was greeted by a hearty laugh from Telamon.


    "Don''t bow on the account of another Anya," he addressed her directly and smiled with parental concern, "In any other era you would probably be next in line for the throne of Clovis, so don''t go bowing on account of another," he made her rise back-up.


    "In truth the child is right this time, this is my fault I didn''t expect an upstanding member of the Jane family to do something so despicable and let my guard down around him, in the end I gave him the perfect the opportunity, if not for you I would have had to explain to Taliyah how I let her son die," he spoke with a voice laced with heavy guilt as he looked at her with eyes full of gratitude as he thanked her sincerely.


    "Please let Taliyah know that I''ll give her a call as soon I resolve this issue, I have some explaining to do," he said with his arms folded behind his back and his gaze averted as if he was afraid to meet her eye.


    Anya felt the need to say a few words of comfort to him and ease his conscious but she couldn''t find the right words to say, she couldn''t believe that Lirian was always thinking so lowly of him.


    "You should go see to the child," he pointed at Lirian who was already at the elevator, ", the dangers that follow him are great and they could come at any time he''ll need you more than ever in the days to come."


    Anya nodded respectfully and followed after Lirian, unknown to her a dark light was growing in Telamons eye.

 Chapter 73 - 073 – Efrideets Folly 1

    Lirian left school immediately, it was still early and the first class of the day hadn''t finished, but he doubted if anything would happen after all the entire school had been evacuated earlier.


    On the ride home he completely ignored Anya''s existence he was furious at her, he had killed people for much, much less in his past lives but he couldn''t feel that angry at her and it baffled him, ''When did I start turning soft.''


    He looked at Alastor who was bound by Anya''s energy and took out a little of his fury on him by stamping on his already broken bones.


    After a while, it felt like all the pain he inflicted couldn''t relieve his anger, he looked out of the window in silence until he saw the food trucks he had become very familiar with over the years.


    While everyone in the manor disapproved of him eating such cheap food, made on the corner of the street, he couldn''t care less.


    He had come to enjoy it, and most importantly so did his mother.


    As the limo slowly pulled up, the people noticed the two flags with the Clovis symbol and made way for him to go first.


    He went over to the food truck and got a couple of burgers, after paying a very generous amount of credits to the owner he offered a pleasant smile to everyone that gave him way while returning to the limo.


    ---


    Lirian sat in contemplation as Anya explained what happened to Taliyah as well as the other aides, this time the incident was very serious.


    It was considered as an assassination attempt from a very high member of the society and the political implications were worrying, to say the least.


    In the entire empire only one person had the authority to eliminate a candidate, besides the other candidates, and that was the reigning leader of the empire, in the current Clovis empire that was none other than Emperor Albus himself, there were several instances where an entire noble line was erased for killing a promising candidate of the empire.


    It was a curious punishment to Lirian, candidates had no real political power or influence, and yet the punishment for killing them was one of the most severe.


    Even more curious was the fact that as one increases their influence and they become a prince/princess that unbelievable protection weakens, the higher you climb the less invisible protection you receive.


    He assumed that it was because as your rank increased, it became more and more likely that you would enter into scuffles with different powers, as you try to establish your own power.


    When that happened the empire couldn''t allow the princes and princesses to run around doing as they please, they would have to face the consequence on their own.


    The aides began discussing the punishment, with Lirians talent, destroying the Jane family was a very possible outcome.


    If not for the empress''s long-standing friendship with the Jane family, they would have probably been making preparations to attack already.


    Anya glanced at Lirian with that he told her they had to change their approach, but she couldn''t just bring it up in front of the other aides, at least not without exposing the truth about Lirian and the fewer people that knew that the better.


    Taliyah was listening to her aides with furrowed brows, she be lying if she said she wasn''t furious and she was going crazy just thinking about what might have happened.


    Had she heard that her baby died forget about a plan, she would have been on her way to the Jane family''s homeworld, with only a single goal in mind.


    She looked at Lirians unperturbed face as if this didn''t even affect him in the slightest, it was at times like this that a child was supposed to need their parents, yet he was completely unfazed.


    It served to remind her of how little he truly needed her, and made her heartache.


    ''Just what did you really go through for all those years little one?'', she wondered glumly as her heart ached for him.


    She soon noticed Anya''s odd behavior of looking at between her and Lirian, "Clear out the room," she ordered everyone.


    As Anya got up she quickly added, "Anya and Lirian stay I want to speak to you about what happened privately,", she put up a front about being really concerned about Lirian and wanting to see if he was okay before continuing the discussions.


    It wasn''t a lie at all of course, when she got news from the school about the attack, she abandoned her meeting and rushed towards the school, only seconds passed before Anya contacted her and told her that everything was okay.


    "All right tell me what it is?" she asked with concern.


    "To put it simply Lirian believes that this was the work of a diviner," Anya said carefully, the effect on Taliyah was instantaneous and her fists tightened.


    Lirian pulled a burger out of his bag and casually took a bite out of it, "Not just any diviner, a bloody powerful one at that, to be able to manipulate a seventh-grader without them even realising it, they would have to be nothing short of the sixth-grader but I''m betting that their level is even higher."


    The very very idea of a diviner left a foul taste in Taliyah''s mouth, and she immediately knew who it was, who else would it be if not Efrideet Capriska.


    "How would she even manipulate someone into doing something like that?" she asked forcing herself to stay calm, never had she regretted sparing that wretched woman''s life so much as she did right that second.


    "I''ve never heard of a diviner being able to manipulate someone and if she is able to manipulate people how do we know who we can even trust?" she further asked a slight tremor passed through her causing the hair on the back of her neck to stand on end as soon as she thought that far.


    "Slow down," Lirian chuckled, he pulled a burger out of his bag and set it on the table.


    Over the years eating the burger in a carefree manner had become Taliyah''s guilty pleasure when she was alone with Lirian and a look of desire could be seen in her eyes and she even slightly licked her lips as she looked at it, gods it was cheap food truck food but it tasted so amazing.


    Or rather, the taste was so different from what she was used to eating that it made it taste amazing, not to mention the fact that anyone that caught her eating it would look down on her.


    Lirian didn''t fail to notice that look of desire in her eyes and smiled inwardly, "It''s not so easy to manipulate another and it''s not as simple as you''re thinking."


    "I can show you what she did mom, but it''s going to be a group effort and I need your help to do it," she looked at him with raised brows but didn''t reject him.


    "What do I need to do?" she asked.


    "I''m going to do a form of manipulation on you, but because of the difference in our life levels it''s impossible for me to do it without you allowing me and if you resist even in the slightest the connection is going break," he quickly added, "If I do anything that I''m not supposed to Anya will stop me immediately."


    "There''s no need for that I trust you dear, but if you try to get my clearance codes to the empires server again, you''ll be grounded till your trial begins," she said quickly with a smile on her lips, she lost count of how many tricks he played to get the clearance codes.

 Chapter 74 - 074 - Efrideets Folly 2

    "There''s no need for that I trust you dear, but if you try to get my clearance codes to the empires server again, you''ll be grounded till your trial begins," she said quickly with a smile on her lips, she lost count of how many tricks he played to get the clearance codes.


    Lirian sighed, she knew him too well, and lately less and less of his tricks worked against her, he put his hands together and cried as he had to drain 100 trillion fate particles from the system to do it successfully.


    He cried internally the people of this empire gave him a ton of fate but they also devoured it, in ordinary circumstances, this shouldn''t have cost him more than a few billion particles.


    The energy gathered and his fate string began to shine brightly in a magnificent silver light when he looked over at his mother''s string, it appeared in an orange/gold color that was hard to discern.


    He inspected it closely and slowly looked through it, he could see the uncountable things linked to it and tugging at it, in a way every single being in the empire was affected by her.


    It could be said that her words had the power to shift and pull on the strings of every being in the empire, for example, had she ordered the Jane family destroyed.


    The order would pull on the strings of every person in the empire shifting them in the direction she wanted them to go, whilst having the most effect on those that had no way to resist her commands, such as her soldiers and aides.


    There were also things from the empire that tugged on her fate string, these were constraints of leaders, all her responsibilities as empress was one severe knot binding her down in service of the empire.


    That knot was the source of her great deal of fate particles, but it was also what grounded her.


    As he focused on it, he found a spot on the string that was dyed his color he looked through the last 14 years of her fate string and he was happy to see that his tug on her was very powerful.


    He even saw the point where she almost lost her fate particles, it was when she made a wish for a child that could survive the trials, he looked a little deeper and suddenly his eyes narrowed seriously.


    He knew that his mother performed the ritual every ten years, where she would visit her children, but as it turned out, she was making that very wish every single time.


    It drained her fate particles every single time without fail, but it never ate away at her life, it was an unprecedented event for him.


    Usually, if someone made a wish they couldn''t afford it would eat away at their life, but in his mother''s case it was as if she took a lay-bye.


    Slowly paying the price with installments across millenia, it must have cost her quintillions of fate particles over time.


    To say that this was concerning was an understatement, in all the years the closest person he knew to the true power of fate was Katherina, and fate would not even give in an inch for her.


    Yet he just discovered that it was actively helping his mother, by all means, her existence would be considered a miracle by every god out there.


    He shook his head to shake of his thoughts, he was getting distracted if he looked deeper, he would find everything he needed to know about her past, her children, and her relationship with the emperor, but that wasn''t his purpose today.


    He soon reached the present moment they were in and began to influence it with gentle strokes, he had to be careful if he got forceful with it, he could easily pass on his memories directly into her if he made a small mistake.


    Taliyah was waiting patiently, she felt a sense of discomfort as Lirian dove deeper, but she didn''t understand why, it only felt like something completely unnatural was happening to her and she had to force herself not to fight against it.


    The strange invasive feeling suddenly vanished, and she began to glance around the room when the smell of the cheeseburgers reached her nose she got up with a sudden impulse.


    She moved with hurried legs as she looked at the burger with a drooling mouth, she reached out grabbing the burger that was on the desk, she ripped the wrapping off in a rush and slammed the food into her mouth as if afraid it would run away and gnawed on it until it disappeared.


    When she finished, she turned to look at Anya with a stupefied face, she hide her messy hands behind her back as if it would change what had happened.


    "You saw nothing Anya absolutely nothing," she said with a slight shriek to her voice while turning to look at the chuckling Lirian.


    "I never saw a thing your majesty, I have no idea what you''re talking about," Anya responded while clasping her hands over her mouth to hide the surprise and block out her laugh.


    "Lirian, why did you do that?", she asked in wronged voice and looked at the burger wrapper in sadness she planned to enjoy that later on.


    "I did nothing, I merely reduced your impulse control for a second," he said softly, ", that is how a diviner manipulates people, it''s not so easy to take control of a person so they influence them for an instance at the ideal moment by making them lose their impulse control."


    "I merely planted the thought of the food as I ate in front of you and set a burger on the table, when I took away your control you acted on your impulse." Lirian laughed.


    Taliyah''s beautiful bronze skin had a hint of pink in them as she realised what Lirian was implying, he wasn''t responsible for the action she was, which meant that deep down she really, really wanted to devour that burger whole.


    Anya glanced up and at Alastor and frowned, "Does that meant that deep down he really wanted to kill you?" her tone was very cold, Alastor was currently lying unconscious in a seal created by the warlocks.


    "That''s a bit complicated actually," he said with a finger holding up his chin, Taliyah and Anya couldn''t help but think that he looked unbelievably cute when he fell into thought like that.


    "As you know many of the nobles disapproved of me, when I..." he pondered deeply on what to say his act of warning them was exactly, in his case he did it to create an information feedback loop but to everyone else he didn''t know what word they''d use to describe his actions.


    "When you spoke down to them," Anya offered helpfully.


    "Yes, that works," Lirian nodded, ", when I spoke down to them they were offended and Alastor was no different, Efrideet knew of this and used it to make him lash out at me,"


    "At the time I didn''t even realise what was happening, by all means, I never would have expected such a young diviner to be able to influence fate strings, but because of that I was baited into humiliating Alastor,"


    "And as he got more and more furious, he developed a tiny bit of killing intent, that was when Efrideet struck again, making him lose all reason causing him to attack me," Lirian finally concluded.


    "But this is also where she made a big mistake, she has no idea who she is dealing with and revealed herself, unfortunately for her anyone that so much as glances at my string of fate will reveal themselves to me." he chuckled softly.


    Taliyah and Anya always found it hard to cope with this Lirian, the plotting and conniving Lirian, is what they called him when he began to brag about how inferior all others were in comparison to himself.


    But they knew that the knives were coming out, on many occasions, it was this Lirian that helped Taliyah when she was busy and had to deal with tricky members of the nobility.

 Chapter 75 - 075 – Resolution 1

    Lirian fell into deep concentration, in truth he didn''t want this day to come he hated dealing with diviners, they were always the trickiest opponents, because it didn''t involve swords and spells of mass destruction.


    Rather it involved pure and unadulterated cunning, fortunately, he knew that this day would come eventually, from the day had heard about his mother''s sour relationship with Efrideet he assumed the worst would happen.


    The biggest problem with diviners was that to take them down you had to play a very long game and they always had an unscrupulous number of followers, there would always be a magnetic attraction that people had to those that possessed knowledge that should be impossible to have.


    "Her primary goal was probably to kill you, to get back her majesty," Anya said thoughtfully as they all sat around and began discussing the implications of the attack. "And I''d venture to say she wanted to stir up tension between her majesty and the Jane family."


    Several ring sounds were heard followed by the flashing of lights.


    The communicators in the room had all started to light up one after the other, almost every person in the empire wanted to know what the empress''s response to the Jane family was going to be and none were as anxious about it as the Jane family.


    Taliyah pushed the communicators away and added, "No, not just tension, if Lirian had died I would have had the entire family erased without a doubt," she said while trying her best not to imagine such a scenario, just the thought made her think of every time a corpse or a piece of a corpse was handed to her and she had to identify it as a child of her own.


    "Even now that option is still in the front row of my cards," she added honestly, it was a justifiable response for what had happened, and if she didn''t respond with something strong people would take her for a pushover.


    "Even if it''s justifiable she could use it against you, Efrideet would claim that you are an unstable factor in the empire due to your love for your children and that you use your children as an excuse to sow discord in the empire," Anya said after deep contemplation.


    "Indeed," Lirian said, "It will make a good rally call, to unite the people against you," he added as he looked at Taliyah''s frown.


    "The scariest thing is that even a failure of her first plan could easily trigger the second step of her plan," Lirian slowly began to explain, when he saw them looking at him for an explaination.


    "Even though I''m not dead, it doesn''t take away your anger mom," he could see her seething fury even now, "If you meet with anyone from the Jane family, she may be able to influence just like how she influenced Alastor, causing you to attack the Jane family."


    "If I were to attack them without addressing Albus and the council it will paint an even worse image of me," she quickly concluded while clenching her fist until her knuckles went white.


    "And that brings us to the first and final steps of her plan," Lirian muttered softly.


    Anya frowned, "I thought this was only a double-layered trap," she couldn''t see any other areas where this could affect them.


    "Well, that''s what I thought at first as well but I was wrong because there is another trap, she planted in the scenario that I survive," he only realised that after he saw Efrideet''s name appear on the system.


    "Justification," Taliyah suddenly added as she realised the final trap, "It I want to attack the Jane family I must be able to justify it by revealing your talent, to justify the attack you would have to be a talent rarely ever seen, and to prove it, I will have to release your pod data."


    "And since I survived if my pod data is released there will be no telling just how many powers will move against me, even the neighboring empires will not be able to sit still," Lirian said softly, those 72 energy points was something never seen before in history, the closest number was 34 and that person was assassinated within hours of the news being released.


    "But that makes no sense..., how could she be certain that anyone would find you a threat unless..." she paused with a startled expression, "she already knows," Anya said finished, "If she knows how to use that thing you told me about, where you learn information with fate strings..."


    But Lirian shook his head "She is far too young to be able to do it not to mention that she will need a lot of guidance to have learned it, also I shielded the knowledge so she would have to be in a different league entirely if she wants to undo the shield and that''s just not even in the realm of possibilities, the only possibility is that there is a spy."


    Taliyah shook her head in disbelief, "That''s ridiculous Lirian only three of my aides were present when we did your test and I swore them to secrecy with an oath disc, and Albus would never tell anyone nor would the current advisor."


    "Then there is only one suspect remaining, one that you would never make swear an oath," Lirian said without holding back, he had no qualms with suspecting Telamon any longer even if it hurt his mother he refused to back down on this point, after all, it was his life on the line.


    Before he could even react, he felt a stinging pain across his face and even his ears were zinging, he just glanced at his mother, he had expected this reaction from long ago.


    "This is the second time I''ve been hit today on account of that man, when I prove that I am correct I will be awaiting my apology," he said softly while maintaining his calmness, humans were foolish sometimes they would rather ignore a possibility if it didn''t sit right with them, instead of dealing with it.


    "Anyway, for now, we need to come up with a plan to deal with the Jane family and spook Efrideet at the same time, I have a plan and I believe it might work, we''ll start off making the Jane family pay a very large compensation for the attack on me and a ransom for Alastor," it was a very perfunctory response since they weren''t taking any lives it held a special meaning towards the nobles.


    It meant that they believed the Jane family was an unwilling participant in what happened, and that they suspected someone else was responsible for manipulating things behind the scenes of course that wasn''t all there was to it and Lirian slowly went through it.


    Taliyah felt aggrieved with Lirian''s treatment of Telamon, it was like a grandson unjustly hating his grandfather in her eyes and she couldn''t bear it, she watched and listened to him with downcast eyes.


    She had come to know all the nonsense Lirian had spoken about Telamon over the years directly from Anya, and it didn''t help that every time she spoke to the noble they would bring up his first day of school when he threatened her teacher.

 Chapter 76 - 076 - Resolution 2

    She put a hand on her aching heart as she listened to him, when she looked at his face she felt an intense pang of guilt.


    She had hit too hard, the right side of his face was completely swollen and they could hear his jaw creek and click with every motion of his mouth but he still dutifully told them his plan without so much as a wince of pain.


    When he was done he left the room and went to get his jaw treated by Antanasia, she didn''t say much, she could tell that it was from a slap and the severity was much more intense than any other time in the past.


    She was just mildly surprised, after what happened she thought the empress would be cuddling Lirian like a fragile doll but it seemed that like always he managed to do something that aggravated her majesty.


    ---


    A month later, Lirian was standing on a podium with thousands of cameras all pointed at him and rows of chairs spread out in front of him with thousands of reporters occupying the seats.


    The news was supposed to be big this time and it had people coming in from all over the system to get the first scoop.


    School was the most annoying part over the last month, as soon as he got to school, he had to deal with a crowd and once he finished getting through the first another crowd would be waiting, all of them screaming in his face, desperately trying to get the first scoop.


    A story like this was rare and as the days passed the crowds only grew larger and his communicator was beeping every second of the day, he was actually impressed with some of the offers made to him.


    If he wasn''t so busy already he would have been glad to accept many of the interviews, just to get what they were offering, then feed them a bunch of crap.


    Needless to say that today Lirian was happy that the arrangements behind closed doors were finally completed and he could get rid of the annoying crowd, that did not know the meaning of giving up.


    This event had left another big mark on his record and the world was referring to him as a golden child for surviving the attack of a seventh-grader.


    It was the most ridiculous thing he ever heard, from the way many of the media outlets had told the story, they made it seem as if he took on the full brunt of the attack, using energy control.


    And just when it seemed like he was about to give in Anya appeared to rescue him, but since all interviews with aides were a strict taboo in the empire they weren''t even allowed to have their pictures taken to keep their confidentiality.


    That was part of the reason why Anya always vanished using shadow spells when it was time for him to leave the limo at the academy.


    In short, Lirian had envied her position over the past month, she was lucky to not have her communicator ringing all day every day.


    As he walked around on the large platforms, the press did a sudden double take when they saw several new figures arriving on the stage.


    On that day, he was not the only VIP present, as the press saw the other three members walking up the steps they lost their minds, and held onto their cameras with shaking hands this was an enormous scoop.


    The empress of the empire herself stood alongside Lirian and directly opposite them Lady Elizabeth Jane the leader of the Jane family and Alastor Jane the instigator of the trouble came forward.


    The press only had an easy time on high worlds, in the advanced and super worlds the only press that existed was the press that those powers wanted there, so everyone from the private networks were overwhelmed with joy to be able to get so many important figures in a single event.


    An advanced world leader on one side, who they''d usually have to pay exorbitant figures to if they wanted a short word with her, and on the other side was her majesty the empress, whom they couldn''t pay to get an interview with.


    Then there was a prince candidate, whom many nobles pay good money to see, it could be said that the media industry was so great on high worlds mainly because of how much nobles invested in them so that they could see as much as they liked of their favorite candidates.


    Lady Elizabeth came up to the podium with her lips pulled into a thin line, she was dressed in elegant white robes and a gold cape on her shoulders, she waited for complete silence before addressing the crowd sternly.


    "The Jane family has made a large mistake, and for that we are deeply regretful, we would like to start off by apologizing to Empress Taliyah Clovis and her son the prince candidate Lirian and we would like to thank them sincerely for their generosity in dealing with this situation..."


    Her speech went on for a full hour as she proceeded to apologize to the Xelia family and residents of the planet for the accident that could have taken tens of thousands of lives, and she promised compensation to the many people whose lives were endangered.


    As she finished the list, she looked at Lirian, "To the prince candidate Lirian, I have prepared a small fleet of cruiser ships from the galaxy series and hope that he will come to enjoy them in the years to come."


    She did her best to hide her unwillingness to give him such a thing, because just between the Jane family and the household of the empress, they knew what was really on that fleet of cruisers.


    Lirian smiled brightly for the camera''s and he could hear the hearts of every reporter melt as they looked at him, the cruiser fleet was a small part of his demand the other part was left unsaid in the public, it came equipped with the Jane families best military-grade warp drive, a photon cannon, and shielding system.


    It was extortion of the highest level but he refused to budge an inch on their technologies, more than a few high-ranking members were now without a doubt seething with fury at the fact that they had to give away their best technologies.

 Chapter 77 - 077 – RESOLUTION 3

    Lirian walked up to the podium and gave a friendly smile, "Thank you for the gift my Lady," he said simply and looked at the reporters with a devilish smile, that looked totally adorable to anyone that didn''t know him.


    "I don''t have much to say really, an assassination attempt is part of my daily routine and I''ve been taking care to schedule around them," he started thoughtfully raising a hand to his chin as the cameras increased their focus on him.


    "It is just a few minutes of my time every day, perhaps I should thank the fools for keeping my life interesting." he laughed and the reports, laughed along nervously, wondering how a child so small speak about assassinations as if it was no big deal.


    Taliyah was glad the cameras weren''t on her because she rolled her eyes and almost did a facepalm, Lirian really knew how to be checky sometimes and it left her feeling slightly embarrassed by his actions.


    "Oh, that''s right," he feigned remembering something important, "I forgot to say the most important thing," he shook his head like he was disappointed in himself and then continued to grin at the cameras.


    "I would like to offer my most sincere thanks to..." he paused deliberately and let a small smirk creep onto his face, "The Lady in the shadows, if not for your gracious plans how could I ever have gotten such a lovely gift from the Jane family."


    The reporters didn''t understand what he was saying, but without a doubt it had some hidden meaning to the nobility otherwise he would just sound stupid.


    Lady Elizabeth looked at him with a tight frown, then she glanced at the empress, only to see her calm face.


    She naturally knew what, ''the lady in the shadows'', meant and she couldn''t understand how it played any role in what happened.


    She cast a dreary glance at the cause of this fiasco, Alastor, only to see that he looked more confused than her.


    She had naturally agreed to pay the ransom for Alastor, but that was only because she had to maintain face for her family.


    When they returned he would be facing a private execution with the families higher-ups, for his actions.


    In fact, the only reason she thought that the empress had chosen to spare the Jane family was due to their long-standing friendship and support.


    However to her surprise and shock after paying the ransom the prince candidate had insisted that the family spare Alastor.


    However, his plea for mercy on Alastor''s behalf came with the condition, that Alastor ought to be banished from the family in all but name.


    Meaning that Alastor would still hold the family name, but hold none of his rights as a member of the family.


    And lastly, he requested that Alastor be stationed in the school, to continue acting as a combat training teacher.


    She thought that it was ridiculous, until to her shock, the empress approved of his idea and implored her to do as she was suggested.


    The whole thing made her feel confused and now them dragging the ''the lady in the shadows,'' which was the secret identity that Efrideet used to use when she was young.


    She slowly shook her head as she tried and failed to make sense of the situation,


    ---


    As Lirian finished his short speech he glanced at Telamon who was a part of the crowd and mouthed a few words.


    ''Is that where you''re watching from?'' he mouthed in amusement and turned to leave the podium without bothering to answer any question from the raging journalist.


    Alastor climbed onto the stage shortly after and began a very long apology speech to Lirian and the residents of Xelia.


    When Lirian got back to his seat he glanced at Telamon and could see his body shaking slightly.


    Initially, there was something that Lirian had overlooked, he was so used to using his power as a god for reference, that he forgot that, even diviners had a limit as to how far they could manipulate someone from.


    Needless to say that for a diviner 100-star zones away, it was an impossible task, she was no great diviner and she most certainly was no fate spinner.


    The only possible method for her to manipulate someone from so far away was by using a living conduit.


    When he thought of that he remembered that the message of Efrideet observing him only happened after he spoke to Telamon, and when he looked at it that way there was no way that anyone could convince him that Telamon wasn''t working with Efrideet.


    Telamon was acting as the conduit for her to manipulate Alastor, and he did it full well knowing what the consequences would be for him and his mother.


    Whether the plan succeeded or failed the consequences would have been dire, had it been anyone of his mother''s past children, Efrideet''s involvement would have remained unnoticed and Taliyah would have taken serious action against the Jane family.


    He thought on Telamons motives but couldn''t place it after all he did raise Taliyah and turn her into someone worthy of being an empress.


    ''I''ll just have to shuffle around in his history,'' he thought, there were tons of stories in history talking about The Rise of Empress Taliyah Clovis and Telamon was a pivotal character in that piece of history, and there were numerous tales of the many emperors and empress''s he served.


    Lirian thought that he''d start with the second emperor Telamon served, Emperor Albert Clovis he was an emperor that committed suicide after handing over the reins to his successor, it seemed like the juicier history could be found there.


    It was going to be a chore, after all, the history books he had access to were definitely too biased and he''d have to make conjecture after failed conjecture just to find a common thread, without the system verifying his conjectures it would be an impossible task for sure, but it was something he had to do.


    ---


    A hundred-star zones away light moved around and took form, reflecting the images of the press conference on Xelia, it all happened in what appeared to be a glowing bowl, but if anyone who knew the secrets of the seven great civilizations history saw it, they would recognize the historical piece for it what it was.


    One of the lost basins left behind by the great diviner Quaria.

 Chapter 78 - 078 - Resolution 4

    Standing before the bowl that reflected the image was the ruler of one of the greatest powers in the empire, Efrideet Capriska her long pink hair flowed down her every curve and cascaded across the floors of her sacred room of divination.


    A look of loathing filled her face, several years of planning had been wasted, oh, how she wished to scream it had taken a lot to convince Telamon but even with his help everything failed.


    She cursed that weak woman Elizabeth, she had no shame, how dare she bow her head in apology to that underserving empress, the woman who had taken her place on the throne.


    She was the first in 17 billion years to reach the level of a seventh-grade diviner and yet she was overlooked on the account of some common village girl with above-average talent.


    She was the master of fate, in her heart she knew with certainty that only one diviner stood above her and that was the mother of the seven civilizations Quaria and yet she had been overlooked it made her furious just looking at the bitch who stole her birthright.


    Then she saw that child he walked up with such arrogance it made her feel loathsome, it wasn''t his attitude that made her feel so but rather his talent.


    What did that bitch do to get such unparalleled talent in a child, so long as the child lived, he would be a testament of Taliyah''s greatness, they would look at his genius and credit it to her wisdom.


    She could never stand for such a thing to happen, just the thought of anyone praising that village whore, made her furious.


    She tried to find an opening about the child''s past, but the strings had shown her his birth, they showed her that he did indeed come from Scavanour, and she knew the strings well they would never lie to her.


    In the presence of her greatness, they were forever bound to her as shackled subject''s incapable of overruling her will.


    She was the one true master of fate and with time, there would be no other that could compete with her, after a diviner is truly immortal, their bodies are protected from the encroachment of time.


    Even a mortal diviner could live as long as the gods themselves, and she would use that to her advantage to become the sole ruler of everything, and eventually even surpass the mother of the seven civilizations, the great diviner Quaria.


    She knew that it was her destiny, fate had shown her the way, and she had sacrificed more than anyone would ever know to make that dream a possibility.


    She once more focused on the images in her divining mirror listening to every word that Lirian spoke and in doing so she understood that his words were an insult to her actions.


    But then he said those words, mentioning her name she had used so very long ago and she felt her pink irises shudder, before furrowing her brows as she thought more carefully.


    ''Do they know? but it can''t be how could they, I just learned how to manipulate a fate strings by influencing them, there are no records of it anywhere, no it must be some ploy of theirs to attack me,'' she reasoned.


    It was at that moment that the strings seemed to rebel against her, for he looked in her direction and mouthed a few words, that left her shaking in fear and the strings seemed to enjoy the feeling, "No,", this time she screamed aloud, ", he must be commenting on Telamons place of seating," she reasoned with herself once more.


    But those eyes, she had felt that gaze like a searing hot iron branding her skin and that smirk it felt like it was meant for her, mocking her failure.


    Then the fool came up, most of the nobility had disliked Lirian for the little game he played with them, she had reviewed the video a thousand times yet she saw nothing, it was not at all like what others had said it to be, at most he learned the position of the seals, impressive for the boy''s age but that was all.


    But as time went on more and more nobles told her of its peculiarity, she then viewed the memories of her subordinates that told her that it was the same for them.


    But in their memories, it appeared as ordinary as when she watched it herself, it was only that she noted her followers'' reactions that made her suspect that something was wrong.


    She contacted the lesser diviners who could never compare to herself, it wasn''t that she needed their help.


    She needed only a confirmation to prove her theory, the trick the boy used could not work against a diviner was her final conclusion.


    The world offers special protections to diviners and she reasoned that this was why it failed to react to her, but she still knew not the purpose of such a trick.


    The boy had made so many nobles angry with his declaration, she had an entire list of people she could use but the problem was who to choose, who would be the most effective to get her point across and that was when she landed on the Jane family.


    They were the first dogs to support Taliyah, so turning her against them would aid her cause greatly, she could picture the headlines she would make, ''The Empress Slaughters her First Supporters'', ''The Ungrateful Empress'', ''The Bloody Hand Strikes Again''.


    Alastor walked off the stage and then she saw the empress coming forward to address the people and she slowly tightened her grip on the fate strings around her.


    Whilst all of her plans had fallen apart, she could still use this moment to influence the empress into attacking, the Jane family.


    She knew the empress well, even if she was going to overlook what had happened, never would she truly forgive anyone that tried to harm her child it was the perfect opportunity to influence her and make a mess of the situation.


    She raised her hand and the strings began attaching themselves to blue markings etched into every inch of her skin, the markings were unique to her race the Yasaratches.


    She smiled in ecstasy, most of her plans might have been foiled but this would be enough.


    The strings of fate bundled together like fibers of muscles to form a point and they moved forward with the intent to strike.

 Chapter 79 - 079 – THE Dweller In The Dark 1

    As Efrideet looked at the view in the basin, that shone from Telamons eyes, something in the corner of Telamons eye caught her attention, the little prince candidate was moving his lips mouthing words again.


    Her breathing went rampant and her heart seemed to still as she felt her entire body go into shock.


    ''I wouldn''t do that if I were you Efrideet,'' the words were soundless but they echoed loudly in her head, as looked on in near horror her every vein bulged and her eyes shrank in response.


    The condescending look on his boy''s face drove her mad, and she could feel those glowing silver eyes peeking on her through the basin she used.


    The basin was hers, she found it by herself, it belonged to her alone, yet he was using it against her.


    She didn''t even have the time to consider how it was possible as the reality was hitting her in the face.


    She changed the nature of her attack and the target.


    In doing so she made a mistake one that fate itself had warned her against.


    She had hoped to use the manipulation technique against Lirian, due to his life level complete control would have been easy but fate itself had warned against such action.


    When she looked at his fate string for the first time, she knew in an instant that it was special, it held a special kind of protection, one that she had seen on very few others, but it was far greater than she had ever seen before.


    She knew that attacking such a fate string would come with dire consequences for her, it was pure instinct that told her so, it was just like how when one looked at lava they instinctively knew that they''d die if they jumped into it.


    But fear had taken root in her, the child found out that she was working with Telamon if word got to the empress then all of their schemes together could get exposed and that would be a death warrant for the both of them.


    She changed the attack, from an impulse manipulation to a fate string cutter, if he was a cultivator, she wouldn''t dare try such a thing but he was still an ordinary mortal and sure enough, when the attack arrived it came down directly on his fate string.


    She felt the fate strings around her twist violently, shirking off every ounce of her control, and if fate could experience rage, then that was exactly what she felt she was being subjected to.


    The fate strings attached to her all snapped simultaneously and roared at her in fury.


    ''Snap,'', ''Snap,'', ''Snap,''


    The sound of snapping strings echoed throughout the room, with every loud popping sound, Efrideet felt herself grow weaker, but she was completely powerless in the face of fate''s fury.


    Eventually, she slumped forward like a puppet with its strings cut off and smashed her head against the bowl, a diviner was special but their bodies were as weak as an ordinary person.


    ''Noooo,'' she tried to cry but her voice failed her as black filth came pouring out of her mouth.


    ''I''m the master of fate your master'' she cried internally as fate refused to respond to her touch '', you can''t do this to me, I earned the right to bend you, you answer to me alone.''


    She reached out her hands trying to grab onto fate once more in vain, it was futile and she sobbed as she lost the feeling of fates warm embrace.


    Blood gushed out from her head and black filth oozed out of the markings on her body, she felt bile and blood flow up her throat and pour out of her mouth like a tap, but as she took one final look in the basin she smiled.


    That bitch would feel the pain of losing a child all over again, the moment Lirian said her name she took him off the list of potential threats and labeled him as a real one.


    It succeeded his string and been cut.


    ---


    "... due to the long friendship between myself and the Jane family I have chosen to overlook this transgression, the misguided actions of a single person does not stand as a representation of an entire nation, after nu-¡­" Taliyah suddenly stopped as she heard something crash behind her.


    She glanced back and saw Lirian stumble to the ground, the reporters all turned to see it too, ''What is he up to now this isn''t part of the script,'' she sighed, but then she felt his life force dissipate suddenly.


    Taliyah''s eyes shrunk, and her heart pumped furiously, as his life force took a sharp turn downwards, she could even make out small parts of his body flaking away, as if he was about to vanish from existence.


    [Warn...]


    That was all Lirian heard from the system before he felt his fate string snap, the natural tension that fate exerted on his body vanished.


    He collapsed from his seat while clutching onto his chest, his eyes were dyed red as the blood vessels began to slowly pop, he''d overused Samsara''s vision and now his fate string was cut.


    He forced himself to use energy control as he tried to think of a solution, but he knew that he only had seconds before he died.


    He forced the energy around him to hold his fate string in place and lock down his soul, but the strain it put on him was immense.


    He forced himself to crawl up from the ground, and as he got to his knees he could only make out the flashing of cameras, as blood filled his mouth and died his teeth red, he tried to look around for his mother.


    Hazy images were flashing before his eye, and he could feel hot blood pouring out of his ever orifice as he tried to crawl forward, "You... Bitch... Efrideet," he forced himself to mutter, there were tons of cameras and mics hopefully one of them would have picked up something.


    Even in this dire situation, he made everything count, he wouldn''t let a chance slip by, the system came to a conclusion on how to heal him immediately.


    [Use an Ethereal Revival Embryo]


    He didn''t need it to tell him, he had dealt with something similar in the past and it was the only way to recover from a severed fate string that he knew of.


    As much as he wanted to pull out the embryo right there and then, the presence of such an object was majestic, and every world within the star zone would detect it''s presence, not to mention that with all the camera''s present, the entire universe would find out about it.


    He pulled himself forward with all the strength he could muster he needed to get out of here first, "Mom," he spoke but his voice had lost its power and he stumbled to the ground.


    Taliyah had watched in horror as soon as she saw the blood, she rushed to him in a mad panic, it was flowing so violently and it died his face and clothes completely in golden-red blood.


    "NO, NO, NOOOOO!" she was crying out in despair with shaking arms, his life force was almost completely gone, "Not my baby, no, no please noooooo!" she sobbed as she clutched onto his body.


    She lost all her grace as an empress as she sobbed violently, but that was the furthest thought from her mind, as Lirian became a bag of overflowing blood.


    She couldn''t bring herself to accept what was happing right before her eyes, as his blood started to gush all over her golden dress she could only clutch onto him tightly, as she tried to convince herself that this was all a nightmare.


    His eyes were completely blank and she could her him calling her in tiny whimpers but he wasn''t reacting to her touch or voice at all.


    She ignited her saints grace and poured a little sliver into him, she knew that the potency could damage his body beyond repair but it was her only hope to buy him time.


    Lirian could feel the darkness closing on him in all directions, and in it, he was all alone, there was nothing as he felt the life force drain from his body, his eyes had gone dark and the whole world was a blank canvas, could it all have just been a dream he thought.


    ''Perhaps it is,'' a voice echoed in the dark place, ''perhaps we are all just the passing dreams of others but that doesn''t mean that everything we experience isn''t real to us.''

 Chapter 80 - 080 - The Dweller In The Dark 2

    Lirian''s soul floated in the darkness in a state of limbo he wasn''t alive or dead, he knew this state well it what was what he became between his many lives, "Who''s there!?" he shouted, he couldn''t detect where the voice came from it sounded like everywhere.


    ''Your assumption would be correct I am everywhere.'' the voice answered pleasantly Lirian would go so far as to call it warm.


    He felt faint excitement at the moment, something he didn''t understand was happening and he was communing with something that even he couldn''t detect.


    It even made him stop thinking about what had happened momentarily, as he pondered over who would be so foolish as to try and catch his dying soul.


    ''hahaha,'' the voice laughed and it sounded almost like a grandfather enjoying the pleasures of speaking to his grandchild, ''You are so very audacious, though I do suppose that over the years you have earned such a right, you are the perhaps the only one with such a right, oh destroyer of plains, the shatterer of shattering''s, the great demon of the end, or as you were called not so long-ago Chaos Bringer.''


    Lirian glanced around with raised brows and let his thoughts flow, by now he realized that his surface thoughts were all open to this entity, ''To know so much about me, you must either be one of the eternals I haven''t meet yet or one of their verdant supporters.''


    ''If you are one of the eternals, then I''ll show you why all of your kind shits themselves when they so much as hear my name, but if you are one of their supporters, well consider your devotion to them as your own misfortune,'' he chuckled coldly.


    The laughter in the voice stilled, the darkness seemed to become slightly darker if that was possible when there was already no light, ''I''ll allow that insult of comparing me to such lowly beings to pass just this once, it was merely something you said in your ignorance but I will caution you against saying something so foolish again.''


    This time Lirian was truly shocked, this person knew of the existence of the eternals and yet he still considered them as lowly beings, while Lirian never considered them as equals he did not think them insignificant.


    What also surprised him was that the entity paid no heed to his threat, as if it found such word funny.


    If it was anyone else he would just write it of as ignorance, but this entity already knew about his past, yet still dared to act as so.


    Is he a third-grade god, he wondered it was the only explanation he could come up with, which left him even more curious because his real father was the only third-grade god in existence, could another god of that level have been born.


    "Who are you?" he asked with a scrunched-up face.


    ''You mean that you don''t remember?'' the voice asked in an amused tone.


    Lirian looked around trying to point out where the voice was coming from, he really wanted to scream in this persons face for asking something so stupid, "I remember every conversation I''ve ever had with someone that wasn''t trying to kill me, and I assure you that I''d remember you if you if we had a conversation."


    The voice chuckled, ''Of course you''d think that, well I didn''t allow you to remember, so there is that.'' it spoke with a pondering tone.


    Lirian only smirked in response, this person had to be a fool, "Do you think yourself capable of playing around with my memories, I dare you to try if you can,"


    ''Wow you really are insulting me a lot in your thoughts,'' the voice mused with a helpless sigh, ''That''s so mean, if it were anyone else, they''d be so dead by now.''


    ''Getting back to the topic, against the current you, I wouldn''t dare to think about doing such a thing, I would barely even have a 5% success rate, but then the you of the past is an entirely different story.''


    Lirian still felt that the entity was, overestimating itself by saying that it had a 5% success rate of playing with his mind, but he let slide for now as more pressing thoughts took its place.


    "Are you saying that we''ve met?", a dangerous glint could be seen in Lirian''s eyes, until then he wasn''t taking the voice seriously because he could detect a slightly teasing tone coming from it, but if it was someone who met him in the past and managed to erase his memories it was a different story.


    ''Easy now, I never said I erased your memories I merely sealed them away, that''s why I''m speaking to you now, it''s to give you a warning.''


    "Speak," Lirian commanded.


    The voice sighed, ''Honestly if you weren''t so interesting I''d have killed you by now,''


    ''This is your last chance, if you die this time there is no coming back for you, and if you wish to survive, if you wish to succeed then you must complete ''it'' and transcend all things.''


    "Wait, what do you mean, do mean I''ll die a permanent death?" he asked with a look full of hope, "Do you mean it I can die!", he understood what the ''it'' was, but death was the only thing that held his attention.


    The voice sighed ''Remember that your life does not belong to you alone this time.'' Lirian froze as he remembered his mother and his father, and a sense of guilt washed over him they had given him so much and he was being selfish thinking about experiencing a true death.


    "But why is this my last my last chance and what do you mean by succeed, what is it that I must succeed in doing anyway?" he asked slightly puzzled by the voice words from the mysterious entity.


    ''The plains of the 33 Neather Heavens and the Elysium plain, draw their final breath, if you transcend then you can survive but should you fail then all the plains shall perish and return to the void, when that happens you''ll disappear because you are linked to the main plain of the Neather Heavens.''


    Lirian fell into deep contemplation as he looked into the darkness, this person knew as much as him, no he inwardly chided himself, this person knows even more.


    He is well aware of the plains and even knows their names not to mention that he knows about my path as a cultivator without me even telling him, not even the system could detect that this person knew about me and was watching me.


    Lirian nodded slowly, "You still haven''t told me who you are?"


    The darkness shifted and a blueish mist began to form in the world of darkness.


    The mist reminded him of the currents in the void it drew closer but didn''t reveal the person inside, ''If you''re so curious, then complete ''it'', it is the key to the memories I have sealed inside you, and remember that to complete ''it'' you must confront the front truths that you do not wish to accept.''


    Lirian felt himself shudder, this person truly knew more about him than he realised.


    ''Now return I''ve restored your fate string so don''t waste those ethereal revival embryos even to me something like that is valuable.''


    ''Oh, and tell your mom to stop pouring that filthy saints grace energy inside you, I''ve already dispelled what she put inside you, to complete ''it'', you have to ensure that you only use esper''s breath energy to temper yourself.''


    ''If you succeed then I suppose we''ll meet again in a little less than a million of your years.''


    The blue mist pushed Lirian and he vanished from where he stood.


    When he opened his eyes again he could see his mother''s beautiful bronze face, stained with fresh tears and snot pouring from her nose as she clung to his body in desperation, he would have thought that she was the one dying from her reaction.

 Chapter 81 - 081 – To Lose The Light

    When Lirian awoke again he was greeted by a melodious song, he had heard his mother sing many times before but this song was a new one and he could hear the sound of loss in every somber note, and he could feel her hand stroking his head while it rested on her lap.


    Listening to the words of the song, Lirian could tell from the lyrics alone that it was one of the songs from her homeworld Scavanour.


    The people lived in colonies, during the exploration period of the world, and asides from the exploration teams, the only other people brought to the planet, were ordinary people and all of them were kept in small areas to produce food and tend to the soil.


    Her parents were farmers and they lived in a small village, most of the ordinary fook weren''t cultivators and the wolves were a big problem for them every year.


    Sometimes the children would venture too far into the forests during the day when they were playing, and occasionally the wolves that would stalk the livestock of the villagers would snatch the children.


    "...don''t venture far in the dark woodlands...",


    Lirian heard her tone turn somber as she reach that line of the song.


    Taliyah had told him a few stories like that when he was small, to try and frighten him from time to time.


    The stories could never frighten him, obviously, but he would play along from time to time because she would always hug him close and spend extra time with him if she thought he was frightened.


    The song soon came to a close, as it turned it was a song made by a mother who lost her child to the wolves in the dark woodlands.


    Lirian could hear her grief in every note after all she had lost so many children already that she seemed to embody the lyrics of the song.


    He lightly grabbed onto her hand and whispered, "I promise I won''t let anyone take me from you," he tilted his head back and opened his eyes to meet her warm loving gaze.


    Instead of the warm bronze smile, he was expecting to see, he was greeted by a swirling world of strange light but oddly enough, he couldn''t see anything around him.


    As he swiveled his head around with a heavy breath, he noticed that the intensity of the light kept changing but he still couldn''t see anything around him.


    Lirian found it hard to understand what was going on with the light, because even as he looked around, he wanted to say that it felt like a hundred flashlights were striking him all at once.


    But the same time, the light didn''t look like it should, almost as if some foreign substance had mixed into the light.


    Taliyah smiled when she heard him speak and a few tears formed in her eyes, she had been spending every free second she could with him over the last month.


    After his condition stabilized on the podium at the press conference over a month ago, she noticed that her saints grace energy had been rejected by his body, and even more miraculous was that the parts of his body that had flaked away returned to normal.


    However, since then she had been filled with worry because in the last month he hadn''t moved a single muscle, despite Antanasia reassuring her that Lirian condition was perfect, she could help but fear that his body had been paralyzed.


    Seeing him move and even speak, she felt a sense of relief wash over her.


    She looked down to meet his eyes but she froze as she looked at his eyes, that beautiful silver radiance was nowhere to be seen and a black murkiness had taken its place.


    "Mom is there something covering my eyes?" Lirian asked as he reached up to feel his face but nothing was blocking his eyes, he rubbed his eyes but the murky light was still the only thing that he could see.


    He swiveled his head around and sniffed the air, he could tell that he was in his room but why could he not see anything, he felt Taliyah shiver slightly and could smell fresh tears forming in her eyes.


    "Mom what is it?", Lirian asked he had a bad premonition.


    Taliyah looked at his unfocused eyes and looked at his pupils that were not changing or reacting to the light and felt dread, "You''re blind," she forced the devastating words out of her mouth.


    "System...", he murmured, before he could finish it already told him what he wanted to know.


    [Hosts over usage of Samsara''s Vision has put a strain on the hosts body that it couldn''t handle.]


    [As a defensive function, Host''s body completely severed its connection with the optic nerve until Host''s body can handle the strain... estimated time is 200 hundred years however with life hierarchy ascensions the time can be significantly reduced.]


    Lirian sighed in relief, it wasn''t like he needed his eyes, he had trained his every sense but it certainly was nice to be able to see things.


    That said this certainly a unique experience, he remembered when went in search of the Dao of all sounds he had to severe his every sense and really solely on his ears for everything in life.


    It took him over a thousand years to learn all he could about the nature of sound, but in all that time he knew that he could restore his sight at any time he wanted.


    "It''s not too bad mom," he said quickly reaching out to her grab her shoulder, but as he moved he could feel that his entire body was stiff.


    "It''s just temporary, in two hundred years at most my vision will return, and if I reach the third-grade it will come back completely," he spoke with a reassuring smile but the worry lines only deepened on Taliyah''s face.


    She didn''t bother trying to understand how he knew what was wrong with himself, she knew that he wasn''t the type to make something up just to reassure her, but her face was still tied into a teary frown, as she thought of all that could go wrong with his disability.


    "Lirian that''s as long as your trial how are you to survive without your sight," her eyes suddenly flashed with a bit of inspiration.


    "Lirian you''ll stay here for the next few weeks and I''ll have Antanasia create a new pair of eyes for you, we''ll transplant it before you return to the public that way no one will know what we did."


    She knew that it was completely breaking the rules but she had to do this it was the only way to increase his odds of survival, even if he was a god, it didn''t make the current him almighty.


    "No mom," Lirian replied with a frown, ", it''s not worth the risk, and like I said I''ll be fine, I''ve trained to ensure I can get around without relying on any of my senses."


    "Mom even if we had proof that this was Efrideet''s doing which would allow me to receive the treatment I wouldn''t do it, I can''t afford to have a fake body part it will completely mess up my future."


    That was one of his main concerns, his body had to remain purely his, he couldn''t afford to have so much as a splinter in his skin when he began his cultivation let alone a fake body part.


    Before he used the Nirvana Body esper technique, he would also have to starve himself for two weeks, to ensure that there was absolutely nothing in his body, even the smallest of things could mess it up.


    Taliyah''s worry didn''t lessen but she knew that she couldn''t force him, as for Efrideet she felt her blood rage at the mention of her name and she could barely suppress her desire to storm the Capriska home-world and turn it to ruins.


    The mics had clearly caught his every word that day and the footage of him on the verge of death had even become a sensational piece of news.


    It was playing throughout the empire and many were labeling it as an assassination attempt on the prince candidate but no one could understand how it happened.


    One minute he was sitting and looking around at the reporters with an innocent expression, and seconds later he was on the verge of death, crying for his mother and cursing Efrideet.


    His words had made a large part of the civilization focus on Efrideet but she had maintained her silence, not even making any attempt to defend herself of the accusations.


    To the empress''s outrage, Efrideets silence had made many people believe that she was innocent in this matter and that it was just the prince candidate attempting to stir up trouble.

 Chapter 82 - 082 - The Nature Of Plains And Shatterings

    The real important thing was the noble''s reaction, many of them had been demanding for Efrideet to make a statement, with Lirian''s words about the lady in the shadows many of them believed that it could have been her.


    But they couldn''t come up with an explanation as to how she had done it, which left them at a dead end.


    But there were also many that had something different to say, they were claiming that the entire thing was staged so that the empress could attack the Capriska family.


    There were some theories out there that said that the empress had used her son and staged the entire thing.


    They claimed that the empress had pushed Lirian to death''s door, so she could have justification to attack the Capriska family.


    Unfortunately, the one thing that shook the foundation of that theory was that the empress''s reaction was far too genuine, and it was well known just how much she valued her children.


    There was just one major problem it was impossible to prove that Efrideet did anything as she was a hundred start zones away at the time, the true power of a diviner was unknown to even the greatest powers in existence, not even gods fully understood it let alone mortals.


    "How did she even do this to you?", she asked the question that no one could answer while placing her hands on his face gently and looking into his listless eyes.


    Lirian chuckled, "She isn''t capable of blinding me, but she did succeed in severing my fate string, I was lucky that she didn''t know what she was doing or I wouldn''t have gotten a chance to form a thought before I died," he said.


    "But why did she attack you, you said that she was more likely to try to influence me at the conference," she looked at Lirian with a slight frown that he couldn''t see, it seemed to her that Lirian must have done something to scare Efrideet.


    "I told you it''s impossible for a diviner to act across such a large distance unless they have a conduit, I spotted the conduit, and in turn her, when she was about to influence you, I called her out and scared her but I didn''t expect her to do something so foolish," Lirian said with a pondering look.


    A diviner as great as her should have known how stupid it is do something like that, she was very lucky that her memories didn''t pass on to me, Lirian thought silently, he felt that it was a pity that he didn''t manage to get anything out of her.


    Her ability to attack and influence fate strings was also very suspicious, for one so young it should be impossible to use those techniques, maybe she is a genius, he thought seriously.


    But no, that can''t be all there is to it, even for a genius like Katerina it took her forever to learn those things by herself, Efrideet would have to have some teacher to be able to reach this level so quickly.


    Lirian shook his head such things were just the least of his worries, his thoughts drifted off to that entity that spoke to him, that was what truly intrigued him, could he be some old god he wondered in fascination.


    For the system to be unable to detect him meant that he had to be at a level Lirian had never reached before, so a third-grade god, what truly interested Lirian was his knowledge on the plains, he knew their names even the plain that kept invading the 33 Neather Heavens, the Elysium plain.


    It was strange because the only known third-grade god was his father and apparently so was his real mother, but if there was another it meant he could be a relic of the old world, of this heavens previous iteration.


    Every plain had a goal of furthering its own evolution however plains were like a computer, only capable of following its programming, but it couldn''t think and evolve itself, hence, its requirement of intelligent life forms.


    For example, when a new plain is born, it would be tiny and in it would only be a few planets and stars, but that was all.


    As time went on if the plain was lucky intelligent life would come into existence, this is the first life hierarchy ascension a plain experience''s.


    With time the plain observes the life form and based on the intelligent life forms interactions with the world, it evolves itself, this is why the rules of plains differ from each other.


    The evolution process is what one would call ''the shattering'', it erases everything and evolves into a new and improved version of itself, this time it has a template for life and is immediately capable of creating new life.


    With its evolution the world would expand, there would be more worlds and stars, better materials, and many new things.


    The drive of a universe was to continue its evolution, that, however, was a very long and complicated process, and every time a plain furthered it''s evolution it would become several times harder to complete the next evolution.


    The main plain of the 33 Neather plains, the plain Lirian was currently in had experienced 15 shattering so far, this could be seen from the ranks of the plain, 7-mortal-ranks, 5-immortal-ranks, and 3-god-ranks.


    It was the most evolved plain he had ever been in, in his life as Arodil and Talen, the highest rank was first-grade-god, and by breaking the barrier and becoming a second-grade-god, he became an equal of the plain and provided the plain what it needed to evolve.


    However he had no intention of allowing that to happen, so he shattered those shatterings and used it to further his own goals.


    What made him so curious about that entity was that if that entity survived the shattering it meant that he was the one who broke the limits of the previous iteration causing the shattering and opening the path to the third god grade.


    It could make sense of his existence and how he knows so much, but Lirian couldn''t place his motives or how he knew so much about himself.


    Lirian sighed and climbed to his feet, he knew too little even after all this time.


    He took a few steps in the new world of darkness, he had to get used to this feeling now, he believed that it would take him a week at most to adjust properly.


    Taliyah''s anger grew as she was forced to watch him stumble around slightly like a fool that couldn''t walk, despite his words she knew that it would take him a while to walk properly and she could hardly contain the rage building up.


    "Mom, remember what I said about going up against a diviner is a long game, don''t do anything rash, the problem with my eyes is my own fault I overused an ability of mine and this was the price," he turned in her direction and hoped that his eyes were meeting hers, even without his eyes he could feel her fury growing.


    Taliyah frowned at him, "Remind me, who''s the parent and who''s the child?"


    "It''s because you''re the parent that I''m telling you this mom," he spoke with a mixture of seriousness and gentleness in his voice and smiled.


    Taliyah nodded albeit unwillingly, "For now tell me who the conduit was they might be able to provide the proof we need."


    Lirian fell into contemplation, he could tell how things would go if he said the truth, she wouldn''t be able to bring herself to accept.


    But she had to know because at the end of the day whether she wanted to accept the truth or not, he had no intention of sparing Telamon, the very second, he got enough power Telamon would die by his hand and no one would be able to stop him not even her.


    "Mom when you learnt of my secret, I made a promise to never lie to you unless it was something that could cause you harm, and what you want to know will hurt you whether you like it or not, so tell me do you still want to know?" he asked solemnly.


    She felt her eyes tremble, she couldn''t understand why but she knew that if she heard what he had to say something would change.


    She was the empress, however, and taking on heavy burdens was a part of her duty, she never backed down from something even if it was hard, she slowly nodded her head and waited for Lirian to tell her but minutes passed and no reply came.


    When she looked at him wondering why he was taking so long she realized the problem and she felt that fury reignites in her veins, he was blind.


    He couldn''t see her when she nodded.


    "Tell me Lirian," she spoke decisively with tight fists there was no turning back now.

 Chapter 83 - 083 – What Makes One A Candidate

    Taliyah waited with bated breath, she had a feeling that she knew the name Lirian was about to say, and she had half a mind to tell him to stop.


    But soon his voice sounded and his words hung on the air like the cold air during winter nights.


    Just two words sounded and Taliyah felt her whole body tremble in response.


    "Telamon Dao."


    Lirian waited in silence for an outburst, for a cry of disbelief or for another slap to strike him across his face, he couldn''t see her face and nor could he read her emotions but he could her breathing, it was enough for him to tell that she was shaking.


    Whether, it was in fear, anger, or heartbreak he couldn''t tell, "Mom if you think that I''m lying about this..."


    "She must have done it without his knowledge," she breathed out her voice colored in conviction, she would never bring herself to believe that the man she thought of like a father would dare to harm her or her child, not after all he had done for her.


    "It''s Efrideet she must have manipulated him like how she manipulated Alastor..." she added trying to convince Lirian.


    Lirian couldn''t tell what expression she was making, but he felt that anyone who saw her would think her pitiful.


    He slowly shook his head and walked in the direction he believed the door to be, "That is absolutely impossible,", he said coldly, he knew that it would hurt but on this, he would not relent.


    Even a fate spinner like Katerina would never dare to say that she could control someone on the same level as her without their consent, he thought to himself.


    It took only a second of thinking her name and the voices in his head went wild, he grimaced slightly and continued to speak.


    "I have never forgiven a single person that tried to cause me harm, and I never will even for you mom, when I have the power no matter who stands in my way, I will kill him... but know this... I will make it worse for him than I did for any other... because his actions have harmed you... I will make him pay,"


    "ENOUGH!" she yelled with trembling eyes and a shaky voice, before he could say anything further.


    Taliyah could barely even control her breath, she couldn''t remember the last time she felt so out of sorts, even when she thought Lirian was about to die and she found out that her children were dead, it never hurt so badly.


    Lirian wanted to run to her and hold her tightly, to tell her some soothing words, but that wasn''t him, he knew that he could never be that kind of a person.


    Besides the last person, she needs comforting her is the one who shattered her illusion, he thought and walked towards the door with his hand held up in front of him.


    ---


    Lirian walked out and was greeted by the endless darkness in the corridor, "Being blind feels like crap," he muttered to himself when he suddenly heard the voices of Belinda and Helen.


    "You''re up Lirian," Belinda called out pleasantly surprised.


    "What''s wrong with your eyes?" Helen asked seriously, it was disrespectful to avoid meeting the eyes of your elders and Lirian''s eyes were drifting around, she found it strange even for Lirian he was never blatantly disrespectful and that''s when the reality struck her.


    Belinda scrunched her eyes while looking at him and could hardly believe what had become of him, she looked at him expectantly hoping that he was just pranking them, but that murky black that entered his eyes made it hard to believe that it was some prank.


    Lirian sighed, "It''s as you guessed, I''m blind..."


    He didn''t get to say anything further because he soon found himself caught in a tight embrace from both sides, ''Huh,'' Lirian thought in wonder, '', I could get used to such a nice feeling but I don''t remember being all that close to anyone other than Anya.''


    Belinda''s reason was none other than the empress, she had been with her from before she became empress and she had come to know every child of the empress but more than that she knew how devastating it was for the empress every time she lost a child.


    Taliyah would go into depression for years, and it would become a chore for her to get out of bed, but now Lirian going blind was as good as a death sentence for him during the trial. It would probably end up worse than ever before.


    Helen on the other hand had made huge bets on how spectacularly Lirian was going to perform in his trial, she even had bets on him breaking into the fourth-grade before returning and a few others bets that people would call absolutely ridiculous, but after witnessing first-hand how exceptional he was she didn''t hesitate to invest much of her future salary into the bets but now all that was gone.


    She was going to go broke for the next few hundred years, not to mention her wine collection, she had bet so many of her oldest bottles that were next to impossible to replace, she couldn''t describe the sorrow she felt, and Lirian realized that something was not right when actually tears soaked his clothes.


    "Would you too stop acting like it''s already his funeral," Anya''s voice rang out beside them and she looked at Lirian with a complicated look in her eyes.


    Lirian smiled when he heard her voice, and turned to face her, she had heard everything, "Tell me, how confident are you in passing the trial?", she asked.


    "Is that even a question!", he smirked, "You''d have to cut off all my limbs for my odds of success to drop by half a percent."


    Belinda and Helen were both taken aback, if they were in his place they would have been devastated, yet they could hear his heartbeat it was as powerful as ever, and his voice held that same power as always.


    If they didn''t look at his eyes, they would say that he was the same as ever and it baffled them.


    "Hey, Anya can you help me with some sensory deprivation training, I need to adjust as quickly as possible," he said while pulling himself out of Belinda''s and Helen''s embrace.


    "Go, down to one of the training chambers, if you can make it by yourself consider it a deal," she told him. ", Lirian how is her majesty?" she asked as he began to walk away.


    "She... she has a lot to think about,", he answered hesitantly and it left the three of them slightly surprised, ", it would be for the best if no one disturbs her for now."


    Lirian made his way with steady but slow steps, and the further he went the better his ability to pace himself became, and soon he was walking almost perfectly.


    He was familiar with the passages of the manor, so Lirian could confidently strutt around even without his eyes.


    Helen looked on in wonder, "Do you think it''s because-" she looked at the two of them in the eye so that they would understand what she meant.


    "Probably,", Belinda said with a slightly hesitant smile, they were the only ones that knew the truth about Lirian''s origins and so far she had been crediting all his achievements to his naturally given talent, but that attitude he just showed, she didn''t know she could really credit it to talent, it was something much, much more than that.


    "No!" Anya said firmly, she knew Lirian better than anyone, and while she knew that he was a former god, his past was very vague to her.


    She had learned very little of his past but if there was one thing she came to understand from speaking to him, that was, he worked himself to near-death for every single thing that he did and he never gave up.


    "He is the real deal, a true prince candidate the likes of which has never been seen before," she said proudly as he vanished around a corner.


    "A true candidate does not despair if they lose something, they take whatever scraps they are left with and they keep moving forward because they are the first to understand that the world is fair to no one and if you want to win, there is no time to waste in despair."


    Both of them listened to Anya''s every word, after all even amongst the aides Anya was special existence, she was once a candidate, a princess, and an empress candidate and with every word she spoke, they could her fire being rekindled.


    Anya found herself thinking of her past, she wondered, if I had been like Lirian just a century ago, would I have won, but she quickly shut down those thoughts as soon as it happened, her rebellion all those years ago had failed and she had no choice but to flee with her tail between her legs.


    If not for emperor Albus coming to her rescue she would have been space dust on that day, if there was one thing she definitely agreed with Lirian on, it was that diviners truly were a royal pain in the ass to deal with.


    She clenched her fists and followed after Lirian, as she washed away the memories of that day when her fleets were thrown into a panic as fire rained down on them from amongst their own ranks.

 Chapter 84 - 084 – Days Of Pity 1

    "Strike,"


    "Strike,"


    "Deflect,", "Block,"


    The sounds of Anya''s shouts rung throughout the darkroom.


    Lirian followed her commands with graceful ease as dozens of stones shot at him from afar.


    He stepped in and out of the trajectory of the stones with lithe movements, making it appear as if he was moving around on a ballroom floor at the centre of the crowd.


    Every so often Anya would call out for him to do something specific, "90-degree deflections for 8 seconds, and follow it with 3, 30-degree deflections,"


    Lirian took a breath and spun the blade in his hand, the sharp echoes of stones on steel sound filled the room, as Lirian slapped the stones with the flat of the blade in hand.


    He hit four stones with a perfect 90-degree deflection, but as the stones moved they intercepted the other stones knocking them out of their trajectory but he had more than such a simple plan in mind.


    As the new stones were knocked they shot off in 30-degree angles.


    "I said 3, 30 degree deflects not a dozen," Anya yelled and upped the number of stones being fired at him.


    A few hours passed when the machines finally ran out of stones, "That was pretty good, it''s only taken you two days to get used to it." she said while looking at his unfocused eyes with slight pity.


    "No, it wasn''t the machines are too loud and give away the position of every shot even if they are moving, in a real situation I won''t be so lucky," Lirian complained.


    "You''re too fussy Lirian, your progress is better than anyone''s," she said gently.


    "But it''s not enough!", he shouted then gritted his teeth before storming away, it would have been incredible for anyone else, but he didn''t have the luxury of enjoying this small step forward, when he returned to school, this was going to affect what people think of him no matter what.


    The reality was slowly sinking into head and he couldn''t help but vent his frustrations.


    When Lirian had left Taliyah appeared beside Anya, "How is he?" she asked slowly averting her gaze from Anya.


    Anya sighed and looked at the empress, she didn''t know what happened between her Lirian this time, but they seemed to be avoiding each other.


    "He acts like he''s fine, but he is starting to realize that the position he cemented in the eyes of the civilization is going to be completely shaken to its roots because of his disability."


    "He could use his mother now," she said turning to Taliyah, "I don''t know what happened this time but you chose him, your majesty, you knew from the beginning that he wasn''t going to be a simple child to raise," Anya clenched her fists tightly and walked away, it was the first time she had been so disrespectful to the empress since the time she was turned into an aide.


    There was more she wanted to say, but she had to be careful in her position.


    She had come to understand something about Lirian and spoke a final word before she left, "I hope that your majesty, realizes that even gods are not beyond their own emotions."


    Taliyah frowned at the thought of one of her aides lecturing her, she was the empress, after all, not even Albus would dare to speak in such a way to her, she bit her lip and watched Lirian''s back.


    ---


    A scowl was fixed on Lirian''s face as they traveled to school, there was nothing wrong in the vehicle but when he woke up that morning, he had more than half the servants ask to hold his bag for him some of his mother''s aides even offered to carry stuff for him.


    He gritted his teeth at the humiliating memory, ''Do they think that being blind means I can''t use my bloody hands or something?''.


    As they got closer to the school, he realized something and turned towards Anya, "A-Anya can you block everyone from approaching me when we reach the school," he asked with a grimace.


    It was going to be his first day back in month, and the last that everyone had seen of him was at the press conference, where they all thought he was dead.


    There were many rumors spreading around that he had died and the empress was trying to cover it up.


    With that in mind, he had no doubt that the press would be waiting outside the school shoving themselves in his face and that was before he counted the possibility of the students swarming towards him to find out what had happened.


    As the child of the empress and a prince candidate, it was only natural that he was well known and popular amongst the students.


    Ordinarily, he wouldn''t mind but now without his eyes, even if he had achieved the Dao of all sounds, it would be troublesome to get through a crowd.


    Anya''s eyes softened as she looked at him, it was the first time he had ever asked for actual help with something and little tears welled up in the corners of her eyes but she felt the need to tease him a little, especially with that embarrassed grimace on his face.


    He was already a drop-dead cute and adorable person, and probably the most beautiful person she had ever seen in her life, but seeing him embarrassed only elevated the already unfair beauty he possessed.


    "Is a certain someone, feeling embarrassed to ask for help," she said in a soft teasing tone, "But you know the rules I''m not allowed to show my face in public," she mused softly with a delicate tone.


    "I thought that someone like you would be able to handle something like this, guess that I was wrong," she glanced at him from the corner of her eyes when she finished, but she surprised by what she saw.


    Lirain sat rigidly and gripped onto his own wrist''s, cursing himself internally for saying anything, ''How pitiful am I,'' he grimaced, ''A god that can''t even handle being blind, how disgraceful.''


    "Forget about it," he said with a small grin, "You''re right I have to deal with this on my own, it''s the way of a leader, I was silly for asking that," he gave a stiff laugh, and went quiet.


    Anya was surprised to see him acting in such a manner, his usual unbridled confidence seemed less apparent and made a huge difference in his natural demeanor.


    She figured that she did go a little too far with her teasing, but as she was planning to apologize to him she felt the limo slowing down.


    When the limo came to a stop Anya could see the crowd quickly gathering around them, she watched as Lirian tied a blindfold over his eyes and expanded his black walking stick.


    Lirian climbed on out of the vehicle as fast as he could, but the flags of the Empress that danced on the front of the limo had already given him away, by the time he got to his feet, the crowds were already moving in his direction.


    Lirian placed the walking stick in front of him and began to tap the ground in front of him ever so slightly as he felt the vibrations travel from the ground through the stick and into his hand he walked forward, following what he felt.


    Lirian had barely taken three steps forward by the time his entire path forward was completely blocked, and hundreds if not thousands of people were in his way, he could hear the clicking of cameras.

 Chapter 85 - 085 - Days Of Pity 2

    At that moment Lirian finally found the only good thing about being blind was that he didn''t have to worry about the camera flashes.


    When the crowd saw the walking stick at first, they were confused, but the truth soon became apparent as Lirian pulled back, it was very unlike him, even on a normal day he would have his path blocked but he would push through calmly, but his reaction struck them as odd.


    Lirian had always been eccentric but this would have to be a new low of him if he was pulling some sort of prank, but as they watched closely it became extremely apparent from his reaction that this was the truth.


    They couldn''t help but replay the scene in their heads, of the blood pouring out of his every orifice as he clawed his way towards the empress, not a single part of his face was left untouched by his blood.


    And his eyes were completely dyed golden-red with popped blood vessels, the truth of what had happened to him was apparent to all, he was blind.


    Lirian might have trained himself properly but even for the most skilled blind person, walking through a crowd was not good idea, if he had some internal energy that he could play around with he wouldn''t hesitate to use Barrier Form Arts: Detection.


    It would give him a good grasp of every last movement that occurred in his vicinity, unfortunately with energy control alone, it was a possibility.


    Lirian retreated a few steps, a large part of him wanted to unless his energy control, and dye the ground in the color of all the journalist blood, the could see that he was blind but they only pushed closer as their filthy pig snouts sniffed a large scoop.


    Lirian knew that if he even stumbled even once it would be bad for him, let alone fall, something so small and simple, yet it would lose him the support of so many he had strived to gain.


    Lirian gritted his teeth, his mouth looked like a tight vise-grip that could crush anything that entered it as he sincerely considered pulling the energy around him to begin a massacre, he grew tired of the disgusting appetite of the journalist.


    He knew that anything he said would somehow make one headline or another, and he didn''t want to begin thinking about the humiliating headlines they would come up with.


    Just as Lirian was about to give into his blood lust he felt a ring of energy surround him, "The prince candidate will not be taking any questions today," Anya''s voice echoed through the crowd from inside the limo, "Anyone that wants to approach him will do so at their own risk."


    Just a few short words from Anya and the crowds dispersed in seconds, as an aide of the empress many of her past deeds were wiped away from public records, but since she was an active empress candidate not that long ago, the memory of her blood-crazed might was still very vivid in their minds.


    Lirian sighed in relief and muttered a short thank you, as he walked forward no one dared to step into the energy that surrounded him and cleared a path for him to walk through.


    By the time he reached the elevator, he could hear hundreds of whispers about him being carried in the halls, when the doors shut the energy Anya put around him disappeared and he leaned against the wall of the elevator.


    The voice of number 12 slowly started to wrap around him, "Remember now, they will see weakness in your blindness, those around you will use it to strike against you to take what is yours, your classmates will try to take your power and the candidates will try to take your glory."


    "Now that you cannot see, they will insult you to your face with their pity just as the servants did at home," number 11 added with venomous passion in his voice.


    "Shut up," Lirian said trying to keep himself calm, it was always like this with the voices, they would always find the most opportune times to drive the throne bearer mad.


    "Mark our words, it will happen," their voices all resonated in his head making him grit his teeth.


    He took his own time to get to class and arrived slightly late, as soon as he pushed the door open, he heard the students still and turn to look at him, from their reactions he could guess that the news already traveled, like the saying goes, news travels fast, bad news travels even faster.


    "Lirian," he heard miss Hira call out to him as she came closer, but that usual sass was absent from her voice, "Let''s get you to your seat," she said placing an arm on his shoulder.


    Gritting his teeth together, he pulled himself from her grip roughly, "I know where my place is!" he did his best not to scream, that conversation with himself was already getting him worked up, and this pity party wasn''t helping his mood.


    Miss Hira just watched and did nothing as he walked to his seat while tapping the ground with his stick, it''s such a pity she thought to herself, she had seen many candidates and she knew many that survived the trials but she admitted that he was the greatest talent she had ever seen.


    In just 4 years he was almost done with the full syllabus of the entire academy, the full 200-year syllabus not to mention that he was the top student in every class.


    Karen was sitting next to Lucas and muttered, "I can''t believe it''s true," with a downcast expression, after all, they had seen first-hand just how incredible he was.


    "My family was just praising him a few days ago about his achievements with a sword, but it''s not like that''s useful when the swordsman is blind.", Lucas murmured, as he wondered how he had to report this to higher-ups.


    In the school one person was looking extremely unhappy, it was Telamon Dao.


    After that day he had been hoping that Lirian was dead, he had read his lips and knew that Lirian had somehow found him out, whatever Efrideet had done it seemed to work at first, but as soon as she did it she severed their connection and didn''t contact him since.


    Now he had to worry about what Lirian would say to Taliyah, it was dangerous, if she believed him, for now, he could play it of as the delusions of a child, but now that Lirian knew he had no choice the child had to die as soon as possible.


    For now, he could still play on Taliyah''s emotions, once he killed Lirian he would flee to the immortal realm and collect his payment from his superiors there, he dedicated his life to empire and it was time for them to pay up.


    He struggle to convince himself to keep calm he knew Taliyah better than anyone else, if she learned the entire truth, she would give him no mercy.


    He shook his head with regret, she was such a treasure filled with potential when he found her, but unfortunately, he overlooked one key aspect, and that was her irrational love for her children, something that disqualified her as a worthy leader.

 Chapter 86 - 086– Efrideets Gift 1

    One of the aides of Efrideet Capriska entered the room, it was usually well lit with beautiful purple drapes hanging across the four-poster bed.


    His master was usually very lively and always planning, she never took a break, it was the Capriska way, ''We can rest when we are all dead,'' are the words she always told him.


    In the past month, the room had lost all its luster, the atmosphere seemed to tangible wilt all around her, creating a pit of gloomy depression that was reminiscent of death.


    The smell, oh that foul stench was the first thing he tasted in his throat, he did his best not to raise his hand to block his nose, but the stench of rotting flesh coming from his master made him involuntarily gag.


    "Your highness, word has come in the empress''s child lives, however he is blind," he began with caution, he knew not of what his master had done.


    He was merely following her orders, to keep her posted on the situation of the empress''s child as he always had.


    He was, however, no fool, the timing of the prince candidate''s near-death experience and his master''s illness was no mere coincidence, as he thought to that point his eyes drifted.


    His eye soon fell on the room hidden within his master''s chambers, he knew well what lay within, a treasure that, the once 7 civilizations fought bloody wars across the stars to obtain.


    He quickly brought his eyes back to his master who looked like the filth found on the streets of a fringed world, even beggars on lower-worlds were cleaner.


    He couldn''t hide the slight repulsion in his eyes, the only thing that made him stay in this room that not even a beggar would enter was his undying respect and adoration for his master genius.


    Efrideet glanced up with narrowed eyes, she had long heard of the rumor about the child being alive, but she refused to believe it, she had cut, no severed his string, it was impossible for any creature to survive that but the pictures and recordings could not lie.


    She looked at the image of Lirian with hatred, "How, HOW, HOW!?" she tried to scream but her body lacked the strength to scream a single note.


    "Get out of my chambers," she tried to shout, and the aide wisely backed away, he was glad to leave the stench was truly repulsive, he cast one last glance at his master the blue markings unique to the Yasaratch race on her body were constantly leaking a black mucus that smelled worse than death itself.


    Efrideet looked up feebly, how was this fair, she had been left in this condition with her body barely even responding to her basic commands, but he only lost his sight.


    She looked to the great weave of fate that had been denying her every caress, "How dare you deny me, I am the master of fate, you must obey my will," she choked out through gritted teeth.


    But the weave looked at her with indifference, it hung right before her very eyes so close that she could taste its power if only she could only reach a little further but it remained on the edge of temptation just slightly beyond her reach.


    She stretched out her hands and tried to pull on it once more, but she was met with a teasing resistance as if fate deemed her unworthy to go any further.


    "Cough, cough, cough," she heaved out gunk''s of black filth from her throat and collapsed in her bed, she began to cry in despair but more filth began to pour out of her every orifice slowly drenching her entire face in filth that even sewers would reject.


    ---


    The sound of heavy breathing could be heard in the boiling air of the combat training room as the student ran through the obstacle courses, with each completion they came out with a dozen new bruises or a few fractured bones.


    "Crunch," the sound of a bone-breaking was heard and everyone heard the cries coming from one of the students in the warrior''s course as a few medics ran to sort out the student''s injury, Lirian sat on a wooden platform quietly meditating.


    Alastor was watching Lirian from afar, after the incident, he was practically banished from the Jane family, but surprisingly he was turned into a permanent teacher in the school.


    He had no complaints after what he did he was surprised to still be alive, in truth even if the empress had said she chose to overlook what he did, it wouldn''t have surprised him if he was executed in secret.


    The truly surprising thing was that she made him a permanent teacher, it felt awkward for him as he watched Lirian he could hardly believe some of the things he did that day.


    He''d agree that he disliked Lirian, but it was just that dislike, what he did was no different than an adult bullying a newborn child and it left him disappointed in himself, the last time he did something so stupid he was a rash cultivator with a strong ego due to his many accomplishments.


    Those days had long since passed, he had become a squadron commander of the Jane families first fleet and due to his meritorious work, he retired when he got the news that he would be selected for the next ascension group.


    Every five hundred years a new batch of half-step immortals would be sent up to the immortal realm to complete their transition, all that he needed to do was focus on cultivating and everything else would take care of itself.


    But being the good samaritan that he was he took up the opportunity to give some guidance to the new generation.


    That was the biggest mistake of his life, he had practically lost everything he built up for himself over the millennia and he still couldn''t understand how it happened.


    It had been driving him crazy, he couldn''t understand what had taken a hold of him from the moment he saw Lirian and as time went on, he felt an anger he couldn''t describe take control until finally couldn''t it anymore and attacked.


    He looked at Lirian with regret and pity, he remembered feeling that savage sword form that could cleave the world in two, if he had been even a tenth as talented when he was Lirian''s age he felt that he would be thousand times the saint he was today.


    "I don''t remember us being close, so stop staring at me like a creep," Lirian shouted at him suddenly, he looked at him in surprise and sighed, what a loss of talent, he thought, to be so perceptive even without his eyes.


    He started to walk towards Lirian as he did he felt the energy of Anya lock onto him, warning him to be careful one wrong move and he knew that he''d be dead.


    He shivered in dread as he thought of when Anya attacked him, he had been helpless under her strikes and those red currents, were something else, he never heard of a saint using power like that it was suffocating and even managed to suppress his saint healing ability.

 Chapter 87 - 087 - Efrideets Gift 2

    "What do you want?" Lirian asked bluntly when Alastor got close to him.


    Alastor folded his legs and sat a small distance away from him and looked at the student''s diligently pushing themselves to become stronger, but they lacked something, he had seen it in them a fire driving them to be better than anyone else, but since they found out that Lirian was blind that fire seemed to vanish.


    "How did you know what happened when I watched the footage of your," he paused as he tried to find the right word, "...declaration," he said after some time.


    Lirian smirked just like always, and laughed, "Do what I told to do the first time you asked."


    Alastor shook his head, this child really was too disrespectful, "Did lady Elisabeth tell her majesty, and then you found out."


    "Maybe," Lirian flashed him a playful smile, "But then maybe not, and you''ll never know for the rest of your life, until the day you die, your last thought will be how did the emperor know that I spilled my tea all over my pants as I tried to impress my family leader because that''s the most important question in the world," Lirian said sarcastically.


    Lirian continued not allowing him to interrupt, no doubt he had something to say about Lirian calling himself the future emperor, "The question you should really be asking is this, ''I tried to kill you, but no one, not you or your mother has asked me why I did something so stupid?''"


    Lirian couldn''t see the shock on Alastor''s face but he could imagine it, "To that question I have an answer that you want and you want it desperately because you have been asking yourself that exact same question this entire time."


    Alastor felt terror in front of this child for the first time, he couldn''t even understand how Lirian knew that but he had to know, "Tell me,"


    Lirian chuckled, "Ah, ah, ah," he wagged his finger in front of him like he was speaking to a child.


    "Not so fast, first I''ll tell you the real reason that my mother didn''t kill you after the matter was resolved, it''s because I asked her to spare you, I also asked that you be placed here permanently as a teacher instead of being completely exiled by your family."


    "What?!" Alastor couldn''t help but shout, it was ridiculous.


    "If you don''t believe me, feel free to ask Lady Elizabath," Lirian said with a chuckle, "And if you can''t get into contact with her come with me to my home and I''ll get my mother to personally tell you the truth."


    Alastor shook his head, he was in hot water as things stood and it could cause him more trouble to go around questioning such important people, "Why?" he asked at last.


    Lirian smirked, "Because you''re a former squadron commander and when I return from my trial I need a talent like yours to command my fleets."


    Alastor almost laughed at the sheer audacity of Lirian, while still a prince candidate he was trying to recruit a seventh-grade second accord combatant, 90% of the current princes and princess didn''t have one.


    "Let''s say for a second that you aren''t making a ridiculous proposition," Alastor chose to entertain his nonsense until he got the answer he was looking for.


    "Tell me why would I agree, do you think that I''d do so much just for redemption."


    Lirian laughed loudly like he heard the funniest joke in the world, "Redemption," he chuckled, "Redemption means nothing unless it''s done in the name of one who you place above yourself, and you definitely don''t think such lovely thoughts about me."


    "My breath taking beauty will only get me so far in winning the trust of those around me, but it will never earn me unbridled devotion, it certainly won''t do much to win you over," Lirian mused with a slight chuckle.


    Alastor frowned he couldn''t believe that Lirian could complement himself so much with a straight face, but he had to admit that with the boy''s looks he could win the favor of many without saying a word.


    Alastor had seen more than his fair share of hapless fools that would follow someone just to satisfy their ridiculous lust, but all of that did leave him with something to think about.


    He ignored the nonsense about Lirian''s looks and fell into contemplation if Lirian wasn''t using redemption as his hook then what was it.


    "If you said you''d follow me to redeem yourself, I would honestly never trust you," Lirian whispered softly, "What I''m offering you is to join a campaign that could earn you something you don''t even realize you want," he answered with a sultry voice that was filled with temptations hook.


    Alastor looked at him funny, this child was far too presumptuous, but he kept quiet and allowed Lirian to finish before denying him his ambitions.


    "I know exactly who made it so that you couldn''t control your most basic of impulses, resulting in your," Lirian continued with emphasis on his next words, ", stupid attack against me," he smiled as he knew that he had gotten Alastor''s attention.


    Alastor told no one about that lack of control he felt, he knew that anyone he told would think that he was making excuse''s but now that Lirian was saying exactly what he was afraid of saying he had no choice but to listen.


    "I''m not offering you some foolish redemption; what I''m offering you is the vengeance you didn''t realize you needed until just now, against the one who manipulated you for a few instances and ruined everything you worked towards for your entire life," Lirian curled his fingers as if beckoning Alastor to come closer.


    "The reason why I chose you is because of that new desire festering inside of you is something that I can trust," Lirian words sounded like a supple honey as it enticed Alastor to come closer and closer.


    "The vengeance that you want will ensure you will never be willing to give in to the temptations that Efrideet Capriska can offer."


    "You can trust that I will never fall against her, because who else besides me would dare to use the schemes of a diviner against them," a deep smirk crept across Lirian''s face.


    ''Maybe I should send Efrideet a gift bag, as thanks for this most opportuned gift she has sent to my feet,'' Lirian thought with a jovial smile.

 Chapter 88 - 088 – Ten Steps Ahead 2

    Alastor couldn''t explain it, but it felt like there was a force pulling him and stretching his mind, every word of Lirians held an enticement that he couldn''t explain.


    It was almost as if the world itself was using a million strings to weaved him into Lirian''s path, he felt an overwhelming urge in every corner of his being urging him to do as the prince candidate said.


    It didn''t help that Lirian''s way of speak both ignited and fuelled the hate he felt at that moment.


    "How do you know that it was Lady Efrideet?" Alastor asked through gritted teeth, as that urge only grew, it felt almost impossible for him to resist, but resist he did with all his might.


    Lirian hid his smirk, he could tell from the shaky breathing of Alastor that he had already gotten to him, all that he need was a little push.


    "You''ll need my mother''s clearance to get access to the knowledge about some of the powers of a diviner," he lied, "You can imagine how useful this knowledge can be to the empire, so naturally they won''t hand it out, and my mother only told me because Efrideet is targeting me."


    Lirian moved his head around and feigned to be focusing on his ears, pretending to make sure no one was within earshot of him, then he whispered softly.


    "One of her abilities is to remove impulse control temporarily, and it''s also possible to slightly influence the behavior of someone, it only works for a few seconds at a time, but if you target someone at the most opportune of times."


    Lirian chuckled, "Well, there is no need to tell you since you''ve already had first-hand experience."


    "Since I told you, you''d best keep it quiet, I can get into so much trouble for telling you this," Lirian said with a playful smile while putting his finger to his lips.


    The change in Alastor was instantaneous and Lirian could feel him on the edge of accepting, "I take it that we have a deal!" said Lirian expectantly.


    Alastor looked at him hesitantly, if what Lirian told him was true, then he had already been manipulated by an external force once he wouldn''t allow it to happen again, "I need some time to think about this,"


    Lirian was slightly surprised, but he was glad to receive such a response, ''It would appear that he is already taking what I told him and using it to better his decision making, he won''t allow himself to act on impulse again.''


    "Take as much time as you like, you have two-hundred-years, but try to make up your mind before that, you''ve been retired for a while and battle formations are always changing so you''ll have to brush up a bit."


    Alastor scoffed at him, he might have been out of the field for some time but he never stopped studying war.


    "Oh, and just so that you know you aren''t the first seventh-grade second accord member to agree to join me, so try not to get too confident," Lirian added with a chuckle.


    "Who?" Alastor asked almost the very second that Lirian finished speaking, to say that the news was surprising was an understatement, he was almost certain that Lirian would deny him the knowledge, but to his surprise Lirian pointed and as he looked in the direction Lirian pointed his gaze fell onto Anya and he had small heart attack.


    "So, can you tell me, do you think that I''m out of the race?!" Lirian asked with a smug look plastered on his face.


    Alastor grimaced before chuckling like a fool, "I was a fool for pitying you and I feel sorry for all those that still think as I did just a few minutes ago."


    "But if you really want me to join you then you must start by proving that you can still fight, in a few weeks when you''ve fully adjusted beat everyone in your class, you were more than capable of doing it before, and now it''s the minimum requirement."


    "Very well call them up, I''ll fight all of them together," Lirian grinned and spoke just as Alastor turned around.


    Alastor turned back, "I said when you''ve adjusted,"


    "But won''t you be more impressed, if I can do it now, it''s only been a few days since I woke up," Lirian spoke with his usual bravado.


    Alastor looked at him curiously, "Very well," he said and got moving to gather the class.


    It took a while for all the students to finish the obstacle courses they were doing, by the time everyone arrived Lirian had already taken a sword from the racks and stood ready across from them.


    "Lirian wishes to test himself by challenging each of you," he began to explain the more he spoke the more the students began to frown.


    One of the boys Damien Uldwin whispered while looking at the commander, "His blind sir, this doesn''t seem right,"


    Sarah Jane came up to the commander and looked at him coldly, "Sir you can''t do this,", she said severely, "If you make us do this, I''ll have to report it to the family."


    Alastor did not look happy as he realised what she was implying, she along with her entire class thought that he was doing this to bully Lirian.


    After all, he had lost everything because of Lirian in a way, and it seemed like he was using his authority as a teacher to make Lirian''s life harder than it had already become.


    Lirian was sitting back and waiting, but once he started to hear what they were all saying the voices started to whisper in his head once more.


    "Do you hear that, they think you''re weak, they are going to use this opportunity to take all the power you''ve gathered,"


    "Can you hear them scoffing, as if it''s an insult that they have to fight us, hahahaha, how many others wish that they could live after a fight with us, and now look at these ungrateful ignorant children, getting a free pass and they dare to scoff at us," the voice of number 12 roared in hate and Lirian felt the anger seep into himself.


    He walked forward with a frosty expression, "The commander made a mistake with what he said, I won''t be fighting you one on one, all of you will be coming at me together," he said with an icy air around him and he exuded confidence with every word.


    "Ah crap," Mordred cried out, "His gone and changed again, this time he is more like a demon, so that''s the next step, I don''t even want to know what comes next anymore."


    "Hey," Eido cried out in outrage, "Demons aren''t bad," she said pointing to herself.


    "Oh whatever," he said glancing at the perfectly innocent demon, ", but I did read a couple of old stories about the scary demon race."


    "Hey Lirian," Lucas said coming closer, "I get that you want to prove yourself, but this is dangerous we are all cultivators now, we could hurt you," he said sincerely, he only wanted to help Lirian out of this situation.

 Chapter 89 - 089 - Ten Steps Ahead 2

    "Oh, would you look at you," Lirian said in a mocking tone, "Two months of proper training and you already think that you qualify to be a threat to me," his tone was icy and left some of the students feeling cold shivers.


    Lucas glanced around and walked back to the others and discussed in soft voices, "He obviously won''t give up on this we all know how stubborn he is, should we go easy on him?" someone asked.


    "No, we can''t," Shen Lim said, "He''ll know if we are going easy on him," he said with an eye trained on Lirian, watching him carefully.


    "Why should we, he has always looked down on us, and even now while he''s blind he is doing the same," Hinata added in with a bit of heat to her voice, "We should teach him the price for being so arrogant, have you all forgotten what he did to us on the first day in the academy it''s time for payback."


    How could any of them forget that day, they were all convinced that they were going to die at that time, an experience like that stays with you forever, especially when you are raised having a pampered life.


    While most of them didn''t really agree with her desire to teach Lirian a lesson they knew that she had a point, beside it wasn''t like they had the option of denying Lirian''s request.


    "Do you hear that; they plan to knock you down after you so graciously thought them a valuable lesson on that first day and now, they plan to use it as a justification," number 12 whispered, "You should just kill the ungrateful lot of them."


    Alastor could hear Lirian muttering somethings to himself, it wasn''t completely clear but he faintly heard the word kill and looked up with concern, "Lirian are you sure about this?" he said while tapping on his shoulder.


    The touch caused Lirian to snap out of his thoughts, "Do you think that I would have even suggested this if I was certain of my victory," he said, shaking his head to clear his thoughts.


    Alastor shook his head, "You look down on them too much," he advised Lirian.


    "Gghh," Lirian ground his throat and scoffed "The reason that I''ll win this with ease, is because they look down on the current me if I can take down just two of their people before they move against me seriously, it will be my victory from the start."


    Alastor raised his brow, he really struggled to understand where Lirian found his confidence, it was like he had an endless reservoir of confidence in himself, and he wondered if was just too much ego, or if the boy could back it up.


    Alastor didn''t say anything more and had the class assemble.


    They soon formed up in a formation and stood facing Lirian.


    Lirian took a breath and focused on his ears to hear the beating of their hearts, he followed the sound made by their every foot step but he quickly frowned, "What the hell is that crap formation you guys are using, you have the numbers advantage, why am I not surrounded from all sides," he shouted.


    "Lirian, it''s already unfair that so many of us are going to attack you, if we..." Karen started to say, they were using the most basic of tactics.


    "Did I damn well ask for fair," Lirian spat, "Do you think that me being blind is fair, do you even understand how much more I have to do to prove myself now that I''m blind, I have to do a hundred times more than anyone else and I have to expect half the amount of the credit I would normally receive."


    "Now stop acting like the world is fair and come at me properly," he shouted at them.


    The students were taken aback but they felt a new found respect for Lirian, as they realised that they were the ones who really didn''t understand, while they were focused on the small little things he was already looking at the bigger picture.


    Alastor also looked at him with a new found curiosity, Lirian was so fast to adapt, he changed the rules, from using this as a simple means to get Alastor to join his future campaign and already begun using it as a way prove himself to the civilization once more.


    He had a nagging suspicion that everything that had happened since he began speaking to Lirian was all a part of his plan including this exhibition match.


    Miss Hira was beside him and watching closely, "Has he always been like this?" Alastor asked her.


    Hira looked at the students with a look of contemplation on her face, "His always been an arrogant, rude, egocentric, narcissistic maniac," she said with a little heat in her tone.


    "But yes, he has always been the smartest person in the room, always looking ten steps ahead while everyone else can barely even make out the first step, and forget about being able to read between the lines, he can read between the spacing of every word and come up with theories that almost always prove to be correct."


    "Frankly I''ve never had a student like him, and sometimes when you hear him speak about a topic, you''ll feel like you''re experiencing the history yourself and no matter how much you know you''ll find that he has something to teach you, unfortunately, that mouth of his is also extremely well versed in pissing people off," she said with a mixture of pride and anger, those things aside she still held a slight grudge for her ruined marriage.


    "Does that answer your question," she said flashing him a charming smile.


    Alastor nodded not minding her attempts to flirt with him anymore.


    Alastor had read all the reports Sarah Jane had sent to the family, she was very thorough in her evaluations of Lirian, which gave the family hope about her future.


    He had personally heard some of her reports, but since she was just a child he never took them too seriously, but now seeing Lirian in the flesh it completely changed the way he saw things.


    "Now, that I''ve answered your question could you answer one of mine," she asked coquettishly.


    Alastor recognized this tactic, woman always used it to ask him out, ''She is beautiful, it can''t hurt to say yes especially since my recent demotion, I''ll be lucky if even one of my old pursuers are still interested,'' he thought, with such thoughts in mind he nodded proudly.


    Hira smiled at him, "Tell me, how is it that you are still teaching here, after what you did, I can''t imagine why the empress would allow you to stay so close to her son?" she said with a dangerous glint in her eye.


    She didn''t like Lirian all that much but she still treasured her students, and Lirian was the best student she ever had, if he could one day make it in life and become just the leader of a high world, which she felt would be easy given his natural gifts, she would have something to brag about till the day she died.


    Alastor felt his face twitch, that was absolutely not what he expected to hear and he even felt embarrassed, "It was his doing," he said pointing at Lirian as the students made a proper formation around him.


    "If you want to know more feel free to ask him," he added quickly as he saw Hira''s confusion.


    She just sighed and looked at Lirian intently, she couldn''t understand what he was up to, but she was sure that it was because he was ten steps ahead if not more.

 Chapter 90 - 090 – A Would Be Massacre 1

    The students formed up into four squads of four, each containing two warriors, one mage, and one psychic.


    Due to the injured warrior from earlier they had exactly 18 people which meant that there were two extra''s, one mage and one psychic.


    The two of them took on an active role, to constantly monitor the field and provide back up and info as the fight progressed.


    They felt it was a little overkill as they surrounded Lirian, but not only did he ask for such conditions he demanded them.


    Hinata was the most accomplished mage in the class with her record breakthrough speed she naturally took on the outlier mage position and Karen as the only mental focused psychic took on the outlier psychic position.


    Having a capable mental psychic could easily improve the effectiveness of a team, in warfare the most important factor to victory was effective communication, to out maneuver your opponents.


    Karen felt that her position would make it a lot easier for effective communication, with her staying out of the field and observing how the battle shifted, not that she expected much when fighting against a blind opponent.


    When they all got into place, they kept their eyes trained on Lirian, he tossed the walking stick aside and unsheathed the sword on his side.


    As Lirian stood facing them he pushed the tip of the sword into the ground and curled both his hands around the hilt as he took in a breath of the boiling air in the room.


    They had to admit that despite his disability he was still extremely imposing as he stood facing them with a completely calm face, that air of confidence he always wore still clung to his body like a tight suit.


    Damien in particular felt a sense of creeping discomfort wash over him, he felt like he was caught in the jaws of a wolf as Lirians presence reached out to him slowly bending and twisting his mind, causing his entire body to break out into a cold sweat.


    They noticed that Lirian was slowly tapping his fingers against the hilt of his sword and every strike made a round ringing sound.


    ''Any second now,'' Lirian thought, as the vibrations traveled through the hilt, past the crossguard all the way down the blade into the tip that was stuck in the ground.


    Then it happened, a large streak of fire came hurtling down at him, he almost laughed at how well he had predicted Hinata''s actions.


    Her intense envy of him made her so predictable, she couldn''t take the standstill and broke the silence by attacking first, it was very dishonorable but Lirian liked it, it made things so much easier for him.


    Lirian slid both his hands of the hilt of the sword and opened his arms wide as he embraced the energy of the world using energy control.


    The energy all around him was dyed silver and as the fire stuck the ball of silver energy around him it looked like a meteor falling into the wide boundless oceans as it was completely swallowed and devoured.


    "Thanks for the fire," Lirian shouted with an ecstatic laugh, giving everyone a very bad premonition.


    At the point of impact, the entire ball of silver energy around Lirian turned into a golden red color the color permeated throughout the entire ball, and waves of roiling heat began to emanate from it.


    The good thing about energy control was its ability to break down any lawless energy form, however, it came with a large catch.


    He couldn''t mimic the natural elements unless he had absorbed that kind of energy and used it to ignite the energy he controlled, it was the next level of energy control mastery.


    --


    "That''s new," miss Hira commented beside Alastor, she couldn''t hide the awe in her eyes and neither could Alastor, from Lirians sword skill he assumed that the path of a saint would suit him best but that control of energy, would make him a great warlock as well.


    --


    Lirian pulled his arms inwards to his chest, and the fire followed his movements condensing tightly all around him, once he felt it had simmered enough, he took in a deep and powerful breath.


    He opened his arms wide and released a powerful breath, that could easily be mistaken for a car''s backfire.


    The ball of fire exploded outwards rapidly creating roiling waves of flames that stretched across the ground in all directions, turning the entire field into a sea of liquid fire.


    Lirian left only a single opening in the circle around him, while everyone was running backward in a panic he was making his move.


    Before they got a chance to start, Lirian made his move, due to his blindness unless he was willing to waste fate particles to get an image of his surroundings he had to avoid being crowded, and the only way to do that was to take down as many of the close-range combatants as possible.


    He wrapped his hands around the hilt of the sword pulling it from the ground and moved to his first target his movements were smooth and quick as he closed in on Damien.


    Damien only got a second to think as he saw Lirian charge directly at him, he held his spear firmly and moved in to block Lirian''s blade with the shaft.


    As the pressure built up in his arms he thought that he blocked it but a second later the tip of Lirian''s sword sunk through the wooden shaft just narrowly missing his chest and coming out near his underarm.


    Damien''s eyes shrunk as he was forced to release the spear in surprise and jump back to avoid the blade, he looked down in shock as Lirian pulled the sword back with the spear hanging on it.


    Lirian elbowed the spear of his blade, and quickly caught the shaft in one hand, in the next step he swiped at Damiens''s feet as he came back to the ground.


    Damien managed to shift his weight enough to stomp on the shaft but just as he let out a sigh of relief he felt something strike his neck, and he heard Lirian mutter, "Dead!", he fell down as the stinging sensation coursed through his neck.


    If Lirian had struck with the edge instead of the flat of the blade he would be dead, he knew it but he was unwilling, from now on he would be known as the guy who lost to a blind person in three moves.


    --


    He felt a strange sensation all of a sudden and blinked, when he opened his eyes again he found himself beside the commander and Miss Hira, "What am I doing here?" he asked.


    "You''re dead," Alastor said simply.


    He looked at the field and saw it break out into a pandemonium, "It wasn''t fair, I wasn''t even ready," he cried out, Lirian had attacked him and just a second passed before he was finished.


    "Hmpf," Alastor grumbled, "18 cultivators, vs a single-blind boy and you''re actually complaining about fairness, the Uldwin family won''t be happy to hear you say that."


    Damien looked down in shame, he could hardly believe that he lost even if it was against Lirian, after all, what excuse could he use when his opponent was blind and outnumbered.


    --


    Lirian quickly moved onto Damiens partner and met her sword, she had tried to get to Damien but Lirian had taken him down before anyone could blink, she frowned as she felt the power of Lirian''s strike, it wasn''t as strong as hers but it definitely didn''t feel like something someone without cultivation could muster.


    It had taken her by surprise that the fires didn''t affect only her group and that had costed her, her partner, she took two rapid swings at Lirian to try forcing him back.


    As he met the second strike Lirian felt a psychic energy blast closing in on him, he quickly ducked to the side and let it take the warrior in the chest causing her to stumble back.


    He grinned and moved forward to finish her off, but had to quickly perform a side step as he heard a sword slicing the air behind him, he kicked the warrior in the stomach forcing the breath out of her lungs and spun around to meet the blade of Shen Lim.

 Chapter 91 - 091 - A Would Be Massacre 2

    The fire was already dying down, but Lirian didn''t mind, he had already taken one down and injured another.


    "Fancy meeting you here," he said with a flirty voice to Shen Lim, "Shen Xie will get jealous if she learns how hard you worked to get to me across all this fire," he chuckled in a naughty voice.


    ''How the hell does he have the time and energy to be so chatty in this kind of situation,'' Shen Lim wondered but said nothing as he put as much pressure on his blade as possible.


    Using his strength he pushed Lirian back and managed to lock down his movements.


    "I''ve locked him do it now," Shen Lim cried out as he forced Lirian down with his strength.


    Several balls of flame, wind, lightning, and psychic blasts closed in on Lirian as he was being pushed down and he could feel the warriors'' gazes on him as they watched closely, the moment he switched to avoid the blasts they would pounce on him.


    "You guys really are getting too full of yourselves," he chuckled in this tense situation.


    Mordred was close enough to hear everything clearly, he shook his head as he wondered how Lirian could be so nonchalant in such a situation, ''He probably just likes the sound of his own voice too much.''


    Lirian took a breath and took control of the energy in his immediate surroundings, his control didn''t extend more than five feet around him before he was forced to use what he gathered.


    A wave of energy erupted around him with a silver glow deflecting the attacks all over the place, forcing the close-by warriors to have to duck and retreat.


    Shen Lim got it the worst, a blast of fire was deflected onto his shoulder and the energy wave picked him up off his feet hurtling him across the ground.


    He soared for almost a dozen meters before coming down on his back with a heavy thud.


    While the students stood around in shock as their entire plan crumbled, Lirian wasted no time in finishing the warrior he had knocked down before Shen Lim''s untimely arrival.


    Lirian followed after that by going after the closest psychic, the psychic had a sword but without a warrior''s strength, he folded in a heartbeat under Lirian''s assault.


    "Are you really blind?" someone muttered.


    Lirian grinned, "If I wasn''t you''d all be finished by now, but I can clear you out faster if you''d like until now I''ve only been using free striking, if I take it up a notch you can guess what will happen."


    "I''d advise you guys to start moving the fight isn''t over yet," he said jumping at a mage.


    This time he felt three people closing in on him, two swords and a spear, he realized as their wielders spun them around.


    They attempted to lock down his movements with their three swipes, but Lirian jumped up in the air and spun with his hands pulled in.


    He managed to spin between the two blades that threatened to scissor him and brought his blade down to lock down the shaft of the spear, while driving two kicks into the guts of the two swordsmen.


    He faced Eido as her spear was locked by him but he was soon forced to retreat as the mage stepped into the fray.


    Karen didn''t miss this detail, and quickly passed on a message to everyone, ''He retreated when four people gathered around him, I don''t think that he can keep track of everyone''s movements'' once it passes three people.''


    Lucas climbed up from the ground, he was one of the warriors Lirian had just stomped on, Lirian did not hold back in his kicks.


    As he received Karen''s message they quickly formulated a plan with the rest, but as fast as they were Lirian was faster, he had already taken out one mage and another warrior.


    "This is insane," Mordred complained, "My family is going to have a field day insulting me if I report this to them, 18 cultivators vs 1 blind person, and we''ve already lost 5 people."


    "Stop reminding everyone," Pollock complained and got ready for his part as a cloak of shadow surrounding him.


    Lirian felt himself getting surrounded again, "Nice to see you three again," he commented kicking the warrior he was facing away as Lucas, Eido and another warrior closed in on him.


    "Is he already making jokes about his own blindness?" Eido muttered to the others, they shrugged and moved forward.


    Lirian felt a faint fluctuation of shadow mana, ''Shadow concealment,'' he thought in surprise, he focused on Hinata, she was the only one that would have had the time to learn an advanced spell.


    She was still present at the edge of his ability to detect, but there was one person missing, and the only way to detect them was through their heartbeat, any other sound would be completely absorbed by the spell.


    As he pushed back, he felt psychic blasts coming in his direction, all the attacks were focused on his sword, and he felt a slight shake in his stance as it shifted the way he held the sword.


    He knew that the big move was coming, so he had to take out one last person before they completed it.


    He slid his blade across the flat of Lucas''s blade and jumped forward as the other two tried to force him back, he pushed out of the blockade they sat up for him and delivered a strong kick to Lucas''s chest.


    The sound of his ribs cracking echoed, and more than one person winced as they heard it, but Lirian didn''t get time to focus on what he did as the ground he landed on turned soft like quicksand.


    "Smart," he commented while keeping still, what made quicksand deadly was when someone panicked after getting caught in it, the more you struggle the fast it sucks you in.


    Then he felt the air change, ''They are using a strong fire spell,'' he realized.


    Shen Xie was focusing a large ball of fire above him, it was just fire, nothing special, the only concerning thing was that three mages poured in all their energy to make it and Shen Xie dropped it on top of him.


    "Not bad at all," he shouted, ", now let me show you the real power of energy control, do you know that any fourth-grade mage who doesn''t achieve energy control is deemed as useless in the empire."


    "The reason is that with energy control all spells that don''t have laws infused into them are rendered absolutely useless and from the fourth-grade onwards laws will be your main focus in combat, you must be able to rid yourself of the third-grade distractions during battle."


    He chuckled, "Sadly for you guys, you''re up against me," as the fireball descended, he raised a hand to meet its burning caress.

 Chapter 92 - 092 – A Would Be Massacre 3

    Lirian felt a little sun-kissed as the ball of fire came down, but as he felt the scorching heat, he knew that even if he left it alone it would burn out in seconds.


    The hot air in the training room made the air very thin making it very difficult for any fire to last the bigger the fire the shorter it would last.


    It was the same with his wave of fire that he unleashed at the beginning of the battle, it took only a few seconds before the fire burnt itself out.


    He split his attention slightly to receive the fireball, he only needed to chip away at it a little bit before it became useless, but he had plans of his own as it came crashing down.


    "We knew that you''d use energy control to break the fireball," Mordred''s voice sounded behind him, he jumped into the air and threw his spear, it whistled as it tore through the air and shot straight at Lirian.


    "And I knew you''d think that I couldn''t handle dealing with four people," he laughed and stop diffusing the fire ball.


    The ball of fire seemed to completely engulf him as the spear came whistling to his side, he grabbed the spear from the air and focused the ground beneath him, he used the energy he collected to act as foot holds and pushed of it to break out of the sand.


    "Are you mad the fire will kill you!" Eido shouted as she saw the fire fall on top of him a huge flash of fire erupted scorching the ground all around Lirian, creating a cloud of smoke and dust as it struck the ground.


    The warriors that gathered were forced to retreat once again by the blazing hot flames that shot outward in every direction.


    "Deja vu," Mordered muttered as the flames fanned out, forcing him to retreat again.


    Lirian stood in the centre where not a bit of fire had even touched, he remained on a spot of dry but brown earth while everything else around him was charred black.


    It looked like a burning doughnut had crashed into the ground and scorched the earth in a perfect circle leaving the centre completely untouched.


    Lirian remained still as if the fire didn''t affect him in the slightest and began to focus, ''I need to find the Pollock, he is the one under shadow concealment, in all this time I haven''t felt him even once.''


    ''It''s such a pity, they did have a good plan,'' Lirian thought with a shrug, '', well, I did tell them that life isn''t fair, so they shouldn''t cry too much that I''m their opponent.''


    Lirian could hear the haggard breathed of three people around him as the smoke from the fire made it even harder for them breath, it was then that he heard it.


    ''Thump,'', he heard the heartbeat of the last warrior in his blind spot.


    "Hey Mordred, thanks so much for offering me your spear," he shouted aloud.


    Mordred looked at everyone with a flabbergasted expression, the way Lirian said that it, made it sound like he had turned traitor and helped Lirian out.


    ''I wasn''t trying to help you, I was trying to skewer one of your god damn legs,'' he wanted to cry out as he saw Lirian suddenly spin around and launch the spear directly at Pollocks hiding place.


    The spear ripped forward with shocking speed and accuracy but at the last moment, a large psychic blast hit the spear and threw it of course.


    It plunged into the ground and continued to sink until only a small piece large enough for someone to wrap their hand around remained above ground.


    Pollocked gulped at the sight, had that hit him, he was certain that he''d be getting a body part stitched back on if he was lucky.


    Pollock had been watching patiently hoping to find an opening in Lirian, when the fire fell over Lirian it was the perfect opportunity but he got scared.


    What would happen to them if he accidentally killed Lirian, he felt his heart beat rapidly in a panic, and before he could think a spear was hurtling his way.


    He panicked to get out of the way and in doing so he broke the concealment.


    Lirian stopped as he turned in their direction giving them each a devilish smile, he said, "Now I''m going to tell you one very big mistake you all made."


    "On the field of battle you must never, under any circumstances, give up the guard around your centre of communication," when he finished the sword went flying from his hand and landed directly at Karen''s feet, leaving a bloody gash on her leg.


    "And now she''s dead," he said softly.


    When Karen blinked again, she had already been whisked away by Alastor, "Wait he only hit my leg I can keep going," she said hurriedly climbing back to her feet.


    "If he wanted that sword of his in your heart or neck it would have been there without a doubt," Alastor said sternly and looked back to the fight.


    "Well, here''s another rule for you," Eido said with a little anger in her voice, "A warrior that losses their weapon is the most likely to die."


    As she huffed her little devil horn bobbed up and down on her dead, now that Lirian was weaponless it was game over for him.


    "Ordinarily you''d be absolutely correct," Lirian spoke calmly, ", but when you fight someone from a completely different league it doesn''t matter whether you have one person with a weapon or a hundred, it''s a check mate from the very start, you lost."


    "There are still eleven of us and one of you," she said gripping onto her spear even tighter, despite Lirian having no weapon in hand she still felt afraid to approach and fight him alone.


    Lirian laughed, "Yet you started off with eighteen, your mages exhausted themselves between the quick sand and the fire ball, your psychics have been over taxing themselves to help you warriors stay up for a little longer, Hinata has wasted almost all her energy to cloak Pollock,"


    Lirian began to chuckle without a care in the world, "And would you care to take a careful look at me, I''m not yet even sweating, do tell me your plan to take me down now that you''ve lost your only form of communication, and almost half your numbers not to mention that your side is already exhausted."


    "It''s as I said it was checkmate from the beginning," he said dashing their hopes with a reality check.


    His voice carried clearly and as they all looked at him, they could see that not even a drop of perspiration rolled down his forehead and his clothes still looked immaculate.

 Chapter 93 - 093 - A Would Be Massacre 4

    The mages and psychics had to agree they were completely drained.


    "Damn, the empress really raised a monster," Mordred cried out in anguish as he dropped down on his butt in surrender.


    The others had to agree with that statement, and even Alastor and Miss Hira, found themselves nodding along, they hardly expected Lirian to be able to take down one person, but he repeatedly astounded them with his superb battle sense.


    More and more students began to surrender, even Hinata was forced to throw in the towel, as she looked at Lirian enviously, that advanced spell of hers had completely drained her and she was seeing black spots.


    She gritted her teeth as she realised that it had been a complete waste, Pollock hadn''t even managed to find an opportunity to strike.


    In the end only Eido and Pollock remained holding onto their weapons they shared a look and glanced at Hinata.


    Hinata nodded her head silently agreeing to their plan, she wished that she could join them but she was far too drained to continue.


    That shadow concealment spell was thought to her by the headmaster, he diligently picked it out for her and helped her to learn it.


    She glanced at the commander and her teacher hoping to see how impressed they were with her spell, while all the others were merely fighting a petty battle she showcased her progress.


    However, when she looked at them, they didn''t even pay her a glance as their eyes fixed on Lirian like he was some god sent child, she clenched her fist and gritted her teeth as she was overlooked once more despite her best efforts.


    "Will you two continue?" Lirian asked his voice was coloured in surprise if this was a life or death battle he would have understood their decision but this was just a spar.


    If could see them he wouldn''t have wasted his breath as he would have seen the determination on their faces as the two of them approached.


    ''Pincer'' he thought as one closed in from the front and the other from the back.


    He calmly stepped between them as he heard them move and casually glided around them as they used move after move to try and lock him down, "You''re too loud in your approach," he said as he side stepped Eido.


    He grasped onto her spear shaft and with a quick chop from his other hand, he struck her wrist, forcing her to loosen her grip on the weapon.


    He yanked the spear from her hand and spun it onto neck all whilst swivelling her into Pollocks desperate attempt to force him away from Eido.


    As a result, she was knocked by both Lirian and Pollock.


    "You''re dead," he whispered and as if he cast a spell Eido''s body was whisked away as soon as he finished speaking.


    Lirian turned to face Pollock with a complicated expression, he had intended to become good friends with the elf, but because of Hinata''s interference, it seemed unlikely to happen.


    But he was later glad that he didn''t become good friends with the elf because, three months into the first year of school he had a huge growth spurt, and currently he was only two inches shorter than the seven feet tall Tobias.


    He spun Eido''s spear in his hand, "Well come on then, you''re the only one that I didn''t get to exchanges blows with the entire time."


    Pollock dashed forward and brought his sword down.


    Lirian shook his head and deflected the blade with his palm instead of the spear shaft, "Sloppy footwork," he said and struck Pollock''s leg with kick making him fall over.


    "We can end this here, or you can keep going if you''d like," Lirian said he felt that it was pointless to keep this up and he couldn''t understand why Pollock was pushing himself.


    Pollock rose up silently and kept moving launching meaningless attack after meaningless attack against Lirian but after a few moves Lirian noticed something and frowned.


    "Are you stupid? You''ll damage your body if you keep doing that, and I mean permanent damage," Lirian said seriously he noticed that Pollock was washing away the forms from his movement and trying to use free striking.


    For someone that could hardly even use normal forms properly it would devastate his body, "If you can do it then so can I!" Pollock shouted and forced himself to launch another strike.


    Lirian shook his head, he was forcing himself to create tension in his muscles when he didn''t even properly understand how his muscles worked, a single mistake and he would tear his muscles even with healing it wouldn''t return to normal.


    Lirian dropped the spear and caught Pollocks hands, gripping him tightly he lifted him in the air brought him down against the ground, the sword fell out of his hands and he struggled to move as Lirian locked him in place.


    "I really don''t understand what is it with you and Eido, that made only the two of you try to fight me when you knew that you would only lose," he asked curiously.


    "It doesn''t matter you wouldn''t understand," Pollock said weakly as he tried to pull himself up from the dirt.


    "Stop!" Lirian commanded coldly, and Pollock felt his entire body freeze over.


    "You''ve already damaged your muscles, any more and you''ll have to give up on your path as a cultivator," he warned sternly.


    Pollock hesitated with Lirian standing over him but he still tried to get up and continue.


    "You really are a fool," Lirian sneered, ", the forms were created for a reason, they are a guide to learn how to control your muscles."


    "Tell me do you think that some miracle will happen specially for you that will negate the effects of your foolishness," he raised his leg and pressed softly on Pollock''s chest.


    "Stop your foolish dreaming of grandeur that Hinata has planted in your head, no matter what, none of you would have been chosen by the empress, and none of you ever will," he spat derisively on his face.


    Lirian looked down at him and frowned, while shaking his head, he turned around and walked away from the battle field.


    He couldn''t understand the nonsense that was going through their heads, and what the hell were they trying to prove by fighting a losing battle.


    There was no real hostility between them and he treated them no differently than he treated everyone else, like an ass.


    He shook his head and decided to think of better of thoughts and he wondered what Efrideet would think once she learned of this feat of his.


    Thinking of Efrideet, he remembered something else, she tried to kill him without him having made any serious move against her, what made him happy about that was that he was heaven chosen, and for what she did she should be suffered from the chosen''s curse.


    Unfortunately, the moment he ascended in his life hierarchy, she would be released, but for now, he smiled as he thought about her suffering.

 Chapter 94 - 094 – Conclusion

    Lirian sat down by himself as the students gathered up and waited for the healers to sort out all their wounds.


    The treatment was quick for each person, Lirian had been light-handed with his attacks, with only a single exception.


    Lucas had been whimpering in pain as the healers reset his ribs and mended the bones back together, with the exception of an occasional scream everything went well and his breathing soon returned to normal.


    A full half-hour passed before they were done, Lucas rubbed his chest and let out a sigh of relief, "Damn, he really didn''t hold back," he began complaining as soon as he got back his ability to breathe properly.


    Lucas glanced at Lirian with a little trepidation in his eyes, he felt dumb for being concerned about Lirians safety at the beginning of the battle.


    If anything Lucas felt that he should have been the one concerned about his own safety, even with the healing his chest still hurt and he knew that he''d be having a hard time breathing for the next few days.


    He couldn''t understand how Lirian as a none cultivator had managed to crack his ribs when he was already a first-grade body cultivator.


    ''Is there some sort of body control technique similar to his energy control technique,'' he wondered and it suddenly struck him, ''Of course it''s that free striking thing,'' he felt like he had an epiphany, and found his future path.


    Lucas had managed to find the secret to Lirians ability, but it wasn''t like free striking was an easy thing to achieve, and he''d learn that it took more than just strength to achieve it, the secret to gaining proper control over every muscle in the body was to enhance and discipline your mind.


    The commander''s sudden shout''s soon disrupted Lucas''s thoughts and brought everyone to attention.


    "Attention!" commander Alastor called out as soon as they were all up and put an end to their discussions.


    "I want all of you to begin discussing why you lost, and how you could have done better," he ordered.


    "Isn''t it because he is a monster," Mordred said while raising his hand to speak, the class all murmured in agreement.


    As much as Alastor want to chide them for saying something so stupid he knew that it wasn''t exactly wrong, even he was having a hard time believing what he had just witnessed and he''d been around the block a few times already.


    It was like a beat down and a lesson in raw skill, he could tell that Lirian was naturally very strong, but his actual strength still paled in comparison when compared to the body cultivators.


    Lirians real ability was his outstanding battle sense and judgement that he only ever saw in true veterans, he''d wager that Lirian would still have an advantage against all the veterans he knew.


    It made Alastor wonder just what kind of hellish training had the empress put her son through in his childhood, ''Is she truly so desperate to have one of her children return from the trial?''


    The class heard a soft chuckle and turned to face Lirian, "You''re not wrong, I suppose that it makes sense if the only thing you guys can compare me to is a monster," he said with a small smirk.


    "A very beautiful monster of course," he added, he could hear all their eyes simultaneously rolling around and more than one of them had gone completely red in the face, as they felt embarrassed for him.


    He chuckled and went on, ", but you guys did make one very big mistake that allowed me to take complete control of the rhythm of the battle."


    They turned to look at the commander and saw that he was nodding along, "Do any of you understand the mistake you made?" he asked them, but they all shook their heads, their plans were practically perfect, the only problem was the person they were using it against.


    Lirian spoke after the silence went on for then a minute, "I''ll give you a hint, your teamwork was great and your traps were excellently set up, but the one mistake you made was thinking that due to your numbers advantage you were the only ones that could lay down traps, and you stepped right into mine."


    The students looked at each other in surprise, they never expected Lirian to pay them a single compliment let alone two and Karen beamed with joy, as she was the one that came up with most of the plans.


    Alastor felt like his place as the commander had been usurped, the students were supposed to reel in joy at his compliments, but he was taken aback at how ecstatic they were to hear Lirian compliment them.


    ''He must have trained them well,'' he thought in silence, ''Oh gods,'' he thought as he realized something, ''If I join his group will I end smiling just like these children when he compliments me,'' he thought with a sudden gloominess wrapping around his head.


    "What trap?" Damien asked, he had calmed down a lot as more and more people joined him, it was very motivating for him to find out that he wasn''t the only one that couldn''t handle Lirian.


    And he realized that he had an excuse he was taken by surprise while everyone else had fought Lirian seriously and still lost by the end he was like Lirian''s personal cheerleader, as Lirian knocked everyone around, "I was watching the entire time, I never see any trap the entire time."


    Lirian smirked and said nothing but the commander felt he had to give the students one more hint, "In battle not all traps are physically seen, when facing against an equally powerful opponent, it is often psychological warfare that will determine the outcome of the battle."


    "When four people surrounded you the first time, you retreated," Mordred said suddenly as things began falling into place in his head, he heard when Lirian said that he knew they would think he couldn''t handle more than three opponents.


    "Good you got the first part, but do you understand how it determined the course of the battle?" Lirian asked.


    Lucas pondered deeply and spoke when he felt he got the right answer, "We only tried to use big moves when we thought we could lock you down, so we got three people to close in on you while Pollock hide under concealment to get in close to surprise you with a fast and unpredictable attack."


    "When three people closed in on you, you immediately knew that we were planning something big, it took away all the surprise from our attacks," Karen finished, with a look in her eyes like she had received divined revelation.


    Alastor looked at them and nodded, "Your performance was excellent, but you all lack in an area that most people lack, that is battle wisdom."


    "What I can tell all of you from my own personal experience over the years is that battle wisdom is the most important requirement if you want to be able to successfully command even a single troop in battle,"


    "You may study all the formations in the world but without wisdom it''s pointless."

 Chapter 95 - 095 - Quarias Legacy

    The student''s heads bounced up and down as if they were blending the new info into their heads, when they felt the lesson was over they began to slowly disperse as they discussed what they could do next time.


    "Lirian if four people aren''t your limit then what is?" Sarah approached him now that the lesson was over and asked him something that was on everyone''s mind.


    Her bold question made everyone freeze in their tracks and turn back to hear Lirians answer.


    "I''m not too sure myself," he answered with a shrug there was no way he would go around giving out that information, ", but it''s definitely not four, but since I''m blind there is without a doubt an upper limit,"


    "Now be sure to tell your families about this, I can''t have them thinking that I''m out of the race because of some stupid disability."


    His classmates all smiled awkwardly, they had forgotten about that part and now they were wondering how to tell their families that they were bested by a blind person.


    ---


    Lirian leaned back in his chair during the last lesson of the day, it was a couple of historical things to do with the great diviner Quaria, and he''d be lying if it didn''t make him feel agitated.


    He was 90% certain that the great diviner Quaria had to be Katerina, and there was a very complicated history between the two of them.


    As an eternal, she wasn''t affected by the curse but she also had that strange compulsion that all the other eternals had to cause him as much harm as possible, in every way possible.


    While everyone hated him due to the curse, the eternals didn''t, they instead chose to use a more psychological approach to break him and have their own fun with him as they didn''t have the immediate compulsion to try killing him on sight.


    Katerina had been his first true lover, they had even taken vows upon their indestructible souls to stand by each other always and forever, but that vow had been utterly broken, and yet it still left an eternal mark on their souls.


    He quickly got rid of those thoughts, nothing good ever came from him thinking about them, and he focused once more on the lesson.


    As it turned out Anya wasn''t making a joke when he was child and she told him of the importance of Quaria in the empire.


    She was naturally respected and feared as the founder of the seven civilizations, but at the same time, her final prophecy to the world left it in a mess.


    He listened to the passage being read out by Miss Hira.


    [''In my absence wars shall break out anew, brothers and sisters shall take each other''s lives in the name of power and fortune, friends shall slit each other''s throats for profits and chaos shall descend again.''


    ''However, I shall not leave my people with no hope, of the 52 original vessels 7 have fallen but their guardians remain I shall leave them unto you to guide you and bring you peace.''


    ''And lastly, for all that I have given to you I would ask of you my people, my descendants to do me a favor, of the remaining 45 vessels from the first fleet I have scattered them across the system in places that you will one day find useful, I ask of you to take care of my ships as I have left a basin within each one.''


    ''Of the 45 ships only one shall stand against the tides of time, only one shall see the birth of a true god.'']


    The last line, in particular, is what was a major topic of discussion even to this day, as it was due to this that an unbelievable war occurred that ruined entire worlds.


    It set the stage for the exploration era, and savage wars were fought to take possession over the basins, and by waging these wars the great civilizations, lost a great deal of power and in turn funded many mercenary groups and warlords to participate in the battles.


    This led to the rising of new powers all over the universe, and as their power grew, so did their appetites.


    At first, they asked for resources but soon that wasn''t enough, they obtained all the credits they could ever need so they began to demand things that didn''t have a number attached to them.


    The things they wanted were, pieces of knowledge about classified weapons, and cultivation techniques, once this started to happen even more people came running to fight in the wars and even more people died.


    With time, some of the civilizations started to offer up second accord information and techniques as a prize, which pushed the wars to all time new heights.


    It was at this point in time that entire worlds were brought to ruin by the intensity of the battles, and it pushed the power of these organizations to such a place that the civilizations couldn''t control without them wasting troops that were needed on the frontlines.


    After the seize fire occurred and the basins were turned into stations the 7 civilizations were forced to give special rights and privileges to the organizations to ensure that they didn''t use their new found power to create a civilwar.


    To this day many of those organizations still exist, until about a million years ago they were under control but when the Golgoth empire (one of the seven great civilisations) fell it created a massive power vacuum that allowed them to spread like wildfire in the entire sector of the old Golgoth empire.


    This piece of history was a lesson to all about the words of a diviner, it was only because of their actions that the words of the diviner came true, had they not heard it the people would have never been so fanatic about collecting the basins.


    After all who didn''t want to be the one to raise a god, the glory it would bring them was unquestionable, and with the fact that no new god had been born for trillions of years, it would be a marvel.


    Lirian shook his head at the cunning words of the wench, it was impossible for even an immortal to predict the birth of a god, and there would rarely ever be a god capable of doing such a thing.


    Which made him wonder what exactly was her reason for making up such a grand lie, the only thing he could figure out was that for some reason she wanted the basins to be preserved, but she wanted them to be kept apart, she wanted people to see value in them so that they would never be lost.


    And even it was to be lost, should someone find it they would understand its immense value and in time it would make its way into the eyes of the world again.


    Lirian left the room lost in his thoughts, he had avoided the other candidates for the day, but sooner or later he knew that he''d have to face them but it was not going to be today, he found the rest of his classmates and asked them for a favor.


    "You want us to clear a path for you," Sarah repeated what she heard in surprise.


    "You guys know that I''m blind, I told you that crowds are troublesome for me," he said in a matter-of-fact tone, "Starting today I need everyone to act as an escort when I leave school and when I arrive,", this was so much easier than asking for help, it felt more like ordering his minions to do tasks he found too boring to handle by himself.


    "Come on," he ordered them as he signed off on his name to say that he was leaving the school and passed the register to the rest of the class, ", we don''t have time to dilly-dally around," he said and slowly directed them into a circle around him to act as a guards.

 Chapter 96 - 096 -The Truths Of Telamon Dao 1

    Lirian sent several commands into his watch to read out some of the books he had been looking through, when heard a knock on the door, he smelled the scent of his mom and turned to face her.


    Taliyah smiled at the sight of him diligently continuing with his studies despite, his problems, but soon she turned serious, "I have something to speak to you about," she said with a little hesitation.


    He sank in his seat, he had an idea of what she would be speaking about but he didn''t want to hear it, nothing would change his mind, "If this about Telamon mom, then just stop I don''t want..."


    Taliyah cut his words short, "I have arranged for us to have dinner with my master the week before you go on your expedition,"


    "And you''ll attend whether you like it or not," she quickly added before he could disrupt her.


    "You''ll speak with my master, then you''ll learn that there is no way that he could possibly have..." she looked at Lirian with hopeful eyes as she tried to convince him that Telamon only had the best interest at heart for him.


    "He tried to kill me mom," Lirian''s voice got heated and he ripped the blind fold from his face to show her his eyes, ", this was the price I paid to learn that,"


    "And now you want me sit down and talk to him like nothing ever happened and hear him make up some pathetic lie about the imagination of a child,"


    "I am no child mom, and I will not sit down to be patronized by someone that tried to kill me," his face contorted in anger as he clenched his fists tightly.


    "If you are no child then start acting like it, adults know when they have to make a compromise," Taliyah shouted back in her anger, she just wanted him to understand that her master was a good man he had no reason to harm him at all, and in doing so Telamon would harm her and she knew that he would never do that.


    He gave up his role as an advisor the second she said that she wanted to raise her children herself and he helped her to ensure they had the best education possible and that they were safe.


    Lirian was taken aback by her unreasonable words, "Adults must learn to compromise when it''s important but I have no reason compromise on his account," he lashed out angrily.


    Tears formed in Taliyah''s eyes, "Am I not enough of a reason for you compromise?" she asked with trembling hands and shaky breath.


    Lirian bit on his lip and turned away from her, taking quick breaths to calm himself before he said something he truly regrets.


    "Very well, I''ll do as you say, but I''m doing this only for you and I will do it only this once," he spoke reluctantly.


    Taliyah turned away and walked out in a hurry, she didn''t know what to do, she believed what Lirian said he''d do to Telamon as soon as he got sufficient power, and she didn''t doubt his ability to do so she had seen some of the things Lirian was capable of and it broke her heart.


    How could he want to kill the man she thought of like a second father, the even more painful thing was imagining that the man she viewed as a father wanting to kill her son, and one that was all but guaranteed to pass the candidates trial, what possible motive could he possibly have to do such a thing.


    She sighed and comforted herself with the thought that with this dinner she could sort out all these problems.


    ---


    Lirian paced around muttering to himself, trying to vent his anger, but his other selves didn''t make things any easier, like always they seemed hell-bent on making him give up control and handing it over.


    He picked up his watch and made a new command, "Forget all previous assignments, assign all resources to gather intel on Telamon Dao, from his first appearance in the public eye and any public records, scour the black market to gather anything as well and pay whatever price I can afford."


    Lirian smacked his head as the voices grew louder, and sunk back into his thoughts, ''What could Telamons motive be for betraying my mom,'' he could help but wonder.


    He pondered in silence forming a chain of thoughts.


    Think back to the first time his mother mentioned him, he remembered the system cautioning him against that man the second he heard his name.


    The system would only waste resources to give him intel if it was something dire, but it couldn''t tell him everything without affecting the cause and effect he had on the world, fate was always too complicated to play with lightly.


    There was a big secret that Telamon held that pertained to his mother, one that was dangerous, he confirmed that during their first meeting.


    The last thing he confirmed was that he was working with Efrideet, his mother''s most hated enemy, he could barely find a motive though, it was none sensical.


    ''I need to find out the type of man he is to understand his reasoning,'' he thought, when something suddenly occurred to him, he thought of his mother''s wish to have a child that could survive the candidate''s trial and how it chose him, the greatest being in all of creation.


    His thoughts stopped there as he felt cold chills, "No, it can''t be!" he exclaimed aloud, ", but if it is then, that means he''s been against mom all this time,", and for the first time in what felt like ages the voices all went silent as they murmured in agreement.


    "WE MUST KILL HIM, FOR WHAT HE HAS DONE TO MOTHER!" they roared together, Lirian grasped his head tightly as the sound of their roars threatened to blow his head open, but he was truly surprised by their reaction it was like the good old days when they''d just try to drive the throned crazy with their many different opinions, but when it came to things that mattered, they would work together.


    "Now this is truly an interesting speculation," he muttered with an icy edge to his voice, ", and I think that I''ve found a direction to head towards," blood lust oozed out of his body in terrifying waves, he vaguely thought of his time as Arodil, in the days after he broke the limits of that plain and became an equal of the heaven.


    He set on a great crusade throughout the universe''s, it didn''t matter whether it was the god, immortal or mortal realms, he left everything in ruin for what they did to him in that life, sparing only a single world and a single star.


    But right now, his fury was even greater than at that time, for all of his mother''s grief and pain was caused by Telamon Dao, and it was something he would never forgive.


    ---


    The next day as he sat in the limo he faced Anya, "Have you heard about the dinner we are going to have with Telamon?" he asked.


    "That''s your excellency to you," she scolded him, for saying Telamons name so casually, his lack of respect was only getting worse as time went on, "And yes I''ve heard, her majesty has asked me to join in on the occasion."


    "Oh, good then, but just a word of advice, I''d like to advise you to come prepared things might get very bloody during dinner," Lirian chuckled coldly.


    Anya looked at him wide-eyed and felt her heart tremble, "What are you planning to do Lirian!" she exclaimed with a rare severity to her voice.


    "Nothing much, just say a few truths, but what you really need to be careful of is to stop my mother, when she tries to ram her sword through Telamons skull, or throat, I don''t want him dying too quickly,"


    "You see he is an excellent source of information, and it would be better to make him suffer miserably as I pour my memories into him, then to give him a swift death," he spoke nonchalantly like it was a simple affair.


    Anya could feel her heart thumping, she could feel her blood running a million times faster than a waterfall, "Do you realize what the hell you are saying?!" she cried out in shock.


    "Yes, very much so, I told you and my mom from the beginning that he was not to be trusted, and soon his actions will stand as his executioner, he will not escape for the things he has done to my mother."


    "Before you report all of this to my mother, could you tell me one thing, do you know when exactly Telamon decided that teaching was his passion, was it before or after my mother announced that she would be raising her children herself?" he asked curiously.


    For the first time Anya could see some of the traces of the evil god within him appear, he spoke so casually about killing someone important to his mother, and seemed proud of himself, it scared even her, but as much as his words made her feel fear it fuelled her curiosity, just what did Telamon do to harm the empress and why was Lirian so certain he was right.

 Chapter 97 - 097 -The Truths Of Telamon Dao 2

    "All of that happened, long before my time, but I know that it was in the same period," Anya answered hesitantly, the certainty in his words scared her, she knew that everything he said was no lie at all.


    Lirian nodded, he couldn''t see her face but he could smell the fear, of all the scents a person could produce, the most potent was fear and he had come to miss that smell over the years.


    ---


    At school he set out towards the candidate''s room as soon as he got the chance, as he stepped in he was surprised to find the other five waiting, and like a bunch of vultures they grabbed onto him, he felt Media and Cole grab on to his legs, and he felt Tobias''s giant hands lock onto one of his hands while Wentian grabbed his last hand.


    He didn''t feel any ill intent so he didn''t attack as yet, "What''s going on guys?" he asked as Edith grew closer, he felt her hands on his face.


    "Keep quiet for now, we need to confirm something," Edith said and pulled of the blindfold.


    Lirian sighed as the world turned brighter, while blind he was still sensitive to different light intensities when in a bright place the world would appear white and in a dark place it would be darker.


    Edith raised a hand to her mouth as she gasped, "It''s true, he''s really blind," she said as his eyes did not react to anything and that magnificent silver radiance had been mixed with a murky black.


    The others quickly released him and got up to see for themselves, "How did you beat up an entire class of cultivators while blind," Wentian broke the silence, and asked with an edge of worship in his voice.


    He would have a tough time fighting against a single new cultivator, let alone an entire group of them, out of all of them only Tobias had ever managed to beat a cultivator before and it was a brutal fight.


    "I''m just that good," Lirian said with a grin before picking up the blindfold to tie it back on.


    They shook their heads as they heard him praise himself, some things would never change.


    "Let me," Edith said quickly snatching the blindfold from the floor before he could reach it and begun to gently tie it around his head.


    "Tighter," Lirian complained, she was tying it like his head was a fragile piece of glass that could break if she over tightened it.


    "Fine," she came closer and yanked the two sides with as much force as she could, ", better?" she asked sweetly.


    Lirian felt her elbows rest on his shoulders, and her chest touched his slightly, he could smell her strawberry-scented lipstick, and lavender perfume as she remained close by him still not moving an inch.


    "Much better," he answered with a dazzling smile that left even the onlooking candidates and students that were looking through the transparent glass in a daze.


    Edith felt her whole face change temperature and couldn''t stop herself from feeling embarrassed, she was one of the oldest candidates and a simple smile had rendered her breathless.


    "Did, my devasting beauty render everyone breathless again," Lirian teased them with an exaggerated sigh after a pile of messages sounded on the system.


    Media was the first to break out of her stupor, "Do you ever know when to shut up, you ruined such a lovely moment," she sighed.


    "Of course, I do, but I do love the sound of my voice," Lirian retorted with a pleasant smile.


    "By the way, meet me up on the roof at lunch I want to discuss something," he pulled out of Ediths hands that were still wrapped around his head and left.


    A while later Edith finally snapped back to reality when she turned around, she saw the others looking at her with little smirks, "What?" she snapped at the stupid faces they were making.


    "Someone''s got a crush," Tobias teased her.


    "A might big crush at that," Cole added with a goofy grin.


    "So, what if I do?" she snapped at them while trying to stop her face from changing color any further.


    "You''re acting like a bunch of two-year-olds as if none of you have ever felt the same about someone," she chided them and stormed out of the room with her head held high.


    ---


    The hours quickly passed and Lirian found himself crossing the transmat bridge that overlooked the portals that led to the trial worlds, it was a bit of a long journey to reach the rooftop of a 50-story building.


    He sat in the rooftop gardens under the shade of a tree that had a neatly rounded top, he waited only a few minutes before they arrived.


    "What''s this about Lirian?" Media asked curiously.


    "Well, it''s something important but I can''t have too many people hearing about it, for now, just a select few and they can''t go around spreading what I''m talking about," he spoke meaningfully and they all nodded in understanding they had long ago suspected that the candidates'' room was monitored.


    "Do you want us to tell only our families?" she asked carefully.


    "Only those that you can trust not to go spreading the word to every person they meet it has to go into important people''s ears only," he said seriously.


    "Care to tell us what it is that you want to know?" Tobias asked, he didn''t mind helping Lirian but he first had to know if it could cause any trouble for him.


    "I need to know if there are any special, privileges, or advantages, that a headmaster receives when it comes to the intel concerning candidates," he said with a rare solemness they seldomly ever saw in him.


    Their eyes went wide and they glanced at him in shock, they all knew about the bad relationship he had with the headmaster, there was even a list of legendary stupid deeds done by candidates throughout the years, and the list was numerous, there was one new entry that topped the entire list and it had Lirian''s name on it.


    His threat against Telamon on his first day was on that list and it was one of the most iconic and stupid things ever done, and by Lirian no less, to those that didn''t know him that well it seemed like it was a stupid thing, but to those that knew him it held a lot of their focus.


    After all, Lirian was already recognized as the greatest genius in the history of the empire, and when you look at his track record nothing he did was without reason, so what could possibly be his motive to do something so stupid.


    It didn''t add up, and they had asked him several times about it, but he never gave them an answer with any value.


    "Are you trying to say that the headmaster is selling the information on candidates?" Edith asked seriously, it was a very dangerous topic that they were discussing, it wasn''t like treason it was exactly that pure treason, to make such an accusation against such a figure.


    "Not all, just the children of my mother!" he admitted without holding back, ", now it''s up to you, ask your families if you want, don''t if you don''t want to, I know that this can cause you a lot of trouble if word gets out, so I won''t hold it against you if you don''t do it."


    They all had a hard time imagining what Lirian was implying, it was Telamon Dao, the man who stood as an advisor for five rulers and the one who raised the current empress, how could he have tried to harm the empress and her children, it was a very well-known fact that he doted on the empress and her kin.


    "I know it''s hard for you to understand, but I need to know why is it that he always takes on the position of a headmaster when he goes to the academies my mom chooses, he can take on the role of a teacher but he always takes the position of headmaster, there has to be a reason," he said more to himself than to the rest of them.


    For once Cole was glad that he didn''t come from an influential background, this matter was far more serious than he could have imagined and there was really nothing he could do which meant that he didn''t really need to do anything.


    "I''ll see what I can find," Wentian said as soon as Lirian finished, it was just like him to always be straightforward.


    "This could bring you trouble," Media cautioned him.


    "If someone is selling intel on the candidates, the emperor''s and empress''s children no less, it''s our duty as candidates to learn what we can and stop it from happening," he shook his head in disappointment at Media.


    "How sure are you of this?" Media asked Lirian not letting Wentian''s disapproval affect her, she didn''t mind helping, but if it caused her and her family trouble it was a deal-breaker.


    "I only lack, his motive, as for the rest I have absolute confidence," he spoke confidently surprising them, to have absolute confidence was a lot more than they were hoping for.


    "If that''s the case then for the right price I can buy the intel from my family and ensure that no one talks about it," her squeaky voice had matured over the years but it still held a soft slyness to it.


    Tobias chuckled, "It''s pretty mean to try and profit in this situation."


    "I need to impress my family, just like the rest of you, and since a certain someone appeared it''s been hard to stand out in comparison," she complained.


    "Wait," Edith interjected, ", it''s impossible to ensure that no one talks no matter how much money we pay, info brokers will always be willing to sell for the right price."


    "If you don''t want us to by the intel then how do you suppose we get it?" Lirian asked.


    "Just give me a few days, I know someone that might know what you''re looking for," she spoke a little hesitantly, "If I can''t find out what you want then we can buy it."

 Chapter 98 - 098 - Ediths Courage

    Edith paced around, continuously glancing at her communicator on the nightstand.


    She wore a pair of very short, red shorts, revealing her long and fair-skinned legs, a red shirt with her night gown thrown over her shoulders.


    She could hear the crackling hearth, and every time it made a loud cracking sound, she looked to the communicator again only to find that it was silent, ''Got to change that ring tone," she told herself for like the millionth time.


    The cracking sound came from the hearth because of the pellets of spark powder she would put in the wood.


    It would occasionally make a loud popping sound, which she found pleasant, it made her think of those ancients rifles and cannons that she collected.


    It was hard to come by spark powder weapons, most of them had turned to dust by now it had just been that long since any was ever made, and the existing ones were either in the hands of collectors or were in closed auctions for sky-high prices.


    But with her family connections, she was able to get a fair number of them and she would always get a rare piece of her birthday.


    She jumped onto the red sheets of her bed and rolled around like a child, on the overly large bed, it was so big that she assumed it was meant for people with a large haram, and anyone that saw it would assume the same.


    Why did she have such a bed? she assumed that her family wanted her to have a haram of her own, her mother certainly did, she had heard about it from her mother''s very own lips and her father was similar with a very large haram of his own, he was the Lord of the Eden family so it made sense.


    She looked at the communicator again as the hearth made several popping sounds, this one was almost as loud as those useless powder cannon contraptions, although they were useless against anyone that wasn''t an ordinary mortal.


    She still found them interesting enough, to have bought every model she could afford, and decorated an entire room with them, her next step was to set up a room for each cannon type, and arrange them based on their age and rarity.


    The popping sounds echoed once more and she snapped her head in the direction of the communicator this time a smile formed on her lips, it was her mother, she kept her word this time.


    She had given her official report earlier and waited for her mom to give her a personal call, it had become a kind of ritual for them over the years, but her mother was always busy and that often lead to her waiting up an entire night only to not receive any call or even a simple message.


    Still, she considered herself lucky, most other candidates would have to beg to get even 10% of the time she got speaking with her mother.


    For the other candidates, it was simply a string of communications to members of their family, and if they got lucky, they would get an actual message from their parents during the holiday.


    She quickly answered the call, the projection of her mother Milan Eden, chief advisor to the lord of the Eden family appeared in front of her.


    She pulled a trolly with a pot of boiled tea and poured a cup for herself while looking at her mother''s office, everything was so neat and organized, just like her, she looked at her mother''s long black hair, it was the only trait she got from her mom, and she envied that copper skin tone of hers.


    ''Maybe Lirian would have made a proper move on me if I had skin like that, instead of teasing me from time to time,'' she shook her head to get rid of those thoughts, now wasn''t the time.


    "Edith, I know, that we just got on the call, but we don''t have much time, five minutes," Milan said a bit stiffly, it was always like this, she did try but things were difficult.


    Edith nodded it wasn''t out of expectations, things were always like this anyway, she made a quick hand gesture, and her mother gave a stern look before pressing a few buttons on a panel next to her.


    "The line is secure, now tell me what this is about," Milan was not too happy about this, the idea of these chats was just to keep up with each other, anything important was supposed to be relayed through her reports.


    Edith sighed hoping that this wasn''t going to cause any trouble for her mom, "It''s about Lirian," she said hesitantly.


    Milan sighed, "I told you what you need to do if you want him to chase after you, if you just follow the steps, within a week he''ll be begging to sleep with you, you can trust me on this, it''s worked almost every time I''ve used it and while he may be a genius, he is still a horny teenager beneath all of it," she said very seriously.


    Edith lost control of her hand and accidentally facepalmed, her mom could be so embarrassing at times, she did not even want to think about the step-by-step program, it was so shameless.


    Her mother approved of her perusing Lirian with the utmost sincerity, with his talents no matter what he did he was bound to become a pillar of the empire and any relationship with him would be good.


    On some instances she even implored Edith to make a move faster before Lirian felt intrigued by some other woman, in her words, ''No matter what, someones first always holds a great deal of significance,"


    "It''s not about that," she quickly said before her mom went any further, "It''s something troubling, something that can be considered treason if he is wrong," she said softly.


    There was nothing like the word treason that could get the attention of a noble, "Tell me everything!" Milan''s tone became icy, she did not expect to get anywhere close to something that could be labeled as treason from a simple call.


    She had half a mind to shut off the call and never contact Edith again, in her personal time, but she didn''t want to see her daughter get dragged into a storm that could damage the Eden family.


    Feeling the change in the attitude of her mother Edith felt disappointed but quickly told her everything.


    Milan could hear her heart trembling from shock, that little prince candidate, truly had guts to make such an accusation, it was utterly preposterous, who the hell did he think he was to make an accusation against a headmaster, their positions were almost as sacred as the lords and ladies of the super-worlds, but this was even a step higher it was Telamon Dao.


    "Stay away from that child, and do not under any circumstance continue to get involved with this plot of his, it could end with your head hanging on a pike," she shouted Edith, and completely changed her mind about Lirian in a snap.


    "He has never been wrong before; besides we only need to know what the advantages of being a headmaster are over being a teacher?" Edith spoke with conviction; she could have backed down and obeyed but that wouldn''t have been her, she was the star of the candidates before Lirian arrived for a reason.


    Milan felt angry at herself for telling her daughter to pursue Lirian all this time, he was truly nothing but trouble, "Recite the versus that make an empire to me, so that you can understand exactly why what you''re saying is ridiculous."

 Chapter 99 - 099 - Ediths Punishment

    Edith shook her head but did as she was told.


    "The advanced worlds, are the spear of exploration into the unknown, they conquer new worlds and bring them into the fold as lower and lesser worlds,"


    "The super worlds support the advancement of advanced worlds while protecting what belongs to the empire and constantly reporting all findings that can help and aid in the growth of the empire,"


    "The high worlds are the backbone of the empire; they handle all the daily affairs of the empire while guiding the lower and lesser worlds into the ranks of the advanced worlds,"


    "However, in every star zone there are ten high worlds that hold a sacred duty of guiding the future leaders of the world, this is known as the candidate''s trial,"


    Just as she was about to continue her mother stopped her, "Do you have any idea where the headmasters of the academies come from?!", it was a rhetorical question everyone knew the answer to that, it was the ten Paragon families.


    All ten of them were sworn to forever serve the Clovis emperor and empress, it was impossible for any member of these families to betray the empire, and even amongst the super worlds, they were on a completely different level, every member of those families are second accord combatants.


    It led to their numbers being small, but their might was legendary, a single unit from them could bring a world to its end.


    "It''s impossible for them to set even one toe out of line, let alone betraying the empress," she said with incredulity.


    "If you don''t tell me, we are just going to buy the information from someone, without giving them all the details of course," Edith said before her mom could cut the call, she added quickly, ", hopefully, we can pay them enough to keep their mouths shut, but you know info brokers anything can be bought with the right price."


    Milan forced herself to control her breathing, her daughter was literally threatening her with her own safety, ''This is why we are not supposed to get close to them, they use our emotions to their advantage, and make us give them things that they have no right to have.''


    She looked at Edith with a sullen expression, "I''ll tell you what you want to know, but this will be the last time we talk like this until you complete your trial, that will be your punishment for doing this," she hissed through clenched teeth.


    Edith''s heart sunk, she had expected this, but it still hurt anyway, "What about before I leave?" the words tumbled from her mouth before she could think.


    "That will be your punishment,", Milan answered sternly not giving an inch into her desires, she had spoiled her daughter a little too much and now it was time to discipline her.


    "Now, listen closely I will not repeat myself," she began to tell Edith what she asked in as much detail as possible before their time together ran out.


    ---


    Lirian took a break and was lounging on his bed listening to the history of Emperor Albert, it was a history topic he rather enjoyed, after all, it wasn''t very often that a very successful leader committed suicide.


    His story was one that could not be told without his identical twin brother Alfred, they were born to one of the Paragon families.


    They came from the Dao family and they were celebrated during their time, in fact, the widely played game of rock, paper, scissors, that seemed to exist in every world that Lirian ever visited was renamed because of them, in the Clovis empire the game was called ''The Emperor''s Gambit''.


    After passing every test that the world threw at them the brothers had never been closer and the empress before them didn''t know who to pick as her successor, that''s when the two of them said that they''d come up with a solution and went on a journey for ten years.


    When they returned, they walked the isle of crowning together and when they came before the throne in front of the entire world, they played a game of rock, paper, scissors.


    When Albert won, he walked forward and took the throne, baffling everyone even the old empress and emperor.


    Seconds later his brother took a solemn vow on his soul to serve as his brother''s guard until his reign came to an end, there were still recordings of the events, Lirian sighed at the fact that he couldn''t watch it and see the crazed expressions of the nobles present.


    Emperor Albert went on to explain, that after over a thousand years of hard work, both he and his brother wanted a nice long holiday, so they lied about the gambit and kept telling the nobles everywhere that they visited, that they were having a secret contest between the two of them on every world they visited.


    They went so far as to say that on the day they set of, they decided that they were going to play a game of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would become the emperor and that the loser would be the emperor''s guard.


    Lirian felt it was such a pity that such an eccentric emperor killed himself, he was nonchalant and carefree, ''It probably had something to do with the death of his brother,'' he made a mental note, ''Or some woman, yes definitely a woman that betrayed him and ruined his life,'' Lirian added that possibility, ''It always comes down to love and betrayal,'' he mused to himself.


    But as he read further, he discovered that emperor Albert actually never took a wife, and only ever had a few concubines to produce his heirs.


    It was at that point that his communicator rang and he received a long message from Edith, in which she only stated what she learned but said nothing else.


    ''Huh,'' he was puzzled the info was very long, as it turned out the perks of being a headmaster were numerous but what puzzled him was that Edith said nothing else, he waited for a while but she still didn''t add anything, it was actually odd that she didn''t call him to tell him what she learned.


    She usually called for small things, while dressed in very revealing clothing and she''d go on for hours on end, showing him her new clothes, getting his opinion about her make-up, and almost always, she''d find a way to speak about those useless marksmen rifles, that can leave a person choking on smoke after firing a single round.


    He was going to miss looking at her long legs and her cute belly button, "Maybe something came up so she didn''t have the time to chat.'' he muttered to himself, bringing his thoughts back on track.


    "I''ll just talk to her tomorrow," he said putting the matter to the side, and he continued to listen to the history of emperor Albert, the part in particular that he was paying attention to now was the Uldwin rebellion, it was a very important part of history, it was also these events that lead to the death of Alfred Dao, the emperor''s brother, his history class had vaguely brushed over it.


    There were a lot of important pieces of history that lead up to the Uldwin family''s rebellion and they had only begun to touch the surface in the academy.

 Chapter 100 - 100 - The Fallen Candidate

    A body tumbled to the ground in a bloody mess, her clothes were in tatters and the only thing noticeable on her was a gold earring with a golden thread and a small golden ball no larger than a pearl.


    The person tried to crawl forward, but her body failed her when she needed it most, she turned over and met the black beady eyes of her pursuers while heaving out a clump of blood and flesh mixed together.


    Behind her lay a path of ruin, the land had been upturned it looked like a rockslide happened in the wrong direction.


    Numerous trees were upturned with their roots were facing the sky, and in between the bodies of elves, dwarves, and the last of the humans were lying broken, leaking their bodily fluids on the ruined soil.


    She knew that this was going to be the end, but she would never beg for her life, it was beneath her to do such a thing, she had accomplishments under her belt that had left the two beings chasing after her cry out in envy and shame.


    "How, disgraceful, a bunch of sixth-graders chasing after little me," she spat in an amused tone with as much strength as she could muster.


    Two green-haired people walked forward it was hard to tell if they were male or female, they had thick carapaces on their bodies that looked like tree bark and two long antennae that stretched out of their heads.


    She recognized the two of them as the patriarch and matriarch of demi-Ents, a race of hybrids between human and Ent, there were a few other races'' genes mixed into them obviously but, human and Ent were what made up most of them.


    "The war with the human race is over," the matriarch whispered, "The woodcutters are no more we have freed ourselves from that nuisance, but we can''t have you running around to the other races."


    "You should blame your own ability for the fate that is about to befall you, greatness is a double-edged sword, as a testament to your greatness we came personally to end you," the patriarch said with respect in his voice.


    "Kha...haha..." the girl laughed and choked on her own blood, "You only came because you knew that anyone else would fail," she choked out the words.


    They didn''t retort her, it was a truth they could never deny, the human girl was truly remarkable by their standards.


    "If the dwarves get their hands on your mind only the gods know what new contraptions, they might be able to build to fight us with," the matriarch said she held a hint of reverence in her voice for the human girl.


    She was a weak second-grade cultivator yet she had changed the human race in a few decades and made them a worthy advisory.


    "We have consulted with the great ancestor tree," the patriarch said, "We know that you are not of this world, if you tell us how to find your world, and share with us your knowledge we will consider letting you live."


    The girl''s eyes turned wide, but she didn''t answer them, it was a surprise to her that they were aware of the other worlds, no one had ever mentioned it when she visited the other races.


    "No need to look so surprised, the great ancestor tree is very old, as old as the gods themselves she has recorded the travels of others like you," the patriarch spoke like a fanatic.


    The girl wanted to laugh at his ridiculous claim, she had seen the great ancestor tree, it was a million years old at most.


    But she could see how these fools made such a mistake, after all on this world, they believed any who reached the seventh grade was a god, and they only had one such person in their recorded history.


    "There have been a few dozen of your kind to come here so far," the patriarch continued your people send you here while you are still young, it allows you to grow with the people of the world and collect information about our power, we know that you will soon launch your invasion of our world."


    ''If they only knew that their entire world, is just viewed as a trial world by the empire,'' she thought imagining the looks on their dumb faces, but she couldn''t say it, she was already having a hard time trying to stiffle her laughter.


    "Don''t waste your breath on her," the matriarch said sharply, "They have even brainwashed many of our own against us and you think that you can make her betray the invaders," the matriarch said with a hint of anger in her voice, what kind of techniques these invaders had to turn people against their own race she had no idea but it made her angry.


    The girl let out a bloody chuckle, they were so foolish, "You think highly of yourselves," she whispered, but they paid attention to her every word, "If there was anything of value here this world would no longer belong to you and anyone standing in the way of my people would have died."


    "Do you think you can scare us, we are the greatest beings on this world, we stand at the front of all mortals, your world might be stronger than ours for now but now that we are aware, we will rip the memories from your head and use it to advance our world, in a few centuries we will be ready to wage a war your people could never imagine."


    The princess candidate, did her best not to laugh she was struggling for air as it was, but blood gurgled in her throat as she laughed hysterically, more blood poured out of her but she couldn''t stop shaking from laughing.


    As for their desire to extract her memories, she worried even less, the empire had placed certain barriers on her mind so no intel could be leaked, they would probably kill themselves trying to learn anything.


    She opened up her hand and looked at the ring in her hand, she had given the two of them the slip for weeks as she tried to retrieve the ring from its hiding place, it was her only way out, but she only managed to retrieve it when they were hot on her tail it would take time for the portal to open... time she didn''t have.


    She pulled herself up against a tree trunk and leaned against it, she used her strength to toss the ring to them, she knew that it was hopeless for her, but she wanted to see them despair.


    With that ring, she knew that they would fall into the pits of despair, she wouldn''t get to see it, but just the thought brought a smile to her face.


    "That''s my way home, it''s a one-way trip, once you use it, it will break down and if you try opening it to analyze the parts it will detonate, go on ahead and knock yourselves out," she gave one last laugh as she pictured their despair when they faced a single one of the academy guardians, and life fled from her body.


    The gold earring on her ear fell to the ground imprinting the map of the Eden world onto the messy soil.

 Chapter 101 - 101 - A Pitiful Fate

    Mordred slammed a jar down on Lirian''s desk, distracting him from the audio he was listening to about the Uldwin rebellion.


    "Smell the brains of a fifth-grade body cultivator, that didn''t train his mind," Mordred laughed and blew the awful smell of the preservation solution, that mixed with the brain goop, onto Lirian.


    Lirian grinned at him and grabbed two pencils, and started to use them like chopsticks, "How about I make you experience what 800-year-old brains taste like."


    ''Ah, crap, evil Lirian is already out,'', Mordred complained internally and shoved the lid back on the jar.


    They were looking at flesh samples of people that didn''t cultivate properly as part of today''s lesson, Lirian didn''t bother to pay attention it wasn''t anything new to him anyway, so he spent more time researching Telamon.


    He could vaguely hear miss Hira yelling at Mordred at the top of her lungs, he just opened up an 800-year specimen, with the current education system it was rare for anyone to make such a mistake in their cultivation and it cost a small fortune to acquire one.


    Lirian got a sudden feeling that something was about to happen, he trusted in his intuition and got to his feet in a hurry.


    Mordred just finished receiving an earful from miss Hira when he saw Lirian get up, "Come on," he complained, ", it was just a joke, no need to go-devil, monster or demon Lirian on me," he cried out, as Lirian walked past him he sighed in relief and watched Lirian curiously, most of the class did.


    Since Lirian went blind he rarely ever moved around unless it was necessary, "Hey, what''s going on?" Lucas called out behind him.


    "Something... not... right," he said with a slight frown, the system wasn''t detecting any danger to him at all, but he knew to trust his gut.


    "What are talking ab...." a sudden siren stopped his words and a slight tremor travelled through the academy, making everyone get up in alert.


    {Attention, all students are to form a proper line and evacuate the school under a teacher''s guidance}


    The announcement repeated several times and competed with the wailing siren for the student''s attention.


    Under miss Hira''s guidance the entire class began to move she came to Lirian and grabbed his hand, "You''re staying close to me."


    "I can walk on my ow...." Lirian tried to complain but was cut off by miss Hira before he could string a full sentence together.


    "I have no time for your attitude Lirian, you''ll stay close to me or I''ll knock you out and carry out over my shoulder," she said hurriedly.


    When some of the boys saw her holding his hand they did wolf whistles and laughed at his expense, another announcement started to play and Lirian just barely made out the words over all the noise.


    {All guardians report to the portal room immediately, this is an order from the headmaster.}


    When she heard it miss Hira released her gripped on Lirian''s hand and sighed in relief, ''It''s just a breach,'' she told herself, it happened occasionally when a candidate got killed, it wasn''t completely uncommon for people to eventually find the portal and try to use it.


    The portal room could be considered as a type of prison, it is the most solid place on the entire planet and it would take a team of seventh-graders to bust through the defences set up.


    When Lirian heard the announcement, it made him think of the intel he got from Edith, amongst all the things pertaining to the candidates, the most important thing that the headmaster had was sole access to the portal room, the only ones other than the headmaster that have direct access to the room is the emperor and empress.


    While every portal had a function for only a single time usage, they still held the coordinates of the worlds the candidates went to, if someone was able to retrieve that data it would give away the candidate''s position.


    It was with this that he came to understand Telamons goal in becoming the headmaster, it gave him the access he needed, there were only two things left for Lirian to figure out, he really couldn''t figure out the motive, and the last one was how the paragon family restriction not punishing him for committing treason, he had a feeling that the two answers he was looking for were very closely related.


    ---


    The patriarch and matriarch appeared in the portal room and three others appeared behind them, when they looked back to see the rest of the army, they prepared they gritted their teeth in anger.


    It was just the five of them that made it through and when they looked back the portal started to crumble, they walked off the portal platform and saw a room filled with similar devices in every direction.


    One of the subordinates gasped as he looked at it, "Patriarch, could it be that all of these belong to the other spies they have planted on our world,"


    The matriarch had been thinking the same thing and hissed, "We must destroy all of them we cannot allow them to return and share the secrets of our world,"


    At that moment several alarms began to ring and they heard words in an unfamiliar language.


    {Authorization failed... the princess candidate Ilma Eden is not detected}


    {Intruder alert}


    {Initiating defence protocols}


    "Quickly, destroy the gates," the leaders shouted, they all gathered their energy and released the most devastating attacks they could muster, but before the attacks could travel more than a dozen feet it struck an invisible barrier and rebounded smacking all of them down.


    Then a series of contraptions appeared binding them all down and locking them in place leaving them without the ability to retaliate.


    ---


    On the bridge Telamon stood with the guardians of the school and watched the intruders, they had no real ability, "D-class combatants at best", he said turning to one of the guardians a pure Ent and tossed him a translator, "Go and deal with them Galatros," he ordered.


    "Do feel free to call on us for help," one the guardians Kristen called out to him.


    The Ent shook its head and looked at him, it seemed as if he was looking at him deeply, but all Ent''s were like that; their way was slow and prolonged.


    "Don''t patronise me," Galatros''s voice rumbled like thunder, it was always like that whenever he spoke, he steadily made his way down to the portal room and put the translator on.


    ---


    The demi-Ent''s heard the sound of loud steps as they tried to break free from the contraptions in vain, and when they looked up, they thought that were dreaming, it was a pure breed Ent the type from legends that they had worshipped and that even the great ancestral tree had never seen.


    "Great master Ent please help us, the people of this world seek to invade our home and take what is ours for themselves, if you help us, our people will welcome you and sing the song of the leaves in your honour, I shall gladly offer my role as patriarch," the patriarch began to speak freely in the presence of an ent, he believed that it came to save them and he could feel the incredible aura on the ent before him.


    The patriarch had no doubt that he was in the presence of a godly Ent from the legends there was no shame in lowering his head to such a being.


    Galatros paid no heed to his words and approached, his rumbling breath echoing in the ears of the demi-ent''s, he casually slipped of all their storage device with a quick spell and began looking through it.


    The patriarch looked at him in surprise, "Why are doing this, we are of your race why do not help us," only silence answered him as he was about to say something again he heard the matriarch hiss at him.


    "Do not waste your words on him, he is a traitor to his own kind, just like the others they brainwashed," she spoke with extreme hate in her voice.


    One of their subordinates gather up energy in his mouth and shout a beam of thick lighting at Galatros.


    He didn''t even bother dodging it, as it came in closer when it looked like it was about to hit the lighting seem to change its mind and begun circling around his body spinning at a blinding speed.


    Galatros checked the contents of their rings and eventually pulled out the severed head of a woman and he sighed, "She was such a pleasant child to talk to," his voice rumbled as he looked at Ilma''s cold and lifeless head and reminisced, he had taken the girl under his wing at one point.


    "She had the greenest of hands, I once suggested that she go visit the rain forest of my home, I thought that she would be excellent at raising the young entlings," he sighed pitifully and with a casual flick of his long fingers, the lightning returned with a hundred times its original power killing the three behind the two leaders.


    "I take it that you are the ones that killed Ilma," he said in a rumbling whisper.


    "We have nothing to say to you, you traitor to your own kind," the matriarch hissed at him.


    She only heard the rumbling laughter that sounded like an avalanche coming from Galatros, "The universe is so vast..." he said thoughtfully, "I''m so used to the empire that I''ve forgotten how foolishly ignorant uneducated beings can be," he looked at them like the sad creature that they were in his eyes.


    "In the empire, the stupid notion of racial superiority does not exist, it''s a concept that most have long since forgotten, the only thing that matters in this world is one''s ability, even a beggar in the streets could one day become emperor if they possess the talent, strength and wisdom to do so."


    "Do you have any last words? I believe that the Eden family will be happy if I send them your complete corpses so I''ll make it quick and painless," he said putting Ilma''s head away.


    "What happened to our army we had over a million warriors marching behind us, why are they not here?" the patriarch asked.


    Galatros looked at them and some of the anger in his eye''s vanished, "To have the courage to lead your army from the front you have earned my respect," he looked at them in contemplation, "You needn''t worry about your people, the portals of the candidates only have enough energy for them to bring four servants from the trial world."


    "Now farewell," he swiped his hand and severed their heads, the cuts were identical to the ones on Ilma''s head.


    He strolled out of the portal room while masquerading the heads of the two demi-ents.

 Chapter 102 - 102 - First Time 1

    Under the chaos of the students lining up outside the academy, the reporters went crazy as they pushed their way into the students began interviewing as many as possible.


    Lirian felt a headache creep up on him when they piled up in front of him, "What was it like experiencing an evacuation, now that you''re blind?", he heard at least a dozen journalist shouting the same question at him.


    ''Blasted Journalists,'' he cursed inwardly, they were like a bunch of starving vultures, he back away a little as their numbers grew, he started to consider using energy to strike at them, but before he could Anya appeared beside him and the incessant clicking of the cameras stopped.


    It was a taboo to possess images of the aides of any leader, and it could not just make them lose their jobs but also their lives, any and all images of them were scrubbed from the internet and even the intel that could be freely purchased on them was insane in its pricing and lacked any images of them.


    Lirian smirked and grabbed onto Anya''s shoulder, letting her lead him to the limo, "I thought that you weren''t supposed to enter the view of the cameras," he said curiously after taking a seat.


    "This is different, in the chaos, there is an opportunity for people to strike," she answered while looking at him intently, she had felt a little of his killing intent slip out when those reporters crowded around him, and she truly wondered what was going on with him, lately he seemed to be obsessed with the idea of killing, it seemed like he was a killing addict struggling against his impulse''s.


    "Do we know how serious the breach is?" he quickly changed the topic.


    "It''s nothing serious, just a couple of sixth-graders from an outlier world, it''s probably already resolved by now, in a few minutes everyone should be back in the school."


    "Do you know which candidate''s portal they came from?"


    Anya looked at her communicator and saw the info getting relayed to her, one of the guardians was giving her a live report, "It appears to be someone you might have heard about from your little girlfriend," she teased him with a playful smile that was wasted on him.


    "Is it someone from the Eden family?" he asked not even bothered by her teasing.


    Anya pouted, him being a really old person meant that something like that wouldn''t even make his cheeks change a single shade, "Her name was Ilma Eden and she shares both her parents with Edith, although she never met her sister, they were born like 80 years apart." she sighed.


    Lirian sent a command into his watch and got it to bring up the info on Ilma, "Ediths parents seem to have really good genes," he commented, she was just as much of a genius as Edith and her achievements were numerous in the academy.


    The other candidates soon made their way to him, "Where is Edith?" Lirian asked noticing that she was missing.


    "Didn''t she tell you?" Media asked curiously, ", she said she wasn''t feeling well so she took the day off!"


    Lirian shook his, something must have happened, she had never skipped a day in the time that he knew her, "I''ll go and check on her later," he said after a while.


    "Oh, Lirian about what we spoke about yesterday," Wentian said while casting a furtive glance at Anya, "I tried to find out what I could, but I got told off by my family and they even told me to avoid you until you give up on this," he shook his head slowly and sighed.


    Lirian gave him an appreciative look, "That''s okay, thanks but I already found out what I was looking for, and as long as the right people heard about it, it''s fine."


    It didn''t take long before the announcement came from the school for all the students to go back in, Lirian waited patiently as the students began to fill into the school and got into the back of the limo.


    He told the driver to take off and a moment later Anya was beside him glaring at him.


    "School''s going to be a bust," he said before she could start, "Everyone is going to be speaking about what happened for the rest of day, so I''m just saving myself from the effort of listening to the same things on a loop."


    "Every time a candidate dies there is a ceremony that takes place immediately, and all the current candidates are supposed to be present to honor the fallen candidate," Anya said seriously, he was breaking the customs.


    "I didn''t know that," he said with a look of contemplation on his face.


    "Driver change the course, take me to the Eden families manor," there wasn''t any change in the vehicles driving, after all, they all lived in the most elite areas on the planet and while it could take a while to get from one manor to the next, they were all in the same neighborhood.


    "You said that all candidates need to be present for the ceremony," he said in his defense.


    Anya folded her arms and looked away from him before he could make her any angrier.


    When Lirian got to the Eden family manor, he heard the sound of fountains spraying water and sighed that he couldn''t take in the lovely scenery.


    A servant came running hurriedly to greet him, "Sir Lirian," she bowed to him, "I''m so glad that you came, maybe you can convince miss Edith to leave her bed."


    Lirian raised his brow but followed behind the servant, he knew that Edith just lost her sister, but it wasn''t like she actually knew her, he reasoned that it had something to do with the intel she had been acting strange since last night he realised when he thought about.


    He sighed as he realized that it probably had something to do with him.


    When he got close to the door he could smell the potent smell of wine, "You didn''t mention that she was drinking," he said with a frown.


    The servant looked down with a sullen expression, "She emptied out a whole isle from the cellar last night, she didn''t say why, but this morning she was too drunk to go to school,"


    Lirian pushed the door open and was greeted by a very large room, as he tapped his stick around he made his way to the bed where he could hear Edith''s soft breathing.


    Lirian poked her on her shoulder he could tell that she wasn''t really asleep despite having her head buried under her pillows.


    "I s-said... that I don''t wanna... get up Melly," she complained in a dreary voice and pushed some of the pillows off her face.


    When she saw Lirian, she sat up in shock and cried out, "W-w-what are you doing here?" she yelped in surprise.


    "I just came to check in on you," he told her with a grin.


    "What for?" she said groggily still trying to adjust, she was only 10% certain he was really there, she drank a lot.


    "Did something happen last night?" he asked her seriously.


    While rubbing her eye''s she looked away from him, "It''s nothing!"


    "Doesn''t sound like that to me,"


    "Then it doesn''t concern you, so stop butting in!" she shouted with flaring nostrils.


    "If it''s about the intel you got yesterday, then it probably does," he said grabbing her arms before she could start swinging them around.


    "Fine you want to know!" she said with her entire face going red, "My mom won''t speak to me anymore and it''s all your fault... with your stupid suspicions!" her yells turned into a silent sob as she finished.


    Lirian''s smile wavered as he pulled her close and hugged her tightly.


    He wished that he could look at her, it was so much harder to understand what someone felt without seeing them, but he tried to imagine what it would be like if the same happened to him, and he thought that he''d definitely want to kill whoever was the cause of his problem.


    "I didn''t..." he felt lost for words and bit on his lips.


    "You must hate me," he said in defeat, he had done it, even without that curse he still managed to make someone hate him. He laughed at himself in derision.


    Edith looked at him in surprise, she could hardly believe that she saw genuine regret on his face, she knew him for years now and it''s something she didn''t even think he knew how to feel.


    She let out a little hiccup and suddenly she became very aware of him as she realized just how close he was.


    She was still wearing the same clothes from the night, her extremely short, shorts and her shirt that just covered her breasts and left the rest completely open.


    She suddenly thought of the step-by-step program, and she felt the liquid courage that was inside her take over as she looked at Lirian with a completely different look in her eyes compared to earlier.

 Chapter 103 - 103 - First Time 2*

    The alcohol helped her forgot about the little argument they were having in an instance and she became completely obsessed with the unbelievably handsome boy that was touching her.


    She lifted her hands one to his face and the other went into his hair ruffling those beautiful silver hairs.


    Lirian felt very confused for a second, they were just speaking about something serious and suddenly she was caressing his face very awkwardly, her hand was rubbing his face very roughly as if she was trying to smother something all over it.


    But the other hand was moving sensually through his hair, it felt like she wanted to kill him with one hand and make him feel good with the other, as he was trying to understand what was going through her head he felt her press her face against his but instead of pressing her lips to his, she put her mouth over his nose.


    He felt her tongue tinkle the tip of his nose and before she could go any further on his nose, he pulled back sincerely cursing Efrideet for his inability to see what was going on with Edith.


    "Why are you trying to run away," she whispered and pushed herself back onto him, this time their mouths locked and he could feel her moving her tongue around clumsily, trying to touch every part of his mouth.


    He had no clue what suddenly got into her, but he wasn''t about to hold back if she was coming on this strong.


    As he reacted and pressed his tongue against hers, he felt her pull back as she choked out a quivering moan.


    Lirian moved his hands around her waist and realised just how little her clothes were covering as his hands explored the bare skin on her body.


    He lifted her up and pulled her closer, putting his hands on her firm ass and squeezing tightly.


    She wrapped her legs around his waist and began to grind against him, if he could see her expression he would have noticed that she was feeling very smug after feeling his solid crotch area.


    Edith pressed herself as close as she could, pressing her chest against his, due to her waist movements her shirt had already been lifted over her tits and her small pink nipples were fully erect and rubbing onto his chest through his clothes.


    Lirian was caressing her smooth legs and sliding his fingers through the gaps in her shorts as he continued to press his tongue in her mouth with even more intense passion, it had been a long time since he got to experience something so passionate and he was not about to let it go to waste.


    He pushed her down against the bed and he felt her legs wrap around him even tighter without stopping the constants strokes of her waist against his crotch, as he moved he felt her mouth quiver and she started to suck on his tongue as if desperate to devour it, she couldn''t understand it but there was a special flavour to him that was almost sacred and she couldn''t understand it.


    As his hands continued to play between the crevice of her legs, she pulled out of their kiss and a long resounding moan blasted through the room making Lirian shut his own ears.


    He felt his entire crotch area, it had been completely soaked, "Did you just...?" he asked the breathless Edith a very stupid question his soaked clothing was all the proof he needed.


    If he could see her face he would have lost himself in the euphoria.


    Her eyes were rolling around without focus and she was filled with a burning passion as she recovered her gaze became fervent with a hint of reverence, she never had sex before, but what she just felt was already incredible intoxicating.


    She ripped of what was left of his clothes and grabbed both his hands placing his hands on her ample tits.


    "Are you ready to... to stab me?" she said as seductively as she could through heavy breaths.


    "Be gentle it''s my first time," she said coquettishly ripping off her shorts and red panties to completely reveal herself, she snuck her hand onto Lirian''s hard-on and was amazed by the length and she steadily lowered it to her entrance with batted anticipation.


    Lirian could hardly think straight as the heat filled his entire body , as he got closer and touched her entrance, he got a whiff of the strong alcohol on her breath.


    ''Oh, Lirian, my dearest Lirian do not do what I think you''re about to do,'' he chided himself internally as he pulled his naked body of Edith and rolled over to the side leaving her in a state of shock.


    "Why?" was the first word he heard out of Edith''s mouth and, he could hear a sob in a voice as if she was heartbroken.


    She waited for a reply but when Lirian didn''t answer she sobbed, "Am I not pretty enough for you, is that it, or am I not smart enough?" she heaved out between heavy breaths tried to hide the hurt.


    "Because you''re drunk," Lirian said quickly before she jumped to a hundred incorrect conclusions.


    She felt herself calm down slightly, and began to climb on top of him as if she didn''t hear his words, "That''s fine I don''t care," she said trying to straddle him.


    Lirian screamed internally, ''Does this woman not even realize how hard it was for me to do something so stupid.''


    He pushed her back down and wrapped her in a hug from behind, he could feel her lovely tits on his forearms and she purposely pushed his buddy between her butt crack and grinded against it.


    "You''ll care later," he struggled to say, he wrapped a hand around her waist to stop her from moving her waist any further and he could feel her wetness on his arm, it was literally taking his complete willpower to stop himself from jumping her and completely ravishing her.


    She stopped her incessant movements and the two of them lay still for a while, "You''re good guy, you know that," she whispered.


    Lirian felt downcast at her words, "You shouldn''t say that about me, you don''t know the kind of monster I can be," he whispered.


    ''There are so many in my past that I know would scoff at her words, she is probably the first that''s lucky enough to get such a chance, there were so many that begged for that chance, but back then when I wanted something no one could stop me for even an instance especially in my earlier years.'' he thought wistfully.


    Edith couldn''t understand the meaning behind his word, but she wasn''t in any state to give it a great deal of thought.


    They spoke a little when Lirian realized a problem.


    "Edith, do have anything that I can wear?" he asked suddenly, the state of his clothes was horrible, Edith didn''t hesitate in her haste to rip them to shreds while they were enjoying themselves.


    He heard her giggle, "Sorry, I''ll lend you a bathing gown, we can go to your home to pick up a new pair of clothes," he sighed and nodded in relief.


    He had perfect confidence in his body, but he doubted that the academy would allow him in if he was in his birthday suit.


    When Edith got up, she chanced a peek at him and a little drool fell from her mouth as she looked at his body from afar, ''I was the first one there,'' she said to herself smugly.


    Lirian sighed it was such a pity that he couldn''t take a peek at her, he fell into contemplation and soon did the only thing he could to get even, "System spend 50 000 fate particles to capture an image of her while she is still naked and project it into my mind,"


    As soon as he finished wasting the fate particles, he cursed loudly, "Efrideet you bitch I''m going to make you pay for making me miss this," Edith heard him and joined him, if he wasn''t blind, he probably wouldn''t have stopped she thought.


    ---


    The Capriska homeworld.


    ''Achoo''


    Efrideet endured the agonizing pain of the chosen''s curse, when suddenly she sneezed, as she wondered about who could be speaking about her, she sneezed again.


    ''Achoo''


    ---


    Lirian walked to the limo without any shame in his step in fact he was bursting with pride as the various servants looked at him walking about in a bathrobe, the several scratches on his skin and the red marks on his neck told them all they need to know about what happened.


    Edith on the other hand followed closely behind him clutching her head with one hand and blocking the light from hitting her eyes with her other hand, the light was killing her and she was surprised at how quickly embarrassment could make one sober.


    She felt her face flush as she joined Lirian in his limo, and she soon found herself face to face with a red-faced Anya.


    She wanted to climb in a hole and hide when she heard Anya scream something that made her want to die from shame.


    "You stopped at the main event!" she chided Lirian and smacked him on his back.


    "YOU WERE WATCHING US!" he cried out in anguish, as Edith went as red as it was humanly possible to go throwing her face into her hands hoping that it would somehow help her.


    "You pedophile," Lirian shouted as he looked at Anya''s flushed red face.

 Chapter 104 - 104 - A Word To The World 1

    Lirian and Edith climbed from the limo with only a single goal, to get as far from it''s occupants as possible.


    It had been the longest ride of Ediths life and certainly not the good kind.


    When they returned to academy her face was completely red from shame and Lirian didn''t fair much better.


    Even for a trillion year old god like himself it was far too shameful and humiliating, it wasn''t just Anya that laughed at him for not getting the job done, so did Edith''s guards.


    ''That''s it, I''m never going to be a good guy again,'' Lirian complained internally as he walked side by side with an Edith that looked like she had been slowly boiled in a pot.


    The entire academy was locked in a mournful silence and every class they passed by was empty, they made their way to the auditorium, it was large enough to fit 100 000 people with ease and more than half of the seats were taken up as the head master gave a speech.


    Edith looked around and saw the candidates on a panel facing the crowd, it was going to be a hassle to get all the way through for Lirian so she grabbed his hand and pulled him along.


    It took a few minutes and after several stares from the people they bumped into they were able to reach the podium.


    "Where did you disappear to?" was the first thing that Lirian heard when he reached them, "Everyone has been saying that your disappearing act is an insult to all other candidates," Media chided him.


    "I went to pick up Edith," Lirian answered nonchalantly.


    "It looks like you went to do a lot more than that," Wentian chuckled while glancing at their necks the red hickey were extremely evident on their skin .


    "The two of you should have at least used some make-up cover it up," Media chided them, "There are camera''s everywhere, and you can bet that someone is going to notice."


    "My bad, sorry that I didn''t see them," Lirian responded sarcastically.


    "See them? I''m surprised that you can''t feel them they are enormous," she only exaggerated a little as she glanced between Edith''s mouth and the red marks on Lirians neck the two did not match up.


    Edith was still dying from the trip to the academy, hearing them talk about it only served to fuel the growing flames on her face, she felt it was really stupid to be going red over a couple of hickeys, today was just not her day at all.


    She looked forward doing her best to hide the fact that she was glowing from shame as well very hungover, and listened to the speech about her sister, that she never knew.


    The only things she ever really heard about her sister was how much they were alike but other than that there was nothing else she knew, they were complete strangers.


    People said that they both inherited their mother''s hair and that their temperament was almost identical not to mention that they were both rare geniuses.


    She felt that she should be sad about her passing but it was hard to feel that way about a complete stranger no matter how alike they were.


    She tried to focus on the head master''s speech, but as she looked at him, she couldn''t help but think about what Lirian had told them, it was such an absurd concept, why would someone loyal to the empire target the children of the empress.


    "... it only serves as proof that despite being a celebrated genius, that sometimes when we involve ourselves with people greater than ourselves, we can still die in an unfortunate manner," Telamon said with a sunken expression of sadness as if he had lost someone dear to him.


    The arrival of Lirian did not go unnoticed by Telamon, he cast him a cold glance that no one could notice as he said those last words.


    "Would any of the candidates care to say anything?" he asked looking down at them.


    The camera''s all went straight to Edith specifically, the sudden bright lights scolding her eyes left her with an urge to throw up, she put her hands on the podium to steady herself.


    She cursed at her bad luck, of all the days she would have to give a speech, it had to be the one day she was hungover. As Ilma''s sister it was her duty but before she could move another voice echoed throughout the auditorium.


    "Sure, I''d love to give a speech!" Lirian smiled, "You can thank me when you''re completely sober," he whispered into Edith''s ear as he began walking up the steps to the main podium while tapping the ground with his walking stick.


    As he got close, he purposely let the stick hit Telamon on his legs for everyone to see, he smirked slightly, a smirk solely for Telamon to see, "Oh, my bad," he said with a sincere smile, "But as you can see, I''m blind, which idiot blocked my way?" he asked.


    In that instant he heard almost the entire audience gasp for breath, and he could hear multiple people slap themselves in the face.


    Edith slapped herself especially hard, "This is not me hearing things because I''m hungover, is it?" she whispered to Tobias.


    Tobias shook his head looking exasperated, "I would think that I was drunk if it was anyone else, but sadly no, that really just happened."


    "What the hell is that idiot up to?" Media said while biting on her nails, he was starting to push things too far, eventually, her family would force her to cut off ties with him if kept pulling crap like this, and she would have to obey, hack she gladly would, he was practically asking to get himself killed with his antics.

 Chapter 105 - 105 - A Word To The World 2

    Telamon''s face cramped as he tried to maintain his perfect smile, "The stage is yours," he said, unwillingly paying no heed to Lirian''s insult.


    Lirian took a step forward and spoke directly into the microphone, "Oh, it was you Telamon, why didn''t you say so?" he sneered slightly as he said Telamons name, but quickly hide it with an innocent-not-so-innocent expression.


    Lirian wanted to grab the attention of the world with this, he knew that he couldn''t make outright accusations so he had to be smart and use more subtle tactics.


    For now, all he needed was to plant the idea that something was going behind the scenes between him and Telamon and let it take root in the eyes of the nobles.


    He chuckled and decided to stop taking direct shots at Telamon, for now, otherwise, the grand speech that he just came up with was going to be unceremoniously stopped.


    Once more he heard the audience go crazy because what he did this time was a hundred times worse, he addressed Telamon by his name directly, not even the emperor would call him by name in the company of others.


    He could feel the anger in Telamon, but more so he could feel the gluttonous appetites of the reporters, wetting their lips and fixing their camera lenses on him for they had found a scoop, several scoops full in fact.


    "The headmasters'' words are a reminder to us all about the unfortunate consequences our actions can bring when dealing with a superior existence," he admitted sincerely with a small smirk, surprising everyone after his insult they expected him to continue but instead he showed a semblance of respect.


    "That brings us to something very important, a question that we must all ask ourselves at some point within our lives,"


    "As cultivators, we all eventually hear the term superior existence, a superior existence is one who stands above us, is one who acts as both a bridge and a blockade on our road to ascension,"


    "But, ''What does it mean to be a superior existence?, one might ask," he asked with a rare solemness to his voice


    "''What does it mean to you?'', you might ask yourself," he said changing his tone into a little more than a whisper, but he could feel the ears of everyone straining to catch his every word.


    "But what you need to ask is, ''What does it mean to another?"


    "And finally, ''What does it mean to the empire as a whole?"


    "Some would say that it is power, to rise to seventh-grade and stand above all others..." he looked on with a disapproving smirk.


    "In the old world your thinking might have been right when the worlds were isolated and not united..." he chuckled slightly.


    "If you think that breaking the barriers of the accords is the answer then you would be wrong as well, even if you are one of those rare geniuses that enters into the third accord it is not enough,"


    "Then what might the answer be, if it is not strength, you are probably wondering?" he spoke with deliberate slowness, keeping them on the edge of their seats.


    "While strength is most certainly a requirement, it does not have to be your own strength you use, it can be the strength of another that you purchase or take for yourself and bend to your will,"


    "There are two more things that one needs to be truly superior to another, and it does not matter whether you are an ordinary mortal or god, for this will always remain true no matter the situation..." he could feel the suspense of the audience in there held breath and after holding the answer hostage for a second longer than they could bare he continued.


    "What you need is knowledge,"


    "Knowledge that others do not want you to have, Knowledge that others do not know you have, and you need the wisdom to use that knowledge to slowly bend and crush those who think themselves to be ''superior beings''," he finished with an icy edge to his voice while curling his small hands into a fist for all to see.


    It looked almost cute, but the words that came before it painted a contradicting picture.


    Feeling the tension in the room he built up, Lirian chuckled innocently, he knew that his message was received loud and clear and that he had to ease things up a little before jumping into the real stuff.


    Mordred sat in the audience with cold shivers, "Holy crap, he just went into full on demon Lirian mode and switched to lovely Lirian in an instance," it was scary for him, it was as if someone just killed someone in front of him, then smiled at him and asked him what''s his favorite cut of meat, while staring at the dead body.


    "Unfortunately, that is not what this is about," Lirian said acknowledging that he had strayed a little off topic.


    "We are all here due to the death of a candidate, a candidate who was famed during her time in the academy and it is indeed unfortunate that she will not live to become a pillar of the empire," Lirian sighed softly.


    "But before I speak about Ilma there is something else that I would like say,"


    "I have a story that I would like to share, I hope you will all be willing to hear me out to the end," if Lirian could see he would have seen tens of thousands of heads bobbing up and down repeatedly.


    "It''s a story that reminds of the fate of candidates, it''s a story about a dagger, a dagger we know as ''King Killer'', it was once just a simple piece of ore it was mistaken as a useless lump of rock and tossed into a sack of coal...." Lirian began.

 Chapter 106 - 106 - A Word To The World 3

    Let me tell you a story from a long time ago...


    There was once a farmer who fell into poverty, he had a wife and two children to feed but their farm had no crops.


    It was the middle of an icy winter and all their food reserves had been taken by the soldiers marching to the edge of the realm to fight in the kings'' wars,


    With no options left to him, he went to work in the mines, it was a dangerous job and the pay was horrible, the only good thing was that he would get a bag of coal every week, he could sell some of it for food and use some of it keep his home warm on cold nights.


    One day as he stroked the fires, he found a big block of black rock, as the fire struck its surface nothing happened it just sat there, not even changing color as if it deemed the fire unworthy, or perhaps it was the fire that felt unworthy to touch the rock.


    But the man couldn''t see this nor could he see the value of the big black, at the time he could only see that it weighed more than half of what was in the bag and that his family would freeze in the night.


    A week later when morning came, he had lost his youngest child, she froze in the night, in his anger he threw the rock out, burying it in the barn where it would never be seen again.


    Many years passed and the man became old, while his son reached his prime and married the girl from the neighbor''s farm.


    One day the old man became a grandfather and the mood in their home was festive, they were a people that celebrated every new life.


    Unfortunately, it seemed that fate intended to be cruel to them for tragedy soon struck again, the soldiers arrived once more and emptied out the reserves of their farm and the neighboring farms.


    With five mouths to feed and no coins to spare the family fell into despair, the old man''s wife even suggested that she take her own life so that they have one less burden.


    In his fear, he thought of everything he could and suddenly he remembered the stone he had buried, he had known that there was something special about it for all those years, but due to his resentment, he never went back to look at it.


    With the help of his son, he uncovered it and he told his son to take it and sell it.


    His son set out on a journey to the capital, he knew that his family could only make it a week with what meagre leftovers they had, but the only place he could get a good price for something unknown was in the capital.


    Shortly after going to the auction house''s, he found himself being escorted out by some soldiers in fancy uniforms, he couldn''t understand what he had done wrong, but he knew better than to argue with nobility, he had seen a boy get whipped to death just for trying to speak one.


    To his surprise, he found himself in the halls of the king.


    When he entered the audience with the king, he didn''t know what crime he committed but he lay flat on the floor and sobbed while begging for forgiveness.


    The king chuckled in response and asked him to stand, he was taken aback by how respectfully the king had addressed him.


    When he looked up, he saw the black stone in the hands of the king.


    ''I heard that you are selling this ingot,'' the king said, ''Name your price, whichever lands you seek or whatever title you want, it shall be yours, along with ten coffers of gold,'' the king showed him generosity he could hardly imagine.


    ''I do not understand my king, it is just a rock that does not burn,'' he said in puzzlement.


    ''This is dark orichalcum,'' the king answered, '', a material used only by the gods, now tell me what do you wish to have as a reward!''


    The boy chose to become a marquise in the kingdom, changing the future of his entire family for generations.


    Lirian paused and took a long breath as the story came to a close, he could hear the audience begin to chatter when he spoke into the mic once more regaining their attention.


    "But the story does not end there," he announced loudly.


    "Because many years later that very same ingot ended up in the hands of our great empire," he spoke proudly.


    "Not even the greatest powers on that world could begin to change the shape of the rock, for they were unworthy,"


    "You all know the story of ''King Killer'', the blade that killed a thousand kings and slaughtered self-proclaimed gods, it was made by the Clovis empire, from the ingot of dark orichalcum, and was forged in the fires of a hypergiant star."


    "There are many morals to be found in such a story, such as if the father had taken it to the city when he first found it, maybe his daughter would have lived but I do not want to speak about that, we are here to speak about the fallen candidate Ilma Eden,"


    "We candidates are like that black block in the fire!" his voice broke into a full-on shout as if he was proud of being a black block


    "The coals burn themselves to fuel to the fire, but the rock remained unchanged, that is what a candidate is, one who endures the same flames as others, but doesn''t succumb to its touch,"


    "Understand that that immunity to the flames is not a perk of being a candidate, but it is our duty to do what others cannot, it is out duty to take the flames that would break any other,"


    "We must face a hundred trials on our own before we are forged into a ''King Killer'' if we bend, we must work with it. if we break, we must restore ourselves,"


    "Ilma Eden died doing her duty as a candidate, it is not our duty to morn her," he said with contempt thick in his voice.


    "It is our duty celebrate her, just as we celebrate the lives of every soldier who gives their life for the empire,", he said strongly, and several people in the audience shouted out in agreement, and slowly more and more people began to join them


    "She died fighting against sixth-graders, she pushed herself to the point that beings with such power recognized her as a superior being, they had no choice but to move against her in fear,"


    "She made them dread her very existence, that is the true mark of a candidate."


    "This is the path of a candidate, we lead from the front of the line, we fight against those that lesser people would bend towards in fear, no matter the difference in life hierarchy because it is our duty to do what others cannot, what would be the point of becoming the ruler if we cannot surpass those that came before us,"


    "We are the black stone that does not burn in the furnace of a farmer or king, we are the stone that becomes a weapon against the gods themselves, and those coals that fuel the flame should be wary of us because, in the end, we are the ones that will survive the fires that they cannot bear," he faced in Telamons direction as he finished.


    His warning was delivered with subtle directness.


    He cast a quick knowing smirk at him and climbed down the steps as the crowd began to shout and clap as he finished.


    ''This worked out quite well, I suppose that I really should celebrate Ilma for giving me this opportunity, I know I should treat Edith very well from now on,'' he thought with a grin as he brought up the image he took with the system in his mind.


    He felt a nose bleed about to happen as he ogled at the image in his head, it was truly an exceptional piece of art.


    Telamon struggled to keep himself in check, he still remembered that feeling of danger he felt when he first met Lirian, it was inexplicable, but now it had turned into a full-on blaring siren in his head.


    He couldn''t fathom how it was that Lirian knew so many things that were impossible, was his intuition just that good, or was there something else, he couldn''t figure it out and his speech was filled with so many threats.


    It was only natural that he could read between the lines, Lirian was hinting about something that could easily get him killed, and his audacity to do it for the entire world to see meant that he was confident in what he knew, he was past underestimating the boy for his age, his speech just now proved it, he is a superior being.


    There was only one thing he could think of that could guarantee his death but it was preposterous to think that anyone could know it.


    He sighed in pity as he thought of Taliyah, one of the reasons he betrayed was because it was completely unbecoming of an empress and cultivator to be so involved in the lives of their children, people said that love was a great thing but he knew better.


    As long people could love, that love could be lost and when love is lost hate takes root, for an ordinary person that''s fine but for an empress who could live for thousands of years and have thousands of children, what would happen if someone killed one of the children or grandchildren, she came to love with all her heart.


    The world of cultivators was messy and the ease with which one can offend a superior power and get killed is incredible, what would she do when someone she loves offends a super world and gets killed, would she go and kill them for acting within their authority, destroying the unity of the empire.


    It is such case''s that cause and trigger rebellions that can ruin the empire.


    But that was only one part of the reason and was the smaller part, it was the part he would have been willing to overlook had he not been present when Efrideet had her visions about the problems and destruction Taliyah would bring in the name of her children.

 Chapter 107 - 107 - The Brewing Storm

    Telamon remembered that day well, he was handling the talks between Taliyah and Efrideet, and trying to get Efrideet to stop her attacks on the newly crowned empress, whilst also trying to stop Taliyah from lashing out against Efrideet with her newfound authority and power.


    Efrideet''s power was a strategic weapon for the military and with it, they had managed to launch very successful campaigns into the old Golgoth empire, whilst weeding out many of the newly formed powers in those places.


    During one of those meetings, Eftideet wanted to pull him on her side and forced herself to pull secrets from the future, she went so far as to reveal her prized treasure to him, one of the legendary basins left by Quaria herself, it was then that he saw the things that made him change his mind.


    The things, or rather the being that filled him with terror in the night, it was impossible for Efrideet to have created such a being from her fantasies, and Efrideet herself had been shocked by the encounter he experienced.


    He saw the shields of the Capriska world crumble and the structures falling to ruin, he was used to seeing such destruction it couldn''t cause him any fear, but soon he saw the broken body of Efrideet in the ruins.


    Taliyah stood over her with a vicious smirk and another figure, one shrouded in so much death, that their figure was completely distorted beyond compare.


    The feeling that being gave him made him want to crawl and hide like a coward, he could tell that the foreign being was insulting Efrideet in her final moments when suddenly it turned to look at him as if he was there.


    The shadows seemed to form a vicious smile as its gaze became fixed on him.


    The being suddenly appeared before him like death itself, and started to chuckle, "So, this is why!" the being exclaimed with joy that couldn''t be seen through all that destruction and death on its body, ", now it all makes perfect sense, Telamon Dao consider yourself very unluck," the being chuckled whilst saying his name in an amused tone.


    "Usually, I''d have just killed anyone that dares to look at me from any point in time, but as it turns out we go way back, and since your fate is going to be very sad anyway why should I end it early," the being with a hint of ecstasy to its voice.


    "Oh right, before you go back I do have to do something quickly," Telamon was unable to move as the being came closer and he heard him mutter a few things, like ''system warning'' before flicking a spark of light into him even after all these years he didn''t know what that spark was.


    "Right, that should ensure that the past me is on guard against you, you sly old fox!" the being said cheerfully.


    It glanced back at Taliyah and shook its head as if saddened about something, "Oh I almost forgot you still don''t know who I am, well I can''t allow you to know that, but ask that bitch what this means when you get back," the being suddenly unravelled a piece of the veil and showed him a green line light, that ran from the nape of his neck to Taliyah''s.


    "Lastly remember, if you play with black stones, you''re gonna get yourself killed," the being said cheerfully as if he had made a clever joke and flicked him away.


    With that he found himself back in front of the basin, with an unconscious Efrideet, she soon explained that the green light was the link between a parent and child, and so it had set his course, but he couldn''t quite figure what that dreadful being meant by black stones.


    ---


    Telamon felt his heart racing as Lirian''s speech came to a close, he could hardly fathom what he had heard, but ''black stone,'' that was far too specific, he felt it deep down that demonic creature from the future it had to be Lirian.


    He had to stop Lirian from growing no matter the cost, he couldn''t let him grow into that unfathomable creature, after all, he had seen another future, one in which that being, had brought a war like no other, with two empires going into a vicious battle against each other.


    He handed over his duty of closing the ceremony to one of the teachers and departed, he smiled gratefully at the future Lirian, in his arrogance he had given Telamon everything he needed to confirm who he was, the future him was a terrifying being, but the current him was a helpless pup.


    ---


    The next day when Lirian got up, he heard Anya giggling in his room.


    She turned to look at him, "Someone has made many, many new headlines,"


    "What can I say I''m just that great," Lirian said shamelessly.


    Anya suddenly started to read out the lines of an article.


    ''The prince candidate Lirian, used the fallen candidate Ilma Eden''s death, as a way to seduce the current princess candidate Edith during her hours of grief.''


    "There are also a ton of pictures with your hickeys, there have even been a few fan clubs online, ''I want a hickey from Lirian''..." she continued to read out a long list of embarrassing names that made even Lirian go red.


    "Media, was right," he sighed as he remembered what she told him at the ceremony, "But tell me the others, there must be a few good headlines," he said expectantly.


    Anya sighed, "Actually, you''ve caused a very big problem for yourself this time."


    "What did I offend some candidate or prince''s/princess''s that couldn''t live up to what I claimed a candidate should be able to do," he said teasingly.


    "NO!" Anya said stronger than she intended to, "Well, that is a small part of it, but there has been a massive outcry over your actions of calling his excellency Telamon by his name, they are demanding a public apology from you and her majesty."


    "That will never happen," Lirian said plainly.


    "You are causing problems for her majesty, again Lirian," Anya yelled at him.


    "Have you ever offered an apology to Efrideet for trying to stage a coup against her rule of the Capriska family?", Lirian asked coldly.


    When only silence answered he said, "I didn''t think so, no matter soon I''ll be throwing his severed head in all of their faces anyway, I wonder how many of those hypocrites will come forward to fully support my actions when I''m done," he said smiling coldly.

 Chapter 108 - 108 - A Change Of Plans

    Lirian had made up his mind on this matter, there was no way that he was about to start apologizing to an enemy.


    He went down to see his mother but she was busy, even more so than usual, it was several times worse than it had been the last time he caused a stir.


    He had no doubt that Anya had told her everything he had said in the past days, and everything that he said would make its way to her ears eventually.


    He knew that it must be tearing her heart every time she heard something new from Anya, but he had already made his intentions as clear as day, when the chance presented itself he would kill Telamon without hesitation.


    The dinner he agreed to was just his way of being respectful of her wishes, she had a foolish hope that it could resolve all their problems, but she didn''t know that she was setting Telamons farewell feast, or she knew what Lirian''s intentions were and continued to blindly hope for something good to happen.


    Lirian sighed thoughtfully, sometimes it was best to rip the bandaid off in a single go and he''d be sure to do it for his mother, even if she didn''t want it.


    ---


    That evening when he returned home, he couldn''t help but feel annoyed, all day he felt like he was going through interrogation after interrogation, and he was forced to hear a hundred different people, ''advise him to give an apology to Telamon.''


    He shut, himself in his room and began to listen to few new pieces of the Uldwin family''s rebellion, during the day the only productive thing he managed to do was have a talk with Damien Uldwin in his class, it wasn''t like he knew all the details about his families past but his point of view as someone from that family was invaluable.


    The main thing that he knew was about the falling status of his family, they were a super world with strong ties to many other big families, it was only due to those ties that there were any survivors of their family, but at the same time they were degraded to lesser world, but they managed to upgrade their status since then to become a high world.


    The Uldwin family in the past had come up with an ingenious plan to rebel, they built up a huge army and got the support of hundreds of other worlds in its creation, and they used the excuse of creating a huge army to launch an expedition into the heart of the old Golgoth empire.


    While they were secretly planning to set a solid foundation in there to set up their own power far away from the empire where they could grow unchecked, most of the families supporting them knew of this and fully supported it, as it was a good opportunity to build up their own powers in secret.


    Due to this it was impossible for the empire to lay any allegations against them, after all there was no one willing to speak out against the Uldwin family''s plans, as it was a win-win situation for everyone.


    It was during this time that Alfred Dao, the twin brother of Emperor Albert Clovis went to the Uldwin family to make them reconsider their actions.


    Just because they didn''t have any actual proof about the Uldwin family''s rebellion, didn''t mean that they couldn''t see what was going on.


    If such a large fleet tried to leave without the express permission of the emperor, they would have to erase it, and that would create a great deal of tension in the empire and most certainly lead to a civil war, things were looking dire at the time and the Uldwin family had been very careful not to break any of the laws so far, even a small mistake would have had consequences.


    It was a short while before the fleets departure, when the emperors brother Alfred Dao had been assassinated, and it gave the emperor all the justification he needed to lash out at the Uldwin family.


    The news of Alfred''s death had startled all the families involved and they quickly withdrew their support of the Uldwin family''s campaign, they knew that with the emperor''s brother''s death they had all the justification they needed to destroy the fleet without facing any consequences.


    The families would have lost everything they built and they would have been labeled as traitors had they continued to support the Uldwin family.


    While the Uldwin family claimed innocence, no one believed them, to add fuel to the fire, the empire released a statement about a set of threats that Alfred had sent to Uldwin family before they assassinated him.


    The funny thing about that which Lirian learnt from Damien was that the Uldwin family, claimed to have received no such threats even to this day, their family insisted that they had never seen such a threat.


    From there on it was Telamon that handled the matter resolving all the problems, and finally there were a few things mentioned about how the emperor had changed after the incident, his personality completely changed and he acted like a normal leader instead of an eccentric one.


    Then a year after he passed on the throne, he committed suicide.


    Lirian fell in to contemplation, as he listened to the details about what happened after, there was a lot that was up to one''s imagination, and he started to make some insane speculations, and slowly he narrowed it down with the help of the system constantly checking his conjectures, it was unfortunately very costly on his fate particles.


    Each conjecture cost him 50 billion fate particles, but after a couple tens of attempts he narrowed it down to something very interesting.


    Just as he started to look forward to the coming dinner, he got a message from his mom, telling him that Telamon delayed the dinner until after the expedition was completed.


    He sighed and decided to take a much-needed break.


    He wondered just what kind of traps Telamon would set for him on this trip, he had no doubt that Telamon wanted to use this opportunity kill him.


    "Oh, Telamon you are a fool if you think that, you can win against me," he murmured softly with a grin.

 Chapter 109 - 109 - The Emperor Moves

    Lord Callum and Milan sat across each other, between them were three spacial rings, neatly laid out on a table, Galatros from the Xelia academy had been here just moments earlier to deliver these items to them.


    Two of the rings held the bodies of the demi-Ent''s and the last held the head of their daughter, sealed in a block of ice.


    Milan picked up the one with her daughter''s head and took it out to see her face, for a second her entire body trembled, as the face reminded her all too much of Edith, they were far to similar.


    Callum furrowed his brow, "Have her cremated," he said softly.


    "Yes, my lord," she answered curtly, "What shall we do about her passing?" she asked.


    "We''ll send someone to investigate what she accomplished, if she did anything of significance, we''ll go down there and erase the nation that killed her, just as we always do," he said before quickly adding, ", and Milan hand over the duty of receiving Ediths reports to someone below you."


    "What?" she cried out, cocking her head to look at him sceptically, she realised that her reaction was a little too strong and looked away from him.


    "This a punishment for her, you told her to stay away from Lirian due to his current actions, but not only did she disobey, she ran in the opposite direction you told her to go," he pulled up an article about their new found relationship.


    "And don''t think that I haven''t noticed how attached you are becoming to her, it''s for the best for you to put some distance between the two of you," he said indifferently while falling back into his seat.


    She began to leave in a hurry when a communicator rang in the room.


    "Stay," Callum ordered as he picked up the call from Lady Elizabeth of the Jane family.


    When the projection came through, she bowed her head slightly and greeted Lord Callum, "Your highness, sorry for interrupting... there is something... we need to discuss." she said although her tone seemed uncertain.


    Lord Callum smiled knowingly, after all the Jane family had a very close relationship with the empress, with the recent trouble it must have seemed impossible for her to determine what stance she ought to take.


    Lirian had just disrespected a pillar of the empire but at the same time, the Jane family had just resolved the problem they created with the prince candidate and most importantly the empress.


    If they bared their teeth at Lirian it would make their position uncomfortable with the empress, but if they didn''t the other nobles would criticise them for not admonishing such behaviour, it was a tricky situation.


    "You should show your support for her majesty and her son, if anyone comes biting at your heels just tell them to speak to me and I''ll iron things out for you," he offered very generously.


    Lady Elizabeth looked at him dumbfounded, she did expect him to be so straightforward about such a matter but more than that was her surprise, she did call to speak about that matter but she found herself with a different stance.


    "If you ask me her majesty, has spoiled her brat a little too much, it''s time for him to learn about some responsibility, he went too far this time," Callum continued while speaking he noticed that Elizabeth''s eyes were drifting around.


    "Is everything alright?" he asked curiously.


    "First I wish to convey my condolences for the loss of your child," she said to both Lord Callum and Milan.


    They both nodded in acceptance, Elizabeth didn''t fail to notice a slight look of gratitude on Milan''s face.


    She glanced between lord Callum and Milan uncertain of how to proceed she had a different stance on the matter but she didn''t know how to bring it up.


    Finally, she sighed in defeat there was no right way to say it anyway, "In all honesty your highness, I think you should reconsider your stance on Lirian."


    ''There that wasn''t so difficult,'' she told herself, ''Now that I''ve got the ball rolling there is no turning back,'' she thought to herself she had been contemplating this very seriously.


    She had met with Lirian herself during the discussion about the compensation, and she had been utterly impressed by his intelligence, but that wasn''t what convinced her to speak up for him.


    It was Alastor, who had surprisingly given her a call just hours after the speech had gone public, and he told her some truly unbelievable things.


    She knew Alastor well enough, he knew the position he was in with the family, so he refrained from contacting them, but he chose to contact her directly to discuss Lirian.


    Lord Callum and Millan looked at her with knitted their brows, waiting for her to explain herself.


    She fell into deep thought as she pondered on where to start, when an alarm began beeping in the room, Callum looked around, when another hologram suddenly appeared in the room.


    They all heard the voice of an A.I ringing out as they looked at the person in the hologram with wide eyes.


    [Your majesty, I''m a good A.I, I successfully broke into the inferior beings communication channel]


    They paid no heed to the A.I that every person in the empire had come to hate, for its awful personality module that the emperor had created, and dropped to one knee while bowing their heads.


    "Your majesty," they all loyally said together as they gazed upon the emperor of the entire empire Albus Clovis himself.


    His mane of golden hair fell onto his shoulders as he looked at them intently with his deep eyes.


    As they rose back up Elizebeth tried to quickly excuse herself, "This must be important, I won''t intrude your majesty," she said bowing slightly and waiting to be dismissed.


    Albus looked at her deeply, "I''ve been monitoring as many communications in the star zone as I could, and you are the first person to speak up for my son, what makes you think that I want you to leave."


    The emperor''s tone was deep and powerful as he spoke as they all listened, they were surprised by his current involvement, it meant that what had happened was a lot more serious than they even realized.


    "Now, tell what makes you think that my son shouldn''t be punished for his actions," his voiced boomed and its majesty left her breathless.


    "Your majesty I did not mean to say that he deserves no punishment only that we should watch carefully before we do anything drastic," she gave a perfunctory response, internally she was cursing herself for listening to Alastor, she was having a hard enough time as things stood telling this to Callum, but now the emperor himself had gotten involved.


    "Alastor from my family contacted me, he told me that it would be the biggest mistake I ever make if I think for a second that the prince candidate did such things without planning at least a dozen steps ahead," she seriously.


    "Are we speaking about the same Alastor that tried to kill him two months ago?" Lord Callum asked with a raised brow.


    That fellow made a very dumb move but Callum was well aware of his track record, it was so good that if Alastor had asked to join the Eden family, Lord Callum would have personally welcomed him with open arms.


    Of course, that was before he made a complete fool of himself.


    Elizabeth nodded, "He also said the candidate told him a couple of things that he couldn''t tell me, but the most important thing was that the he was invited to join into the candidates campaign when he returns from his trial."

 Chapter 110 - 110 - The Emperor’s Suspicion

    Callum glanced at Elizabeth''s hologram, wondering if she was making some silly joke, when he realised that wasn''t he shook his head, "This child is truly far too audacious, this is ridiculous!"


    A child without any hair on his face wanted to attain a second accord sword saint of the seventh-grade, if that wasn''t audacious he didn''t know what was.


    "Alastor told me that he intends to join the candidate in his campaign, should he survive the trial," when Elizabeth said that she could see everyone''s jaws on the verge of falling even the emperor struggled to maintain his calm.


    "How did he convince a second accord elite to join him?", Milan mumbled absent minded.


    "As I said, he wouldn''t give me the details, but whatever it was, it was enough to convince him," she looked up to meet the emperor''s eye, feeling slightly more confident in herself.


    "I''ve known Alastor nearly my entire life your majesty, he may have made a foolish mistake when dealing with your son, but I know that he is no fool, he wouldn''t make such a decision lightly," she said with conviction.


    The emperor stroked his chin as he fell into thought, what he was thinking about was a mystery to them all, "Lord Callum," he said resolutely as he had come to a decision, "Silently offer your support to my son, I don''t want Telamon catching wind of this so plan carefully."


    "Your majesty, what do you mean by this?" he asked incredulously, if people found out about this it would cause him trouble.


    "Just do your job, if anyone asks you questions tell them it''s done on my authority," the emperors command allowed now argument.


    They looked wide-eyed at the emperor, for the emperor to say such words it could only have one interpretation, the emperor approved of Lirian''s behaviour for some reason.


    "As you wish," Callum answered albeit reluctantly, he was struggling to understand what crime Telamon could have committed that would make the emperor take this case so seriously.


    "I also want you to send a group of elites that you can trust, to the expedition world, I want them to remain hidden and out of sight, they will keep a close eye on Lirian, if Telamon is to make a move that will be his best bet," Albus said thoughtfully, surprising all of them, it sounded as if he was certain Telamon would do something to his son.


    "That order applies to you as well Elizabeth," he said pointedly, cutting of the communication and leaving all of them stunned.


    "What just happened?", Milan said dubiously, still processing what the emperor implied.


    "I''ll tell you what happened?" Callum complain, "We just got a very long and annoying job handed to us," he picked up a communicator and began to make a few calls.


    To a politician there was nothing as annoying as silently supporting someone, he had to go around convincing people to not be outraged by something that''s supposed to make them feel outrage.


    Then he had to ensure that what he told them wasn''t suspicious at all, and finally, he had to convince them to pretend to be outraged about the thing he just told not to be outraged about, to ensure that Telamon doesn''t suspect that someone isn''t working against him on the higher levels.


    But while pretending to be outraged they would have to lessen the pressure they were putting on the empress and Lirian, while making it look like they weren''t releasing the pressure.


    In short it was a confusing nightmare of politics that could very easily crumble no matter how much effort you put into it, the design was to ensure that you don''t spook your target into taking drastic action.


    Callum could feel himself having a nightmare just thinking about it, for now, the best he would be able to do was get people to wait until whatever happens next, before taking a firm stance.


    ---


    In the Clovis home world, Albus sunk into his seat and picked up a frame on his desk, he knew that frames were very old-fashioned but it felt more alive than digital pictures.


    He rubbed a thumb over the beautiful face of his wife, he had missed her over the years, it had only been a short 14 years, by a cultivator''s standard it was a short time, but to him it felt like centuries had gone by since they last sat down together, and enjoyed each other''s company over a meal or just lay down wrapped in each other''s arms.


    And the occasional dates that they would have over projections would always leave him wanting more of her.


    He scrubbed those thoughts from his mind as he regained his focus on the matters at hand.


    He had actually suspected that Telamon was involved in the deaths of his children centuries ago, it was due to his uncle''s betrayal, when he poisoned Taliyah.


    His uncle was a fervent follower of Telamon he used to shadow him for as long as Albus could remember, he was a fervent follower of Telamon and he couldn''t imagine that his uncle would do something that would offend Telamon, much less attack his most prized student unless it was Telamon himself that gave the order.


    But at the time Taliyah was completely distressed she just lost her twelfth child, became infertile, and he couldn''t add another thing to that list, the damage had been done, it was impossible for her to ever have a child again, so such a thing would never happen again anyway.


    From the moment Taliyah moved to Xelia with Lirian he had been secretly monitoring all of Telamons movements waiting to see if his suspicions were correct.


    It had taken him by surprise when he heard about the Lirian''s first day and how he had actually threatened Telamon, but he had thought nothing of it at the time, he felt it could just be the jealousy of a child.


    By the gods, he had felt the same jealousy when he was starting to get to know Taliyah, she could speak about Telamon for days and weeks without a break, it was only later on in their relationship that he learned that Taliyah truly only viewed Telamon like a father.


    Recently, he was becoming more and more impressed with Lirian''s actions because they were confirming his theory about Telamon, a theory that he had been unable to confirm or gather intel about, without spooking Telamon.


    He knew more than anyone just how much Taliyah valued her children, and he wished that she didn''t but if he couldn''t change that about her then he had to ensure that this time her child remained alive and well.


    He never wanted to see her experience that loss ever again, every time it happened, he''d feel a piece of himself break, sometimes he wondered if women ever realized the things that can make their husband''s heart bleed.


    She would weep for her children and he would weep for her, he never wanted to see her in such a state again.

 Chapter 111 - 111 - Gathering

    Lirian soon found himself at the gathering for the expedition.


    He stood in the mass hall surrounded, by thousands of students as a group of technicians set up several portals.


    Every class of his entire grade was present and so were the grades of all the candidates above him.


    Each class held twenty students, with a total of thirty classes for each grade, leaving them with exactly 600 students in every grade, give or take a few depending on those that died during the expeditions every year.


    Tobias and Edith were in the same grade, whilst a year separated all the other candidates, after them came Cole, then Wentian, followed by Media and lastly there was him.


    With their five grades combined, there was a grand total of 3?000 students.


    The candidates all came forward to present themselves before all the other students, while most of them had met each other, it wasn''t like they knew each other all that well, after all, everyone spent more time with their own class members, instead of with the other students whom they only met occasionally.


    Lirian''s countenance was quite different from the rest, he was a good head shorter than Media( 5''11") and she was considered short by most races standards but as someone from a fairy race, it was considered tall.


    What was truly odd about his countenance was that despite being so much smaller than the others in stature he stood half a foot in front of them all, with an imposing aura, that even his taller counterparts could not contend with.


    His small size and short silver hair gave him a look of ethereal beauty, the only saddening thing about his appearance was the thick black, blind fold, covering those god-like eyes they had all seen on multiple occasions.


    The amazing thing was that the candidates didn''t even show any resentment towards him for placing himself in front of them, which is what truly held the attention of those around them, including many of the teachers whose classes Lirian did not attend.


    They had naturally heard of him of course it was just that none of them got to receive the pleasure or displeasure as many teachers put it, of teaching him.


    The headmaster had come forward and gave a short speech to all of the students.


    "This is an event used to hone the abilities of our young, and I must warn all of you that while the place you are going to is not very dangerous, it has been a common occurrence for people to die during these expeditions, your lives will completely rest in the hands of your leaders," he rubbed his grey mustache and gestured at the candidates with a gentle smile.


    The candidate''s classes were unique in the manner that their leaders were pre-determined while all the others had to choose a leader themselves.


    Well, that did depend on the type of expedition the new coming candidate chose, in this case, it was Lirian.


    Lirian had to commend Telamon on his acting skills, he was acting as if there was nothing wrong and even went so far as to show his concern for the students as well as the candidates including Lirian.


    "Now as is custom the newest candidate will draw a lot to determine the type of experience all of you will be receiving," he picked up a blue box and put it in front of Lirian generously.


    "The hole is small so try not to miss it," the headmaster said with sincerity as if he didn''t realize the double meaning his words could have, more than a few giggles were heard in the audience.


    Lirian unintentionally faced Edith as soon as he heard the headmasters'' words, wondering if she had said something about their little experience.


    Edith felt her face go completely red in a heartbeat as almost everyone turned to look at her, ''By, the gods,'' she complained to herself, ''Why did I ever get involved with this mannerless barbarian,'' she chided herself.


    The image of Lirian''s naked body made its way into her head, and she found herself getting heated up, ''What the hell is wrong with me, why am I acting like a little girl with her first crush,'' she cried to herself, as her cheeks got dyed a rosy color.


    Lirian moved his focus onto the ballet box and carefully picked out a single piece of paper.


    Lirian pulled out a folded page and on the side that was visible a +1 was visible for everyone to see, he quickly handed it over to Media who was beside him to read it out.


    "United Battle Front," she said with a slightly shaky voice, this was one of the hardest possible modes.


    The headmaster nodded his head happy with the outcome, "In this mode, all classes will be grouped together," he began to explain, ", and you will form a united front to search and explore the world, however, you will all be under the command of Lirian, it will be his duty to study the maps and terrain, to form a feasible exploration group."


    Most of the students sucked in a breath of cold air as the reality washed over them, a blind person had to study the terrain of an unknown world and lead them through, it already seemed like a difficult task for a normal person to do it and now he had to do it while leading 3000 thousand people.


    Many of them felt that it was death waiting to happen for them.


    Lirian also frowned slightly, he knew he could do it but this was going to be troublesome, to stand as the leader of an exploration group while being blind, it was like asking for a mutiny to happen.


    "The details of the world will be presented to all of you when you arrive in the base on the world until then discuss your plans amongst yourselves and line up," the headmaster told all of them.


    "Head master why does Lirian have to be the sole commander, there are several candidates that can also act as commanders?" one of the student''s shouted and soon several others joined him, it didn''t matter how many great stories there were about Lirian, a blind person leading an expedition sounded like a joke.


    "Media would you kindly, show the back of the paper to every one?" the headmaster requested sincerely.


    When she turned it over to reveal the +1 that was written on the back, "This means the entire thing is controlled by a single commander, if it was a 2 or 3 on the back you would have received multiple leaders, now go on and line up," he said sternly, warning them that he wanted no more interruptions.

 Chapter 112 - 112 - Through The Portal

    Lirian heard Telamon clearly but he cared very little for what Telamon wanted.


    "It''s true that I am the sole commander," he said gathering everyone''s attention, ", but every commander needs his generals," he said with simple a smile.


    It was a simple rule that any tactician knew, all armies have ranks in order to bring about order and inspire the lower-ranks to work to the best of their ability in the hopes that they would reach higher ranks.


    "Tobias, Edith, Cole, Wentian and Media, would you be willing to stand as my generals?" he asked while everyone was watching, it was necessary to have everyone see him handing out the roles., it was the only way to reassure them of the situation.


    The candidates one by one agreed, all except for Media who seemed hesitant, "Is there something you don''t agree with?" Lirian asked frowning after a while, wondering what could she possibly disagree with.


    "Can we speak about this without an audience watching?" she whispered softly, she didn''t want a big leadership role, in all honesty she had been dreading this expedition from the day it was mentioned.


    Lirian gave her a quick nod, "I would like my generals to select the most capable mental psychics they know to come have a quick word with me," he said quickly, "Karen Eden," he called out to Karen from his class she was the only mental psychic in his class and she had proven that she was capable in analysis and commanding.


    Telamon frowned at the disturbance, but soon enough the students all began to line up neatly.


    Lirian pulled Media to the side as the other candidates went to find suitable psychics, "Is there something that you''d rather do than lead your classmates?" he questioned, trying to understand what was wrong with her.


    "Don''t you remember what happened to me during my expedition last year, I was only leading my class but I still lost three people..." she paused to take a breath, "I''m not suited to this like the rest of you are," she said with a hint of guilt in her voice.


    Lirian sighed as he remembered her disaster of a year, she had asked to leave the candidates program at one point after her failure.


    He raised his hand to her shoulder and only to late did he realise how embarrassing it must look, it''s usually the tall ones that give the big believe in yourself pep talks.


    And there was supposed to be eye to eye contact but firstly he was too short and secondly, he was blind, which really put an asterisk on the whole eye contact part.


    He put a little pressure on her shoulder and made her sink until her head was slightly lower than him, it earned him a sweet giggle from Media as she was reminded of his height complex.


    "You failed once, and you''re going to fail a hundred times no matter what you do," he began, and he practically felt Media''s heart drop and heard her hold back a sob at his words.


    Lirian almost slapped himself in the face as soon as the words left his mouth, somethings just sound so much simpler in your head but then you open your mouth and it''s like a whole other set of words come out.


    "What I mean, is that we all make mistakes, we all end up failing when it matters, but the difference between us and a normal person is that we have no choice but to get up and try again or die trying,"


    "No one else failed like I did," she said indignantly.


    Lirian wanted to snap at her for spouting nonsense but he realised that it would be counterproductive, "You think that I''ve never failed, do you think that everything that I can do is just some god given talent," he said shaking her slightly.


    "Look at me Media, I''m blind," he said with his voice barely louder than a whisper, "I didn''t let it stop me, when I knew that everyone would look down on me because of it, and neither should you."


    "It''s like I said in my speech the other day, we are the ones that lead from the front, where others do not wish to stand, that is our duty, we do what others cannot even if can''t do it by ourselves,"


    "Think about it last time you were on your own this time you have all of us to help you out if you mess up," he finished.


    "Now, go and find me the best psychic in your grade," he ordered her turning around and walking away.


    "Thank you," she whispered too softly for anyone to hear as she watched his departing back, he really made no sense to her, he was so tiny, yet from behind she felt like she was looking at an unending mountain, that could never be toppled.


    When the psychics arrived, he quickly assigned them roles such as intel gatherers and, to send orders down to the students, they were going to act as the messengers for the generals and Karen was going to handle the commands he gave out.


    By the time he was done half of the students had already slipped through the portals.


    He steadily stepped through the portal and experienced that feeling of being caught by his feet and flung around in every possible direction known to man.


    Just moments after he arrived, he was happy that he didn''t have to witness a scene so disgusting that every person present on that day wished they could forget it.


    ''Ah, the perks of being blind,'' he mused to himself as he heard several barfing sounds, he walked cautiously making sure to tap every inch of the ground before stepping forward to ensure that he didn''t step into a puddle of vomit.


    As the students slowly got back to their feet, they could see a massive steel base, filled with military vehicles moving up and down and as they slowly looked around, they spotted an Altien race (pink skinned and blue haired) sergeant looked at them with disgust.


    "I am supposed to guide you through the basics, but that isn''t happening until the lot of you wimps clean up all that filth you spilt on the ground," she shouted with flaring nostrils, being forced to witness about 500 people throwing up was enough to put anyone in a horrible mood.


    He words caused the students to shrink back in disgust, and the students from noble families especially had the sudden urge to refuse her order.


    "If anyone has a problem with that then I''ll have them lick it of the ground, now get to it all of you," she shouted.


    "Uhm, I have a problem," someone said raising their hand.


    The sergeant looked at the student with a sunken face, she had received a list of all the problem children, and it was the one at the top of her list that chose to speak out.

 Chapter 113 - 113 - Map Of The World

    Sergeant Ixel, felt her veins throb from the second she looked at Lirian, her intelligence report on him was very chaotic, if put simply.


    Prince candidate was the first thing, a position that is usually given respect due to their regal bearings and exceptional responsibility, except in his case he was labelled as exceptionally disrespectful whilst also being venerated for his genius.


    For every positive, there seemed to be a negative that made the positive vanish into thin air.


    There was a list of accomplishments including the fact that he would frequently join in the classes of the 200-year-old students of the academy, in short, it had taken him 4 years and a few months to clear most of the 200-year curriculum of the academy.


    Whilst also being able to defeat multiple cultivators in a, one vs many, battle, the list went on and on, but he was also known for giving his teachers mental breakdowns and shattering their confidence.


    The academy had cycled out 23 teachers in the past 4 years due to his actions.


    The most recent of things listed however made her feel anger towards him, and that was his disrespect of his Excellency Telamon a hero of the empire, if not for the base commander telling her to take it easy on him, she would have made him do all the cleaning by himself.


    "What exactly is your problem?" she asked firmly.


    "As you can see, I''m blind, I won''t be very helpful in cleaning," Lirian said innocently waving his hands in front of his eyes, "Also I didn''t make a mess so I won''t be cleaning up after anyone else," he added condescendingly.


    "Just get to the side and stay out of everyone''s way," sergeant Ixel spat while frowning and dismissed him she wanted to admonish him but felt that it would only create unnecessary trouble.


    Lirian walked away deep in thought, he had noticed that the pressure on him and his mother had lessened significantly, it started when the students starting telling him to make an apology to Telamon in a less serious way, it seemed more like they were doing an annoying chore instead of something important.


    It was a slight shift in attitude but it made a big difference, and seeing that even someone completely foreign to him didn''t take his complete lack of respect as a means to discipline him in front of everyone gave him even more to think about.


    It seemed that someone big had spoken up for him, but he had no idea about who it could be, for now he moved away while keeping an eye out, metaphorical of course, on all of Telamons little spies.


    There were a little more than 100 of them amongst the student, in every class of the school there were three scholarship students'', they were either from the orphanages or unprivileged members of society that had talent worth investing in.


    They were also the easiest prey for Telamon to lure and control, and he had felt several of their gazes fixed on him, with their childish amounts of killing intent that he found laughable.


    If anything, he was certain that they were waiting for a chance to catch him when he was alone and of guard.


    When the students finished cleaning, Sergeant Ixel told them the rules before leading them through the steel corridors of the base, to the barracks where they would spend the night before setting out into the wild.


    As everyone settled down, she called Lirian forward, "The commander of the base needs to speak with you, to brief you on the situation."


    Lirian nodded and followed after her, "Media, come with me," he called out.


    Sergeant Ixel frowned, "I heard that you are the sole commander of the group, as such only you will be meeting the base commander," she said sternly.


    "I assume that in the briefing there will be maps of the region, and I can''t see," he said tapping his foot heavily against the cold steel floor.


    "I need someone to do it for it me, surely that isn''t a problem!" he said with crossed arms and walked forward not giving her any time to respond.


    Media followed after Lirian, her hands slightly fidgety as she felt Ediths stare from behind, "Don''t you think you should have asked Edith to help you instead of me?" she asked casting him a furtive glance.


    Since the death of Ilma Eden, they all knew that something had happened between the two of them, after all, hickeys don''t just appear out of nowhere, and the way that Edith looked at her made her feel like she had stolen something from Edith.


    "Why would, I need her help?" he asked in a genuinely confused voice and shook his head.


    "You''re coming with me because you need some work done on you, Edith is already confident enough in herself," he said plainly not hiding his intentions.


    "Oh," she muttered in realization, rubbing her elbow as she focused on the task ahead.


    Sergeant Ixel quickly caught up, guiding them through the unfamiliar structure, of the base.


    After many turns through twisting corridors, they stopped in front of a huge shiny steel door, once the sergeant placed her identification card against a scanned the door split into two and opened up, revealing a large room, with a very large and oddly shaped desk.


    "You''ll have fifteen minutes with commander Pexis," she said stepping into the room.


    Sergeant Ixel walked in gesturing for Lirian and Media to follow in behind her, she walked to the base commander and saluted him when she stood before him.


    "At ease sergeant," he said with a plain smile while welcoming Lirian and Media, he gestured for them to come closer.


    He cast a curious glance at Lirian and Media, it appears that he truly is blind, he concluded to himself while casting a knowing glance at Media, in his reports he read, that she had made quite the mess of her expedition.


    He found it curious that Lirian would choose the weakest link of the current candidates he would have expected him to bring Edith or Tobias, even that boy Cole wouldn''t have been a bad choice, as his eyes furrowed when Lirian didn''t move, but he quickly realized his mistake.


    "Come closer, Sir Lirian and Miss Media," he said getting them to come in front of the oddly shaped table.


    "My apologies for not tell you to come closer sooner Sir Lirian, it''s been at least a century since the last I encountered a blind person," he said in a pleasant tone.


    "I understand," Lirian said curtly, ", and I won''t make a big deal about it if you refresh out fifteen minutes, we already lost about thirty seconds because of your mistake commander," Lirian said rudely, not even being tactful with his words.


    The commander surprised Media, he didn''t even look like he took the slightest of offence by Lirians remark.


    ''Good he understands that his time to analyse all the information in here is limited,'' the commander thought, these fifteen minutes had the power to determine the entire course of the expedition.


    "Yes of course, it was my fault," the commander said and lead them to the oddly shaped table, "However since you have an extra person with you I will have to reduce the time you have by three minutes," he added wondering what Lirians response would be.


    "I thought the time would have been halved," Lirian said stroking his chin with a slightly disappointed look on his face.


    The commander couldn''t tell if he was disappointed because he guessed the deduction wrongly or if it was because he wanted the time to be reduced by half, but the fact that he determined that there would be a time deduction for bringing an extra person, told him that Lirian was indeed someone that thought before acting.


    "It would have been halved had you not been blind," the commander added, when Lirians disappointed face remained the same he concluded that it was latter that disappointed Lirian, but he couldn''t understand why Lirian would want the time to be cut in half.


    In truth, Lirian wanted to make the intel gathering as difficult as possible for Media as possible to see how well she works under pressure.


    "I see," Lirian replied with a small chuckle as if laughing at a joke he just made.


    "Sir Lirian, would care to place your hands on the table and guess what it is?" he asked while pacing around the table in anticipation, he wanted to see how good the boy''s intuition really was.


    "Please just call me Lirian," Lirian said with a pleasant smile and slowly moved his hands down, he could tell in an instant that the entire table was filled with a very bumpy terrain, and as he slowly moved around it, he could feel lines that were cut into it with precision.


    But the lines seemed to bend and curve with out any form of pattern or order.


    There were different types of lines with many different thicknesses, some even had numerous breaks in the lines.


    After a full five minutes of walking around and touching as much of it as he could reach without climbing on top of the table, he was confident in what he was touching, "It''s a map of the world we currently on!" he exclaimed.

 Chapter 114 - 114 - Intel Gathering

    Media watched the exchange between Lirian and commander Pexes in silence, her gaze slowly drifted across the map of the world as the two of them began to speak.


    To her surprise she found that the commander was surprisingly laid back, and acted very courteously to the both of them, and the way he chatted with Lirian about his duties made it seem as if they had known each other for years, but she noticed that he wasn''t saying anything of significance that could help them.


    She knew the way this worked all the info needed was available to them, but they wouldn''t be told a word of it, and they only had fifteen minutes, no scratch that 12 minutes to get all the intel they needed.


    She stopped focusing on the conversation between Lirian and the commander and began studying the map she knew that this would be their only chance to see it.


    The lines that isolated the areas with different energy levels were the only complete thing on its surface as for the rest of it, it was still a work in process, on some of the more explored areas the details of the landscape were detailed.


    It recorded the various mountain ranges, and different fauna found on the planet, and there was even an index indicating all the discovered indigenous life forms, unfortunately from what she could tell there was no new race discovered on the planet, nor were there any ancestral life forms of the common races.


    Such a thing could easily elevate the value of the planet, many of the races had evolved a great deal since entering the universe, it couldn''t be helped with the great deal of inbreeding between races and with genetic modification being so easily accessible, due to the difficulty in finding a pure bloodline many people would be willing to pay a fortune to find an ancestral form of their race.


    She moved her gaze away from the detailed parts of the map and looked at the less detailed parts, it was mainly forest areas of the planet that the satellites and drones couldn''t get much information about through scans, those were the areas that needed explorations teams.


    She looked through the zone levels and was glad to see that all the zones were classified at level 3 or below, which meant that on this planet there were no readings about any creature being above the third grade.


    They would most likely have to do an exploration of a level 1 or level 2 zone, with the numbers they have it wouldn''t be too difficult, in fact, it wouldn''t be impossible to explore a level 3 zone.


    She soon noticed that the room had gone quiet, she glanced up to see the commander looking at her expectantly


    As far as information went, this room was all that they would get and, he wouldn''t tell them a word, it was up to them to learn what they could from all the information that was present.


    Media glanced at Lirian he was standing completely still, with one hand on his walking stick and the other tucked into his pocket, he faced with an expectant look on his face that told it was her time to show him what she could do.


    She smiled inwardly, this is what she specialized in, info gathering, she had the techniques beaten into her from the time she could crawl, there was never a time that she didn''t stop analyzing and collecting data.


    "Commander Pexes," she said respectfully, "If I may ask are there any restrictions on the location of the expedition, that we need to know about?" she asked slowly while casting quick glances around the room to gather any information that could be hiding in plain sight.


    It was a common tactic used to hid intel, when intelligent creatures were looking for something important, they would tend to search in hidden places and ignore open areas, and she had seen this tactic of reverse psychology used a million times.


    "I suppose I would like to offer you a word of caution rather than a restriction, I do advise you not to enter any level 3 zone, if your group somehow offends one of the creatures in those parts, things can turn bad fast," he said plainly and left her to continue analyzing the room.


    As she moved around the room she found some notes strewn about on a table, this was exactly what she was looking for, those notes that didn''t seem important detailed ruins left behind by some civilization, but according to the reports there were currently no intelligent races living on the planet.


    "Is there anything specific that you want me to find out?" she asked Lirian, his silence was leaving her on edge, and she could swear that in all the years she had known him not once had he ever gone so long without speaking.


    "Find out whatever you can, you can tell me what you''ve learned after we leave the room," he said while stifling a yawn, his tone took everyone in the room by surprise.


    Before she could protest, he continued, "The lives of everyone in the expedition are in your hands, what we do will depend solely on the intel you are able to gather."


    Media paused as his words slowly sunk in, her heart did a little tap dance as it raced furiously.


    She recalled her expedition from the previous year, she only had the duty of leading her single class, it was only twenty of them and yet she still failed so miserably.


    Beads of cold sweat poured down her face, and suddenly the clarity she usually had when it was time to observe things vanished, as she was reminded of her failure.


    She took deliberately long breaths as she forced herself to memorise everything she possibly could, she made her way around the room for a second time looking through anything she may have missed.


    She looked at the contour lines of the map, taking note of the severity of the slopes, slowly deducing the best path for them to take, she knew that they would have to enter into one of the less explored areas if they had any hope of getting a decent number of merits.


    Her eyes glossed over every corner of the room, and every nook that seemed capable of hiding something.


    After their time passed she heaved a soft breath, "I-I think that I''ve found everything that I could."


    "Good," Lirian said simply and turned to face the commander, "I believe that it''s time for you to tell everyone what we''ll be doing."


    He turned on his heel and walked towards the large steel doors, he wasn''t too bothered about what Media had learned, she knew how to gather intel accurately, he was certain of that much after knowing her for so many years, she was even slightly better at it than Edith.


    Unfortunately, she was never overly confident in herself, and she had more of a soft personality, it was sadly a bad recipe for leadership, although it would mark her as a capable advisor.


    Lirian intended to use this trip to hammer her into shape, over the years he had come to find his leadership position as something that was almost second nature to him, his great deal of experience made it easy for him to exude a confident aura that most people required years to build up.


    Due to his extreme confidence in himself, people naturally gravitated towards him as a leader, and currently, the only problem he faced was his blindness, and unfortunately no matter how much he tried he knew that there would always be someone waiting to use it against him.

 Chapter 115 - 115 - Preparations

    Commander Pexis followed behind Lirian, he felt that Lirian was quite the mystery, he had heard everything about the young prince candidate before he arrived at the base.


    He didn''t care much for the politics of the world, which was probably why he was stationed on an outlier world to further its exploration, all things considered, he liked being away from all the back biting and hypocrisy that goes on amongst the nobles.


    He was more of an outgoing person himself, his only problem with being made a commander was that he had to spend most of his time behind a desk, and almost no time in the field unless an emergency occurred.


    This world however was just too ancient and weak, the things here barely even gave his troops a challenge, and so far, the only truly notable things that he had found were some traces of long dead civilizations, but he was stuck behind his desk and unable to go out into the field for something so small.


    He watched as Lirian walked forward without a guide this time, in his single trip he had memorized the path to the student''s barracks, and despite constantly tapping the ground his pace was just as good as a normal persons.


    He remembered during the first year of exploration on this world he had to deal with a batch of candidates, and each one kept trying to compete to see who could gather the most intel while also trying to keep small pieces of intel to themselves.


    Lirian''s approach was completely different, he left everything in the hands of another, originally due to Lirian''s ailment he had intended to answer any question Lirian asked him with vague answers, after all, it did go against the rules to tell him anything.


    Due to Lirian''s circumstances, he was willing to bend the rules slightly, but to his surprise, Lirian intend to rely on someone else to gather his intel, and aside from a few pleasantries Lirian didn''t probe him at all.


    In fact, he felt a little confused, he found that Lirian was very different from what he had heard, a rude and wilful genius without any grace, and aside from Lirian sticking his free hand in his pocket at all times he felt that he was rather cordial.


    When they reached the barracks, the students were already lined up in neat lines according to their classes and the candidates were standing at the front, whilst many teachers and guardians were also standing at attention facing the students.


    Commander Pexis went around greeting the many teachers first and when he came to Anya he did a full 90-degree bow to show his respect.


    He naturally knew that Anya would be here as Lirians guardian, and he was old enough to know about all her legendary feats performed during her time as an empress candidate.


    You can scrub the internet of all the intel on her but it was impossible to scrub all the memories held by the people.


    He walked in front of the students and took two quick steps up onto a podium overlooking all of them.


    He waited for Lirian and Media to get into place with the other candidates before speaking.


    "Starting tomorrow all of you will be heading out to explore the wilds of the world, and to many of you this will be a completely new experience," he was mainly speaking to the nobles, they were completely unused to walking about without a full stomach, and taking a dump in the middle of the forests.


    In truth, it was small things like that which gave most people a hard time and caused the most trouble.


    "Over the next month you will experience discomforts you never thought of, and learn many things about survival, some of you might not even survive,"


    "I want all of you to remember that you will be graded on how well you perform, and it will depend on your individual performance,"


    "Tomorrow you will each be given a watch that is to be worn at all times when you leave, it is through this that we will monitor your progress and efforts."


    "On the watch you will find a scanning feature, this is what you will be using to scan any and all items or creatures that you come into contact with, there will be a certain number of points awarded for every new discovery, you can even use the watch to make progress reports and describe how you discovered something."


    "Now are there any questions?" he asked them now that the main topic had been covered.


    "Will there be anyone supervising us?" someone asked in the crowd.


    Pexis shook his head, "This expedition will be carried out by you alone, our only contact with you will be through the communicators, if anyone feels that they can''t handle the situation at any point in time, you may send a request to return, however, it will result in an immediate failure for you no matter how well your performance was previously."


    The students sucked in a cold breath of air, they were going to be completely alone with only other students to look out for them, they couldn''t help but feel a sense of fear.


    Another student quickly raised their hand and asked, "What purpose do the points serve for us, will it only improve our grades?"


    The commander smiled at the student who asked that "No, the points that you receive will have no effect on your grade whatsoever, your grading will depend on an entirely different criteria."


    The students were startled, what was the point of gathering points if it didn''t assist them in any way.


    Sensing their discontent he quickly continued, "The points you earn may be used when you return to the academy, it will allow you to purchase resources helpful to your cultivation, and you may also exchange them for cultivation techniques."


    This earned the enthusiasm of all the students, the requirements to get a technique was having excellent grades while also having reached the pique of your cultivation grade, and that took years, so anything that could help them along earlier was a welcome surprise.


    Commander Pexis quickly cleared his throat, ", that said, there are several things that could cause you to lose to lose points, you better watch how you behave when you are out there in the field,"


    Without super vision many students would take it as a chance to have their way, some were simply disobedient, while the nobles would try to force the ordinary students to do their tasks for them.


    And all too often students tried to force themselves on to others, with a month of mainly walking around and nothing to do, they would give in to their frustrations, such behavior was completely intolerable.


    They were free to act how they wished when they weren''t in the academy, but this was work and if they thought they could get free reign to act as they pleased, they were deluding themselves.


    Another hand shot out in the air, "Sir may we know what will cause us to lose points?"


    Pexis chuckled and shook his head, "That isn''t for you to know," he said, in truth if the students knew what exactly could get them in trouble, they would find all types of loopholes to suit themselves, this way it kept them in order.


    "Sir may we know what the criteria for our grading will be?" another student asked.


    "There wouldn''t be much sense to this exercise if you know how to score points, but I can tell you that most of your points will be based on how well you discipline yourselves over the next month, and asides from that there are hidden criteria,"


    "Depending on how well you handle unexpected situations, it is possible for you to earn points, but it is also a possibility to lose points."


    Once he finished there were no more students raising their hands, he smiled in satisfaction, "Alright then, now that all of that is out of the way, there is one last thing that all of you will have to do!" he said rubbing his hands together.

 Chapter 116 - 116 - Plotting A Course

    The students couldn''t help but let out a sigh, the way the commander was rubbing his hands together and smiling made them certain that what they were about to be told was anything but good news.


    "Many of you have brought a number of items along with you, however, there has been a slight change to the rules this year, all of your equipment and items must be left behind."


    "What about our clothes?" a girl cried out, "You can''t expect us to travel an entire month without a change of clothes," she cried indignantly.


    The commander looked around with a twinkling light in his eyes, "Of course I don''t want that," he chuckled, "Before you leave tomorrow you will be given two pairs of military uniforms," he said graciously, not at all attempting to hide his amusement.


    There were several noble boys and girls that looked like were going to have a fit, some started stomping on the ground throwing a fit, but commander Pexis didn''t care if they didn''t like it.


    "If anyone does not like it they are free to remain here, but once you return to the academy you will face immediate expulsion, and that rule applies to anyone that forfeits before three days of the expedition are completed."


    "What about put sleeping wear, you can''t expect us to sleep in our uniforms," some else cried out.


    ''Oh, how spoiled these delicate children are,'' he thought with amusement.


    "I sleep in my uniform every night," he commented innocently, "So it shouldn''t pose a big problem for you," he answered in an amused tone.


    He glanced over at the candidates and noticed they weren''t taking it all that well themselves, the two girls, in particular, had expressions of horror, the boys didn''t seem too fazed except for Lirian whose face was scrunched up in concern.


    "Where are we supposed to sleep...." someone shouted and more people began to shout similar questions.


    As the growing discontent grew amongst the students, they began to make a loud noise that echoed throughout the steel base.


    "Silence!" the commander roared, his voice was powerful and deafening as it rang in everyone''s ears.


    "As far as the basics and essentials go, all of those will be handled by your commander," he said gesturing to Lirian.


    Lirian remained unperturbed by the numerous gazes that fell on him and waited for commander Pexis to continue.


    "Now that, that''s settled all of you return to the barracks while I have a word with the candidates," he said dismissing them.


    The students looked around irritably, but they knew that it was pointless to complain, they cast glances at the candidates and left with unwilling faces.


    ---


    A few minutes later the candidates found themselves in a room, very similar to the one in the academy cafeteria.


    "Do you think that this place is monitored just like the one in the school?" Cole asked as he slowly walked around the room.


    "I''d bet my life savings on it," Lirian said nonchalantly lying down across an entire couch.


    Media walked up to a table and put a box the commander had given them down, after calling them out he simply handed her the box then escorted them to the room without saying a word to them.


    They were all curious about the contents of the box and slowly surrounded out.


    "Lirian get over here, don''t you want to know what''s in the box?" the giant high orc Tobias nagged him from the side.


    "What''s the point," Lirian complained, ", it''s not like I can see anything, why don''t you guys tell me what''s inside?" he said stifling a yawn as he lay down in front of a hearth her could feel the warmth of the flame licking his face and slowly coaxing him to sleep.


    He was also mildly annoyed by that new rule of not taking any belongs on the expedition, he packed the two blasters Anya had given him into his bag, he thought that he might need it on the expedition since it was a good opportunity for Telamon to strike he needed all the protection he could get.


    But because of this new rule he could no longer sneak it in, and it left him more exposed than he''d like to be, the most important part was that they would be unsupervised, to call it a golden opportunity to strike at him was an understatement.


    As they opened the box the first thing that came into sight was a large piece of folded paper, Media reached in to take it out and began to unfold it on the table.


    As she opened it up completely, it took up almost the entire table leaving only a small spot for the box to remain on the table.


    "It''s a map," Wentian said with furrowed brows, while it could be called a map, in truth it didn''t deserve the name, with the exception of the boundary lines that separated each zone there wasn''t a single detail on the map.


    What was even worse was that despite having the lines to separate the zones, none of the zones were labeled, which left them with no idea on which zones were safe and which weren''t, hell it didn''t even give any details about which areas were mapped.


    Tobias slammed one of his giant fists against the table, "Every single bloody time!" he cursed, "It''s like they purposely try to make things harder and harder for us every year."


    "This doesn''t deserve to be called a map, it''s a piece of crap I could have drawn something better in my sleep when I was a baby, aside from the positions of the zones it tells us nothing at all," he complained, he mainly said it aloud so that Lirian could hear.


    "It''s fine," Lirian said waving his hands around, "Media already saw a detailed map, she can fill it in with what she remembers,"


    They all turned to Media and she nodded confidently, "I can but it''s going to take me a while there is a lot of work to be done,"


    "No," Lirian quickly said, "We only have a few hours before we leave, fill in the details on the zones you think we can enter, so that we know our options and we can plot a course."


    "But there is so much, what if I forget something important," she complained as she looked at the map, it would take her at least six hours to fill in all the basic information.


    Lirian sighed, "Every evening when we set up camp you can fill in more of the map, but for now, the most feasible areas we can reach within 15 days is what you need to focus on."


    They could only travel outwards for 15 days at most, it was the safest option for them if they wanted to return on schedule.


    If they returned late every passing day would count as a demerit, completing things on time was an important factor they were certain that it held a certain degree of influence on the score.


    "He''s right," Edith said putting a hand on Media''s shoulder, ", we don''t have the time," she said with an encouraging smile, but her eyes kept drifting between Lirian and Media with a skeptical look in them.


    "What about all the other intel I gathered about the fauna and wildlife, should I write it down first?" Media asked she began to fidget around uncomfortably, she didn''t fail to notice that strange look in Edith''s eyes.


    "That won''t be important until a few days into the expedition," said Tobias.


    "There isn''t really a need for you to write it down," said Lirian.


    "Tomorow when we are traveling you can ask one of the mental psychics to record everything as you narrate it to them."


    "Then they can write out a copy and slowly spread it around until everyone has an idea of everything valuable and rare found on this world," Lirian finished while stifling another yawn, to the displeasure of everyone around him.


    Media began to write down and draw in everything she could remember on several different zones that seemed feasible for them to reach.


    As time crawled by the room was silent as they listened to the sound of graphite being scratched onto paper, after an hour a small part of the map had completely transformed as details of hilly terrain and long winding slopes of land were easily identified by the details Media carved into the map.


    They noticed that the zones she had drawn out had large spaces in between with little to no details at all, they also noted several symbols that were strewn about and highlighted by a key she had drawn on the edge of the map.


    "These are all our options," Media said with an upturned face, she was very pleased with how well everything turned out.


    She began to explain the other details that she didn''t have time to draw in, so they had a better picture of the land.


    "We should go to western areas," said Cole as he analyzed the map, ", there is a lot of areas that haven''t been explored as yet and the danger level isn''t high, we could even break off into separate groups to cover more ground," he said with a finger under his chin.


    Tobias looked at the area he was pointing to and shook his head, "If we want to get there we need to go over a very rough area," he pointed at the contour lines of the area in between the military base and the lands Cole wanted to go to, ", the lands in those parts are too sloppy."


    "If we were moving in small unites it would be fine, but with almost 3000 people, the climb would waste days of our time, and going around the slops will take just as much time."


    "Why not go to the southern plains, the lands are pretty smooth and there are a few unexplored areas, if we are lucky, we might come across something good, but even if we aren''t lucky, the area we cover should give us a fair number of points," Tobias voiced his opinion to play things safe then he turned to see what Edith thought.


    Tobias, Edith, and Cole had the most experience in this field so each one wanted to know what the other thought before listening to their junior''s opinion, and Lirians opinion on this matter was a no go if there was one thing he couldn''t do it was read a map.

 Chapter 117 - 117 - The First Obstacle

    Tobias, Edith, and Cole had the most experience in this field so each one wanted to know what the other thought before listening to their junior''s opinion.


    And as far as Lirian was concerned, it seemed impossible to get his opinion, asking a blind person for their opinion on a bunch of maps felt kinda rude to all of them.


    As they waited for Edith they noticed that she seemed to be out of sorts, as she cast continuous gazes at Lirian, they had noticed that it started happening since earlier, when Lirian called Media to help him gather the intel for the mission.


    When she noticed the two of them staring at her she shook herself out of her stupor, and brought her gaze of Lirian, she thought that they had some form of a relationship after what had happened between them.


    That day in her bedroom had become a memory of pure shame for her, she kept wondering how could a high-class lady like herself act like some wanton hussy.


    Her conclusion was to blame it on her mother who told her to do those things and secondly was the numerous bottles of wines she had emptied out.


    She made a resolution to herself to never drink again, just the thought of how she moved her hips around on top of him on that day was driving her crazy.


    Then she got completely naked, her only solace in that was that Lirian was blind, but that didn''t stop him from squeezing her every muscle as if he wanted to remember her every nook and cranny inside out.


    After such a thing happened between them, she believed that it would only be natural for him to get her to help him out, with matters like this, but instead he chose Media to help him.


    It was driving her mad, was he suddenly over her, the way he touched her that day and brought her to a full-blown climax, and the way in which he heavily panted while doing all those things with her body certainly didn''t make it seem like he could be over her, just like that.


    Is he one of those horny dogs that can''t keep his hands to one girl, she thought, but no that makes no sense at all, he has been the centre of attention of 90% of the girls in the school in school but his never even made a move on any of them.


    Some of them are so obvious that it was like they are begging him to screw them, but then there are also those that would outright tell him that he could do whatever he likes with them, but he never did a thing.


    Or maybe this is just his way of trying to make me jealous, yes that must be it, she though with sudden insight, she decided that she wasn''t going to let him play that game with her, if he wanted to make her jealous, he could dream on.


    "Edith, hello, anybody home?" Tabias snapped his fingers in front of her face repeatedly as she seemed to fall into her thoughts again, this time her whole face slowly changed into a red colour.


    When she snapped out of her stupor once more, she looked around blankly, before shooting a knowing smile at Lirian, when she suddenly recalling that he couldn''t see anything.


    She sighed and looked around, "Yes both of your ideas are very intriguing," she said with a warm smile, earning her an annoyed look from both of them.


    They realised that she hadn''t been paying attention from the beginning, otherwise she would have never called their ideas interesting at all, Cole''s idea was a complete bust, and Tobias''s was completely playing it safe.


    "Would you run me through them again?" she asked innocently as she pretended not to see their irritated faces.


    "Don''t bother," said Lirian, "We won''t be going with either of your ideas any way, we''ll be going with whatever Media comes up with," he said in a laid-back manner the only thing he was missing was some food to toss into his mouth.


    Media took a deep breath she had figured that Lirian was going to say something along those lines after what he told her when they went to meet with the commander.


    "What do you mean?" Edith spun on her heel sharpy and looked at him with a raised brow.


    "I mean that I''m leaving the planning and execution of the expedition entirely in Media''s capable hands," he said bewildering all of them.


    Wentian looked at him coldly, he had always known Lirian to be hard working and capable, so this sudden disregard of his duties made him feel that something was off.


    "You know Lirian it feels like you''re passing on all of your important duties onto Media," Wentian said with a slightly heated voice as he looked at Lirian''s laid back attitude.


    He was always straight forward, and unbending with everyone, even if they were his friend, many people took as him being stuck up, as if he thought he was better than everyone else, but it also got him the respect of many people.


    Lirian turned to face him but it was done so lethargically that it only made Wentian even more angry.


    Lirian was supposed to be the leader of the expedition but he had given the most important first step of info gathering to someone else he could look past it given Lirian''s problem, however, he was shirking his responsibilities and passing all of it onto Media.


    Her previous failure had already been a blow to her confidence and now he was forcing her to lead the most difficult type of expedition.


    Lirian sighed in exasperation, if they could see through his blind fold, they would have seen his eyes do a perfect up and spin in his eye sockets.


    "You''ve all heard about this being the hardest type of expedition, but has any of you even considered why it is considered as such?" he said flaying his hands around as he was fed up with them.


    Cole tapped his ear and rubbed the gold stud that showed his identity as a candidate, "Here we go," he muttered under his breath.


    Lirian could feel their judgemental stares, and smiled because he knew that they would be swallowing their judgement in a few moments.


    "Do you know why it''s usually almost impossible for other candidates to do well as a commander, it''s because they have to compete with other candidates while trying to maintain their authority over the other candidates, and I think all of you can imagine how disastrous such a situation can be."


    Edith gasped with realisation, "They''d all be undermining each-others authority, trying to one up each other and proving their superiority over the others, it''s like a recipe for disaster waiting to happen."


    "Exactly," said Lirian, Edith was easily the smartest of the bunch, so he knew that she''d catch on the fastest.


    "And thanks to the way that Edith and Tobias conducted the candidates over the years we don''t have to worry about all the back stabbing that would go on in this situation, you could say that the main problem had been eliminated before it even started."


    Both Edith and Tobias beamed with joy at the compliment when they realised what they were doing they both frowned and looked away, which made it even more obvious.


    "Since you all understand that, you should realise that even without that problem this is going to be no picnic, commanding 3000 troops is no easy task, but Media can give it her best shot and if she has any trouble, we''ll all be here to help her out,"


    "In the future, I doubt we''ll be fortunate enough to have this kind of expedition ever again," as he said those words, he got a strange feeling that this was going to be his first and last expedition.


    He shook his head to get rid of that feeling and continued, "Now Media can do her very best, with the very best support a candidate can hope to receive, and even if she royally screws things up, which I doubt she''ll be able to do with everyone looking out for her, all the blame would land solely on me as the sole commander."


    Media took a deep breath as she tried in vain to stop her eyes from misting up, she couldn''t believe that Lirian was doing so much for her.


    She heard Cole sniffle a little as she turned to look at him she saw him looking between her and Lirian with little tear drops in the corners of his eye.


    "Why are you going so far for her?" Edith snapped a little more intensely than she realised.


    When she saw everyone looking at her she held her head high and turned away not wanting them to see the envy hidden in her eyes.


    "Is it not our duty as candidates to help other candidates," Lirian said firmly, ", you know it was only after seeing you and Tobias talking to each other so casually and with friendliness on my second day in the academy that I realised that, it was you who thought me that candidates aren''t enemies, but rather companions that help each other up when they need it," his words held a power in them that made them all take a step back in awe.


    "Also, it seemed like a fun idea," he lied completely killing the inspirational atmosphere he created, the main reason he wanted someone else to lead was because he had a few plans of his own that might require him to head off on his own.


    "And besides," he said with a small shrug, "If anyone disagrees with me, unlike all other candidates in the past I can knock all of you senseless while enjoying a slice of cake."


    When he said that Cole''s sniffles turned from, sniffles of being genuinely touch, to sobs of grief, he wanted to deliver a fatal blow to Lirian for ruining such a touching moment.


    Media was gripping her fist tightly over her heart, her eyes were no longer misty and a look of fiery determination had taken root in them.

 Chapter 118 - 118 - The Route

    "Media, you spent a lot of time on the south-eastern part of the map," Lirian said thoughtfully.


    "I''m pretty sure that you have a plan that will take us through those parts," Lirian pointed to the lower part of the map with such accuracy that it left everyone stumped.


    Cole hopped in his face with a curious look on his face, "Aren''t you supposed to be blind, how do you even know which part of the map Media was so focused on?" he looked at Lirian with sharp eyes, that kept darting across every inch of Lirian''s face.


    Lirian raised a hand and flicked Cole on his forehead, he was getting too close, "It''s possible to observe something by listening closely," he said with a bored tone as if it was just general knowledge.


    For someone like Lirian who had once achieved the Dao of all sounds, it was easy to tell things apart just by listening, although if he wanted to achieve mastery again, he would have to focus his training on perceiving the sounds of the world.


    He had heard the difference in the sounds of her strokes, in the south-eastern parts of the map Media''s strokes were very close and focused, and at many times he could hear the friction on the paper lessen as the graphite slid over parts that were already smoothened out by the previous strokes of the graphite.


    Cole rubbed his head where Lirian had hit him it had gone slightly red, he looked at the map closely, and sure enough, the south-eastern path was the most exquisitely drawn part.


    He hadn''t paid too much attention to it, because while the drawn-in parts were detailed, too much of the area down there was blank.


    If they went into the heart of those areas, it would be difficult for them to direct themselves without any landmarks, and the reason the area was completely unmapped was that there were far too many trees in that place.


    In short, even if they managed to find any land marks on the ground, the huge trees would get in their way and block the view.


    They all began to discuss those same points, as Media heard the negatives being repeated, over and over again, she felt the determination she had built up wither away.


    Lirian didn''t stop them, in fact, he needed to hear every negative about the area, with his hearing he could pick up only so much from the strokes, but the more intricate details were hard to pick up on without a working set of eyes.


    With everything he heard he was surprised that Media had chosen such a route, in all honesty, it sounded like they could lose a few people as they scoured through those parts.


    When had heard enough he knocked on the wooden armrest of his couch, to gather their attention.


    They all stilled and looked at him, "What is it your greatness?", Edith asked sarcastically, even after hearing Lirian''s explanation for why he was helping Media she couldn''t stop herself from feeling jealous.


    The was a slightly cold edge in her voice that Lirian didn''t fail to notice, ''This girl,'' Lirian sighed, ''I''ll have to do something about this when we are alone,'' he thought with scrunched-up brows


    For now, he ignored the comment and pointed at Media, "I''m sure that you have a reason for wanting to go down this path?" he inquired; he was certain it had something to do with whatever she had learnt in the commanders'' quarters.


    He could hear Media''s knuckles crack as her small fists tightened, she nodded her head quickly causing her long green hair to bounce up and down.


    "If we go south there is a river that we can reach in three days," she started, for ordinary people rivers were important when it came to planning their route, but if you had a mage around any water-related problem could be easily resolved.


    So it did make them raise their brows a little when she began with heading towards the river but as she slowly continued, they grew interested, "The rivers will have a lot of different creatures coming to it, by moving along the river, we''ll be able to gather data on the different animals in the region and it will give us a good point of reference for our location."


    Just as they thought she was finished she continued, "Plus, the river will lead us close to the area I want to go to," she pointed to an area on the map, the location was close to the border of a level 3 zone.


    She noticed their frowns and rushed to explain herself, "In the commanders'' quarters there was a record about an ancient sculpture found close to the border as well as an ancient road, if we want to find an ancient site, this is probably the only chance we can get."


    The thought of finding an ancient site made all of them look up with sharp eyes, if they found so little as an ancient clay pot, it would give the entire expedition team more merits than they could care to count.


    Any old relics would give the main exploration team of the planet, a new site for excavation, and could help them learn more about the people that used to live on this planet.


    Tobias, quickly shot down that idea however, "We don''t know how far the river runs, we''ll be lucky if the river goes in the direction we''ll be heading,"


    "We can leave markings to guide us back to the river, we can carve marks into the trees, or we can paint the trees along the way," Wentian offered his own thoughts on the matter.


    "Let''s stick to carving into the trees, we don''t want to go around changing the forest too much, we don''t want to disturb the habitat of the forest, the fewer fights we have with the creatures the better," Edith quickly added as she slowly regained her focus.


    Her party had made a similar mistake once, they painted the trees in bright colors to highlight their route back, but on the return journey, they found many creatures gathering around the painted trees, and the creatures were very violent.


    The trip forward had been a complete success but the return trip had been a nightmare.


    "But won''t it be difficult to spot the carvings?", Media wondered, in a forest filled with trees it would be difficult to look for markings on a few trees.


    "If we were moving in a small group, yes, but with three thousand people looking out for the marks we should be fine," Lirian concluded the discussion on the route.


    "Was there anything else in the box?" Lirian asked, he heard something shaking around inside it when they were coming to the room.


    Tobias slipped his hand into the box and pulled out the last item.


    He looked at the watch he retrieved from the box and activated it with a push of a button, a menu popped up, and nodded his head in understanding, "I see," he murmured while everyone else nodded along.


    Lirian shook his head, he wondered if they were purposely not saying what it was just to poke fun at him, "Hello, unlike all of you I can''t see," he said pursing his lips together.


    "haha," Tobias scratched the back of his head as he laughed, "Sorry my bad," he chuckled in a not so apologetic tone.


    "Stop keeping me waiting, what is it?" he asked while wrapping his hands tightly around the arm rest.


    "What''s the matter, I thought you could observe just by listening?" Edith snapped with a bemused smiled that was wasted on him.


    Seeing that things might get out of hand, Cole quickly answered him, "It''s a menu with the supplies we can buy for the trip, we have a 50 000-credit allowance to fund the entire expedition."


    Lirian brought a hand to his chin, as he remembered commander Pexis''s words, saying that the commander of the expedition would handle all the supplies and accommodations for the students.


    "Since some of you feel that I''m shirking my duties I''ll be happy to do all the buying," Lirian teased them with deliberate passive-aggressiveness.


    Wentian turned his head away, he had been the one to make a big deal about Lirian passing on all his duties to Media.


    Media and Edith both went for the watch when they heard Lirian, it was apparent that Lirian would need someone to read out the items on the list.


    They both got to it at the same time, and a stare-down began between the two of them, Media wanted to show her thanks to Lirian for helping her out in her time of need.


    While Edith wanted Lirian to rely on her, but when she saw that Media also wanted to help, she was reminded that Lirian was an ass for getting Media to help him instead of her, when she thought of it like that she had half a mind to back down and not help him at all.


    "Urgh, what is going on with them?" Cole complained as he saw the beginning of a fight.


    "Girls," Wentian commented, ", we need them but we''ll never understand what goes on in their pretty heads," he concluded while shaking his head.


    Tobias rubbed the back of his head after wisely putting the watch down and retreating, "It''s like my dad once told me, ''Be careful of horny men and petty women''."


    Looking at Edith, he found it hard to believe that the usually calm-headed beauty was being so... petty, it didn''t suit her at all, but what was even more unusual was the determination in the eyes of the usually sly but soft-spoken Media.


    Lirian got up and walked between the two girls in a staring contest, he reached out and snatched the watch without them even realizing and went back to the couch.

 Chapter 119 - 119 - The List Of Grievances

    Lirian got up and walked between the two girls in a staring contest, he reached out and snatched the watch without them even realising and went back to the couch.


    By the time they realised the watch was missing, he pressed a button on the watch and turned on the audio function allowing it to read out everything for him.


    "Thank you for the concern girls but I can take it from here," he said pointedly, earning him glum looks from the two of them as he scrolled through the list.


    The device, quickly began listing all the details aloud for him,


    <Balance: 50 000c>


    <Items>


    - Short Sword ¨C 4c


    - Long Sword ¨C 6c


    - Hand Sheild ¨C 2c


    - Full Body Sheild ¨C 9c


    - Spear ¨C 7c


    - Pikes ¨C 5c


    - ...


    - 1000-men Tent ¨C 800c


    - 1000-men Thermal Tent ¨C 1600c


    - 500-men Tent ¨C 450c


    - 500-men Thermal Tent ¨C 900c


    - Sleeping Bag ¨C 2c


    - Luxury Sleeping bag ¨C 10c


    - ¡­


    - 1-men Tent Luxury¨C 38c


    - 1-men Tent Thermal Luxury¨C 76c


    - Dimensional storage(s) - 5000c


    - Dimensional storage(m) - 15 000c


    - Dimensional storage(l) -35 000c


    - Bundle of Paper low-quality¨C 1c


    - Bundle of Paper high-quality ¨C 5c


    - Writing Pens ¨C 1c box of 10


    - Writing Pencils ¨C 1c box of 10


    - ...


    <Essentials>


    - Basic Rations 3000 men daily - 60c


    - Standard Rations 3000 men daily ¨C 80c


    - High-Quality Rations 3000 men daily - 200c


    - Food utensils ¨C 12c per a set of 100


    - Water Barrels 200lt ¨C 2c each


    - Alcohol 500lt ¨C 10c


    - Salt 1-ton ¨C 6c


    <Optional>


    - Horse Carraige ¨C 450c


    - Horse Cart ¨C 120c


    - Mountain Horse ¨C 600c


    - Racing Horse ¨C 380c


    - Normal Horse ¨C 300c


    - Horse Saddle - 80c


    - Soaps ¨C 10c per bundle of 12


    - Fire Torches ¨C 1c per bundle of 12


    - Electric Torches ¨C 5c per bundle of 12, p.s power cell are sold separately


    - Power Cells low-quality ¨C 5c per pack of 100


    - Power Cells high-quality ¨C 10c per pack of 100


    - Spices 200kg ¨C 50c


    - Portable Toilet ¨C 150c


    - Luxury Bed ¨C 500c


    - Luxury Bed Sheets ¨C 200c


    - Pillows ¨C 50c


    - Diving Gear ¨C 500c


    - Climbing Gear - 500c


    - ¡­


    The list seemed to go forever and Lirian felt his veins throbbing as he heard the extensive list being read out.


    ''There are at least 2000 items on this damned list,'' Lirian wanted to scream, as he came to regret choosing to do this part.


    ''What the hell is up with all that high-quality and low-quality nonsense,'' he wanted to scream.


    The number of different sizes of tents and the options between, normal, thermal or luxurious, was enough to drive any person nuts, but then there were all those options for beds, and sheets, and pillows, that were insanely priced.


    He didn''t even want to get started on the absorbent prices of spice, and the different qualities of paper, from normal to high-quality, to low-quality water-resistant paper, and high-quality water-resistant paper, ''Who the hell needs so many options for paper?!''


    He wanted to find who ever made this stupid list of things and pour out every item on this list on top of their heads, he was certain that they''d never be able to climb out of it.


    As his face changed colour, he could hear the stifled giggles of everyone, especially Tobias whose deep voice could be heard across an entire room even when he whispers.


    It took the watch over an hour to list out every item, from its extensive list of over 2000 items, he fought the urge to scream as he sorted out everything that they would need for the expedition.


    He was lucky to have his great memory and the system to record everything otherwise he would have had to beg someone to help him.


    After cooling his head, he came to the conclusion that all the unnecessary crap had to be added to the list for a reason, and with that in mind he put the list together.


    1* Commanders'' Tent ¨C 200c .200


    60* 50-men Thermal Tents ¨C 140c .8400


    20* 1-men Luxury Thermal Tent ¨C 78c .1560


    500* Short Swords ¨C 4c .2000


    500* Long Swords ¨C 6c .2400


    300* Spear ¨C 7c .2100


    300* Pick ¨C 5c .1500


    100* Hand Sheild ¨C 2c .200


    100* Bows ¨C 4c .400


    20* Bundle of Arrows ¨C 30c, bundles of 500 .600


    300* Shovel ¨C 2c .600


    3000* Sleeping Bag ¨C 2c .6000


    200* Luxury Sleeping Bag ¨C 10c .2000


    2* Dimensional Storage(s) - 5000c .10000


    5* Bundle high-quality water-resistant paper ¨C 30c .150


    <26 210>


    ¡­


    18* Basic Rations ¨C 60c .1080


    10* Standard Rations - 80c .800


    2* High-quality Ration ¨C 200c .400


    30* Food Utensils ¨C 12c per set of 100 .360


    30* Water Barrels 200lt ¨C 2c each .60


    1* Salt 1-ton ¨C 6c . 6 <2506>


    ¡­


    8* Mountain Horse ¨C 600c .4800


    6* Normal Horse ¨C 300c .1800


    14* Horse Saddle ¨C 80c .1120


    300* Fire Torches ¨C 1c per bundle of 12 .300


    30* Electric Torches ¨C 5c per bundle of 12, .150 p.s power cells are sold separately


    2* Power Cells high-quality ¨C 10c per pack of 100 .20


    1* Spices 200kg ¨C 50c .50


    6*Diving Gear ¨C 500c .3000


    6*Climbing Gear - 500c .3000


    10* Portable Toilet ¨C 150c .1500 <15740>


    <Total: 44 456>


    <Balance: 5 544>


    Listening to the balance Lirian was happy to hear that there was so much extra, it allowed him to go on a shopping spree now that all the main things had been bought.


    He was mildly annoyed when he realised the list was just another big test, at first, he thought it was just to tempt him into buying unnecessary things, but as he thought it through, he found that there was a possibility that the things he thought unnecessary had a purpose.


    Like the 1-men thermal luxury tent, he thought it was stupid to be on there at first but he realised that it could be used as an incentive, with the addition money left over he bought himself a sword forged out of a tungsten alloy, it was the strongest ordinary metal in existence and with the alloy they used to make it, it was not brittle like an ordinary tungsten metal.


    After that he bought several other things that would be useful and help with the expedition as well as a few things he had missed earlier like the pens and pencils it was pointless to have so much paper but nothing to write on them with.


    By the time they had finished almost the entire night had passed, they only had an hour or two to sleep before heading out for the expedition and they needed to make every second of it count.


    They said their good nights to each other and ran through the corridors to the barracks, but just as they got close Lirian slipped his hand into Ediths and pulled her away from her destination.


    Edith was taken aback, she could feel the smooth and warm hand of Lirian''s holding onto her tightly and before she knew it, she found herself pressed up against one of the shiny steel walls of the base.


    She looked down at Lirian hoping to meet his eyes but that stupid blind fold got in the way, the annoyance managed to give her some clarity allowing to escape the trance she felt herself falling into when she felt his touch.


    She put her free hand against his chest and gently pushed him back, giving herself, some very desperately required room to breathe and calm herself.


    "Just because of what happened between us, it doesn''t mean that you can run around doing whatever you want with me!" she yelled with indignation, while clenched her fists at her side.


    Lirian took a quick step back and looked at with an amused grin, "You''ve been acting like some jealous girlfriend that wants my attention all night, so I thought that I ought to give some of my... attention."


    He closed the distance between them once more, pressing his hands against the wall behind her while coming closer to her lips.


    Just as he was about to lock his lips with hers she pulled her head up causing his lips to miss, but instead of stopping Lirian went forward bringing his mouth to her neck.


    Edith felt her whole-body quiver as her breathing suddenly went rampant, she could feel his lips lock onto her neck and his tongue slowly brushed against her skin causing every hair on her body to stand on end.


    She had purposely lifted her head, knowing his inferiority complex about his height, she expected him to become disheartened as he was forced to remember that he was shorter than her, but by the gods she didn''t realise how badly her plan could backfire on her.


    After a few seconds she felt her resistance melt, she slowly lowered herself allowing his lips to climb up her soft and fair neck coming closer and closer to her lips.


    Just as their lips were about to touch, she wrapped her arms around his neck, gripping the hair on the back of his head and pulling him in to her face, their kiss jumped from 0-11 in an instant as their tongues did a fierce battle for dominance.


    Lirian lowered his hands to grab onto her soft thighs, and slowly worked his way up bringing his hands under her school skirt and massaging her ass, he had half a mind to take her then and there.


    Edith could feel his hands climbing closer and closer to her special places, and she longed to relive that feeling he had given her that day, but she was suddenly reminded of his words from a few seconds ago, calling her a jealous girlfriend.


    As Lirian was about to slide his fingers under her panties, Edith pulled her tongue out of his mouth and pushed him away once more.

 Chapter 120 - 120 - Confessions

    As Lirian was about to slide his fingers under her panties, Edith pulled her tongue out of his mouth and pushed him away once more.


    Lirian wasn''t too bothered about it, but as he heard her heavy breathing, it was a clear indicator of how much she was enjoying what they were doing.


    He cursed Efrideet silently because he could imagine just how sexy Edith was looking right now, with her completely flushed face and her perfectly shaped breast bouncing up and down with every heated breath she took.


    Unfortunately, he was destined to be unable to observe it with his own two eyes.


    "You should have come to me for help," she breathed heavily while waving her hands around, she took two steps forward and pushed him against the wall on the other side of the corridor.


    "We haven''t even made anything official between us and you already trying to make me jealous with other girls," she forced the words out from between her teeth as she poked him hard in the ribs.


    "You stupid asshole, that isn''t how you''re supposed to treat a girl," she sniffled slightly while pressing her fingers into his ribs with even more pressure.


    Lirian felt exasperated because he really wasn''t trying to do any such thing, he caught her hands and pulled her into a tight hug.


    "I swear cross my heart hope to die that I wasn''t trying to make you jealous," he whispered softly into her ear, ", and I''m not interested in Media," he said blowing a small zephyr of air into her ear.


    Edith felt like an idiot all of a sudden, she snuggled into his chest to hide her embarrassed face when she felt a sudden jet of air blow ever so gently into her ear, she felt shivers course through her body, which made her grip onto Lirian all the more tightly.


    "But you are right about something," Lirian said something in his usual condescending voice, that made so many people want to hit him.


    The way he said it, it was like he was saying she was usually never right about anything.


    At that moment Edith wanted to hit him with all her might because he was ruining their moment together.


    Lirian smirked a little more before continuing, "We haven''t made anything official between us yet have we, so how about it," he said pulling his face down to hers holding it just an inch away from her.


    "Miss Edith, Princess Candidate of the Eden family, will you be willing to take me as your... b-boyfriend," Lirian wanted to smack himself for stuttering on the last word.


    ''Trillion-year-old god, stammers when asking a girl out,'' he chided himself in anger, but it couldn''t be helped, in his life the only people who weren''t affected by his curse were the eternals, but they held some odd compulsion in their blood to make his life a living hell.


    With the exception of Katerina whom he had spent many years with the only other women he could ever be with, were people with damaged souls from other plains.


    Sometimes people with damaged souls could retain the memories of their previous lives and they maintained the soul imprint of their plain, hence it rendered the curse useless against them, after all the curse only worked on people from the 33 Neather Heavens.


    Those were the only other people he could be around, but they were exceptionally rare and hard to find, in all his time he met only 9 such people.


    Edith''s breath stilled in her lungs, she was expecting him to completely ruin the mood, but his question left her stunned beyond belief it was the complete opposite of what she had expected.


    What made it even better for her was the last part, Lirian was always so confident in himself, that she couldn''t even bring herself to imagine him stuttering yet he did just that, when asking her out, it was the proverbial cherry on top of the cake for her.


    Like a hungry beast she pushed him against the wall with all her strength and caught his mouth with her own and begun to kiss him with a fiery passion in response.


    Lirian enjoyed the feeling of having her fingers dig into his back, and her lovely breasts that moved up and down as they squished against his chest.


    Their tongues collided repeatedly and small dribbles of saliva fell onto their clothes, as Edith pulled her tongue away to get some breath, she felt Lirian bite her lips, he caught her lower lip between his teeth and slowly pulled back stretching her lip.


    Edith surprised herself when she enjoyed the rough and painful feeling, and she let out a small whimpering moan of pleasure it slowly grew louder and stronger.


    Her eyes grew wide as the guttural moans of pleasure leaked from her mouth, she quickly pulled her face away from Lirian''s mouth and buried it in his chest in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.


    The shame was unbelievable for her at that moment, as she had just soaked her clothes and Lirian''s.


    ''The last time I made those sounds with him I was drunk and he was touching me in the right place, but this time I got off to him biting my lips, good gods, what will he think of me for doing that,'' she thought with a completely flushed face.


    She buried her head as deep into his chest as it could go, and wrapped her arms around him tightly, hoping that he wouldn''t see her face.


    Lirian on the other hand was feeling very pleased with himself, and he couldn''t hide the pride he felt as his face broke into a grin.


    He had total gotten a girl off without even fondling her breasts, all he did was kiss her and give a her a little rough passion, it was a good thing that Edith was too embarrassed to look up at his face or she would have knocked that decrepit smirk from his face.


    Minutes went by as the two of them sat in silence wrapped in each-others embrace, the only sound that filled the corridor was their heavy breathing, and despite the fact that they had both stopped doing anything other than hug their breathing seemed to remain just as laboured as before.


    Lirian decided to break the silence after some time had passed, "That was great," he whispered softly into Ediths ear, causing her breathing that had just calmed down to begin racing again.


    "If I can take your reaction to my question as any response, does that mean that it''s a yes," he wore a particularly sly smile and his tone held a teasing edge.


    Edith felt a sincere desire to punch him directly in his manhood, for his untimely teasing of her sensitivity, but she couldn''t help but feel ashamed of how quickly and easily he had brought her to a climax.


    In the end she nodded meekly and pulled out of their intense hug but then Lirian''s voice rang out again, "You do remember that I''m blind, don''t you? I require a verbal confirmation," he said with a cheeky grin.


    Edith just barely managed to take control of her arm before she slapped herself in the face for being so stupid this entire time, ''I was so high up on my horny hormones that I completely forgot he''s blind,'' she cried to herself in anguish.


    After burying her face in her hands, she answered him meekly, "Yes."


    ''Good gods why am I acting like a weak little girl,'' she chided herself as she looked at Lirian''s beautiful face in wonder.


    ''By the gods, I''ve always known that he''s beautiful,'' she thought '', even more beautiful than me,'' her mind added wilfully, '', but why does he look so much more beautiful now, I just want to put my mouth over every last piece of him,'' she thought gulping down her own saliva


    As her thoughts strayed, she quickly shook her head, ''In the step-by-step program that mom gave me it said that I shouldn''t show how eager I am I have to take things slowly one step at a time or boys will walk all over me,'' she reminded herself.


    ''The first thing that I have to do is set boundaries,'' she looked at Lirian with a stupid grin on her face as she prepared to take control of the situation.


    "Lirian," she called out his name sweetly, "I will say yes if you agree to a few things first," she said coquettishly, but internally she felt like she was dying from shame, ''I''ve never spoken like that in my entire life, I don''t even recognise my own voice,'' she cried to herself.


    "Huh, but you already said yes," Lirian replied tilting his head to the side, ''Was I hearing things,'' he shook his head, ''Nope I don''t think so, and what is up with her voice all of a sudden, it''s like she''s become a girly girl, I don''t like it.''

 Chapter 121 - 121 – The Conflux Of Fate 1

    Edith almost choked on the words she was about to say, ''God dammit, why did I already say yes,'' she reproached herself.


    "And you don''t sound like my Edith when you speak like that so please stop it," Lirian implored her not even realizing the psychological trauma he was leaving on her.


    Edith felt like she had been knocked on both sides of her head by two pans simultaneously, ''He doesn''t like it when I try to sound all sweet and charming, but he just called me "his Edith",'' she thought with a dreamy smile.


    ''Get your head back in the game,'' she chided herself and continued, "What I mean is that we need to set boundaries, like for as long we are together I don''t to so much as catch you looking at another girl," she came on a little stronger than she intended as she remembered the reason, she had started to fight with him in the first place.


    She didn''t like that jealous feeling in her gut, and she hated the way it made her act, it clouded her head made her think like a fool.


    "Seeing as how I''m blind, I don''t think that you have to worry about that," Lirian replied with a teasing tone as he realized what she was trying to do.


    ''So little Edith wants me all to herself, I suppose my unbridled beauty has taken her heart by storm,'' he thought with a sly smile that didn''t go unnoticed by Edith.


    "You know what I mean," Edith gnashed her teeth and slapped lightly him across the top of his head.


    "Yes, yes of course for as long as we are together in the academy, I''ll swear off all other girls," he conceded like it was a difficult decision, but internally he didn''t care about it, ''It''s not like theirs anyone else I''m interested in anyway.''


    Edith ignored the part about him only swearing of other girls while they were in the academy, it would be dumb of her to expect him to never have a relationship with another woman over their two-hundred-trial, and the same applied to her, she was going to enjoy the time they had together, but when she was undergoing her trial, she had no clue as to who she might come to love.


    In truth one in every ten candidates failed their trials, because they fell in love on the fringe worlds, and decided not to continue pursuing the road of emperors and empresses.


    She was slightly surprised by how easily he had agreed, but she was happy to hear it, "There is one more thing," she said with her voice going a little queasy as she thought about it.


    ''Gods, I wish that I had some alcohol to speak about this,'' she cried to herself, forgetting her earlier resolution to abstain from alcohol.


    She could she fell Lirian looking at her quizzically as he waited for her next words, she took a deep breath and prepared herself, "I know that we''ve been pretty intimate before but that''s because I was drunk, so...no sex... at least not until I''m ready," she panted heavily.


    "You weren''t drunk just a few minutes ago," Lirian argued with a teasing grin, ", and if you make sounds like that when it''s just us kissing how am I supposed to control myself."


    Edith''s eyes went wide and her entire face resembled the surface of a red sun as she lowered her head in utter shame.


    "Fine be like that," Edith snapped at him, ", maybe I don''t to be with you anyway," she pulled herself off him and turned around to leave, but she soon found herself caught by her hands.


    Lirian pulled her into a tight embrace, he locked her back against his chest wrapping his arms around her hand-sized breasts, and he brought his head to her shoulder as he whispered into her ear.


    "Sorry, but that isn''t an option anymore, you already agreed to be mine," he said in a fierce whisper.


    Edith struggled to keep her thoughts straight, Lirian was so small compared to her but he had two things always going for him, his looks that could win over any young girl''s heart.


    But the thing that always took Edith by surprise was his extraordinary presence, it was so thick and powerful bending everything towards him on a tangible level.


    She sometimes wondered if he even realised how intimidating his presence could be, she doubted that even the greatest emperors and empresses of old contained that unyielding presence that he exuded so naturally.


    As she felt her mind almost melt, she nodded stupidly.


    "Good," Lirian chuckled, ", and I agree to your last condition, but when you decide that you want to do it, you''re going to have to say it loud and clear to me," he said with a wicked grin.


    Edith nodded weakly not even realizing what she was agreeing to do.


    ''Based on how sensitive she is, I doubt that it will be long before she wants to do it anyway,'' Lirian thought happily.


    "Alright now we have less than an hour to rest before we head out, you should go and get some sleep," Lirian whispered in her ear before letting her go.


    As he watched Edith take slow steps forward, he heard a whisper in his head.


    "You should kill her now," number 12 hissed.


    Lirian took a deep breath and gently massaged his temples as he forced himself to ignore the voice.


    "Did you say something?" Edith asked turning around suddenly, she had heard him mutter something as she was walking away but she couldn''t make out his words.


    "No nothing," Lirian quickly replied, as he hid his panic, ''It''s getting worse, I''m already merging with the voices,'' he realized in silent trepidation.


    When Edith left completely, he heard number 12 whisper again, "You know that I''m right, soon she''ll betray you just as ''Katherine'' did to us."


    "Do you not remember how love made us so blind when we were Killian,"


    "Kill her before your love gets us all killed," number 4 snapped, cutting of number 12''s slippery words.


    "I do not love her, stop spouting of your crap, we just started dating and it will come to an end before we leave for the trial," he argued against their foolishness.


    In response, all that he heard were numerous cackles of laughter as each and every one of his selves felt that he had said the stupidest joke in existence.


    "You might be able to fool every other person in existence, but it''s just stupid to try fooling yourself, we are the god who was always alone, and we loved all those that ever gave us even the slightest of attention, you might not bear the curse like all of us did, but deep down you are still us," number 12 said slowly.


    The nine-year-old number 3 surprised everyone when he suddenly spoke, "Chase after the girl, maybe that way we can die sooner," he said with a voice full of longing.


    "Have you forgotten what that entity told us, our life is not our own this time we have people we have to..." Lirian began to remind them of the foreign entities'' words and of their parents.


    "Kukuku," number 3 chuckled, ", so what, we''ve suffered enough all these year without any meaning, why the hell should we care about the fate of others, why should we care about the heavens that marked us as scum by all beings!" by the time he finished he realized that he was shouting.


    As Lirian was about to reply a sudden alert from the system went ringing through his head.


    [Alert, Alert, Alert]


    [Fate calculative functions of the system have been disabled]


    [Host has entered into a Conflux of Fate]


    Lirian''s eyes widened, a conflux of fate was a scary thing for anyone, and those that feared conflux''s than any other were diviners.


    The main ingredient that Lirian used in creating the was the essence of 12 great diviners, he wished that he could have used a fate spinner, but even he was unable to evolve into one, in every plain he visited the only fate spinner he had ever known was Katerina.


    A conflux was like the proverbial crossroads of destiny taking real form, it broke all the rules of fate and could change a lot of things.


    The only thing that he truly knew about fate confluxes was that they would teach an important lesson to those that they are centred around.


    When Lirian first activated the system it alerted him to a lethal danger on his fate string, but while inside this conflux that possibility was rendered as none existent, he could easily die, or he could even accelerate or slow down the coming events.


    What made it so bad for a diviner, was that the future was impossible to predict or understand, not to mention that all the events that occur during a conflux are hidden by fate forever, so even if someone analyzed a fate string it would never show the events.


    The only thing about fate that still worked was the natural luck boon it provided.


    With that in mind Lirian quickly accessed the system and transferred the close to 900 trillion fate particles from the system onto himself.


    He walked forward lost in thought, ''Fate confluxes are so rare, I wonder what could have triggered it.''


    ''Well, not that I''ve ever truly known what triggers one, it usually just happens at random, well I only know that important changes happen because of them, I wonder was I the trigger or was it something else?''

 Chapter 122 - 122 – Telamon Moves

    One day earlier.


    Hinata sat in the waiting room of the office, there was a long line ahead of her, most of them were familiar faces.


    In the academy, there were many different cliques, the nobles with higher status families formed their own circles, the normal nobles had their own circles, the students from extremely wealthy backgrounds would intermingle with the nobles but they had their own groups as well.


    Then there were the candidates that held the most diverse group, although that diversity did come with a price and that price was talent, prove your ability and they''d be happy to let you in.


    But if you lacked talent that made you stand out or stand above others in any field, they wouldn''t even cast you a second glance and humiliate you for trying to get close to them.


    Lastly was the common students, those that were in the academy on scholarships, and even then there were another two cliques, the students with parents and the orphans.


    Hinata used to fall in the last clique, until she broke into the first-mortal-grade, and was accepted into Lirian''s group.


    But the more time she spent in Lirian group, the more she felt like an outcast, there was no chance for her to contend with the wealthy students, she came to the academy every day with a packed lunch made by the mother in the orphanage, while the students in Lirian''s group would casually spend several credits every day on their exquisite dishes.


    They would always pay for her to have a meal of her choice, but she didn''t like the feeling, it was like they were giving her charity.


    The hardest part of it all was that they would act like it was nothing at all, not a single one of them had ever brought up the topic of her bill, it was like those few credits that she would die to possess wasn''t even worth a second thought in their eyes.


    At that time the only rock she had was the headmaster, that always treated her well and gave her advice with a loving smile.


    The effectiveness of Telamons advice was more than apparent, she might have been talented but she knew that it was only thanks to the headmaster that she had progressed so much faster than anyone else.


    As she waited, she watched another familiar face leave the headmasters office.


    Most of the students present were orphans or underprivileged students, like her, they too got advice from the headmaster occasionally, but she knew that she was the special one here, as she would get to visit the headmaster the most frequently.


    It was all because of her talent, the headmaster told her that she reminded him of the empress.


    Hinata believed in destiny, and Telamons words to her made her believe that she could be the next empress, they were from the same planet, and now they shared the same teacher.


    She knew that she couldn''t become a candidate now, it was too late for her but she could aim to achieve fifth-grade before turning 400, in doing so she could become a princess just like the empress did.


    Time ticked by slowly as she waited, the headmaster told her that he had a special surprise for her today and when it was finally her turn, she entered the room eagerly.


    The room was still the same as it had been the day, she first came here to pick up her cultivation technique, the walls held their shiny white look, and two chairs were placed in front of the headmasters with, with only a single bookcase in the back.


    It was the only place in the entire academy that didn''t mock her poverty, she took a seat as the headmaster motioned for her to come in.


    "I''ve been reading about your progress in class," Telamon began with a sincere smile, "It''s always a pleasant surprise to find a talent when you aren''t expecting it," he said warmly.


    Hinata blushed and looked down, just as she always did, it was always nice to have someone compliment you.


    "Thank you, your excellency," she smiled warmly, "May I ask what your excellency called me for?"


    Telamon nodded, "Give me your hand," he said reaching out his own.


    Hinata complied without complaint, as she felt the headmaster take hold of her hand, she felt a small prick on her wrist as a few drops of blood slid down her wrist, she felt some a small object enter her skin.


    "Your excellency," she cried out in alarm.


    "Don''t worry," Telamon comforted her, ", when they give you your watch at the base, take that chip I put in you out and insert it into the watch."


    "That way I''ll be able to keep an eye on you at all times to make sure you''re safe," he said with a voice thick with concern.


    Hinata had never felt so touched in her life, she tried to hide her face away as tears made their way into her eyes, there was never I single person in her life that she felt was truly concerned for her safety.


    "Thank you so much your excellence," she said while trying to hold back her sobs.


    "There''s no need to cry about something like this child, this is what any decent person would do," he said in a soothing tone, as he calmed her down.


    "Now then there is something I''d like to give you," he pulled open a drawer on the desk and pulled out a foot-long brown box.


    Hinata took it in her hands carefully and almost immediately she felt her energy points stir, six of them in particular, all the ones that the headmaster had been telling her to focus on opening.


    "This is a basic mage technique," she cried out hastily placing it back on the table like it was a treasure she found too precious to touch.


    "That''s worth far too much your excellency, I- I can''t accept it," she shook her head hesitantly, but deep inside she felt a deep hunger festering for that technique inside her.


    Telamon nodded, poor students were so easy to manipulate especially when they understood the value of something.


    "Very well then, if you can''t accept it like this then how about you do me a special favor, and in exchange, this will be yours," he pointed at the box.


    Hinata was very tempted, she had just felt the difference between an elementary and basic technique for that brief instance and it was intoxicating to her.


    With an elementary technique, she had to hold on to the scroll, yet with a basic technique, she held its container and it already affected her.


    "I''ll do anything you ask me to," she said with an evident hunger in her eyes.


    Telamon smiled secretly before telling her what to do.


    When he finished Hinata looked at him with shaking eyes, she couldn''t believe what she had heard, a small part of her wanted to run and tell someone, but she knew that if she did the oath that she took with the headmaster all those years ago would kill her before she could get one word out.


    Once she left Telamon looked around the room with a satisfied smile and turned on his heel, he put his hand against the wall, and a door materialized before him.


    He took a step through it, into a cozy and luxurious corridor filled with ornaments and rare art pieces hanging on the walls, he took slow steps on the red-carpeted floors as he took in the lovely pieces.


    He walked through a large open door and stepped into a wide room with an open bar on the side, as he poured himself a whiskey a figure covered in black robes came up behind him.


    The figure bowed down respectfully, "Your orders master?"


    Telamon looked at the zealot he had raised with satisfaction, "The plans are in motion, have the others move out, the planet isn''t far from planet Xelia so it won''t take too long,"


    "Take everyone with you, you''ll be meeting up with another group before you reach the planet," Telamon then told them a code that they would have to use code when they met up with Efrideet''s zealots.


    "Make sure that Lirian does not escape, and if you can, kill the other candidate Wentian, I heard that he was looking into me," he commanded.


    "I live to serve," replied the zealot and he turned to leave.


    When the zealot in black left Telamon couldn''t help but feel it was a pity, as an ex-advisor, he wasn''t allowed to have his own special task forces, due to the secrets of the empire he held it would be considered high-treason for him to have even a small force under himself.


    It was painstaking work for him to raise a few zealots without alerting anyone, and after this, they would dispose of themselves, they knew their purpose.


    They couldn''t allow for any trail to lead back to him and so they would do what they had to protect their master.


    He had only managed to create 14 of them over the years without being found out, and he sent them all out to handle this mission, he couldn''t afford the slightest room for error.


    For something this delicate, he could not afford to hire anyone to carry out the deed like he did when the children on the transport vessel were being brought to Xelia, this time he had to be careful with his every move.


    If he hired someone, then he''d have an entirely new problem to deal with.

 Chapter 123 - 123 – Lirians Last Resort

    Lirian had intended to get a bit of rest, but the sudden appearance of a fate conflux threw a wrench in his plans.


    "Anya," he called out, he knew that she was always close by, and she had no doubt heard everything that just happened, ''She''s going to have a field day messing with me,'' he thought glumly.


    Anya appeared from the shadows as he approached his room, "Guess what I just heard?" she said with a smile as soon as she arrived.


    Lirian sighed and braced himself for the teasing, "A little birdy just told me that someone got an official girlfriend," she said in a teasing tone.


    "All of Edith''s guards believe that she''s the one in charge in your relationship, since you agreed to all her conditions without even fussing, and what was that all about when you said that she''s yours we totally cringed when we heard it," she smiled cheekily.


    "None of that matters for now," Lirian sighed as he pulled his bags out and threw them on the bed, "Something big is about to happen, something that can change everything," he said seriously.


    "Oh," Anya said with exaggerated surprise on her face, "I know that first relationships change things but aren''t you being a little too intense, you know if you''re too serious you could chase her away before you even start," she chuckled.


    Lirian rolled his eyes behind the blind fold, "I''m not talking about my relationship with Edith," he said as he reached into his bag and pulled out a box.


    "Why did you bring that here?" Anya chided him as she saw the box with the blasters, she had given to him.


    "This is a good place for anyone that wants to attack me, but those new rules make it impossible for me to bring it along," he answered handing it to Anya.


    "You would have been disqualified if anyone found out, even if was for your own protection," she said trying to reign in her frustration.


    ''I know that he used to be a god, but sometimes he does such stupid things that I wonder how he ever made it,'' she said to herself as she snatched it away from him.


    As she pulled it out from his hands, he pulled out another device which made her want to scream at him, she almost lost control of herself.


    Lirian was holding the controller for his cruiser fleet that he received from the Jane family, he had received some of the Jane family''s highest quality cannons on those ships, the baster could be considered as a 2 on a list from 1 to 10, while the cannons were an 11.


    "What are you thinking, have you lost all your reasoning?" she said as she snatched it from his hand.


    "Can you travel back and forth from the academy?", Lirian ignored her question and asked his own as if he had done nothing wrong.


    Anya stomped her foot and the entire room shook as she glared at Lirian waiting for an explanation.


    Lirian gritted his teeth, he really hated explaining himself, "I told you something is going to happen something bad, and I need every advantage I can get," he said with a rare seriousness.


    Anya folded her arms under her breasts and looked at him with a tinge of suspicion, "How do you know that something bad is going to happen?"


    "Let''s just say that I have a feeling," Lirian said solemnly, slight hinting that it had something to do with his godly identity.


    Getting the hint Anya created a barrier around them, "What is it this time Lirian this had best not be some lame excuse, because I don''t feel anything strange with fate, no bad premonitions or anything like that."


    "Of course you don''t, I once told you a little about fate confluxes," he said slowly, he had only brushed on confluxes once when he told Anya about the intricacies of fate.


    Since it wasn''t a common occurrence and rendered all fate techniques useless, he didn''t say much on the subject only that it represented change, great change in some instances.


    "We have just entered into one, and I have no clue what it means, Anya I don''t know what could happen, but I do know that it will have the power to effect the entire empire."


    "Or at least it could affect the entire empire," he quickly added, "I really have no idea how far this could reach but it will without a doubt bring about some significant change," he said with such an intense look that made Anya feell obligated to nod along.


    "What do you need me to do?" Anya said after a while.


    Lirian snatched the controller back from her hands, "Answer my question can you travel back and forth from the academy!", he said as he tinkered with the controller.


    "Yes," Anya nodded wondering where he was going with this.


    "Good," Lirian said with a smile, and returned the controller to her, "Give this to Alastor, tell him that I''m giving him his first assignment, he has to come here in stealth mode and remain hidden until I signal him."


    "Lirian I can''t just give out the location of your expedition grounds," she said with tight shoulders.


    "Yeah I know," Lirian waved his hands like it was no big deal, causing her to look at him wide-eyed, "You did not!", she cried out as her whole-body stiffened.


    "I know that you can''t so I just hacked into the bases system and got the coordinates and plugged it into the controller, it was easy," Lirian chuckled.


    Anya felt her entire face twitch, she remembered how diligent and by the book she had behaved in her days as a candidate, and Lirian''s ability to commit crimes made her doubt her ways, especially since he did it openly, yet he never faced any serious problems.


    "Okay, but how will he be able to find you? I''m not allowed to venture around on this planet unless you chose to give up on the expedition and signal me using your watch."


    "Oh, don''t worry about that, he''ll know it when he sees it," he said with a grin, as he rolled three of the energy cartridges from the blaster under his clothes.


    ''I can''t smuggle anything big, but three energy cartridges should be easy,'' he thought silently as he imagined the big explosion, the three cartridges each with enough power to kill a third-grader with a single shot, could make.


    Lirian took a piece of paper, and begun to scribble a few things onto it, "Give that to Alastor," he said as he folded the page neatly and placed it in Anya''s hand.


    Anya removed the barrier and headed for the door, but then she quickly turned around and lunged at Lirian wrapping him in a tight hug.


    Lirian was taken by surprise but as he felt her racing heart he quickly hugged her back, "I''ll be fine I always come out alive no matter what happens," he smiled as she hugged him, it was intimate acts like this that he had always wished to have during his years all alone.


    Anya pulled back and cupped his face, "You better comeback kiddo... or old man," she said with a forced chuckle, "You still have to keep your promise to teach me how to use fate."


    "Is that the only reason," Lirian said with a forced pout that made Anya''s heart soften, she rarely ever saw him deliberately being cute, he usually only did it to make someone feel embarrassed.


    "I''ll also miss all your stupid antics," she admitted.


    She gave him one more quick squeeze and left, she took one last look at his face as he smiled at her before shutting the door.

 Chapter 124 - 124 - The Blade

    I still remember that day well...


    It was the last time I saw Lirian smile before he left for the trial of candidates...


    He kept his promise and returned alive...


    But I will never forget the days of that expedition...


    Even now during my reign as empress people speak of the unknown events that happened and come up with their own theories...


    But I know for I was there, but I am one of only three that knows the entire truth...


    It was sixteen days into the expedition, when the world expelled us all...


    It was sixteen days into the expedition, when I witnessed a world experience boundless grief...


    I know that grief and so do all the survivors for we felt it in every fibre of our bones, and in every cell of our bodies...


    I learned that I knew nothing of grief on that day, even now when I remember that grief it makes me my body shudder and my eyes well up with tears...


    Let me say it here, the truth that no one knows, on that day the mortal realm experienced a new first...


    It experienced the descent and power of a true god...


    - An extract from the journals of the Empress Anya Clovis


    ---


    Lirian sat on a large boulder outside of the base, he was happy to feel the sun against his skin and the gentle breeze on his face, inside the steel structure of the base the air felt stale.


    The sound of people moving about and crunching on green grass echoed in his ears, there was a different kind of crunch depending on whether the grass was dead and dry or living and green.


    The sound of footsteps began to sound behind him, it made a beeline directly at him, without turning around he spoke, "So lovely to see you here sergeant Ixel, and might I add that you look stunning in that camo uniform of yours," he said with a jovial chuckle.


    Sergeant Ixel was taken aback and looked at him dumbly as the blind fold entered her vision when he turned to face her.


    Lirian grinned, "It''s the way you walk, everyone else is wearing new boots, but yours is full broken in, your feet sound comfortable, only you or the commander would have anything to say to me right now, and I think that we both know the commander is much lighter on his feet than you," Lirian answered her unasked question.


    Sergeant Ixel tried to hide her surprise, but her face couldn''t do it, she didn''t want to admit it, but she felt that Lirian''s ability was understated in the reports.


    As for the comment about the clothes she heard more than a few students grumbling about how ugly the uniforms were so she didn''t bother responding to it, she could see from his grin that he wanted to get a reaction out of her.


    She shook her head and pulled out a Katana, it was 80cm (31 inches) with a handle large enough for both hands to wrap around it and a simple sheath made from reinforced steel.


    "I was asked to test if you can handle this blade, it''s made from a special tungsten alloy, as far as normal weapons go, you can''t get anything better, with a single swing from this you can cut through reinforced steel with ease, if you make a mistake with it, you could easily lose a limb."


    Lirian moved forward and took the sword from her before she could react, as he slid it out from the sheath it made a loud ringing sound.


    ''Whoosh'' the sword sang as it sliced through the air cleanly.


    Lirian quickly got to work on the boulder he was sitting on and skilfully and carved it, in just seconds the boulder resembled a moon jade rose, as it wilted in the sun.


    Ixel was taken aback by his quick and fluid movements, it was like he was born to hold the sword, or it was more so like the sword was forged to be wielded by him and it seemed like the sword hummed in satisfaction as it was held in his hands


    It reminded her of the saying, ''The song of death begins when a saints sword sings,''


    "I think that I can handle it," Lirian chuckled as he slid it back into the sheath.


    "How many times was the blade folded?" he asked as he strapped it to his belt.


    "20 folds," she answered proudly, usually Katana''s were folded only up to 16 times at most, but 20 folds was rare as it gave the blade over a million layers and made it unbelievably sharp.


    Lirian nodded with satisfaction and left her alone as he went to stand in front of everyone.


    He stood firmly, locking his heels on the ground with a firm and rigid posture, even his face held an unusual firmness as he faced the crowds of students.


    Everything about his stance was imposing, as the student looked at him they felt that they were completely see-through, despite Lirian''s obvious blindness.


    The silence was thick and began to feel more like a standoff between two armies, Lirian was on one side and the rest of the students were on the other side.


    But despite the large numbers Lirians imposing aura seemed to win out over all of them, as a suffocating force acted on them making all of them want to back down.


    Lirian pulled onto the energy in the surroundings and a large dome of pure silver energy washed over everyone slowly creeping across all of them, locking them within a silver world of spiraling energy.


    "Now then," Lirian said softly with a small grin creeping onto his face.


    His soft words were carried clearly by the ensuing silence, every person heard his first word with absolute clarity.


    Mordred looked around at the silver energy in trepidation, he had some very not fond memories of this power and so did all the members of his class, ''Don''t tell me he plans to teach everyone a lesson before we even start,'' he cried internally.


    ''Can''t he at least leave us out of it, we already learned our lesson years ago,'' he thought silently too afraid to voice his opinion in the current silence.


    When he looked at the students he noticed that Hinata was focused intently on Lirian with her eyes completely unblinking as if she would miss something if she blinked for even a second, if looks could kill he was certain that Lirian would be dead by now.


    The worst part was that smirk, it was the mark of all bad omens for class 5-A they knew it all too well, as they looked at Lirian they felt a cold breeze brushing against the hairs on their legs.


    "Starting today we''ll be experiencing something new, it will be a challenge and it will be difficult for most of you, your goal in all of this should be to improve yourselves,"


    "There won''t be any hand-holding, or spoon-feeding, so do your best and work through the problems you experience by working together,"


    "That is all for my motivational speech, but before I move on to the distribution of items I want all of you remember my next words because it could very easily determine whether or not you return alive,"


    They all inched closer moving their heads forward to hear his advice, their breathing stilled as they waited in anticipation.


    Lirian spoke his next words with deliberate slowness and emphasis on every word, "Behave yourselves and follow my rules, because I assure every last one of you that the most dangerous thing you are going to encounter isn''t some wild stray beast,"


    "You are looking at the person who can decide your lives with the snap of his fingers," he closed his fist slightly, and the silver dome around them began to close in all around them and as it moved they could see the land that it touched was completely dead and barren.


    The students rushed together in a panic; their previously uniform lines were nowhere to be seen as they saw the looming threat encroaching upon them from all sides.


    "Try to think that you have the power to over rule me and I''ll show every last one of you the real meaning of power, and make no mistake, if I feel that you are a danger to the group I won''t hesitate to rip you to shreds and feed you to the animals, I don''t care what prestigious or wealthy family you hail from," he said coldly and pulled out his sword its shiny surface reflected the silver energy with a glowing brilliance.


    "Oh and did, I mention that as sole commander I have the power to dismiss and forcefully fail anyone, it would be a shame if I had to do such a thing," he added at the end, making it apparent how futile their struggles would be.


    ''I could have just told them the last part to stop them from being too rowdy, but it comes with its own drawbacks, and this way they will be less inclined to think that they can do as they please,'' he gave his approach careful consideration before putting it into action.

 Chapter 125 - 125 – Guard Duty

    Almost everyone had heard of the numerous mood changes Lirian had, one moment he was serious and the next moment he was aloof.


    But this was the first time they had all experienced it first-hand, one second he was threatening them with unbridled intensity and the next second he chuckled and told them that he could punish them with his authority alone.


    The students of class, 5 ¨C A, felt a wave of sympathy coming to them from all the other students.


    ''We are no longer alone in our suffering,'' Mordred felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders, the load was now shared amongst 3000 instead of the measly 20 in class 5-A.


    Lirian released his control of the energy and it quickly dispersed back into the air.


    He made his point loud and clear, so there was no need to push any further, this was all a part of the procedure he had come up with, with the other candidate''s, he was playing bad cop and they were going to play good cop, to keep the students under control.


    Lirian walked down from the higher ground that he was standing on to address the students and meet with the other candidates.


    "Don''t you think you overdid it a little," Cole complained as soon as Lirian arrived.


    "The worse I come off the easier it will be for you guys to take control and coax them into your groups," Lirian replied.


    "Media from here on out the rest is up to you, distribute the equipment and make sure that every scouting group has a cartographer."


    The cartographers were the most important part of the expedition, most of their points would come from mapping the areas unless they were able to find ancient relics, but the odds weren''t too great, it was less than 1 in a million.


    In the current age cartography was one of the extra classes students could take, it wasn''t exactly important but it had its merits, most students would focus on star mapping in their studies as it was one of the best professions to get into.


    All ships needed a licenced Star Finder (someone that maps the stars) on board, or they would not be allowed to dock in any hangar, on any of the worlds, with so many ships and crews in existence there was always someone looking to get a Star Finder.


    As Lirian walked away he heard the student''s new boots squeaking on the ground, as they lined up to collect their equipment, he heard Tobias shouting and ordering the crowds to move in an orderly manner.


    The weapons and the digging tools were all going to be carried by the students individually, while the tents, food and all other items were placed inside the two storage rings.


    It wasn''t long before Karen came to him she was assigned to act as his secretary as well as relay all his commands as a mental psychic it played into her strengths.


    "Is there anything you need me to do?" she asked as soon as she reached Lirian.


    "Keep me posted on how things go during the distribution of equipment and tasks¡­ also tell the other candidates, to select three people they can depend on to act as guards for them," he added the last part suddenly.


    He had forgotten that they were just ordinary people that couldn''t defeat a single cultivator, without completely exhausting themselves, so they needed guards to protect them.


    Karen nodded, "Shall I arrange a guard for you as well?" she asked hesitantly, she knew that he didn''t need any, but appearances do leave a certain impression.


    Lirian thought about it in silence and came up with an idea, ''Telamon is bound to make a move against me here, and the easiest way to keep track of me would be through the students.''


    Karen waited in silent trepidation for Lirians answer, she had honestly thought that he would say no instantly, ''What was there to think so deeply about?'' she wondered, when Lirian surprised her by saying "yes."


    Lirian wore a strange grin that she felt spelt bad news for the unluck chosen person, "Bring me, Pollock, Hinata and Eido."


    Karen sighed and began relaying his orders, she didn''t exactly get along with the poor students, they were always far too timid and it annoyed her, the way they always seemed to have something to say, but they would hold it in and bounce on their feet and feign ignorance as they hesitated to speak what was on their mind.


    It was also no secret that the orphans in their class seemed to hold some stupid grudge against Lirian, that Karen couldn''t wrap her head around no matter how hard she tried to see things from their point of view.


    In fact, it seemed even harder for her to see what they had to complain about when she looked from their point of view, as far as she had seen Lirian treated them exactly the same as he did with everyone he knew, he was simply an asshole.


    While Karen was lost in her thoughts Lirian was in a similar frame of mind.


    ''If Telamon wants to use someone to act against me, it would have to be Hinata, so all that I have to do is keep her close, and it will be much easier to figure out her plan.''


    ''And judging from the gazes she''s been throwing at me, this plan is definitely to kill me or worse,'' he huffed a heavy breath as his thoughts reached there, it wasn''t that he was afraid of Hinata, it was that this plan definitely had something to do with the conflux but he no idea how it played into things.


    The sound of footsteps pulled him from his thoughts, he turned around to greet his new guards.


    "We heard that you want us to act as your guards?" Hinata asked hesitantly, but she couldn''t hide the slight tremble of excitement in her voice, one of her tasks was to stay as close to Lirian as possible and this chance fell into her lap.


    She couldn''t help but think that fate was on her side, it was her destiny to get rid of Lirian once and for all, this was proof of her divine destiny to become empress in the future.


    "Yes," Lirian answered with a derisive tone as if he couldn''t believe that he had to confirm the obvious.


    "But why?" Pollock asked through gritted teeth, ", there are plenty of other people who are more qualified for this task than us," he said with a strained look on his face.


    "Lirian is giving us an opportunity, it''s an honour for us to be given such a task, so we should take it," Hinata whispered furiously while stomping on his foot.


    Hinata wanted to scream at them, she had just been given the best position to fulfil her task, and Pollock was trying to blow it.


    Eido, Pollock and even Karen all looked at Hinata strangely, the last person they expected to willingly agree to stay close to Lirian was Hinata, ''and what the hell was that nonsense she spouted about it being an honour,'' they all thought.


    For Lirian it was simply a confirmation of his thoughts, he wasn''t even surprised to find out that one of her tasks was to stay as close to him as possible.


    Pollock shoved Hinata''s strange behaviour to the back of his head as he turned back to Lirian for an explanation.


    "I thought the reason would be obvious," Lirian said thoughtfully rubbing his chin.


    Hinata''s breathing stilled but as she remembered that what the headmaster had told her was between just the two of them, she calmed herself.


    This was the thing about Lirian that allows put Pollock off, it was just a simple question but Lirian had to be condescending about it.


    "It''s because of you," Lirian said pointing a finger at Pollock.


    "Me?" Pollock muttered stupidly.


    Lirian nodded slowly, "Yes you, because you''ll be an absolute waste and liability to whatever squad you land yourself in," Lirian said with a cold edge to his voice, taking everyone by surprise.


    Karen sighed from the side, ''Why does his mood swing so suddenly all the time, he is worse than a girl, there should be some medical explanation, maybe when I''m stronger I''ll be able to use psychic waves to diagnose his condition,'' she thought silently as the mood grew tense.

 Chapter 126 - 126 – Setting Off

    Pollock gritted his teeth and clenched his fist until his knuckles went white while looking at Lirian, it was always like this, he had to take the insults of the rich while lying down, because if he did anything he''d be beaten to a pulp and no one would care.


    But if he made a move his life would be turned into a living hell by the rich and privileged kids.


    "You should work on your intimidation act, it''s pitiful," Lirian commented in a plain voice.


    "But frankly I don''t know why you aren''t thanking me for doing you a favour," Lirian said in a mocking tone as he folded his arms and tapped his chin.


    Eido was looking between the two not understanding what was going on, heck no one in the room had any idea, what was going on, she only knew that her friend was being bullied for no reason.


    "You do realize that we don''t have an unlimited supply of resources like you spoiled nobles," Eido started furiously, the blue veins in her forehead were popping out, she didn''t even care who she was insulting at the moment the demon blood in her made her do impulsive things from time to time.


    "The only way for us to improve is to get as many points as possible so that we can get some extra resources, we aren''t lucky enough to have all the resources we could ever hope for whenever we please like you, but you are trying to pull us out of the field which is the only place we can earn a little bit extra points for our needs," she began ranting at Lirian and with the sharp teeth in her mouth gnashing together on every word, almost creating sparks in the air.


    "And you expect us to be grateful?" she spat out; she knew that Lirian was a complete ass, but right now he was just being completely unreasonable.


    Lirian took a step towards her causing her to back away in fright, everything that she had just said came crashing into her mind and she couldn''t but gulp nervously as she imagined the punishment Lirian would give her, she knew that what followed would be anything but pleasant.


    Lirian smiled coldly and raised his finger in front of her, she could feel his presence growing stronger, but as she tried to move back her legs felt like jelly and it took all her effort just to remain on her feet.


    "I want you to understand something," Lirian said in a slow and sharp voice, "I don''t give a crap about your struggles, for all I care it doesn''t matter whether you''re a beggar in the street''s, a beloved empress, or even a goddess that rules the heavens, when I give an order you obey because I''m no imbecile like you commoner baffon''s that think only about yourselves."


    "Whenever I speak there is always careful thought put into every word, that is unfortunately almost always wasted on your ignorant skulls," Lirian smiled coldly as he got directly in her face.


    As Lirian stepped forward he reached out his hands causing Eido to freeze up and shut her eyes, but a second later she heard a light tap and Pollock winced loudly.


    She opened her eyes and saw Lirian in her face with his hand tapping on Pollock''s arm, each time Pollock struggled to stifle a wince, but Eido noticed that Lirian wasn''t even hitting him hard.


    "You see I told Pollock to stop trying to use free striking weeks ago, but he didn''t listen, and right now he has damaged his muscles so badly that he can''t afford to get in to a fight, he''ll be a liability in any team and besides him dying he could get someone else killed if he slips up for even a second," Lirian explained as he took a step back.


    "I don''t know about you guys but I''d rather have as few deaths as possible in this expedition, which is why Pollock will be out of the way as my guard, I called the two of you up because you are probably the only two that would be willing to look out for him and cover up his mistakes, but if you want to return to the front lines I won''t stop you."


    When Lirian finished explaining Hinata glanced at him with a guilty look but it quickly disappeared as she thought of the insults he hurled at them, it was unbearable to have some spoiled prince candidate that grew up with a silver spoon in his mouth call her selfish when he knew nothing about their struggles to catch up.


    She knew about Pollock''s secret training, but she didn''t know that the side effects could cause such problems.


    Eido felt torn between choosing, Pollock or the field exploration, but she quickly made up her mind, "I''ll stay as a guard," she decided resolutely, she couldn''t just abandon her friend.


    She was even happier a few seconds later when she heard Hinata say that she would stay as well, over the years she felt that Hinata was very ambitious and would put her own ambitions in front of her friends so it made he feel glad that she was wrong when Hinata chose to help Pollock.


    "Glad to hear that," Lirian smiled at her and eased up his pressure on them, ", and just so you know, exploration and discovery does grant points, but there are secret requirements as well, by fulfilling the duties you are given you can earn extra points," he said surprising them.


    As they assumed their new roles Lirian chuckled internally, ''I was bound to make Hinata suspicious eventually if I asked only her to be my guard, but by doing it this way, she''ll be so certain that I don''t know what she''s planning that she''ll lower her guard and reveal her plans to me without even realising it.''


    Lirian silently thanked Pollock for his stupid life decisions and continued waiting for the preparation to be completed, ''Huh, I guess that I never realised how long it takes to assemble an army in all these years,'' Lirian thought as half the day had already passed by the time everything was in order.


    Karen stood beside him reporting all the changes as they happened, she was keeping direct contact with the other candidates.


    "Media is asking for your permission to test the cartographers; she wants to have the cartographers to map out the area from the time we leave to find out who''s the most efficient at mapping before we reach the important areas."


    Lirian nodded, ''How did I not have that idea first,'' he wondered, ''Ah, it''s probably because I''m so good at cartography that I forgot other people can be bad,'' he reasoned with himself.


    "Tell her to only give them the low-quality normal paper, don''t waste all my high-quality water-resistant paper on some thing that we don''t need, that stuff cost me a small fortune."


    Karen giggled softly as Lirian mentioned the paper, she was surprised by his intense reaction to the usage of paper, ''Since when were nobles stingy with their pursues,'' she wondered, but as she heard Media from the other side mention the extensive list of grievances that gave Lirian a nightmare she couldn''t help but laugh.


    She looked at Lirian curiously, that pride of his just moments ago had taken even her by surprise, and she glanced at the skies hoping that no lightning would strike him down for what he had just said.


    He didn''t just speak down about the great leaders of the six great civilizations he even spoke ill about the gods and goddesses, from the way he spoke it was like he was convinced that even gods had no right to disregard his words.


    "If you keep staring at me so intently you''re going to drill a hole right through me," Lirian commented with a chuckled as he felt Karen''s gaze.


    Karen started quickly looking away, she always found it spooky when he did that, she had tried to shut her eyes and sense the gaze''s that feel on her, but after a while she would feel like everyone was staring at her, but when she opened her eyes again she''d feel like a complete fool when no one was even paying any attention to her in the first place.


    "Why are you always like that?" she asked him curiously.


    Lirian raised his brow as he faced her, "I''m always many things Karen, you''re going to have to be a bit more specific," Lirian said in an impatient tone, he always found such open-ended questions annoying, there were thousands of answers none of which could be wrong, it makes questions easy to answer or evade.


    Karen pondered on it for a moment with a thoughtful expression, "I''ll be the first to admit that I can''t stand the way the commoners behave most of the time, they are always too hesitant or needy in their actions and it annoys me, but why do you feel the need to talk down to them, to everyone in fact, like you know better than all of us combined."


    "Because I do," Lirian stated simply like it wasn''t even a subject for discussion.

 Chapter 127 - 127 - Setting Off 2

    Karen didn''t know if she should feel surprised by his answer, it fit so perfectly with his arrogant personality that she couldn''t imagine receiving any other answer yet it still annoyed her.


    "So you think that you know everything, more than everyone, more than even the gods?" Karen asked in an amused tone.


    Lirian chuckled, "Even the greatest god in existence wouldn''t dare to claim to know so much, you see there''s this saying that I have come to love because I believe it offers more wisdom than any other, ''The more we come to learn the more we tend to realize how little we truly know'',"


    "As someone who truly understands how accurate that saying is, I can tell you with certainty that I know far more than anyone that does not understand that saying to its very core," Lirian stated with an unbridled arrogant tone.


    Karen was taken aback by his response, she had found that from time to time Lirian had a way with his words that could captivate people, it was just the way he approached things.


    It was like he would do a full dissection into a subject explaining every tiny detail in the most engaging way possible, if he had to speak about dust she had no doubt that he''d have no trouble filling the school auditorium that could house 50 000 people.


    For the first time, she felt like she got a piece of insight into the way Lirian looks at a subject when he approaches it, he''d pick up a pen and assume he knows nothing at all about it, and he''d slowly examine every detail about it.


    The way the ink flows out of it, to its size and shape, then he''d go even further to examine how the size affects his writing experience and he''d examine the thought process of the person who designed it.


    The list of things he''d think of over a simple object was unbelievable, but what truly made him know so much was that even after learning those answer''s he''d assume that he still knew nothing which only fueled his desire to know more.


    Karen felt god smacked, it was so simple yet she doubted that she''d ever be able to think like that, she was lost in her new profound thoughts as Lirian walked away.


    ---


    As all preparations were completed the selected scouts mounted their horses and spread out with small teams following behind them.


    The candidates all mounted their own horses and they waited for Lirian to mount his own before they set out.


    To Lirian riding a horse or any creature for that matter was a new experience in this life, that''s right the curse affected all creatures.


    When a creature would rather die than let you ride it for a few seconds it made learning to ride pretty difficult, but in this life, he did have lessons from the time he was six.


    His expertise in dismembering every creature in known existence helped him learn to understand how the muscles worked in a horse, very easily and from there he learned how to ride with absolute ease.


    He climbed into the saddle after gently tapping the horse, the horse grunted stomping its hooves against the ground, and released a puff of smoke from its nose.


    "Easy boy," Lirian said as he stroked the hair from its mane, "I''m blind so there''ll be no running," he whispered in its ear.


    He reached down to the katana at his waist and pulled it from its sheath, with a loud crisp ring that caught everyone''s attention.


    Lirian raised the katana over his head, and shouted, "Move out," while pointing forward with the sword.


    The sound of three thousand people moving in unison echoed loudly, and even the ground began to tremble as numerous legs pounded into its surface.


    ---


    I watched from afar, as I had just returned from planet Xelia¡­


    I had a feeling of trepidation come over me as I saw him lead from the front¡­


    It wasn''t fate that made me feel so, fate wasn''t working at the time, it was just my instincts to protect Lirian¡­


    I know that I was just his guardian and protector, but I stood by him at almost every second as he grew up¡­


    The previous empress would be unhappy to read this, but I thought of him like a son, so I worried¡­


    But I would soon learn that it was foolish to think Lirian could be killed, only bad things come to those that wish to best him¡­


    I had always found it slightly surreal to imagine Lirian as a god but after that expedition, I came to understand the difference between a man and a god...


    To call it terrifying is an understatement, to say that I wished to bow down in worship is a truth...


    The word beautiful is inadequate to describe the laws that answer a god''s call, it was like witnessing the birth of all creation, and at the centre of it, all was Lirian or should I say Samsara...


    I watched as the students moved forward like a flood into the wild and unknown, with a simple goal of discovering things that were lost a very long time ago¡­


    How were they to know that they were going to witness the coming of the god who had been lost at the beginning of time¡­


    They were about to witness history in the making¡­


    Little did they know that they were all about to experience an event that would have their names written in the chronicles of the six civilizations, to be remembered forever¡­


    - An extract from the Journals of Empress Anya Clovis

 Chapter 128 - 128 – The Cartographers Nightmare

    Lirian held the reigns of his horse as it trotted next to the horse of the other candidate''s, by now the initial formation had broken apart, no one could maintain those firm and rigid lines for more than an hour.


    The initial enthusiasm in the students had also died down, as it turned out walking for hours on end was pretty boring and there was nothing for them to do.


    Some off them tried to venture to the sides and record the creatures, they encountered but eventually they grew tired of the message, <Already Recorded>, popping up on their watches.


    They had sat off at noon, and now the sun was quickly closing in on the horizon, but they still had a while before they had to stop.


    Cole glanced around before voicing his thoughts, "We should prepare to set up camp a little early, most of the new students have probably never pitched a tent in their life, and I think we all lack experience in organizing things on such a large scale, there''s a good chance that we''ll run into some trouble while setting up."


    Tobias nodded in agreement, and Lirian felt pity for the poor horse that Tobias rode on as he weighed a fifth of a ton, "I mean our preparations were only meant to take 2 hours but it took us 6 hours before we could leave."


    "We also have a ton of things to review, improve and figure out before we sleep for the night," Media added with a tired face, she had tried to get some sleep after their last meeting, but she was too stressed to get any rest.


    "Also, we don''t want to set up in the dark it''s a nightmare," Cole said as he slowly dismounted form his horse.


    "Yeah it must be impossible to get anything done," Lirian commented in a plain voice.


    "Yeah tell me about i¡­" Cole suddenly went quiet and turned to look at Lirian with sour look on his face, "Why do you feel the need to do that to me?"


    "It''s just fun messing with you," Lirian said with a laugh, that the others soon joined in on.


    They dismounted and within a minute the entire group had stopped, Lirian pulled out the fifty-men tents, and they were slowly passed around.


    He could have went for bigger tents and save a ton of credits, but there was a big problem with that, they were going to be in a forest and clearings would be rare and hard to find, ones big enough to fit a 1000-men tent would probably be impossible to come by.


    As the students began to set up, Lirians commander tent was quickly set up, it was large enough to fit at least 100 people with ease, but Lirian quickly placed the commander''s table in the centre, with a dozen wooden chairs that had silky red cushions that matched the tents drapes, it came in a set, for 450 credits, and he also bought a few additional luxury tents with the access money.


    The area they chose was flat, so things went quickly, they only had the occasional hiccup of the wind lifting the tents as they were setting up.


    Things went by surprisingly quickly as the last rays of the sun vanished a small city of blue tents surrounding one red tent decorated the plain, with flaming torches burning brightly at every corner of the tents, and a set of portable toilets was placed on the edge of the camp and the first set of rations were being handed out.


    The mages took turns to create fires which large groups gathered around as they chatted and kicked back after a long day of tiresome walking.


    Lirian walked under the short corridor that lead to the opening flaps of his tent, he''d heard that it was red, ''It''s like they knew that it''s my favourite colour,'' he thought in satisfaction.


    He pushed open the flaps and stepping into the cosy tent, the table already had the large map they received from commander Pexis spread out on it, and Media sat before it, slowly filling in more details.


    She didn''t even look up as Lirian entered as she dutifully did her task.


    "It looks great," Lirian said from the side earning him a brief stare from Media, she was not amused, but she quickly returned to her task as the others came in.


    As the tent slowly filled up, Lirian heard papers and more papers being slapped down on the table.


    "The maps are in," Tobias announced, and soon a long and lengthy debate began about the maps.


    Lirian could only listen in as it was impossible for him to judge the accuracy of the maps, most of the discussions were between Media and Edith as they had the best understanding of mapping.


    Finally, they came to a conclusion, "Out of 50 only 20 are good enough to do mapping and the others were subpar at best."


    "Now, we have to let them know who made the cut," Cole said with a dejected look and everyone grew a little awkward, it was always difficult to tell someone that they weren''t good enough, but they all sighed in relief as they turned to look at the one person, who never had any problem with dishing out the cold truth.


    They turned to Lirian simultaneously, with hopeful eyes.


    Lirian nodded slowly, "Alright, sounds like my kind of fun," he answered casually as he leaned back in his seat.


    A group of 50 cartographers walked into the room in silent trepidation, as their eyes slowly darted to every corner of the room they had a feeling that they were going to meet Lirian and they couldn''t hide the anxiety they felt.


    They were just a couple of students with an interest in cartography, they didn''t really stand out much in a crowd, and they weren''t exactly the popular types¡­ they were into cartography after all, the writing was on the walls.


    It''s probably because of that that the others found it harder to let them down, it''s easy to let down a popular student, they tend to have many things going for them, taking away one thing, just gives them a little extra time for the other things.


    They soon saw the fold to the tents open and Lirian came walking through, he stopped for a moment and faced them, they could feel his imposing presence wash over them.


    They saw his head tilt from one side to the other slowly, and any one of them would have sworn that it felt like they were seen through completely¡­ by a blind person to boot.


    Lirian held his walking cane in front of himself with both hands wrapped around the handle, it was the only item he had been allowed to keep.


    He grinned at them with a sadistic smile and made his way to the front of the room.


    Lirian reached out a hand expectantly and as the cartographers looked around in confusion they saw Media hand him a stack of pages.


    "Can anyone tell me what is it that I''m looking at?" Lirian asked waving the papers around in front of his face.


    The students looked around at each-other, with an I don''t know how to respond to that look, and they silently looked to the other candidates for help them.


    The candidates just chuckled at their expense but did nothing to help them.


    "Okay since none, of you can answer I''ll tell you what this is it''s," he pulled the first page up and shoved it in their faces.


    "This is an insult to the scribblings of a one year old," he said tossing it in the air along with a few other pages.


    He quickly pulled out the next one, "For the first time I''m truly grateful for being blind because if I wasn''t I would have plunged out my eyes after looking at this," he shouted and tossed the page in the air.


    "And this one!" he shouted pulling another page, "Is something that would make a puppy kill itself," he bellowed as a girl in the back fell to her knees and broke down crying.


    Lirian smiled in surprise, "Finally we have someone that understands the fate of someone that kills a puppy, let me tell you, even if I had to kill a million people to get to the person that killed a puppy, the world would be on my side, and they would shun the fallen souls that protecting the puppy killer."


    "Is that a reference to something?" Cole asked with a pondering look.


    The others just shrugged in response and continued to watch the show and the poor girl whose work would forever be known as a puppy killer in their heads.


    "I just want to know how he makes insulting people look so fun?" Tobias whispered to them, but his whispers had the tendency of traveling far and wide.


    As the cartographers heard his words they felt their hearts sink, it felt like they had been put straight into the fire without any reason or warning.


    "It''s just a natural gift," Lirian answered with a shrug as he turned back to the cartographers for round two.

 Chapter 129 - 129 – The Role System

    "All that I see is a bunch a crap, and that is the biggest compliment you could get, frankly I''ll have to go apologize to crap for what I just told you."


    Lirian berated them one after the other as he slowly got up and close in their faces, he had no idea if he was getting the write people but as almost a dozen of them had dropped down crying he felt that he got a few right.


    The ones who didn''t cry really wanted to scream in his face, ''You''re blind, you can''t see shit, and none of us have ever seen you in the cartography class, what the hell do you even know about it cartography.''


    "Can even one of you tell me what cartography is all about?" he asked sarcastically, he didn''t intend to get an answer but that is when one the students couldn''t take it anymore.


    "Cartography is about drawing maps!" she shrieked with tightly clenched fists flaying around at her sides.


    "What''s your name?" Lirian asked turning his attention to her.


    "C-C-Carmen," she stammered out as she felt Lirian full focus land on her, she found it difficult to breath.


    Lirian nodded slowly with a disapproving look on his face, he pointed at the lot of them and bobbed his pointed finger up and down, "The next person that gives, such a stupid answer, is going to make my shit list, and I promise you that none of you want to be there."


    The severity with which Lirian spoke made even the other candidates take a step back and they could hardly see how that was a wrong answer.


    "Cartography is a form of art, as old as sentient civilization itself, the first maps drawn were carved into slabs of rock and placed in the centre of a village, where all its inhabitants would gather,"


    "In some cultures, the art of map drawing, was consider a gift from the gods, and those that could draw maps were treated and celebrated as heroes to their people,"


    "In other cultures, map drawing was a sacred tradition handed to only the brightest of minds, they called map makers, ''Light Bearers,'' for maps would guide them in places where all was unknown,"


    "Maps are a series of chaotic lines that seem to make no sense at all, they curve, they bend, they break of and leave a trail of dots within the oceans, there is a special name given to those that can make sense of them¡­"


    "A cartographer takes those lines of chaos and puts them together to create a guide that others may follow,"


    "A cartographer, stitches order from chaos, and in because of that in many worlds the most common name for a map maker, is a ''Creator of Order''," Lirian finished his short inspirational speech about the value of a cartographer.


    His audience had been completely entranced by his views on cartography.


    They felt a true appreciation for their art from Lirian and they were sincerely moved, they had never heard such a gripping lecture on the subject in all their years in the academy.


    "I feel slightly touched by that," Cole said with a sour expression, because he knew that if he felt something good about what Lirian said, Lirian was going to dash it and ruin it and as if on que Lirian began.


    Lirian suddenly slammed the remaining pages in his hand onto the table and faced them with a frown.


    "This nonsense that all of you have done, doesn''t even resemble real map making, out of the all of you only twenty were chosen to draw the maps, but even they are walking on thin ice," he said pointedly.


    Lirian tapped his watch and suddenly, twenty of the students heard their watches beep, as they glanced down a notification popped up.


    <Your commander has assigned you a position>


    <You may choose one assistant and assign them the role of Assistant-Cartographer>


    "Choose you assistant from amongst the thirty remaining and of the ten others, five will be assigned to redraw the maps as one piece and the other five will collect information about every little thing we discover and list it''s locations on the maps."


    Lirian concluded and had them leave the tent, after assigning them their roles.


    "Why did you assign a role to all of them?" Edith asked stepping very close to him, "I thought that you were only going to select the twenty we chose?" she asked with a finger on her chin.


    "I just thought of those new tasks as a spoke to them, and it''s always better to have more than one person looking at the same area," he said after a while.


    Tobias stomped to the table in thought along with the others and they each took a seat.


    Media spoke suddenly, "The role system that you came up with is really interesting, maybe we can use it now to start handing out roles and build up some order," she proposed the idea.


    But Lirian quickly turned it down, "You are right but we won''t be doing it just yet, the students are still doing fine, for the first few days, they''ll be enthusiastic about the new situation, if we start pushing in roles and rules now, they will only get annoyed,"


    "We need to wait for a little trouble to build-up before resolving the problems, that way they will not only appreciate the rules, they will enforce it," Lirian explained.


    "But most importantly is that we need to observe how well some students react to this, and give them roles depending on their ability, if we start handing out roles to only the nobles or our friends, the student that don''t know us personally will feel no motivation to be helpful," Lirian took that last part very seriously.


    In total about 30% of the students were nobles and 25% were from extremely wealthy families, the remainder were either locals whose families could barely afford to send them to the academy and the scholarship students.


    That made up almost half of the group, if they were unhappy it would affect the entire group in very significant way.


    "But it''s not like everyone is willing to follow the rules on their own, even if they see the problems, there are some that will thrive because of the problems," Wentian added in his usual stoic voice.


    Lirian nodded in agreement, he narrowed his head suddenly as he felt the chair to side move a little closer to him, in fact he noticed that it was inching forward every few seconds.


    He sighed internally as he realised what Edith was doing, before continuing, "Yes, that is why we are going to provide incentives for them to be model¡­" Lirian thought hard to find the right word but if such a word existed it alluded him, so he simply said the only word that came to mind, ", campers."


    "Like?" Cole asked curiously, they were in the wild it wasn''t like they could get anything they wanted.


    "Better food, better tents, and better sleeping bags," Lirian answered, "At first I really thought all those options on that god forsaken list was rubbish, to tempt me into squandering money on myself," Lirian said with clenched fists.


    "But I realised that it could also be used to encourage good behaviour, and I mean we have hundreds of nobles, when it comes to luxuries there isn''t a single one of us that has the ability to ignore it," he chuckled softly.


    Media bobbed her head up and down as she was already coming up with ways to use this new system to take advantage of the students.


    "When we assign roles I want to use the system to assign tasks to every person based on their role, and if they fulfil all their tasks, they can get certain privileges, like using the toilets first, or being the first to get their rations," she said excitedly as she realised that she could literally control the behaviour of the students with a simple press of the button.


    "One step at a time," Tobias said loudly, "Once all the students have been assigned roles then we can slowly implement the new rules.


    "For now, we should just keep focusing on gathering the student''s response to everything, and figure out what we can improve," Lirian concluded, from there they all returned to doing their own things.


    A few hours later, Media said she was tired of filling in the map and went to sleep leaving only Lirian and Edith, in truth the main reason she left was because Edith wasn''t doing anything besides staring at Lirian like he was some irresistible drug.


    She didn''t know if anything happened between them but from the way Edith was staring at Lirian throughout the meeting, she was certain that something was going to happen.

 Chapter 130 - 130 – The River

    Lirian filled an ordinary cup with water, by the end he didn''t have enough credits to get any fancy goblets or eating utensils, it was just an ordinary cup.


    He turned to face Edith who was standing barely even a quarter of an inch away from him, "I thought that you were going to burn a hole through me with the way you were staring," he whispered in her ear as he offered her a cup of water.


    Edith tossed the cup aside and closed the last bit of room between them before jumping on to him and attacking his face with her lips.


    A struggle of lips, tongues and saliva occurred in crazed passion, as Lirian raised her up firmly, grabbing her by the ass and placed her on the table as he contested her tongues advances.


    It went on for many minutes as they both tried to push their tongues as far into the others throat as possible, and Lirian was pleasantly surprised by the length of her tongue.


    "I''ve been dying to do that all day," she said pulling away from him breathlessly.


    "I don''t think the others would mind all that much if we made out in front of them," Lirian suggested with a tempting smile.


    "No, not at all," Edith retorted shaking her head, "What kind of a lady would I be if I were to do such things in public," she blushed at the thought, as things were the whole hickeys on her neck incident was already bad for her reputation.


    "You''d be my lady," Lirian smiled widely taking her hand and planting a very long and sensual kiss on the back of her hand, like an extremely overly eager gentleman.


    Edith felt her entire body shiver, and her skin became filled with goose bumps as she felt the caress of Lirians warm tongue on her skin and his steaming hot breath, that seemed capable of melting her entire body.


    She felt even more giddy as he passionately made his way up her arm, past her elbow where it was somehow very ticklish, onto her shoulder and he slowly bought his tongue up her neck.


    She tilted her head back and before she even realised it her eyes were rolling backwards in their sockets as she experiences unbelievable ecstasy.


    Edith recognised the sensation that was about to happen, and panicked, she pushed Lirian back but was surprised to see that he didn''t move far because her legs were already tightly wrapped around his waist.


    ''I don''t remember doing that,'' she thought in a panic as she felt Lirians erection pressing hard against her wet thighs through their clothes which made her even more embarrassed.


    "I remember saying no sex until I was ready," she said in a very high-pitched voice.


    "You seem pretty ready," Lirian replied as he stroked the inside of her juicy thighs the fabric on her uniform was completely wet, ", and you were the one that wrapped her legs around me," he defended himself.


    "I didn''t know what I was doing!" she cried out, "You did that thing with your tongue and I almost¡­" she went completely red as she couldn''t bring herself to finish the that sentence, "It''s all your fault that I couldn''t think straight for a few seconds there!" she pouted indignantly with a burning hot face.


    "How are you even so good at doing that we didn''t even do anything much, and I was ready to¡­to¡­to¡­urgh," she wanted to scream.


    ''It isn''t fair, boys are supposed to be the ones that finish in a few seconds,'' she thought stomping her foot.


    Lirian thought about her question about why he was so good at it but he felt he didn''t have a good answer, ''I doubt that it will romantic if I told her that I learned every sensitive muscle in a persons body by torturing them.''


    "You were ready to what?" Lirian teased in his most innocent voice, he loved it when she lost her composure like this.


    "Y-y-y-you know what!" she cried out with actual tears forming in the corners of her eyes, she turned around and got ready to storm out.


    But Lirian quickly caught her from behind and hugged her tightly, "Alright I''m sorry," he said trying to hold back his laughter, but he failed at it miserably.


    "No more fooling around for the night, we can just stay like this and talk like we always do, only it won''t be on a projection," he whispered softly into her ear and sunk to his knees with her sitting on his lap.


    Edith smiled, it would be nice to talk in person, instead of over a projection, she snuggled up against him until she made herself comfortable and held his arms that were wrapped around her tightly.


    "What do you want to speak about?" she turned her head to glance at him from the corner of her eye and asked in a sly and seductive voice.


    "It''s when you speak like that, that I won''t be able to control myself," Lirian complained he loosened his hug around her and pretended that he''d let her go, if she wanted him to keep his promise, she couldn''t go around doing things to tempt him.


    "Okay, okay, I''m sorry," she giggled enjoying her pay back and grabbed his hands not allowing him to take them off her.


    The night went on with them talking happily for a few hours.


    It was a night they would always remember; it was the first night they spent together, they sat in each other''s arms, and simply spoke until the sun came up, in their city of tents, he was like the king, and she was his queen.


    The march continued smoothly and three days later Lirian heard the sound of gushing water sweeping across rocky shores.


    At the same time a few scouting parties came rushing back on their horses to deliver the news.


    Just as Karen was about to deliver the news she received from the other psychics Lirian beat her to.


    "We''ve reached the river," he said with a smile, she didn''t even know how he already knew, but by now she knew that it was pointless to try to understand him.


    "Yes, the scouts found it three miles to the east," she confirmed and soon the three thousand students were switching their course and heading in the true east direction.


    It was the fastest three miles they had covered since the expedition begun.


    It was just a little past noon when they reached and the sounds of people splashing in the water could be heard loudly as well as the laughter of the boys and girls that decided to play around in the water.


    Lirian unmounted his horse and found a nice big tree.


    Some of the people were wondering what he was doing when he suddenly pulled the katana from his side and in one quick fluid motion they heard its sharp ringing as it left the scabbard and then they blinked and it was back in the scabbard.


    Then a slight rumbling sound filled their ears as the tree came toppling down with a loud and deafening crunch, raising up clouds of dust.


    Lirian hopped on to the cleanly sliced tree stump, with all eyes completely focused on him, his actions had brought all the laughter and the games to a standstill.


    "By now you all should know that I love being the bad guy, so I''ll only say this once, get back in line and move forward, it''s only noon and we don''t have any time to lose, we have a schedule to keep up with, if you have a problem, then you and this generous tree will share the same fate," he smiled grimly at all of them with his hand wrapped tightly around the katana, it looked as if he was eager to use his sword on someone.


    "And all of you that are already in the water, you''ll be on toilet cleaning duty for the next three days," Lirian found that toilet cleaning duty was the most dreaded by all the students, so it became the go to punishment for everyone.


    He hopped of from the stump and mounted his horse again as the students in the water shot him resentful looks.


    Media came next to him and began to argue with him in whispered tones, and after a few minutes of what looked like a heated argument she turned around to face everyone.


    "We''ll be stopping an hour earlier than usual so everyone can enjoy themselves in the river for a while before we set up," her words were greeted by boomed applause and students began shouting words of thanks to her.


    A while later Media came back to his side, "Are you sure it''s a good idea to waste an hour?" she asked.


    "We are ahead of our schedule by a few hours, despite leaving late," Lirian answered her, it was mainly due to the good weather they had over the past few days it wasn''t very hot and they were traveling on flat plains, so they had a really good speed of traveling.


    "Besides they could all use a short break before the real trouble starts."

 Chapter 131 - 131 – The World In The Flames

    The first night on the riverbank was more of a celebration for the students, the fires blazed on as the students took their time to eat the rations they were given.


    They sat around the flames and told the scariest stories they could as the night grew ever darker, and at one-point Tobias lead the scouting parties to go out and hunt a few creatures.


    Using branches from the trees they skewered the lumps of meat and hung it over the flames to slowly roast, Lirian generously allowed the usage of some of the ridiculously priced spice for the occasion.


    Tobias saw Lirian sitting at the highest point of the area they were camped, like some sort of guard, which he found strange.


    It didn''t matter where Lirian set he was blind so there wasn''t much he could do no matter how high he sat.


    He walked up to Lirian and found him tinkering with some loose tinder, slowly forming a pile of dried up sticks.


    Tobias took a seat next to him wordlessly with his eyes fixed on the large fires and the roasting meat.


    "I heard that you led the hunt and you managed to deliver a fatal injury to one of the creature''s," Lirian said breaking the silence as he stroked the dry tinder.


    Tobias chuckled, "They are exaggerating, in truth the hunting parties did all the work and had me deal the final blow when it was safe," he said glumly.


    "Rumours are spreading about the roles, and they are only trying to suck up to me in the hopes of getting a good role when we start assigning them," Tobias sighed.


    "It''s only natural isn''t it, if we can''t become the leader, we try to please the ones that lead in the hope that they will recognise us," Lirian said with simple elegance, "In a way they are no different from us candidates."


    Tobias grunted in agreement, it was their fate to do everything in their power to impress and please the nobles that looked down on them from above.


    "But it would be different if I was more like you," he added in a disheartened tone.


    "More like me," Lirian muttered softly, "How do you figure that would help you?" he asked with an amused tone.


    Tobias shook his head, ''Lirian won''t understand, he doesn''t get what it''s like to watch him, he''s a candidate yet he can control so many cultivators with his strength alone.''


    "Don''t mind me it was just a slip of the tongue," he sulked and drooped his head down.


    "Try me," Lirian smiled at him, "You may not know this but I''m a good listener, not that I have much of a choice in that," he chuckled at his own joke.


    Tobias fell into thought and decided to give it a shot, "Do you know that on my first expedition I got into a huge fight with my class, they thought that without supervision, they could take control of the expedition and do things their way,"


    "It was only twenty of us, but I still lost control of them, and after a few days I challenged the person who took charge, I won but I was injured."


    "I got my position back, but we lost five days because I had to recover," his voice was dyed in heavy guilt.


    "But watching you back there when we left, you took control of a full 3000 cultivators by yourself with complete ease," he couldn''t hide the admiration but most of all envy in his voice.


    "None of them would dare to actively try poaching your position, you''ve led this expedition better than I could have and I''ve done this four times already,"


    "Sometime I feel like it''s blessing that I got to witness you as a candidate, but it also feels like a curse to see you do every thing that I can do and do it better than I could imagine," he sighed looking down at the large fires and the students that were enjoying themselves.


    He was certain that had it been him leading there would have been a mutiny by now with so many people, this scenery would have never happened.


    Lirian was lost wondering in his thoughts, Tobias''s envy was different from the others, it wasn''t pettiness, but rather it was born of his own insecurities that he wasn''t good enough.


    Lirian stroked the tinder with his walking stick, "What do you see when you look at this?" Lirian asked pointing at the neatly arranged tinder with his stick.


    Tobias looked down with a strange expression, he figured that it was some form of trick question, so he thought a little before giving an answer.


    "A nice fire to roast some marshmallows," he answered.


    Lirian chuckled, "That''s a good answer," with the flick of his hand a silver thread of energy shot out, one end touched the flames of a torch and the other struck the tinder.


    Then the entire thread turned into a flame and a crackling fire was born before Tobias''s eyes.


    Lirian open the dimensional storage, and pulled out a few skewers and marshmallows, much to Tobias''s surprise.


    "I sneaked these past the guards, but I couldn''t bring many," Lirian explained.


    Tobias laughed loudly, it was the first time he was happy about Lirian''s skill in sleight of hand, he never thought that his ability to steal food would come in useful now.


    As they begun roasting the marshmallows Tobias couldn''t help but ask, "What does this have to do with what I told you?"


    "I''m getting there," Lirian said as he took a bite of the gooey marshmallow.


    "How long will the fire last? how long can it burn strong? How big can it become? What can it achieve in its time burning?" Lirian asked him suddenly to which Tobias only narrowed his eyes as he ended up lost in his thoughts.


    The question seemed to be one of those philosophical ones, the ones that make you think deeply about what you are doing and where is it that you intend to go.


    Lirian pulled down the blind fold and intense spots of red light assaulted his eyes.


    Tobias sat across from him and was immediately taken by the sight of the red embers being reflected in Lirians silver eyes, even that murky black couldn''t hide its radiance completely.


    "The fire burns, the fire grows,"


    "The fire consumes, the fire grows,"


    "The fire devours all things, and so the fire must grow,"


    "But what happens when all is eaten, how then shall the fire grow,"


    Tobias heard Lirian say those words at barely a whisper, it sounded more like some mantra, but as he looked into the eyes of Lirian he could see images being reflected from the fire.


    He looked back to the fire and in it he saw, what could only be described as a luscious forest of green trees as tall as the sky''s above.


    In the fire he saw images of people setting their fields alight, to burn away the dead crops.


    Tobias found it hard to believe what he was seeing, he was looking into a fire, yet he could see the colours of the spectrum, he saw fires within the fire.


    "The people completed their ritual of burning away the old, but little did they know that the fires had come alive and formed a pact of their own," Lirian began to narrate as the fires moved.


    "The fires had come to live and like all things with sentience, they did not want to die,"


    "As the people went to end the lives of the flames, the flames responded, they reached out and wrapped the people in cloaks of fire, eating them, consuming them, living of their burning flesh,"


    Tobias''s eyes shuddered as he saw what Lirian described in the flames, the crackling of the wood, sounded like the shrieks of the people.


    "And so, the fires spread, from person to person, from home to home, but it was not enough, they moved on to the unburnt lands and spread to the forest around,"


    The images in the flames continued to flow like a movie, only it looked more real, to Tobias it felt like he was looking through the eyes of another, as he saw the fires spread to the top of the trees that touched the sky and the smoke that filled the skies.


    "It caught the animals, and burnt the hobbles of every creature, but it''s hunger only grew, some even devoured others in its uncontrollable hunger, however the survivors were severely weakened,"


    Tobias saw the flames fight tussling around, burning each other''s air until even the victor looked ready to die.


    "So, the greatest flame saw an opportunity it devoured all the others and spread it''s flames to grow even mightier,"


    "The fires raged through the forests for months, but soon they came to the end, and set their flames on the cities,"


    The flames showed the edge of the forests and a great marble city that looked like those found in ancient times.


    "The flames burned concrete into puddles of liquid magma and caught the fleeing people in its burning maw,"


    "And so, the flames devoured all life, and turned all things to ashes but,"


    Tobias saw all the flames converge onto a single spot he knew what was to come.


    "The flames converged to the final point from all directions, and with one final spark of glory it burned itself out,"


    "But little did it know, that one of the other flames survived it wasn''t as ferocious as the others, rather it was smart, it devoured the borders of it''s lands to make it look like it devoured everything, and while the other flame ate at a gluttonous pace,"


    "The flame burned soft and bright in its own paradise, burning leisurely at its own pace."


    Lirian finished the story and the images in the flames vanished.


    Lirian raised his head to face Tobias, "You shouldn''t envy me," he said with a small smile, "We both know which flame I am, we both know how it''s going to end for me, it will be short but brilliant."


    "There are million morals to be learnt from this story, but I think the most important one is to follow the cunning flames lead, don''t copy those around you and stay true to who you are, play to your own strengths,"


    "While you may never beat the big flame, you can outwit it thus outliving it," he walked over the small flames and tapped Tobias''s massive shoulders.


    "Now if you''ll excuse me I have a party that needs to come to an end," Lirian walked down to the big fire, he didn''t mind the party but they had to sleep earlier or they would lose time on the march.


    Tobias watched Lirians back with a look of contemplation, he had always thought Lirian had wise eyes, but he was so self-absorbed that he could have never pictured him being truly wise, but now it seemed to fit him well.


    ''Ah, I forgot to ask him how he did that thing with the flames,'' he realized a little late.

 Chapter 132 - 132 - A Bump In The Plans

    During the first hour of the march, Lirian''s watch began to beep.


    <New Discovery>


    Lirian had the watch read it aloud, as the commander all new discoveries would ring on his watch.


    Someone had found a piece of fungus growing on a tree and decided to try their luck and recorded it.


    This came as a pleasant surprise to Lirian, aside from the generals, scouts and cartographers, and psychics he hadn''t given out any roles, and he wanted to give it when distress started to build up in the students.


    A new discovery would make the students more eager to work hard without any additional incentives and in doing so prolong the time before problems arose.


    The best part about the new discovery was that it came before they reached the unexplored area, which meant that they''d get extra credit for finding something that was previously missed, by other exploration teams.


    It was a few hours later that the river entered into a proper forest, and it was there that the first problem started.


    The forest was beautiful and green, but the insects inside it were anything but beautiful, and entire hordes of flying insects could be found frequently along the riverbanks.


    The swarms formed black clouds within the trees, that could easily cover 30 people.


    After over a dozen encounters in three hours, they were forced to stop their advance and the candidates held a meeting on how to proceed.


    "The scouts have it fine they can easily avoid the swarms with their small parties, however the students have been asking if we can use the insecticide on the swarms," Wentian was telling them, as he was the one in charge of the scouts.


    Media shook her head, "We can''t waste the insecticide, we only brought a little extra, but it''s needed to keep our campsites free of insects."


    "I propose that we form a pyromancer division with the mages, they can incinerate the insects as we move," Media put forward her idea.


    Cole shook his head, "Bad idea, I did something similar, but the moment you start playing with wildfire the creatures will go crazy, we''ll be constantly fighting everywhere we go."


    "That won''t be a problem here," Edith said pointedly, "We have over 3000 people, the only creatures that will interfere with us while we march, will be those that are starving and desperate for food," she reasoned.


    No creature was stupid enough to attack a large army.


    "Well, so long that we don''t invade and destroy their territories, or we run into a third-grade creature that can completely steam role us," Lirian added in optimistically.


    They had already resolved the problem before he could add anything useful, it wasn''t like what he said was wrong.


    ---


    The new teams were quickly formed, and they resumed their march through the forest, with little to no problems and three days later they broke past the explored area and into the unknown.


    In terms of scenery nothing changed much, but the cartography division got extremely busy from then on, as they joined the scouts every morning and begun to compile the route they were taking as well as the landmarks that could be used as references.


    Over the next few days, the timid looking cartographers were heard cursing and shouting at frequent intervals within the camp, because as it turned out finding actual landmarks they could work with in a forest filled with enormous trees was almost impossible.


    On the 9th day a scout came rushing back into the camp along with the cartographer on his team, as soon as they arrived they created a stir as they raced to the candidates, ignoring the protocols.


    On one hand the cartographer seemed to be ecstatic while the scout looked panicked.


    "Sir Lirian," both of them greeted quickly, Lirian recognised the cartographer, she was that girl Carmen that dared to say cartography was about drawing maps.


    "What''s this about?", Lirian asked them calmly.


    Carmen smiled, "You know how my division has been moody because we couldn''t find a proper landmark to reference, well we found one that can''t be mistaken or missed," she said ecstatically.


    "What is it?" Lirian asked from the way the scout was panicking he had a feeling that it would be bad news.


    Carmen''s face lost it''s glow when Lirian asked that, and she turned to the scout, "We are heading straight for a water fall and a huge one at that, it''s 4 hours away, and all the other scouts are converging on it, the fall is way to high we need to find a new route.


    Media was sitting on her horse next to Lirian and her face dropped, with a waterfall, they would have to re-route, if they were lucky it would only waste a day of their time.


    "How''s the view?" Lirian asked thoughtfully, without any anger or annoyance in his tone, which left everyone in surprise


    "-t-t-The view?" the scout repeated not sure what Lirian was talking about.


    "At the waterfall, how is the scenery? is it beautiful? is it ugly? will it take a person''s breath away when they see it, or will they glance at it once and never bother to look at it again?" Lirian asked, this time a mild tone of annoyance was mixed into his voice.


    "It''s extraordinary Sir," Carmen quickly chimed, she didn''t see how the view could affect him, but entertaining him seemed to be the only way to proceed without causing a problem.


    "The drop is at least 600 yards it''s a rush to simply look down," she added.


    Lirian nodded, "One last thing, is there a clearing at the fall where we will be able to set up camp for the night?"


    Carmen answered positively, and soon the entire group was made aware of the situation.


    "Shouldn''t we re-route from here," Media complained, "We are going to lose a lot of time, besides if we go to the waterfall now, we''ll waste three hours of marching time."


    Lirian shook his head, "We''ve already lost the time we need to do what you wanted, even if we can reach our original destination, we''ll only have a few hours before we have to turn around."


    "It was a good plan Media, but sometimes things don''t go as planned, if we want to salvage this we need to sit down for a long time and rethink our path," he consoled the saddened Media and followed the sound of the students footsteps.


    ---


    "It looks amazing," Lirian said for the hundredth time already as he stood on the very edge of the ledge by the waterfall where no one else dared to go, the view down made them queasy.


    "You aren''t fooling anyone into coming closer," Edith complained as she looked at Lirian standing so close to the edge that it made her stomach tighten.


    "I just want my girlfriend to accompany me here is that so much to ask," he asked in a saddened voice.


    "Girlfriend!?" he heard several shocked cries as the candidates glanced between the two of them, they knew that the two of them were fooling around from time to time but they weren''t aware that it was official.


    Edith ignored them and looked at Lirian sternly, "If you keep standing so close to the edge, that is going to turn into ex-girlfriend," she retorted.


    Her response was a confirmation for the others, "When?" Cole blorted out as he glanced between them.


    "The day before we set out," Lirian answered Cole''s question while smiling at Edith playfully.


    "And you can say that the relationship came to an end on the day we reached the waterfall, because Lirian insists on acting like an idiot!" Edith told Cole and turned around to walk away.


    Lirian chuckled and ran after her, when he caught up with her he grabbed her hand and made her face him, "Sorry I don''t do take backs, so you''re kinda stuck with me," he said with his best smile.


    Edith didn''t try to fight back as she was caught up in his smile, "Please don''t do that again," she implored him while hugging him tightly, "It''s scary enough to see someone who has their eyes do that," she whispered placing her chin on his shoulder.


    "I still have my eyes," Lirian complained, "They just aren''t working temporarily," he mused to her.


    He felt her fingers suddenly dig into his back as she huff in anger, "You know what you''re doing turns me on," he whispered and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.


    She puffed even harder as she had to stop digging her nails into his back and stomped on the ground, she intended to stomp his foot, but she was afraid it would turn him on even more.


    "Okay, I''ll stop," Lirian gave into her demands with a happy laugh, "But, tell me how is the view, do you like it?"


    Edith turned to look at him with a saddened face and gently rubbed his face, "I wish you could see it with me," she said softly with a slight quiver in her voice.


    When Edith looked around she could see this place become some sort of romantic resort for new couples to visit.


    "I''m glad that we came here together," she said wrapping her arms around his neck and giving him a proper kiss, despite knowing that some of the students were probably watching them.


    She didn''t know how to tell him how amazing the view was so she did the only thing she could to let him understand.

 Chapter 133 - 133 - A Change Of Plans

    The commander tent was packed full of people, the six candidates, their guards and psychic''s, and the scouts crowded around the large map on the table that Media had almost completely filled in.


    She would add in the new pieces daily as they progressed and by now the map was extremely detailed and pleasant to look at.


    "We have two possible routes to continue the advance," a scout was saying, as he pointed at the map, "We can break off from the river and head south, the lands there are a little steep but we can manage a march through it, then once we get down we can work our way to the water fall site,"


    "The other thing we can do is cross the river, there is a natural crossing about a mile back, if we explore the other side, we could find a faster way to get back to the river," the scout stated both their options.


    No one seemed to know which path to take, both had a ton of unknowns and it really didn''t matter which side they chose, the prospects were the same, but they all seemed to carry an invisible weight on their shoulders.


    If they chose a path and things didn''t go well it would make the entire expedition turn into a resounding failure.


    Lirian sighed as a heavy silence filled the tent.


    "I told you that the old plan is a bust we won''t be following it," Lirian'' voice echoed in everyone''s ears.


    "It''s pointless to continue following the river, from now on we no longer have a target destination, when our exploration resumes our main focus will be to fill in the map," Lirian said taking control of the crowd.


    "From here on out, we will split up into groups and continue the exploration," he commanded.


    Hinata was looking at the map from a gap in the crowd, but at Lirians words her eyes sparkled, over the past few days she had been growing gloomy, due to the compactness of the group, she doubted that she would have been able to do the next part of her task.


    She needed to find a way to split Lirian off from the group and get him in an isolated area, but until now it appeared to be an impossible task.


    With the expedition splitting up into separate groups it would make it that much easier to get Lirian to break away from the group and as his guard she''d be able to stick close to him, highlighting his location.


    "Split up!?", several of them cried out in surprise, "I don''t think that''s a good idea," Media said swiftly.


    They were relying on his authority to keep the students in check, without his constant supervision things would go awry.


    Lirian drummed his fingers on the table, "Everyone get out, candidates stay behind," Lirian said in his usual rude manner.


    Once the tent emptied out he continued with just the candidates, "From now on we''ll be splitting up into three companies to continue the exploration."


    "Wait!" Media cried, ", didn''t you appoint me as deputy-commander, why am I not getting a say on this?" she shouted indignantly.


    "Because you still haven''t given up on your goal," Lirian sighed in exasperation, "The most important thing that one has to learn is that 90% of the time your plans, won''t work out and that''s when you do damage control."


    "It wasn''t my fault that this stupid waterfall got in the way," Media complained while clenching her fist tightly.


    "No matter how much you plan, something unexpected will happen, I''m sure that you''ve read some books that speak of that rule, you are getting first hand experience in that rule, so watch and learn how you deal with such a situation, or have you forgotten the main reason I put you in charge," Lirian said firmly.


    Media shrank back with her head lowered, with her position it was rare that anyone ever spoke down to her, she held in her building frustration


    Wentian found Lirians reaction to this new problem a little strange, the others were panicking slightly but he was acting like it was just an ordinary problem that he could resolve at any time.


    "Did you expect this to happen?" Wentian asked in an attempt to take all the attention of Media, her plan had already failed and everyone focusing on it wasn''t make it any easier for her to deal with it.


    "I always expect everything to go wrong," Lirian said nonchalantly, "That way nothing ever takes me by surprise."


    "Now if you guys want me to tell you everything that I think could go wrong, I''d be talking every last second of the day and through the nights,"


    "And I get that you all love the sound of my voice, but good things should be enjoyed in small doses, otherwise you won''t appreciate it as much," Lirian complain with an exaggerated expression on his face.


    Lirian heard all of them grunt in complaint of his never ceasing shamelessness and chuckled jovially.


    "Forget about it," Edith sighed, ''I can''t believe I''m dating a guy that lacks all pretence on shame,'' she sighed with a grievance.


    "I''m more interested in your plan to split the group into three, when we only have two paths two take," Edith inquired.


    "The goal of our group has changed," Lirian stated, "We are no longer heading for a fixed location with a fixed goal, so we have to change tactics," he spoke like it was an obvious fact.


    "From now onwards we''ll be operating with a fixed base, and that base will be right over here by the waterfall," Lirian told them.


    "And instead of pursuing only one side of the waterfall we''ll split the group into two, we have more than enough people to do it,"


    Lirian detailed out the new plan for them, 500 of the students would remain at the main camp, while the other 2500 would be split equally into the two exploration groups to cover both sides of the river.


    Two candidates would lead each group, and two would remain at the main base and instead of trying to move far out and remain on a single fixed route, they would cover each area they entered and gradually explore it.


    "Now all that''s left is to decide who goes to which group," Tobias said with folded arms.


    "I''ll obviously be taking control of the main base," Lirian said, ", and Media will be leading one of the exploration groups," he added quickly, he still wanted to give Media a chance to prove herself, and this way it would be less stressful for her.


    "As for the rest of you, why don''t you guys play a game of emperors gambit, the person with the most wins gets first choice," Lirian suggested.


    Cole shrugged and brought his hands forward with a fist on his palm, "I always win at emperors gambit," he said with a goofy grin and challenged the others.


    Cole proved his ability to them all, he didn''t lose a single match as he challenged each candidate, when he won he chose to go along with Media''s group.


    Then Tobias and Wentian won choosing to go on the exploration path, Edith pouted at her awful luck, she had lost every single time even when she chanted ''rock, paper, scissors'' at the top of her lungs, but she wasn''t to saddened by her fate.


    It was only natural that the candidates would want to lead the exploration, but since it meant that she got to spend some time with her new boyfriend, it made it a welcome surprise for her.


    "Looks like we can get some alone time," Lirian flashed his teeth as he grinned and spoke to her in a flirty tone.


    "I wanted to delay this as much as possible but since the group will be splitting up, we''ll need to assign all the roles before we leave tomorrow," he sighed, in truth he wanted to hand out the roles gradually as what was most needed became apparent.


    "Lirian," Media piped up now that she had some time to think things over, she was grateful that Lirian was giving her an opportunity to prove herself again, but she still worried about one problem.


    "Without you present at all times to reign in the students, how are we going to maintain control of everyone?" as the words left her mouth, the others felt their mood fall.


    Things proceeded so well until this point that they forgot that the main reason that things went so well was Lirians presence alone.


    "You guys don''t have to worry about that, I''ll have a good talk with them before you set out," Lirian flashed them a wickedly wide grin.


    "We don''t have anytime to waste, we need to begin assigning the new roles immediately," Lirian said seriously.

 Chapter 134 - 134 – Roles And Warning

    The morning arrived quickly and the watches on all the student wrists began to beep one after the other.


    As they looked they saw that they had been assigned a role along with a bunch of info explaining the changes in the focus of the expedition.


    The first thing they noticed was the teams they were assigned too.


    <Main Base> - Commanding officers, Lirian, Edith


    <Exploration 1> - Commanding officers, Media, Cole


    <Exploration 2> - Commanding officers, Tobias, Wentian


    They were all placed in one of the groups and as they read through the changes in the expedition, they realised what the significance behind each group was.


    Then they read the new roles they were assigned.


    <Vanguard>,


    , <Explorer>, <Communications>, <Guard>, <Scout>, <Bodyguard>, <General>, <Water Replenisher>....


    Under their role a prompt gave them the details of their duties.


    Another prompt appeared besides their assigned roles.


    <Your position has been assigned based on the tasks you''ve done over the course of the expedition, depending on your contributions in different areas, your role maybe re-assigned.>


    <N/T each candidate will be selecting 5 captains based on the effort put in by each individual, all captains will be assigned a single men luxury tent, and high-quality rations once a day.>


    <N/T each candidate will be selecting 2 lieutenants to serve under each of their captains, the position will be assigned based on the effort put in by each individual, all lieutenants will be assigned a luxury sleeping bag and high-quality rations every second day.>


    ---


    "Any complaints?" Lirian asked with his best smile as he faced the crowd of students gathered in front of him.


    He knew from the very beginning that there would a few that weren''t content with their new roles in the expedition.


    There was a burst of noise as the students clamoured over each other to get their complaints heard, Lirian raised his hand and they quickly silenced themselves.


    He raised his finger and a wisp od silver energy shot out forming a circle around a girl, she had been very loud in her complaints and Lirian had heard her voice despite the clamouring students.


    "Would you care to come forward and state your problem?" Lirian gestured for her and smiled pleasantly.


    The girl walked forward with confident steps, "I''m Klea form class 8 ¨C A," she introduced herself and glanced at Cole whom she shared a class with, "I''d prefer to move to the vanguard, a support role doesn''t suit me," she said with confidence.


    In the audience all of class 5-A winced loudly as they saw the smile on Lirian''s face, it looked perfectly lovely and innocent, but they knew it was an omen of doom.


    As people looked at them strangely, Mordred ignored them and offered a silent prayer to the girl, ''May your next life be free of misfortunes,'' he thought bringing his hands together.


    Lirian reached out to fast for the girl to react and wrapped his hand around her neck and lifted her in the air like she was a rag doll.


    His action took everyone by surprise, Cole looked on wide-eyed as the girl from his class was dragged across the ground and struggled in vein against Lirians grip.


    Klea''s eyes trembled violently as she continuously tried to hit Lirians hand and make him release her, but it didn''t matter if she punched or kicked Lirian seemed to feel nothing at all.


    She didn''t know where Lirian was dragging her too when she felt that the sound of the crashing waters was growing louder and when she realized where she was being taken to it was too late.


    Lirian dangled Klea over the edge of the water fall and she clasped onto his wrist with all her might and held on for her life, as she looked down below she almost fainted from fright the only thing keeping her conscious was her desperate desire to live.


    "Do you still have a problem with your role?" Lirian asked loudly with a cold voice.


    She immediately began shaking her head wildly while trying the reach out her toes to touch the ledge.


    "I can''t hear you," Lirian mused innocently and leaned further out, his action gave her an even bigger heart attack, because she could tell that if she tried to struggle one bit both of them would fall over.


    "n-n¡­-n-no," she crooked out with the last of her breath.


    "Louder," Lirian whispered to her, he moved his hand a little to let her take in some air.


    "No," she said with a shaky voice.


    "I didn''t catch that, the waterfalls very loud," Lirian said loudly.


    "NOOOOOO! I LOVE MY ROLE!" she shouted with all the strength she had left.


    Lirian pulled her back and tossed her onto the ground, she slumped down without any energy and a dead look in her eyes as several of her classmates came running to help her.


    "Does anyone else have a complaint to tell me I''m happy to hear you out?" Lirian smiled pleasantly like nothing noteworthy had happened.


    Absolute silence was the only thing that greeted him as the student were busy shaking from shock, hack even the candidate''s were shaking and Lirian told them that he was going to do something extreme, but they had never imagined he would go so far.


    "Aww," Lirian sighed in disappointment, "And here I was hoping that there would be someone willing to sacrifice themselves, so that everyone could understand what I''d do to someone that causes me to feel real annoyance."


    If Lirian earlier actions were terror inducing they didn''t know what to describe his words as, because they already found it impossible to even think of acting out of line.


    Lirian sighed and shook his head with a thoughtful expression, "I suppose that since no one would like to act as a sacrifice, I can only leave it up to your imaginations to think of what would happen to those that earn my ire," he announced for all of them to hear.


    "I do hope that all of you give it a lot of thought in your days to come, especially those that won''t be seeing me until the return journey, it would be a pity if I have to remove you when everything is almost over," Lirian''s cold voice hung on the air like the icy chill of winter not allowing any of them to forgot a single word for an instance.


    Hinata''s eyes trembled more than anyone else, and she felt her heart leap into her throat, if Lirian could be so cruel to someone for simply having a different preference from him, what would he do to her if he found out that she was trying to kill him.


    For the first time she felt genuine doubt in Telamons plan, and an unprecedented fear washed over her.


    ---


    An hour later the students were filling out in perfectly straight lines while cursing their parents for giving birth to them, what they had just experienced was far too much for their young minds to handle.


    Lirian''s ''little talk'' and left them with nothing but pure fear and dread, the moment when he held Klea over the edge of the waterfalls by her neck for complaining about her assigned role they came to realize that they were dealing with a complete madman.


    It was Lirian''s way of showing them that should they step out of line a far worse fate would await them, and those that were in the exploration groups were extremely glad that they wouldn''t be in Lirian''s group.


    Lirian remained in the camp as Media''s group headed for the river crossing and Tobias''s group headed in the opposite direction.


    As the teams reached 500 meters away from him, alerts kept coming up on his watch.


    <A member of your group has left the range of your device; you cannot contact them.>


    It was part of the design to ensure that they couldn''t use the watches to communicate with each-other when they were too far apart.


    That way any reports they made would have to be in person, and the groups had to maintain fixed lines of communication, it was why the communication role was so important.


    Lirian turned to face the remaining five hundred students, "Does anyone have a problem with their assignments?"


    "No Sir," he heard them shout in unison like a well-trained regiment as they stomped on the ground.


    "That''s good," Lirian said in a tone that said that''s what he expected to hear, "Get to work, dig the trenches and set up a defence, our group is small so there is a good chance that we''ll be attacked by the creatures that have been following our trail."


    The sounds of picks and forks cutting into the ground and busting rock soon competed with the sound of the ever-flowing waterfall.


    Unbeknownst to them the skies of the world they were one was busy as numerous ships silently approached in stealth mode.


    The ships hovered in the darkness of space waiting for the moment to strike.

 Chapter 135 - 135 – The Oncoming Storm

    A single ship resembling a black flying saucer was swallowed whole by another much larger ship.


    Once inside the occupants on the small ship walked out of the hatch with heavy tension in their steps.


    They each wore completely black outfits that covered even their face''s and a veil that blocked their eyes.


    As they filled into the large mothership another group dressed in a similar manner met them.


    The person in the lead looked at the group surrounding his team of 14 and spoke, "We are the blade¡­" his words were rudely interrupted by someone from the mothership''s crew, "¡­And the daggers¡­"


    Once the words came out of his mouth the crew of 14 didn''t show any displeasure at the interruption, instead the interruption made their taunt nerves ease up.


    And they all began to recite the rest of the code alongside the members of the mothership.


    "That severs the hindrances to our masters, in turn we benefit the empire, such is our noble goal."


    As they spoke the two groups merged and became indistinguishable from the each other.


    It wasn''t the way of Zealots to introduce themselves by name, they never had one to begin with and using the names of their masters was a taboo when they were in the middle of an operation, so their masters would give them a code to speak when they worked together with other zealots.


    They didn''t know that the other zealots came from Efrideet Capriska, they didn''t need to, their only goal was to accomplish the goals of their master.


    As they walked through the mothership the new group noticed a difference in all the zealots on this ship, there were over a hundred of them but there were only two from the second accord.


    Because Telamon had so little leeway in the number he could train secretly he focused on quality over quantity making all his zealots second accord combatants.


    They reached the control room and soon they found themselves looking at a very large green rock floating in space, it was at least 80% earth and 20% water, it was their target destination.


    ---


    As that meeting happened another two ships silently cloaked themselves and landed on the green world, the occupants left their ships in an orderly fashion.


    The occupants of the first ship wore uniforms of green and black colours and The Great Tree emblem of the Eden family was seen directly over their hearts.


    They looked at the people in white uniforms with recognition, the emblem of the proudly perched eagle was all they needed to know that they were from the Jane family.


    They had no need to doubt each other''s identities as they recognised most of the people in the teams.


    It was only twenty of them in total, but all of them were the finest second accord combatants that one could find in the Opal Star Zone.


    The chief advisor of Callum Eden, Milan Eden walked to the front of the group, she wore elegant ice-blue robes that highlighted her every curve, but as if contradicting her bodies intense sex appeal her face was cold and unbending.


    The elites from the Eden family had no idea why she chose to leave her position temporarily for this mission.


    She lied to them and to herself, saying that it was because this was a direct mission from his majesty, she didn''t want anything to go wrong.


    Milan didn''t waste her time with ant speech''s everyone knew exactly what they were here for, she pulled out a device and it began to emit a signal, seconds later it locked onto the position of Edith''s earing.


    The candidates might have figured out the private rooms were tapped, but they would have never figured out that their earrings were always a way of tracking them to keep tabs of their location.


    The elites of two great families set out.


    ---


    Alastor controlled the fleet, it was a little slow and sluggish without a crew to help, so it would still be a few more days before he arrived, he glanced down at the note Lirian had left him.


    Yo, Alastor


    I know that you''ve made up your mind about joining me so drop the act!


    I''m giving you your first assignment,


    My cruiser fleet is already stationed in empty space, so rent a shuttle and board it, you can use the controller to locate it and the co-ordinates of the expedition are already fixed into the controller, so you have no excuse''s to not get here.


    If you don''t make it then consider yourself fired.


    I wouldn''t be telling you to do this if it wasn''t necessary, for the most part you won''t do anything other than monitor the planet, if you see a big explosion take that as your signal to come down and help me out.


    P.S. When the expedition is over I''m expecting that ignition powder rifle you promised to get me!


    -L


    Alastor sighed as he shifted his focus back to the ship.


    ''I can''t believe I agreed to follow such a disrespectful fellow,'' he thought pitying himself


    As for the rifle he didn''t know what all the haste was about, it was difficult enough to find one of those things, and for some odd reason he wanted one that needed to be restored which was even harder.


    Alastor had mentioned that he had a friend who dealt with such objects once, when he spoke to Lirian and he was surprised by Lirians enthusiasm when he spoke about it.


    He offered to get it for him, but with his recent demotion it was proving a little difficult to get into contact with anyone from his old circles.


    He put the note away as the planet he was heading towards appeared on the monitors, even with the ships instruments the planet still appeared as a green dot in the universe.


    ---


    "We''ve been finding a lot more animal tracks around the camp and they are coming in closer every day," Mordred was reporting to Lirian directly, most of the students were to afraid to speak to Lirian in person, so they chose to make the students from class 5-A who were the most familiar with Lirian do all the reporting.


    All the candidates kept their entire class with them and so there were 19 of them that could share the burden, but they chose to draw straws, and Mordred had the worst possible luck, almost every time he got stuck with the duty of telling Lirian all the problems that occurred in the camp.


    "Have there been any attacks yet?" Lirian asked while tapping his finger against the desk.


    "Only one, but no one was injured, they startled a saber tooth tiger, and after it swiped at them it fled in a panic, but asides from that, we''ve discovered several lairs in the surroundings and there are eight different types of creatures."


    Lirian thought on it silently, ''These creatures are smart, they are stalking us and slowly closing in on us, the biggest problem is that we don''t know their numbers or their strength, but the longer we prolong hunting them down the more numbers they can gather.''


    It was a common occurrence in nature, when a new predator arrived in an area, all the local alphas would do everything they could to get rid of the invading creatures that would poach all their food.


    "We''ll head out to the closest lairs and kill what ever we find, then we''ll drag the corpses back to camp," Lirian decided.


    Lirians plan was simple, he was going to kill some of the creatures to anger them to make them attack in retaliation, it would help cull the crowds before the creatures could gather up and attack the camp together.


    Lirian got up with a grin, he was anticipating cutting flesh and spilling fresh blood for the first time in years, when he felt Edith take his hand suddenly.


    "I want to lead this attack," she said in an excited voice, "Since you''ve taken charge here, I haven''t had anything to do at all," she complained.


    Mordred complained internally as he saw the new couple holding hands as they spoke to each other, he quietly slipped out of the tent.


    ''Poor Lirian, you''ll soon find out that woman are the bane of all men," he thought sadly as he remembered his ex-girlfriend Mizuhara, because of that stupid remark she made about him being ill equipped he had a hard time when he tried to ask out any of the girls in the academy.


    They would start giggling the moment he approached them, and he could tell that they were aware of the rumour, ''Since Mizuhara is here as well I''ll be sure to show her who''s ill equipped,'' he thought wilfully.


    Lirian sighed heavily, "Fine you can lead the attack but be sure to be back within four hours, the real fight is going to happen in the night, and we need everyone rested before it starts."


    Edith smiled happily, she cast a quick glance around the tent to ensure that no one was looking and pressed her lips against Lirians.


    The kiss went on for a full minute before they pulled apart, Edith sucked in the air desperately, she really loved kissing him it was so intoxicating that she would forget to breath and it made her head feel fuzzy.


    "I''ll see you later," she whispered with a red face and happily walked out of the tent to gather her extermination squad.

 Chapter 136 - 136 – The Oncoming Horde 1

    The sounds of footsteps echoed outside the camp and the smell of blood ran through the air, when Lirian left the tent he heard planks being dropped to bridge the gap across the trenches.


    Edith led the group back across the trenches with her horse''s hooves, klip kloping, on the makeshift bridges.


    "That was fast," Lirian commented as Edith came to him.


    She climbed out of the saddle placing her hands on his shoulders she slid down and smiled brightly, it was a pity that he couldn''t see her.


    "Aren''t I impressive?" she whispered in a flirty tone as the carcasses were being dropped down with their blood dripping all over the green grass.


    Lirian smiled back wrapping his hands around her waist, "I wouldn''t be dating you if I thought you weren''t impressive," as he finished speaking he felt that something wasn''t right.


    He chuckled nervously as he replayed what he said in his head, "You know how sometimes when you say something in your head it sound amazing, but when it''s said aloud it doesn''t translate all that well," he laughed nervously as he explained himself.


    Edith stomped on his foot, but unfortunately the steel capped boots they wore protected him, she huffed and stormed away not letting him say anything else.


    Lirian sighed, ''You''re over a trillion years old and you still making rookie mistakes,'' he complained to himself.


    The horse neighed loudly in his face as it saw Edith walking off, "Yeah I know buddy, I can be an idiot sometimes," he told the horse and stroked its mane.


    "Huff," the horse breathed voicing it''s agreement.


    He turned his focus back to the task at hand they killed a couple creatures and left a long bloody trail back to the camp, the smell of the blood would be perceived as a threat by the animals.


    But most importantly, the unnecessary killing of creatures would drive all of them into a frenzy.


    In the wild there was a special rule that all creatures obeyed, they would hunt and kill only what they needed to survive, after finishing their meal, they would feed their young and leave the rest to the scavengers, it was part of the natural cycle.


    When a creature that didn''t obey this rule appeared they would be treated as a type of abomination, and all the predators would gather to deal with the threat.


    The first part of the plan was to anger the creatures and make them attack, with the slaughter they would cause in the night the other creatures would see them as an abomination and the real fight would begin.


    ---


    The sun set and the entire camp was completely dark, as the prowling creatures began to move out.


    ''Awo''


    ''Awo''


    "Awooooo"


    The sound of wolves howling echoed in the night sky, as they gathered in their packs, the first wave had arrived.


    The wolves charged forward with angry cries and their packs formed a line as they raced towards the dark camp.


    They thought the creatures thought them dumb, as if they couldn''t smell the blood of their kin from the camp, as if they couldn''t smell the man flesh hiding in the dark.


    As the wolves closed the gap, they suddenly took a tumble as they fell into the trenches.


    Sharp howls of pain rang out from the trenches as the wolves paws hit jagged rocks and some of them fell directly onto pointy sticks and thorns and they began to leak blood before the battle even begun.


    As the other creatures noticed where the others had fallen they started to leap across the gap, the humans would find difficult to cross.


    Lirian chuckled and laughed, "Mages!" he shouted aloud as the first wolves climbed out of the trenches and the others began to jump.


    "Set them aflame," Lirians words were their command, within seconds all the mages that could form a stream released long streams of fire, scorching the creatures that made it across.


    The creatures fell back as the intense light and heat took them by surprise but without a running build up they fell into the trenches, only to get skewered by the sharp rocks and branch''s again.


    "Set the trenches alight," Lirian shouted out, for the past three days, he had them gather as much extra tinder as possible, he also made them cut down a few trees to act as firewood.


    The mages took careful steps forward and began hurling as much fire as they could in the trenches setting everything alit.


    Sharp howls of pain echoed, as the fur of the animals caught on fire, they began to thrash around wildly as they turned into living fireballs.


    The warriors moved forward with their swords and spears held firmly making quick work of the creatures that made it across.


    Suddenly a ten foot tall reptilian creature, with hinged legs and scythe like arms came dashing through the fire with glee, it made a loud shrilling sound as it brought down it''s scythe like arms that could cut the winds as it approached the warriors.


    The shield bearers, rushed forward to intercept the sharp scythes as thirty spear bearers, rushed in impaling the poor creature on every open spot, in a second the first, first-grade mystic creature was slaughtered by the students in a pitiful manner.


    Once the creature went down, only a few more dared to cross the fires before they began their retreat.


    In total over a hundred creatures attacked and eighty were killed, but Lirian wasn''t happy at all he was to busy gritting his teeth and clenching the handle of his katana that still did not get a chance to taste any blood.


    ''I planned far to well,'' Lirian shouted at himself internally, he had no idea how to vent the growing blood lust in him, it was so much worse now that the opportunity was staring him directly in the face but he missed it.


    The katana hummed in his hands as if agreeing, it was made to do battle so far it had only been used to cut a tree up a boulder and a tree, it could feel it''s wielder''s unbridled ocean of skill, an ocean as vast as all the empty space in the universe, and it shivered in anticipation for the moment it would be used by those masterful hands to shed blood on to the lands.


    The only ones that needed rest after the battle if you could even call it that was the mages, they used up all their energy in creating the walls of fire.


    "You did¡­ well," Lirian announced in a cramped voice, the students cried internally not understanding what they did wrong, they did everything without attaining a single loss, they didn''t even ''waste the arrows'' as Lirian put it.


    "Now start pilling up the corpses on our side of the trench, they''ll make a good barrier and leave a gap every fifty feet to funnel them through," Lirian ordered them as he stomped back to his tent.


    A few seconds after he took his seat Edith came in, he shot to his feet and faced her with an apologetic look on his face, "About earlier I''m sorry, and to answer you correctly you didn''t simply impress me, you''re the most impressive girl I know," he complimented her with a guilty grin.


    "Oh my," Edith feigned being overwhelmed as she brought her hand to her chest, "For you to offer me a complement, it''s a miracle," she laughed at the end as she was unable to keep up the melodramatic acting.


    She inched closer to Lirian and brought her face to his until their steamy breath''s bounced of each other''s face''s as Lirian came in to seal the deal she narrowly avoided his kiss and turned around.


    She looked back at the stupefied Lirian and giggled, "Now we are even," she said with a sassy smile.


    "Why did you sound so displeased outside?" she asked changing the topic, "You know that they did a great job out and there so do they, it won''t sit well with them if you don''t complement them once in a while."


    Lirian sighed, "It''s nothing, don''t worry about it," he shrugged it off.


    Edith''s eyes fluttered in wonder, "Don''t you boys have a rule that when a girl says, ''It''s nothing,'', it definitely isn''t nothing, you know we girls have that same rule about boys," she said in an amused tone.


    Lirian sighed, "That rule only applies to girls," he said in an unconvincing tone as he turned to face the map.


    Edith came up to him and wrapped her arms around him from behind, he could feel her breasts pressed firmly against his back it was a soft and pleasurable sensation that made him get goose bumps on his skin.


    "We''re a couple now, you know," she whispered in a soft and gentle tone, "You don''t have to keep doing everything by yourself."


    "I''m not doing everything by myself," he replied not understanding what she was saying, "I mean I even let Media lead this expedition and let all of you make decisions for the group," he said defensively.


    Edith chuckled slightly but tightened her grip around his waist, "We aren''t blind or stupid you know, we didn''t know at first but as we watched you, we saw how easy this came to you, the only reason you gave out power was to make this more of a challenge for yourself," her voice was so soft it could hardly be called a whisper but it made Lirian tremble.


    "I know you well¡­" her words were suddenly cut off by the shouts of the students outside.


    "¡­ the creatures are attacking, there are multiple mystic beasts in the horde!" they heard the loud shouting and rushed through the flaps of the tent, forgetting what they were talking about.

 Chapter 137 - 137 – The Oncoming Horde 2

    Edith sighed as she ran out of the tent watching Lirians back.


    She felt it, she was so close to seeing beneath the uncaring exterior Lirian always put up, but these damn creatures had to ruin the moment.


    The students she selected as bodyguards from her class quickly formed a guard around her and she watched as Lirians three guards surrounded him.


    ---


    Hinata looked at the fast approaching horde with trepidation, but as she thought about it she realised that this could prove to be an opportunity.


    She knew that Lirian could handle himself well but in a crowd of creatures he''d have a hard time following everything it would present her with an opportunity.


    If she could get rid of Lirian here, by causing him to make a slip-up, she could only imagine the way the headmaster would reward her for a job well done.


    This was a god sent opportunity for her and she silently offered a prayer of gratitude to the goddess of luck.


    Lirian could tell that the coming horde was enormous from the tremor in the ground, at least three thousand creatures strong and he had already detected almost a hundred mystic creatures of first grade.


    He knew that this time he would get to fight no matter how well the students performed he quickly shouted his orders.


    Thirty warriors grabbed the available bows and cracked open the crates of arrows as they began to knock their arrows and draw their bows, they fired volley after volley at measured intervals.


    The psychics used their force energy to guide the arrows accurately and give it a little extra push, delivering fatal blow after fatal blow.


    The archers soon created a line of death on the field, but they were not fast enough to stop the advance and soon the first wave arrived.


    Sensing the opportunity Lirian laughed aloud with joy that made everyone around him worried thinking that he had lost his mind, what was left of it anyway.


    "Edith take full command of the field!" he ordered, ", and make sure to keep up with my flow."


    "You three," Lirian pointed to Pollock, Hinata and Eido, "Stay out of my way if you come close don''t blame me for cutting you to shreds," he said arrogantly discarding them.


    "Also make sure that no one comes any where close to me in the battle!" Lirian found crowds troublesome, the reason was simple, to get through them without hurting anyone was difficult, but right now, he had free reign to chop down every last creature without a care in the world.


    Edith looked at Lirian with an ever-creasing brow, "Lirian what are you planning to do?" she shouted but he had already dashed forward with his hand on the hilt of his katana.


    Lirian ran, enjoying the feeling of freedom he hadn''t experienced in years, he jumped across the trenches with a single graceful leap, as soon as he landed a blue-stripped tiger that broke out of the firing zone pounced at him.


    As he rose up Lirian entered the unsheathing stance and brought the sword out with a sharp ringing cry the creature had no clue how it had died as it took one last look at the world it''s head came down a dozen yards away with its maw wide open.


    Lirian grabbed onto the paw of the creature holding it up and delivered a heavy kick to its gut, blood spilled everywhere as the body smacked into another creature that was about to pounce on him, Lirian did a graceful spin and slid the katana through the neck of another approaching creature.


    It trashed around as boiling blood gushed from its main artery creating a bloody flood on the ground, but Lirian had already moved on, just seconds had passed, and he cut through half a dozen creatures.


    He heard the shouts from behind him as Edith ordered the students that saw him race forward to stay away from him, just with that quick display he had proven his prows.


    Hinata''s eyes flashed with anger as she saw how easily and swiftly he dispatched the group, ''How the hell am I supposed to get a chance?'' she scram internally with gritted teeth, she looked around hoping to find something she could use when her eyes landed on the waterfall.


    "m-Miss Edith," she called hesitantly.


    "I-I-I think we should lead the creatures to the waterfall," she said surprising them, she shook her head as she tried to come up with a reason quickly.


    "What?" Edith looked at her like she was stupid, if they went to the waterfall there was a good chance that the students would fall.


    "I know it sounds stupid," she said trying to hide the desperation in her voice and pushed her head to come up with a good plausible reason.


    As sweat pooled on her face she had an idea, "There are to many creatures at this rate they''ll over run us, but if we can lure them close the waterfall, the psychics and mages can use, wind spells and force energy to throw many creatures down, it will mean a lot less effort for us," she surprised herself with the logic of her plan and she couldn''t help but think that the goddess of luck was on her side.


    Edith fell into contemplation; the mages were already tired from the previous assault so they wouldn''t be able to last for long.


    As she thought of it the plan it did seem desperate, but they were desperate they didn''t plan for the attack to come so soon, and they didn''t even get a chance to set up the barriers when this attack began.


    "Karen," Edith called out, "Alert Lirian of the new plan," she looked at Hinata with a meaningful look, this plan was a gamble, but it did have the potential to earn them some breathing room.


    Lirian was busy cutting a bloody path through the creatures, he carefully avoided the firing zone as he pushed through the creatures, when he got the mental message from Karen, he felt that it was a bold plan.


    But he didn''t say anything against it, against these numbers they were bound to lose a few people, the new plan would give them a chance to avoid the losses.


    Lirian felt a surge of wind energy coming at him from behind and bent backwards and did a reverse summersault on the ground narrowly avoiding the scythe like arms of a mystic creatures.


    It used its wind energy to dart around quickly, coupled with its hinged legs it gave it an unnatural fast speed, it was another one of those reptilian mystic creatures that was killed earlier.


    It released a shrill screech every time its strikes missed Lirian who dodged around it''s attacks with ease, it fuel its cutting scythes with wind energy and launched a barrage of attacks, ''at last,'' it thought as it felt meat being split, but when it looked for the corpse of the unusually nimble creature it saw that it cut through something else.


    It released a loud shrill of anger as it begun to wildly trash and attack in a crazed frenzy.


    Lirian stepped around the creature with graceful steps, luring it around, he was making it kill its own slowly and methodically.


    He did love killing, but nothing was more thrilling than making an opponent kill it''s own in the heat of battle, and he could tell from it''s movements that it was unusually intelligent, it this creature evolved one more time it might enter the ranks of god beasts.


    God beast were classified as any creature that becomes sentient, it didn''t mean that they were gods or that they would become gods, it only meant that they could communicate on an intellectual level.


    ''This one will make a good specimen to earn points,'' Lirian thought, once the creature ran out of steam, he made quick work of it, he slid the katana between it''s joints and in seconds the creature lost it''s limbs and fell into a limbless heap on the ground, crying out in pain and fury.


    Lirian moved on as the battle slowly progress towards the waterfall, it was a slow and delicate process.


    As the growing piles of corpses grew around Lirian some of the creatures started to back away, but they were soon replaced by a ring of mystic creatures.


    Over a dozen different mystic beasts approached and Lirian felt another circling around him underground, waiting patiently for the perfect opportunity to strike.


    "So, you little things have finally come up to play with me, I''m glad, your underlings were a bore," he chuckled softly as he released a breath of steam, a wide murderous smile took form on his face.


    Sensing the growing killing intent, the katana shuddered with joy, it knew from the battle so far that it was unworthy to be wielded by this being, and relished in joy, it had fulfilled its role in spectacular glory.


    It wished only that its master could hear its voice, but sadly that was impossible, no matter its master''s skill there were limits.

 Chapter 138 - 138 – The Oncoming Horde 3

    Lirian turned towards the mystic beasts with an unimpressed look, he knew that he had to be more careful of them than the normal cultivators.


    Mystic beasts held natural cultivation techniques in their cells, that allowed them to develop their centres of power and it gave them bloodline skills.


    But the perks came with its own restrictions, there was a limit to how far mystical beasts could develop, it was the rule of the heavens, all things must be balanced, an advantage will come with an equally difficult disadvantage or price.


    Lirian heard what sounded like an ape pounding its chest as it swiped at him with its two long and large arms, he took a quick step back.


    The ape pressed its two long arms on the ground and swung itself between the its arms, its two massive feet, each one the size of Lirians body, came rushing towards his face.


    Lirian ducked and barrelled on the ground underneath the ape, as he slid along the ground he raised the katana and ran it along the back, its muscles were thick and tough, but the sharpness of the blade was impressive.


    The ape growled loudly as it collapsed with a heavy thud on the ground, it released a blast of wind that made Lirian stumble forward as he was getting back to his feet.


    Lirian sighed he regained his balance, ''That would have broken every bone in my body,'' he thought as a saber-tooth tiger jumped at him.


    ''Screw it,'' Lirian thought he was holding back as he fought to preserve some energy and switched to using tension forms.


    As soon as he released his first strike, the battle changed once more, the katana came down with the force of a warhammer and the tiger took the full brunt of the attack, it''s entire body split into two from the head to the tail and its blood decorated the land it a splatter pattern.


    As more mystic beasts rushed at him, Lirian went on a killing spree, the katana hummed in his hand as it split the first-grade flesh as if it was butter.


    A bald-eagle swooped down at him with it''s claws reached out, Lirian cursed internally, aerial creatures were difficult to deal with, Lirian couldn''t use the vibrations in the ground to keep track of it.


    "Fine then," he whispered, silver energy wrapped around the blade, giving the sword a brilliant glow, raising it above his head with both hands Lirian brought it down.


    The air split visibly and where ever the beam of silver energy went, it cut through and incinerated the bald-eagle before coming back down and splitting the earth.


    The energy didn''t disappear immediately as it slowly corroded away all that it had touched.


    As Lirian took a deep breath, the ground underneath him opened up revealing the snake that had been stalking him from the beginning.


    "Stupid snake," Lirian chuckled as it opened it maws wide in an attempt to swallow him whole.


    Lirian side stepped and wrapped an arm around it''s body, its body was so thick that he couldn''t completely wrap a single arm around it.


    He spun it over his head and slammed it into the ground and before it moved he jammed his katana into it and pinned it to the ground.


    "You''d get along with number 12." He commented, thinking of number 12''s venomous nature.


    It thrashed in desperation and hissed venomously.


    "I know you want to melt me with your poison," Lirian interpreted for it, he jumped onto its head as it opened it jaw wide, sensing the opportunity, Lirians threw both his hands to its mouth and caught its fangs.


    As he slowly ripped the fangs out of the snakes mouth it threw its body around smacking Lirian into the ground many times making it impossible for any other beast to approach.


    Lirian took a breath as he realised what a bad idea this was, but he couldn''t help it, when he faced a snake, he always had the urge to defang it.


    As he rolled himself around the snakes head to stop the impacts from being to violent he heard the sickening crunch as the fangs were ripped clean from the snakes gums and big chunks of it gum came out as well.


    Lirian raised the fangs up and smashed them through the snakes head it shook one last time before falling completely still.


    ''That will teach it about how dangerous its fangs can be,'' he thought as the fangs broke through its lowered jaw and locked the corpse in place.


    Lirian climbed back to his feet shaking his head, ''That was one rough ride,'' he thought while dusting the mud from his clothes.


    He heard the ape return smashing its two fists into the ground, "You just don''t learn," Lirian laughed jovially and raced towards the ape that was at least six times larger than him.


    He avoided its punches and brought the flat of his blade on it head, the sound of an explosion echoed as its head popped open splashing all over his face and clothes.


    Lirian licked a drop of blood from his lips and felt a rush course through his entire body.


    He stood in the centre of the battle field laughing hysterically, despite his lowered guard every creature began to steer clear of him and the students looked on in fright.


    He marched by himself into a horde of beasts and there he stood laughing like a madman, and yet the beasts fled from him in a wild panic, even the mystic beasts began to flee in the opposite direction when they saw his smile.


    The students couldn''t help but wonder who the real monster was on the battlefield.


    With the creatures growing panic it became even easier to lure them towards the waterfall, but just when the students thought the tide had changed in their favour the ground began to stir and shake.


    Lirian felt the intense tremors in the ground and needed to take a calming breath, the weight of whatever was coming, was far too much, if it was a mystical beast it had to be from the third-grade.


    Lirian knew that he couldn''t beat a third-grader by himself, he''d get squashed, it would be different if he had the students help, but they were too busy fighting the horde.


    Lirian quickly ran back to the main group, the growing blood lust inside him had been somewhat satiated, with this attack and he need to know what they were dealing with.


    Edith had seen Lirian rushing towards her, but she couldn''t take her eyes of the mystic beast in the background, it was fear inducing, and every other student felt despair as they saw it, it was all they could see.


    A towering and moving mountain, that stood at least 60 feet tall and it''s every step was slow, but it brought with it a pressure they all knew, it was the difference in life hierarchy.


    Unlike the rest Lirian sighed in relief as he felt the pressure descend on him, ''It''s only second-grade,'' he realised.


    "What is it?" Lirian asked.


    "It''s a rock drake," Edith muttered as it took another step forward, sending tremors through the ground they were walking on.


    ''it''s a rock elemental creature," he figured, ''No wonder it''s so heavy.''


    ''The creatures actually woke up a guardian of the forest to deal with us,'' he thought wistfully, ''Didn''t I transfer all my fate particle to myself, so why is my luck so shitty.''


    "Someone go and grab me the mountain climbing gear," he ordered loudly, he paid good credits to get his hands on those things, he had never expected it would come in useful to fight some rock drake.


    "You aren''t planning to fight that thing?" Edith cried out looking at him like he was insane.


    After seeing the way he battled earlier, she couldn''t help but feel like he really was insane, who stands in the middle of a battlefield and laughs like this entire thing was just a game?


    Sadly, for Edith she had an answer and it was two words, ''Her Boyfriend!''


    "Lirian, please don''t do this," she cried out, "We can give up the expedition and run away!" she shouted with a small sob in her voice, they had just started their relationship she didn''t want things to end this way.


    Lirian grabbed her hand with one of his hands that were covered in blood in animal guts, "Do you think that I''d do something that could get me killed," he gave a light chuckle, "Trust me," he reassured her, and quickly added one last word, "I''m incredible," he let go of her and turned around.


    "Just keep leading them, and keep them together," Lirian told her as he heard someone running up to him while panting breathlessly.


    "You''re still alive Mordred," Lirian laughed with surprise as he recognised his scent.


    "Thanks for your high opinion of me," Mordred breathed out sarcastically, feeling anguish at Lirians surprised tone.


    "Here''s the mountain climbing gear you asked for," he said handing a big bag to Lirian.


    "Pull out the climbing axes and the shoes leave the rest of the stuff," Lirian told him.


    As Mordred pulled the items out he handed them to Lirian with a concerned look on his face, "How sure are you that you can take that thing down?" he asked he felt that it was a crazy idea, but he also knew just how crazy Lirian really was, it seemed like an oddly good match.


    Lirian flashed him an amused smile, "Are you worried about me?" he teased.


    Mordred sighed but didn''t reply, he didn''t know why he wasted his breath.


    Lirian patted his shoulder and laughed, "It''s a rock elemental creature, so the only way to really take it down is by locating its cores and destroying all of them simultaneously, since it''s second grade there will be two cores, so I just have to hope that both cores are in close proximity."

 Chapter 139 - 139 – The Rock Drake

    Hinata''s eyes trembled as she saw the monolith of a creature, its steps were slow, but she knew that if it got close she was going to be deader than dead.


    Under the severity of the situation she felt that she had no choice but to give up on her current goal, because for some reason when she saw the rock drake, the only person she imagined that could stop it from killing all of them was Lirian.


    As she had the thought she saw a streak of silver racing across the field, it was faster than any stallion she had ever seen, it bounced through the horde like a bouncy ball.


    The only difference was that this bouncy ball left a trail of dismembered corpses and blood in its wake, it seemed almost effortless.


    She buried her resentment for the moment, so long as he could do something good with the power he didn''t deserve and saved her she was willing to put the injustice aside just this once.


    Something suddenly caught her eye, just behind Lirian she saw someone racing behind him following the bloody trail he left on the field.


    "Mordred," she muttered in confusion as she saw him riding a horse at high speed following after Lirian with a large bag on his back.


    ---


    Mordred watched Lirian dashing towards the rock drake like a madman, with an eager grin on his face, ''It''s like he doesn''t know the meaning of fear,'' Mordred complained internally as he turned back and dashed into the commander tent.


    The tent was stuffed full of rations and items, when the two exploration groups split of Lirian had given each of them a dimensional storage, so all the essentials had to be stored in the tent.


    Mordred had seen the other set of mountain climbing gear when he got the first set, so he moved through the pile and quickly found the other one.


    As he strapped it to his back he began muttering to himself, "Stupid Mordred, you should ask someone else to do this,"


    "There are other warriors here, some are much better than you, why don''t you just go to Lucas, or Shen Lim, both of them are much better choices," as he muttered to himself he found himself face to face with Lirians horse.


    As he mounted the horse, he continued to tell himself not to do it but before he knew it he was already in the saddle and making the horse gallop at its top speed.


    ---


    Lirian could fell the tremors getting only worse, and he had to focus extra hard to keep himself from stumbling.


    A rock drake had two claws that they used two walk and two tiny wings on its back, it had a massive head and a long body that stretched out three times longer than its height, its body ended with a long rocky tail.


    Lirian finally broke free of the horde at this point he didn''t know how many hundreds of beasts he had killed when he heard the sound of something galloping towards him, he pointed his sword when he heard a familiar voice shout at him.


    "Hey, hold up man, don''t skewer me," Mordred shouted as he pulled the reigns to stop the horse.


    "Mordred?" Lirian said in surprise, "What are you doing here?" he asked as the ground trembled once more, causing the horse to fall flat on the ground.


    "You said that there are two cores," Mordred answered, "It sounds like a two men job."


    Lirian simply nodded, he wasn''t about to admonish the class clown for suddenly finding his courage.


    "You think you can climb this thing?" Lirian asked instead, he didn''t mind the courage but if someone was going to join him, they had to know what they were doing.


    "Seriously man, do you ever pay attention to anything I say in class," Mordred said with a grievance.


    "Now isn''t the time to get into such matters," Lirian chided him and pointed at the massive creature on the side of them.


    Mordred shook his head as he cried internally he explained to Lirian, "I go on extreme mountain climbing courses every year during the holidays, just last year I went on a month-long climb through some ancient canyons," he explained.


    "Good," Lirian mused, "We are going to run along the side of it and approach it from the tail, we don''t want it to spot us before we get on it."


    Mordred nodded and followed Lirian, as they reached the tail the drake took another massive step forward.


    They stumbled once more and as they slowly rose back to their feet they were at the drake''s tail.


    "Tell me when to jump!" Lirian shouted at Mordred, as it turned out having a partner could help a little, it saved him from the only part that could prove slightly troublesome for him.


    A few seconds passed when Mordred shouted, "Now!"


    Lirian pulled out the two climbing axes from his belt and jumped like his life depended on it, a second later he was swinging the axes down and they caught onto the rocky surface of the drake, he heard Mordred land as well, he made a very loud noise as he was still carrying the bag full of gear.


    Lirian was sort of glad that he was dealing with a rock elemental mystic beast, it was extremely tanky and tough, so unless you dealt a lot of damage to it, like breaking of a piece of its body it wouldn''t even notice you.


    On the other hand, if it was flesh and bones, Lirian was certain that if he went all out using form merging he would have been able to kill it in a few minutes, but he would completely drain himself to finish it.


    As the two of them began their climb Mordred looked at the drake with a strange look, "Hey Lirian, I recognise this thing we saw it when we first explored the perimeter of the camp!" he said in a surprised tone.


    "If you saw the drake why didn''t you report it to anyone or scan it?" Lirian questioned.


    "Because it just looked like a pile of rocks at the time," Mordred complained as he watched Lirian climb in a carefree manner moving with graceful ease.


    Mordred looked down at himself he had his harness on and he knocked in anchors, while tying his rope to secure himself with every move.


    "You should hurry up," Lirian complained as he made it up the first part of the tail and reached the creatures back.


    "I''ll be there in a moment," Mordred called out and initiated a scan with his watch, when he received an alert for first discovery, he cried out in joy and quickly caught up with Lirian.


    They held their climbing axes on the side and ran along the spine of the drake until they reached its head.


    "Why don''t we just blow it''s head off?" Mordred asked curiously it seemed less difficult than digging into the beasts'' body and finding the cores.


    "Because drakes are guardians of the forest," Lirian said simply.


    "And that explains everything!?" Mordred said in a puzzled tone.


    "You really should spend more time reading books," Lirian sighed.


    "The consciousness of the forest is the consciousness of the drake," Lirian explained, "We can blow of the head but that will only anger it, it won''t die."


    "Instead it will throw all caution to the wind and stampede wildly, until its head grows back, if it does that we''ll all die, the only way to kill it is by crushing the cores."


    "Okay," Mordred nodded his head, "How do we do that?"


    "You leave that part to me," Lirian said, ", for now tell me how close we are to the waterfall."


    Mordred glanced down and could see everyone running around in a panic, "We''re already there!" he shouted feeling himself panic, at any point this creature would begin its assault and he doubted that anyone was equipped to survive it.


    Lirian nodded as if it was only expected, "Tell them to shoot as much lighting up here as possible!" he ordered Mordred.


    Mordred didn''t waste anytime for an explanation and began shouting to grab their attention, as he did, he felt the energy all around stir wildly and it quickly turned silver as it swirled and spiralled like a pool around Lirian.


    Lirian could sense the first bolts of lightning coming his way but it quickly sunk into the drakes back not doing much beside breaking some loose rocks.


    That was the problem with lightning spells, before people learned to use laws they would never use much lightning.


    Its attraction to the earth was far to great and you''d waste 90% of your energy in trying to make it move with accuracy.


    But currently lightning was what Lirian needed, it''s level of immediate destruction could not be compared, it was perfect to deal a wave of incredible damage to the drake, with the miss of the first volley he spread out the pooling energy as far as it could go hoping that it would catch some of the lightning.

 Chapter 140 - [Bonus ]140 – Land Fall

    Lirian continued to spread the sphere of silver energy to its limit, this time the lighting blasts just narrowly missed the sphere of spinning energy.


    When another volley missed he gritted his teeth, it was taking to long, that''s when he felt the katana hum in its sheath, he drew the blade once more and raised it to the air.


    When the next volley of lightning came it grew closer than ever before crashing down, as the last bit of lightning was falling Lirian pointed the sword at it and like some spell had been cast, the bolt made one final push.


    It struck the bubble of silver and in seconds the entire bubble began to change form, lightning crackled, and thunder roared as the silver energy took on an even more resplendent glow.


    The sphere of energy began to contract inwards, until it wrapped itself around the katanas blade, the lightning coiled and trashed around violently, staying true to its unbridled nature.


    "Brace yourself!" Lirian shouted to Mordred.


    Lirian spun the blade around and brought it down in a single swift motion, it sunk into the rock with ease, then the built-up energy exploded outwards, lighting up the night sky with an earie white light.


    The energy coursed through its body and blasted its way through the other side, creating a thunder zone on the ground beneath the drake.


    Rocks scattered in the air, as the drake fell with a heavy boom, the pressure emitted lifted the people on the ground of their feet and the ensuing roar that left the drakes mouth sent them flying back in all directions.


    Lirian had barely had the chance to breath he held on to the sword firmly lodged in the drakes back to keep himself steady from the sudden roar.


    As blood poured from his ears, Lirian realised that the only thing he could hear was a fuzzy ringing sound.


    "Well that''s two of my sense''s gone," he muttered but he knew that this was just the first part, he didn''t destroy the cores yet and he had to get the job done while the drake was still down.


    He placed his hands against the drakes and began tracking the energy flows, the energy in the entire creature was flowing towards toward the severe wound.


    "Found them!" he shouted after a second had passed and he ran to Mordred and began to pull him towards one of the wings, it was pointless to speak to him, they both got hit by that sound wave, and they couldn''t afford to let go of their hand holds to block their ears.


    As they made a mad dash a bald eagle came hurtling at them, it saw the sacred guardian take that unbelievable blow and knew that it had to do everything in its power to stop the attackers as the last remaining flying creature it was the only one with the ability to stop the abominations.


    Lirian could barely hear anything so he remained clueless as it came down on him from behind.


    Lirian felt himself fly forward as the eagle struck him, and he fell into an uncontrollable tumble down the side of the drake.


    Mordred reached into his bag, and pulled out one of the grappling hooks, "Sorry about this, it''s going to hurt," he muttered a soft apology to Lirian, and threw the grapple perfectly.


    The grapple soared and wrapped around Lirians leg, Lirian felt his skin suddenly getting torn then he felt the claw of the grapple dig into his flesh, he grunted from the sudden sensation as his red/gold blood poured onto the drake.


    Mordred slammed one of his climbing axes into the drake to use as an anchor in anticipation of the grapple pulling forward, but he was surprised by how light Lirian really was, he barely had to put any effort into stopping Lirians fall.


    When he saw Lirian regain his footing, Mordred turned his attention to the eagle, it was going in for another swoop, he gritted his teeth and threw one of his climbing axes at the eagle with all his strength.


    Just as it was about to strike a clueless Lirian once more the axe took of its head and went flying over the waterfall down to the world below.


    Mordred saw Lirian point at him and then he pointed to the useless tiny wing of the drake, it truly served no purpose for such a heavy creature.


    He watched as Lirian sprinted towards the wing, with the meat on his leg hanging in an ugly manner and blood dripping around it, but he ran as if it was no injury at all, without even the slightest limp.


    When they reached the wing, Lirian began to strike the rocks with his climbing axes, breaking pieces of rock and shattering it, Mordred instantly realised that the core was underneath and grabbed his remaining axe and bust the rocks with all his strength.


    As they broke the rock, Mordred could see the rocks slowly stitching itself back together, ''If not for its huge injury I doubt we''d be able to break the rock faster than it restores itself,'' he realised.


    They quickly found the first core, blackish brown earth elemental energy rotated around it, Lirian frowned as he felt the energy in the orb.


    Lirian started to tap his watch and speak into it, Mordred tried to listen to what he was saying, but his ears were still ringing.


    A second later he saw a message show up on Lirians watch.


    ''The energy is contaminated, record this for a few minutes while I go to the other orb.''


    ''Contaminated, what does that even mean," Mordred wondered but did as he was told, he watched Lirian reach into the bag on his back and pull out the second grapple hook.


    Lirian wrapped the grapple around the wing jumped of the drake, as he swung around he came up to the stomach of the creature, he could still feel the flow of energy running from this side, he charged the grapple with silver energy and swung it with his full strength as he swung on the rope, it blasted out a huge chunk of rock.


    Lirian used a leg to hold himself in place and broke through the layers of rock until the core was revealed.


    He laughed softly and released a small charge of energy, he didn''t aim it at the core but rather at the ground, hopefully Mordred would see the signal.


    The drake suddenly began to rise up shakily, Lirian hoped that Mordred got the signal, because he instantly struck the core.


    ---


    Hinata climbed to her feet weakly, she had been blown away by that monstrous roar, the last thing she remembered was rumbling thunder and lightning, lighting up the sky like a beacon.


    Then the drake collapsed, and she was sent flying into a tree trunk, she looked up and saw the creature getting up on unsteady feet when suddenly it stopped.


    It started to tilt to the side over the waterfall and her eyes shone brightly when she saw Lirian all bloodied and hanging from the drake, ''The blind fool probably doesn''t even know that he''s about to fall,'' she laughed inwardly with glee.


    ---


    Mordred''s eyes opened wide as he saw the direction the drake was falling in, he turned around and ran over the rough surface of the drakes back, as it was about to tip over he jumped, he rolled across the ground and turned to look back with a worried expression.


    He saw Lirian dangling from the rope as the drake continued to fall.


    At the last second Lirian swung himself forward and released his grip on the rope.


    The seconds that he spent in air felt like an eternity to everyone watching, and even the beasts completely stilled as they saw the guardian of the forest falling over the edge of the ledge.


    The very same ledge that Lirian just barely landed on with a wide grin on his face.


    The entire field stilled a they saw him grinning widely with his chest raising up and down in a mad rush, then he suddenly made a mad dash in the opposite direction of the ledge, he ignored every person and beast and just kept running, when he suddenly stopped.


    "Are you people stupid!" Lirian roared at the top his lungs, "RUN!" he shouted and continued to dash in the opposite direction as if his life depended on it.


    Then they heard it, a deafening crash from below, from a creature that weighed so many tons they didn''t even want to think about it.


    It was like a meteor crashed into the earth and tremors started to rush through the earth shaking and cracking everything.


    The students broke into a mad dash following behind Lirian, for the first time they truly got to experience what it meant to run for their lives, as the earth split beneath their feet and the ledge began to crumble falling outwards.


    Many of the beasts were too slow to react and were buried alive in the land slide.


    It felt like an eternity had passed before the rumbling stopped and the earth stopped caving in.

 Chapter 141 - 141 – The Child From The Ancient Families

    The students heaved up what meagre food they had left in their stomachs, as they collapsed.


    The sound of them hurling was almost infectious as soon as one person puked the people around them began to puke and it spread like a tide to the rest.


    The students had run so fast that they would believe it if someone told them that they outstripped the fastest vehicles in the universe, when they saw the collapsing ground they ran with all they had, they ran so fast and hard that the air had thinned around them.


    By the end as cultivators they were completely winded, and threw up, it was a testament to their exertion.


    As they turned to look back in the direction they had come from, a huge cloud of dust was taking its time to settle over the half a mile area that had collapsed, and the waterfall had been thoroughly shifted.


    The edge of the camp had been pulled down and two tents were completely buried under the ruined earth.


    In the silence the only sound ensued was the sound of heavy panting, until a laugh began echoing in their ears.


    A laugh they all remembered from the battlefield, a laugh that made even beasts tremble in fear, and it brought them back to reality.


    They all looked at the bloodied Lirian with fear but more than anything was another emotion, it was one of wonder and worship that would make even gods jealous.


    His movement on the battlefield were beyond their wildest dreams, by himself Lirian had slaughtered at least 500 beasts and almost 50 mystical beasts, in doing so he single handedly lightened the pressure on the entire group, thanks to his efforts they were able to kite the beasts to the waterfall without sustaining more than a few injuries.


    With the supporters help the injured were removed and treated quickly under Edith''s command and they were soon able to knock creature after creature over the ledge.


    But most importantly was Lirians attack on the drake, it was completely clueless until the last moment, and when they thought they were goners Lirian created another miracle.


    He lit up the sky like a beacon with that thunder and he blasted a massive gaping hole through the creature, creating a thunder zone on the battlefield.


    He was no cultivator yet he managed to do what even they as cultivators were unable to imagine, and last was that moment when the creature fell over, they thought he was gone but he suddenly appeared like a ray of silver light on that ledge in the drakes shadow.


    His body cut up and bleeding, but he smiled like he had the most incredible experience of his life.


    Lirian''s laughter was infectious as the students suddenly found themselves laughing with joy, there reason for laughing was different but it all rang to the same tune.


    Their laughter was for surviving in an impossible situation, while Lirian was simply ecstatic from entering such a blood pumping situation.


    When Edith found Lirian, she couldn''t hold back the relief that washed over her, she jumped on top of him hugging him with all the strength in her body.


    She couldn''t be bothered with all the blood, animal guts and filth on him, the only thing that mattered was that he was alive and she could hold him, "You promised me that you wouldn''t go near the edge of the waterfall!" she whimpered in a sob as she wrapped her hands around him.


    "You''re the one that decided to lure all the beasts to the waterfall!" Lirian chuckled, but at the same time he surprised Edith with the intensity of his hug.


    She knew that he wouldn''t say it, but she could feel it at that moment, he was worried about her safety during the battle and he was relieved to have her in his arms.


    "It wasn''t my plan exactly," Edith complained defensively, "The credit goes to that commoner girl from your class, I believe her name is Hinata," she said generously, she was a candidate and she knew better than to claim credit that wasn''t rightfully hers.


    Lirians body stiffened for just an instance and his face furrowed, Edith noticed his change but in the next second it was gone like it never happened, ''I must be seeing things,'' she told herself, she had an urge to kiss Lirian, but there was a layer of dried up filthy blood on his lips.


    She didn''t mind touching him but getting something disgusting in her mouth was a completely different thing.


    Mordred came up to the two of them when he saw that they were just sitting and doing nothing else.


    When Edith saw Mordred, she smiled pleasantly at him not minding his intrusion, in fact she left Lirian''s embrace and gave him a small hug, before pulling back.


    Mordred looked at her strangely, "Uhm what was that for?" he asked nervously casting a glance at Lirian.


    "Because you went with my idiot to do something idiotic," she answered, "And also to say thank you since Lirian doesn''t know how to use such words," she said with a pleasant smile, that could win the heart of any boy.


    "I do know how to say such words," Lirian cried out indignantly, "You did a good job back there if you didn''t catch me with that grapple, I might have been to late to kill it! You did destroy that orb didn''t you?"


    Edith''s face cramped, it was more like Lirian was telling his subordinate that he lived up to his expectations before interrogating him.


    Mordred chuckled in relief, for some reason the thought of Lirian treating him different from the usual was terrifying, so he was glad that things were the same, "Yeah, I saw your signal."


    "Does this mean that I get to share credit for killing it?" he asked Lirian a little expectantly, for him this was a seriously big deal, if he got this credited to his name it would have a special meaning in his family in particular.


    Edith suddenly frowned at him, thinking that he did all of this just to get the credit and her gratitude quickly diminished.


    Mordred grimaced as he realised how it sounded, "Look I didn''t even think it was possible for us to take down that monstrosity, but we did, come on Lirian buddy, you do know about my families traditions and what it means to slay any form of draconic creature in my family," he said trying to explain himself.


    Edith raised her brows, looking at him with a curious face, "From which family do you come from?" she asked thinking of the only family that she knew that rule to exist in and her eyes suddenly widened.


    "That''s a little complicated," Mordred sighed, "Technically I''m nameless, but my lineage does track back to one of the ancient guardian families, and until I kill a draconic creature I can''t use my full name," he explained, his words made Edith''s eyes widen as she confirmed her suspicion.


    Mordred looked at Lirian expectantly, "Even a shared achievement will make me one of the youngest people in millions of years to kill a draconic creature at such a young age, I''ll even give you all my points for the expedition," he offered while chewing on his teeth.


    "I''m a candidate the points are useless to me, I can''t buy any cultivation resources with them," Lirian said in a plain tone.


    Mordred grimaced and looked down with a dejected look when Lirian suddenly spoke again in an amused tone, "But it''s just a draconic creature, I''ll kill far greater things in the near future, so it doesn''t mean much to me," Lirian shrugged.


    Mordred looked at him wide-eyed, "So you''re saying¡­" he didn''t finish as he looked at Lirian with batted breath.


    "I guess what I''m saying is congratulations,"


    "Mordred¡­ ''Pendragon''," Lirian said emphasizing his family name.


    Mordred jumped up ecstatically and grabbed Lirian in a bear hug, he planted a joyous kiss on top of Lirians head in the heat of the moment.


    Edith looked on with a stunned expression and rush in to pull Lirian away, "You''re making me look like a bad girlfriend by doing that," Edith admonished Mordred as she looked at the filth in Lirians silver hair.


    Mordred Pendragon chuckled nervously as he realised what he had just done, then he felt dread as he looked at Lirians murderous grin.


    Mordred''s actions served to remind him of how girly he looked and most importantly of how short he was, Mordred had lifted him of his feet and still managed to kiss him on top of his head.


    Feeling the killing intent directed at Mordred Edith shot him a smug grin, as if saying Lirian is only hers, "You shouldn''t hurt him, he did help you after all," Edith told Lirian in an attempt to calm him.


    Lirian moved his hand to the katana when he suddenly discovered it was missing from its sheath, that''s when he remembered that it fell when that bird hit him.


    He faced Mordred and declared his punishment, "You will not be a Pendragon unless you can find my katana in all of that," Lirian said pointing at the clouds of dust that had yet to settle down.


    Mordred wanted to cry as he thought of the impossible task he had been given, ''How the hell am I to find something that was at the centre of a landslide,'' he stifled a cry and moved into the cloud without wasting a second, that name was far too precious to him.

 Chapter 142 - 142 - Edith And Lirian 1

    Edith barely noticed as Lirian walked towards the stream to clean himself off, she was still too surprised that a Pendragon was in Lirians class.


    There were only 45 families deemed as the ancient families and those families went back to the founding of the 7 civilizations.


    The 7 civilizations were founded by the 7 guardians that Quaria left behind before her assent to the immortal realm, each civilization was named after its founder, Clovis, Golgoth, Titania, Emphedia, Lithrone, Galatrasia and Luthir.


    However, there were 52 guardians, each of whom had sired their own lineages, the 45 guardians that were ascending had sworn their undying loyalty to Quaria so they would not remain behind even if it was for the sake of their families.


    The families were dubbed as the ancient families to honour the guardians and they were given special rights in the universe, they belonged to no empire and would never acknowledge the rule of any empire.


    The ancient families were a scattered power without any fixed world or location, and they were a type of peacekeeper for the 7 civilizations, but during the exploration era and the race to attain the basins that Quaria left behind many of the families were exterminated.


    Their desire to keep the peace was frowned upon, and their purpose was a hindrance, but there was a problem with killing them.


    It was impossible for the empires to order the death of an ancient family, it was an oath that all rulers had to take before ascending the throne in a similar way to the paragon families, this oath was taken on every level of the power structure, even a ruler of a lower world who could pose no threat to the ancient families had to take it.


    But all contracts have a loophole, during the exploration era the empires had made suggestive messages to the warlords and mercenary groups, in exchange for their attacks on the ancient families the warlords would gain second accord knowledge and techniques.


    The ancient families also had their own oaths of restrictions, the main one being that they could not attack or intervene in the civil strife of any empire, they were only allowed to act should the empires attack each other.


    It was due to this that only four ancient families remained, when the war ended the civilization did their best to make peace with the remaining ancient families.


    However, the families scattered around the universe, never taking their authority back, and it was extremely rare to see even one of their members, let alone one getting involved in politics''.


    But the most surprising thing was his family name, Pendragon, that was the last name of Quaria''s most trusted guardian, who was said to also be the only lover she ever took.


    In the chronicles of the interstellar era, there were many stories detailing the many exploits of the first guardian, Arthur Pendragon as he journeyed alongside Quaria conquering nation after nation while being accompanied by a hateful little wisp.


    ''No wonder he is seen as the class clown,'' Edith thought, ''He is like a high ranking noble that is also an outcast,'' it was a strange concept to her, yet it felt oddly similar, it was like being a candidate, the only difference is that no one would respect him for his position.


    When she came back from her thoughts she realised that Lirian was already at the river and went running after him.


    When she reached the bank of the river she found Lirian near a tree, it was a nice closed of area that others would find it hard to peek into.


    Over the sound of the gushing water she heard a sharp crack like bones breaking and looked at Lirian in surprise.


    "Why did you do that to yourself?" she shouted as she saw him break one of his fingers without so much as a wince of pain on his face.


    Lirian turned to face her, "It''s a rule that my mother gave me," he answered simply.


    Edith looked at him dumbly, ''What kind off rule would make a person break a bone in their body? What was the purpose of such a rule?'' she couldn''t understand.


    "It''s a rule from my training," Lirian started to explain, "If I ever drop my weapon I have to break a finger," he said simply.


    "That''s only in training," Edith complained she wasn''t too surprised by such a condition it was more extreme than hers of being whipped three times, but this wasn''t training, "This is the real¡­"


    "The real world," Lirian cut her off, "That''s exactly the point," Lirian said sternly.


    Lirian stepped onto the shallow part of the water and begun to wash himself in the water, "Have you ever seen me with a broken finger before?" he asked her as he pulled of the cargo uniform top and washed it out in the water.


    He didn''t let her answer as he pulled off his last piece of clothes, causing Edith to gulp a little as she stared at his body.


    "This was the first time I''ve ever dropped my sword, if I held onto it I would have been able to anchor my self or slow my fall, if not for Mordred being there I would have fallen, I wouldn''t have died, but I would have been to late to take down the drake, it would have killed everyone by the time I got back on top of it."


    Lirian finish washing up the pants and threw a little silver energy into the water, it took the form of water, Lirian focused and it formed an orb in the air and absorbed all the water from his clothes in small streams.


    There were still a few blood stains on the clothes but that didn''t bother Lirian, it wasn''t like he could see it anyway and he slowly got dressed.


    Edith was having a hard time deciding which one was more magical to look at, the strange spell that Lirian cast or his naked body, once he started to get dressed she felt a little disappointed as she walked up to him.


    When Lirian came out of the water, the first thing Edith noticed was the big ugly wound on his leg, it was deep, and the flesh was jutting out at odd angles.


    As Lirian pulled out his first aid kit that came with the uniforms she rushed forward to take it from him.


    "I can do it by myself," Lirian complained as he pulled it back.


    "You don''t have to," Edith whispered as she released the kit but grabbed his hand instead.


    "It''s not difficult for me to stitch it up, you don''t have to worry," Lirian said gently, trying not to hurt her feelings.


    "I never said that it was difficult, I''m here because I want to do it for you," she spoke lovingly and grabbed his leg placing it on her lap.


    "You know that you don''t have to keep doing every thing on your own," she said softly when Lirian didn''t respond, just before the attack, she had felt it, she was so close to getting him to drop those walls around him, but it seemed that they came right back up and she would have to work on lowering them all over again.


    Her words seemed to strike a chord of logic in Lirian that was the opposite of all he knew.


    That was the way he survived, it was how he had always done things, it was the only way for him to survive when he was alone.


    And as if she was reading his mind she said, "You''re not alone Lirian you have people all around you that want to help you just like Mordred did with the drake, just like¡­ like me." She finished as she slowly pushed a needle though his skin and stitched it back together.


    Lirian felt a shiver run through every part of his body but he hid it away and held his silence not even sure how to respond, if it was anyone else he would have shrugged them off and said they were stupid or they were imagining things, but he didn''t want to lie and insult her.


    The needle quickly moved and in minutes the stitches were complete, Edith grabbed a few of the salt pellets Lirian bought and crushed them over the wound and finally she poured some water onto it, and despite the stinging sensation he didn''t show the slightest discomfort.


    As Lirian was about to climb back up she pulled him back down, she was a little angry that he didn''t say anything to her in the time that she stitched his leg, she didn''t realise that her words had already taken a toll on him making his entire mind quake.


    She felt that there might have been something wrong with her approach, so she chose to go with another angle.


    She sat on his thighs that were luckily uninjured and wrapped her arms around his neck, "You know I thought that I might lose you today," she muttered her greatest fear opening her heart up to him if he couldn''t begin then she would.


    "When everyone saw you fight they were mesmerised, and impressed is not even the word to describe how they looked at you and maybe I should have been the same as them,"


    "It''s every girls dream to have the most impressive of men isn''t it?" she whispered her rhetorical question with a pained voice ", but the entire time I was only scared," she said lowering her tone even further.


    "I wasn''t scared that you''d be hurt, I wasn''t scared that you''d die, rather it was how much you seemed to enjoy it like it was the only thing that could give your life any meaning," she sobbed and looked at him with teary eyes.


    "What happened to you that could make you enjoy such a horrific thing?" a mixture of curiosity and sadness was thick in her voice as she looked at him with gentle teary eyes.

 Chapter 143 - 143 - Edith And Lirian 2**

    "Stop her!" a voice echoed in Lirians mind, "Make her stop, tell her to shut up!" the voices shouts echoed the desperation in their voices made Lirians entire head ring.


    Lirian did the only thing that he could think of to distract Edith, they were sitting so close and no one could see them here, so he went forward to kiss her, only to find her pulling away.


    "Will you still tell me nothing about yourself?" she asked in hurt voice, "Will you tell me nothing about the you, that you seem to think no one see''s?"


    "Edith please stop this," Lirian said in a shaky voice, it was the first confirmation she got that she was getting to him and she wouldn''t let it end here.


    "Do you have any idea why everyone puts up with all your arrogant behaviour and antics all the time? Do you know why so many are willing to fight by your side and follow after you even in a situation that appears disadvantageous?" she asked him.


    "Because I''m inspirational and incredible!" Lirian gave a cheeky answer in an attempt to distract her.


    "It''s because of your eyes!" she said like it was some sort of undeniable fact.


    "Oh, yeah my eyes," Lirian said in a flirty voice thinking that he could easily distract her with this, "My eyes are dreamy and incredible even if I''m blind," he said quickly undoing the blindfold.


    As it fell Edith looked straight into those silver eyes, they might have lost their original radiance, but they were still glorious even that murky black only added to their majesty.


    "Yes they are," Edith nodded her head and brough it to his, ", but that is only the lure it isn''t what kept me watching you all the time, and it isn''t what makes me want to be with you."


    She pulled her hands from around his neck and brough them to cup his face, as she gently pressed her forehead against his and looked directly into those god-like unfathomable eyes.


    "You know in the stories they say that all the knowledge in the universe was open to the eyes of the mother of the empires, Quaria," with her face pressed up against his her every little breath kissed his skin giving Lirian a chilling experience.


    When ever Quaria was brought up Lirian would feel himself tense up but for the first time it seemed to drift over his mind, and he found himself engrossed in Edith''s every word, much to the displeasure of the howling voices in his head.


    "I had never been able to imagine what such eyes would look like until I saw yours, eyes that look so, so very old, like they''ve seen every first in the universe and every last, eyes that have experienced everything thing there is to experience and that have seen every thing there is to see,"


    "That''s what everyone sees that''s what makes them want to stay close to you, but there is something else buried deep inside, something which I alone have seen,"


    "I''ve noticed this especially when you''re surrounded by people, your eye''s they look alone!"


    "And so very sad, that it makes it hard for me to bear watching, it''s like something breaks inside of me every¡­" her words came to stop as she saw a tear role out of one of Lirians eyes.


    "Please, no more of this," she was surprised by his voice it was like he was begging her to stop.


    "These are secrets about me that must never be known," he said in a pleading voice and he held onto her tightly.


    ''She is just a girl, she is just a little mortal still wet behind her ears, so how can she see these things about me? How does she know my truths?'' as Lirian struggled to understand how such a thing was possible something was happening in his world of thrones.


    The ever-changing green auroras seemed to still and like it had lost its power, it was only for an instance, but that moment was more than enough for the black madness hidden within the auroras to act.


    It released just a tiny thread of itself and it struck Lirian on his throne, sinking deep within him, what purpose it served no one knew.


    Lirian could feel Edith''s entire body still when he spoke and they were still sitting with their faces against each other, he went forward and this time she didn''t even try to resist.


    Edith was shell shocked to see that he had actually shed a tear and more continued to fall down his face, when suddenly that darkness in his eyes seemed to grow thicker it wasn''t by much, but she had clearly seen it.


    Then he kissed her with an intensity like never before, it was passionate and rough which she found to her liking and she kissed back, trying with all her might to match his passion as their tongues collided.


    Saliva spilled from their mouth as their tongues battled and every time they pulled their tongue back a long thread of saliva would keep them connected.


    The kissing was the greatest thing Edith had ever felt, but she felt that lust all humans have take over, she wanted more.


    She reached to Lirians clothes and took of the top half of his uniform, she just wanted to rip it of like last time, but she had to exercise control, they only had one spare set.


    She wanted to do more, but at the same time she didn''t want to stop the kiss it was so amazing.


    ---


    A/N: r-18 portion starts from here, any one uncomfortable with reading this, can feel free to skip the rest of this chapter and the next chapter.


    ---


    Hardening her resolve she told herself that they could kiss when ever they wanted, but they couldn''t get naked and fuck when ever they wished to, and she was so hot at the moment that even if a another drake appeared she wouldn''t stop until she got a satisfying fuck.


    She went down on Lirian grabbing his rock-hard cock that was still in his pants and she slowly stroked it over his pants and brought her tongue to his unbelievably chiselled abs.


    She slurped and suck around all the contours of his every muscles slowly bringing her tongue up to his chest, she could hardly believe how slutty she was acting, but she was so heated up that she didn''t care about her noble background in the heat of the moment.


    While she was busy so was Lirian, he pulled her cargo top of underneath it she was wearing a turquoise bra that she thought went well with the camo uniform.


    Lirian began to knead her firm and soft breasts with one hand while the other hand snaked it''s way under her pants and panties, when Edith spread her legs a little further for him he took it as her giving him permission and got to work on her soaking wet pussy.


    "Ahhh, ahhhh, Fuck!" Edith moaned and shouted just seconds later as Lirian''s hands slipped inside give her a finger fuck she would never forget.


    Then she climaxed soaking her pants and Lirians that he had just dried, she didn''t think that it was fair how fast he could get her to cum, so she decided to give it her best effort.


    She pulled his hard and throbbing cock out from his pants and brought her mouth down on to it, as she took it in her mouth she got half way down before she almost choked on it and had to stop, she pulled herself back up a little embarrassed by how badly that went.


    Then she tried again, this time she knew her limits and worked on his cock bobbing her head up and down passionately, almost a minute had passed when Lirian released a groan of pleasure.


    Lirian couldn''t help but fell that she was a quick learner, in just minutes she went from choking on his cock to being able to find the most sensitive spot on his penis and rotating her tongue around it, as he groaned she was able to perfectly keep him on the edge for a whole minute.


    When Edith fell the sudden throbbing, she knew what was about to come, she quickly pulled her mouth of and stroked him with her hand letting him fire a huge load onto the ground.


    The idea of swallowing some strange fluid made her feel icky so she chose to avoid tasting it, even though she could tell that it disappointed Lirian, but there was something she wanted to do that she knew would make him feel a lot happier.


    Lirian picked her up and began to kiss her again, this time he bit on her lower lips while his hands continued message her tits and he slowly pinched her hard nipples causing her to moan once more, and her pussy released another wave of cum.


    Edith panted heavily, her breasts bounced up and down with every breath and her snow-white skin had turned pink.


    She wrapped her legs around his waist and snaked her tongue into his ears, as she slowly nibbled and licked at that area she whispered a few words that made Lirians cock come right back up with all its hardness.

 Chapter 144 - 144 - Edith And Lirian 3**

    A/N: This chapter is completely r-18, feel free to skip it if you are uncomfortable with reading such content.


    Also someone pointed out that Lirian is only 14 years at this point in time, bear in mind this world has a 19-month galactic calendar (This is mentioned in chapter 13 titled Empress Taliyah), which makes Lirian 21 years by our standards.


    I created the calendar that way so that I could have this scene without any legal problems of underage sex.


    -------------------------------


    "I want you to do me right her right now," Edith whispered with her tongue moving up and down stroking his ear.


    "Are you sure?" Lirian asked trying and failing to stop his oncoming boner, as he remembered what she said when he asked her out.


    "Yes, I''ve wanted you to fuck me for a long time," she whispered with naughty tone and moved her waist up and down a little.


    She was very happy to feel the hard cock rub against her pussy lips and it grew even longer as she repeated the movements.


    "And I''m not drunk this time, so there is no chickening out for you, so will you do it?" she asked making her voice sensual.


    "Will you do me right here on the dry leaves next to this ''gushing'' river," she said in an even more sexy tone while biting on her lips.


    "You do know that this could cost us a lot of points, the watches are monitoring our hormones and blood levels, they''ll know in a flesh in we have sex," Lirian said giving her one last chance to back out.


    But she only smiled smugly, "So you just took down a drake, and watching you made me so hot and wet that I can''t go on for much longer without getting fucked in my virgin pussy," she whispered in his ear as seductively as she could muster, and she was rewarded by feeling one last growth spurt in Lirians cock.


    "Gods I can''t wait any longer," she cried out and hopped of him to hurriedly get rid of her pants and panties, when she was done her perfect snow-white body was completely exposed in all its glory.


    Lirian truly shed tears of grief at that moment that he couldn''t behold the spectacular sight, so he did the next best thing and sensual explored and rubbed every inch of her body.


    It just a simple message but Edith purred like a cat as Lirians masterful hands brought her to her third orgasm of the night, and they still didn''t fuck yet.


    She could tell that she only had the energy left for one or two more orgasms so she quickly told Lirian to stop.


    She grabbed onto his rock hard cock and spoke , "No more oral stuff, I want you to fuck me," as she said that she leaned back against a tree trunk and raised one off her legs placing it on his shoulder and guided his cock to her pussy''s entrance.


    Lirian grabbed her leg on his shoulder and planted a long sloppy kiss on it while the head of his cock was planted on her entrance much to the displeasure of Edith.


    Edith no longer had the patience to wait, she was already making it super easy for him to slip inside her, yet he still decided to tease so she pushed her waist forward and suddenly the head of Lirians cock could no longer be seen, only the shaft was seen connecting them like a bridge.


    ''Oh yes he''s about to fuck me,'' Edith cried out internally, ''The guy at school that every guy and girl envies or wishes to be, and he''s all mine now,'' she thought ecstatically.


    Lirian could no longer handle the suspense anymore either and thrust his dick forward, he felt her hymen tear, Edith''s entire body tensed up as drops of blood dripped down and the smell of sex and blood filled the air.


    Edith didn''t tell Lirian to continue, instead when she felt she was alright she let her entire body sink and her pussy completely devour his cock.


    It was a magical feeling for both of them and even Lirian was in disbelief at how good it felt.


    Due to Anya''s ''special messages'', his little buddy was a rather long and yet the entire thing slide into Edith perfectly like a glove tailor made for his cock.


    Edith''s eyes opened wide as Lirian slid all the way inside her, she could feel him buried deep inside and was unbelievably surprised, she didn''t expect to be able to fit more than half of it inside her and when she saw that their crotches were touching without anything sticking out she couldn''t believe it.


    While they waited to let it adjust she pulled Lirian forward to kiss him, and in doing so her leg that was on Lirians shoulder stuck up into the air perfectly straight making it possible for Lirian swirl his cock around inside her as she kissed with saliva leaking down their naked bodies.


    Lirian felt so comfortable inside her that it was unbelievable and after a minute he began to pump his cock in and out of her all the while kissing.


    As he plunged into her, her moans coursed into his mouth and her tongue trembled allowing him to take the advantage in the ongoing war between their tongues.


    As he thrust into her harder and faster every time she would come back with even more passion.


    Edith suddenly pulled back and started to shout, "BY THE GODS! FASTER, FASTER!"


    Lirian upped his pace granting her wish and suddenly her back arched and her head went back with her eyes rolled and her tongue hanging loosely from her mouth.


    Her hot juices ran all over Lirian''s cock, he slowly reached down and picked up some of her cum with his fingers and brought it to her mouth, she was to high on the experience to realise what Lirian done and simply did as he wanted, she sucked her cum then returned to kissing him.


    "Now it''s your turn," she whispered and brought her other leg to his shoulder and wrapped her hands around his neck tightly before she pushed herself away from the tree and she began to bounce up and down.


    Lirian quickly matched her pace and in second he was ready to release, "I''m a bout to cum he," warned her.


    An ecstatic smile filled her face and Edith quickly jumped of him and just when Lirian thought that she was about to help him jerk it of she jumped back on him wrapping her legs around him tightly and plunging his cock all the way into her.


    The sensation was unbelievable and Lirian couldn''t stop it as his load completely blasted out inside her coating her inner walls and dying it his colour.


    Edith didn''t know how to describe how amazing it felt to have hot cum fire directly inside and slowly drip out of her pussy.


    Her pussy contracted tighter than ever before almost locking Lirian''s cock inside her as she hugged onto Lirian tightly she felt herself orgasm for the fifth time.


    "Edith please tell me that you''re taking some pills to make sure that you can''t get pregnant," Lirian said in a worried tone while heaving out a heavy breath.


    That was an incredible experience for him, but he did not want to have any problems because of it.


    Edith continued to hug him lovingly and rest her head on his shoulder a look of absolute euphoria on her face, "I have been on pills for the last year in case something happened between us, and I managed to sneak in a few pills on the expedition, they are tiny so I hid them in my mouth."


    She answered and shook her waist a little they were still connected and she felt extremely reluctant to let him out of her hole.


    "You know," she whispered softly, "You got me to cum five times, and I thought this would be my absolute limit but I suddenly feel more alive than ever, do you want to do it again?" she asked wiggling her ass around, she was in love with the feeling of Lirians cock stirring her insides.


    Lirian was truly surprised, she was like a complete sex machine all of a sudden and he''d call himself an idiot if he refused, he didn''t know how many times he''d be able to do it but he was ready to go until he dropped.


    When Lirian nodded Edith smiled brightly, "I''m going to climb down on all fours so you can ram your incredible dick into me from behind, but don''t waste time, I don''t want it out of me for long," she said earnestly.


    She didn''t seem to happy when she pulled herself of Lirian but in seconds she spread her hands and knees on the dry leave and raised her ass up high, "Come and fill me up honey," she said in her naughty voice.


    Lirian wasted no time, happy to do as told he rammed himself inside her he slid his hands around her and grabbed onto her breasts using them like grips for his hands in seconds Edith''s loud moans and her pleas to be fucked harder echoed in the clearing.


    They continued for many hours trying out every move they could before completely exhausting themselves, when they finally stopped the two of them slept on the side of the river with their bodies still joint together.

 Chapter 145 - 145 – The Blade That Longs For Its Master

    ''Zip, zap''


    The lightning crackled.


    ''Zip zap''


    The lightning snapped.


    ''Zip zzzz¡­''


    The lightning failed to pop.


    The lightning coiled around the metal object.


    The object held visible cracks forming a web on the flat part of its metallic surface, its edge had become chipped and bent, but the lightning coiled in those cracks.


    Lurking and unwilling to let go, it knew the blade it was on was useless now, but still it continued to seep within as it listened to the blade''s tales of its master.


    It slaughtered hundreds in its first bout and it was also broken, it was only to be expected, the blade was not made to be wielded by a true master.


    The blade knew it was unworthy of its wielder but still it wished to be held and be of use once more, it was it''s only wish, to return to those master full hands.


    It lay buried in the ground beneath the fallen land, a thin stream of water rolled over its broken handle that snapped in the fall.


    Yet still lightning seeped in between the cracks it could feel the blades determination to return and so the wilful lighting continued to do the only thing it could, it crackled, it snapped, but still it failed to pop.


    It didn''t know what was missing but it knew that the answer would come its way.


    ---


    Lirian and Edith slowly stirred, their naked bodies that were as fair as the first snow, were still tightly inter-twined and joined together.


    Edith was the first to open her eyes, as she looked at him everything they had done last night had come rushing to her head, and the only thing she thought was that it was magical.


    They had gone over and beyond her wildest imaginations, every girl she knew had probably had a few fantasies about doing it with Lirian, and she''d be lying if she said she didn''t, but that night was completely mind blowing for her.


    They did it so many times that she lost count, and Lirian would do this strange massage on her that removed all the soreness in seconds, while getting her ready for the next round.


    The only thing she lacked was stamina, but a few minutes of rest was all she needed to restore herself.


    But most of all was the feeling when he was inside her, it was so perfect like they were two pieces of a puzzle that belonged together, even now she slowly wiggled her waist in joy, as that full erect member filled her up.


    She could tell that he was awake and ready to go for another round.


    There moans soon greeted the air and after an hour of blissful fun they unwillingly pulled themselves apart and got dressed, they had a lot of work to attend to, and it would keep them apart for most of the day.


    When they came back to the base they walked hand in hand, and Edith noticed a lot of them starring at them, as soon as she looked at someone directly they would turn away with reddened faces.


    ''Did they see or hear us doing it?" she wondered but she held her head high and looked around proudly.


    She was made into a woman last night, and if any girl knew the details of what she experienced, they would die of envy and every boy that looked at her would probably be to scared to even think a sexual thought about her, especially after they saw what Lirian could do.


    It would be an instance death sentence for them if Lirian heard someone discussing his woman like some object.


    They quickly got to the commanders tent and began to discuss what they had to do now, two of the fifty men tents were buried in the dirt and a lot of their weapons had been badly damaged during the battle, the good part was that with the guardian of the forest dead, no other creature would come near them.


    As they spoke Edith was especially happy that there seemed to be no nervous tension between them and Lirian was also a lot easier to talk to all of a sudden, and he was being less snarky and rude when she gave a bad idea.


    The only thing that was saddening to her was that he wasn''t trying to rip of her clothes, it would appear that he wouldn''t allow himself to lose control of his desires when they were busy, but she could tell that he was constantly getting distracted for short periods, and she and an idea of what it was that made him loss focus.


    ''He''s thinking about what we did last night, he''s thinking about what he wants to do to me tonight,'' she thought with a naughty smile as she spoke with him.


    She had every intention to make him loss concentration and play with her a little more.


    ---


    An hour after they came up with a plan to fix as many problems as possible the people in charge of communications between the two exploration groups and the main base arrived.


    Each team consisted of five warriors and two mages and most importantly the psychic, every day they would come back with new pieces of the map that needed to be added, and they''d report anything that needed to be reported in person.


    But today when they arrived their entire group stopped, with looks of utter shock and horror on their faces.


    "I''m not dreaming or having a nightmare am I," the psychic Meana asked in a loopy voice, just the sight of what she was looking at was making her feel lightheaded.


    "Jasmine please pinch me, so I know this isn''t a dream," one of the boys said turning to a mage in their group.


    He didn''t need to ask twice, because he got a lot more than he asked for, as the short and sweet girl Jasmine happily slapped him as hard as she could.


    He held his face and spun around; he was a warrior, so the hit didn''t hurt much but when he looked down again the sight was still there.


    "The waterfall!" one of them shouted, "It used to be over there!" he cried out while pointing at empty air a few hundred meters of air.


    "How the hell do you destroy an entire waterfall!" he cried out, it was true the water fall was completely ruined, now the water simply ran over the newly formed slop at many points the water could hardly be seen because it was being soaked into the ground, and running between large rocks.


    "Kallus," Meana said to the boy that just got slapped, "We should go up there and check things out, maybe there are a few survivors," she said, already thinking that the worst had happened.


    Kallus nodded and they had to do this, but he''d be lying if he said that he wasn''t afraid of what they might encounter if they go up.


    They were still looking from afar, so they didn''t know if the main group was still alive, they continued their journey doing their best not to show their fears and when they finally arrived they got their first proper view of the camp.


    To their relief, the main group seemed to be doing fine and they were in high spirits as they walked around doing tasks, other then looking a little banged up and tired, there didn''t seem to be any problem.


    The dust had completely settled over the night and they could see that an area about half a mile wide had completely collapsed it even took down part of the base, and on the other side, hundreds if not thousands of beast corpses were scattered all over the place and the entire ground was covered in dried up blood.


    As they walked through the camp they heard people talking about what had happened, and the story sounded absolutely ridiculous, they all knew just how scary their commander was but this was unbelievable, they were saying that as an ordinary person, he took down a second-grade rock drake.


    But as they walked further into the camp the story was still the same if not more exaggerated they slowly walked up to a group that were sitting in a circle and talking.


    "¡­let me tell you, when I looked at Peta he had completely soaked his pants," the boy was saying, and his friends started to laugh when continued.


    "Now, you didn''t hear this next part from me," he said raising a finger to his lips and made them all come in closer, "I didn''t see anything it was to dark, but when that drake roared, I couldn''t hear shit, but I definitely smelled shit coming from Peta''s ass," as the boys around him started to laugh while holding their stomachs, the boy looked up and saw someone he knew listening.


    "Kallus," he called out to his friend, they were put into different groups, but they knew each other pretty well.


    As they sat down the two spoke, and Kallus''s friend gave him a full break down of everything that happened, his friend could see the disbelief on his face and only snickered.


    "You should have been here to see it, I''m telling you guys, we call these beasts monsters, but when compared to the commander, they are just a bunch of scared little puppies, and if you don''t believe me you can ask around," he said getting to his feet.


    "I gotta go now, it''s my turn on clean up duty in a minute," he said patting Kallus on the shoulder and rushing of.


    The entire group got to their feet in disbelief, and walked towards the commander''s tent in silence, they didn''t even know how to digest what they heard.


    From what they knew the only time that the terrain would start to be changed in a battle was when at least half a dozen people of the third-grade fought with all their might.

 Chapter 146 - 146 – Sub-Bases

    Meana walked in the lead of her group with Jasmine and Kallus following close behind her when they bumped into the group coming from Tobias''s exploration team.


    They looked to be in equal disbelief as them, "Anything big happen on your side Anna?" Meana asked walking up to the other group''s psychic.


    Anna smiled slightly at her but shook her head, they were on good terms with each-other even in the academy despite their three-year age gap, there weren''t many mental psychics around, so they tended to keep in contact.


    Anna''s eyes were still wide in disbelief from what she had heard, "We just entered into an area that has these extremely large trees, there is almost no light in that place making it difficult to navigate,"


    "But by comparison it''s nothing compared to what the main base faced, and did you hear not a single person died!" she exclaimed as their two groups mingled together.


    "Yeah I heard them say it was all thanks to commander Lirian, they said that where ever he stepped the beasts fled back in fear, then he''d chase after them and slaughtered them by the dozen," as Meana spoke the others nodded along they had heard similar things.


    When the two groups reached the commanders tent they pushed the flaps forward and saw a sight that none of them were expecting to see.


    Edith was sitting on the edge of the table and Lirian was pressed up against her, they were kissing like wild beasts with their hands roaming around underneath each-others clothing.


    Surprisingly even as they stood there the two of them took their time to stop what they were doing, Edith cast them an annoyed glanced, she had finally managed to get Lirian all worked up, but these bimbos had to stroll in just when things were getting good.


    Lirian on the other hand turned to face them with a small smile, "It was a stressful night and we''ve had a hard time controlling ourselves," he said shrugging his shoulders like what they saw was nothing.


    In fact, as they looked between Edith and Lirian they were surprised to see that neither of them seemed to be embarrassed about being seen together, the only thing bothering them was Edith''s glare.


    "So, what do you guys think off the renovations we made of the place?" Lirian asked them jovially.


    They could tell that he was in a good mood, and the boys in the group couldn''t blame just the little they had seen was enough to induce a severe nose bleed, and the fact that he was with a beauty like Edith made it impossible for them to not be envious.


    They all chuckled a little at his comment, "It seems like it might be a good chance to send a few teams down to do some exploring," Meana said as she thought of the new slop, had things been like that when they arrived it was possible that the entire group would have remained together and continued progressing along the river.


    Lirian nodded, "We are going to let it settle for a day before we begin sending big teams down there, I want both of you to tell your group leaders to send a hundred people back along with some supplies."


    As they nodded obediently Meana went straight into business mode, "We encountered a huge swamp, that it is hindering our advancement, in an hour we are barely able to cover more than two miles through the thick mud, Miss Media requests to set up a sub base at the edge of the swamp and begin exploration," she reported.


    ''Sounds like she had some bad luck,'' Lirian thought, "That is up to her," Lirian said simply, "But Cole has to be the one in charge of the base while she leads the exploration teams," he said.


    When Meana finished Anna reported her news about the large forests, and Lirian pondered in silence for a while, ''If the place is as dark as she claims, they will have a hard time backtracking, even if they leave markings on the trees, and that''s not counting the unseen dangers inside, any creatures in their will be in tune with the dark, so if they use fire or chop down some trees to get some light they are extremely likely to incur the wrath of the creatures.''


    "Tell Tobias to retreat a bit and set up a sub-base, if there is nothing worth exploring then he may retreat back to the main base and he can lead the teams exploring down new path I made," Lirian said and finally dismissed them.


    Edith looked at them coldly as they left and she quickly found herself some place on his lap, she had read in some stories that when couples get intimate for the first time, it isn''t uncommon for them to spend entire weekends, and in some case''s and entire week locked up in a room together.


    She couldn''t understand why they would do such a thing, but now she didn''t understand why they wouldn''t stay locked up for an entire month at a time.


    At current that was the only thing on her mind, and she felt that it was a shame that they had duties to tend too, when they got back to the real world she intended to lock Lirian in her room for a month, maybe more.


    ---


    Mordred scoured the newly formed slop, the ground was a little unstable so from time to time he ended up sinking down, but he was used to such intense terrains, his time doing intense mountain climbing courses wasn''t for nothing.


    As Mordred roamed through the debris he couldn''t help but feel conflicted, he had made a huge achievement but in his excitement he manged to piss Lirian off and ruin his hard work.


    Now he had to find a single sword that could be buried beneath a mountain or worse it could be buried beneath that huge drake, and what truly made that thought scary to him was the fact that the massive drake was completely buried beneath the land slide.


    There was not a single trace of it left, and it wasn''t like they had any magnetic device to search for it.


    Because of his contribution to taking down the drake, he didn''t have to get involved with tasks in the camp, and he was glad for it, that sword was his one hope of truly becoming a Pendragon.


    It was the most respected and feared of the ancient families, and in the current age so few ever earned the right to bare the name, especially when so young.


    Mordred knew that his family had placed him in the empress''s child''s class for a reason, it was especial rare for them to show any interest in the internal politics of an empire.


    He didn''t know if he had done a good job so far, but he did want to impress them, and prove to them that he was worth their efforts.


    When he reached the bottom the slop and walked to the river, by the way that the water continued to run it seemed that the water was still making its way to the river, it only lacked the smashing sound that came from the water fall.


    Mordred bent down and took a quick sip from the river; he had been searching for hours and his thirst was slowly building up.


    As he took sip after sip he saw something unnatural flowing in the river, it was a small object, so he dove into the water and snatched it before rushing back to the shore.


    When he got back to the shore he was surprised at how far the river had washed him away, he was a full mile from the slop and he had just entered the water for less than 30 seconds, as he slowly made his way back along the river he opened his hands to look at the object.


    It was just a piece of wood, he realised, but it was carved and well-shaped, he moved it around and looked at it strangely, '',isn''t this a piece of Lirian''s katana, he thought as he looked at the part he was sure that it was the hilt of the blade.


    When he got back to the river he tried hard to remember which part of the river it came running down from, he slowly made his way up along the parts that had running water.


    If a piece of the handle came running down in the water, there was a chance that the rest of the sword would be near or in the water, but it could be stuck under some rock or branch.


    Mordred knew that the odds were low but at least he had a sliver of a chance at finding it.


    When he climbed back up he quickly found the area the water was running through and walked carefully.


    A few minutes later he heard footsteps from behind him and when he turned around he saw someone that he didn''t want to see quickly approaching him.

 Chapter 147 - 147 – Mordred’s Dilemma

    Mordred looked up at the figure in front of him and gritted his teeth slightly, it was none other than the bane of his dating life, his ex-girlfriend Mizuhara Farrian.


    Her dark-purple hair that appeared almost black fell to her shoulders and her big black eyes were fixed on him with an enticing look in them.


    She smiled at him softly and nibbled on her lower lip as if she was nervous while looking at him, but he knew that it was all just a lie, a fa?ade, that she had a talent in putting up, it was what had originally drawn him to her.


    "What do you want?" Mordred asked coldly, and quickly turned away from her.


    All this time he didn''t want to make a big deal and confront her about the insults she had hurled at him because it would only bring him unwanted trouble.


    In an academy where every grade has 30 classes, it could be said that anyone in the first 10 classes were the cream of the crop, and Mizuhara was in the 5-C class, her scores had earned her the favour of her family.


    As someone from an ancient family, one of the test factors for him was to avoid unnecessary conflict with the families of the great civilizations, and him angering the Farrian family would no doubt have a bad effect on him.


    Although he knew that it was probably because of his passive stance that he had to take that she enjoyed spreading degrading rumours about him, there was a certain pleasure that people tend to feel when they can hit someone that isn''t allowed to hit back.


    As far as Mordred could tell, the only reason she dated him was to find out the Pendragon family''s goal in placing him in the academy, but since he didn''t even know himself it was pointless, after that she dumped him and made up a bunch of degrading stories about him.


    Mizuhara smiled at him not caring about his cold attitude, "There''s no need to be so cold, we are all in this together," she said warmly.


    "As for what I want," she said slowly stepping closer and lowering her tone, "I just want to help you, I can tell that you''re looking for something important," she said stepping close and running her hand along his muscular arm.


    "You know, miss Edith just promoted me to a captain, so I have a tent of my own, maybe you can come by later¡­ and we can catch up," she said suggestively and squeezed his arm between her soft breasts.


    Mordred groaned slightly against his will, he didn''t want to admit it, but he did enjoy the feeling of her pressing her curvy body against him, but it was just for a moment before he yanked his arm away from her.


    Instead of showing any annoyance or frustration Mizuhara only gave him a knowing smile, "Am I no longer good enough for you now that you''ve killed a big strong drake," she teased him and stuck her tongue out at him cutely.


    Her attitude only caused him to frown, "Hahaha!" he laughed derisively, "You''ve had your fun messing with me, now you can leave me alone!" he half shouted at her.


    His frustration, however, only seemed to entice her, "You know that we were great together, so why don''t you just come back to me, surely you realise that I spread those rumours around so that no other girls could have you besides me," she said sweetly meeting his eyes.


    Mordred didn''t know how to feel about everything she was saying, apart of him wanted to believe that she genuinely liked him, but he just couldn''t believe it but before he could say anything to her another voice sounded from behind him.


    "You really are a bitch!" Mordred turned around and saw his class representative Sarah Jane looking at Mizuhara coldly.


    Mizuhara frowned at the unwelcome disturbance, but quickly her face held a smug grin as she realized who it was, "Are you talking about me, miss goody two-shoes," she chuckled.


    "You know if there''s anyone Mordred considers a bigger bitch than me it''s got to be you, for always ratting him out when he messes around in class," Mizuhara laughed condescendingly at her.


    Seeing Sarah''s confused face she continued, "You know he would always complain about you when we were together, he would tell me how you would watch him like a hawk and the moment he did something wrong you''d make a big deal about it and cause him trouble."


    "I was just doing my job as class rep to help him," Sarah defended herself while looking at Mordred with saddened eyes.


    Mizuhara scoffed and looked at her in amusement, "Mordred might be dense enough to believe that crap, but you''re so obvious it was an eye sore every time I saw you looking at him, why do you think I made up all those rumour to turn him into a laughing stock?"


    "It was to protect my property from hawks like you," Mizuhara said with a sneer, ", and it seemed to work pretty well since you were to proud to be seen walking around with a laughing stock," she said glancing at Mordred.


    Mordred was in the middle of the two, but he couldn''t wrap his head around what was going on, judging from Sarah Jane''s shocked expression he felt that Mizuhara wasn''t wrong with what she was implying, which left him in complete disbelief.


    ''I just want to find that stupid sword, I don''t have the time for this girl fight,'' he thought as he still struggled to come to terms with the fact that the fight was over him.


    "S-stop lying," Sarah stammered, "We both know that the only reason you are coming back to him now after you dumped him is because, he''s probably going to become a Pendragon when we return from the expedition!"


    Mizuhara looked at her and smirked, "Isn''t that the same reason that you followed him out here," she smiled knowingly, "Now that he''s going to become a Pendragon it doesn''t matter if there are some rumours about him, you can walk around with him proudly and you family might even approve of it," Mizuhara stated with a victorious smirk.


    She had hit the nail on the head judging from how Sarah dropped her head in shame, "The next time you want to call someone else a bitch, do yourself a favour and remember that you''re one as well."


    "Lirian is taking all the credit for himself," Mordred lied to the two of them, he really wanted this crap to stop and he figured this was the best way to do it, besides it wasn''t a complete lie if he couldn''t find the sword, which seemed extremely unlikely he wasn''t going to inherit his family name.


    The two stopped and looked at him, "But that''s not fair, you helped!", both of them cried out together, when they realised what they had done they turned away from each-other huffing loudly.


    "If you guys don''t like it then feel free to take it up with Lirian, but I''m not taking that chance," he said honestly, the image of Lirian holding that girl over the ledge for not agreeing with the role she was given flashed in their minds making them shiver.


    Mizuhara sighed but looked back at him, "It doesn''t matter, I already said that I want you back," she took a step closer to him and spoke loud enough for Sarah to hear, "I''ll leave the flaps to my tent spread wide open tonight, just for you," she said seductively as she left.


    Mordred felt that even the ants walking in their lines picked up the implication of her words and he couldn''t stop himself from gulping loudly.


    He turned to look at Sarah with complex emotions, on one hand he found out that she likes him and that every thing she had done was to get his attention, but at the same time she didn''t deny that she was to embarrassed to go out with him after the rumours about him started to spread.


    It was a sour pill for him to swallow, and he didn''t know if he should be angry at her for being so full of herself or thank her for always trying to help him out in her own rule abiding away.


    "I-I-I''m sorry," Sarah stammered out an apology, her face was completely red and little tears could be seen in the corner of her eyes.


    Mordred was so used to seeing her stern face, that seeing her all embarrassed and nervous was a huge surprise, she looked like a completely different person.


    "You must think I''m completely selfish," she said in a disheartened tone.


    Mordred didn''t deny that, after all they were only here because they thought that he was going to become a Pendragon, but he knew that it was the way noble society worked, relationships, were based on merit and status, without it you''d never be accepted into society.


    "I noticed that you were looking for something, I can help you find it, two sets of eyes are better than one," she offered seeing an opportunity to make herself feel less bad.


    Feeling that the task was impossible to complete alone he quickly told her what he was looking for and they began a very long search for the katana.

 Chapter 148 - 148 – Fate Forging 1

    Mordred and Sarah began to search the rocky slope together.


    As they inspected each spot where they saw water flowing, they carefully moved between the gaps hoping to find something.


    Sarah kept casting side glances at Mordred, she felt slightly awkward being around him, it was saddening to find out that he thought of her as nothing but a nag, when she was acting in his best interests.


    Mordred was considered the class clown for good reason, he had a special ability to get into trouble albeit most of the time it was because she tattled on him, but her reasoning was simple, if he gets away with small things he''ll move onto bigger things and when that happens she''d have no way to help him out of the mess he made for himself.


    The silence between them only grew as time passed by and they could both feel the awkwardness grow like an infection, soon they pushed a small boulder up to check if anything was underneath it and suddenly Sarah cried out and stopped using her mana to help raise the boulder.


    Mordred jump away as the boulders weight came crashing down on him, "Did something happen?!" he called out as he turned to look at Sarah.


    He had the urge to laugh when he looked at her as her auburn hair that was usually pulled back into a long ponytail stood up like she had been hit by a lightning strike.


    He ran forward to catch her before she fell down, her body seemed to turn to jelly as she sunk into his arms, "Did someone attack you?" he asked in a puzzled voice, as he could see no one close enough.


    Sarah shook her head slightly, "I touched¡­ the w-water," she croaked out weakly and pointed at the stream.


    Mordred went forward carefully and looked at the water doubtfully, and hesitantly moved his finger closer inch by inch, when there was no gap between his finger and the water beads of sweat rolled down his face as he plunged his hand into the water and removed it in a heartbeat.


    When nothing happened he felt braver and struck his hand in and out of the water a few times and let the cool water run over it when suddenly he saw flash of blue, before he could do anything he felt it run rampantly through his body making him yelp out loud.


    ''Dammit, this must be why they tell us that we gonna have to learn cultivation techniques that enhance our natural resistance to the elements,'' he thought as the smell of roasted meat rolled of him, he couldn''t be certain but he felt that his shock was much worse than the one Sarah received.


    Sarah was slowly recovering on the side when she saw Mordred act like an idiot by the water, ''Does he not realize that he''s going to get shocked too,'' she wondered while looking at him.


    As he pulled his hand in and out of the water he smiled at her gloatingly, as if saying ''I''m touching the same water and it did nothing to me,'' when suddenly an arc of blue lightning took him by surprise.


    She giggled softly as his blond hair stood up and small tendrils of smoke could be seen rising from his body.


    "Can you do that again?" she asked him with a grin.


    "Not a chance in hell, one more time and I''ll be cooked through," he complained, but he could still move unlike her, it was a perk of being a body cultivator, "Why would you want me to go through that again?" he asked indignantly.


    "I felt where the lightning was coming from for a second," she answered, "If another bolt comes I might be able to pin point its source," she said.


    "We are looking for Lirian''s katana, not some lightning creature," Mordred sighed and started to walk away, he didn''t want to get struck again.


    Sarah climbed to her feet and grabbed one his arms, "It could be something that hasn''t been discovered before," she said with pleading eyes.


    "And if it''s buried under here, it''s most likely on the verge of dying, also there was no intel on any lightning creatures that we got, so it''s definitely going to be a first discovery," she said excitedly.


    "But most importantly, since it''s using lightning it can''t be all that far away, if we move around a few rocks I''m sure we''ll find it," she reasoned with Mordred seeing that he was on the edge of giving in.


    They quickly got to work shoving the rocks around, as Mordred lifted a rock he saw a hint of silver buried in the sand.


    He looked at it with transfixed eyes not looking away for an instance, this thing was far to important to him right, that blade that he could see was his hope of becoming a Pendragon.


    As he pulled of the last bit of debris he noticed thick strands of blue lightning arching and coiling around the busted and cracked blade, the lightning seemed especially concentrated on the numerous cracks.


    He reached out to grab the sword when Sarah suddenly caught his hand, "DON''T" she shouted in a panic, she could clearly feel the energy concentrated around the blade, if it discharged it would definitely kill him.


    As a mage she was far more attuned to the energy of the world, and the energy around the blade was moving strangely, and as if reacting to their presence the coiling lightning seemed to come alive and spun in circles around the blade leaving a blue trail.


    "Is that Lirians katana?", she asked uncertainly, she had seen the blade from afar, but she was certain that it was just an ordinary blade.


    Mordred nodded, he had seen it up and close when Lirian delivered that strike to drake, "How do you suppose we bring it to Lirian?"


    "Are you crazy, we can''t even get close to it without being fried to a crisp," she complained, "We can just go up and tell Lirian we found his katana, but that it can''t be retrieved.


    By now the wild blue lightning had started to draw a lot of attention, from the students that were climbing through the debris and a small group had arrived to inspect the source.


    Mordred turned to Sarah, "Keep anyone from coming close it while I tell Lirian about this," he said and broke into a dash.


    He had found the sword almost all the way at the bottom of the slope so it was a long journey to get up, when he reached the camp he ran towards the command tent, and when he went in he saw something unexpected.


    Once he entered the first thing he saw was Lirian and Edith the two of them were cuddled up tightly and breathed out a sigh of relief that they weren''t indecent, or he could only imagine what his next punishment would be.


    Lirian was on a chair with Edith sitting happily on his lap, they were speaking in soft whispers to each other when Mordred came in.


    They turned to face at the intruder, and both of them were surprised.


    "Mordred," Edith exclaimed seeing his dirtied clothes and hair that was standing straight up, "You don''t have to worry about finding the sword, Lirian just said that to mess with you," she started immediately.


    Just from seeing his condition she could tell that he was trying his hardest to find it and she felt the need to make him stop immediately.


    "You lasted longer than I expected you too," Lirian chuckled, knowing how lightly Mordred always took things, he expected him to be back and crying for the credit within hours.


    Mordred''s face twitched as he looked at them, he couldn''t believe it, it felt like his hard work was for nothing, but then he saw the light at the end of the tunnel.


    "Well not that I enjoy slapping people in the face, but just so you know Lirian I found your sword, that''s why I came back," Mordred said with a smug look and enjoyed the look of shock on Lirians face, unfortunately it only lasted for a second.


    "Well then had it over," Lirian said extending his hand, he still felt a little surprised he would have given a 100% guarantee that the blade would be lost underneath all the debris, the fact that it was found left him in awe of Mordred''s luck.


    Feeling his still empty hand Lirian faced Mordred with a perplexed look on his face.


    "That''s the slight problem we can''t touch the blade, it''s surrounded by lightning," Mordred slowly explained how they found it.


    Lirian was truly surprised by this time, because from what he heard it sounded like his blade was baptising itself and attempting to fate forge itself.


    In the Six Great Civilizations, they referred to fate forged items as Sacred items, as they didn''t understand the principles behind fate forging, but they knew well just how exceptional such objects were.


    Lirian climbed out of his chair forcing Edith to get of him much to her displeasure, he grabbed onto his walking cane and extended it as he headed to the tents exit.


    "Lead the way!" he commanded.

 Chapter 149 - 149 - Fate Forged 2

    The journey down the new slope went by quickly, Lirian moved around with ease that left both Edith and Mordred flabbergasted.


    Even they were having a hard time climbing down with two functional eyes, yet Lirian strolled over the rocky terrain like it was his back garden.


    They noticed that more and more people were coming down as well, aside from those that were carrying out guard duty almost everyone from the camp had come down the slope and formed a large circle around the katana.


    As they got closer Mordred saw a flash of light and suddenly the sound of someone screaming while flying through the air echoed in everyone''s ears.


    A boy crashed into a tree and came tumbling down with little currents of electricity still traveling through his hair.


    Mordred couldn''t help but notice that the boy was still breathing, it was odd since Sarah had assured him that whoever tried to touch the blade would get a shocking trip to the afterlife.


    Sarah saw them approaching so she came them in a rush.


    "I thought that it would kill anyone that tried to touch it?" Mordred questioned her, he wondered if she had just lied so that she could retrieve the blade and bring it to Lirian herself.


    "I wasn''t lying," she snapped in annoyance at the underlining accusation, "It can still kill a cultivator, but once the crowd grew around it seemed to¡­" she said thoughtfully trying to find the right word.


    "Conserve its energy, almost as if was alive," Lirian added with a knowing smirk.


    Karen nodded, it was exactly as Lirian said but once it was said aloud the students came to a halt.


    "But that''s impossible," Mordred said what all of them were thinking, "A sword gaining awareness, that''s something that only happens to the weapons of a saint!" he said in surprise.


    Lirian chuckled, "Well you know me, I''m always full of surprises and tricks."


    "Now then would all of you clear away from my katana," Lirian said to the crowd and took quick steps towards the blade.


    Edith watched the arching energy and with every step Lirian took the energy only seemed to grow, "Wait!" she shouted and ran forward to grab Lirian''s hand.


    "It''s to dangerous Lirian and the energy is only growing as you get closer," she pleaded with him and pulled his arm pressing it between her soft breasts.


    "As it is it won''t allow anyone to approach it and only body cultivators can handle the shock, if it hits you¡­" she stopped not even wanting to say the words aloud, but she only received a smirk from Lirian.


    "Well of course it won''t allow anyone to touch it after I wielded it, how could my blade allow anyone else to wield it after I used it, it would be the blades greatest shame," Lirian''s words quickly caused everyone''s faces to contort into sour frowns.


    He had just insulted them and didn''t even show any guilt over his choice of words, but none of them said anything in complaint after what they had seen him do none of them would dare to act out against him even if he insulted them.


    Lirian gently slipped his hand away from Edith and gave her a comforting smile before turning back to his katana.


    As he approached he could feel the energy grow around the blade, "You must have wanted to return to me very much, to be able to do this to yourself," Lirian commented as he got closer.


    He could hear the blades cries with every step he took like a child seeing its parent after being separated for a long time.


    Lirian listened to the growing arcs of lightning, it crackled, it snapped, but it failed to pop, and so the cycle repeated.


    "Now let''s see what''s wrong with you," Lirian said reaching down to pick up the blade.


    Edith watched with batted breath as the students breathing came to a halt, her eyes were shaking as Lirians hand reached closer to the blade it was then that the lightning moved.


    But it moved in a completely different manner than it should, the lightning reached out wrapping around Lirians hand, causing many people to gasp out loud.


    Lirian smiled and quickly gave the blade a few swipes in the air, with each swipe little sparks darted in the surroundings but sizzled out almost as quickly.


    Lirian sighed after a moment, ''It''s such a pity but the blade can''t take anymore stress or it will shatter, but the main problem is the hilt there is a piece missing and without it, it''s impossible to complete the fate forging process, I was lucky enough to find the blade but to find the broken piece of the hilt I''ll have to use up a hundred years of my good luck.''


    "Has anyone seen the broken piece of the handle?" he asked hopefully while pointing to the broken handle that still had coiling lightning wrapped around it.


    In the next second he felt like the gods of luck were on his side for the first time in history as Mordred came forward and gave him the piece he found running down the river.


    "I can almost forgive you for your crimes," Lirian told him with a chuckle and took the piece.


    ''Almost!'' Mordred cried to himself, ''I found your blade and the broken piece, and I''m still not forgiven,'' he thought with a down cast expression.


    Lirian stuck the tip into the ground and after placing the broken piece in place he took a quick step back expecting the change to begin, but as seconds passed nothing happened.


    Lirian furrowed his brows and focused on the katana listening to the familiar sounds.


    The lightning crackled¡­


    The lightning snapped¡­


    That''s when he noticed a slight changed, until then the lightning failed to pop, but now it was deliberate as if the katana was waiting for something else.


    As he thought of what to do he chose to use the system, it was currently useless for prediction, so he removed all its fate particles and used it to increase his luck.


    He quickly shifted a trillion points back into the system to power it up.


    The first thing that greeted him was a pile of messages and fate achievements that he gained during the expeditions and in total, thanks to the heavens chosen boon that granted him 10 times all fate particles earned he found himself with well over 4 million new fate particles.


    He skipped over his fate achievements and focused on the sword.


    <Tungsten Alloy Katana>


    - Made from a special alloy that gives tungsten a great deal of flexibility.


    - Folded 20 times creating over a million layers, granting the blade extreme sharpness.


    - Condition: Cannot be used.


    - The blade is undergoing the process of fate forging.


    <Feats>


    - The blade has awaked a consciousness due to its wielder''s extreme skill.


    - <Limit Breaker> - the blade has performed a task it was never meant to be able to do, as an ordinary blade it injured a creature of the second grade.


    Lirian read the limit breaker feat and realized why the katana was stopping its upgrade it was because he had an almost identical fate achievement.


    <Limit Breaker> - as an ordinary mortal you have done the impossible, you have slain a second-grade creature by yourself.


    "You really are a greedy blade," Lirian chuckled, it turned out that the blade wanted to be wielded only by him and since they shared a fate achievement he could bind it to him and fuel its fate forging.


    [System will merge the two fate achievements Y/N?]


    The system prompted him and he quickly hit yes, "Also use up all the fate particles I earned," Lirian ordered, and well over 4 million fate particles rushed in to the blade from Lirians hand.


    All the students saw was a ray of white light shoot out of Lirians hand and wrap around the blade concealing all wildly the arching energy, the glow around the blade grew brighter by the second and they soon found themselves raising their hands to block out the sharp light.


    It was then that they heard a thundering boom in the air and as they looked up a massive black cloud hung over their heads.


    "It''s a lightning tribulation!" someone shouted in the crowd and they quickly began to run back in all directions, they knew the fate of those that intervened with a tribulation, not even the gods themselves would get away with intervening in the heavens judgement.


    Lirian stood before the glowing blade, he could feel the forming currents of wind pulling at his clothing and pushing him around, but he held no fear of what was to come.


    Mortal gear had seven grades that corresponded with the cultivation grades, mythic, mystic, exotic, king, legendary, emperor and calamity.


    Lirian judged the energy he could feel in the air, from that he determined the quality of his katana and he was pleasantly surprised with the result.


    ''It''s probably because of how much fate particles I poured into it,'' he thought to himself as he reached out to grab his Mystic grade equipment.

 Chapter 150 - 150 – Fate Forged 3

    The white light surrounding the katana looked like a glowing cocoon, with every passing second the cocoon of light shrunk, and soon it became even smaller than the blade, yet the blade didn''t poke out.


    As it continued to shrink Lirian stood by calmly until the cocoon of light shrunk to the size of a ball that one would enjoy kicking around, yet the blade was completely unseen.


    Lirian took a deep breath and began to channel the energy around him as he heard the sound of liquid inside the cocoon of light.


    The sword had completely changed form, its not that it melted, but that it was being reconstructed by fate.


    The students watched from the distance in awe as Lirian''s entire body flowed as he bent the energy in a way they had never seen before, stands of silver spiralled around the cocoon like treads of silk and every time a thread struck the glowing ball, they could hear liquid move.


    It was like two massive waves lapping against each-other with perfect harmony, and the sounds would echo in their ears.


    With every movement Lirian made they could see the energy split and flood into the cocoon of light through a thousand tiny streams.


    The threads of energy seemed to stitch the cocoon into shape, as the cocoon slowly began to elongate the thread held it in place and where ever the glowing cocoon lost its shape the threads of energy would quickly cut it away and return the severed piece to the ball to be shaped.


    Had Lirian left it to take shape by itself it would have been a good weapon, but he wanted it to be perfect for him, so he intervened in its forging process.


    The liquid slowly returned to the form of the katana and as the light still shone brightly he reached in, he knew that the blade was ready, and the glow was just the remnant fate energy.


    As soon as his hand wrapped around the hilt he felt the clouds above still and electric energy charged the air, before he got time to inspect his new mystic grade katana a sharp cry of lightning shot down at the blade.


    Lirian swivelled the katana and sliced the bolt as it reached him, and the blades newfound sharpness cut the bolt of lightning in half, causing the onlookers to gap in awe.


    As the blade cut through the bolt, the bolt split in half and crashed into the ground leaving two trails of blue light etching two enormous scorch marks into the earth.


    Lirian awaited the next wave, since it was a mystic grade katana, there would be two waves of tribulation, the first wave with a singe bolt of lightning and a second wave with two bolts of lightning, but because it was fate forged a third wave of three bolts would descend.


    With each wave the bolts would also get stronger and Lirian stood proudly facing the tribulation cloud.


    The two bolts came crashing down but one came slightly ahead of the other and Lirian used it to his advantage he reached out with the katana as the first bolt reached him and caught it with the katana''s blade.


    He spun in an arch creating a purple crescent in the air and flung the bolt at the second one, as the two bolts collided an explosion occurred ripping through the forests, entire trees were ripped apart by the violent collision and sent flying like little meteors.


    Lirian gripped the pummel with both hands and took a deep breath, just from his few moves he could feel the katana was giving him a boast to his strength and buried deeper he could feel a special skill ingrained into the blade.


    Instead of using outside energy he used his internal mana to trigger it as the final volley of the tribulation began.


    This time all three bolts came streaking across the sky, giving it a purple glow.


    The bolts came crashing down as Lirian breathed out and brought the blade down with a single swing from above his head it was the way a katana was meant to be used and with it came the full might of his blade.


    Lirian felt every drop of mana his body could store leave him as a thick six-foot-wide beam of blue lightning erupted from the katana''s edge, all three bolts were caught by the violent energy and followed its momentum as it crashed into the newly formed slope.


    The destruction spread across the entire slope, creating a clear cut in the centre where the waterfall used to be, and the entire area seemed to crumble inwards where the blue lightning had struck.


    Lirian praised himself for the destruction he had caused, he knew that it would have been weaker if it didn''t pull the tribulation lightning along with the katana''s skill.


    He breathed heavily as it was his first time using his actual mana, with having cultivated, it was impossible for him to use it, and the quality and quantity of the energy he could use with energy control was much higher than what was in his body.


    The only thing his mana was useful for currently was to activate things like a dimensional storage or skills of an item like what he had just done.


    As the tribulation clouds began to dissipate Lirian used the system to inspect the katana.


    <Fate Forged Tungsten Alloy Katana ¨C Mystic grade>


    - While fate forged the katana was folded and addition twenty times giving it 40 folds and over 1 trillion layers it has reached an impossible level of sharpness and can even cut through single cells with precision.


    - The materials used to create this weapon are not meant to reach such a level as a result the blade will degrade 8 times faster.


    - Condition: Perfect


    <Ability>


    - <Storm Caller> - the blade remembers when it injured a mighty rock drake and recalls the ability it used; the damage output is proportional to the mana used.


    - <Slow Holder> - the blade disregards all those who are not its master, if wielded by any other it will absorb the electricity traveling through their synapses, slowing down all their brain activity and response functions.


    - <Keen Tip> - use lightning to further enhance the already extreme piercing ability of the blade, with this ability you can severe even lightning.


    - <Destructive Edge> - The lightning infused into the blade has increased it destructive properties. (Passive)


    - <Body Booster> - The blade grants its master a 20% boost in strength. (Passive)


    Lirian was extremely happy with the weapon he had created, there were three things that stood out on the blade that proved that it was fate forged, the passive ability <Body Booster>, <Destructive Edge> and the <Slow Holder> ability.


    On a normal weapon any form of strength boosting would require the wielder to supply it with energy, while he would get it by simply holding the katana, the most important part was that it would that grant that boost only to him as it deemed him as it''s master.


    With his current body state hitting 87 the 20% boost would lift his body to 104, placing his strength in the first-grade category.


    The enhanced destructive properties was actually the effect he loved the most, it was apparent from the last strike he released, under ordinary circumstance''s such a skill would cost tremendous amounts of mana yet it cost him nothing at all, because he had somehow forged a weak destruction law into the blade, he didn''t know how but it was the only explanation.


    Sometimes fate forging still baffled him, there was no perfect science to it, while you could create something almost identical it would never truly be identical.


    As for <Slow Holder> it didn''t do much to help him unless his opponent somehow got his weapon, but it was proof of the weapon''s dedication to him, it wanted no other master.


    As for the problem with the sword degrading, it wasn''t unexpected, the materials had exceeded their natural limits, but the material would still last for centuries, by which point he would have long since outlived the katana''s usefulness.


    There were only two problems or at least long-term problems, once he reached the third grade the passive effect of the sword would be useless and so would most of the abilities except for the destructive edge.


    But most importantly was that once he broke out of the first accord cultivation techniques the <Body Boaster> would disappear.


    Once someone enters the higher accords their power centres merge together, <Mind +Body = Saint>, <Body + Energy = Pugilist> and <Energy + Mind = Warlock>, those were the second accord classes, they erase the two systems and create one singular system.


    A first accord person would have, Mind, Body and Energy as their energy centres, while a second accord would have, Saints Grace and Mind as their energy centres, and a third accord being would have only Espers Breath as their energy centre.


    For Lirian who planned to use esper cultivation techniques he''d lose his body centre of power and the <Body Boaster> would no longer work on him after all he''d be operating on a superior form of energy that the Katana would be unable to reproduce to enhance him.


    What that meant for Lirian was that he''d always have to create his own weapons for himself, because while there were about a dozen people in the entire mortal realm that claimed be espers, he knew that they were most likely false espers who thought that they were espers just like how Anya believed that she had found the cross roads of the third accord, but she had just found the part of false espers.


    Since that was the case it was impossible for anyone to create equipment for him that would use real espers breath.

 Chapter 151 - 151 - Heaven Chosen 1

    The students were god smacked once more by the scene it was like a god was redrawing the landscape.


    Lirians single swipe had cut a thick line into the slope and met up with the river that continued to flow right at the top.


    Once the blinding light faded away they saw that the land it struck had completely caved in leaving a deep gash in the world.


    Then they heard a slight rumbling sound and as they looked up the water from the river came gushing down the newly carved canal, it had a slight resemblance to the old waterfall then the water met the river and continued to flow like it had never been interrupted in the first place.


    Seeing that the tribulation was over the students came back and surrounded Lirian who was panting slightly, and their eyes all fell on the blade in his hand.


    It looked nothing like it did before, and they could feel the power rippling of it, as Lirian slowly planted the tip into the ground to support himself, draining all his mana had taken a heavy toll on him.


    Ordinarily he would have simply used energy control to fuel the ability, but under a tribulation it wasn''t possible, energy control was him taking control of the worlds natural energy, which was the same energy that fuelled the tribulation.


    While he knew he was powerful, it was still impossible for him to win in a tug of war of energy control when he faced the heavens control over its energy.


    Mordred and Edith were the first to return to him and their eyes couldn''t leave the blade in Lirians hands.


    It had been completely dyed in a metallic blue colour and a lightning pattern glowed brightly on the flat of the blade, it looked like lightning was constantly coursing through the blade and the handle had changed to, it originally had a black weave to act as a grip.


    However, the weave was completely gone and the handle seemed to be apart of the katana, usually the handle could be removed or changed but now the entire thing was just one piece with the same colour, and thin streams of lightning seemed to dance up and down Lirians hand.


    "That katana!" Edith said trying and failing to hide her surprise, "The way you made it, it''s just like in the stories of great beings in the empire," she said in a shaky voice, after all she had just watched something happen that she always believed to be a legend.


    "Is it really a Sacred weapon?" she asked Lirian, and all those in the crowd that knew of Sacred weapons stilled in anticipation of the answer.


    Lirian could hear many people that didn''t know what sacred objects were, asking around in the crowd.


    "Sacred objects are special items often created through a series of coincidences," he said slowly grabbing their attention.


    "These items grant their wielders, special abilities or benefits, however unlike the gear that most people forge these items cost their wielders no energy to get the enhancement,"


    "In many stories about the great champions of the empire you may have heard of items that many of these champions kept by their side throughout their lives,"


    "In the story of Dalgon, the greatest dwarf forger ever known, he always wore a set of armer called Vulcan, it was said that while wearing it he possessed power that could rival an immortal,"


    "In the story of Izhar, the greatest assassin to ever live, he killed thousands of corrupted nobles and even kings and queens, he did it all with a pair of twin daggers we now call ''King Killer'',"


    "There is the flute of Arya a wood elf, when a song is played through it, barren lands become fertile and new life flourishes,"


    "I suppose that the Sacred objects you''d be most familiar with is the ''Crown of Thorns'' and the ''Crown of Roses'' that only the emperor and empress may wear,"


    "And of course, there is the most famous weapon ever known in all the stories, the sword Excalibur that was wielded by Arthur Pendragon, when he cut down the black dragon Shen who was born in a desolation,"


    Lirian told them of a few more examples before turning back to his new Katana, "Yes this weapon is a sacred weapon, of course it isn''t in the same league as those items¡­" he was cut short when a little spark from the sword stung his hand.


    ''Huh, it''s consciousness is quite powerful for it to have been able to understand that I was calling it inferior,'' Lirian thought that it was a pity that something so weak had grown such a powerful conscious.


    The students had a vast amount of emotions running through their heads as they looked at the katana in Lirians hands.


    Some felt envy and there were those that practically worshiped Lirian in their minds, for him to have a sacred object when he was just an ordinary mortal, it meant that his future would be unbelievable.


    There were also many that felt anger, one person in particular was seething with fury, Hinata looked on with burning eyes, ''He was so close to dying, so why does he get something like that, can I even find a chance to prove myself and kill him, now that he has something like that by his side.''


    But then her eyes lit up with her madness, ''I get it, the sword will be my reward for killing him, if I can kill him it will take me as its new master and people will speak of me owning a Sacred object, the nobles will come to me begging to adopt me into their families,'' she thought with a twisted smirk.


    ''Perhaps I should thank him just before I kill him, no won''t it be better if I use his weapon against him, yes I can just imagine it the look on his face when I kill him with what he thinks is his, he doesn''t realize that fate let him make that blade so that I could take it,'' she laughed in her head as she realized the truth.


    ''I can''t compete with the noble''s advantage as I am, but with a Sacred Object I will be able to stand above them, fate is truly looking out for me,'' she thought convincing herself of this truth.


    "Hey man, can I try out your blade? it looks awesome," Mordred said coming forward to Lirian with his eyes eagerly looking at the katana.


    He knew that it was rude to touch someone else''s items a sacred object no less, but this could very possibly be his only chance to wield such an item, so he had to give it a try.


    Lirian had a strange look on his face, ''How did he find the blade, honestly with the amount of fate particles I have it would make sense if I found it while looking for it personally but for him to find it, it should have been impossible.''


    As Lirian pondered in silence he focused the system onto Mordred and initiated a scan of his fate string and he received a big surprise.


    [Requires 50 million fate particles to do a scan]


    If he wasn''t wearing a blindfold they would have seen Lirian''s eyes bulge out as he looked at Mordred, it wasn''t that 50 million was to much for him to spend it was in fact a paltry amount to him, but it was higher than even the candidates.


    The way it worked was that he would need a higher number of fate particles than the person he was scanning unless they allowed it to happen, this meant that Mordred held just shy of 50 million fate particles.


    Even the other candidates who were the focus of the nobles throughout the empire held only about 1-3 million fate particles each, yet Mordred held 50 million it was insane to say the least.


    ''Proceed with the scan,'' Lirian ordered the system and spent the fate particles it wasn''t much to him anyway.


    Lirian wondered if the incredible amount of fate particles was because he came from the ancient families, and he was being constantly monitored after all no one knew if the ancient families were friends or enemies.


    In all this time he didn''t waste his fate particles on examining the people in the academy, because he felt that he''d completely outgrow them and their only interactions in the future would be when he dealt with their families, however, there was one other possibility and Lirian wanted to find out.


    As he looked through Mordred''s info, he found that his body had already reached 200 while his other centres of power were stuck at that 20 mark that people couldn''t pass without cultivating.


    Of course Lirian faced no such restriction as a former god.


    Lirian looked at the info and sure enough it was there.


    <Heaven Chosen> - the heavens look on you favourable and have a task for you to fulfil granting you it''s boon (¡Á5 fate particles)


    Lirian saw that the boon wasn''t as great as his but it was still powerful, in his time he had seen many leaders of the immortal realms with a (¡Á5) boon, and some of them went on to become gods, it was half of his but he knew it meant that the heavens had a great destiny planned out for Mordred Pendragon.

 Chapter 152 - 152 - Heaven Chosen 2

    Lirian had a strange look on his face as he offered his katana to Mordred, he did it for two reasons, firstly he wanted to see how intense the <Slow Holder> ability was and secondly he wanted to see if Mordred would have any strange effect on the blade.


    The <heavens chosen> perk had many strange things that it could do, even his system was unable to identify such things, and the only recurring theme he found in heaven chosen people was that the plain always had an important task for them hence that was the only bit of info the system displayed, once Lirian had seen a man who could toss a dice and it would always land exactly on what he needed.


    If he needed to lose, in order to make it big later the dice would do exactly what he needed, the guy was a commoner and he ended up richer than most nobles in the world.


    Some other times the boon would negate the negative effects of items, so Lirian wanted to test if Mordred had anything like that by seeing if the <slow Holder> ability would affect him.


    Mordred''s eye sparkled as he took a step forward, he was amazed that Lirian allowed it so easily, he was already prepared to nag Lirian for the remainder of the trip, ''Maybe he realised what I was going to do so he saved himself from the trouble,'' he reasoned and gripped the katana.


    The first thing that he felt after picking it up was a sense of weakness, he quickly realised the problem he was only a first-grade cultivator while this was a mystic grade katana, it was meant to be wielded by someone from the second-grade.


    It would be different for Lirian since it was created for him and the blade recognized him as its master, but Mordred got no such luck as the blade seemed to reject him.


    Then as he glanced around he could see the people looking at him, ''What''s going on why are they all staring at me like that and why are their eyes darting around so quickly?'' he wondered with furrowed brows.


    As he looked at them he could see all of their chests moving up and down so fast it was like they were hyper ventilating, but when he looked at their faces they look completely calm, with only a look of curiosity on their faces.


    Then he saw Lirian reaching out to him, it was so fast that he couldn''t even react, then he felt Lirians hand on the sword and everything went back to normal.


    "You seem frightened!" Lirian chuckled and released the sword again, Mordred had only heard the first two words when Lirian released the sword and the last word sounded so fast he could only make out the sound of the first letter.


    Mordred quickly released the sword and looked around, as he realized what the sword was doing, it was making his every sense process things slowly, which caused everything around him to look like it was moving like he was watching things in fast forward.


    If this happened in a fight he''d die and wouldn''t know how it happened.


    "What was that?" he asked with shaking eyes.


    "It''s an ability of the blade, if anyone besides me wields it, it will slow them down, and it seems extremely good, you were about 15¡Á slower than normal," Lirian said thoughtfully.


    "How did you figure that out?" he asked.


    "Oh, your breathing and heart rate slowed down a lot, it was honestly a little scary, but seeing that you appear perfectly fine, there is a chance that if someone held this all the time they would delay the aging process of their body, it''s just a theory for now, I''ll have to do tests at some other time," Lirian started rambling more so to himself.


    It wasn''t an odd occurrence for anyone that knew Lirian, if he found something that piqued his interest he''d jump straight into researcher mode and at that point he''d forget about everything else.


    At that moment someone came running from the new waterfall with an excited look on their face, "I found something!" he shouted, "There are caves, there is a big network of caves in here and from the looks of it, it''s not natural!"


    In an instant everyone seemed to forget about what had just happened and went running toward the waterfall.


    It was a deep and long gash in the mountain side and they could see scorch marks on the sides that were left behind from the lightning, in certain places the sides felt like shards of glass.


    As they walked further in they began to notice a few cracks in the wall and when they went to inspect they could see that the caves led deeper in, the most shocking part was the torches that hung on the walls covered in cobwebs and dust.


    Lirian followed behind with Edith locking her arm around his.


    As they walked into one of the tunnels Lirian left Edith to do all the looking around, "So how is it?" he asked.


    "It''s incredible!" she said excitedly and tipped one of the torches, it was just a slight touch, yet the entire thing began to crumble into dust, like she had hit it with a destruction law.


    "It has to be extremely old to do that, if I had to guess I''d say this place hasn''t had any air in it for years, because even a slight breeze could have destroyed it,"


    "This entire place was hidden behind the waterfall, and the carving skill that went into making this place is excellent for a surface civilization," she said happily looking around and dragging Lirian with her.


    They heard a couple of shouts coming from ahead and when they arrived at the scene of the commotion they saw that part of the ceiling had caved in trapping someone and blocking of the main pathway.


    ''This is actually expected,'' Lirian thought, ''These tunnels are extremely old, the fact that they are still standing is incredible, but after the earthquake the falling drake caused this entire structure is now unstable.''


    Many people had gathered up down here so Lirian felt that it time to make an announcement.


    When Lirian cleared his throat everyone stopped and looked at him, they figured that he''d have something to say.


    To their surprise Lirian only spoke in a level tone, he didn''t want to be to loud, even sound waves could make the structure crumble.


    "Firstly I want all of you to understand that this structure is extremely unstable, so we''ll be limiting the number of people that can enter at one time, but we will rotate a schedule so that everyone can have a chance,"


    "Secondly our expedition is now an absolute success, we have found something with historical value so all of you can look forward to having a ton of points so long as you didn''t do anything to earn a demerit,"


    "Thirdly as I''m sure all of you have noticed there is girl trapped in another corridor," he said to all of them then he faced the area the girl was in.


    "Tell me your name, class and your current condition," he said quickly, if he wanted to get the girl out he needed to be quick and concise.


    "My name is Kana, I''m in class 7-M, and I''m not injured, but the space caved in on both sides and I only have a small space to move in, also it''s getting hard to breathe in here," she added doing her best to hide her panic.


    "Alright then," Lirian said turning back to the crowd, "Anyone here friends with Kana?"


    There were at least a dozen people that stepped forward, "Okay Edith select two of them to stay here with her," Lirian said.


    "I''d suggest that the most talkative of you should stay here to keep her company while we come up with a plan, as for the rest of you, I''m sure you heard that girl can hardly breathe so lets get out of here and give her some room."


    ---


    An hour quickly passed in the commanders tent where they decided how to sort it out, and Lirian has the urge to smash in the brains of a warrior from his class, Lucas Kluts, who seemed to think that using brute force to smash the place was the only solution.


    He could have sworn that Lucas was not such an idiot when they first met.


    He cleared out the room and had Hinata stay behind, he had an idea of why she came up with that plan to get everyone to the ledge during the beast attack but he had to act like it wasn''t true and instead he decided to reward her.


    "Your plan to push the beasts of the ledge was inspirational, so I''ve decided to upgrade your role from being my body guard, from now on you''ll be a field captain, you''ll have the right to command up to a hundred students and you''ll get all the perks as well."


    Hinata looked surprised as her eyes landed on Edith, she would have expected the spoiled noble girl to claim the credit so that she could show off to her new boyfriend, she was used to such things happening and found it hard to believe.


    But contrary to Edith''s expectation Hinata didn''t seem happy, because this meant that she wouldn''t be able to stick as close to Lirian as possible but offered a quick word of thanks and turned to leave.


    Just as she reached the exit Lirian decided that he should use his system to scan her and well everyone else around him for that matter, Mordred had given him a shock today and he didn''t want any more surprises.


    In the next instant he clutched onto the table in complete disbelief, with his entire body trembling violently.


    It wasn''t her accumulated fate particles that surprised him, although for a commoner it was unbelievable that it was 3 million, but in the next second he saw the reason.


    That familiar sign was there she was heaven chosen, but he couldn''t believe what he was seeing.


    In all his lives the highest boon he had ever seen was ¡Á7, which was why when he saw his own as ¡Á10 he thought it was the highest it could possibly be, yet when he looked at her he thought that the system was making a mistake but it remained clear as day.


    She was heaven chosen and she held a boon of (¡Á1000 fate particles)


    A/N: please read the author''s thoughts it''s important.

 Chapter 153 - 153 – The Lady With A Script 1

    A/N: to anyone that didn''t read the authors thoughts of the previous chapter, you should know that the next 8-10 chapters will not be focused on Lirian but on another set of characters in the world, all of this is super important to the plot and will tie into the current events of the story, I hope you enjoy it, I did my best to make it as fun as possible.


    -----------------


    Alrighty then, you don''t know me¡­ yet.


    Well not that I''m super important, but what I can tell you is that my family is.


    First thing about my family that you need to know is that we have a special rule¡­ well its not so much a rule for the members but one for those in my position.


    By the name of all vengeful gods out there I curse them for tricking me into this position, well not that I can blame them, all my predecessors were tricked into this position¡­


    How do I know that you might ask, well the answer is related to the special rule, and it it''s going to be a whopper because I bet you that none of you have ever heard of a family having such a rule.


    Well here goes I''m going to tell you the rule,


    Follow the script.


    Oh yeah, you just read that right, and you probably don''t even know what it means, but yes that''s the motherfucking rule, that is the bane of my existence.


    When I want to go against the script it flashes it''s words in my minds eye.


    ''Just do it, seriously just stick to the script.''


    That''s what it tells me, then when I begin to doubt the script it has something to say.


    ''All will go well if you follow the script,''


    And I know it''s stupid, but I always follow the script, and all has seemingly gone well.


    ---


    Let''s jump ahead a little.


    It was a nice day when I was reading the script, and in the script and went out for a little stroll, when I say little stroll, I mean I went to the this war zone in the old Golgoth empire, it''s a resource rich planet and there are like a dozen different factions fighting over it.


    So I figured that I could stretch my lovely long legs out here, you''re probably thinking that I''m conceited for saying this but I''m a beauty like no other.


    I have an ass that every men and women wants to grab, and breasts that can turn a 100 000-year-old men in to breast suckling toddlers, just wait until I walk onto a battlefield and you''ll see my effect.


    I just need to stand in the field and all the fighting will come to a stop as the soldiers mouths begin to foam and froth, and their eyes contract with unbridled desire, it just makes killing them that much easier, not that it would be any trouble for me.


    Beauty is a weapon and so many women just fail to use it properly, but well I''m an exception.


    I jumped from outside the atmosphere and went free falling onto the planet, I enjoyed the warm flames that licked me all over as I created a burning stream across the skies and soon landed not even bothering to break my fall.


    ''Thirty feet, huh, I hoped it would be more'', I thought as I climbed out of the crater I made and took my first look at the world around me.


    It was a lovely area that I landed in with lush green trees and soft grass that rolled out over the ground, unfortunately there seemed to be no life around this area, ''Well what can I expect after crashing into this lovely space and making a racket.


    ''It''s such a pity that I didn''t land in some battlefront, it would have made for a spectacular landing, and when I climbed out of the crater, the soldiers would have all come running to me as they admired my beauty, then they would have all died with lovely smiles on their faces when I snapped my fingers.''


    I strolled through the shade of the trees on the forest, it wasn''t like the sun would cause me any trouble, but there was just something magical about walking in the shade of a forest.


    But as I enjoyed my time in here I saw something, something that I could not resist.


    In a little clearing, there was a massive phallic shaped rock.


    Now listen here I know what you''re thinking right about now, so I''m going to tell you this only once get your mind out of the gutter.


    As I looked upon this rock I had no choice but to approach, ''Why you ask,'' well get used to hearing this reasoning, it''s because it was in the script, and I already told you the special rule.


    Follow the script.


    It wasn''t my first time seeing such an object, in truth you''ll be amazed to find out just how many naturally occurring penis shaped objects exist in the universe and believe me I know.


    It''s right here in the script if you don''t believe me, all my predecessor had come across such objects in their travels, and why was it all recorded in the scripts well that''s because of one of the instructions in the script.


    ''If you ever see a phallic shaped object in nature, climb it and sit on the very top of it for twelve days and nights, if you need to forget that you''re sitting on a penis, just imagine that you sitting beneath a bodhi tree.''


    At times like that I swear it''s like the script is trying to be funny but I''m not amused, and I don''t know what a bodhi tree is, but I know that it had some relation to one of those old schools of spirituality, I believe the people that spoke of such trees were called monks.


    ---


    Twelve days slowly passed with me sitting on this dumb rock that was sticking in my ass by now, I know that as a great seventh-grader with a perfect second accord Pugilists technique I aught to have learned about some patience but I can''t stand doing this any longer.


    Just as I was getting ready leave this place and have my fun that I originally came here for in the first place something happened, something that can only be called weird.


    A man came falling from the sky, nope not a bird and certainly not a plain, a man, but he wasn''t flying he was free falling.


    He definitely didn''t come from outside the atmosphere he was leaving no trail behind him, and I could see nothing flying above him that could have dropped him off.


    Did he teleport?, he must be someone important to know such a technique, but as I inspected him, I realized something, he was a 100% mortal, without a shred of world energy inside of him.


    That''s when I noticed something else that didn''t seem odd at first, but now that I knew he was mortal, I looked at his face only to find that he had an expression of absolute calmness.


    If he were a cultivator, it would be fine but at this rate he''d just fall down and go splat against the ground, there would be a mush meat paste that scavengers would be happy to eat.


    Which is why his calmness made me wonder if he was brain dead or something, that''s when he spun in the air, he didn''t slow down but, now his head was facing the ground.


    If he hit the ground his brains were going to pop out and spill everywhere like a pi?ata, I really wanted to catch him, don''t get me wrong I don''t care if he dies, but I just want to know why he''s so calm in the face of such danger.


    But that''s when the script showed itself in my minds eye, telling or rather warning me not to catch him.


    As I sat there watching, I remembered parts of the script from when I read ahead, it mentioned this part of the event, I remember it clearly, but hell I don''t know how I ever forgot, this is what we''ve been waiting for, all of us who''ve sat on phallic shaped rocks, have been waiting for such a scene.


    I swear I hate this fucking script, its drive me mad, I read ahead but I can never remember what I read until it''s happening, I don''t get to dwell much on that blasted script, because that''s when I noticed that man''s trajectory change just slightly.


    But that slight change sends him directly at me, I want to reach out and catch him but the scripts warns me not to, I know I hate it too, but what can I do, good things happen when I follow the script.


    I don''t know how the next part happened it was like his head was attracted to my pretty head because suddenly his head crashed into mine, it hardly counted as an itch to me, but I could hear the mans skull cracking.


    That''s when the script told me I could catch him, and so I did before his skulled popped I wouldn''t want his guts to mess my lovely dress.


    It was an odd first meeting, and he was the mortal boy, I would come to regard as an equal, by all rights I should have called him master after all that he would teach me, but no way was I going to call a young man master.


    Especially after the way he insulted me before he left, I swear if I ever see him again, I''m going to pop open his lovely face and scope out his brains.


    ''His name was Lucian..''


    ''Lucian Vizsalis''

 Chapter 154 - 154 – The Lady With A Script 2

    The man was hurt pretty badly, so I did the only thing I could I tended to his wounds.


    Don''t tell that to anyone that knows me, they''ll start saying a prayer to the gods for the poor mans soul, pugilists aren''t exactly known for their gentle and tender hands, but I read the script and somehow I knew exactly what to do.


    As I looked at him, I thought it would be a pity if he died, he did have a lovely face and a body that could handle any woman, his head might be empty but at least he''s pretty.


    I wrapped his head in a bandage after I put the cracked bones of his skull in place, it was a strange experience I usually do the cracking part, I never thought about the undoing part.


    His hair was a deep and dark crimson, but it was only like that when the sun shone on it, the rest of the time it looked as black as the abyss, as I went down to open his eyes, the blasted script suddenly stopped me.


    I swear it''s a bitch, I do everything it tells me to do but I can''t do as I please, but of course I follow it like always, ''What''s so special about his eyes anyway,'' I thought with a shrug.


    A week slowly passed by as I nursed this strange boy or should I say man to a healthy state as he roused from his week long slumber I looked forward to seeing those eyes that the script warned me against opening, but as he got up he kept his eyes shut.


    ''Oh, come on,'' I wanted to scream, ''Show this lovely lady your eyes, it''s the least you could do after someone as beautiful as myself healed you, if other men learned of this they''d wage a war against you for resting your head on my succulent lap,'' she wanted to scream but the script hung its words in my mind.


    ''Just follow the script.''


    I hung my head low as I watched the man he was facing me with his eyes held tightly closed, which drove me even more mad and it appeared that he had no intention of opening them anytime soon.


    ''Seriously just follow the script.''


    I forced my self not to call the script a hundred curse''s that I invented and waited for the man to speak, the script said that he''d go first.


    Sure, enough only seconds passed, and he began to speak.


    "Hello my name is Lucian¡­," he said in a deep and powerful voice and paused while tapping his chin as if he was pondering on something deeply, "That''s right my full name is Lucian Vizsalis, it''s been a while since I last introduced myself I almost forgot," he said in an amused tone.


    ''What?'' was all I could think, why is his voice so dreamy and what is up with him speaking like he is old and aged, he has no cultivation so he can''t be that old, I''d say 25 years at best, well with how chiselled and in shape his body is, I suppose he could have slowed the aging by a decade so maybe thirty but no older.


    I wanted to scream out my question, mainly because of the this forsaken script that kept telling me not to say anything, I had a hundred questions I wanted to ask this man, like are you single? even if you aren''t I don''t mind having a once of thing, and why is your voice so amazing? Also how did you fall from the sky?


    But I just couldn''t and hey if your annoyed by this script, then welcome to an ounce of my world because I''ve been living with this since that old foggy mentor of mine tricked me into picking up her mantel.


    It''s been like 5000 years since then and I don''t even have a successor in mind to give this cursed script too.


    Then I heard him speaking again but this time his words were still dreamy but well they were rigid and stiff, like he was some sort of amateur actor wait scratch that because the way he was speaking would make amateur actors look like pro''s.


    "You have saved my life," he said in a powerful and booming voice with an odd nod of his head, it seemed like he was trying to congratulate me for saving him, ''Wait was he trying to kill himself is that why he was so calm in the face of becoming meat splatter?''


    "For saving my life I shall reward you¡­" he seemed to suck in a deep breath and his entire body was shaking as the next words left his mouth, "I shall teach you the sacred art of spell weaving that comes from my world," his voice was so stiff and rigid and it seemed like he was being forced to shove those word out of his mouth.


    I couldn''t help but think that his actions were oddly familiar but I couldn''t place where I saw such behaviour, but most of all I just wanted to burst out laughing, a mere ordinary mortal, thinks that he can teach me something.


    I want to berate him for being so audacious, if he knew my identity he''d be grovelling on his knees for my forgiveness, but the script flashed again.


    ''Just follow the god damn script.''


    ''Huh'', I looked at the words in surprise that''s a new response, I''ve never seen or read of it getting exasperated with my predecessors.


    I looked at Lucian Vizsalis curiously, wondering why the script was suddenly being so adamant, it''s like it desperately wants this to go well, and wants absolutely no room for things to faulter, but I can''t help but notice that Lucians eyes are still shut tight, this curiosity is killing me.


    ''For the sake of all gods, FOLLOW THE SCRIPT!''


    ''Holy cows,'' the script is totally getting worked up.


    ''Remember good things happen when you follow the script.''


    I sighed in defeat as much as I want to satiate my curiosity I have to follow the script.


    That was when Lucian said something that I almost instinctively rejected.


    "If I am to teach of spell weaving child, then I must ask you draw me my way lines, in exchange I will tell you a secret of what you call the third accord," I could hear it in his voice the man was struggling not to grind his teeth to dust as he spoke and I can see why he''d be unwilling to say such words.


    If I were not so magnanimous I would have killed him on the spot for saying things, I am shocked that a child knows about waylines after all they are the secret to merging two centres of power together.


    I know that I have the ingredients on me, the script told me to keep three sets on me, but the ingredients aren''t exactly easy to obtain, with the six great civilizations holding such a tight monopoly over them.


    Him knowing about waylines is already insane, but now he claims to know about the secrets of the third accord, that even people from the immortal realm hadn''t fully grasped, it is just ridiculous.


    But most importantly did he just call me little child, he should know that I was around when his Vizsalis family didn''t even exist, after all I know all the powers in the mortal realm, so he has to be from some new up and coming family.


    Just as I planned to deny his request I surprised my self, "Yes I shall draw your waylines for you," I said in a tone even stiffer than his, as I wanted to cry out in outrage.


    I assume you can guess by now why I agreed, it''s that mother fucking script, and from his reaction I can tell that he is just as surprised as I am for agreeing to his request.


    Something fishy is going on over here and I just can''t place my finger on what it is.


    Once I said the words he got to his feet and still he kept his eyes shut tight, and began to remove all of his clothing, it wasn''t my first time seeing his naked body after all, he would be stinking like crap by now had I not washed him while he was asleep.


    But now I got to enjoy a little strip show of my own, but I quickly pouted, this man had he opened his eyes to see my body he would have done everything in his power to give me a good long strip show to entice me, but since he hadn''t even snuck a peep at me, he removed his clothes in seconds and sat back down.


    It was time for me to begin no matter how unwilling I am, I do not know how to deny the script, it was probably the same for all my predecessors and it will be no different for my successor.

 Chapter 155 - 155 – Secrets Of The Third Accord

    A/N: big info dump chapter, you''ve been warned.


    ---------------


    I stepped up to him and walked a few laps around him allowing my energy to flow into the world and form the energy rings.


    "Which set of waylines do you want, a pugilist''s, a saint''s, or a warlock''s," I asked him in a sour tone, I still couldn''t believe what I was about to do.


    I was going to waste a valuable set of ingredients on this audacious child.


    He seemed to hesitate with his answer, but I understood why in the next instant, "All of them," he said at barely a whisper.


    I felt my entire body jerk forward and my heart jumped to my throat, if I do this the elders in the family are going to be so mad, but I had no choice it was in the script I had to agree.


    I probably released a bit of killing intent because he quickly began to speak, and what he told me completely blew my mind away.


    "I promised you knowledge of the third accord," Lucian cried out to me he had already exposed himself and opened his energy points so he had no choice but to divulge these secrets at first I expected to hear a bunch of crap, but then he got started and I knew that even immortals would kill for this knowledge.


    And so, he began to tell me things that would change my understanding of cultivating for ever.


    "There are four know techniques that people use to enter into the third accord, however two of them create false espers, one of them creates apostles, and one of them enables one to pursue godhood."


    Let start of from the first accord, it has three focuses, namely warriors, mages, and psychics, and each focus has five stages, elementary, basic, intermediate, advanced and perfected, the stages depend on how many energy points we open, the number of energy points used is respective to the stage 4, 6, 8, 10, 12.


    But as we know each focus has 36 energy points, however the first accord limitations stops us from creating techniques that use more than 12 energy points for a single technique.


    This is where the first accord and second accord meet.


    To achieve the second accord there are 3 fundamental requirements, the first is to have two perfect first accord techniques with excellent synergy, this lays the foundation to create a second accord technique.


    However an elementary second accord technique requires 32 open energy points, 16 on each focus.


    And that''s where the second requirement comes in, the Amatesh Spindling, it''s the main ingredient that creates the waylines joining the points of the two focuses.


    Finally you use the 24 energy points of the two perfected first accord techniques as a foundation to build your 32 energy point second accord technique, by breaking this barrier you can use up to 24 energy points from each focus.


    Now we can start with the second accord, it is comprised, of Pugilist, Saints and Warlocks, and they too have five stages, elementary, basic, intermediate, advanced, and perfected, with the respective energy point allocation of 32, 36, 40, 44, 48.


    This is where we look at the 4 third accord techniques that I mentioned earlier and we''ll start with the most basic of them.


    The first technique is done by most ordinary people that don''t have any reference on how to achieve the next level, they use the waylines to join all three focus''s of the first accord, this does give them a great boost in power, that can contend with second accord combatants, however every time they use this power they deplete their life force, those that use this method to gain power, are lucky to live to 50 000 years and will never become an immortal.


    The second technique is most commonly used to complete the process of becoming an immortal, when one enters the second accord only two centres of power can achieve the immortal realm while the third centre of power, that is from the first accord cannot make that break through.


    In this case the cultivator will use their second accord source and create a wayline linking to the first accord centre of power and they will create a technique that uses their second accord source to grow their first accord centre of power.


    ---


    A/N: This technique is what Anya uses, she is a saint which mean she lacks powerful mana, however her bloody world currents, are born from her mixing her saint slaughter energy into her mana pool.


    ---


    This brings us to the third method, the method that turns a cultivator into an apostle.


    In general when someone uses two second accord techniques from different focus''s for example, a saint technique and a warlock technique, it strains the overlapping energy centre which is the mind and kills the cultivator, this however can be avoided it someone obtains a gods breath, the gods breath remove the strain and allows one become their apostle.


    However, this technique does have a drawback, an apostle can break the barrier of immortals, to become a lesser god, however they will gain no more power, they will never be an equal to a true god and they become servants of the god whose breath they used.


    Then there is the last technique, the true technique, which is to create balance between the three focus''s of the second accord, and cultivate a warlock, saint, and pugilist technique, it is the most difficult challenge for any cultivator.


    It requires every energy point to be used twice, just to establish the foundation of the third accord technique.


    Then a material only found in the immortal realm called ''Amatesh Shards'' has to be used to draw the waylines joining the three focuses of the second accord together, a minimum of 72 energy points is used to create the foundation of the third accord esper technique.


    Esper techniques don''t have specific focuses as they are all encompassing, while they do enhance all three centres of power, they can focus on specific areas.


    Esper techniques do possess, different stages just like all the other accords, elementary, basic, intermediate, advanced and perfected, requiring 84, 90, 96, 102, and lastly 108 energy points, pushing the cultivator to the absolute limit.


    When Lucian finished explaining I had been completely absorbed by his words, how does he know such things, I couldn''t imagine, and as much as I wanted to asked him, I knew that I had already learned a secret that was worth quintillions of these ingredients to create the waylines.


    I had no idea how to quantify the value of what he told me, I now realise that the reason he seemed reluctant to say anything to me wasn''t because he was asking for a lot, it was because even if I offered all things in the mortal realm to him, it simply wasn''t worth the value of what he told me.


    My road until this point had been the second technique which was what would create a true immortal, but is what Lucian called a false esper technique, so I looked at the script in my head and cried out a hundred praises to its greatness, thanks to the script I didn''t kill him, or make him hate me, and look at what I got a gift like no other.


    I went to him eagerly, and took all three sets of ingredients, it was just as he said, the Amatesh Spindles were the main ingredient, it was fine purplish thread, thinner than a hair by a thousand times, yet it was tougher than mithril.


    As I brought it to his body the tread reached out and coiled around his open energy points, and it was then that I got another shock of my life, this man all 108 of his energy points were completely open.


    Even at my age I still had 14 to go, and each one got only harder to open, looking at him I couldn''t help but feel envy, there was something special about his body that I didn''t understand, but today was the day on which I was truly learning about things I did not understand.


    I had no right to ask anything of him, and for this first time I didn''t need the script to remind me to follow it, and so I began the process.


    I planned to take some time, we usually draw waylines over the course of six months, it''s a painful process like no other, and we don''t add more than an inch at a time, because of his desire to draw it for all three of his energy centre''s it should have taken 18 months almost a full year to complete, however as I stitched it into his body, he released a grunt in complaint at most.


    I could hardly believe it, the first time I had mine drawn, I couldn''t move for a week and I wanted to quite being a cultivator, and to my surprise within 36 hours I had completely drawn the waylines and I watched as the fine purple thread sunk into his skin.


    Then I stepped back watching him carefully and bowed my head, from what he had told me what choice did I have but to show my utmost respect, he might be a mortal and I a seventh grade pugilist, but it was clear in my eyes, who the true superior existence was.


    I couldn''t begin to imagine what he had gone through to learn such secrets, and yet he had given them to me a complete stranger, but I had to admit one thing, something about all of this was fishy, I just couldn''t place my finger on it.


    A/N: check the comments there is a diagram of how the accords and focuses relate

 Chapter 156 - 156 – A Moment Of Causality

    Lucian remained fixed in place for the next three days after I created his waylines.


    I assumed that he was in pain, waylines could break the spirits of even the toughest of people, but it seemed that he only felt an annoying pain throughout his body.


    I watched him breathe and with every breath he took the energy of the world stirred.


    It was then that I noticed he began to cultivate, I couldn''t tell what technique it was, no one is capable of doing that, but as I watched I could feel the energy gathering around 72 of his energy points.


    As I looked deeper I was able to tell that he was doing exactly as he said, he was balancing a pugilist, warlock and saint technique, I could hardly imagine how he managed it.


    Just balancing the conversion of energy of a single perfect technique was enough to make my mind go blank, yet he was using 72 energy points, each of them were activated twice, then the points where the waylines intersected were being activated at the same time putting a strain on his body and the waylines, yet he balanced it perfectly.


    In total he was activating his points 216 times, he was double activating 24 energy points on every first accord centre of power, his mind, body and mana, which counts as 144 activations, then he activated, the 24 wayline intersection points of each focus of the second accord, his pugilists flame, saints grace, and warlocks heart, which counts as 72 activations.


    And I thought that splitting my mind to activate 72 points was difficult, I utilize 24 energy points of only two first accord focuses, my mana and body, which counts as 48 activations, then I activate the intersecting waylines for my pugilist technique which is an additional 24 energy points.


    Three days later I felt the energy change in the world around me and that''s when I realized that he had broken all three barriers of the first grade, making him a first grade cultivator of the second accord, but he was truly unique, because he had entered the first grade, as a warlock, saint and pugilist, all at the exact same time.


    Not to mention that he did it in just three days.


    I looked up waiting for the tribulation clouds to form, I was expecting something major to happen after what he just achieved, but the sky remained clear as I looked at him I noticed that he was also frowning as if this was unexpected.


    "Do you know why the tribulation isn''t happening?" I ask, for once the script is no longer shushing me, but as I think certain thoughts it seems to warn me against voicing them.


    I guess that I have nothing to complain about now, the script did say, ''Follow the script and good things will happen,'', and boy did something amazing happen to me, it''s even better than a miracle happening, I just gain some truly useful knowledge.


    Lucian nodded his head at my question, however his eyes remained tightly shut, "I have an idea," he admitted but said no more and began to move his hands around in the air, he was familiarising himself with his new body.


    I knew that feeling well, after ascending in life hierarchy I felt like I was reborn and my entire body felt like it had been remade and filled with power that could challenge the world, in those first moments after the ascension I''d feel like I was unbeatable, and that''s when the tribulation would come in to clear my arrogant thoughts, and remind me of my weakness.


    Yet looking at him, he was the embodiment of calmness, his movement seemed full of purpose as if he was examining the world around him, that was when his face contorted into a frown.


    "Is something wrong?" I asked him, if you ask me the only thing wrong was the fact that he was getting dressed and covering himself up. ''Is he frowning because I not telling him to remain naked,'' I thought with a naughty grin on my face, but it was wasted on him.


    ''Did I mention that his eyes are still tightly shut.''


    He seemed to ponder on my question deeply, and as he was about to speak, he stopped, I could see it from his expression, he looked annoyed almost as if he couldn''t say what he wanted to, ''Why does that seem so familiar to me?''


    "Where are we?" he asked eventually with a pondering face.


    His question only surprised me for a bit, and that is when I remembered that he seemed to appear from nowhere straight out of the sky, so seeing that the script had no problems with me answering him I told him, I was interested in what he would think of what I told him, after all, he did appear to be a puny mortal.


    "We are currently in a war zone on a resource rich planet of the fallen Golgoth empire called Telenor," I told him, but his brows only narrowed at my response.


    "Is there any thing significant about this world?" he asked me.


    "Nothing really, it was just a resource planet belonging to an advanced-world, the last members of the family recently died so now half the factions in this sector are fighting over it," I said explaining it in a simple way.


    That answer however made his brows look like they were about to become one and his frown only grew.


    "If there is nothing important about this place then it seems that we are going to become the trigger for something¡­" he paused as if he didn''t know the right words, "Monumental, is too small to describe what is going to happen here, the things that I feel here are going to change, no already changing the entire universe" he said solemnly.


    Coming from a puny mortal, it sounded like some made up nonsense to me, but then didn''t I think the same when he told me of the third accord.


    "How do you know that?" I swear that I wanted to take him seriously, but well I couldn''t see something so big happening here, I think at most we could take out all the factions here, and I''d take it for my family, but, I didn''t care for the resource found here all that much, it would cost more to escort the resources away, then it was worth.


    I could see him curling his fingers in the air as if he was grabbing tightly onto something but there was only empty air around him, "Fate and time are in constant flux in this place," he said carefully.


    "And we are caught up in its unbreakable web as it wraps tightly around this place, there are so many streams that are converging here," his voice trembled, and I half thought that he was insane, fate and time are extreme laws.


    "So, you know how to use fate and time laws?" I asked in an amused tone.


    "No," he replied strongly, "But yes once upon a time a very long time ago, of my 33 paths, you could say that I was the first to become a master of fate, and well time, she was kind of an enemy, but that was so very long ago," he whispered with a look of reminiscence on his face.


    Once more I wondered what was wrong with this young man, my every sense was identifying his cells to belong to a young man, while there was a mysterious power in his cells that I didn''t understand I knew he was young, ''So why does he keep speaking like he is an old and ancient being?''


    "So are you saying that what happens here will effect the future in a drastic way?" I ask once more I do like that dreamy deep voice of his even if his every other word is confusing.


    "Fate knows only the past and the future, it cares little for what we call the present, to fate the present is non-existent,"


    "But time is here to and, nothing cares for the present like time does, for the present is weaved from the past and future,"


    "Fate despise time for it''s fixation on the present, and yet right now they are working together in perfect harmony,"


    "Do you realise what this means?" he asked as he strolled up to me getting in my face and taking a deep sniff of my many perfumes.


    His actions took me by surprise, but I was completely baffled, I had no idea what he was talking about.


    After all I''m a pugilist, we don''t do the whole think and act thing very well, if you want us to destroy stuff just point the way, you can leave discipline things to saints and all that smarty pants stuff to warlocks.


    "If time and fate would actually work together in this moment, it means that something very, very important is going to happen here, that will determine the causality of the world, and if things don''t go exactly as they are supposed to go in this moment, everything as you know it will vanish from existence, you may never ever be born, hack your ancestors may never even exist in the first place," he told me with such solemnness that it was hard to think him mad, but I still had no idea what he was saying.


    "Since fate has chosen to put it''s difference''s with time to the side, it means that the present is the most important point in time,"


    "Because the present will create the past, a past that will create the present we exist in and reinforce the future,"


    "So tell me little girl what is your name?"


    I didn''t know what to think at that moment, because I saw something unbelievable in the script, his words, his every word, it was there in the script, the script that guided every matriarch and patriarch of my family.


    I didn''t even have the ability to get angry at him for what he just said, I could feel the gravity of his words, I know that the script has never lied so I read ahead and told him my name.


    "My name is Morgana,"


    "Morgana Pendragon."

 Chapter 157 - 157 – Spell Weaving

    I don''t know if you''ll understand, but what just happened, is impossible.


    The script it records and guides the matriarchs and patriarchs of the Pendragon line, only the patriarchs and matriarchs it can''t hold the words of anyone else.


    The script appears before my mind once more and there I can see, it''s right there clear as day, our whole conversation is there, I''ve read it before, but I just can''t remember until it happens.


    I had been taking note of his odd behaviour this entire time, and now I see why it''s so reminiscent, it reminds me of myself he''s bound to the script just like me.


    But that should be impossible if two people could be bound to the script, I would have caught that old foggy, the previous matriarch my mentor and forced her to bear this burden with me, I''m sure my predecessors would have done the same to their old mentors.


    As I look through the extract, I''m truly amazed, I thought the script was exasperated with me, but there are entire pages of it dedicated to cursing and insulting Lucian, at some point the script was even begging him and throwing a tantrum for him to follow it.


    ''No wonder his eyes are shut!''


    It''s right here in the script it keeps telling him to not look at me, to not look anywhere, but when I think of speaking to him about the script the script warns me against it.


    That''s when I remembered what Lucian said, everything has to go perfectly or everything will cease to be, and it''s written here in the script.


    ''By the gods! Is this the reason the scripts seem like it suddenly has anxiety, is it leading everything to make sure that the whole universe as I know it doesn''t vanish.''


    ''I fully believe in you script I will follow you to the end, yes if I follow the script good things will happen, and the universe not disappearing sounds like a very good thing,'' so I tell myself, feeling a little nervous, my stomach has not churned so much since¡­ well since I first got this crazy script.


    I can''t figure out how he is linked to the script but since the script shows me no indication to ask such a question I will follow its will.


    ''The script knows best.''


    I read the most recent line of the script, ''It seems that it''s starting to grow an ego, I''ll have to fix that up when this whole crazy situation comes to an end.


    As I look at his thoughtful face, I think that he''s realised the same thing, we are both linked to the script, I can''t believe that this crazy thing would be useful at a time like this, it drove my predecessors crazy, well all except the founder.


    Arthur Pendragon he''s the founder of my family, the one who journeyed with the great diviner Quaria and conquered the mortal plains. He wrote the script with the help of the mother of the six civilizations Quaria.


    "Well then little child, it is time that I give you what I promised, I shall teach you the art of my world spell weaving," he told me and got up making his way into the shaded area.


    "I''m a pugilist, casting spells, isn''t exactly my speciality," I tell him.


    Pugilist are a little different from the other two second accord classes, by that I mean that we don''t dedicate our selves to the study of the laws, warlocks study the natures of the universe and use its laws to power their spells, and saints study the laws of weapons and martial arts.


    Pugilist''s however do not enhance their mind like the other two classes, we instead create a powerful body and infuse high levelled elements into our bodies.


    The perk of this is that our growth in power can exceed all other classes, because if we happen to consume a high levelled element from the immortal realm, we''d be able to use realm breaking powers, of course the draw back would be that it consumes to much energy.


    The other problem is that even with the best techniques we can only hold up to three elements in our body, I myself have only two, fire and earth, I''m waiting to find a powerful spatial energy to use as my third.


    As a pugilist the focus of my path is to channel the world energy through the powerful body I created, and unleash the raw power of the high levelled elements on my enemies.


    All of those sophisticated spells are meant for warlocks.


    "Spell weaving is a sacred art of my home world, it''s not difficult to learn, in fact so long as one can use the energy of the world they can use the art of spell weaving."


    "The technique isn''t anything revolutionary, however it has great uses to those of the first accord that are not mages, and in the second accord it''s uses are only heightened in the hand of a pugilist for pugilist hold the most energy of all,"


    "But the main reason that it is so good for a pugilist is because pugilist tend to lack in one area and that is long range attacks, a pugilist is most deadly when they are up close to their opponent, and well warlocks are slippery and saints are graceful in their movements, it makes it hard for a pugilist to contend with them."


    He started to lecture me on the flaws of a pugilist, seriously if he wants to test out his theories I''ll be more than happy to rough him up and show him how amazing a pugilist can be.


    Spell weaving has only two requirements, energy and knowledge of the elements.


    He slowly spread his arms out wide and brought them around in deliberately slow circles, I could tell that he was doing it like that to teach me.


    "Fire is a form of energy, and so to is lightning," he said slowly and as he slowly began to move around twisting his body, in what seemed to be a kata form I saw it thousand upon thousands of little strands forming around his body.


    They looked white like silk and spread all around him touching the atoms, and in those strands I could sense the fire and lightning he spoke of.


    "With energy we can alter all things, we can reshape the universe as we see fit," he said confidently.


    I focused my eyes, and looked at the atoms the threads held onto, it was just small particles of dust, mainly nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, the threads touched the nucleus of the elements and released streams of energy, completely rearranging the composition of the elements.


    The elements he just touched had all been turned into oxygen and he did it so effortlessly, I just watched him do nuclear transmutation with complete ease, he wasn''t lying at all, all that he did was use raw energy, and if I watched him correctly he used his pugilist abilities to use the world energy instead of his own, it was simply ingenious.


    "Composition of the elements and energy are key, however that is just the beginning."


    "Under the influence of spell weaving the elements of nature do not exist, fire is simply energy, wind is merely the by product brought about by the change in temperature and pressure, water and earth are merely tools to be transmuted."


    I watched as he created a thread that carried fire and another that carried the earth, and as the two threads came together, boiling hot magma spewed forth, creating a pool of lava in the woods.


    Then I watched as thousands of threads spun around his arm, it was treads that carried fire but as he delivered a punch forward I heard the loud screech of howling wind, if crashed through trees and boulders and ripped the ground apart.


    I was certain that I sensed fire in those threads, yet I saw only wind, ''Yes that was what he meant when he said that wind was a product of heat and pressure, many threads of fire created heat which in turn created pressure,'' I thought excitedly, it was so simple it was brilliant.


    As a broken tree fell into the pool of lava and slowly sizzled away I looked at Lucian with wonder in my eyes, truly the script has come in useful for the first time since its creation.


    Then I could feel the quality of water in the threads and fire as well, then a blade of pressurized water cut through stone and continued deep underground.


    He had just done something that only those that study laws or mages who have memorised spells could do, yet he only used the threads, however the thing that truly stood out to me was the transmutation.


    Then he stopped and began to lecture me on the problems about spell weaving, which quickly dashed my hopes for the uses of transmutation.


    "Transmutation is the first ability that spell weaving grants, however it only works to create ordinary elements, like oxygen, tungsten, silver, etc¡­ however it cannot create graded elements like mithril, orichalcum, charimit¡­etc."


    "It''s probably because while the plain enables spell weaving it doesn''t support it, I imagine that in some past iteration of the plain, it was discovered and deemed useless to further the development of the plain," Lucian said thoughtfully more so to himself.


    "The other draw back is that while it can imitate the effects of laws, it can''t imitate high level elements, this is why it is especially useful for pugilists who have high level elements within their body."


    And so my training began, and for the next three years we remained there training, I had to admit he made the art of spell weaving look easy, but three years later I mastered the new art.


    And so came the time for our farewell.

 Chapter 158 - 158 – Arthur Pendragon

    Lucian sat in silent contemplation, it had been a full three years, since he met Morgana.


    They didn''t speak all that much; it wasn''t because they didn''t want to but the script that warned them against it.


    ''I finally got out of that stuffy throne world, and thought that I''d be able, to move around enjoying my life, and I did just that for 11 years and then that mysterious entity had to pop up in my life,'' he thought with a wistful expression.


    He had been observing the fate and time laws all these years, he expected them to loosen up over time, yet, they were now tighter than ever, ''This definitely has something to do with the script, but what is it, I can''t imagine that something as simple as spell weaving could trigger great change,''


    ''Even if she can somehow adapt spell weaving to the plains laws, and based on the way this woman''s brain works I''d call such a thing divine intervention, I still can''t see it as any form of a trigger for a great change,''


    A sudden avalanche pulled Lucian from his thoughts and forced him to move quickly, as the rocks came crashing down he focused on his troublesome disciple.


    He wanted to open his eyes and stare her down for her sheer stupidity, but this script warned him against it time and time again, for three whole years he had to keep his eyes shut tight.


    ''Does the script think that she is some unbelievable beauty that will make me lose all reason,'' he scoffed at the thought, as if he had seen every kind of beauty there was to be seen, and he''d turned some of them into his personal toys, if this script thought that he couldn''t control himself it was wrong.


    This would make it the 104th time in three years that Morgana didn''t control how much power she used and caused a not so natural disaster.


    ''Well what else can I expect from a muscle brained pugilist, just thinking normally is a problem for them, ask them about the meaning of control and they''ll stare at you with a dumb expression on their face.''


    Lucian stood before his unwilful disciple and had the urge to smack her on her head, but well with a head so thick he figured that he''d be the only one to get hurt.


    He briefly thought of putting her over his lap and swatting her, but my now he learned enough about her to know that she''d only get enjoyment from such punishment.


    She''d take it as encouragement to continue ruining nature.


    Morgana looked at Lucian and bit on her lip, as she examined him, she could hardly believe it but he was almost ready to become a second-grader, after three short years, but most importantly she got a kick from seeing his frustrated expression.


    It served him right for always treating her like some kind off child.


    It was at that moment that Lucian used the one line that always got under her skin and for some reason the script stopped her from retorting whenever he used it.


    "Little child it is time that I test you on your ability to control the threads," he said with a teasing smile.


    Morgana face turned upside down as she wrapped her arms under her breasts and stomped the ground indignantly.


    She looked at Lucian with cold fury as the ground shook all around her.


    ''Little child, how dare he keep calling me that, his hundredth ancestor was nothing but dust when I was born and yet he calls me ''little child'', why do you let him call me that?'' she cried out to the script that offered her no response.


    But she obliged with his request, she had learned a lot from him while she was wilful she wouldn''t be disobedient as a student, she knew that much etiquette.


    She slowly let the threads form around, it wasn''t nearly as good as Lucians control over them, but she could form trillions of threads with ease, it was the difference in energy that that they held, which determined how many threads could be made.


    She went through the kata''s, twisting and turning the threads into a weave, creating and changing the elements, her simple weaves could cause mass destruction, it was all due to the intensity of her energy, a single drop of her energy was as powerful as several thousand drops from Lucian.


    Lucian, followed the threads with his sense, and could hear Morgana dancing through the forms with ease and he could sense the tension in the threads, it wasn''t perfect, but from here on out it would be up to her to improve upon it.


    The only positive thing that he could say about pugilists was that when it came to fighting they were fast learners and they would learn things that could increase their strength at an extraordinary rate.


    "You have learned well over the years," Lucian admitted to her, "There is nothing left for me to teach you in the art of spell weaving, the rest will be up to you."


    Morgana looked at him suddenly, with an unwilling expression, she had a feeling of what was to come, and as the script began to flash before her eyes she knew that this was going to be their farewell.


    Lucian looked at the words in the script that suddenly appeared to him and he was slightly surprised by them but he followed them anyway.


    "I need you to relinquish your link with the script, so that I can read the complete script," he read.


    Morgana was in even more shock than he was, this script it was only meant to be passed on from one leader to the next, giving it to him, would be the same as recognising him as the patriarch of the Pendragon family.


    Yet it was written there in the script, she had to pass it on to him.


    ''Follow the script.''


    The words echoed in her head, and despite being against it, she complied, she had never rebelled against the script. Because she didn''t know how.


    She opened up a special dimensional ring on her finger and from it a book as thick as a column began to emerge, and minutes passed as the book shot forward for miles on end.


    It was the script, a script that guided and recorded the every action of her predecessor''s for 52 billion years.


    She walked up to the script and with a look of wonder as she closed in to the end of it, there were only a few more pages left in the script, ''How could I have forgotten that the script was so close to the end,'' she wondered as she raised her hand over the script and dispelled her control over it.


    Lucian took a deep breath as the knowledge in the script began to flow into is mind, he carefully processed it, it would be a long time before he digested all of it, to much knowledge at once would only cause him trouble.


    Morgana could feel the binding form around him, and slipped the ring of her finger, the ring was made for the script, so it should go to it''s new master.


    But just as she reached forward to pass on the ring a ball of fire came crashing down from the sky, it was powerful, definitely the work of a seventh-grader, she looked at Lucian who was still taking in the knowledge of the script.


    She moved quickly to protect him, it was to late to try stopping the fire, so she did the only thing she could and protected him from the flames.


    ''I can''t believe that I forgot this world was a war zone, even after three years,'' she thought to herself as the forest became engulfed in flames.


    It was then that she remembered something very important, something she had forgotten, "The script!" she shrieked out loud and turned back.


    The 52-billion-year-old record of her family was turned into ash, it had an anti-aging spell on it but what use was that against fire, seventh-grade fire at that. ''By the gods, my ancestors must be rolling over in their graves,'' she thought in a panic then something suddenly occurred to her, ''¡­would they? I read all their stories they hated it just as much as me,'' despite thinking such thought she couldn''t stop herself from trying to scavenge it''s remains.


    "It''s alright," Lucian suddenly said as she began to claw through the ashes. "I got all of it in my head," he said.


    ''That''s right he completed the link so it''s all in his head,'' she thought with relief and turned back to him but then she suddenly stilled¡­


    ¡­it was because of¡­ his eyes, they were now open and she could not believe what she was seeing.


    ''Those eyes, by the gods, it''s just like what was written in the script, it''s exactly like the founding ancestor, Arthur Pendragon,'' she could help but feel startled as she looked at those eyes closely.

 Chapter 159 - 159 – A Meeting After Eons

    Morgana couldn''t believe her eyes as she looked at his, his eyes, they were a completely grey the parts that were supposed to be white were grey as well and at the centre instead of round pupils, his pupils looked like diamonds with four black spots around it.


    He blinked once and his eyes reopened like a normal person at first, but that was when I noticed the second set of eyelids that opened to the sides like a reptile.


    Those were the eyes of a true dragon.


    However, the dragon races, had yellow, red, and blue eyes, in the history of the world there was only one man who ever had grey draconic eyes, the man from the legends, who wielded the sword Excalibur, and stood by Quaria''s side as she painted the universe in her colours, Arthur Pendragon.


    While a million thoughts flashed through Morgana''s head, Lucian was just as perplexed as he looked at Morgana.


    "Why the hell didn''t the script want me to look at you? I''ve seen a billion woman more beautiful than you! In all honesty you could really use some make-up!" he yelled in annoyance, after three years of keeping his eyes shut he was hoping to see some eye candy, but he saw a woman, who could just pass as beautiful, if she used a little make up.


    Talk about a let down of epic proportions, it was like if people kept hyping up sex all your life and then when you finally did it, you didn''t even get to climax, disappointment was an understatement.


    All other thoughts fled Morgana''s mind as the words, ''I''ve seen a billion women more beautiful than you!'', rung in her mind, like a loud drum hammering away in her head.


    "HOW¡­ DARE¡­ YOU!?" she roared like a wild beast, and the veins in her body began to pulse with blue flames, and her brown skin began to harden into unbreakable rock.


    ''So that''s why it didn''t want me to look at her, she probably thinks she is beauty number 1 in the universe,'' he thought with a sigh.


    As she began to charge at him, the last line of the script appeared in his mind, "One page of the script still exists, find it before you leave,'' he said in a hurried voice as she grew closer.


    As soon as Lucian finished speaking the air around him began to ripple, and in the next instant he vanished just like he appeared on that day three years ago.


    Morgana came crashing into the ground where Lirian had vanished from before her very eyes, but it was too late for her to stop her attack.


    In the next moment all the warring factions that had entered that zone were completely eradicated in blinding blue flames and crumbling earth.


    Everything within a 25 mile radius of Morgana had turned into a mess, it was like a huge meteor had crash landed, sweeping everything in its way.


    Morgana huffed loudly in the epicentre of the explosion, "Lucian Vizsalis! One day I''ll find you and break every bone in your body!" she roared at the top of her lungs.


    As she huffed a single piece of paper seemed to have survived the devastation and slowly floated onto her head.


    She snatched it and looked at it in surprise, ''Something actually survived,'' she thought in wonder and read the page.


    [Find the boy who destroyed the core beneath the wing of a drake and give him this page.]


    The rest of the page was blank, but she could tell that it was a special page, after all it survived a full power strike of hers, that left this world with a permanent scar.


    She had released her Hyperion-giant-star flames, yet the page survived.


    As for the message it wasn''t one she hadn''t read before, it was actually the reason behind the rule of how to inherit the Pendragon name.


    A person had to slay a draconic creature of a higher grade than themselves, they couldn''t say how the creature had to be killed for obvious reasons, but once someone fulfilled those lines, big changes would come to the Pendragon family supposedly.


    ''That''s right I''ve been gone for a while, the family is going to wonder what I''ve been up to I didn''t even inform them of what I was up to, and why did I come here in the first place?"


    ''Oh, that''s right it was the script that brought be here, it even decided where we''d go every time I destroyed an area by accident.''


    ''But still that blasted man had best hope that I don''t find him ever again,'' she thought gritting her teeth.


    The thought of what he said was driving her into a frenzy and she soon ruined that entire world and all those on it.


    ---


    On that day reports came in from planet Telenor, some mentioned a crazy beast that slaughtered everything in sight, other reports spoke of a psychotic woman, that tortured every living creature making them hail her as a beauty from the heavens before killing them.


    ---


    The Domain of Pride.


    The Immortal Realm.


    Katerina''s icy blue eyes snapped open and she floated above her throne that was surrounded by concentric layers of stairs.


    Her hall was filled with millions of souls that tirelessly moved about, "Leave," she said simply and quickly the souls began to move out in uniform lines obeyed her command without question.


    She climbed out of her throne and as she took every step down the stairs the strings of fate, that were a million times finer than a strand of hair, rushed forward not allowing her sacred body to be stained by the filthy floor that was cleaner than even the flames of a sun, it wasn''t her doing, fate did it of its own will.


    Fate too caught her flowing black hair that would cascade across the steps, keeping it clean keeping it pure and keeping it perfectly straight.


    As she came to the bottom of the jet black steps she dropped down to her knees and lowered her head all the way to the ground in full prostration, the only thing stopping her from going any lower, was the threads of fate that wouldn''t allow anything to touch her.


    "Great one," she whispered in respect, as the air above her throne began to shimmer, and a blueish mist that was reminiscent of the void appeared on her throne.


    "Great one, if you wish for me to do anything, I''m afraid that my powers are now extremely limited, I''ve pushed my fate particles to the limit," she said in an apologetic voice.


    "Do you think that I am unaware," a majestic and ancient voice answered from the mists. "Today you shall have a single task, however it is not yet time."


    "Now rise, my pride and joy," the entity said in a tone that seemed to convey care, Katerina could not be certain.


    "I have come to create for you a source, how much do you know of the sixth universes history?" the entity asked as she climbed back to her fair feet and gazed upon the blue mists.


    "In the fourteen years since I have returned I struggled to look into that universes past, however, I have learned a few things and I am aware that the one they call Quaria can only be me, does this mean that you will be creating a nexus in time Great One."


    Katerina knew that it was foolish to play with time, but she knew that it wasn''t a complex law, gods considered time spells as parlour tricks, yet they knew better than to play with the causality of time.


    However, if it was the Great One''s will then who had the right to oppose it.


    "When shall we begin?" Katerina asked feeling a bit of anticipation, it had been a long time since she stretched her legs, she dedicated herself, to curing her daughter''s ailment for so long that she had forgotten what it was like to do anything else.


    "Patience my child you will be going but you will not be going alone a diviner always needs a guard," the entity spoke and ripples appeared in the air as a crimson-red haired man suddenly appeared muttering loudly.


    "That woman is absolutely crazy," were the first words he uttered upon arriving at the foot of the stair not even paying attention to where he was.


    "Seriously, we were together for three years and for stating the truth she was ready to kill me, blasted woman didn''t even hold back in that last strike!" he shouted and slowly climbed to his feet.


    He first looked up at the throne not at all surprised by the void like blue mist, "Follow the script and good things will happen!" he muttered in an amused tone, "Sounds like a good rule."


    Then he looked away from the mysterious entity and his eyes fell on what could easily qualify to be the most beautiful woman in existence.


    She was wrapped in threads of fate that made up her clothing, how could fate allow anything other than itself to touch her skin and look at her body, yet when the man''s eyes fell on the woman fate darted away from his gaze, how could it block the view of one it regarded so highly.


    ''Now that''s a freaking beauty,'' he thought until he met those ice cold blue eyes, she didn''t seem to mind him looking at her naked body, but as both their eyes met they stilled in their movements and their breathing came to a halt.


    "Katerina!" Lucian said softly, it was impossible for him to forget those eyes.


    "Killian!" Katerina muttered her gazed fixed tightly on him.


    Hovering over them, the entity watched in silence, the entity already knew what would happen, but it had to play out first.

 Chapter 160 - 160 – Ella

    Lucian felt lost in his thoughts, as he remembered the life of Killian, of the time that Katerina accepted him, when no one else did.


    He thought of all the time they spent together, wrapped in each other''s arms and they would, slowly whisper their secrets, and their fears to each-other.


    Most of all was when they''d share their stories with each-other, they were both so extremely old, she was older though, the eternals reincarnation process was different from his, he would go to sleep for ages before returning, while for them the time lost was the journey from one plain to the next.


    He remembered every shared story, and every time they cried about the hardships they had faced to grow stronger.


    There were so many good memories, most of all was when she gave birth to their daughter Ella.


    But then there was that one memory that turned all those moments of joy into a living hell, he felt his eyes well up with tears as he looked at her but just a quickly he hardened his heart as he looked at her.


    Katerina breathed out softly, as she looked at a version of the man she had loved like no other before.


    A hint of a warm smile formed on her lips as she looked at Lucian, but a look of solemn calmness replaced the look on her face as she gazed at him.


    "For you not to attack me on sight, you can''t be one of the normal versions of yourself, you must be either Kallidin or Lucian," she stated in a knowing tone.


    "But based on those eyes, I can only assume that you''re Lucian, the one who was two, the one that has two voices in his head," she said in a matter of fact tone.


    Lucian couldn''t help but lower his gaze, she truly knew him better than anyone else.


    "That was a very long time ago," he muttered looking away from her.


    "The reason that I do not attack you on sight is simple, Killian got what he deserved for what he did to our daughter," he uttered a truth that made Katerina''s eyes widen.


    She could hardly believe what she was hearing, this man who she knew to be boundlessly proud and arrogant, acknowledged that he was the one who wronged their daughter.


    ''No, that isn''t right,'' she realised, ''He speaks of the actions of his other selves as if they have nothing to do with him.''


    "But I will never forgive you for what you did to our daughter!", he said in a powerful tone.


    He stepped closer to her with that fury she knew so well, burning in his eyes, that same fire he held as a fourth-grade immortal, that same fire that burnt gods to nothing.


    He reached forward to wrap his hands around her throat, as he grew closer the threads of fate that always clung to her skin seemed to hesitate, as if uncertain if protecting Katerina was the right thing to do, or if allowing the man it revered to touch her sacred skin was allowed.


    "You will suffer miserably for what you did to her!" he shouted and closed his hands around her neck.


    But as he did he felt himself choke instead, it was the protection of a diviner, those that were not on their same life level, could not cause them any physical harm, and any harm they tried to inflict on a diviner would be reflected back to them.


    Of course, there were two exceptions to the rule that Lucian knew of, however, he couldn''t meet the requirements for either exception currently.


    He could feel the tightness around his throat growing stronger with each passing second as he looked into her eyes, he saw a growing anger reflected in her eyes.


    Katerina felt anger, anger that she had long forgotten how to feel, it was his fault it was all his fault that she had to harm her daughter.


    But most of all she felt pity for him, he was truly delusional truly so very insane,


    He pinned the blame of his actions, onto another version of himself, how psychotic could he be, how dare he act like his other selves were not him, she herself had lived a hundred different lives, but never would she use such a weak excuse to justify the things she had done.


    She looked into his eyes that were now blood shot and his entire face had gone purple, he knew that he wasn''t causing her any harm yet still he continued.


    A thundering sound echoed in the room as she slapped him, Lucian was lifted of his feet and sent flying across the room.


    ''That''s right she''s an immortal,'' he thought as he felt his jaw hanging loosely, he quickly snapped it back in place and glared at her.


    "How dare you blame what happened on me!" she shouted furiously, completely loosing her calm exterior, "YOU cursed our daughter, YOU cursed her to a fate even worse than your own," she emphasised on the word you, not giving him the chance to excuse himself, by saying that it was another one of his selves.


    "I had no choice!" he roared back at her, "If I didn''t she would have left me, and when she came to hear what the world called what they thought of me she would have hated me!"


    "I couldn''t allow that to happen, after all I went through to create her, how could I allow her to hate me!" he cried out to justify his actions.


    "So you took away her choice in the matter," Katerina spat coldly, " And so you killed the god of emotion and used his essence to create an unbreakable compulsion, compelling her into loving only us and to hate all other things in creation, you selfish dog!" she spat out in anger.


    "Was I to watch her venture into the world, and let the world tell her about the atrocities they believed I committed and then they would convince her of the monster that they believed me to be?!" he shouted back in anger.


    "You were never a monster¡­" Katerina said closing her eyes as two streaks of tears rolled down her sacred face, "¡­ not until the day you cursed our child that you swore to protect!"


    Lucian climbed to his feet in a fit of anger, how could she not understand why he did it, that child was the only person in the existence that would never hate him, even Katerina was afflicted by the desire that all immortals held to cause him unimaginable pain and suffering.


    He would never forget about what Vincent had done to him in his fifth life.


    Just as he was about to rush back up to her, a voice sounded in the room, a small voice, a child''s voice, a voice that he thought he''d never hear again.


    He stumbled to the ground as he looked around for the source with shaking eyes.


    Katherina looked at the little wisp of a wisp of a soul and started, "No Ella, I told you not yet!" she shouted, but it was to late, because at that moment the little wisp came rushing up to Lucian shining brightly with the colour of joy.


    "Papa!" the wisp cried out wiggling around as if drunk, "Papa, you look so different, so, so, so different, but-but-but I know I can tell it''s you, it''s in your eyes Papa, and your soul, you can''t keep hiding from me, mama says that you won''t forgive her, but look papa I''m fine, I''m super okay, so we can all be together again," the wisp spoke energetically with unbridled joy.


    Lucian trembled uncontrollably as he looked at the bright bundle of joy, hovering in front of him, he clamped a hand over his mouth as his eyes leaked burning hot tears.


    But they weren''t tears of joy, no they were tears of absolutely fury, how could he not feel anger at the sight of this, the soul that he had created specially, was almost extinguished, it hardly even qualified to be called a wisp.


    He had found his daughter, but her time was drawing to it''s end, she was running on her last sparks what was there to be joyous about, "KATHERINA, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER!" he roared losing all reason and charged directly at her.


    But as he reached her he felt himself get smashed into the ground.


    Katerina looked at him coldly, "I did what I had to cure our daughter of the curse you placed on her, because of you, I can''t allow her to undergo true reincarnation, but I''ve found a solution to break your compulsion, however as it''s creator you know that for anyone other than myself it is completely impossible, even for me, I have just barely a chance," she spat at him.


    "Stop Fighting!", a small voice shrieked beside them, "You promised that you wouldn''t make me cry, and if you keep fighting you''re going to break your promise," the little voice sobbed and popped up between them.


    "Papa, please, you can see it to can''t you," Ella said softly, the bright light around her dimmed revealing how truly small her soul had become.


    "Can we just be a family, I''ve wanted to see you for so long papa, b-b-but it''s been so long we don''t have much time, s-s-so please don''t throw it away," the little wisp cried out and darted to Lucians chest

 Chapter 161 - 161 – The Conflux Of Fate 2

    Lirian knew why it would be a bad idea to let Ella reincarnate, with the compulsion he placed on her she would, simply hate everything, there would be no joy in her life.


    She''d feel no happiness from anything, she be unable to experience any emotion other than hate, even acting on her hateful thoughts would bring her no release or pleasure.


    He look at the little wisp of his daughter, with a pained expression, he knew of the only way to break the compulsion, but even for Katerina it was practically impossible.


    He understood what she was doing to break the curse based on how small the wisp was.


    Katerina was keeping the core of Ella''s soul and chipping pieces of it and placing it in vessels with extreme potential.


    The first step was to get the being who had Ella''s soul fragment attached to them to become a god of the same grade as the god of emotion, who was a first-grade god.


    Even for gods it was impossible to divine who would become a god, but as a fate spinner Katerina was the only being in creation with the slightest chance of doing it, yet it was unbelievably difficult.


    The biggest problem was that every time a person with a piece of Ella''s soul died, the fragment would be lost as well.


    If that wasn''t difficult enough, then there was another obstacle, the curse made it so that Ella could only love him and Katerina, so the next requirement was for the god who held Ella''s soul to fall in love.


    For gods to experience real love, was inconceivable, gods are so old that they don''t care about emotions, unless a gods power stems from a certain emotion it is unlikely that they will experience any other emotion.


    Then came the hardest part of it all, the part that Katerina would be unable to do by herself the god with Ella''s soul fragment would have to be killed so that Ella could take over their body and experience her own life.


    It was because of that, that it was an unbreakable compulsion.


    Lucian looked at the little wisp of his daughter that clung to his chest tightly, and caressed her soul gently, with fear that the slightest of pressure could break her forever.


    Her voice might have been that of a child''s, but she had always been a smart child, she knew her own situation better than anyone else.


    At this moment Lucian couldn''t help but wonder if this love she held towards him was real or it was simply the compulsion.


    He shoved those thoughts away in fear and held on to the wisp not wanting to let it go.


    "You know that I''d do anything for you," he said softly, and locked eyes with Katerina, she looked reluctant but nodded her head.


    "Sniff", the wisp snivelled.


    "Good, t-t-then promise me that you won''t fight ever again," she sobbed while snuggling up to her father.


    Lucian and Katerina both looked at each-other hesitantly.


    "Promise me!" Ella squealed her soul glowed red with anger.


    Lucian and Katerina shared a look but they were defeated by their daughters growing anger, and they quickly agreed and the little wisp began to glow brightly.


    "Family hug?" the little wisp glowed expectantly with a look of longing to it.


    "Don''t push your luck little wisp," Lucian grumbled giving the wisp a soft pinch.


    The wisp drooped with a saddened light, not hiding it''s sadness, ''I''ll just have to work on the two of them,'' the little wisp decide.


    Now that all the trouble was resolved, the little wisp looked up at her mother''s throne indignantly.


    "Get of mothers throne," she shouted, "No one is allowed to sit there besides mother," she shouted at the blue mists, but both Katherina and Lucian lunged forward to stop her and pull her back.


    Neither of them truly knew what realm exactly that being had reached, but they both knew that, that entity had the power to erase even gods with ease, from their understanding of the entity, it would at least be a third-grade god and possibly a god that had reached the maximum point of cultivation.


    For that entity there was no more room for growth, and it held a great understanding of the multiple plains, and they both suspected that it was the god that broke through the plains past iterations limits to enter into the third-grade.


    When they looked at it that way it meant that the god before them was older than the current iteration of the plain, which was over 300 trillion years old.


    When the two of them looked at it that way, it made this god their elder, which was a strange feeling to both the old monsters, however the main reason they showed respect to the entity was because; if their suspicions were correct about him being the first to enter into the third-grade, it meant that he did something neither of them had ever achieved.


    As cultivators, they had to respect that achievement, after all both of them knew the difficulties of pioneering a new realm of power, and with every new realm the difficulty was at least a thousand times higher than the previous one.


    The entity in the mist however didn''t seem to care about Ella''s words in the slightest, "That was amusing to watch in person," it said thoughtfully.


    "You should teach your child discipline," the entity commented, "But for now I want both of you to focus on the sixth universe,"


    Lucian once was a master of fate so as he focused his sense through the divining instruments in Katerina''s drifting castle, he detected what the entity wanted them to focus on.


    It went without saying that Katerina as a fate spinner discovered it with ease as well.


    "A Fate Conflux," they said at the same time.


    "I''ll open it up for the two of you to watch, and watch carefully, you can watch but it will be impossible to interfere until the conflux concludes," the entity said.


    Lucian chuckled at the entity''s words in an amused tone, "That''s a conflux old god, I don''t know if you understand this with them being so rare, but you can''t observe them from the outside."


    "You know it''s because you always think that you know everything, that it''s so much fun to watch when you''re proven wrong," Katerina said with a smug smile on her face.


    Lucian frowned at her when suddenly the conflux opened and they could see the events occurring within, Lucian got an even bigger shock when he saw himself, his main self in the conflux and wearing a blind fold.


    ''Wow, why does that version of me look like a girl, and what''s up with the blind fold, is he doing sensory deprivation¡­ '' Lucian suddenly sighed as he saw the walking cane in Samsara''s hand, ''It looks like his gone through some stuff,'' he thought turning to face the entity


    "Seriously who the hack are you?" he asked the entity, to be able to open up a conflux like this was unbelievable.


    The entity chuckled, "Perhaps you''ll find out, but if you''d like I can tell you how it''s possible that we are observing the conflux," the entity offered.


    "Tsk," Lucian clicked his tongue, "You don''t need to spell it out for me I can already guess how you did it, my main body is down there, so technically since I am there you created a link through me and opened up a channel."


    "See it''s all because of me that grandpa mysterious over there can open up a conflux for our viewing," Lucian bragged to Katerina.


    Katerina however didn''t care much for it but looked at him seriously, "How did you break you curse?" she asked after observing the main body of Lucian, she had observed him a few times over the years, but that universe seemed to gulp down her fate particles when she peered into it.


    "Like I''m going to tell you that, you''ll probably just try to find a way to put it back on me if I told you."


    Katerina folded her arms beneath her breast and turned away from him in annoyance and continued to focus on the conflux.


    "There is something strange about three people down there, besides Lucian''s main body," she noted after a few days of watching, "If I''m not wrong there is a boy and girl in that group that are chosen, but there is something strange about that girl that Lucian''s main body keeps fooling around with," she said turning to face the entity.


    "What''s the matter are you jealous," Lucian laughed at her in a cold tone, but Katerina didn''t respond and turned to the entity.


    "You have a good eye, but in all honesty I just want you to keep an eye on the chosen girl," the entity replied to Katerina.


    After listening to Katerina despite poking at her Lucian knew that she wouldn''t mention something without reason and he began to pay careful attention to the girl that his main body was making out with from time to time, ''Even while blind, my main self knows how to choose his girl,'' he thought when he figured out what it was Katerina saw.


    He turned back to the entity, "What is the meaning of this, that girl she has temporal time laws surrounding her, what the hell is going on, even if my main body were to reach the seventh grade, it would be impossible to use temporal time laws, those laws effect causality."


    Lucian couldn''t wrap his head around what was going on, it was a feeling he hated very much and was the first time he experienced such a feeling in a long time.


    The entity sighed, "Causality is in flux right now as you''ve already noticed three years ago, that is all I will tell you on the subject, the rest is a secret that is both as old and older than this iteration of the universe if you want to know the truth then become a god again."


    Lirian grunted in annoyance at the entities attitude, but went back to the watching the events play out, he saw the beast horde attack, and it was then that he discovered that his real self wasn''t cultivating yet, it was shocking to say the least, ''Just what is he up to?''


    Then he watched the chosen boy take down the drake with is main self, ''Wait a second, isn''t that part of the script,'' he thought thinking of the page of the script that survived.


    Then he saw himself getting busy with that beautiful girl, when he suddenly heard a shout from behind him, "Papa you''re only supposed to do that with mama!" the little wisp shrieked.


    "Get away from my papa!!!" Ella shrieked loudly as she looked at the image.


    He quickly caught the wisp and blocked her view, "Sorry your mama and I don''t want that kind of a relationship kiddo," he said to the little wisp, it began to pout at his answer but he didn''t budge on his stance, he hated Katerina, he was only tolerating her for Ella''s sake.


    Katerina ignored the whole thing her brows were tightly furrowed as she stared at the chosen girl, the more she looked the more concerned she felt, she had never seen a chosen with a boon that was even worthy of compare, and Lucian''s main body, had a times 10 boon, and it was only her first time seeing such a powerful boon, yet that girl blew his boon out of the park.


    But the more she looked at the girl the more certain she was that there was nothing special about her at all yet she had such a powerful boon.


    "How is that even possible?" she asked not expecting a reply but for once the Great One seemed happy to answer.


    "How else is she to survive your ex-lovers wrath, frankly I think the plain is being a little stingy with its boon," the Great One chuckled as it spoke.


    ''Well when he puts it like that it does make sense, not even I could survive his wrath, but why does the plain deem her survival necessary?''


    She glanced at Lucian and could see a stupid grin forming on his face, ''Great now he''s getting a big head, as if it had room to grow any bigger.''

 Chapter 162 - 162 – A Mind In Turmoil

    A shadow raced through the forests at a rapid speed, it seemed to go from shadow to shadow in the forest faster than one could blink their eyes.


    Soon the shadow came to a halt in small clearing and the shadow rose up like a liquid taking the shape of a woman, the only thing revealing her gender were the slight curves her body held that could not be hidden behind the black clothing that covered her entire body.


    As she appeared so to did a hundred other shadows, all of them slowly rising in the little clearing, or on the branches of surrounding trees.


    "Was the plan successful number 3?" one of the rising shadows asked.


    The woman called ''Number 3'', didn''t care for the name she had been given for the mission, ''Number 1 and Number 2 were assigned to the leaders that came from both side, and since she did the first important mission, she was called ''Number 3'' on this mission.


    "No it was a failure, I stirred a guardian of the forest into taking action but the prince candidate managed to kill it, he is quite troublesome, I understand now why our masters want him dead," she said in an orderly manner.


    The zealot in front of her frowned, "It is not for you to understand the intentions of our masters, your only duty is to do as our masters command," he said coldly, he didn''t mind to much about the failure, but as zealots thinking was unnecessary, there only duty was to serve, thinking could get in the way of serving efficiently.


    Number 3 shrunk back and lowered her head in shame, "Forgive me it will not happen again, also we may have to move quickly, the prince candidate has found a set of ancient cave''s, he can order the return to happen at any point in time now that his main objective is achieved," she added quickly.


    Number 2 nodded his head, "The second plan will commence, however, if it should fail we will have to act personally," he said in a grievous tone.


    Even as zealots that wished to serve their masters whole heartedly, they did not want to die unless it was absolutely necessary, their deaths would affect their masters hidden powers, however should they act personally it would give them away and in that case, they would have to take their own lives, to ensure there was no connecting thread to their masters.


    The main reason however that they didn''t attack Lirian directly, was because they wanted the entire assassination to look like a natural accident, Lirian being killed by the rock drake wouldn''t raise any brow in the way, that his head being chopped of would.


    "Also be careful in your movements from now on number three, another shadow discovered an elite of the Jane family traveling through the forests, we don''t know why such a person is here but it can only be rouble for us if we are found out," number 2 said gravely and pulled everyone back into his shadow before sinking into it himself.


    ---


    Lirian sat by his lonesome self he was perched on a rock facing the limbless reptilian mystic beast he had captured during the night assault.


    It lay in a limbless heap unable to move an inch and stared at Lirian hatefully. It screeched loudly clicked its two mandibles together at Lirian.


    It could sense its capture''s building up blood lust it was a thousand time stronger than when they fought, and aimed to provoke its capture into killing it, so it cared little for the oppressive feeling and continued clicking its mandibles wildly.


    "You are starting to annoy me!" Lirian muttered in an irritated tone, and delivered a fatal punch to the creature''s head, making it splatter all over the place.


    His watch rang with a beep, which only served to annoy him further, it had been ringing like this continuously for hours on end, by now he knew what it was so he didn''t bother to have the watch read the messages aloud.


    Lirian knew what the creature was trying to make him do, but he granted it, its wish anyway, he was in a foul mood, and his expedition already had a perfect score after the ruins were found, so he didn''t need the beast any more.


    This recent success coupled with his discovery had put a thought in his head that he had never considered before, ''Retreat!''.


    The plans were already in place, he had ordered Tobias''s group to return to base camp, for the exploration of the caves, but for Media''s group it was a little different.


    Her group had found a surprising amount of success in the swamps, there were hundreds of undiscovered creatures in the swamps, and Media had come up with a few good methods to improve the effectiveness of the search.


    Most importantly, was that due to the slow movements of the exploration groups, Media''s group wasn''t to far away, it was a 12 hour march away, which would make any retreat of theirs quick, if they had to rush themselves, they could clear the space in 4 hours, they were all cultivators, even the none body cultivators had a huge reserve of stamina.


    The reason that Lirian thought such things was because for the first time in this life of his, he saw something that terrified him, and that was Hinata''s heaven chosen boon that was 100 times greater than his own.


    He cursed himself internally, ''The system warned me from the first I met her that she could become an enemy, but the danger warning was low,''


    ''Was it the plains boon on her that effected the system to lower the warning level?'' he wondered, ''Is that the effect of her boon? To lower one''s thoughts and expectations of her so they never take her as a real threat, but with a boon so large that can''t be all it does?''


    ''But she isn''t the real problem, she couldn''t truly harm me even if I''m on my last legs, she''s far too weak, but if Telamon and Efrideet sent their people here and she is on their side, it could spell my defeat,'' he thought with gritted teeth and smashed his fist in to the boulder he was perched on, causing a web of cracks to cover it.


    With every second his blood lust was only increasing due this situation, ''How could a puny mortal girl, make me feel panicked!'' he cursed with tightly clenched fists.


    ''And that damn beeping is not helping, why the hell is the watch beeping so frequently did they find a horde of creatures or something!'' He wondered stomping his foot against the ground.


    ''Maybe I should sound the retreat, while exposed like this they can find a way to kill me, but once I get back to Xelia I''ll be untouchable, unless this is a part of plains plans, that boon is probably placed on Hinata to freak me out, so I should proceed with the expedition and kill her in that time,''


    ''She''s already trying to find ways to kill me so I shouldn''t be struck with the heavens chosen curse if I kill her even if I do get hit with the curse, I can just constitute a new body with a revival embryo and kill myself to release the curse, it will be a waste of a revival embryo. No, it won''t, to get rid of a threat with such a great boon it''s worth the price.''


    "Unless this is the plains plan to make me waste my revival embryo''s,'' he thought madly with a hundred of possible scenarios flashing through his head.


    "STOP!" he shouted loudly and forced himself to take a deep breath, "All of those insecurities, it''s just the voices in my head," he muttered aloud, and slowly calmed his raging blood.


    ''If the worst comes to happen and I''m surrounded by enemies I still have two methods to escape, I can use the genesis world, from my soul chamber in the throne world, it will be a waste of its remaining power but all that matters is that I survive, as for the other method it''s even more wasteful so I''d rather not consider it.''


    Lirian breathed out a sigh of relief as he pushed the voices aside, they were getting worse, they were getting invasive, and half the time in the recent days he was struggling to tell them apart from his own.


    Especially when his blood lust grew, their thoughts became indistinguishable from his own, and this current frustration was growing even worse, and this beeping watch was only fuelling it, by now it was beeping so much that his entire hand was vibrating from the messages.


    ''Even if they found a god damned swarm of new creatures, this is too much,'' he thought and switched on the read aloud function.


    The things he heard made him suck in a breath of cold air, as the commander, his watch would alert him if any thing bad happened to any of the students under his command.


    The function worked for anyone in a leading role, captains would be alerted if something happened to a member of their squad and the generals would be alerted if something happened to any of the students under them, and as the commander, all such things would pop up on his watch.


    The communication function was only limited to five hundred yards, to make communication a challenge for the students.


    The watch began to read aloud with a monotone voice.


    <Emergency Alert>


    <[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>


    <[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>


    <[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>


    <[...] of exploration group 1 has been killed>

 Chapter 163 - 163 – Retreat!

    <[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>


    <[..] of exploration group 1 has been killed>


    The words began to play on a loop, and Lirian assumed that there were at least 100 casualties, already, ''What the hell is going on in Tobias''s group?'' he wondered when his watch rung again.


    <Discovered third-grade Mammoth>


    ''Seems that they messed around with something to big,'' he thought and began to consider his options.


    Tobias''s group wasn''t very far off, they were already marching back, and it would only be a few hours before they returned, at least that was until they got attack by the mystic beast.


    Lirian figured that he could gather up the students and run forward to help the first exploration group, by going in prepared for a battle they would be effective in taking of the pressure, but it would only do just that, relieve the pressure.


    Lirian wasn''t confident in being able to take down a third grade creature, even with his newly fate forged katana, it couldn''t make up for the difference in power, at best he could beat down a second grade beast with his current strength.


    The other option was to prepare a trap and kite the creature into it but that would have one major problem and that was communication, he needed to get into contact with Tobias, and because of this expedition''s rules communication was restricted over the watch''s.


    That left him with only one option and that was to send messages with runner''s, the same way they had been keeping in contact this entire time, it worked for reports but he had to pray for a miracle for it to work effectively in a battle, where their knowledge of the terrain was subpar at best.


    Lirian ran back to camp, seeing his haste, many of the student started to notice him and looked at him curiously.


    "Listen up!" Lirian shouted when he knew he got the attention of most of the students and stood in front of his red commanders'' tent.


    "I want all of you to start packing up the camp," he said making all of them look at him with surprise.


    "You will carry only our essentials that are required to return to the main base, leave anything weighing you down behind, and keep your weapons close and ready," he stopped saying any more and went back into the tent, not giving them anymore details.


    The students were confused, and a little disgruntled, after all they had just discovered the caves and not all of them had gotten a chance to explore them yet, but they wisely held their tongues and voiced no complaint.


    After seeing Lirian''s ability, they were even more respectful of him, but most of all they had all come to understand that everything Lirian did was done with a reason, that they would become aware of if it was necessary.


    Lirian told them to keep their weapons close so it seemed that there might be a bit trouble with one of the other groups and they may have to fight pretty soon.


    "Also someone find Edith and tell her to come to my tent?" he added after taking a few steps into the tent.


    As the students got busy Lirian was busy trying to figure out the best spot to lay an ambush, unfortunately he couldn''t do it anywhere close to the camp, the entire area was unstable after the rock drake fell and caused that massive land slide.


    Fighting in this area was like fighting in enemy territory where the very earth would be against both sides, while it might help against a heavy creature, there was no way to be certain that the ground wouldn''t cave in under their feet.


    This also helped him come up with his decision to retreat, while he had methods to survive and escape, he didn''t want to use them unless absolutely necessary, as those methods could help him even in the immortal realm and against lesser gods.


    As Lirian considered the plan, Edith quickly entered his tent, she had heard about Lirians orders and wanted to know why there was such a sudden change.


    "Are Tobias and Wentian still alive?" she asked once Lirian finished explaining the situation to her, she was astounded by the number of students that had already died.


    Until this point everything had been going so well, that it seemed almost perfect, but with this entire incident it ruined the entire expedition, all their hard work was for naught, which left her disheartened.


    "They''re fine, or at least not dead, the watch only tells me if they die, and so far I haven''t heard anything about one of my generals dying," Lirian said, from the change in her breathing he could tell that she was disappointed by the sudden change, but his words also gave her a bit of relief.


    Afterall she had known Tobias for almost half her life, and she had worked hard to tie the candidates into a tight circle, losing anyone of them would be a hard blow to her.


    Edith washed her face of her worry and took a look at the map on the table, she knew that this was the main reason Lirian called her back, he needed her to read the map and find the best spots for an ambush.


    "Are we going to go forward and ambush the beast or are we going to fall back for the ambush, if we go forward, we''ll have the high ground, but if we fall back there are two good spots, that will be obstructive to any large creature attacking us?" she said very quickly.


    She wanted to do a little bit of flirting but held herself back, she knew that now wasn''t the time, every second was important and could affect the lives and deaths of their friends.


    "If we go forward I don''t know if we''ll have enough time to prepare a good ambush, and I don''t want to take any chances," Lirian said declaring the direction that they would be taking to deal with the threat.


    At the moment Edith suddenly frowned, because Lirian''s watch rung again, and another two names were quickly read aloud.


    "I don''t get it why are there no people dying at all then suddenly a few deaths occur all at once?" she muttered aloud.


    "Tobias is probably trying to use small groups to lure its attention, and draw it away from the main group, and once the beast realises what they are doing it just flattens them," Lirian said thoughtfully.


    "Edith I need you to send out two runners!" said Lirian.


    "Send one to Media''s group to inform them of the situation and tell them to pack up and return to the base so that they can come up from behind the beast, I doubt that they will catch up to us in time to deal with the mammoth, but knowing that there will be back up on its way will ease the students minds when facing that thing."


    "As for the second runner have them get to Tobias, tell Tobias to stop trying to divert the creature, if it hasn''t changed its direction by now, it''s goal must be to kill the group, instead have him kite the beast towards our ambush, and just do what he can to slow it down, there should be less deaths that way, and if we are lucky the creature might even get annoyed and stop chasing after the group."


    When Lirian finished speaking his watch beeped again with a different message.


    <Only 300 people remain in exploration group 1>


    Both he and Edith frowned slightly shocked from the contents of that message and waited for the deaths to flood the watch, but after a few second of waiting no such thing happened.


    "Ah, they must have chosen to give up the expedition," Edith realized breathing a sigh of relief.


    But Lirian only frowned, "It doesn''t matter though, the danger is hot on their tails, even if they give up now, it will be at several hours before any vehicles can reach them to perform an extraction, by that point we should be intercepting the mammoth."


    Edith quickly left and sent the messages Lirian asked her to send, and then she saw Lirian coming back out of the tent, and giving the student a full rundown of the situation.


    As she glanced around she could see that the students had been very quick in their task, almost half the tents were already taken down in the short amount of time that they spent getting the plan together.


    As she watched the students listening she could see their fear, how could not they not be afraid knowing that they were about to face a third grade mystic beast.


    But soon Lirian pulled out his sparking silver katana, and as they recalled the devastation he wrought with that blade they seemed to calm down a little, and determined looks filled their faces.


    On the edge of the crowd Hinata breathed out a nervous breath, ''Will this be my opportunity?'' she wondered nervously, with eyes fixed on that blade, she knew that she was just a mage, mages don''t use weapons, but that weapon seemed to call to her.

 Chapter 164 - 164 – Ambush

    All the mages that knew earth spells were tirelessly casting spells to soften the ground, then the mages that knew water spells would soak the softened ground.


    But still the mammoth dashed forward, it massive body just slightly slowed by the constantly changing terrain, then the fire mages came forward and blew burning fire onto the muddy ground.


    It was like making cement, but while they had success in slowing the mammoth for the first hour, it seemed that mammoth had learned from it''s previous mistakes and knew how to counter quickly.


    It built up its wind energies around its feet that were locked in the ground and released a pulse of wind that ripped through the hardened ground and in the next second it continued its mad dash forward.


    That was all the coalition of 8 mages could manage, they stopped it for a mere 5 seconds, and in three seconds it made up the ground it had lost and continued it''s charge, only to get caught up by the next group of mages.


    It quickly broke free and continued, "It seems that this method has almost lost all effect," one of the girls in the group said glumly.


    "It still beats the first method we were using," a boy from the group said in a strained voice, his face had dried up tear tracks, but no one blamed him, he''d lost three close friends to the mammoth.


    "Yeah!" another boy shouted in agreement, and shot a resentful look at Tobias and Wentian, that rode their horse''s in front of the group.


    "Most of the deaths are their faults, I''ll be telling my family about this when we get back," he cried out, letting them know that their friends unjust deaths wouldn''t go without punishment.


    It was true that their leaders were responsible for many of the deaths, first they tried to lead a charge against the creature, but it steam rolled over them, then when they realised it was hopeless, they forced students to take on the suicidal task of luring the mammoth away, it didn''t take a genius to understand, that if someone was successful in luring it away, it would mean that they''d have a third-grade mystic beast chasing after them.


    That was the equivalent of dying, it was a lose-lose situation, if you fail you die, and if you succeed, guess what? You also die.


    "We just have to hold out for a few more minutes, didn''t you guys notice that we just passed the old main base," one of the boys said while panting, but a relieved smile was on his face.


    As they looked around they couldn''t make out any familiarity with the place they were looking at, sure there was a waterfall, but the area around them was completely different from any thing else they passed so far.


    Seeing their blank looks the boy chuckled, "Didn''t you guys hear about the battle the commander had, it completely reshaped the area, and if you look back there," he pointed back excitedly, ", You might have noticed the blue portable toilets, that are completely abandoned."


    Everything that couldn''t be carried was left behind, after all the dimensional storages, were with Media and Tobias, and one of those discarded items was also the lovely table and chairs that belonged in the commander''s tents.


    Relief quickly flooded through their bodies as the realised that the boy was correct, and they were amazed by how much the place had changed due to the commander''s battle.


    "Don''t breathe to easy yet, I heard that the ambush is a little ways ahead," he said quickly as they stopped a short distance ahead of the mammoth and began their next wave of stalling.


    But something different happened this time as the spells were cast they noticed that their energy wasn''t moving correctly, instead the wind in the entire area began to change as the mammoth threw back its head, making its fluffy clomps of long hair swing wildly around it, its mouth opened wide to reveal a ball of wind energy.


    But contrary to their expectations it did not blast out the ball of energy but rather everything seemed to be attracted by the ball of wind energy in its mouth.


    They noticed the ground all around them was being pulled towards the beast, and even the spells were being pulled up as well, as they noticed this many of them rejoiced, the beast was literally pulling all their spells into its mouth.


    "Everyone shoot fire into it''s mouth," a mage shouted, over the winds that was making it hard for him to stand straight, everyone quickly realised the opportunity, that this creatures strange ability gave them.


    Until now harming it seemed impossible, just to get a simple shallow wound a warrior and psychic had to work together seamlessly, until this point they probably only gave it 7 shallow cuts, its body was simply to tough to cut with an ordinary weapon.


    ''It you can''t kill it from the outside, kill it from the inside,'' that was the current plan, but it wasn''t exactly easy to do such a thing, but this was a golden opportunity.


    They watched the tongues of flame heading straight for the mammoth''s mouth, the pressure grew even stronger, causing many of them to clutch at the ground that was also being sucked up, to hold themselves down.


    As the flames reached the mammoths mouth, under the eager gazes of everyone, the fire seemed to crumble into nothingness, only singeing the hairs at the front of the creature but doing no more.


    At that point the mammoths strange spell came to an end, and released a large howl that shook their entire bodies.


    At this scene the students began to run once more in horror, all the mages had done their best with those fire blasts, but that beasts innate spell broke all that fire down with complete ease.


    At that point they saw someone in front of the group, as they looked at the person it was obvious that he wasn''t from their group with a single glance.


    The most obvious clues about that was that his breathing was perfectly normal, his clothes didn''t have a healthy coating of sweat and most importantly, he didn''t look like he was ready to shit himself, which was the look that everyone who saw the mammoths ability shared.


    "Follow me!" he shouted and quickly turned around.


    The students from the first exploration group felt themselves relax for the first time in hours, they had reached the backup, the growing anxiety in them lessened as they continued to run for their lives.


    They soon found another person waiting for the them on the trial, telling them that they were getting closer, and it only served them to keep moving their tired legs forward.


    They crossed almost a dozen people, each of them only served to provide more encouragement to keep moving, before they came up to a strangely decorated area in the forest.


    The only word that they could think off, was decorated, because as they looked around they could see ropes wrapped around the trees in odd patterns, but they didn''t get a chance to ask questions because those that came to fetch them quickly pulled them to the sides and guided them around the oddly decorated trees.


    As they turned around to look at what was going on they saw, a few dozen mages launch a barrage of spells of at the mammoth, the mammoth came to a halt and used that same suction spell once again.


    As soon as that happened they heard the commanders voice, "Retreat!" echoing from somewhere and the mages quickly followed his command getting out of the suction range of the spell.


    No one seemed worried that the spells didn''t harm the mammoth, that wasn''t even their goal in the first place, they simply wanted to draw its attention away from the first exploration group.


    The mages moved back in fixed lines, the quick retreat wasn''t part of the plan, but seeing that they got the mammoth''s attention all was well.


    Although the students from the main base could feel the crushing life hierarchy difference, they couldn''t bring themselves to feel as afraid as when they saw the rock drake, after all the mammoth was only 18 feet tall and 30 feet long, it didn''t come close to the size of the rock drake, that caused tremors with every step it took.


    The mages locked eyes with the beast and fell back behind the trees that had dozens of thick ropes all around them, it was mainly the ropes for fixing up the tents and all the extra rope that Lirian had bought.


    The mammoth stomped the ground heavily, looking at the tiny creatures that were giving it the work out of its life and broke into a dash.


    "Guide it into the first zone!" they heard Lirian voice once more, it echoed loudly, but couldn''t find his location.


    But then a single student pointed at the place in one of the tree''s, where they saw a small sized boy with dazzling silver particles of light slowly gathering all around him, making him look like a second moon in the night sky.

 Chapter 165 - 165 – Edith’s Resolve

    The entire first exploration group crumpled to their feet, they had escaped the nightmare, or so they thought for just an instance.


    They had all heard the story, by now of the commanders strength, but they had tasted the power of the third-grade beast, their attacks had bruised the creature at best, and that was from a company of over a thousand people, but right now a group half their size was attacking it.


    Even with the commander they doubted that the beast could be stopped, he''d only be able to injure it at best, and after that they''d be in the line of fire once more.


    Most of them looked up to the sky, hoping to see the flying vehicles, that would come and take them back to base but there was no such sight yet in the sky.


    At that moment they noticed a group of people that came up to them, at the front of them was Edith, she wore her camo uniform and had a sword on her hip as she looked at them.


    "We have a plan to kill the mammoth, but it requires our full efforts, we''ll buy you guys ten minutes, to refresh yourselves at that time you''ll join in the battle," Edith explained to them quickly, time was of the essence.


    But as Edith spoke there were several cries of outrage from the exploration group.


    "We are exhausted from luring that thing over here, now you want us to fight it?!," some cried loudly, "Most of us have already given up on the expedition, and the vehicles will be here to pick us up soon, no way are we fighting!"


    As more and more people began to agree, Edith frowned, it seemed that things were going exactly as Lirian expected them to go, she didn''t like it one bit because she knew the solution.


    She quickly found the loudest voice in the crowd, and prepared to do something she had never done before in her life, take a human life.


    She had seen many deaths, mainly she saw the assassins that came after her getting killed or tortured to death, she had no problem with watching that after all they were the one''s that tried to kill her first, but she had never personally delivered a killing blow.


    She figured that the first time she had to take a life would be during her trial, but she was reminded of Lirian''s words to her from a long time ago.


    ''As candidate''s we learn a lot about politics and scheming, but they don''t teach us how to take lives,'' his words were something along those lines and she couldn''t help but see the truth behind them at this moment.


    Edith steeled her resolve and approached the boy with her most calming smile, Edith was easily one of the most beautiful girls in the entire academy, and she knew that her beauty had a calming effect on anyone she smiled at.


    Then she wrapped her hand around the pummel of her sword with white knuckles and drew it too fast for the exhausted boy to react.


    The blood splashed in an unruly manner all over the ground, and as the head rolled to the solid brown earth, blood shot out of the boys severed neck and rained down on everyone around his corpse.


    Tobias and Wentian, were sitting on the ground heaving laboured breaths, they didn''t have the advantage of extreme stamina and more durable bodies, that someone who experienced their first life hierarchy ascension so even with their horse the journey was even harder on them, leaving them almost incapable of moving after they stopped moving.


    But the scene before their eyes, made them think that they were hallucinating, even Lirian hadn''t executed anyone so far, the only person they thought would have the guts to do such a thing, but it was Edith instead.


    Edith looked around coldly, with her steeled resolve, she couldn''t allow any regret to show on her face as she looked at them.


    "This is the commander''s will," she stated loudly, "You help in taking down the creature you provoked, or he will kill every last one of you,"


    "The commander has a message for all of you, you help or he will kill you here, if he can''t kill you here, he will kill you at the base, if he can''t kill you at the base, he''ll hunt you down and kill you once we return to Xelia,", she said reciting the words that Lirian told her to say.


    Though unwilling the students fell into line, if it was a threat from Lirian, they knew that they''d be dead without a doubt if he wanted them dead, after all the empress was his mother, and she''d do anything for her children, or so the rumours went.


    ---


    Lirian stood high above collecting energy at a steady pace, he was in no rush to attack the mammoth and instead observed the flows of energy coming from the mammoth, from the first attack he had a suspicion of the mammoths true ability, but he needed to observe it one more time before confirming his theory.


    At that moment he heard someone breathing quickly as they settled on the branch he was standing on, "Did you manage to learn the skill successfully?" Lucian asked facing Karen.


    Karen looked down and wrapped her legs tightly around the branch she was sitting on, doing her best not to squirm as she looked down from so high up.


    ''I just had to become a mental psychic,'' she complained to herself, it was all because of her ability that she had to come up her with Lirian.


    Her biggest fear was that the mammoth would knock the tree down, and she''d have no place to retreat.


    "Yeah, I learned the skill it wasn''t difficult at all," she said with a little pride in her voice, "But I can only handle it for ten minutes at most, after that I''ll be completely drained," she said giving a rough estimation, it was a new skill so she didn''t know how proficient she would be in it.


    "That will be enough," said Lirian with an eager expression.


    "How do you even know such a skill?" Karen asked curiously and looked at Lirian strangely, he had passed her a simple psychic skill, that would allow him to see through her eyes, and it was easy enough that she could have a degree of success in just a few hours of using it.


    "I sometimes hack firewalls with confidential intel," Lirian said with a shrug of his shoulders, "And when I found that spell I thought it would be useful for me someday," what he said wasn''t a complete lie he did often hack into confidential files, but the spell was one he made up on the spot.


    He made it as simple and easy as possible, but he''d be lying if he said he wasn''t impressed by Karen''s learning speed, most people would require at least half a day to learn that spell.


    In order to take down the third-grade beast the most important thing Lirian needed was to observe it, he could do it by just listening and using his sense, but that would waste time so he wanted to speed up the process.


    He could figure out the creature a dozen times faster by observing it visually.


    Karen almost lost control of the psychic energy she used to form the spell, ''Did he just tell me that he hacks into confidential intel!? That isn''t legal, how the hack is he still a prince candidate? and he actually dares to admit it to me, does he think I won''t tell anyone?'' she wondered.


    She slowly re-built the spell with psychic energy, while being surrounded by silver energy particles, that were slowly covering the area.


    Then she reached forward and the spell construct, formed around them and in the next instant a smile formed on Lirians face as he looked at the world for the first time in over a month.


    "Turn your head and face the first exploration group," Lirian said, the spell was a very simple one it didn''t give either one control over the other, it only allowed Karen''s vision to be shared, so what ever she looked at was all that he could see.


    When she turned to face them, Lirian first noticed the decapitated corpse, and the bloody blade in Edith''s hand, he smiled at the sight and was glad to see that she wasn''t shaking from what she had just done.


    Karen however had a different reaction, "What the hack did she just do?" she cried out, this was bad, after all she was from the Eden family too, and this would definitely spark trouble for the family, Lirian might have spoken and threatened about executing people but he never actually did it, and it spooked her that the genius of the Eden family had done such a thing.


    "She was teaching them an important lesson!" Lirian said with a happy grin on his face.

 Chapter 166 - 166 – Let There Be Fire!

    Karen looked at Lirian, and in turn Lirian could see his own face through her eyes, ''Damn I truly do look amazing,'' Lirian thought as he viewed himself.


    "Edith just killed someone and you''re happy about it?" she questioned him coldly.


    Lirian raised his hand and raised three fingers, he watched himself doing it, and the felling was so much of fun for him, to watch himself, from the outside, "Firstly I''m happy that I got to see my lovely lover," he said lowering one finger.


    "Secondly, she did something necessary to maintain order," he lowered a second finger, ", and thirdly I''m glad that she took her first life now, instead of doing it when she has no choice during her trial, it will only serve to help her future growth and cut away her unnecessary softness."


    Lirian was in a good mood, so he graciously explained himself, "Now focus on the battle," he ordered.


    As Karen looked at the charging mammoth Lirian smiled and gave out the first order, ''It''s time to study you,'' Lirian thought with a smile and crouched down as fifty mages came forward with spells they had been preparing for several minutes already.


    The ground the mammoth ran on turned into quicksand, and the mammoth sunk under its own weight.


    Half the mammoth sunk in by the time it realised what had happened, until now the mammoth had figured that the little creatures needed time to cast those spells to hinder it so it was taken by surprise due to the fast casting.


    A sphere of wind formed around the mammoth and with a loud bang the sphere burst outward, pushing the sand far away, but in doing so in sunk deeper into the pit, the only difference was that it was no longer submerged in sand.


    Lirian rubbed his chin, "It has good battle instincts, I image that to reach the peek of this planet it must have had many intense battles to grow stronger, unfortunately for it, it only has good instincts, but it''s unintelligent," he said thoughtfully.


    Karen could only nod along in surprise at Lirian, she didn''t notice that until Lirian pointed it out but the mammoth''s last move was pretty dumb, because it buried itself deeper in trouble.


    As if to prove Lirians point the mammoth began to thrash around in the pit, smashing the sides, the blows were powerful and caused slight tremors to run though the ground, this however had little effect on the students under Lirian, that experienced tremors, that made it almost impossible for them to stand on the ground.


    "It seems that its only attribute is wind, and so far it has displayed only two abilities, to suck in things and to repel things, Karen contact the first exploration group and find out if it has any other abilities," he ordered quickly.


    As Karen got busy she kept her eyes on the mammoth allowing Lirian to watch its next move, wind gathered under its stomach and soon it shot the massive mammoth up, it didn''t go up very high but when it came back down, it caused tremors no different from every step that the rock drake took.


    The ground crumbled all around the pit and with that mammoth was able to open up a path for itself to climb back up, but then Lirian shouted "Volley," and dozens of arrows came raining down from all around the mammoth, all of them were charged and focused with psychic energy.


    As the mammoth noticed the arrows another sphere of wind wrapped around it and pushed outwards, the arrows were sharp filled with pressure, so the wind sphere didn''t deflect them however it threw of their trajectory a little, but under the guidance of the psychics power, the arrow still struck, only a few managed to pierce the creatures flesh and the rest bounced of the coat of fur.


    Karen suddenly turned to face Lirian, "I just contacted the first the exploration group, they confirmed that it has only used wind abilities."


    Lirian nodded, "Mages begin luring it, it''s time for stage two."


    On cue the group of mages that first drew it''s attention rushed forward and cast dozen of spells at it, the mammoth opened its maw wide and began to suck the spells into its mouth.


    Karen watched from above, the last time it happened she was shaking and climbing the tree, so she didn''t get to see it clearly, but then she saw it, a massive wave of fire twice the height of the mammoth went rushing towards it, burning the ground black in an instance.


    But as it reached the beasts maw, the flames broke down and entered that strange sphere in the mammoth''s mouth.


    "That''s not natural," Karen commented as she looked at the way the flames were breaking apart.


    "No it''s not," Lirian agreed with a hint of solemnness in his voice, "It would appear that this beast, has obtained a weak devouring law, it allows it to consume and break down anything, not even poison will work if its consumed through that method."


    Karen''s eye''s shook, they were all just new cultivators, they might be regarded as first grade, but no one on this trip had even began cultivating any other focuses besides their main one, in truth they were like half first-graders at best in terms of power.


    While working in large groups it was possible to overwhelm mystic beasts, but this was beyond their scope, this was laws, this was the realm at which people of the fourth-grade got involved.


    "We are dead," she muttered weakly.


    "It''s just a weak devouring law," Lirian said, ", it doesn''t effect much, it will only increase its recovery speed, so we have to avoid feeding it, and it can only devour lawless energy," Lirian smirked and grabbed onto the katana''s hilt.


    "I guess that we''ll get to see, which is stronger, my katana''s weak destruction law or that mammoths weak devouring law," Lirian chuckled as the second phase commenced.


    ''I suppose that my lucky boon is really showing it''s hand,'' Lirian thought.


    The mammoth proved that it was unintelligent yet again by following after the mages, that were simply kiting it, soon the mages ran behind the trees with ropes and the mammoth charged in wildly.


    This was how the mammoth walking into the main trap as its body hit the first set of ropes, as the mammoths body moved through the ropes it looked like it was going to snap the ropes with ease, when suddenly a loud crunch was heard and the enormous, 50 foot tree came crashing down against it.


    The forests were thick and wild in the first place, it was the reason that this area was not explored in the first place, and now Lirian was making use of it to his advantage.


    In the time they spent preparing the ambush most of the time went into this trap, he had the students chip away into the trees, leaving only enough room for the tree to support itself and then they tied the ropes from the tents around those chipped areas.


    It was impossible to trap a third-grade creature with rope, that was never Lirians intention, as the mammoth put pressure on ropes, the warriors around the trees broke the remaining pieces holding the tree up and the enormous tree collapsed on the mammoth.


    Each tree weighed several tons all by themselves and that was enough to push even the massive mammoth of balance, as it continued with its momentum, the ropes that were between the trees got caught onto the furry body of the mammoth.


    The trees did not only smash into its body but they got pulled along causing the massive thing to stumble around into more trees that snapped under its might.


    Soon the entire beast was covered in ropes and dozens of trees dangled all over its body.


    "ROOOOOOAAAAAR", it roared wildly as it found itself unable to move properly, with every step it took it crashed into more trees that would fall on to it and it grew furious.


    It built up a sphere of wind around itself and pushed as hard with all its might, many of the trees moved under the immense pressure released by the wind, but just as soon the mammoth howled in pain.


    As the trees that were tied to it began to pull it''s body in all direction, it released the spell, and the trees trunks, swayed back and smashed back into the mammoth with a heavy thud.


    The mammoth finally collapsed under the weight and Lirian looked at it pitifully through Karen''s eyes, "An intelligent creature would have never fallen into the trap so easily," Lirian with a grin, then the vision he was seeing vanished.


    "I-I-I''m out of energy," Karen panted from beside Lirian.


    "That''s okay, I already saw everything I needed to see," Lirian said with a chuckle.


    ''Besides the sight that comes next is one I''m all to familiar with, for I''ve created it a trillion times before,'' he thought to himself and his mouth opened into a wide grin.


    "LET THERE BE FIRE!" Lirian shouted.

 Chapter 167 - 167 – Burning Fires

    "LET THERE BE FIRE!"


    Lirians words echoed falling onto the ears of everyone.


    Soon the first wave of mages came forward, forming spells of fire, and releasing long streams of fire, over fifty mages came in the first wave concentrating all their flames onto the trees.


    As the first wave of mages stopped their attack a second wave came not letting the flames die down, and a third wave took their place.


    Just as the third wave of flames came crashing down, the mages from the first exploration group arrived.


    Although they were unwilling, when they saw the disadvantage the mammoth was at they happily began firing streams of fire at the beast, that caused them to flee with their tails between their legs.


    They had a ton of pent up anger that they wanted to unleash especially due all the deaths that it caused, there were many of them that lost their close friends to the beasts attacks, and although rare there were some that lost family members to its wild and fierce attacks.


    They rushed forward and cast their spells, making fire fall like rain onto the fiercely howling mammoth, its pain only seemed to egg them on, filling them with the desire to cause it more harm.


    From above Karen and Lirian stood, one could only feel the intense heat licking his skin, and the other looked down in fear.


    "That''s so much fire," Karren muttered weakly, as nothing but red flames and smoke filled her vision, she couldn''t even make out the silhouette of the gigantic mammoth through the flames.


    The only thing that reminded her that there was something alive beneath all those flames was the pained howls of the beast.


    As Karen watched from afar, the heat of the flames made her break out into a sweat, and her long hair, was being lifted, by the wind that that the intense heat was creating.


    Suddenly a torrent of wind formed try to fight against the growing flames, but unfortunately for the mammoth its attempts to protect itself only fuelled the flames, making them grow even more intense.


    "ROOOAAAARRR!", it howled furiously, even for a creature of its grade, the flames were to much for its body to bear and the wood began to splinter and crack, raining down red hot embers onto its fur.


    The mammoth was covered in a thick coat of fur and the intense flames quickly grasped onto it holding it tightly and wrapping around the beast''s entire body.


    The mammoth roared again and opened its mouth wide, at the centre of its mouth that small devastating sphere appeared once more and began to suck in the flames and tree in front of it.


    The fires were being pulled against their natural flow but only the trees that were close to its mouth were pulled and just barely at that, after all the tree themselves weighed several tons.


    The suction seemed to work but only for a short while, because while the flames in front of it were devoured the flames that wrapped around its body and everything behind its head was almost completely unaffected.


    As Karen watched the scene from above she couldn''t help but cry out in relief, as it looked like the beast had no way of aiming that spell anywhere other than in front of it, meaning that the trees continued to weigh it down and burn against it.


    "At this rate we won''t have to do much more to take it down," she laughed with relief.


    Lirian however chuckled, "Don''t be dumb now," he chided her, "The only reason the trees can hold it down is because of the ropes and sooner or later the ropes will completely burn away, at that point it will be free, at most this has gotten rid of that annoying coat of fur," Lirian explained, he knew the power of every rank perfectly, there was no way that this little amount of flames was enough to give it anything more than some moderate injuries.


    "Once the fur is gone we''ll have a much easier time piercing its flesh," he explained to her.


    Lirian had set up this entire trap to take down the biggest hindrance on the mammoth and that was it''s fur, mammoths were creatures that usually had very thick and hairy bodies, and from the watches message that was the only thing he characteristic he could figure out, as for its abilities he was completely in the dark.


    After all it wasn''t like any race was restricted to having only one element, for a mammoth in Lirian''s experience he would say that earth and water elementals were the most frequent he came across in his travels.


    So he focused on the one thing he knew would work against it in an ambush, that was to burn of its fur, and lower its natural protection, so that physical attacks could be used to ruin it.


    As Lirian focused on the students below, he noticed that most of the mages stopped, they were exhausted, after all they were the main force for this strike, and many of them seemed to think that the battle was already over as they began to cheer loudly.


    Many of them were even shouting about how easily they took down the beast and were shouting insults at it through the flames.


    "Mages fall back, I want all of you to rest for the next half an hour then I want you to stand a hundred yards away from the beast and prepare a set of long range spells," Lirian quickly ordered, ending the little celebration.


    Lirian knew that within an hour at most the beast would free itself, so they had to use that time wisely.


    Many of the students seemed to think that the battle was already over, but at Lirian''s words the student from the first exploration group were ready to complain, but then they noticed that everyone from the main base obeyed Lirian without complaint.


    The reason was simple by now they had seen just how meticulous Lirian was, they knew that he wouldn''t be making them act unless it was necessary.


    "Warriors and psychics it will be your turn during the third attack phase, but be sure to attack only when I order and not a second sooner, especially the archers!" Lirian said pointing to the group of archers in the crowd.


    Due to the beasts abilities Lirian had to alter the attacking plan, that repulsion ability of its with the wind was a bigger problem than its devouring law in his opinion, but he had noticed that the beast had an insatiable appetite when it came to spells, it always tried to devour them.


    Lirian figured that most of its devouring law was focused on breaking down energy to replenish its own, and for such a big thing to move around it needed tons of energy.


    If Lirian had to guess on this little abandoned world, this mammoth was probably the biggest predator, after all it had a law, that could give near infinite stamina as long as it consumed something it would be inexhaustible, it could even consume the earth to recover its energy.


    "Karen there is a bag tied to the tree where you climbed up, open it up and bring me the two grapples from inside," Lirian said not shifting his focus from the mammoth for a second.


    Karen spotted the bag after a few seconds, she was surprised that she hadn''t noticed it at first, but for the first time she realised the uses of the camo uniforms, because the bag was made the same colour, and it blended in perfectly against the tree.


    Had she not been told it was there she doubted if she would have noticed it, she opened the bag and extracted the two grappling hooks that came from the mountain climbing gear and gave it to Lirian, who quickly wrapped the long ropes around his arms with the grappling hooks held firmly in his hands.


    She couldn''t understand what he was planning to do but she had a feeling that it wasn''t a good idea, at least not for anyone normal, and from that excited glint on his face she doubted that anyone could talk him out of whatever he was planning.


    The class of 5-A had a special motto when it came to Lirian, ''If you see him grin, pray that he isn''t grinning at you.'', from the way he was grinning at the beast she could only feel sorry for it, at that moment the silver energy around Lirian stopped gathering and instead it began to thicken brilliantly.


    The warriors and psychic''s began to gather up as the burning logs began to move again, they were still burning wildly, but they could see the silhouette of the mammoth slowly moving through the fire and ashes.


    It released a deafening roar of anger, as it dash forward, there were still traces of burning hair on its body, making it look like a living ball of fire headed in the direction of the mages that were facing it with slightly panicking faces.

 Chapter 168 - 168 – The Third Phase Commences

    The mammoth emerged from the flames, with its body still covered in small flames, the flames burned away the last hairs of the mammoth''s thick coat of brown fur.


    Without the thick coat of fur the beasts body looked several times smaller but also grotesque.


    Its legs originally looked to be around the size of thick tree trunk that 5 people could form a circle around while holding hands, but with the layers of fur gone, it looked a lot smaller, and two people alone would be able to make a circle around it.


    But other than that, its entire body was filled with ghastly scars from the burns, even the third grade creatures healing prowess were unable to get rid of the burns, and the mages puffed out their chests with pride knowing that they caused serious injuries to the third grade beast.


    The mages who stood facing the charging beast watched nervously as the last of the flames went out, just as they were about to panic the order came from above for them to release the spells.


    Fifty streams of fire converged to form a wave and as if reached the mammoth, it came to a halt roared wild, it looked almost afraid of the flames, and one couldn''t blame it after the hell it just went through which creature wouldn''t develop such a fear.


    Even for a third-grade creature the experience was not easy to endure.


    Then it opened it its maw wide, and began to suck in the flames, even if it was afraid of the flames, it still used its instinct to defend itself.


    When the mammoth began to suck in the energy, Lirian smirked from above, "An unintelligent creature is always so predictable," he murmured while following the energy stream.


    "Mages! Maintain the stream for as long as possible," he commanded.


    "Warrior''s and psychic''s on my signal you attack," Lirian shouted, and began to countdown.


    "3"


    "2"


    "1"


    After saying one Lirian paused allowing the mammoth to begin eating the energy of the spell and that was all he needed.


    "Attack!", he roared.


    A sharp whistling sound filled the air, and the snapping of bows could be heard, arrows came raining down with psychic energy, wrapped around it, increasing its sharpness and fixing the aim of those arrows that were straying of course.


    The first few volleys quickly landed and tore into the thick flesh of the beast and within seconds over a hundred arrows that looked like long black thorns filled its body, causing the first streams of blood to emerge.


    The mammoth however made not a sound, but clearly it was in pain as its body shuddered, however, it kept its mouth open wide as is sucked in the flames.


    The students however were shocked as they did not expect the attack to go so smoothly, they expected the mammoth to release a pulse of wind to deflect the arrows and lessen the impact of those that made it through.


    Karen looked at Lirian as he focused his senses on the mammoth he showed, no surprise by the outrageous success of the attacks.


    "How did you know that would work so well?" she asked with a shocked voice, from his reaction she knew that this was exactly as expected.


    "Because the rules of the heavens must always be fair," Lirian said calmly facing the beast, Karen noticed that as he spoke he was flicking the hilt of his katana and with every flick it made a loud sound that echoed.


    "The heavens must always be fair?" she asked with a dumb expression, like always she had no idea what he was saying.


    "Mystic beasts are creatures that can cultivate with out learning any techniques, this however restricts their growth, they cannot chose how they grow stronger and it also makes it impossible for them to grow beyond the fourth grade," Lirian calmly explained, despite the heated battle taking place beneath him.


    "Another benefit but also curse is their abilities, the beasts have innate spells that they can cast, they don''t need to learn of create the spells but it comes to them naturally, it is here that they are cursed, for they cannot learn any new abilities, but most importantly they are incapable of casting multiple spells at once,"


    Lirian pointed down at the mammoth "It''s currently stuck absorbing the spells, this means that it can''t deflect the attacks anymore, and without its protective fur, it''s a lot easier to penetrate,"


    "Also it has no choice but to continue devouring the spells, if it tries to deflect the weapons the flames will have a one way trip inside it, at that point, it will be severely injured from the inside, and that is exactly the situation, I hope to create," Lirian said with and ecstatic grin.


    Karen could only marvel at his genius, truly not a single action was done without careful thought, and all of it came together to create a killing combo.


    Down below the warriors finally reached the huge monstrosity and with there swords they began to hack at the legs of the mammoth, the archers quickly stopped firing as they reached the mammoth even with the psychics guidance they couldn''t guarantee that no arrows would hit their allies.


    The warriors quickly found that it wasn''t so easy to cut into the flesh of the beast..


    Even with their full strength they were struggling to cut more than a quarter of an inch into the meat and a strange mucus was being released from the mammoths body that dulled the edge of their blades, those that had psychic''s reinforcing the sharpness of their swords were having a little more success but soon the mammoth began to stomp the ground.


    The pressure sent them tumbling down and if not for the psychics that could use protective barriers to absorb the impacts many of them would have had their bodies broken to pieces.


    Just then a spearman found an opening in the mammoths'' feet, he weaved in between the other charging warriors, and looked at a weak point on the belly of the beast and raised his spear with all his might.


    It curved through the air and the sound of flesh being ripped was clearly heard, the mammoth wailed, its body began to thrash around, and the man who pierced its belly was flung around like a rag doll as he clutched on to the shaft.


    The warriors began to cheer at the sight of the gapping wound, the man who was being flung around was completely drenched in boiling hot blood, and eventually he couldn''t hold on and went flying away leaving his spear in the beasts belly.


    The man fell with a heavy thud but as one of the supporter mages came to grab him, she reassured everyone that he was fine just a few broken bones.


    The warriors began to attack with renewed vigour and spearmen came to the front, their spears were far more effective against the huge beast, and slowly they began putting more holes in the beast''s underbelly.


    Some of the spearmen ran away causing many people to look at them angrily but then they began to charge back as they drew closer they jumped into the air and flung their spears with all their strength.


    At least half the heads of most of the spears sunk in to the mammoths flesh, however to their surprise in all that time the mammoth didn''t release its suction spell.


    They could tell that they were hurting it, there attacks hadn''t reached a lethal point yet but it this went on they were definitely going to be able to kill it, but as they looked at the mages, they could tell that they were all close to their limits.


    Any second now they''d drop, already a dozen of the remaining mages had fallen unconscious and the other mages weren''t stepping in because they couldn''t, Lirian had ordered them to pass on all the energy they had to the fifty mages that were attacking.


    Karen was watching beside Lirian, "It looks like that turned it into a porcupine," she joked around as she looked at the mammoth, she felt that they removed all its fur just so that they could perform a transplant with arrows and spears.


    Karen wasn''t one to joke around all that much but at that moment she felt the need to do so as she felt a vile aura growing around Lirian that made her stomach twist in pain.


    As the thick pools of blood formed and the smell climbed up to the spot they were standing in she noticed the strange change in Lirian.


    His breathing was rising rapidly and with every passing second she could see that he was fighting against an urge to jump into the fray.


    But the hardest thing for her was that aura of his, it was so savage, and she was almost certain that she was experiencing blood lust, real unrestrained blood lust, and it completely suffocated her, hence she was trying to lighten up the mood.


    At that moment she saw something suddenly fly forward, and as she followed it she saw a grappling hook wrap around a spear shaft, and in the next instant Lirian was gone from her side.

 Chapter 169 - 169 – Lirian Strikes

    A silver ray of light flashed through the air, swinging on a rope.


    Karen watched and saw Lirian gracefully spinning through the air as he grew closer to the mammoth his body spun around rapidly and the rope that he was swinging on was quickly being spun back onto his arm.


    As he grew closer his body flashed like a silver light before every one''s eyes and his radiance even outshined the raging flames that engulfed the forest around them.


    The katana at Lirians waist flashed and as Lirian swung across the mammoth''s body he left a long and deep bloody wound.


    At that moment the mammoth let out a cry like never before, its howl, scrapped the ears of those around, and the pain it felt was unimaginable.


    The students had no idea what had happened most of them didn''t even see Lirian''s arrival, or at least the only thing they saw was a stream of silver.


    ---


    Karen looked down in disbelief, thinking that Lirian was truly insane and she had no way of stopping him, as she looked at the side of the mammoth Lirian sliced, she could see the deepest wound that had been inflicted yet.


    It revealed several of the ribs of the mammoth, and that howl was especially loud, not even the flames from earlier managed to cause it so much pain yet that single strike from Lirian was causing it to faulter.


    Karen used a bit of her psychic energy that she managed to gain to inspect the wound and as she looked at it she noticed traces of the silver energy lingering in the wound and corroding the mammoths body, but there was also another energy a black destructive energy that was causing a minor amount of cell degradation in the mammoths body.


    As she looked at it she was reminded of the destruction power of the attack Lirian had used to reopen the waterfall, she couldn''t help but notice that the destructive energy had a similar feeling from that time


    ---


    Lirian continued to swing around, using the many spears in the beasts body as grappling points and swung around them freely moving through the air with simple and graceful ease.


    Every time he drew close to a spear he would use his momentum from the air to spin his body around and smash the spears deeper into the mammoths body, he needed to go in as deep as possible to act as good grappling points.


    The sword in his hand had barely lost any of its glow from the previous attack, he didn''t want to waste the energy even in his state that was full of blood lust he knew better that to loss his reasoning and waste all the built up power he gathered.


    He could still cut through the mammoth''s thick flesh, but he knew that if he wanted to go through the bones he would need to use a considerable amount of his energy.


    Lirian focused on the wound he inflicted and smiled, ''It seems that the destruction law is on the stronger side,'' he thought in satisfaction.


    ''To think that I don''t even have to waste my own energy to activate it," he chuckled to himself, and couldn''t help but feel like it evened out the battle field after all the mammoths law allowed it to continuously replenish its energy allowing it to continuously use its law.


    Usually someone of the third grade would have trouble using a law more than three time a day, yet this mammoth had used it multiple times already.


    Lirian continued to deal blows to the mammoth while swinging all over it like a silver flash, but his current strikes didn''t have as much strength behind it as the first, he had a long area of swinging to build up momentum for that blow.


    The part that truly annoyed Lirian was despite the intensity of the blow the mammoth still continued its devouring spell, and by now only half of the mages remained standing, if even five more dropped, it would render his plan a failure.


    "Screw it!" yelled Lirian, and the aura around him began to change, as he stopped using tension forms in his strikes and pushed his sword skills to the limit.


    He immediately felt his muscles tighten and his body began to heat up, as a red and savage mist arose from his body, he entered into his self-created form and merged with it.


    Lirian jumped off the mammoths back and soared threw the air and just as gravity was about to take its natural course and pull him to the ground, he threw out the two grapples on his arms, they wrapped around two spear shafts causing them bend in his direction and in the nest second he was launched as if fired from a slingshot.


    The student below, cheered in awe as they watched their commander, his aura was terrifying and they could feel the power behind every blow he dealt, and now they cheered as the watched him slingshot across the mammoths back.


    Lirian suddenly released the ropes and the katana re-emerged in his hands, he was using only the power from his form merging and the sword destructive edge in his attack as he plunged almost the entire blade deep into the mammoth''s body.


    As it slipped past bones Lirian felt it enter deep into the body and he was certain that it touched an internal organ, Lirian didn''t hesitate when he got the opportunity and twisted the blade with all his strength.


    Karen saw the opportunity arriving, the opportunity Lirian spoke of, so she quickly used the little remaining energy in her body to contact the mages still standing.


    Their faces were pale, and they were drenched in sweat, and their skin looked like it had been lightly roasted into a crispy golden colour, as they were faltering they received a message from Karen, one that filled them with relief.


    They quickly complied with the simple order she gave them and in that instant they released every last bit of energy, not holding back anything at all, the wave of fire intensified for just a second and it looked slightly bigger than when they had started.


    Upon completing the task they all crumpled to the ground falling unconscious almost instantly, and quickly the people behind them came rushing to support them.


    Karen watched everything clearly from above, and smiled happily things could not have gone better, she watched as Lirian sunk his blade deep in the mammoths body causing it so much pain that it was unable to continue supporting its devouring spell.


    Then the wave of fire pushed forward entering its mouth, burning it from the inside out.


    "ROOOOOOOAAARRRR," the mammoth began to roar and howl, it lifted up its two front legs, and swatted them around in the area in front of it , and it stumbled around on it to rear legs, Lirian dangled in the air he quickly used two arrow shafts as supports for his legs and held onto the katana that was plunged deep inside its body.


    "Damn it!" he loudly cursed as he felt the mammoth crash in to a tree as it stumbled about on its two rear legs, when standing it was almost as tall as the rock drake.


    As it stumbled through more trees Lirian felt his body being pressed against a tree. ''If this continues I''m going to be flattened,'' he thought.


    He wrapped his hand around the hilt tightly and prepared to use half the energy he gathered, then he unleashed the katana''s spell <Strom Caller>, lightning coiled around his hands, and he felt his grip around the handle tighten as lightning began to violently form.


    The back of the mammoth started to light up and powerful burst of lightning was unleashed within the mammoth''s body directly being released on the mammoth''s organs.


    Every wound on the mammoth began to glow with bolts of arcing blue lightning that devastated it from the inside out, the mammoth didn''t even get to thrash around as it almost immediately slumped to the ground on its side.


    As it collapsed Lirian slip free of the mammoth, the katana had blown the entire area it was buried in into mush and it easily slid free.


    Lirian climbed from the ground with a tired expression, form merging was not meant to be used by someone that wasn''t cultivating and it had a toll on his body, but he only used it for a short period so with a little bit of rest he''d be fine.


    "It''s dead!" someone started to shout loudly, "We did it we killed a third-grade mystic beast!" they shouted in celebration.


    The students started to climb up and celebrate, and a few came running to the mammoth kicking it limp body to vent their frustration against it after the terror it caused all of them.


    "No don''t come closer," Lirian shouted as he climbed to his feet.


    The system hadn''t notified him about the beast dying so he knew that while almost dead, it still had some life left in it, unfortunately his shout was too late.

 Chapter 170 - 170 – Lirian Vs The Mammoth

    Lirian''s shout came too late.


    Almost a dozen students had already began to hit it and dozens more were running towards it.


    At that moment the mammoth opened its mouth wide and focused all its power, to perform a devouring sphere, the might of it from up close was to much to resist and barely a second passed before at least twenty students in all were crushed by the sphere and devoured.


    The mammoth climbed back to its feet and those running towards it quickly retreated, but it didn''t chase after them instead it turned its furious eyes towards the one that pushed it into such a miserable condition in the blink of an eye.


    Lirian could feel the full fury of the beast on him, with just a quick inspection he could tell that the mammoth was on its last legs, even if it killed him and everyone here, death was all that awaited it.


    The destructive properties of the katana were reflected in the lightning it released and that coursed through every organ and cell in the mammoths body, even with its recovery abilities it was to far gone and the mammoth knew it to, so it wanted to kill the cause before it died.


    "You have quiet some nerve if you think you can kill me!" Lirian chuckled, and his body re-entered the state of form merging, and he raised the katana with one hand the entire blade was glowing with a mixture of silver and blue, and the entire sword began to hum in his hand.


    The monstrously huge mammoths withered aura and Lirians began to clash in the air as they faced each other, however to the onlookers they were horror struck because Lirians aura was at least a million times more savage and brutal than the beasts.


    As much as many of them wanted to help they felt that it was hopeless for them to attack the beast and instead they watched their commander who stood confidently before the beast with his sword stretched out in one hand and a wide grin on his face.


    The main reason that none of them ever dared to step a foot forward was because they could tell from Lirian''s stance that he wanted no one to interfere.


    And so they watched the battle of a boy that was tiny in stature take on a beast so large that it was comparable to a small mountain.


    Lirian and the mammoth stomped the ground at the same time, both of their steps however sent tremors through the ground and as Lirian advanced the mammoth tried to ram him with its huge head, despite the power the beast felt it knew that one strike was all it needed to crush the being in front of it.


    Lirian barrelled on the ground and used the first move of his form, ''Rising Avalanche'' it was a move that went against nature, avalanches come down but never rise, but that was the power of his form, it wasn''t anything close to his best form, but it was the best that his current body could handle.


    He stomped his foot into the ground and brought up the blade, it cut into the leg of the beast and rose up, causing more damage the further it climbed up, it started with a simple cut, but as the wound travelled up the beasts leg it ripped the flash apart savagely.


    Lirian moved swiftly it was the only move of the form that he could perform, so he quickly got to work dealing devastating blows to the underneath of the of the mammoth.


    Its hot blood spilt onto him, and he couldn''t resist the temptation to lick his lips as the blood rained down on his mouth.


    When the mammoth realised what he was doing it slammed its body down, and under it own weight several of the spears that were lodged in its body sunk deeper into it or snapped and broke.


    Lirian laughed and swerved around the beast, based on how slow its movements were it appeared that his attack had caused it way to much internal damage, that allowed him to move around with ease.


    As he weaved out of its belly slam, he neared one of its legs and swiped, the sword cut all the way in and hit the bone, but unfortunately the bone was to tough and other than making a small a cut he couldn''t sink in any further.


    He quickly spun away from the mammoth''s body, but almost as soon as he stopped, he found the beasts head right in front of him, not even two feet of space existed between them, and it opened it maw wide.


    Everyone watched with terror as the spell they all came to dread appeared, just two feet away from Lirian.


    "You just don''t learn!" Lirian roared at the top of his lungs.


    He grabbed the hilt with both hands and ignited all his remaining power, to perform one last <Storm Caller> the destructive property of the blade passed into the blue lightning and it surged into the devouring sphere.


    All the air in the surroundings came to a halt suddenly, and a second later a thunder clap exploded, raining down light and a deafening sound.


    It all travelled from the mammoths mouth and blew them back several feet, as everyone slowly got up, they saw at the centre of the explosion, Lirian stood tall, with blood splattered all over his face and clothes, that savage aura was still clinging tightly to him.


    But in front of him the mammoth''s body was still standing, however its entire jaw was blown of and it was in a miserable state, with blood gushing from it like a dam.


    "Well that settles it," Lirian chuckled, "My destruction is greater than your devouring," with that Lirian shoved the blade forward and pierced the mammoth''s eye, and with a savage yank he ripped it out.


    Then he did it to the next eye, and the mammoth was powerless to do anything against him, as it slumped down to the ground.


    Lirian began to lift the katana up and down, savagely bringing it down repeatedly bashing it into the skull of the dead mammoth, with each strike, cracks began to form in its skull, and soon it was smashed into a pulp with its brains splashing all over the place.


    At that time a worried voice rang out behind Lirian, Lirian swung the katana around to face who ever was disturbing his good time, he looked around savagely with bloodlust that seemed to only grow further after killing the mammoth, but as he noticed who it was his aura suddenly stilled.


    "Lirian, are you okay?" Edith called out with a fearful voice; she was the only one that dared to approach, but even so she watched with fright as Lirian brutalised the corpse, tuning the entire head into a bloody pulp.


    "I ¨C I''m okay," Lirian eventually whispered, he stuck the katana into the corpse and released his form, as soon as he did the savage aura that could rip anything apart dissipated and he sunk down to his knees weakly.


    Lirian felt his muscles spasming violently, now that he released the intense power, "I pushed it too far," he murmured softly, as his body slumped down, and he felt like his body turned into jelly.


    Edith rushed up to him and wrapped her arms around him, she could hardly believe what he had managed to do, but most of all she saw that look in him once, that look that made it fell like this slaughter was the only thing that made him feel alive.


    But still she held onto him tightly as the blood from the mammoth soaked into his clothes and hair dying him completely red in blood.


    "None of this is your blood?" she asked with a little bit of panic in her voice, especially seeing how bad of a state Lirian was currently in.


    But a soft chuckle sounded out from her bosom where she pressed Lirian''s head, "How could such a lowly creature injure me?" he asked, and in his voice Edith could hear such pride in those words, as if he didn''t even put such a mighty beast in his eyes.


    She could tell that he truly did not believe that such a creature could harm him, and that he thought the mammoth unworthy of shedding his blood.


    ''Serious who are you really?'' Edith wondered as she looked at Lirian, at this point she was certain, that he was no simple war orphan from Scavanour, there were just to many things about him that were unexplainable, and to call him a genius without equal, would be an insult to his great ability.


    At that moment something strange began to happen behind them, the katana that was stuck in the mammoth''s flesh began to glow as if it was being fate forged again, but the light vanished after a few seconds.


    At that point Lirian made the system focus on the katana, and at that moment he was slightly surprised by what had happened to it.

 Chapter 171 - 171 – Break Down

    Deep in the forest a group of shadows emerged high up in the trees, the eyes of the group were fixed on the group that sat in the centre of the burning landscape.


    The zealots were trained to suppress all their emotions for centuries, yet all the same they were god smacked by what they had seen.


    "The second plan has failed, it seems that we must now act ourselves," number 2 said forcing his voice to remain calm, but that slight quiver was apparent to all.


    They were also looking at the scene with shaking eyes, after all that prince candidate was just the embodiment of a monster.


    They had lured that beast carefully, knowing its power, it was the strongest beast they were able to find on the planet and it also held a law, yet the prince candidate didn''t flee in a panic as they expected him to, he prepared a perfect trap and took down the beast.


    The hardest thing to believe was how few losses he sustained to take it down, but most of all was when he attacked it himself, a none cultivator against a third grade beast, even if it was on its last legs it was inconceivable.


    The hardest thing for them to believe however was that aura he held when he was using his sword, it was something that even those cultivators in the fifth-grade struggle to achieve, form merging.


    "It''s no wonder that our masters want him dead, it such a pity, such a person could have been a pillar of the empire but unfortunately he chose to challenge the wrong people," one of the zealots spoke and everyone couldn''t help but nod in acknowledgement of his words.


    Another shadow suddenly arose from behind them and spoke, "We have another problem, we noticed that there are several elites from the Eden and Jane family surrounding the group, if we want to kill him, I''m afraid that all of us will have to act to draw their attention."


    The zealot''s faces were all covered in black cloth but from the change in their eyes it was clear that they were steeling their resolves, for once they completed their task they would take their own lives to protect their masters.


    Suddenly another shadow climbed up, it was the one they all called number 1, she glanced around and quickly before anyone could react several corpse''s fell to the ground, "Those without resolute hearts must die before they can become a problem," she said plainly.


    They all understood anyone that was wavering with the decision to take their own lives she ended, they would bring only trouble to their masters.


    None of the zealots seemed to care for the deaths as they felt her actions were right, they lived only for their masters, zealots were not meant to fear for themselves.


    "The thirteen that came with me will deal with most of the elites from the families, we all have advanced second accord techniques, so it should be easier for us," number 1 stated causing all the other zealots to look at them strangely.


    The larger group hailed from and super world and the Capriska super world at that, but even the most elite zealots only had the power of an elementary technique.


    As zealots were usually hidden forces, or rather you could say that their existences were illegal by the laws of the six great civilizations, however it wasn''t a heavily enforced law because every power needed hidden forces, but should it be found out that they were using such high level techniques the consequences for the powers supporting them would be devastating.


    Due to this it was extremely rare, that any power would create second accord zealots after all the cost was extreme to create one, and it wasn''t worth it to invest so much in a disposable force.


    Number 1 suddenly spoke again, "Remember that the elites from the families have far more combat experience than us who have grown in the shadows, even with the boosts from our techniques we will not be their match," she cautioned them and prepared to move out.


    But just then they noticed a commotion starting in the group.


    ---


    The system quickly analysed the katana and Lirian soon found a new active skill that the katana managed to obtain.


    <Devourer> - the blade can absorb the energy of the world and its victims, to restore itself and the wielders energy.


    ''Huh, it actually managed to take in the mammoth''s law, this blade is really strange, I can hardly believe that it''s made from simple common materials,'' Lirian couldn''t help but think that way.


    After all it was just something that he randomly bought, yet it was able to awaken a consciousness and force an evolution by fate forging itself. ''Perhaps there is trace of some special material in it, or it has a fragment from a universal treasure embedded in it.''


    As Lirian reached those thoughts he used up a lot of particles to do a deep scan of the blades composition with the system, but it gave him a perfect composition of the materials in the blade.


    Lirian simply stopped focusing on that after a moment, because the blade was perfectly normal, so he figured that it was just something miraculous that happened, it wasn''t like he hadn''t seen such a thing happen before.


    The 33 Neather plains were filled with strange occurrences, and while this was strange Lirian had witnessed far stranger things.


    Putting those thoughts aside, he continued to bury his head in Edith''s bosom, and lightly wrapped his arms around her, as much as he wanted to hold her tightly his body was to sore.


    Time passed by slowly as the forest around them continued to burn and the students began to celebrate, some of them even tried their luck to cut meat from the mammoths body and cook it over the intense flames and as they strolled about the area it turned a little festive.


    However just moments later someone started to create a commotion from the crowds, and then Lirian could hear someone cursing and shouting his name along with all the other candidate''s names.


    As the crowd began to open up, a small group of people came forward, glaring at Lirian and Edith who were sitting together.


    A boy came out at the front of the group with his sword drawn and pointed it at Lirian and Edith, "You bastards," he roared, "You are sitting around and getting all cosy after what you dogs have done," as he spoke another group, came up dragging Tobias and Wentian on the ground.


    "What do you people think you''re doing?!" Edith said sternly getting to her feet, and looking coldly at the group, in total she noticed at least thirty people all together as she looked around at the scene with narrowed eyes.


    All of them seemed pretty well rested, clearly while all the intense fighting was going on they just did the minimum requirement and kept their strength up, while everyone else exhausted themselves in the battle.


    "You actually dare to point a weapon at a candidate!" Edith ridiculed him, and she also recognized a few of the faces all of them were commoners or nobles with very low positions.


    "Shut your mouth you bitch!" he shouted and pointed his sword at Edith and slowly moved it between Lirian who was sitting on the ground unmoving and her, he couldn''t stand the way she looked at him as if she was a million moves above him and he was a simple ant.


    "You candidates, sacrificed our lives when we were escaping the mammoth, then when we finally got here you killed someone that struggled to get here just to make a point,"


    "Trash like you don''t deserve to live, how do people like you get to enjoy the privilege of being a candidate, while better people suffer to get what they need, people like you don''t deserve to lead us, it would be better if you''re dead!" he cried in outrage and small sobs sounded in his voice as tears fell from his face.


    But instead of getting any meaningful reply from Edith she only chuckled haughtily and looked at him as if he was a fool a strange glint could be seen in her eyes as she spoke.


    "You really are a pitifully ignorant fool, the reason that we candidate''s get to chose who lives and dies is simple, it''s because we are better than all of you, and if you don''t like it take it up with the empire, it will be fun to watch someone make a fool of themselves," Edith said loudly with a voice of contempt so that everyone could hear.


    She didn''t want to waste her breath explaining the position of a candidate to a bunch of buffoons whose minds couldn''t grasp its complexities, and her words only made the boys face grow green with anger, and it even stirred up some of the students in the crowd.


    The boy quickly controlled his face and put on a twisted smile, "If you said that before, we might have been powerless to do anything, but look at your boyfriend he can''t protect himself let alone you right now," he laughed at her derisively and got ready to swing his sword.

 Chapter 172 - 172 – The Extraction Arrives

    Another group stood a distance away from the expedition group, even if one looked directly at them it would be impossible for them to see the group as they were hidden within a spatial world.


    From within the spell Milan watched to events that happened along with the nineteen other elites from the Jane and Eden families.


    Once they located Edith and discovered that she was staying besides Lirian most of the time they all came together so that they could rest and relax in the spatial world, it was vast and filled with luxuries inside it.


    The spatial world belonged to Mallark a warlock from the Eden family and they often called, him ''The Walking Barracks'' due to his ability he was a strategic asset of the Eden family and he could move entire armies in his spatial world and release them at the ideal locations on a battlefield.


    However on this occasion due to the secrecy of the mission he didn''t bring an army with him and instead used his abilities to create a luxurious resort where he could entertain and relax himself along with the other elites.


    However currently all of them had abandoned the whiskey''s in their hands and dropped the playing cards they were playing with, after all they had just watch a mortal brutalize a third-grade beast.


    "What in the heavens name, has the empress been feeding her son?" Mallark asked aloud with a crazed expression, while the others openly gapped at the scene, if he could do that without any cultivation, what would he be like when he started to cultivate, the even scarier thing to think about was what would he be able do once he enter the second accord.


    The thought terrified and filled them with curiosity, "Your excellency Millan your wisdom in telling your daughter to get closer to the prince candidate was amazing!" a woman called Kira said with eyes of worship as she looked at Milan.


    She had always idolized the chief advisor of the Eden family, Milan, from the time she was just a child and it had been a dream come true for her to go a mission alongside her idol, and besides idolizing Milan they had a good relationship evidently, since she knew about Milan''s advice to her daughter.


    Milan only blankly nodded in reply with an embarrassed expression on her cold face, because the last time she spoke to her daughter she was telling her to stay away from Lirian.


    But other than that that Milan beamed with pride as she watched her daughter, and she strongly approved of her decision to take a life to take control of the students, but most importantly was how well she carried herself after taking a life for the first time.


    It was impossible to become a great cultivator without taking lives, and the sooner a candidate learned and accepted that the better it would be for their growth.


    A few minutes later a commotion broke out and she focused on it intently, and when she saw some random boy point his sword at Edith a layer of frost formed around her as she took a step forward.


    But at that moment a firm hand landed on her shoulder, and she turned to see Mallark and he shook his head at her, "Lord Callum told me to keep an eye on you and to remind you that you cannot interfere not unless it''s due to an external power attacking."


    "Remember that anything that happens here is brought upon the candidates by their own actions, it is their duty to bear that responsibility,"


    He spoke wisely and locked his eye''s on the horizon, his mouth formed a comforting smile as he continued to speak, "And besides Lirian isn''t the only smart one in the group."


    Milan followed his gaze and in the next second she released a relieved smile, for it appeared that her daughter did have something to rely on when she insulted the group that surrounded her.


    ---


    Edith looked at the boy pointing his sword at her with a ridiculing smirk, "Tell me stupid boy and the imbeciles that have followed him!," she chuckled and spoke, "If you kill me and the other candidate''s what are you going to do about everyone that see''s it? Are you going to kill them to?"


    "And not that you lot are even capable of doing that , but let''s say for a second that you can do it, tell me what explanation has that walnut sized brain that all thirty of you share, come up with that will allow you to keep your lives after this expedition is over and the deaths are investigated?" Edith asked in a ridiculing tone.


    The boy seemed to panic and from the look on his face and his friend''s Edith could tell that him and his friends didn''t think further than getting their revenge, but then his eyes darted behind her and looked at the beast''s corpse.


    "We can just say that¡­" but before he could say anything more Edith laughed and sneered at him she could see exactly the idiotic thoughts that were running through his head.


    "You think that you can convince the higher ups that the mammoth killed everyone and that after wearing it down you lot managed kill it," she laughed so hard that she had to hold her belly.


    Tobias and Wentian sighed when they saw her like that, it was very rare that Edith lost control of her emotions and from how openly she was displaying her emotions they knew that she was furious.


    "How stupid can you be?" she cursed, "Clearly the energy that dealt the killing blow and that is lingering all over its body is pure consolidated energy that can only be created through energy control and it is dyed silver."


    "No one else here can use energy control!" she shrieked angrily, the sheer stupidity of these people made her want to rip out her hair, "And no one else can dye their energy silver, so how in all the gods names will anyone of you convince even the most lowly of cultivators from an outlier world that you dealt the killing blow?"


    Only silence answered her as everyone looked to one another dumbly, as they watched Edith who looked like she''d go insane from simply standing in these people presence.


    She looked at the fools faces and spoke, "Now put your weapons away and when we return, I''ll be benevolent enough to spare your lives to ensure that you and your families are only demoted to working the most difficult jobs with the lowest pay for your families next 100 generations."


    On the side Hinata breathed out a sigh of relief as she looked up at the sky, it turned out that her judgement to not interfere was correct because high in the sky several vehicles were flying towards them.


    Edith smiled coldly at them, most of them had come from the first exploration group, and gave up on the expedition and right now the extraction teams were coming down to pick them up.


    The thing that really made her want to kill them however was that all of them came out when the time of arrival for the extraction teams should have been on their watches, the empire had no need for such brainless idiots, it was like all the education from the academy was wasted on them.


    Just then the vehicle quickly landed and as the people from the base came out of the vehicles, the only thing they would look at was the mammoth.


    At the lead of all the groups was sergeant Ixel, the same pink skinned and blue haired sergeant that greeted them when they entered the base on this planet, and her eyes were fixed tightly on the mammoth.


    The base naturally knew about the third-grade mystic beast due to the scans everything was recorded and sent to the base.


    Asides from the seventh-grade commander, the person with the second highest cultivation only reached the fourth grade in the base, after all this world posed as little danger so no special forces were need here.


    Sergeant Ixel was a third-grade psychic so after receiving the message about the mammoth she assumed that she would end up in a tough fight against the beast to complete the extraction successfully, yet she could see that it was long dead.


    The sergeant recognised that now was not the time to find out all the detail she first had to complete her task.


    "Alright all of you that gave up on the expedition line up and present your watch''s as you enter the vehicles," she said quickly creating order, she could tell that some sort of internal conflict was happening but that wasn''t her job to care about.


    "Ku ku ka, ha ha ha," but just then a laugh began to ring out loud, the laugh was cold and mirthless, and filled with an icy edge.


    As everyone heard it they turned to look at Lirian who was still sitting down, his one leg extended over the ground while the other leg was pulled in with one of his hands resting on his knee while his face was facing the sky and the wind made the blindfold flutter at the back of his head.


    "No one is going anywhere!" his voice rang out making the many students freeze in place and the extraction teams turned to look at him with mild annoyance in their eyes, but more than the annoyance was a feeling of lingering fear, because Lirians voice was laced with a frightening killing intent that they had never experience before in their lives.

 Chapter 173 - 173 – Lirian’s Ire

    The sun was slowly creeping up when the vehicles arrived.


    As Lirian''s cold and mirthless laughter echoed the first rays of light fell onto his body allowing everyone to see him clearly.


    His clothes were cover in thick layers of blood and his silver hair wasn''t spared from the red dye, even his face held splatters of blood on it, that coupled with his small demeanour adorable appearance only served to make him look all the more terrifying as he shook with mad laughter.


    "No one is going anywhere!" he said once more gaining control of himself and stopping the body jerking laughs he was experiencing.


    "My girlfriend is very kind," said Lirian in a slow pace not caring about the annoyed looks he felt coming from the extraction teams.


    "But you see you all made a very big mistake if you see, I imagine that all of you seem to believe that the extraction teams are the only reason we candidate''s will live, but well it''s as Edith said you really are bunch of imbeciles,"


    "It wasn''t us that needed the extraction teams to survive, it was all of you, but you see I don''t give a shit about who came on those vehicle''s, it have been every leader in the empire, or every emperor and empress who ever lived, I couldn''t give a shit,"


    Lirian''s words were slow and powerful, and everyone was focused intently on him because at that moment they could see a red tinge surrounding him, like little wisps of blood and they seemed to resonate with his words and fury, and it left everyone locked in position unable to move or even breath properly.


    It was like the world itself was holding them in place and bending their bodies making it impossible for them to look away.


    From the space that the elites of the families were watching they should have been frowning after hearing Lirians words, however at that moment all of their eyes were shaking wildly because at that moment they saw laws materializing around Lirian.


    Laws that they could barely even understand as they looked at it, it was reminiscent of slaughter laws only it seemed more potent and more terrifying, but even more scary was the fact that the laws seemed to come running to him, like he was some type of immortal or god.


    Lirian took a step forward and the crowd couldn''t help but take a fearful step back in all directions, "You see today all of you committed a sin that earns you the right to a painful death," Lirian said with a sneer towards the thirty fools.


    "First you pointed your weapons at my woman," Lirian said taking another step forward however despite the might they could see rolling out of him they could see his body shaking slightly as if he was in pain.


    "But¡­" Lirian said pointedly taking another slow step forward, "You bunch of little shits, dared to point your weapons at me!" Lirian roared loudly and in his words they could fell his boundless pride.


    They could all tell that the main reason he was so furious was because he felt that they were completely unworthy to even speak to him let alone point their weapons at him.


    "I would truly love to know which god gave you the guts, so that one day when I stand in the god realm I can break that god to bits," his words were filled with such pride that it could put all the great leaders in the universe to shame and despite it they felt almost convinced as they looked at him that they were looking at a future god.


    As he drew closer to the group all of them couldn''t stop their bodies from shaking and their knees even collided repeatedly.


    But just before Lirian approached a sword suddenly flashed in front of him blocking his path.


    The person in front of him was none other than sergeant Ixel, she herself felt truly horrified as she looked at Lirian, but she had to do her duty first.


    "These students have all left the expedition, since they are alive now that I arrived I have to take them back alive," she spoke quickly.


    But Lirians next words only left everyone feeling that he was some kind of demon, that cared nothing about life.


    "Since they are no longer in the expedition that means their deaths won''t affect my expedition scores in the slightest," Lirian lightly shrugged and pushed her sword away with his hand.


    Ixel''s eyes contracted at his response, and it reminded her of many of the nobles that looked at the lives of the people as nothing but a number, and they weighed their lives over benefits, if someone didn''t hold a high enough value they would be thrown and discarded like trash.


    Clearly Lirian was doing exactly that, now that these people''s lives had no affect on his person, he was going to kill them without a care in the world.


    Once more she went up to Lirian and reached out with her blade, the flat part facing him, she didn''t have the guts to let the tip or edge face him as that would be taken as her threatening a candidate''s life.


    "Please don''t do this," she implored him, "You can deal out what ever punishment you want when you return but right now these student are currently under my jurisdiction," but as her words landed in Lirians ears they had no effect, actually they seemed to make the killing intent grow.


    She noticed Lirian tightly frown at her and in the next moment a wave of fear rushed into her bones, and she couldn''t help but retreat rapidly as she felt a thick wave of thick bloodlust coming towards her.


    But just as she thought it was going to strike her, it came to a stop and she saw Lirian standing directly in front of her.


    "That''s twice that you''ve blocked me now," Lirian said coldly but a cruel smile appeared on his face, "Since you want to play hero, I''ll give you a choice, if you defend these little shits one more time, I''ll spare all of their lives, but afterwards I''ll add your name to my list of names," Lirian reached out a hand and curdled her chin with his fingers as if he found her to be an amusing object.


    Ixel''s eyes constricted into tiny points as fear flooded her mind, all cultivators eventually developed a special list of names, it was the list of people they wanted to kill, and for cultivators especially it had a special meaning.


    All cultivators believed in the ties of karma and these ties influenced ones ability to cultivate and evolve from mortal to immortal.


    The list of names was all the people that one had to kill to free their minds


    There are some people''s names that would automatically enter the list of names, those that they had grievances with, those that wronged them or killed their loved ones and so on.


    To sever the karmic tie, one would have to resolve all the names on their list, it could be solved diplomatically, but most commonly it was solved by killing the person.


    "Or you can just stay put and get out of my way," Lirian offered in an amused tone.


    Ixel was in between a rock and a hard place and she''d be lying if she said she wasn''t afraid of Lirian, and she had nothing she could to him, if she acted against him, the consequence''s would be the empress skinning her alive before killing her, and that was if she was lucky.


    But if she didn''t do anything it would be a dereliction of her duty to let something like this happen, as she looked over at the circled-out students she could see their desperate pleas for help in their eyes.


    She soon sighed and lowered her head, as she noticed that none of the students even had the slightest bit of real talent, it wasn''t worth making such a big enemy over a couple of nobodies that wouldn''t even remember her name when she needed protection.


    She cast them one last pitiful glance and took a step back sheathing her sword.


    Lirian chuckled dryly, "It''s always so much fun to watch a hero of justice who claims to put the lives of others before their own become a hypocrite," he chuckled amusedly and walked past her.


    Lirian continued to walk forward bare handed his katana was still embedded in the corpse of the mammoth but still the group of thirty trembled as he approached, "What happened to all that earlier bravado that all of you had I thought that I couldn''t even help myself," Lirian sneered at the pitiful bunch of fools.


    "Please spare us we are sorry," a girl from the group came forward and kowtowed to him pressing her head onto the ground he had just walked on.


    "You are not even worthy to be in my presence let alone touch the ground that I graced with my feet," Lirian said with arrogance and stomped on her head.


    Before the eyes of everyone her head splattered open and splashed onto the ground, with her body falling limp, she probably didn''t even know how she died.

 Chapter 174 - 174 – A Massacre

    Lirian felt anger like never before, at the fact that some little shitty mortals dared to point their weapons at him after he had saved all of their lives.


    It was the same as his days of being cursed, no matter how much he tried to help people to get them to accept him they repaid his kindness with insults and malicious attacks.


    He was so furious that he didn''t even care about the laws that were reacting to his emotions and that everyone present could see them forming reacting to the godly essences that were hidden within his body.


    ''So, it would appear that it wasn''t just the curse that made people like that, it is simply the nature of all sentient beings to be ungrateful, to be cruel, to repay kindness with treachery,'' Lirian realised.


    ''Perhaps this is what I was meant to learn from this conflux of fate, perhaps this was a lesson I needed to learn so that I do not foolishly believe in people now that I''m free of the curse,'' thought Lirian


    Lirian stepped over the corpse and approached the rest of the group, "Well then come at me and let me show you how I decide your lives."


    Lirian gestured at them and slightly restrained his aura, he wanted to show these fools what true despair felt like.


    He wanted them to understand that even with their painstaking efforts to cultivate they were nothing in front of him who didn''t cultivate a single day during his current life.


    Despite his currently weakened state he wanted to show them that with all their effort it would be impossible for them to lay so much as a scratch on him.


    The group looked to each-other and glanced around seeing that no one was going to help them, even the other members of the extraction team weren''t coming to their rescue, as they had all heard Lirian''s words.


    Some of the people from the group tried to run and hide in the crowds, but everyone stepped away from them like they were a plague not giving them a chance to hide.


    Clearly the students were just as fearful of Lirian and if they helped the thirty fools they were afraid that he''d aim his blade at them.


    "What''s the matter? Where did all of your courage go to from a few minutes ago?" Lirian asked while facing them.


    They all trembled, just looking at him and that reddish aura around him made it impossible for them to not be pressured.


    Lirian could feel the growing fear around them and chuckled, "I do have some good news for you lot, after today you will all be remembered in stories,"


    "Not by name however," Lirian said with sneering tone, "You lot will forever be known as the thirty fools, and your deaths will serve as a reminder in the world of the fate that awaits all of those that dare to oppose me."


    "The world will thank you for your noble sacrifice," Lirian laughed and went forward to begin his slaughter.


    As they heard Lirian''s words the groups fury grew and it helped them to stop shaking like leaves in the wind, they grabbed onto their weapons tightly and charged forward.


    Lirian felt that it was a pity that the group was only made of warriors after all it would make a better story if people from every focus were to attack him and he broke all of them, ''Well only warriors are so brainless to do such a thing,'' Lirian reasoned with himself.


    As the first warrior approached him the warrior clutched onto his sword with both hands and put all his power into a swipe.


    Lirian put barely any effort into his counter, it looked like he was leisurely moving around in his own back yard as he ducked under the blade and delivered a quick kick to the side of the boys knee, not even a second passed and the boy fell down his leg bent into the form of an ''L'' with a single kick from Lirian.


    His cried of pain pierced every one''s ears and in the next second it came to halt, as they looked at the seen they saw Lirian holding a lump of meat coloured red with fresh blood flowing from it, the lump of meat still pumped furiously as if not realizing that it had it already it''s owners body.


    The boy fell down with a pained expression still etched on his face and a thin wound could be seen on his back, it was flowing with blood and despite being so small and neat, they could tell that his heart had been ripped from than point.


    Lirian had taken a person down in faster than a second even those that were right behind him couldn''t react, and while they were still processing what had happened Lirian pounced into the group.


    Lirian flipped through the air and spun sending both of his feet out and kicking, his legs caught two warriors on the neck and with the full weight of Lirian and his skill being channelled through those kicks their head spun around.


    Their necks snapped and yet their heads continued to spin around in circles, it spun once in pun twice, it went around a third time continued to spin until the skin on their necks tore and their heads fell free from their bodies.


    Lirian used the force from his kicks to propel himself up and in the next instance when he came back down he used his full weight to smash in someone''s head, and their head sunk into their chest making it look like their head had was cut off and their chest expanded by two times.


    With every strike that Lirian dealt he killed someone, but if they didn''t die they were in so much pain that they would long for death.


    There was however only one person that had been attacked multiple times yet still survived, it was the boy who had first pointed his sword at Lirian and Edith.


    It wasn''t because he was good that he survived it was because he was being dismembered by Lirian between his every kill.


    At first the boy thought that he got lucky when only a chunk of flesh from his bicep was ripped from his body leaving a huge indent in his arm, but then his felt an ear get ripped off, then he was flipped in the air and a finger was twisted and pulled off his body.


    It was only then that he realised that he was being toyed with by Lirian, when Lirian came to attack him again he tried to use his life-hierarchy suppression to force Lirian into submission, but then that strange red aura around Lirian went wild.


    It seemed to have a life of its own as it went completely furious, as if it couldn''t believe that someone was trying to make its master submit to them.


    The aura crept into his body and filled his body with incomparable pain it was as if it was splitting the cells in his body and he fell to the ground with blood pouring from his every orifice.


    He couldn''t even do anything after that as if he was paralyzed, he could only lie down on the blacked ground and watch as Lirian tore through the group with ease.


    They all did everything they could, forcing their energy onto their blades and using the best forms that they knew, but Lirian weaved in and out of them as if he knew what their every move was going to be.


    He was bear handed while they had weapons yet they couldn''t even touch the fabric of his clothes as he tore ripped them into pieces in a savage display of his strength.


    The boys tears and blood mixed together as he knew that he''d be dead, but he did have one last piece of solace in the back of his mind, as he thought back to the day from before he left for the expedition.


    The headmaster had gathered many of the commoner students and given them certain tasks, and from the things the headmaster was hinting at, it seemed an awful lot like he was trying to kill Lirian.


    At that moment the last person fell and Lirian came strolling up to him and dragged him up to his feet.


    "Do you have any last words of regret or perhaps something foolish that I can think back too so that I can laugh?" Lirian asked with a ridiculed tone.


    The boy knew that he was dead so he didn''t show anymore fear and his blood and tear stained face formed a slight smile, "You might kill me but you won''t survive this expedition," he laughed.


    But contrary to his expectations Lirian didn''t show any sign of being taken aback and instead he came closer to the boy''s ear and whispered so that only he could hear.


    "Do you really think that Telamon stands a chance against me?" Lirian chuckled in his hear, making his heart race in fright.


    "I''ve know about all of Telamons little birdies for ages, including you Tirian, and thank you for confirming my suspicions of Telamon''s plans," Tirian eyes shrunk as Lirian said his name so clearly as if he had known it all his life.


    Lirian had already learned about every last one of Telamons little spies by using the system and it could easily identify them.


    Lirian pulled back and laughed, "I sincerely thank you for your bottomless stupidity," Lirian said and plunged his thumbs into Tirian''s eyes.


    With a final movement Lirian raised his limp body and smashed his skull onto the ground.

 Chapter 175 - 175 – Ungrateful

    Mordred watched the entire brutal scene from the side.


    It was more like a one-sided slaughter, as Lirian ripped the group to bits, body parts, guts and blood, soon coloured the burnt earth and not a single person remained.


    The boy who was the first to point his sword at Lirian and Edith the most tragic fates of all, and as Lirian plunged his thumbs into the boys eyes, more than one person loudly winced as his eyes popped open to become a bloody mess.


    And finally the slaughter came to an end as Lirian propped the body up and smashed his skull on to the ground causing his brains to grotesquely splatter.


    Mordred thought back to little battle that his class had with and this was worlds apart, back then they all knew that Lirian was insanely powerful but this was just insane.


    A mortal vs thirty body cultivators and he won, and from the way Lirian fought it was clear that his strength was inferior, yet he completely dominated them with pure skill, breaking them into pieces.


    Lirians control of his body was practically impossible in the eyes of everyone watching and even the elites from the families who were watching from afar couldn''t help but feel disbelief, because the saints who had the most complicated fighting techniques, would have a hard time matching such movements if they were facing someone of the same level.


    "It no wonder that Alastor lost to him in a battle of skill," a white faced elite from the Jane family said with trembling eyes.


    At that moment Lirian propped himself up on two shaking feet, he could feel the toll that this battle had taken on his body, but he didn''t care he made his point loud and clear.


    "Does anyone else have anything to say to me!" he shouted aloud, his words weren''t a question but rather a challenge to anyone else that had any thoughts to challenge him.


    The bloody appearance and the mighty aura that rolled of the small statured Lirian, filled them all with fear they had never known and despite him standing completely still many of them step back as if afraid that he would come in their direction.


    "The next time any of you dare to show the slightest bit of ungratefulness to me after I saved all your worthless lives, you will wish that you were apart of this group of fools," Lirian sneered at them and pointed towards the bloody corpses that littered the ground.


    "Now of with the lot of you cowards that gave up on the expedition," Lirian said coldly and he began to walk away on shaky feet that everyone could clearly see.


    As his figure walked away into the distance, they noticed that he suddenly stumbled and a loud cough sounded, at the sound Edith quickly rushed away from the group and followed behind him.


    Lirian''s departing words struck all of them deeply, because at that moment they realised, that Lirians brutal actions weren''t completely unwarranted, the main reason he made the groups deaths so brutal, was because they were ungrateful.


    Seeing how long it took for the extraction teams to arrive, they would have all probably ended up dead by the time the vehicles arrived to save them, yet they actually dared to raise their weapons against the person who saved their lives.


    It was outrageous and truly, the entire plan was completely designed by Lirian, if not for his brilliant planning it would have been impossible for anyone to survive let alone take it down.


    And aside from the few lives that were lost when they thought the mammoth had been killed there were no other casualties, in truth the deaths could only be blamed on the impatient people that wanted to vent their anger on the dead beasts body.


    To call a plan, that enabled a bunch of weak first-graders to take down a third-grade creature with a law, as brilliant was simply an understatement, it was something that had never happened before and all the great geniuses of history could not even compare.


    The students who gave up the expedition, slowly began to make their way into the vehicles as they entered they took off their watch''s and presented it to members of the extraction teams.


    At that moment Sergeant Ixel walked up to the corpse of the mammoth, and after a few probs she confirmed with certainty that it was a third-grade mystic beast, and the destruction caused to its cells was something that even she could not do as a third-mortal.


    It caused her to furrow her brow as she tried to figure out how the damage was done and that was when the katana that was imbedded in the mammoth''s flesh caught her eye, it seemed to be drinking the flesh of the creature at a slow pace and she couldn''t bet feel taken aback by it appearance.


    Their was a thick coating of blood on it but despite it only added beauty to the metallic blue lustre of the blade and at the same time she could feel it''s mystic grade power.


    Even by comparison to her single piece of mystic gear that she owned she could feel that this blade out stripped it, and as she looked at it she couldn''t help but find it oddly reminiscent of the katana she handed to Lirian before they set out on the expedition.


    In terms of size it was identical but other than that it was completely different, at that moment she reached out her hand to grasp onto it but at that moment a surge of lightning shot out at her hand.


    She didn''t get to react the lightning was too fast, it coursed through her hand and left a big black mark on her palm.


    Sergeant Ixel''s eyes opened wide as she realized that the blade actually gave birth to a consciousness, and despite only being in the mystic grade it was denying the touch of her who was in the third grade.


    She didn''t understand how it was possible after all the blade she given to Lirian was just an ordinary blade their was nothing special about it at all, form its material composition to the person who forged it, and she doubted that anyone could have slipped a long katana past the guards.


    Which meant that this had to be the katana that Lirian bought, ''I''ll have to bring this up with the commander,'' she thought as the lightning began to coil around the blade once more as if warning her to stay away.


    She remember the first thought that she had when Lirian wielded the katana on that day, ''The song of death begins when a saints sword sings,'' based on how powerful the blades consciousness was she was certain that one day this blade would truly sing.


    Sergeant Ixel got back up and walked back to her vehicle as the last students boarded it, moments later she looked back at the crowds of students, "If anyone wishes to return you have a chance to leave right now, if you decide later, you''ll have wait a few hours for the extraction to come and get you."


    When it seemed like no one else was going to give up she checked the logs to confirm that all the people that gave up the expedition were either dead or on the vehicles and shortly after that a burst of wind was released from the ships and they shot up and away.


    As they got up to a high altitude the sergeant saw another group of over a thousand students making their way across a crossing over the river.


    ---


    Cole whistled in admiration as he looked at the newly formed slope of the old base they could still easily see the area where the main base originally was but everything beyond it was completely different.


    "If thing were like this when we first arrived it would have saved us from a lot of trouble," he said while smiling at Media who pouted at the changed landscape.


    Media was truly displeased, when she arrived this darned place ruined her plans, but after she left it changed and the main group even found old ruins beneath it.


    It was like the goddess of luck was laughing at her, but she quickly sighed and put it at the back of her mind after all she reaped some pretty good harvest from the swamps.


    "Let''s find their trail," Media said with a worried face suddenly, "We don''t know if they are all still alive, but if they are it''s possible that they aren''t in a good position and we need to move quickly."


    At her words Cole nodded seriously and they went to find the trial, it was however they found it pretty quickly and with ease.


    When over a thousand people walk off a piece of ground it tends to leave some clues but more so it''s pretty hard to miss a massive third-grade mystic beast''s trail.


    In just under two hours they found the main group and they couldn''t help but feel shocked at what they saw when they arrived.

 Chapter 176 - 176 – Beginning Of The End

    Upon arriving at the new camp, the faces of everyone from the second exploration group couldn''t help but be filled with wonder, surprise and shock.


    The first thing they noticed was the still burning flames, the fire was no longer spreading but the trees that were used to take down the mammoth were still burning softly and releasing smoke, while the rest of the area was burnt black from all the flames.


    Then they saw the corpse of the mammoth, but what was even more shocking than that, were all the corpses of people that were in the same area as the mammoth, what truly stood out about the corpses was that it was clear that the wounds that were inflicted on them were obviously not done by a beast.


    As soon as they arrived the first two people to come and great them was Tobias and Wentian, who informed them of everything that happened.


    As everyone listened their eyes went wide in wonder and finally Tobias told them about the corpse''s, and they couldn''t help but show expressions of surprise as they heard that it was Lirian who single handedly slaughtered thirty cultivators.


    Several people were already calling them the ''Thirty Fools''.


    "Where is Lirian?" Media asked when they were finished narrating the details.


    "He looked to be in a pretty bad condition before he left, and Edith went after him, they should have gone to the river, we were waiting for you guys to arrive before going to them?" Wentian quickly said, then the four of them went forward to find Lirian and Edith.


    ---


    A shadow rose up suddenly and Number Three spoke, "I think that we might have one last chance to get this done without acting personally," she said to Number One in a hushed tone.


    Number One nodded at her words as she heard the underlining meaning, it was obvious to Number One that Number Three had a plan, however speaking about it might reveal who their master was.


    She quickly snapped her fingers and a barrier formed around the two of them, "Speak," said Number One.


    Number Three quickly complied, "Master gave us the oath disc to control the ones who took an oath, and seeing the current state of the prince candidate he won''t be able to put up much more of a resistance, there are still over eighty oath bound people alive,"


    "After the prince candidates display I doubt any of them will attack him willingly, but with the oath disc''s power that master created we can force them into attacking, and after the way the prince candidate killed all those other commoners it will make for a plausible reason for them to attack him,"


    "If this fails then we can all attack, but why throw our lives away when we have one more chance," Number Three said logically.


    Number One looked to Number Three deeply, "Your words are smart, I never would have thought of using the students too attack him directly, because it would have made the attack far to suspicious, but as things are now there is justification."


    Number Ones eye''s flashed coldly as she took out the oath disc, the students who Telamon snared were really pitiful to be caught up by his honeyed words.


    In truth the oath disc was simply a tool that would grant Telamon complete control over anyone foolish enough to make an oath with him, Telamon simply offered them some nice words with a paltry amount of resources to make it look like they were striking a deal, but little did they know that they were selling their entire lives to Telamon by taking an oath.


    ---


    Hinata was walked around through the camp, feeling glad that she followed her instincts not to attack Lirian earlier otherwise she could easily see what her fate would have been by going back and looking at the corpse''s.


    However at that moment a strange feeling over came her, telling her that it was time, it was time for her to kill Lirian.


    In truth at first when Telamon gave her the order of what she needed to do to ensure Lirian''s death, she felt panicked at the taught, she had always desired to prove that she was superior to Lirian, but killing him? that was a scary thought to her.


    After all aside from the fact that she had never taken a life before, he was a prince candidate and the empresses son, wouldn''t killing him ensure her own death, but even more than that wouldn''t it make her a criminal in the Clovis empire, how was she to become empress if she was a fugitive?


    But after she left, a soothing feeling took control of her, and made her realize that it was the best choice for her, by killing Lirian she would become the genius of the class and everyone would pay her more respect.


    With Lirian out of the way she would become the centre of everyone''s admiration and attention, and due to that she would be able build up real connection with the members of class.


    By using them it would be possible to gain some backing and develop further, until she was able to break through to the fifth-grade before reaching four-hundred-years of age and by doing so she would be able to become recognised as a real princess of the empire.


    Those thoughts filled her head, and they matched with all the things the headmaster had thought her, so she let them take control and since then the though of killing Lirian never left her mind, it seemed to become her only goal, the only thing she could focus on doing.


    ---


    Lirian and Edith were sitting together on the edge of the river, it was quiet a distance away from the new camp, where the mammoth was killed, and to get here, Lirian had required Edith''s support.


    "Do you need me to get you anything?" Edith asked while gently rubbing his back and looking at him with a loving gaze.


    Lirian''s current condition truly troubled her, for as long as she had known him, even after he took down that rock drake, he was still lively afterwards, but right now he was barely even moving and most of his weight was falling on her as she supported him.


    "I only need a few, cough, cough, cough," Lirian suddenly broke out in to a fit of coughs and blood mixed with spittle flew out of his mouth.


    Lirian continued to cough for a full minute before he got himself back under control, but his breathing was rampant and pained.


    Edith pulled him closer and wrapped both her arm around him tightly to support him, "You shouldn''t have pushed your self so hard," she said with a concerned face and rubbed his back to ease his pain.


    As she moved her hand around she could fell his muscles through out his body, every last one was constantly contracting tightly as if his own muscles wanted to strangle him, and she couldn''t imagine how big the strain on his body must have been for his muscles to be in such a state.


    "I had to do that," Lirian said softly while holding onto her with his face was going lightly pale.


    "Why not show mercy from time to time?" Edith questioned, "Had you shown mercy you wouldn''t be in this state."


    Lirian raised a hand and gently cupped her face, "Edith you must never show mercy to your enemies, and anyone that points a weapon at you or leashes out a single word to undermine your authority is an enemy that must be killed no matter the cost," said Lirian in a slow and wizened voice.


    "We have to show mercy sometimes Lirian, even your mother as the empress and my father as the Lord of Eden, sometimes it is best to show mercy, it can help people look at you in a different light," she argued back, she genuinely believed that knowing when to grant mercy was something that made great leaders.


    "Tell me, what would have happened had my mother not show mercy to Efrideet all those years ago and killed her, she would have had many dissatisfied noble''s, but her position would have been secure, her subjects would hate her but they would be obedient out of fear, but instead she spared that woman''s life and it has brought her countless problems throughout her reign as empress," Lirian said simply.


    "Promise me Edith don''t ever show mercy to your enemies when you go for your trial, it will only bring you regret, do not show mercy unless you do not have a choice because mercy allows for the fires to grow, and when they grow it is easy for them to consume you,"


    "Mercy will get you killed Edith, and I do not want to lose you," a slight plea could be heard in Lirian''s voice and his grip on her grew slightly firmer.


    Lirian''s words moved Edith''s heart, it was because in that moment she could tell that Lirian wanted her to learn this so that she could survive.


    But more than that it was because he didn''t want to lose her and once more she felt a compulsion in his words, like they belonged to someone who was truly old and wise.


    Edith smiled at Lirian with little tears of happiness in the corners of her eye''s, "Lirian I¡­" but just at that moment the sound of footsteps sounded out behind them and stopped her from saying her next words.

 Chapter 177 - 177 – Expedition Cancelled

    Edith smiled at Lirian with little tears of happiness in the corners of her eye''s, "Lirian I¡­" but just at that moment the sound of footsteps sounded out behind them and stopped her from saying her next words.


    Lirian and Edith both snapped their heads in the direction of the movement and soon they found four people walking towards.


    "Wow you look like crap," Cole chuckled as he walked towards them and glanced at Lirian who was covered in blood and looked deathly pale.


    "You try doing what I did, and I bet you''d be dead and broken," Lirian snapped back and turned back to the streams of water rolling through the river.


    As the group of candidates made their way forward, they all bore awkward looks on their faces, from what they saw it was clear that Edith and Lirian were having a pretty intimate moment, as they arrived and it was too late for them to turn back.


    They walked forward and saw that both Lirian and Edith had their bare feet dipped in the water and they were splashing each other playfully before they arrived.


    The thing however that took them by surprise was Lirian''s weak state, in all the time they had known him, even when he just lost his eye''s he never once looked so miserable.


    Just at that moment Lirian broke out into another fit of coughs and Edith quickly supported him.


    "Do you really not need anything?" Edith asked with a concerned voice.


    "I just need to rest for an hour or two and I''ll be okay," Lirian replied, he knew himself best, even though he used techniques that his body couldn''t handle due to the special godly constitution of his body he knew that he''d recover quickly, but more so when he recovered his body would be better than before.


    With how heavily he pushed his body Lirian felt that it was possible for his body to increase its strength by at least 10 points.


    A few minutes later all of them were sitting along the shore with their pants rolled up and dipped their legs in the water as they enjoyed the scenery and spoke with each other recounting all the things they had done.


    When Edith suddenly thought of a question and curled her lips, "By the way Tobias what exactly did your group do to attract that mammoth?" she asked seriously, after all, they had caused almost three hundred deaths due to their mistake.


    Tobias lightly shook his head and glanced at Edith, "Actually we didn''t do anything at all, we were simply marching back to explore the caves when the mammoth came charging from behind us,"


    It was running in the same direction as us and quickly caught up to us, at first it didn''t seem to care about us and just ran alongside our group, almost as if it was going to follow us,"


    "But that''s when some of the students panicked and attacked it, at first they thought that it was just a second-grade mystic beast so they figured that they could take it down with some effort,"


    "But after attacking it didn''t get hurt in the slightest, the only thing their attacks served to do was anger it and that''s when the beast attacked,"


    "It was only after that that someone actually scanned it and we discovered its grade, but by that point, it was too late, and it began to stamp on the group," Tobias explained and released a big puff of air with a saddened expression.


    He quickly turned to Lirian, "I''m sorry about this, I know that it ruined all your work so far," he said apologetically as Lirians brows were knotted tightly together.


    Little did he know that Lirian cared very little about the ruined expedition, ''First a rock drake, that should take weeks to stir was forcibly awoken and its energy was tainted, then a third-grade mystic beast was making a b-line directly for the main camp,''


    ''This is too much of a coincidence,'' Lirian thought deeply on the matter when his eyes suddenly sparkled beneath the blindfold, ''Uh-huh! They are trying to kill me and make it look like an accident,'' he realised and worry quickly filled his face.


    ''They first used a guardian of the forest and when that didn''t work they used a third-grade mystic beast that was probably the strongest creature on the world, and since that didn''t work it means that they won''t have any other choice but to reveal themselves,'' as Lirian reached those thoughts he was unaware of an argument that had begun between the candidates.


    "¡­can''t believe that you guys really used the lives of commoners as a shield!" Cole spat at Tobias and Wentian coldly.


    As someone who came from a common background, he was naturally furious about their actions to use the commoners to divert the mammoth''s attention.


    "It''s not like we had much of a choice," Tobias tried to explain, but he wasn''t angry but there wasn''t any over guilt on his face either.


    Wentian however held a guilt-ridden expression, "I know that it wasn''t the honourable thing to do, but we had to make a choice, offend nobles or offend the commoners by sacrificing their children, but we would only face severe consequences if we offend nobles¡­" Wentian said helplessly, it looked more like he was trying to convince himself.


    His explanation, however, however only seemed to increase Cole''s anger, and it was a strange sight for all of them, Cole was usually the calmest from them as a self-declared candidate he knew that he had to be careful with his words around them who had powers backing him, but this was the first time he ever rebuked them without holding back.


    However, just at that moment all of their watches''s suddenly beeped which filled all of them with surprise because the only reason that all of their watches would beep at the same time was if Lirian did something.


    As they turned to look at their watch''s they all openly gapped because on it they read something that made no sense.


    [The Expedition has been cancelled.]


    [Communication functions are fully open]


    Then they all heard a voice on their watch''s but they also heard the live feed from just a few feet in front of them.


    {Attention all students, I''m calling of the expedition,} a weak voice filled urgency spoke.


    {Pack everything that you need and start moving towards the base as soon as possible, the extraction ships should arrive in a few hours, but keep moving until they arrive.}


    As soon as Lirian finished he was faced with five incredulous gazes, "What did you just do?" all of them shouted together, they were bewildered but more so they were outraged and so would all the students because of all their hard work over the past two weeks was now gone up in a puff of smoke.


    "I''ll explain everything later, but we have to get ready to leave," Lirian said urgently and forced himself to his feet, from his pained expression they could tell that he was in a lot of pain as he moved.


    "Lirian you just threw away all of our hard work?!" Media cried out with actual tears forming in her eye''s, this was the most stressful two weeks of her life, filled with ups and downs, and she just barely managed to succeed but now it was all gone in a second.


    "Do you think that I don''t realize that," Lirian snapped back but his voice was weak, "But if you don''t want everyone to die I suggest that all of you move out and start to organize the group for the departure," as Lirian finished speaking he broke out into another fit of coughs and fell to a knee, with his breathing running rampant.


    Just as Media was about to continue lashing out Edith stopped her and forced herself to calm down, she herself was struggling to control her annoyance at Lirian''s decision but she had to be a voice of reason at a time like this.


    "It doesn''t matter if we argue," she said to all of them, "The expedition is already cancelled and we can''t change that fact, I''m sure that Lirian will have an explanation for us when we return, but for now I think everyone should go and calm the students and prepare to leave."


    Her words were logical, and the others couldn''t argue against her logic, so after sending Lirian one last angry glance all of them headed back to the group.


    In the end only Edith remained despite her annoyance she wouldn''t abandon him, and it was clear to her Lirian would have a reason, as he never ever did anything without a reason.


    Lirian climbed back to his feet with Edith''s help but he quickly shook his head, "Edith you should go with the others it''s too dangerous for you to be near me right me right now," Lirian said with a hint of fear in his voice, it took Edith by surprise because in all the time she knew Lirian even when he spoke of going up against Telamon his voice never held even the slightest bit of fear.

 Chapter 178 - 178 – Hinata Come’s Forward

    From the side''s of Lirian, it didn''t matter whether, it was the group of zealots or the elites from the family that were following the emperor''s orders, all of them were stunned out of their minds.


    The current turn of events seemed completely none-sensical to them.


    One second the candidate all gathered together and spoke with each-other, the amazing thing to all them was the friendliness that all the candidates had to each-other was a shocking surprise to all of them.


    In almost every other batch of candidate''s, the candidate were rather unruly with each-other and always trying to out do each other, but from the atmosphere that this group gave of it was clear that they were close group of friend before they were candidates.


    But then the argument began, and it was a little more reminiscent of what a real batch of candidate looks like, but then to their surprise in the middle of the fight Lirian cancelled the expedition.


    On one side the elites form the families were wondering if Lirian was an idiot, after all the expedition was still bound to grant them great rewards despite the deaths, after all they killed a second-grade mystic beast, a third-grade mystic beast and they found ancient ruins, anyone of those would make for a super successful expedition.


    The zealots however felt a trace of worry because the only conclusion they could come up with for Lirian''s actions was that he discovered their plot, however they couldn''t see how they were found out, there was nothing connecting them to the two attacks, so it really made no sense.


    At that point they were watching closely, and they couldn''t help but tense up at Lirian''s words when he said that it was dangerous to be around him as he tried to send Edith away.


    Edith looked at Lirian with determined eye''s and instead of walking away from him she pulled him closer into her arms.


    "I''m not leaving you, not even if we were surrounded by a million seventh-graders and they were planning to kill you, I''ll be stay right by your side," she said fiercely and grasped onto Lirian tightly, her eyes were filled with resolve and determination.


    She didn''t know what the danger was that Lirian spoke of but she didn''t care she made up her mind, she would not be leaving his side no matter what.


    "grunt," Lirian grunted in dissatisfaction, but Edith didn''t care she wasn''t going to let him get his way, and he was too weak to force her to do anything currently.


    "You are always so smart, so why the hack are being stupid right now, go!" Lirian half shouted and half coughed as he tried to push her away, he could feel the danger growing in his bones and he didn''t want her to be anywhere any where near him when the trouble erupted.


    But his word seemed the half the opposite effect on her, a beautiful smile that would render Lirian speechless bloomed on Edith''s face as she looked at him because she knew that right now he was more worried for her than he was for himself and it was a dream come true for her to see that he cared about her so much.


    "I never thought that you knew how to feel afraid, let alone to be afraid for someone other than yourself," she said happily.


    "Edith please just leave!" Lirian pleaded with her but she only shook her head and smiled at him, she had no intention to leave his side for even a second.


    "You stupid girl," Lirian said weakly when his watch began to beep, as soon as it did he answered and he heard a voice he had grown used to hearing everyday of his current life.


    {Lirian,} Anya''s voice rang out, {What''s going on? I just heard that you cancelled the expedition?!} she said in a worried tone.


    "It''s just as I told you this is the prefect place for Telamon to make his move, I believe that he''s stationed a few of his followers here and they''ve been trying to kill me through natural means to make it look like an accident," Lirian spoke hurriedly.


    "I imagine that right now they are planning to show themselves, so I had to give up the expedition, Anya get here as quickly as possible," Lirian said and just at that moment he noticed the sound of numerous footsteps closing in on him and he grimaced.


    "Anya get here quickly, it seems that they have one last trick up their sleeves," Lirian said solemnly and hung up the call.


    At that moment Edith was completely shocked by Lirian''s words, but not as much as the two groups that were listening closely.


    Number One''s eyes constricted and prepared to attack immediately, but Number Three quickly stopped her, "Just let this one last attempt happen, if it fails we can act before his reinforcements arrive, even if it''s Anya Capriska she will still need at least an hour to cross the distance from the base to this place," she reasoned with Number One.


    Lirian''s word had taken them all by surprise, because they couldn''t figure out how Lirian knew the things that he did, because they were indeed trying to kill him through natural methods to make it look like an accident.


    Little did they know that Lirian discovered the strange contamination in the rock drake''s energy that alerted him to the fact that the drake did not wake up naturally and was instead forcefully awakened by a greater power.


    As they were lost in their thoughts group of over eighty students surrounded Lirian and Edith.


    Edith furrowed her brows disbelief at what was happened after Lirian''s ''brutal demonstration'' she never would have expected the student to dare to even think about attacking Lirian let alone doing it.


    At the lead of all of them she noticed someone she recognized it was one of Lirian guards Hinata, and besides her she saw another one of his guards, she didn''t what his name was, but he was an elf and a very tall one at that.


    Edith could feel slight fluctuations of killing intent roiling of them and it made her aware of the situation, while everyone was busy evacuating this group was getting ready to attack Lirian.


    But the most shocking thing to Edith was what Hinata was holding in her hands it was Lirian''s katana and from the look of things it''s strange effect wasn''t doing anything to her at all.


    Edith had felt it first hand when she convinced Lirian to give her a try at picking it, and it made her move at a snails pace, by the time she took one step, everyone else took at least a dozen, and if someone tried to pick up without Lirian''s consent the blade would release a burst of lightning in an attempt to kill them.


    But clearly this girl Hinata was different as she held it at her side without any trouble at all.


    "What do you think you''re doing?" Edith said coldly looking up at her.


    Hinata flashed her cold smile as she looked at Lirian with eye''s filled with killing intent, "You were such a cute couple, The prince candidate that everyone couldn''t take their eyes of and sung a hundred praise''s about and the highty-tighty princess candidate that felt herself better than all those around, you two couldn''t be more perfect for each-other, and since the two of you are together, I might as well kill both of you," Hinata said in a voice full of disdain.


    "Hump," Edith coldly snorted, even in the face of death she would never disgrace herself by showing fear, "You''re an idiot if you think you can get away with this," she said simply.


    Edith had no ideas as to why this commoner girl was trying to kill them but she knew that that is pointless to argue when she heard Hinata''s tone.


    It was obvious that she was one of those commoners who were eternally envious of the candidate, because of her abysmally low number of brain cells so she wouldn''t waste her breath trying to reason with a mad fool.


    Hinata''s little black eye''s fixed on Lirian who hadn''t said a word so far and seeing his condition she felt that it would be child''s play to finish him.


    "Who will ever know if we kill you, there is no one around here to see, and when we done mutilating your corpse''s it will look like some wild beast''s attacked you," Hinata said in angry tone, and clenched her fist, she couldn''t stand that tone of Edith''s it was just like Lirian''s completely condescending like she was nothing in front of her eyes.


    She faced Lirian with her cold gaze, "Why aren''t you speaking, are you so scared that you can''t even speak or are you so shocked by my plans to kill you that you''ve gone dumb?" she asked pointing the katana at Lirian.


    At that point Lirian only smiled lightly as if he didn''t think himself in a dangerous situation, "You don''t even know how to hold a katana properly and you think you can speak to me however you wish?" Lirian ridiculed her,


    He took a step forward and his entire countenance went cold, it effected even the air, "Even the thoughts and movements of gods cannot take me surprise!" Lirian roared with out any weakness in his voice and the air reverberated carrying his voice across the lands, not allowing the simplest of life forms to escape his divine words.


    ",and a lowly mortal bitch like yourself thinks that you have what it takes to evade my eyes," Lirian''s cold voice rebuked her and caused her as well as all those around him to step back in uncontrollable fear.

 Chapter 179 - 179 – To Strike Fear With Knowledge

    Everyone''s hearts froze over as they faced Lirian''s cold fury, despite his lack of cultivation, he was able to emit an other world presence that left even cultivators breathless.


    Lirian''s continence at that moment was incomparable to any thing they had ever felt in their lives and mixed with his blood stained body and his silver hair, that was dyed red from blood it made a stark image in all their minds.


    It induced terror in them, and they unwillingly took several steps back, despite being able to see how death pale and weak Lirian look at that moment.


    Hinata was completely over whelmed as she was the main focus of Lirian''s ire and she could feel her pants get extremely wet, and a look of fear and shame took root on her face.


    But at that moment she felt a strange force acting on her as if easing her tumultuous emotions of fear and ease, the feeling calmed her slightly and allowed her to be able to look at Lirian again without having her hairs stand on end.


    "Huh, stop putting on airs I can tell that you''re weak, it looks like you''re having a hard time just standing straight," Hinata coldly snorted as she got back her courage.


    As if her words held a special power even those around her seemed to have recovered from their fear slightly.


    ''So her boon grants her a type of false courage that allows her to resist my pressure, and at the same time she can share her boon to a degree with those she views as an ally,'' Lirian quickly analysed the change.


    ''I need to stall for a bit of time, it''s not Hinata''s power that I need to fear, rather it''s those zealots and the moment I finish of this group they will no longer keep hiding, but that to if I take to long they will strike anyway because they probably over heard my conversation with Anya, once Anya gets here even if they have fifty seventh-graders it will be impossible for them to win.'' Lirian thought confidently.


    Lirian took a quick step forward and pushed Edith behind him no longer allowing her to stand facing the crowd.


    Lirian could tell that she was unwilling to stand back and be protected.


    Edith was a very prideful girl after all, and she had absolutely no fear of death, as a candidate she would sooner tie the noose around her own neck, rather than beg for her life, after all in her philosophy of what it meant to be a leader, begging for one''s life was only allowed if one genuinely felt regret for something they had done, and right now she was facing a envious snot nosed brat who deluded herself into thinking that she was the pride of the heaven.


    What did she have to be regretful or sorry for, if not for the empress that girl would be a war orphan on Scavanour, if she was lucky she would have died as a baby, if she wasn''t she would have probably been turned into a brothel whore to entertain the soldiers and disciples of the sect on that planet.


    Yet she was granted a life of peace, with some of the best education in the universe handed down to her on a silver platter yet still she dared to have thoughts of killing the empresses son, such a person wasn''t even worthy to clean her toilet let alone make her beg for her life.


    Edith looked forward with her head held high, not even bothering to put them in her eyes, if they killed her than so be it, she wanted to stand by Lirian''s side and it annoyed her to no end that he stood in front of her to act as her shield, but as she looked at him she couldn''t stop her self from feeling moved by his actions.


    Men would always promise woman the world but when it came time to prove themselves, it was rare that they wouldn''t buckle under the pressure, but she could see that despite Lirian''s current state he had no intention to let even the slightest of harm fall upon her.


    Lirian carefully analysed the situation, and came up with his tactics to stall, "Is this all the trash that Telamon could find in the find in the school, honestly I''m unimpressed," he chuckled softly as he could tell that his words took Hinata by surprise.


    "You¡­" Hinata''s eyes flashed wide-open as Lirian pointed out that it was Telamon that put them up to this task, and from the tone of his voice it was clear that he wasn''t guessing, he was certain of it.


    "No need to look so surprised, as I told you before not even the plans of gods can evade my eyes let alone a couple of lowly mortals¡­" his voice held a disdainful air to it, as Lirian reached to that point he used the system to identify every person present and he slowly called out every last one of their names.


    A list of over eighty names came rushing out of his mouth and with each name the faces of every person was filled with shock and they cried out in surprise because as he called out their names Lirian faced them directly and they could feel his focus fix on them.


    Finally, Lirian called out Pollocks name and then turned to Hinata calling out her name, "Do any of you think that I didn''t know you were Telamon''s little spies that always watched me closely and reported my every movement to him," Lirian said with a disdainful sneer.


    Their eyes were all trembling with shock, and they couldn''t stop themselves from shaking, "You¡­you¡­you," they became incoherent and unable to think straight.


    Hinata felt her chest tighten up and suddenly it felt like she was caught in a trap if Lirian knew all their names and could call them out so confidently, it told her of just how much Lirian recorded and planned, they were watching him but he was watching all them, but more than that, while they were all noticed by him, not one of them ever noticed that Lirian was suspicious of them.


    "F-f-for how long did you know?" Hinata finally managed to form a coherent sentence to which Lirian coldly laughed.


    "Did you not hear me when I said that it''s impossible for anyone''s plans against me to evade my eyes, is it not obvious that I knew from the moment you began to work against me," Lirian said as if all their attempts at secrecy were futile and as if to prove his point Lirian began to call out the names again and mention every time they reported something about him to Telamon.


    His words were so detailed that everyone was half convinced that Lirian was present when they reported to Telamon, naturally Lirian was relying on the system that recorded everything and filled it away, for such unimportant matters Lirian wouldn''t even pay any attention to it unless necessary.


    In all his years of collecting fate particles, Lirian had used up most of it for spying on the actions of those that reported to Telamon and now it was finally coming in useful when he needed to stall for time.


    "As for you Hinata the first time you began to plot against me was on the day we met, when you went to get your cultivation technique at the end of the first day of the academy," Lirian stated it in a knowing voice.


    Despite seeing everyone''s shocked expressions Hinata still doubted the accuracy of Lirian''s words but at that moment she couldn''t help but tremble, because if Lirian knew from that point in time, it meant that he was always one step ahead.


    Standing behind Lirian even Edith couldn''t help but look at him with widened eyes, the more she thought she knew how brilliant Lirian was, the more she found herself being surprise by the layers of his plans.


    And the sheer length''s that he''d go to understand his enemy, as she watched him, she felt that even her parents, the Lord of Eden and her mother the chief advisor would be unable to hold a candle next to Lirian''s mind.


    The more she thought of it the more she felt that in Lirian''s eyes everyone must seem like children, attempting to play at the grown-ups table, and from the way he speaking about gods being unable to escape his eyes she couldn''t stop herself feeling that Lirian would regard even her parents as children playing at the adults table.


    It made her wonder more and more about who Lirian really was, she always knew how special he was, and from the things that he would say in his fury, she couldn''t help but feel like he was some reincarnation of a god.


    She wanted to laugh at the stupidity of her thoughts, but the more she thought about and joined it with his words and actions they more felt like it was somehow true or at least something close to the truth.


    She thought of his eye''s that looked so very old, and the pride that he carried himself with like he was an actual god, and also about how afraid he seemed to be about opening up about himself.


    The more she thought about it the more she was convinced of her own crazy speculations.

 Chapter 180 - 180 – Knowledge That Makes One Fear

    The fear that gripped everyone was incomparable, if Lirian knew of these things it was very likely that he recorded it somewhere, and if he knew about Telamons plans it meant that he''d have all their names listed as associates.


    If that was the case when they returned it was very possible that even if they killed Lirian and got rid of the evidence they''d be killed, but even if they didn''t kill Lirian they weren''t likely to be spared, they had just seen how brutal Lirian could be and as if confirming their fears Lirian began to speak.


    "You really are dumb if you think I didn''t know Telamon was planning to kill me, why do you think I made you my personal guard?" Lirian laughed at Hinata with disdain thick in his voice.


    "Just from how eager you were, you completely gave yourself away, allowing me to realise that you needed to stick close to me, I imagine that your main task was to give away my location and to try and split me away from the group if possible, but for some reason you took it upon yourself to try to kill me," Lirian laughed coldly.


    "Do you think that I didn''t feel your killing intent, it was pathetically weak by the way, but it was so easy to feel it, and don''t think that I don''t know why you suggested we lure the beasts to the waterfall during the beast horde attack, it was so that you could find a way to push me over,"


    "I can only imagine how happy you must have felt when I was dangling from the rock drake as it fell over, you should know that the only reason I swung back up at the last moment was to make you think that you got what you wanted, only to have your hopes dashed," Lirian laughed in her face and Hinata retreated.


    Hinata could tell that her every little attempt was completely seen through and it filled her head with thoughts of inferiority, however at that moment the person with the greatest reaction wasn''t Hinata rather it was Edith who stood behind Lirian.


    Edith''s face for the first time contorted into a look of pure fury as she looked at Hinata, she didn''t even feel this much anger when she found out that Hinata was trying to kill them.


    The main reason she felt so furious was because Hinata might have suggested the plan but she was the one who gave the go ahead, and in doing so if Hinata''s plan were to be successful, she would have been indirectly responsible for Lirians death.


    But just as she tried to push her way forward, Lirian caught her hand and held her back, as much as he wanted to teach Hinata a lesson Lirian still need to buy time, so far only 20 minutes had passed and even if Anya was moving at full speed it wasn''t enough time for her to be any where close to reaching him.


    "I wonder what did you think you would achieve by killing me?" Lirian asked in a teasing voice, from his tone it was clear that he thought her completely incapable of doing such a thing.


    Hinata''s eyes were filled with fury at the unfairness, the heavens truly gave her no chance at a real victory, but just at that moment Lirian snapped his fingers as if he figured it out.


    "I get it you thought that your wonderful mentor Telamon, would be so proud of you and that he''d praise you after showering you with incomparable gifts to aid in your cultivation," Lirian said in a sultry tone and laughed gleefully.


    "You poor, poor, foolish girl, how unbelievably dumb can you get, don''t you realise that after this is over if any of you manage to survive, it won''t be me or my mother that kills you it will be Telamon, and he''ll most likely make all of you take your own lives," as Lirian said that everyone looked at him with shock.


    Edith however only looked at them with a pitiful gaze, from the moment Lirian said that they were being used by someone to kill him, she knew that they''d be dead afterwards.


    Why leave someone alive that can become a potential problem later on, and the assassination of a candidate no less, such a crime was enough to get even an entire super world eradicated.


    "You''re lying, master would never do that to us, he isn''t like all of you nobles that discards the lives of us commoners, he takes care of even the most underprivileged of students," Hinata argued fiercely, the one thing in the world she could never stand was people speaking ill of Telamon.


    "Oh," Lirian''s face twisted into an amused smile, "Does he treat you nicely? Does he tell you how special you are every time he meets you?" Lirian asked with a smug tone.


    "I imagine that he compares you to the great cultivators you idolize the most, probably my mother judging from your fixation on me, and since you come from the same world?"


    "Does he tell you how similar you are to my mother the empress, and how you are destined to become a great cultivator just like her, maybe he''s already convinced you that you can meet the second the requirement to become a princess of the empire, won''t it make you just like my mother?" Lirian questioned in a voice full of pity as if he truly pitied her.


    Hinata''s pupil''s constricted as she heard Lirian''s mocking words, because it was words that she had heard a hundred if not a thousand times from Telamon, yet Lirian said all the things that Telamon would say to her, coming from Telamon those words were like divine honey to her that could ease all her insecurities, but coming from Lirian it was a poison taking root in her mind.


    "Humphry," Edith loudly harrumphed in disdain, after hearing from Lirian''s words and seeing Hinata''s reaction to it, she figured out exactly what Telamon was up to.


    "Truly a bunch of imbeciles so desperate for attention and to feel special about themselves that they''d feel like they owe everything to someone just for giving them a little bit of feigned attention," she said looking at Hinata coldly.


    "Telamon has been training you to make you into a zealot," Edith said and for the first time she said Telamon''s name with out any respect in her voice at all, this confirmed that every single one of Lirian''s suspicions were true.


    From this alone Edith could see the crime that Telamon was committing, those from the Paragon families, particularly those with high position were strictly forbidden from creating their own powers or followings, if they grasp too much power it was possible that they could use the secrets of the empire against the leaders to grasp onto even more power.


    Historically speaking it did happen several times and every single time it created chaos in the empire, thus it became a crime punishable by death.


    "Not just her," Lirian said loudly, "I imagine it''s the same for all of you, doesn''t Telamon give all of you pointers from time, and doesn''t he tell you how special all of you are, after comparing you to the cultivators you idolize the most?" Lirian questioned confidently completely certain of their answers.


    As Hinata looked around into the eyes of all those around her she could see that it was the same for all of them and at that moment two streams of tears couldn''t stop themselves from pouring down her face.


    The head master had always called her special and treated her like she was special, but looking around she could see that it was the same for all of them, the headmaster was lying to them.


    "No no no no no no NO!" she screamed, "If I''m not special then why did he chose me to get close to you?" she questioned.


    "Because you are in the same class as me," Lirian said like it was obvious, "And because you were the first to present yourself to him, so naturally he saw an opportunity."


    "They are really pitiful, but this is their fate for being stupid," Edith said with a sigh as she looked at them.


    "They aren''t just stupid they are also being controlled," Lirian said loud enough for all of them to hear him.


    As their startled eyes all fixed on him Lirian smiled coldly, "Don''t tell me that none of you realised, tell me after what I did earlier how many of you are so dumb as to try to attack me again?" Lirian asked.


    Edith looked at him strangely, "What do you mean they are being controlled?" at that moment even the zealots hidden were shaking in fear of Lirians knowledge and awaited his reply with batted breath.


    Not one of the zealots could figure out how he knew after all the device was on them and it was a calamity graded device, even the emperor would have a hard time finding the control links that were planted inside the students, let alone someone without any cultivation.

 Chapter 181 - 181 – The Truth Revealed

    Lirian hadn''t moved in all that time and remained fixed on the spot as he watched them with eyes filled with fury and ridicule this lot were truly pitiful in his eyes.


    "Heh¡­" he chuckled while looking at them and began to answer Edith''s question, "Telamon would make it impossible for anyone to know he was using students to spy one me, so naturally he''d come up with something to prevent any of them from spilling the beans on him,"


    "From what I''ve been able to gather Hinata has never lacked resource for cultivation, her speed of breaking through is impossible with her shitty talent instead she was given cultivation boosters and the same goes for this lot," Lirian said slowly pointing at the students.


    "Telamon used to be an advisor for 5 generations of leaders, naturally he knows exactly how to manipulate the hearts of people and some little children are even easier for him to bend and manipulate,"


    "To all of them the value of a cultivation booster is immense, it''s worth more than all the wealth they''ve ever had combined, so even the most shameless of them wouldn''t accept one when offered one,"


    "I imagine that Telamon decided to use an oath disc to create the illusion of a fair deal with them, they would offer to follow his orders as well as to never reveal that Telamonand spy on me and in turn he would give them the boosters and other benefits," Lirian said confidently.


    The part about the oaths was something that the system had discovered during it''s analyse of fate strings of people who were watching Lirian closely it would identify the mark left behind, in front of the system not even a god would be a able conceal a control mark, let alone some puny calamity grade item.


    "However what the fools did not realise was that they were not using an oath disc but rather a submission disc, so long as they gave their consent to follow Telamons orders they would forever be his puppets and unable to escape his control,"


    "I suppose that it''s to be expected they are just a bunch of commoners it would be impossible for them tell apart a submission disc and an oath disc," Lirian said with a cold smile.


    "I don''t understand why would Telamon still give them boosters even though he has control of them?" Edith asked in a puzzled manner.


    Even though these pitiful fools thought that the boosters were super valuable to Edith they weren''t she could buy boosters with her spare change if she wanted to, and the same went for Telamon however even for Telamon if her were supporting so many children it would end up costing him a considerable amount.


    Lirian sighed as he heard Edith''s question, "It''s as I said earlier Telamon is exceptional at manipulating the hearts of others, while it''s true that he can stop giving them resources it would make them disgruntle and unsatisfied,"


    "While they would have no choice but to continue obeying, their hearts would no longer be into it and they would no longer do their best to serve, Telamon understands the nature of people to the extreme, it''s what makes him such a capable advisor,"


    "A happy worker is a better worker and all the while they would be unaware that they had lost their freedom to Telamon eternally, instead Telamon nurtured them and treated them with kindness that no one else gave to them,"


    "Of course, he did this specifically because one day they would inevitably find out about the control and at the time he would remind them of all the good things he did for them and in doing so he would earn their true loyalty,"


    "That condition naturally depended on the promise they showed, if any of them showed the promise to become a capable zealot he would have continued to nurture them, however all of those here have failed his test and are doomed to die," Lirian laughed while shaking his head as he faced them.


    At that point Hinata had tears pouring down her face, but a look of anger and determination also filled her gaze as she wrapped her hands around Lirians Katana.


    She looked at Lirian with a look of pure hatred and killing intent and Lirian could feel it, but he merely laughed it off, "Even if your killing intent were a million times greater you wouldn''t be able affect me," he mocked her.


    "You''re lying about master," she cried through clenched teeth and poured her mana into the katana, she didn''t know much about sword fighting, but she saw Lirian use the <Strom Caller> skill several times so naturally she wanted to use it against him.


    "Now I''m going to kill and with you own sacred sword that you made," she laughed while looking at Lirian pushing aside all the things Lirian had said so far.


    "How does it feel to know that the weapon forged by you is going to take your own life," she laughed loudly while looking at Lirian, however other than that sneer on his face that was filled with disgust for her his expression showed no worry or care.


    She clenched her teeth and ground them together, as she realised that even in this situation Lirian didn''t place her in his eyes at all, ''No it must be an act of his to try to destroy my confidence," she reasoned after all, she could see how weak Lirian currently was with just a glance.


    Despite that unbelievable imposingness that still surrounded his body and stilled the air around him she could feel how weak his actual aura was, that method that he used to fight earlier clearly had dire repercussions on his body.


    Seeing his weakened state, a vicious smile appeared on her face, "You must be surprised that I''m able to hold your katana, no?" she mocked him and pointed it at him.


    "Not only am I going to kill you with your own weapon I''m going to take it for myself," she said waving it around.


    But her words seemed to fall on deaf ears, because other that that cold sneer that was plastered on Lirians face his expression seemed unchanged, if anything it seemed to me mocking her even more.


    "Tsk, tsk, tsk¡­" Lirian clicked his tongue and shook his head, "You really are the most pitiable person of all," he laughed.


    "To be a heaven chosen that is so stupid, I now realise why you need such a great boon, it''s to protect you from your own stupidity," he chuckled.


    Hinata''s brows furrowed in confusion as she looked at Lirian, she didn''t understand what he meant in slightest, ''Did he just call me heaven chosen?'' she wondered in disbelief, "What do you mean by that?"


    Even Edith looked between Lirian and Hinata in confusion, she was naturally more informed about such things as someone from a great influence, heavens chosen was more of a myth than anything else.


    It was said that in times of danger heroes would be born, heroes chosen by the world and that they would bring great change to the world, whether it was for good or bad one thing was known that in their wake corpses would litter the world and the oceans would be dyed red in blood.


    Lirian merely laughed, "There''s no need for you to concern yourself with that, clearly the heavens are hell bent on pushing you in my path, unfortunately, the heavens have given you too little to be able contend against me, and if you weren''t able to hold my katana it would simply be an utter disgrace to the boon you hold, so don''t go acting arrogant in front of me," Lirian chided her with the airs of a king speaking to a stupid village girl.


    When Lirian refused to answer her question Hinata felt anger surge through her body and right at that moment she felt her mana trigger the skill of the blade.


    A massive bolt of blue lightning along with a strange black glow on its edge came surging forth like a crackling whip, and it surged towards Lirian who stood their facing it without the slightest bit of worry on his face.


    As Edith looked at the incoming attack her eye''s widened, because she could make out the black light, from what Lirian had told her the black light it emitted was its destruction law and since that was the case Lirian''s energy control skill could not dissolve the attack.


    She pushed her way before Lirian not allowing him to stop her, she realised at that moment that she should have left, because she would only be a burden to Lirian if he fought, so she made up her mind she wouldn''t allow him to worry about her while fighting so many people.


    She rushed forward and stood directly in the lightening''s path, hoping that after it hit her it would lose its power.

 Chapter 182 - 182 – Despair

    "I''m sorry," Lirian heard Edith mutter suddenly as she dashed out in front of him.


    For the first time Lirian''s eye''s trembled behind the blindfold as he noticed Edith''s silhouette charging out before him, he could hardly believe his sense''s in that moment.


    It wasn''t just him but all the others in his head, all his other selves looked on in disbelief, because to them this was a first in all their lives.


    Lirian had Anya and his mother who he knew would protect him, but he didn''t know with certainty if they''d do the same if the outcome would result in certain death for themselves, yet right before him he could sense Edith doing what no one had ever done for him before.


    "Damn it, you stupid girl," Lirian shouted at Edith with perplexed emotions, he didn''t know what it was that he was feeling exactly at that moment, he only knew that he didn''t want her to die, he didn''t want her to ever die.


    Lirian forced himself to walk forward as the storm of violently pulsating lightning closed in on Edith, despite the tense air and the pain in his body Lirian wasn''t panicking nor was he afraid, after all he knew that it was impossible for the katana to harm him, it was something that he told to no one not even Edith.


    In the nick of time Lirian pushed his hand forward and brought it before Edith, as if he was releasing a special force from his hands the lightning darted away from him as if afraid of bringing him any harm.


    The lightning spiralled around Lirian and Edith creating a barrier of blue light around them, before slowly crackling and vanishing.


    The surroundings went silent as the lightning claps disappeared and it wasn''t only Hinata and the students that were left in surprise, so were Telamons zealots and the elites from the great families.


    Milan was looking on in surprise as she quickly crushed the protective spell she had formed to protect Edith and Lirian, she was now free to protect them since the expedition was officially called off, the only reason she didn''t act so far was because the things Lirian was saying had truly intrigued her.


    But she was now aware that there had been no reason for her to worry at all, as a seventh grader warlock, her mind was capable of processing things at an unbelievable speed, even if she only released her protective spell as the lightning touched Edith, she would have made it in time to save her life.


    As she came out of her stupor she realized that Lirian was speaking again.


    "What''s the matter are you surprised?" Lirian mocked, but more than that a chilling killing intent was present in his voice as he spoke to Hinata.


    As he spoke Edith Leaned back and fell against his chest, it had taken all of her courage to throw herself in front of that bolt of lightning, and she didn''t regret doing it, but her entire body was feeling numb after escaping with her life and she was still trying to process how it was that she survived the attack.


    Lirian wrapped an arm around Edith and held her firmly as he lashed out at Hinata with mocking words.


    "You''ve brought a protective talisman!" Hinata shouted in anger as she heard Lirian mocking her, "You''ve been cheating the entire time, it''s no wonder that you were able to defeat the rock drake and the mammoth!" she spat through gritted teeth.


    However her words were only met with a ridiculing laugh from Lirian, "kekeke¡­" Lirian released a bone curdling laugh that made everyone involuntary shudder.


    "You''re are truly trash, the heavens have granted you a boon like no other and yet you''re incapable of performing a forceful submission on my katana," Lirian shook his head to show how much contempt he felt for Hinata at that moment.


    Once more no one could understand what he meant by his words, and they felt at a loss as to what Lirian was getting at.


    Hinata didn''t understand him at all however the only thing she knew was that she was being insulted and ridiculed by Lirian, she clenched her teeth together so hard that blood started to seep out from her gums as she stared at Lirian viciously.


    She lifted the katana again and began to pour her mana into the weapon, then she began to swing the katana wildly releasing arc of lightning after arc of lightning at Lirian.


    This time Lirian didn''t even bother to raise his hand to ward it off, he remained completely still, while firmly holding onto Edith, as the lightning came close it reacted in the same way as the bolt that first arrived.


    It swerved as it came close to Lirian before surrounding Lirian like a shield, and each consecutive bolt reacted in the same way.


    Hinata panted heavily, a few strikes with the katana had drained almost all her mana reserves, yet as she looked at Lirian she could see that he was completely unharmed by her attacks.


    "Do you think that I''m the same as the trash from the empire who forged sacred items by sheer luck?" Lirian laughed coldly.


    "Unlike all those who''ve forged sacred items I''m the only one that''s capable of making alterations during the fate forging process, while I can''t change the innate nature and abilities of weapons I''m able to ensure the loyalty of my weapons," Lirian said slowly.


    All fate forged items held sentience, as such it makes the items almost like living beings, of course they can''t speak, but fate forged items hold a sense of awareness, for that reason it made fate forged weapons incapable of serving Lirian during his past lives while he was cursed, due to that he had to come-up with special methods to subdue fate forged items.


    That was part of what Lirian had done as he fate forged the katana, however his control could still be lost if someone was able to push it into a forceful submission, and for anyone with a heaven chosen boon, forceful submission would only take a little bit of effort.


    With Hinata''s boon it should be effortless however, she wasn''t able to do it, to Lirian that further cemented her position as trash in his eyes, and he was truly unable to understand what the heavens were thinking by blessing her.


    As he finished speaking Lirian stretched out his arm in Hinata''s direction and opened his hand as he did that five thin strands of lightning as fine as a strand of hair stretched out from the katana''s handle and reached out to Lirian.


    Each lightning strand met a finger of Lirians and began to coil around his fingers then they raced along his hand traveling up and down each finger.


    As the sensation of the lightning coursed through his hand a smile formed on Lirians face, "Now come to me," Lirian whispered and as if his words were a decree the katana that was still Hinata''s hand burst out from her grip.


    Hinata was clutching onto the handle tighter than ever as she saw the strands of lightning reach out to Lirian, it made her realise that something was wrong, so she was desperately trying to use her mana to sever the connection between Lirian and the katana, but it was no use.


    Then she heard a rumbling thunder clap loudly in her ears as a burst of power was released from the katana.


    It broke free from her grasp and she was powerless to stop it but more than that the blast was so powerful that it shot her flying backwards, until she landed on the ground with a heavy putt.


    "Ahhhh," she screamed miserably as she tried to climb back up, she could barely feel her hands and as she looked down at her hands another miserable scream was released from her mouth.


    Hinata looked at her fingers in horror all of them were bent out of shape and badly mangled, blood dripped from her and stained the soil as she struggled to bring herself up and look at Lirian, with a look of horror on her face.


    He wasn''t holding the katana in his hand instead the tip was pressed into the ground as Lirian used his bloodied uniform to wipe the handle.


    At that moment Edith was looking at Lirian strangely, "What are you doing?" she asked curiously, because just moments ago as the blade was coming closer to him it was releasing lightning as it closed in on him as if excited to return to its masters hand, however the moment it arrived Lirian slapped the blade and knocked it in to the ground.


    "Oh I''m just cleaning the handle," Lirian said nonchalantly, "You can''t really expect me to touch something without cleaning it after it was in the hands of such trash," Lirian said, at his words the air seemed to grow cold and even the katana that seemed to be full of excitement lost it''s spark.


    However only Lirian and Hinata detected a strange sensation from the katana, it resembled killing intent and it was fixed on Hinata.


    It was almost as if the blade knew that being slapped was its punishment and the reason it was being punished was Hinata.


    At that moment Hinata only felt despair as she realised that things weren''t going to end well for her.

 Chapter 183 - 183 – Buying Time

    Edith glanced at the handle that Lirian was cleaning and she couldn''t stop herself from chuckling.


    His clothes were covered in mammoth blood and mashed mammoth brains amongst other things, and he was using those same clothes to wipe the handle of the katana.


    If that wasn''t a back handed slap to Hinata''s face she didn''t know what was, Edith slowly glanced at Hinata and began to laugh mockingly at her plight, she could see her broken fingers clearly and the fresh tears running down her face as she stared at Lirian in horror.


    "It''s to late to regret now," Edith burst into laughter with a gleeful look in her eyes as she looked at the students who were now horror struck and slowly backing away.


    "Stop!" a shout echoed from the group as everyone turned to look they saw the elf Pollock standing in front of Hinata, while his hands were trembling slightly, he managed to control himself a little and stare at Lirian with a hateful gaze.


    Over the years, he grew used to being bullied in the academy, after all he was just an orphan without any background, while Lirian never went out of his way to bully them, Lirian had never batted an eye when other people bullied him.


    But mostly he remembered when he tried to challenge Lirian in the combat class, and Lirian insulted and humiliated his attempts to grow stronger by using tension forms.


    Lirian went so far as to take away his chance to earn some credit on the expedition, by claiming that due to his insistence on training in the tension forms he would be a burden in the field.


    It was infuriating to him, but now was his only chance to obtain his revenge, and he wasn''t going to let it slip away.


    "His not in a good condition and remember it took all his strength just to kill 30 people earlier, right now we are over 80 people strong, and he needs to take some time to gather up the energy to use the lightning strike from the sword!" Pollock shouted loudly to gather their attention and boost their confidence.


    Pah, Pah, Pah.


    The sound of clapping began to echo and as turned to looked at the source they could see Lirian facing them with a derisive smile on his face.


    "Well said and absolutely true," Lirian laugh and spoke as if it was no big deal.


    "I''d suggest you all stay to attempt to kill me, after all even if you escape from here Telamon will kill you once you return to the academy, I mean it would be better to die now then for you to prolong your lives to only be killed when you return home," Lirian said with a mocking smile.


    His words served to push them into the pits of despair and indecision, after Lirian had explained it to them they could see the logic behind his words.


    However at the same time they were completely flabbergasted because Lirian was actually advising them to fight against him in this situation, it wasn''t only the students that were confused, so were Edith, the elites from the great families and the zealots.


    Sensing the confusion Lirian laughed, "It''s just that I haven''t had the chance to kill so many people in a long time, I don''t want to waste this bit of enjoyment, to push people into despair right before killing them, there really is nothing more intoxicating in the world," Lirian explained to them.


    His words sounded like the chiming of bells from the lowest depths of hell, forget about the students even the elites and the zealots were terrified by his words, however only Edith didn''t seem to shocked, in fact a look of sadness formed on her face as she heard Lirian''s words.


    She had noticed it from the first time he fought the beast horde, killing seeming to be the only thing that made him feel alive, and his words right now affirmed her guess.


    The warlock Mallark from the Eden family who created the spatial world that the elites were currently in had a strange look in his eyes as he looked at Lirian.


    "Just what din the empress do to that child to make him such a terrifying person, he''s no different from a monster in the desolation with a personality like that," he remarked and many of the others nodded in agreement as they looked at Lirian.


    Lirian brandished the sword and held it to his side as he faced them, "Well will you come at me or shall I come to you?" Lirian asked with a smile on his lips.


    At that moment Pollock whispered something to those that were the closest to him, however Lirian was easily able to make to make out their words, and for the first time a frown formed on his face.


    "How about we make a deal!" Lirian said suddenly taking all of them by surprise.


    "What''s the matter are you suddenly scared, I thought that you were so sure about killing all of us," Pollock mocked with a smug smile, and his words reassured the crowd that Pollock was right, it would be impossible for Lirian to beat them in his current condition.


    "If you don''t attack Edith I won''t use the lightning ability of my katana," he said solemnly, his words took all of them aback even the elites and zealots, just a second ago it seemed like Lirian was a beast from the desolation but now he was willing to give up an advantage to protect someone, it was completely contradictory.


    The ones who were the most shocked was Pollock and those around him after all he had just whispered to a few of them to let the majority of the students distract Lirian, and while Lirian was distracted they would capture Edith and use her against him, yet it appeared that Lirian had heard them.


    "Do we have a deal?" Lirian asked coldly.


    Pollock hesitated and looked at the other students to see their stance, and practically all of them nodded their heads, it was only natural after all they had seen just how terrifying the storm caller skill was when used by Lirian.


    When he charged it with his silver energy it was at least a hundred times more terrifying than when Hinata had used it, and if Lirian was able to use it even once, there was a good chance that all of them would die, but since he was offering them the chance to avoid it they would have to take it.


    It would be foolish of them to not grasp the opportunity, and if Lirian was unable to use that technique they had a very high chance of being able to defeat them, however unbeknownst to them Lirian was merely putting on a slight act.


    ''I need to stall for time,'' Lirian thought to himself, that was the only reason he proposed that rule and feigned being worried.


    With the katana in hand he held absolute confidence in being able to beat all of them without using the storm caller ability, and he was confident in his ability to protect Edith.


    However if he used the storm caller ability he''d kill them all in an instance, at that moment he''d be dead without a doubt the moment he killed all of them, what was most important for him currently was to buy time until Anya arrived.


    On some level Lirian felt disgraced at his act, to have to rely on someone else to protect him, it was something that he never did before in all his lives, and it made him feel disgruntled.


    ''Stop over thinking things,'' Lirian thought to himself, ''If Anya wasn''t here I could easily escape with the geneses world,'' he reassured himself.


    In his many lives, he had been forced to escape countless time''s, after all with the entire world against him it was impossible for him to have gone about completely undefeated in every battle.


    There were many time''s that the battles continued to escalate with numerous experts joining in to kill him, if he was able to activate his esper cultivation under those circumstance, he wouldn''t fear anyone even if they were two entire grades above him.


    But due to his curse, once a battle started person after person would jump up to fight, even unreconcilable enemies would reconcile to deal with him, and his battle field would more often than not turn into a mass grave yard until he either killed everyone or someone far to powerful emerged and he had to retreat.


    However, this mortal realm was going to be completely different, because there were thousands of second accord experts in this world, and second accord combatants was something that only belonged in the immortal realm.


    In truth it was only the true geniuses of an era that were supposed to be able to create an elementary second accord technique and that would usually only be done once they were done with the mortal realm and ready to reach the immortal realm.


    Yet in this world under the great diviner Quaria''s leadership, she created an unbelievably powerful universe filled with second accord combatants.


    He could only rejoice at the fact that it was almost impossible for anyone other than himself to reach the third accord in a mortal realm, the main ingredient was almost non-existent in a mortal realm, but he had the means to create it.


    Lirian suddenly shook his head to push those thoughts aside as he faced his enemies.

 Chapter 184 - 184 – Circle Of Death

    Lirian stood straight up, as the group charged at him.


    He took a few steps forward to put a bit of distance between himself and Edith but he didn''t stray to far away either, he was uncertain if they would still try to attack Edith if he gave them the opportunity.


    Lirian took a step forward and braced himself, just as he prepared himself to listen intently and feel the vibrations through the ground he realised that there was no need.


    Lirian sighed at the inexperience of the students that were charging at him, he honestly felt that they were no different from a horde of mindless beasts.


    After all he was blind, if they wanted to make things difficult for him all they would need to do is regulate their breathing and approach carefully, had they done that it would have been possible for them to give him a little bit of a challenge.


    But instead they rushed at him stomping loudly on the ground, and some of them let out loud war cries as they closed in on him.


    Lirian pull the sword up quickly as the first person approach and with a quick thrust of his sword the first person was pierced through her heart.


    It happened so fast that no one could follow Lirian''s strike in one second they saw a woman reach him and in the next she slumped down to the ground completely dead. they couldn''t even see the wound the only thing they could see was fresh blood spilling from her chest area as the woman fell down without any resistance.


    "Careless," Lirian sneered and moved forward to meet the group not giving them any chance to retreat or think about what happened.


    Edith was watching things clearly as they unfolded and the thing that surprised her the most was that Lirian wasn''t using form merging, it was apparent from the fact that that completely savage aura didn''t surround him at the moment.


    However from what she could see that wasn''t all he wasn''t even using free striking, he was merely combining forms so in truth he was only using the second stage yet he was able to kill a cultivator so effortlessly if that wasn''t skill she didn''t know what was.


    Lirian trampled over the corpse and moved forward this time at least 8 people had reached him, using the flat of his katana he quickly deflected all of their attacks and broke the momentum of the forms they were using with ease, but he put on a false front to make it look like he was putting in a bit of effort as he confronted the group.


    Lirian cursed the fate conflux that he was currently under as he faced the group if not for the conflux he would have been able to use the system to identify the positions of the zealots Telamon sent, with that he''d at least be able gauge how many enemies were lying in wait for him, but as things stood the only thing he could do was wait for back-up and stall for time.


    As he confronted the group more and more people managed to gather around him, making it harder and harder for him to manoeuvre, as the group surrounded him they pushed their spears forward and used them like pikes to seal of his retreat and shut down their movements.


    "Crap," Lirian cursed, ''This formation is starting to annoy me,'' he thought to himself.


    "Don''t blame me, you guys asked for this!" Lirian shouted and stopped using the flat of the blade to defend as he turned the katana''s edged onto the students weapons the sound of swords shattering and the spear shafts splintering filled the air.


    The reason why Lirian decided to only use the flat of the blade to defend and didn''t attack the entire time was because of the passive ability of the katana destructive edge.


    The law of destruction was concentrated on the blades edge, due to that Lirian was able to cut through their weapons and erode them with completely ease.


    Once Lirian finished destroying their weapons he spun his blade through the air and sent it flying it spun like a wheel of death as it mowed down the group.


    Heads started to fall like rain in a storm along with hot blood that shot up from the decapitated bodies into the air creating a shower of blood.


    When the katana finally came to a stop it crashed into a tree coming to a halt, then the sound of bodies falling filled the air and when everyone turned to look thirty headless bodies crumpled to the ground in a circle all around Lirian, with their blood gushing out onto the ground.


    It was a circle of death that surrounded Lirian and his clothes were once more dyed in fresh blood, by now his clothes had multiple layers of blood.


    As Lirian faced the crowd he licked his lips that had a thick layer of blood on it, and a look of intoxication formed on his face.


    "Well then who''s next?" Lirian asked jovially taking a step forward as the blood rolled off his body like water.


    "Run!" someone shouted in fear, within moments the entire group began to backtrack in complete fear as they looked at Lirian.


    They stumbled through the grass and twigs on the ground, many of them fell over multiple time as they fled in fear.


    "Sorry to break this to you all, but none of you are escaping this place alive," as Lirian spoke five hair thin tendrils of lightning shot from the katana and wrapped around his hand.


    ''The devouring law that this katana picked up from the mammoth is really good,'' Lirian thought, the devouring law had two effects, it allowed the blade to restore itself by consuming things if it received any damage and the other perk it had was to share the energy it gathered with its wielder.


    At that moment it had just killed thirty and it shared all that energy with Lirian as it shot out of the tree trunk and back into his hands.


    Lirian grasped the energy using energy control on it dying it silver as it quickly expanded into a dome covering everyone in it.


    It was the same trick he had used before the expedition took off, as everyone looked at the area where the barrier started, they could see the grass and trees quickly withering away and being ground into dust.


    Needless to say they all knew what would happen to them if they ran into it, yet as some of the students looked between Lirian and the barrier they decided to try their odds, they pushed all the energy they could to the surface of their skin and charged into the barrier.


    Some of the weaker ones immediately began to cry out in pain as they pushed themselves through the barrier, ordinarily it might had been possible for them to push through with great effort and by completely exhausting themselves, however Lirian borrowed the destructive properties of the katana to create the barrier.


    Which made it unbreachable for such weak cultivators, as they moved through their flesh began to break down into nothing quickly turning into flakes in the barrier until all that was left was bone, however a short few seconds later even the bones began to break down and turn into dust.


    Not even the stronger ones in the group who had cultivated for longer were any different, just moments after they entered the barrier they started releasing screams of agony, and within seconds they either died or pulled back their limbs which was nothing more than their skeleton at that point.


    Those that were still contemplating heading into the barrier quickly shut down their thoughts and turned back to face Lirian, it was now clear to all of them that they were caught up in a circle of death.


    If they retreated all that awaited them was death, if they went after Lirian all that awaited them was death, however as they looked at Lirian it became apparent to them that the barrier was extremely taxing on him.


    Earlier they could see that he was in a weakened state, but now it was completely obvious, because for the first time they noticed that Lirian was sweating and his body was trembling slightly.


    Despite that they were still too afraid to approach Lirian, after all they had seen just how unfathomable he was a moment ago and that image of him killing 30 of them in an instant left them in absolute fear.


    "Someone grab Edith!" Pollock suddenly shouted due to the battle earlier Lirian had moved some distance away from her as they fought and their were several people that were closer to her than Lirian was, making it the perfect opportunity for them to grab her and use her against him.


    As soon as Pollocks shout was heard those that were closest to Edith immediately dash towards her, they knew that this was their final chance to get out of this alive.

 Chapter 185 - 185 – The Truth Of A Day Long Past 1

    During the battle Edith didn''t sit still, she knew that there wasn''t much she could do in terms of helping Lirian, so she slowly retreated behind the cover of a tree that was closer to the river and hide there.


    She knew that it was only a matter of time before the group reneged on their promise, and it wouldn''t be difficult for them to throw a spear her way while Lirian was distracted, if such a thing happened she knew that she needed to find cover and right after that Lirian would use storm caller.


    It was mainly because of the storm caller ability that she hid as she was uncertain as to how much Lirian would be able to control its destructive power, if he wasn''t able to handle it properly she knew that he''d hesitate to use it out of fear of harming her.


    The tree was the perfect spot for her to hide because she could use it as cover, and if the power of storm caller was too much she''d be able to escape in the river and get washed up down the river.


    Just as the students tried to rush at her a loud shout echoed and Edith recognised Lirian''s voice.


    "Bastards who don''t know how to appreciate my grace," Lirian roared loudly, as he shouted the centre of the silver dome started to cave in and the energy of the dome quickly rushed down towards Lirian.


    The energy rushed down in the katana illuminating in a glow of blue sliver, Lirian held it above his head and spun it around.


    It spun once and the feeling of death quickly reached them all, it spun a second time and they saw sparks of blue with a black edge radiating from the blade.


    Then Lirian spun it one final time and the lightning emerged like a carrousel of shining death.


    It shot out in a circle spinning wildly none of the students managed to get close to Edith when the lightning swept through them like an arc blade performing a full circle and sweeping all of them to their deaths


    The lightning didn''t simply cut through them, rather the extreme voltage incinerated them into mounds of ash and those that weren''t incinerated exploded on the spot.


    Edith looked around and felt a little embarrassed as she realised that there was no need for her to worry about Lirian''s control because there were two figures still alive from the group.


    Pollock and Hinata were still alive and it was apparent that the only reason they were alive was because Lirian had refrained from killing them, both of there faces were completely pale as they looked at the remains of the dead students.


    It was needless to say that not a single corpse was whole, and they could feel Lirian locking his focus on them, they had come with a group of over 80 yet now it was only them that remained while Lirian stood firmly.


    It was clear to them that that last move had taken an even greater toll on Lirian, but it didn''t stop them from shaking as they felt Lirian''s killing intent.


    Lirian took slow steps towards them but each step sounded like a war drum being violently struck, each step brought them closer to their deaths and they had no way to avoid what was coming.


    "Ahhhhh!" Pollock who was standing in front of Hinata as if he was her bodyguard suddenly screamed and ran towards Lirian wildly, as he approached a forcibly pushed his body to use free striking as he swung his sword at Lirian.


    Lirian merely sighed at his attack, Pollock might have thought himself brave but it was pathetic in Lirian''s point of view.


    Lirian effortlessly blocked the attack and chuckled at how weak it was, even if Pollock had used an ordinary strike it would have been stronger than the one he just delivered.


    That was the sad reality for those that try to use free striking before attaining mastery of the forms, if they force it their attacks will end up weaker despite them using more strength and stamina behind every attack.


    Lirian however wasn''t so merciful as to allow Pollocks attack to just be weaker, he forcefully deflected Pollock''s attack in a way to increase the tension on his muscles, for someone with as much experience in combat as Lirian such a feat was extremely easy for him to pull of against seasoned warriors let alone an amateur like Pollock.


    Pollock let out a guttural scream of pain and his sword fell from his hands as his muscles began to spasm violently.


    "Y-Y-You what¡­ did you do¡­ to me?!" Pollock cried as he got used to the pain that was filling his body he could feel it several of his muscles completely tore as soon as Lirian deflected his attack, in fact, it was more like Lirian''s deflection was a direct attack on those muscles that he used in his attack.


    "Kakaka," Lirian chuckled, "I told you that you weren''t capable of using free striking, the effect of free striking is no miracle that one is able to achieve simply because they want to or because they try really hard,"


    "The simple truth is that anyone and everyone is capable of using free striking, however for it to be used effectively one has to temper their body through training that would break your weak mind, but the most important part is to have a powerful mind, to be able to select your muscles with precision and use them effectively, it takes a strong mind to do something like that and that''s something you lack," Lirian explained to him in a ridiculing tone.


    "What did you do to me?!" Pollock shouted repeating his question, however, this time his voice held less pain.


    "Tsk, tsk, tsk," Lirian clicked his tongue in annoyance, "You really are an idiot did you not understand me when I said free striking requires one to temper their body, when I was six I had my mother tear every muscle in my body, then when my body healed I had my mother do it again and again, for eight months straight,"


    "Do you understand now, I tempered my body to be able to utilize free striking, something that someone as weak-willed as yourself is incapable of doing, your body is too weak so all your attempts to use free striking are detrimental to your body,"


    "I simply released a wave of pressure onto the muscles you tensed up to use free striking and once the wave reach the point where your muscles held the most tension it ripped your muscles apart," Pollocks eyes shuddered as he heard what Lirian told him.


    In fact, it wasn''t just Pollock he was looking at Lirian in disbelief, even the zealots and elites were in complete disbelief, they knew the method that Lirian spoke of to temper his body, but it was a completely unorthodox method, that practically always ended in the death of the person undergoing it.


    The thing that really took them aback however was Lirians mastery of free striking to be able to accurately determine the muscles his opponent used and deflect his attack with the perfect method to tear his muscle, even old monsters who created their own forms would struggle to have such mastery yet Lirian was able to do it with such ease.


    At that moment however a strange look flashed in Pollock''s eyes and he started to laugh, it was a lamenting laugh of someone who was unwilling to accept their loss yet had no choice but to accept it.


    "I see, it''s all because you''re the empress''s son that you got such an opportunity, if it were me in your place I''d have done the same¡­ I''d have done the same," he repeated his words and sobbed at the unfairness of the world.


    However, before Lirian could say anything a laugh was heard and as Pollock turned to look he saw Edith laughing at him and her laugh was clearly a mocking one.


    "You are just a country bumpkin, how have you never heard of the method that Lirian spoke of," she spoke ridiculing words.


    "Free striking is the method of combat used by those of the third-grade, because once they reach the reach the third-grade their bodies able handle it, however the method that Lirian used is an unorthodox method that only people of the second-grade who are desperate to increase their fighting ability use,"


    "However, no one uses that method anymore because of how low the survival rate is, now listen carefully because I''ll say this only once and hopefully it will get through your thick skull,"


    "Amongst peak second graders the survival rate is less than 1%, and that''s with the aid of some of the best healers in the world constantly attending to the person, and you think that you would be able to handle it don''t make me laugh, not even my father the lord of Eden was able to handle three rounds of tempering, let alone a thrash like you that cried out in pain after having a few muscles tear," Edith''s words were as sharp as blade''s ripping into Pollock''s mind and Lirian praised her for it.

 Chapter 186 - 186 – The Truth Of A Day Long Past 2

    "Oh and just one more thing, you''re mad if you think the idea of tempering my body was my mother''s idea, when she first learn of what I was doing, she locked me in a suit that made it impossible for me to move freely,"


    "However after several months of me attempting to use extreme means to temper my body my mother reluctantly agreed to doing it for me since she could see how determined I was to do it, you could say that I had to threaten my mother with my life to temper my body."


    When Lirian finished speaking the reality struck Pollock in his face, the truth was something that he found impossible to accept, and it wasn''t just him so did all those that were watching.


    From what they heard Lirian was just six years old when he underwent his tempering, for someone at that age it would be impossible for them to have the will power to endure the tempering, yet Lirian had done just that.


    Lirian strode forward and kicked Pollock against the ground, "Now before I kill you there is one more thing you should know, you said that if you were the one who was chosen by my mother you would have underwent the tempering,"


    "However, you should know that no matter what, it was impossible for you to be chosen because from the very start you lot were only brought to Xelia from Scavanour because of me," Lirian spoke suggestively and Pollock''s eyes widened in bewilderment.


    A million thoughts flashed through Pollocks head when he heard Lirian and he had so many questions that he suddenly wanted to ask, but that was the end of the line for him.


    Swoosh, the katana flashed, leaving a ringing noise in the air.


    In the next moment his head rolled onto the ground it was sliced clean from his body and it was apparent from the bewildered look on his face that he didn''t even realise that he had died.


    Lirian kicked the head and it rolled to Hinata''s feet where she had fallen to the ground without any strength in her legs a wet puddle soon formed around her legs as she looked at Pollock''s head.


    She could see his two long ears pointing up to the sky but mostly she could see his green eyes that had lost its light, becoming completely void of all life.


    Two streams of tears began to fall down her face as she looked up at Lirian with anger filling her gaze.


    Lirian could feel her intense gaze and a look of pleasant surprise appeared on his face, "It seems like that fools feelings for you weren''t completely one sided," Lirian laughed at Hinata without a care in the world, he didn''t know how to feel sympathy and he had no intention of learning how to do such a useless thing.


    Especially for someone that harboured the intention to kill him, there was a saying that said there is always someone that had it worse than you, however in Lirians view he was that person that always had it worse than others so naturally he''d never feel sympathy for anyone.


    Hinata wanted to reach out to grab the head of Pollock but as she looked at her hands she was reminded that they were completely mangled and broken.


    "You¡­ you said, that we w¡­ were only¡­ brought to Xelia¡­ because of you," Hinata sniffled and looked at Lirian for answers, she was aware that it was impossible for her to win, so the only thing left for her to do was learn the truth.


    "You want answers huh?" said Lirian whilst lightly shrugging his shoulders, then suddenly struck out with a kick catching Hinata in the jaw.


    It came as a complete surprise to Hinata as the brutal force from the kick completely shattered her jaw and left it dangling loosely from her face.


    "Sure I''ll answer your questions, but first I''m going to get a good bit of torture in, but don''t worry to much I won''t kill you after all, your testimony will be used against Telamon before his execution," Lirian said pensively.


    Hinata''s eyes contracted in fear, and in seconds she was screaming in pain as her flesh was being torn apart and bones violently crushed, in just minutes she had screamed so much that her vocal cords were tearing and blood began to escape from her throat and fill her mouth.


    "We should move and kill him now," a zealot suddenly said to the group, however to his surprise Number 1 stopped him.


    "The prince candidate is going to tell that girl the truth about his adoption," Number one quickly added, "If there really is a secret behind his adoption it''s obvious that the empress doesn''t want anyone to know about it, if we can learn about it we can send a final message to our masters it will help them greatly against the empress," Number 1 explained.


    The zealot called Number 2 shook his head slightly, "It''s obvious that the prince candidate is aware of us, he is trying to buy time for his back-up to arrive," he said thoughtfully as Hinata''s resounding screams reached his ears.


    "I''m aware," Number 1 said with a nod of her head, "but so what according to my intel Anya Capriska only has an advanced second accord technique, due to her battle experience it will be a little more challenging, remember all of my people are advanced second accord combatants so only a few of us will be needed to defeat her,"


    "We also have a huge number advantage, I doubt that Anya Capriska is capable of defeating all of us," Number 1 said resolutely.


    "We also have to worry about the elites from the great families we don''t know how many are here," Number 2 interjected with a firm stance.


    "We can handle them," Number 1 said firmly, "We''ll wait until the prince candidate is finished speaking do you understand, or do I have to remind you why I''m Number 1 on this mission," Number 1 said coldly her tone allowed no room for argument.


    Number 2 had a displeased look on his face but he could only suck it up and follow Number 1''s orders, it would be completely counterproductive if they had a falling out at that moment.


    Several minutes quickly passed by, Hinata''s voice had gone completely hoarse and she was left incapable of making a sound.


    Hinata slowly blinked her eyes open, hoping that everything that had happened was simply a nightmare, but reality poured cold water on her hopes.


    Hinata could feel her back pressed against something hard, but what took up most of her attention was the area in front of her where she could see a pair of extremely familiar arms and a pair of familiar legs, both lying in the dirt.


    ''Those are¡­" she thought in horror and looked at her hands and legs that were no longer where they belonged, but as she looked down she could make out a metallic blue sword handle sticking out from her sternum.


    It was only then that she realised it was Lirian''s katana that was pinning her in to a tree and she was powerless to do anything about it and she was incapable of speaking.


    The torture was still fresh in her mind, the entire time she was begging her body to fall unconscious, but it never happened, it was like Lirian knew exactly how far to go, before it became unbearable for her to continue enduring, then he''d begin a new form of torture.


    Every second was like a living hell for her and she could feel her mind on the verge of collapse.


    "¡­that was unfortunate," she could hear Lirian speaking Edith.


    "I thought her mind would be stronger, but despite me being gentle with my methods she still passed out," Lirian complained to Edith.


    "Oh, it looks like she''s woken up," Edith said looking at the miserable state Hinata was in, her face and body were completely disfigured, she doubted that anyone would be able recognise her after what Lirian had done to her.


    Edith didn''t feel sorry for Hinata at all, but still she found it hard to watch as Lirian tortured her, the only thing scarier than the torture was Lirian''s attitude about the entire thing.


    He was completely unfazed by the guttural screams of pain released by Hinata, it was like something he was extremely well versed in doing such things, and a look of elation filled his face as he used various methods to torture her.


    The hardest thing to believe however was that Lirian said this was a gentler manner of torture, to her it seemed completely unbearable.


    ''I guess that the son takes after the mother,'' Edith thought, she had heard a lot about the things the empress had done on a broadcast to a woman that was involved in her poisoning, that left her infertile.


    As such she couldn''t help but think that Lirian and the empress were alike, ''Unfortunately their similarities had to be in some thing sadistic,'' Edith thought with a sigh.


    "I believe that it''s about time for me to answer your question," Lirian said lightly taking a step towards Hinata.

 Chapter 187 - 187 – The Truth Of A Day Long Past 3

    Lirian rubbed his chin thoughtfully, he was still doing everything in his power to stall for time, but he knew that he was already at the end of his rope, if Anya didn''t arrive things would go bad really quick.


    But time was almost up, so he resolved himself to use the geneses world in his soul vault, grey gases began to pour out of the soul vault, and it leaked into Lirian''s throne world coming into the view of his other selves.


    It took on the shape of a orb and the grey geneses energy inside revolved with the sphere, despite its weakened state the orb held enough energy with it to incinerate half the universe, the reason Lirian was reluctant to activate it was because its activation would use up almost all its remaining energy.


    There were two creations that Lirian created which he believed to be master pieces, one was the system, which was created through the essence of many gods and great diviners, and the other master piece was the geneses world which he created after having an epiphany.


    The geneses world however, was imperfect unfortunately Lirian had originally created it as an imitation of a plain, within it the laws and rule of a plain became what ever he willed it to be, but it came with some draw backs that he was unable to fix.


    The geneses world required geneses energy to function properly, and it devoured such energy at an incredible rate, despite the amount of energy it held it was only enough for two activations, which was why Lirian was extremely reluctant to use it.


    Lirian brought it into the throne world and prepared to use it if he didn''t have any other choice, while doing that he pulled Edith close to him.


    If anything were to happen the two of them would enter the geneses world and run away, he didn''t care if he had to reveal some of his secrets to Edith as long as she survived it would be fine with him.


    Once his preparations were complete Lirian turned his attention back to Hinata, "You want to know what I meant when I said that the only reason you lot from Scavanour got to grow up on Xelia is because of me, very well I''ll tell you," Lirian said with a smile, but in Hinata''s eyes that smile seemed to be scheming something.


    "I want you to understand that your envy of me over all these years, and your attempts to prove yourself to be better than me, all of it was completely futile,"


    "I want you to realise that your attempts to kill me on this expedition are no different from biting the hand that feeds you because if not for me you would have been nothing more than an orphan on Scavanour,"


    "A child with no family, who would have had to grow up in a war torn world without any stability, you''d have been lucky to have survived in such a world, after all a girl as pretty as you would have most likely been turned into a brothel whore,"


    "Or a sex slave of some noble, if you don''t believe me when I say that you should read up my mother who you idolise so much, after my mother lost her entire family to the wars on Scavanour, she went through unbelievable hardships, far worse than you could possible believe," Lirian explained.


    Lirian knew that his mother didn''t have an easy life growing up, there was even a point in her past where the record described her as having gone insane, it was needless to say that she experienced somethings during her growth that would break most woman.


    Lirian focused on Hinata coldly and continued, "However, you didn''t grow up in such a Scavanour, you got to grow up on Xelia where you never missed a meal in a day of your life, your chastity is yours to give to who ever you desire, and the laws protect you from people taking advantage of you,"


    "But more than that you received an education that trillions of people throughout the universe would kill to receive, you got the opportunity to change your fate something that so few people are lucky enough to receive, however that wasn''t enough for you," Lirian sighed and shook his head in disappointment.


    "Now I''ll tell you the truth you want to know so badly, my mother found me long before she initiated the order to bring the unfortunate children of Scavanour to Xelia, however my mother didn''t want anyone to question where I appeared from,"


    "So, my mother created a PR event, my mother brought the war orphans of Scavanour to Xelia and secretly planted me on board the ship, as soon as my mother arrived the only person she intended to adopt was me because in her eyes I was already her son,"


    "Do you now understand just how pathetic your hopes were, do you realise that the only reason you got to live such a sheltered life, free from real worries was because of me?" Lirian revealed the truth to her with a cold decrepit smile.


    As the truth was revealed Hinata''s face twisted, however no one knew exactly what she was feeling because of how badly her face was mutilated.


    Edith on the other hand was looking at Lirian intently, the more she got to know Lirian the more unfathomable he became, and his current statement only further highlighted how unfathomable he was, with the backing of the empress to say that his future prospects were limitless was an understatement.


    Yet his true origins were unknown, with the talent Lirian displayed it wasn''t out of the question to claim that he could originate from one of the other great powers, or perhaps even the ancient families, in truth his existence was both remarkable and worry some.


    The chief advisor of the Eden family Milan Eden was listening carefully to Lirians every word and it fit the suspicion that she had, as well as the suspicion of Lord Callum Eden, and if they had such suspicions it was only expected that many other nobles shared that suspicion.


    Milan never expected that she would confirm her suspicion when coming here and it was a pleasant surprise for her she quickly turned to the others, from the looks on their face she could tell that they weren''t completely surprised by this information either.


    It was only natural, even if they all believed it in the beginning when the empress had just adopted Lirian, with how remarkable he was they would undoubtably become suspicious of the empress after all, to randomly adopt a child with such remarkable talent was unbelievable.


    She looked to the elites from the Eden family, "Everything you heard remains between us, no one is to speak of this until Lord Callum decides our course of action," after she gave the order she turned to the Jane family elites, in truth had the Jane family not had such close ties with the empress she would have silenced all of them.


    Noticing the strange look in Milan''s eyes the leader of the Jane family''s elites sighed, "Rest assured we''ll only speak of this with Lady Elizabeth," to his words Milan only gave a perfunctory nod of her head.


    There was a short silence in which nothing happened at all, there was a dead still silence in the air filled with tension and as it dragged on the dangerous air only grew more evident and soon Edith''s brows were knotted in worry.


    Edith wouldn''t claim to have any great danger sense, but even she could feel something amiss especially with how tightly Lirian was holding onto her, "Edith no matter what happens now stay close to me," Lirian whispered his words which only served to increase her worry.


    Even when they were faced with a third grade mystic beast she didn''t see Lirian show so much concern.


    Lirian quickly formed a link from the system to the geneses world, he knew that even with its fate prediction capabilities down its ability to process things was far faster than the current him, the moment it determined that he was facing certain death the system would activate the geneses world and protect him.


    With that taken care of he slipped three capsules out of his pocket, those three capsules were his signal flare for Alastor to come out of orbit and retrieve him, however right now they had one other use as well, a signal for Anya.


    Lirian had taken those capsules from the blaster Anya had given him with such a purpose in mind, each one of those capsules had the power to easily incinerate a third grade cultivator, Lirian wasn''t foolish enough to use it against Telamons zealot''s.


    At the very least they would have to be sixth grade to be able to move about unnoticed so the capsules would be useless against his opponents.


    Lirian threw the capsules into the distance and sent a swipe of electricity at the capsules, after a few seconds the entire ground began to tremble violently, it was as if a dozen rock drakes decided to jump at the same time as the violent energy of the capsules exploded outwards.

 Chapter 188 - 188 – Appearance Of A Zealot

    The explosion rang out loud taking everyone by surprise, the three capsules released a devastating amount of energy that ripped through the land and uprooted the trees.


    Lirian grabbed onto Edith and quickly ducked behind some trees, but that didn''t protect them much, because even the tree they hid behind, began to creek as the tree trunk splintered under the force of the blast.


    Even its roots were pulled up through the soil before the entire tree toppled over, sensing the bad situation Lirian scrambled around while holding onto Edith''s hand tightly and quickly evaded the falling trees.


    However a few seconds later Lirian suddenly went still and broke out into a fit of coughs, Edith grabbed onto Lirian, but she did so to late because he still fell to the ground with a hard thud.


    Edith''s heart tightened as she pulled Lirian back-up, he was vomiting mouthfuls of blood which dyed his teeth red, but most of all Lirian wasn''t even moving, if not for his constant coughs she would have believed him to be dead.


    Edith never believed that she would see a day where Lirian was in such a condition, and she knew that if not for his battle against the mammoth he wouldn''t have been in such a bad condition.


    Most of all Edith blamed herself if not for her Lirian wouldn''t have had to push himself so hard to protect her, she realised that the lightning attack Lirian used earlier had put him under more strain than he could handle.


    The only reason that he could still looked fine after that was because of his determination and will power to take care of Pollock and Hinata, but now that he had said his piece and got back at them the tension had drained from his body.


    Edith raised Lirian up and placed him onto her back, as a princess candidate she underwent rigorous training to strengthen her body, while she wasn''t a monster like Lirian who could take on dozens of first grade cultivators at once she was still strong enough to face a single cultivator and not die.


    Despite her strength Edith was still surprised when she picked up Lirian because of how light he was, she felt like her academy backpack weighed more than Lirian.


    As she started to move about she could feel something hot spilling onto her shoulder and when she looked down she saw blood spilling from Lirian''s mouth.


    Edith''s heart tightened as she looked ahead trying to figure out what to do now, she had Lirian with her and by now the students had most likely began to retreat towards the base.


    Edith knew that the threat was resolved but a sense of unease filled her, as she moved about.


    "You¡­ n-need¡­ to bring¡­ Hinata¡­" Lirian muttered in a hoarse voice.


    Edith sighed in relief as she heard Lirian his voice might have been weak but at least he was talking, Edith was doubtful about Hinata''s survival after the blast, but she still turned to look at where Hinata had been and she was surprised to say the least.


    Hinata was still pinned to the tree and that tree was standing tall as if completely unaffected by the blast, Edith began to doubt her eyes because it wasn''t that the tree wasn''t in blast radius, it was apparent that it was because all of the surrounding trees were uprooted.


    Only the tree that Hinata was pinned to remained standing perfectly straight while the other trees were up turned or broken on the ground.


    Edith took a step towards Hinata, she knew that she didn''t have time to get caught up in the details, and she lightly mumbled to herself in disbelief as she approached Hinata.


    ''Her luck is unbelievable,'' Lirian thought to himself but it didn''t come as too much of a surprise to him as he recalled Hinata''s boon.


    Lirian remembered facing a chosen once, and despite completely defeating him, a spatial crack opened up in the aftermath of the battle and sucked the chosen into it.


    Lirian didn''t dare to enter it because of how dangerous the spatial crack was but several centuries later he encountered that chosen again, it was because of that incident that Lirian knew that the luck of a heaven chosen wasn''t something to be scoffed at.


    Edith took a few steps in Hinata''s direction when a figure appeared blocking her path she took a quick glance at the person only to see her completely clad in a black outfit, that made it hard for her to judge the gender of the person before her.


    Edith felt a burst of aura emanating from the person before her, "Who... are y¡­" Edith found it hard to move to speak in the persons presence let alone move.


    She felt her entire body over come by some form of pressure which she immediately recognised to be life hierarchy suppression, and the pressure was no ordinary pressure, Edith immediately recognized the level of pressure.


    Edith stumbled back with weak legs and her face twisted into an unwilling expression, the level of the person in front of her was a seventh-grader, as a candidate she had underwent all kinds of training one of the more difficult things she trained in was learning how to resist life hierarchy suppression.


    Edith didn''t have much success in that area of her training but she knew how to identify the different levels of life hierarchy, and right now she was an ordinary mortal facing a seventh grader, to the current her the person before was akin to a god who she was powerless to defend against.


    "Don''t panic," she heard Lirian mutter in her ear and he grabbed onto her shoulder firmly.


    His voice and his touch were a akin a light in the dark to Edith she felt her strength return to her body but more than that she felt her mind settle down from just a few words of Lirian.


    Edith took a step back and she was surprised to find that the pressure was gone, she looked to the figure in black robes wondering why she released her pressure but upon looking she saw a trace of disbelief in the black robed person eyes.


    "Run while she''s still confused," Lirian urged Edith but she turned to look at him with an equal amount of disbelief on her face.


    It was then that Edith realised that a special kind of power was seeping into her from Lirian, it didn''t give her any strength, but it completely negated the effect of the life hierarchy suppression she was experiencing.


    "How are you blocking my suppression!?" the black robed person asked with a shaken voice and the tone of her voice gave away that she was female, she directed her question at Lirian, evidently she heard what Lirian told Edith.


    ''Crap,'' Lirian thought as his last bid for time failed he tried to get Edith to run but she was to surprised herself by what he was doing, ''Ah well it''s not like Edith would have gotten far anyway,'' he sighed to himself.


    Edith was shocked when she heard a woman''s voice coming from the black robed figure, not because the figure was a woman but because Lirian was able to identify the persons gender in an instant despite being blind.


    "You want to know how I can resist the life hierarchy pressure?" Lirian asked with a chuckle but his voice was incredibly weak and hoarse, and from the way he spoke it was as if he was expecting this person to appear all along.


    "If you want to know I''ll tell you but why don''t you tell all your other friends to come out first, I want to see how much Telamon invested in trying to kill me before I die," as Lirian finished speaking he was surprised to find that the zealot had no response to him mentioning Telamons name.


    "Oh," Lirian said suddenly with a thoughtful smile, "If you''re not one of Telamon''s then you must be one of Efrideet''s," a bloody smile appeared on Lirian''s face as he heard the zealot''s heart accelerate it was for barely even a second but Lirian heard it clearly.


    "Huh, Efrideet is tougher than I gave her credit for, to have been able to contact and command her zealots despite the state that she''s in, I''m slightly impressed," Lirian said with a weak chuckle.


    Lirian knew that Efrideet was suffering severely after she attempted to sever his fate string, since he is a chosen and Efrideet tried to kill him she was most definitely suffering from the a curse from the heavens and it would only dissipate if either she managed to make to a break through in her cultivation or if Lirian made a breakthrough in his own cultivation.


    "Well will you call out your friends, I mean I''m completely powerless to do anything against you," Lirian said innocently.


    Unbeknownst to all of them, in a place hidden, in a place lost, in a place that never existed three sets of eyes peered onto the unfolding events.

 Chapter 189 - 189 – The Spectre’s In A Place Lost

    In a place hidden.


    In a place lost.


    In a place that existed no more.


    Three pairs of eyes peered through the barriers of reality and fixed their gazes on to the events within the conflux of fate.


    Each set of eyes were distinct in a striking manner filled with power that only gods could compare to, the first pair belonged to a woman whose eyes were violet like a mixture of purple auroras and shadows.


    The next figure was also a woman her eyes held a stark contrast to the other woman''s whose eyes held a powerful darkness within, her eyes instead were a brilliant sapphire blue that could illuminate the skies on the entire world.


    Lastly was a man and his eyes didn''t lose out in the slightest when compared to the two women beside him, for his eyes were a sterling silver, that seemed to hold every star, galaxy and universe they had ever gazed at within.


    His eyes were the type that even gods would lose themselves within, however those silver eyes were filled with pain as crystal like tears formed within them, as the tears left his eyes they vanished into nothing.


    "My love," the blue eyed woman looked at the silver eyed man with a sorrowful gaze, she brought her hand to stroke his face, but her hand passed through him, it disappointed her but it didn''t take her by surprise.


    She was just a shadow or a spectre of her former self, all three of them were the same, besides their eyes the rest of their bodies were made up of an illusory fog, such was the price they paid for a spell they had cast in a time that would never come to pass again, or at least that was their hope.


    Things were already looking different from the past they had lived, and hopefully the spell they cast would have been worth it, it was a desperate hope of theirs, but it was also their only hope.


    The blue eyed woman looked to the silver eyed man with warmth and tenderness in her eyes, her only sorrow was that he couldn''t feel her touch.


    "My love," she uttered once more this time her voice was gentle, "Do not blame yourself for what is to come, we steeled our resolve a long time ago and now it''s time for me to disappear," she said with a few glistening drops appearing in the corners of her eye.


    The silver eyed man suddenly turned his head to her, with even more pain in it than ever before, but this action completely took both her and the violet eyed woman by surprise.


    In truth only the silver eyed man cast the spell that put them in their current state, had he done it alone he would have been sealed away in an isolated world of solitude, so they insisted on joining him, no matter what they couldn''t leave the man they loved to endure the torment of time all by himself.


    After joining him in casting a spell that not even the combined third grade gods of two plains could do he was left in a vegetable like state, unable to move unable to speak, his body became a prison and they were powerless to relieve his suffering.


    The only thing the two of them could do was keep their husband company, and since the spell was cast so many years had passed that they stopped counting.


    The action of him moving gripped their heart and the two-woman looked on expectantly as the illusory mouth of their husband struggled to moved.


    In the end no sound came out of his mouth but his eyes were fixed tightly on the blue eyed woman, and by reading his lips she could make out what he was saying to her, I-I-I''m s-s-soor-r-ry¡­ E-e-ed¡­'' his mouth stopped twitching and a look of fatigue appeared in his eyes as they welled up with more crystal like tears.


    The blue eyed woman felt her heart ache, it was evident that her husband had used all his will power and strength to communicate with her, but despite his best effort he couldn''t even finish her name, then his eyes snapped away with all his focus on the scene of Edith carrying Lirian on her back, but he didn''t seem to interested in what was happening.


    It was if he had already determined the outcome off what was to come.


    ---


    Edith''s sapphire eyes contracted as Lirian revealed the identity of their assailants, she didn''t doubt anything that Lirian had told her earlier, but seeing was believing, seeing the zealot was the absolute proof that someone was actively trying to silence Lirian.


    "Now I''m certain that this is a joint effort between Efrideet and Telamon, if you reveal yourselves I''ll tell you exactly how I''m able to resist life hierarchy suppression, and you know my method can help first accord cultivators resist the increased pressure brought about by second accord cultivators," Lirian said enticing them.


    Lirian knew that no matter what power someone came from or how noble they were as long as they were cultivators there were certain things that could entice them, no matter how strong willed they were.


    The zealot that was facing Edith and Lirian cast a quick glance in her surroundings, she knew that knowledge was useless to all of them, but they were planning to send a message to their masters about the secret behind Lirians adoption.


    If they could learn how to negate life hierarchy suppression across different accords and pass the intel to their masters it would make a huge difference.


    The zealot wasn''t surprised when the shadows started to emerge all around Lirian, twenty silhouettes soon climbed out of the shadows forming a circle around Lirian and Edith.


    Even Lirian was slightly surprised by the number that surrounded him, after all they were all seventh graders and just one was already over kill, at most he was expecting 10 zealots to attack him, but now he was confronted with twenty and only idiots would reveal all their strength from the start.


    Lirian figured that their number might even be double what they showed, and he couldn''t help but feel smug about the number of seventh graders that came to assassinate him.


    In truth this was the first time that Lirian was living in such an advanced interstellar era in the mortal realm, normally he would be confined to the world he was born in until he reached the fourth grade, by that period he had methods to transfer himself to other worlds.


    But no matter which world Lirian went to seventh graders were the legends amongst legends, each and every one of them was viewed as a god by the commoners and even other cultivators.


    Most worlds wouldn''t have more than a hundred seventh graders and the extremely advanced ones would have a few hundred at most, yet right now as an ordinary mortal, he was faced with a number of cultivators that would rewrite the entire power structure of the worlds he came from.


    ''Even my curse was unable to get me, such powerful enemies, while I was an ordinary mortal,'' Lirian lamented to himself.


    "Tell us about your ability and we''ll give you a quick death," a man said loudly, based on how all the other zealots fell into silence before he spoke Edith believed that he must be someone with authority in the group.


    That was indeed the case as the man speaking was Number 2 and he was the leader of Efrideet''s zealots that came to assassinate Lirian, in the group of twenty it was only Efrideet''s zealots that appeared, while Telamons remained hidden.


    "A quick death," Lirian said, "From my understanding it''s a zealots duty to get things done as quickly as possible, your assassins since when did assassins give their targets a slow death," Lirian ridiculed, his attitude taking everyone by surprise.


    Even Edith was shaking like a leaf with her knee''s threatening to give out at any second yet Lirian spoke as if the people before him were ordinary commoners unworthy of his attention.


    He even decided to ridicule his assailants in a condescending manner, and he went so far as to tell them how to conduct themselves, which only served to evoke Number 2''s fury.


    Number 2 turned his gaze to Edith and looked her up and down with a filthy gaze, "It''s okay if you don''t want to tell us but if you don''t I''ll take your pretty girl friend right in front of you I know that your blind but I can have one of my psychics share their vision with you," he laughed coldly as Edith took a step away from him but she could still feel his gaze locked on her eyeing her body like a depraved beast.


    "If that isn''t enough for you I''ll be more than happy to pass her around, we might be zealots but well men have their needs," Number 2 said with a light shrug of his shoulders and a cold smile on his face.

 Chapter 190 - 190 – The Perks Of A Godly Constitution

    Lirian felt a raging fire building up in his stomach, it was a type of fury he never really experienced before, hearing someone speaking about his woman in such a manner made him want to rip the zealot inside out.


    ''Huh, so this is how all those men Penn (Number 14) felt like when he told them he was going to turn them into cuckholds,'' Lirian thought with surprise, his past self, Penn, had made it a habit of attacking men by playing with their wives and lovers, then he''d brag about it in their husbands faces.


    That thought allowed Lirian to regain his calm, and a grating laugh sounded from the bottom of his throat.


    "Jejejeje," Lirian laughed coldly facing Number 2, "You want to know my secret," Lirian said with a hint of ridicule in his tone.


    "Very well since you want to know so much I''ll tell you," Lirian said with a sly smile.


    "In truth you should know that unless someone is a true god it''s impossible for me to be effected by their life hierarchy suppression," when Lirian finished speaking a smile creeped onto his face, he knew that they wouldn''t believe him, but that was the truth.


    Lirian didn''t expect them to believe him because such a technique would be completely heaven defying, and to Lirian''s knowledge no such technique existed, the only reason he was able to completely resist and negate life hierarchy suppression, was due to his godly constitution.


    Life hierarchy suppression is a form of dominance used against those whose bodies have limits, cultivation is how a person breaks the limits of their bodies however so long as they face someone with a substantially higher cultivation the suppression will affect them.


    In Lirian''s case it was completely different as he was born a god his body had no limitations; it was evident from how his stats in the system were able to exceed the mortal limitation of twenty without him cultivating.


    In the world of cultivation there were several types of special bodies people could be born with, in order they were, royal bodies, emperor bodies, heavenly bodies, divine bodies and lastly godly bodies.


    The special body constitutions were extremely rare, to Lirian the godly constitution had always been a myth, something he theorised but was unable to confirm, because his theory showed that a godly constitution was only possible for someone who was born as a god, which he believed to be impossible until his current life.


    As for the other special body constitutions they were extremely rare, divine constitutions only existed in the immortal realm and they were exceptionally rare, Lirian doubted that there would be more than a hundred within each of the five existing and operating universes of the plain.


    As for heavenly bodies in the seven great civilizations only two existed, one was her majesty Esmeralda Titania the current queen of the Titania Empire and the other was Emperor Albus Clovis, the current emperor of the Clovis Empire and Lirian''s adoptive father.


    Lirian faced Number 2 with a mocking smile on his face and broke out into a fit of laughs, "While life hierarchy suppression has no effect on me I''m afraid that thrash like you is incapable of learning my methods," Lirian mocked him venting his anger.


    It would be a lie if Lirian said he didn''t want to rip apart Number 2 for what he said about Edith but for the current him it was impossible to do such a thing, so instead he went with ridiculing the zealot.


    In Number 2''s eyes no matter how talented Lirian was, he was still an ant, for him to be ridiculed by someone he viewed to be an ant was beyond infuriating.


    Edith couldn''t see Number 2''s face but the she could clearly hear his teeth grinding together, sensing the fury of Number 2, Edith no longer felt afraid she came to terms with the fact that she would most likely die here, so she finally got rid of her fear and felt a deep sense of admiration for Lirian''s ability to rile up their enemies.


    "Grab the girl!" Number 2 roared at the zealot''s, he wasn''t the only one overcome by anger, Lirian played all of them into appearing only to ridicule them, it was only natural that the others were angry too.


    "Since you can''t appreciate the grace I''ve shown, we''ll do this the hard way," Number 2 shouted at Lirian in anger.


    As the other zealots moved a sudden bone chilling ice appeared, it did nothing to Edith and Lirian but the zealots slowed down significantly, under the influence of the cold, they came to a halt and looked for the source of the coldness.


    "I shall see who dares to touch my daughter," an ice cold voice sounded and several million thorns of ice came raining down, in just a second the entire region had become a world of snow and ice, covering everything in Edith''s field of view, the falling ice thorns forced the group of zealots to retreat back.


    Edith was hardly paying attention to the zealots her focus was solely on the voice she had heard as it was one she remembered extremely well and longed to hear all the time.


    Edith felt like she was spinning in circles as she scanned the vicinity, when suddenly a group of twenty people appeared just a step away from her, it was as if they had been there the entire time, but her eyes remained fixed on only one person.


    Edith felt her eyes well up with tears, because it was the first time in her life that she was able to see her mother in the flesh, in the families children aren''t allowed to meet their parents unless they have made numerous achievements, and for someone like Edith whose mother was the chief advisor and her father who was the Lord of the Eden family meeting them was a very distant dream of hers.


    As a candidate she was supposed to be able to meet her mother before embarking on her 200 year trial, but after her attempts to help Lirian against Telamon, her mother declared that she would not see her off, it was a source of pain in her heart and she still blamed Lirian for it but now she got to see her mother.


    Edith stared fixedly at her mother taking in everything about her, and her mother was a true beauty with a beautiful bronze skin tone, breasts that were almost twice the size of her own, and saliva inducing curves, Edith inherited her eyes, however the only thing about her mother was that she held an extremely cold and aloof disposition making it appear impossible to approach her.


    "M-Mother," Edith stammered nervously.


    Milan looked at Edith but the coldness didn''t disappear from her eyes as she looked at Edith, "Hush now, you are still being punished for what you did," Milan answered her.


    "However if your gamble was correct and his majesty the Emperor finds his excellency Telamon guilty, I will meet with you before you go on your trial," Milan added quickly, from her tone it was clear that that was all she would say to Edith for now.


    Edith didn''t dare to say anything else, she knew her mother''s temperament well enough, but a smile bloomed on her lips as she learn that there was a chance her mother would see her off.


    Now that her mother appeared Edith had no doubt that she would be able survive the ordeal, it was like all her worries had been silently washed away.


    "What the hell are you people doing here!" Lirian shouted weakly he was still weak from the battles earlier, but the elites could feel his anger and a trace of killing intent that locked onto all of them.


    Lirian''s anger was no false front and he truly wanted to kill the elites that appeared in front of him, his reaction took everyone by surprise including Edith, his tone held not even the slightest bit of respect for them by comparison it could be said that he was cordial with the zealots when compared to his treatment of the elites from the great families.


    "Saving your life!" Milan answered coldly one could feel the displeasure in her voice from the way Lirian spoke to her.


    "Like I needed your help to survive!" Lirian spat coldly, "I already had a way to escape from them with Edith," his words shocked everyone, after everything they had witnessed Lirian do they knew that he wasn''t one to make such things up, but all the elites still looked at him coldly.


    They did appear to save him, yet he was speaking to them like they were criminals.


    "I hope for the sake of your entire families, that you are here under the emperor''s orders, because if I have to pay the price for your appearance here you will sincerely regret this day," Lirian threatened.


    It was then that the elite''s eyes widened in realisation and they understood why Lirian was completely enraged by their appearance.

 Chapter 191 - 191 – Lirian And The Emperor

    The elites from the families widened their eyes in realisation.


    Them being here would easily be seen as the Eden and Jane families aiding both him and Edith on the expedition, even though they didn''t help until the zealots attacked the truth could be twisted by any nobles with ulterior motives.


    Should such a thing happen they would lose their positions as candidate''s, for Edith it would be fine as she had the Eden family to fall back on, but for Lirian the case was completely different.


    Lirian was adopted, as such he did not belong to any faction or family, even with the empress''s backing she would no longer be able to recognise him as her son and they would be forcefully separated by the law of the civilization.


    That was the reason that Lirian was so angry, if something that would force his mother to cut off ties with him were to happen, Lirian wouldn''t hesitate to make an enemy of the entire world for his revenge, because to him his relationship with his mother was more important than anything else.


    Lirian didn''t worry too much about Alastor''s arrival, the reason he wanted Alastor to come down only after he gave the signal was because his personal fleets logs would record everything including Alastor''s movements, with that even he got into trouble for having back-up he''d have proof that Alastor didn''t interfere with the expedition.


    Milan continued to look at Lirian coldly but her annoyance seemed to lessen as she understood why Lirian was being so disrespectful, she could see from his behaviour just how much he valued his mother.


    Milan was about to open her mouth to speak, when the watch on her hand began to light up, before she could do anything it accepted the communication request without her approval and immediately black lines appeared on her forehead as she heard the voice of an AI speaking.


    {Master the inferior beings are so stupid they didn''t even realise that I tapped into their communication devices the entire time and recorded everything they did since arriving on the outlier planet.} the AI chimed in a self-satisfied matter.


    Without even looking Milan knew that the person that tapped into her communicator was the emperor, Milan looked displeased as the AI insulted her, but evidently she had taken it better than the rest of the group.


    All of the them were the top of the crop elites in their families yet they had to take such insults from an AI and they couldn''t say anything about it, because it was the AI of the emperor.


    "I swear if I ever find where that AI''s personality module is housed I''m going to destroy it," Mallark whispered to Milan, at his words Milan''s lips curved upwards slightly before quickly turning back to their cold and aloof state.


    {Master, master the fatty Mallark, titled ''The Human Barracks'' has threatened my existence, this good AI demands justice, this good AII demands justice.} the AI repeated and began to emit a siren sound.


    Mallark''s face went pale suddenly and he cursed at the AI in silence not daring to say another word aloud, he said the words so that only Milan could hear them yet somehow the AI picked it up, everyone in the empire knew that the AI was special and that the emperor had went through a lot to create it this was Mallark''s first time witnessing one of its abilities.


    "Forgive Mallark for now little light," a majestic voice was heard over the communicator and the image of the emperor levitating into everyone''s field of view appeared, "I''m sure that Mallark didn''t mean what he said," the emperor said in an amiable tone with a light smile on his face.


    "Forgive me your majesty I was merely jesting," Mallark said quickly and fell to one knee giving a deep bow, and quickly everyone followed in his example.


    Edith was lost in disbelief for a second as she saw the person on the hologram, she wanted to bow but Lirian was still on her back, sensing her intention Lirian slid of her back and stood on his own two feet with a bit of effort as Edith bowed her bow was even deeper than the rest as she fell to both knees and kowtowed.


    While the twenty elites and Edith bowed in respect only Lirian remained standing not even bending his waist in the slightest, he knew who it was that appeared on the communicator, but he didn''t show the slightest respect that he should have.


    Albus noticed the oddity and he gazed at Lirian intently looking at him closely, he could tell with a glance that standing straight up was straining on Lirian and that a bow would actually lessen the strain yet still he stood straight.


    "Taliyah has always told me that you lack in manners but to think that you wouldn''t even bow to your emperor, don''t you think that''s a bit disrespectful, no?" Albus said, but his voice was laced with amusement as if he found the situation entertaining.


    With just a single exchange Lirian was able to feel the authority from his foster father, he truly had the air of a ruler, and from the way he spoke it was clear that he truly didn''t put anyone in his eyes at all as he didn''t even tell those bowing to him to stand up before speaking to Lirian.


    It seemed more like everything was an amusing game to him, and Lirian suspected that the emperor had a secret perverse side based on the personality module of the AI, it was like an extension of his personality as it addressed everyone else as being inferior.


    To Lirian it was no different than the emperor calling everyone else inferior to himself, due to his position he couldn''t openly insult people for no reason as it would be unbefitting of his position, so he created the AI to do what he couldn''t.


    Lirian chuckled coldly at the emperor''s words, "Given our first meeting there is no way that I will ever bow to you," Lirian said meaningfully.


    The elite''s all froze in fear as they heard Lirian, the person he was being disrespectful to was the emperor, they wanted to rebuke him but they didn''t dare lash out in the emperor''s presence, but most of all they were surprised because Lirian''s words hinted at a bad relationship between the emperor and himself.


    That revelation took them by surprise because it was know just how much the emperor doted on the empress and how much the empress loved the emperor and her son, which was why they found it hard to believe that the emperor and his foster son had a bad relationship.


    Albus''s eyes flashed with surprise for only an instant before returning to normal, "Taliyah told you about what happened?" he asked in an uncertain tone.


    What Lirian and Albus were speaking about was the day that Lirian arrived within the gardens of the highest pyramid in the Clovis home world and Albus attempted to kill Lirian before Taliyah stopped him.


    "Mother loves you very much," Lirian said slowly, "Why would mother do something so foolish as to sow discord between us?" Lirian answered Albus with a ridiculing question of his own.


    Hearing Lirian''s tone the elites thought that the Emperor would get angry however contrary to their expectations he answered in a dignified tone without any of the earlier amusement in his voice.


    "It would appear that your memory is truly remarkable," Albus replied amiably with a slight smile on his face.


    Albus was a smart man, since Taliyah didn''t tell Lirian their was only one other possibility, he knew that the odds of the other possibility were unlikely but it was the only other explanation because when he attempted to kill Lirian the only one''s present was Taliyah, Lirian and himself.


    He had no contact with Lirian so far and Taliyah had no reason to tell Lirian about what happened which only left the impossible, that Lirian was able to remember everything even though he was just a baby.


    "Indeed," Lirian gave his affirmation.


    "It would appear that you still hold a grudge for what happened," Albus said with a dangerous light in his eyes.


    "Wouldn''t you?" Lirian responded after he didn''t get a reply for a while he realised the emperor was at a loss on how to respond so he tactfully added, "However grudges can be over looked on account of those that matter to us, don''t you think?"


    A look of appreciation appeared in the emperors eyes, he wasn''t appreciating the face Lirian gave him but rather Lirian''s talent to have been able corner him so tactfully before giving him a way to escape, that was the mark of a genius strategist, something that he appreciated much more than a powerful individual.


    "Boy what you lack in manners you sure do make-up for in back bone," the emperor praised as he looked at Lirian with a beaming smile, like he found a kindred soul, in truth Lirian''s question didn''t fluster him at all but he wanted to see how Lirian would respond if he lost, and Lirian didn''t fail to meet his expectations.

 Chapter 192 - 192 – Lirian’s Plan

    The Emperor began to praise Lirian none stop for almost a minute straight as he remarked at all of Lirian''s achievements over the years.


    Contrary to the emperor''s expectations Lirian face remained completely normal without even a hint of a smile to show that he was enjoying the praise.


    The only response he got from Lirian was his head nodding in acknowledgement of his achievements or him shaking his head as if disagreeing with something, but he showed no pride at all in all his achievements as if him being able to do such things was Lirians lowest expectations of himself.


    The Emperor couldn''t help himself but internally praise Lirian for how he took the praise, if the emperor didn''t know better he would have felt like he was a commoner praising a cultivator for being strong, that was the feeling he got when he praised Lirian.


    It was like everything the cultivator did was extraordinary to the commoner yet to the cultivator it was an everyday occurrence.


    The Emperor turned his gaze to his bowing subjects, "All of you may rise," he said plainly, "It would appear that some nuisances are coming your way," the Emperor said turning his head to look in the distance.


    Milan cast her gaze over the elite''s and without even uttering a word they knew what she wanted them to do, half of the elites broke away from the group and went to face the zealot''s, they all felt that the ten of them would be more enough to deal with the zealots even if their numbers were to triple.


    "Oh and keep that pig alive that wanted to touch my daughter!" Milan called after them, she wanted to deal with that man herself.


    When Milan turned back she found that Lirian and the emperor were conversing once more and what the emperor said next made her want to curse out at the emperor but she restrained herself and controlled her emotions.


    "¡­little light," the Emperor addressed the AI, "From now on when dealing with Lirian you will always address him as my foster son," he commanded the AI.


    {This AI is a good AI and will always obey master''s instructions,} the AI hummed happily.


    Black lines filled Milan''s face and the rest of the elites because from that exchange of the emperor it was clear that he could command the AI to address them properly yet if always referred to others as inferior beings, not even Lord Callum Eden was spared from such treatment.


    Once that was finished the emperor turned back to Lirian this time his face held a trace of seriousness to it, "Lirian about your earlier concern, I don''t think I need to get into the details, but they are here on my commands and I recorded their moves so you don''t need to worry about anything,"


    "Also it was smart of you to keep that girl alive, but honestly I wish that you kept a few of the others Telamon was controlling alive it would have added to your evidence of Telamons crime''s," the Emperor said with a sigh when he mentioned Telamons crimes a hint of sadness appeared in his eyes.


    No matter what Telamon was someone who had contributed greatly to the stability of the empire and they had always had a good relationship, the fact that Telamon''s student became his wife only made their relationship that much more extraordinary.


    The Emperor hoped that his suspicions were wrong, yet now he was absolutely certain that Telamon betrayed Taliyah, the hardest part for him was that he didn''t even understand why.


    "Milan I want you to capture some of those zealots, I need to know how many of them belong to Telamon, and how he managed to nurture zealots for his own personal use," The emperor said solemnly as this was a serious matter.


    Someone from the paragon families creating their own private force without the approval of the emperor and empress, that was undoubtedly a crime punishable by death.


    "Lirian you have suffered due to my incompetence on the matter, as such I think that it''s only right that you determine how we deal with Telamon and this entire issue," the Emperor said to Lirian putting all the power in his hands, in truth this was just another test from him to Lirian to see how Lirian would handle the situation.


    Seeing the thoughtful look on Lirian''s face the Emperor prepared to cut the call, "It should take you some time to come up with a course of action, when you done here give me a call and we can discuss the details," he said to Lirian.


    "No need to waste time I already have an idea in mind," Lirian quickly stopped the emperor from ending the call.


    "Oh, do tell me," the Emperor said with a raised brow.


    "There are still 14 days before the expedition concludes, I want the details of what is happening here to be sealed of so that no one can learn of the events that are occurring," Lirian said quickly and began to explain his plan.


    "How long will it take for the nobles of the neighbouring star zones to reach Xelia?" Lirian asked, his question wasn''t to the emperor but to Milan as the chief advisor of the Eden family her knowledge would be much more reliable on the subject.


    "If the noble set out immediately it will take them about 18 days for the bigger powers, as for the weaker ones it will take a little longer," Milan said confidently, she dealt a lot with the powers from other star zones and she knew more or less the period of time it would take for them to arrive.


    "Can you seal of this planets portals and make it impossible for anyone to come and go for the four extra days?" Lirian asked the emperor.


    "Little light," the Emperor called the AI.


    [I''ve already begun the process master, no one will leave that outlier planet through a portal, until they beg me for mercy,} the AI hummed.


    Lirian smiled pleasantly, "Your majesty is it possible for you to get mother to arrange a celebration on Xelia?" Lirian asked the Emperor but he only addressed him as your majesty, he wouldn''t address him as father, because as far as fathers went it would be an insult to his real father if he used such a term for anyone else.


    Also as his father was a third grade god, Lirian felt that no one else would be worthy to call themselves his father, because in his ideology a father''s duty was to be powerful and a mother''s duty was to be caring, and both his parents fit that criteria so he had no need for another parent.


    "I see, so you want the nobles of the surrounding star zones to be present when you expose Telamon''s crime''s," the emperor said thoughtfully but he did frown slightly, in truth he wanted to handle Telamon with as few people present as possible, because this would have a bad impact on the reputation of the empire.


    But he did hand over the rights of how to deal with Telamon to Lirian so he had to honour his word.


    "That''s partially true, but it''s more so to put Telamon at ease, with the death''s of all his zealot''s he''ll be panicking, but having so many people around will reassure him that no one will make a move on him, it''s just as you thought when I mentioned exposing Telamon''s crime''s in front an audience,"


    "It''s a bad move to make such a betrayal public knowledge, and as one of the greatest advisors to have ever lived Telamon knows that, but this is the only way to make him let his guard down," Lirian explained.


    Sometimes in a game of strategy when faced with an extremely skilled opponent the only way to win was through a bold move.


    "Since this is your plan I believe that you''ve already come up with a decent reason for why your mother is throwing such a huge celebration on such short notice?" the emperor probed Lirian.


    "I don''t have an excuse for the short notice but, the reason mother will be throwing a huge celebration party is because at the end of the year she will be returning to the Clovis home world," Lirian said simply but his words took even the emperor by surprise.


    But most of all Edith looked at Lirian with a strange look in her eye''s, "What are you saying?" Edith asked Lirian while grabbing tightly onto his arm.


    Lirian sighed, "After you and Tobias go into suspended animation I don''t intend to remain on Xelia, I''ve been considering this for a while, but after what has happened on this expedition, I''m more certain than ever that I can''t remain powerless any longer I must begin my cultivation as soon as possible, so I''ll be embarking on my trial immediately after you enter suspended animation."


    Edith continued to stare at Lirian with a complicated gaze, because the path that Lirian was choosing was harder than the normal 200 year trial and it might even push them apart for a very long time.


    Edith didn''t even realise it but her entire attitude about their relationship changed, from the day they first started dating, back then she thought that they would just be together until their time in the academy ended, but now she already made up her mind that she wanted to be with no one else besides Lirian.


    As much as she wanted to follow in Lirian''s footsteps, she had no confidence in passing the tests that she would have to go through to take the trial ahead of time.

 Chapter 193 - [Bonus ]193 – Dire Circumstance

    As much as Edith wanted to follow in Lirian''s footsteps she knew that she couldn''t, and if Lirian returned from his trial successfully the gap between them would only grow, she looked at Lirian with unwillingness in her eyes, but she was afraid that she wouldn''t be able to change his mind.


    The Emperor looked at Lirian with a hopeful gaze, he''d be lying if he said he wasn''t slightly happy to hear what Lirian said.


    He knew Lirian''s talents better than anyone else, so he didn''t doubt Lirian''s ability to complete the trial through a harder method, what excited him though was the idea of Taliyah returning.


    It had been 14 years since Taliyah left to raise Lirian on Xelia and in all that time they weren''t able to meet even once, the emperor had his own duties and experiments that occupied his time and whenever both he and Taliyah had an opening in their schedules they would call each other.


    For cultivators who were several thousand years old, to be separated for 14 years could be called a blink of the eye, yet it was still 14 years of being unable to spend any time with ones beloved.


    "Can I take it that you mean to undergo the test at the celebration?" the Emperor asked knowingly.


    "Yes," Lirian replied with a nod of his head.


    "Are you sure you want to do it now, the test can only be taken once, if you fail you can''t try again," the Emperor checked to see if Lirian thought his plan through.


    "Whether now or later it doesn''t make a difference to me," Lirian replied indifferently.


    "Very well, I''ll get everything arranged," the Emperor said with a curt nod of his head before ending the call.


    A few seconds after the call ended, Lirian turned around suddenly facing the battlefield, "Somethings wrong," he muttered softly, but his words still carried to the sharp ears of the elite''s that were with him.


    They all turned in the direction Lirian was facing and they could sense a few strangely powerful auras'' that weren''t there previously.


    "Those auras'' definitely belong to second accord cultivators," Mallark remarked with a frown as the auras'' were extremely powerful, and he also looked at Lirian with a hint of surprise, as he was the first one to detect the change.


    The elements in the area started to change rapidly, one minute the world was filled with ice and snow then it became a flaming purgatory from hell, and soon gigantic tornados began twisting on the earth sucking and grinding everything into dust.


    In seconds the entire world had changed drastically, and Edith was struck in disbelief at the constantly changing landscapes, she knew that even the ripples that were breaking apart the air could easily kill her, and the only reason she was still alive was due to the protection of her mother and the elites around her.


    The elites looked at Edith with amused smiles, for someone so young such a battle was probably beyond her wildest dreams, yet as they looked at Lirian the contrast was unbelievable, to him the battle''s seemed like a passing storm that he had witness a million times before.


    It brought no awe or sense of wonder to Lirian, ''It must be because he''s blind and can''t see the drastic changes,'' Mallark reasoned with himself.


    "Mallark take Lirian and Edith and get them to somewhere safe while the rest of us go to take care of the trouble," Milan ordered with a serious expression, in truth the aura''s she felt were troubling her, the opponents were stronger than she expected them to be.


    "Mother," Edith called out, "Everything is going to be okay right?" she asked with concern as she saw the troubled look on her mother''s face.


    Milan turned back to Edith with an amused smile on her face, it was a rare sight for Milan to smile and one could see just how beautiful she was when she showed her smile.


    "Your mother is no push over!" she told Edith and then she disappeared with the rest of the elites, leaving only Mallark, Edith and Lirian together.


    Mallark waved his hand and a mirror like gate appeared in front of him, "The two of you head inside, it''s a spatial world that''s linked to me as long as you''re inside no one will be able to touch you," he reassured them and quickly ushered them in.


    When looking at the fatty in front of her who was half bald on the top his head while the rest of his hair fell half way to his back, Edith didn''t feel to safe she would have much rather had her mother stay and watch over her, but seeing the spatial gate she understood why her mother choose the fatty to protect them.


    Lirian walked towards the gate but before stepping through it he turned to Mallark, "Make a bee-line for the main base on this planet, you should run into my protector Anya on the way," after saying that Lirian stepped into the gate with Edith following closely behind him.


    The first thing that Edith noticed after entering the spatial world was that it was extremely luxurious and filled with delicacies, after 16 days of eating nothing but rations and the rare treat of meat that was grilled and butchered by a bunch of students that never did such a thing in their lives, she was ecstatic to see real food and wine.


    Without wasting a second, she began to dig into the food like a starved beast she lost all her eating etiquette as she stuffed mouthfuls of food in her mouth and then washed it down by gulping on exquisite wine.


    It was a full half hour before she realised that she was the only one eating and when she looked at Lirian she felt pained in her heart as she rushed to his side.


    Lirian was resting against a wall that he slid against, with his eyes tightly shut, and his breathing was laboured as if every breath was putting him through scrutinizing pain.


    Edith felt guilty for not realising Lirian''s condition sooner, "I''m sorry," she sniffled as she grabbed a goblet and filled it with some spiced wine, and then she grabbed some food and started to feed Lirian in small bits, she hoped that it would help him recover a little but as time passed on his condition remained the same.


    "Your excellency Mallark," Edith cried out, "Lirian''s in trouble, he needs medical attention," she cried loudly as Lirian''s breathing started to slow, since this was Mallark''s world she assumed that he could hear what ever was going on inside.


    Edith had thought correctly because Mallark suddenly appeared besides her, she didn''t even realise that he arrived but she didn''t disturb him when she saw that his eyes were fixed on Lirian.


    Mallark released a wave of energy onto Lirian and began to move it about through his entire body, and the sight of his face was a wonder to Edith because she could see Mallark''s fat face warp from surprise to shock, to complete disbelief as he moved his energy through Lirian.


    But in the end a tight from formed on Mallark''s face, while analysing Lirian''s body, Mallark discovered that what Lirian said about his body being tempered was absolutely true, which caused him just a little surprise.


    There were two things that he discovered that completely threw his mind into a mess, the first thing he discovered was that Lirian had a special body, it was the secret to Lirian''s great amount of strength despite the fact that he wasn''t a cultivator, at first he assumed that Lirian had a royal or emperor body, but the make up of Lirian''s body was completely different from what he knew.


    In truth it didn''t even match up with his knowledge of heavenly bodies, so he assumed that Lirian had the mythical body that only existed in the immortal realm a divine body.


    The second discovery that shocked him even further was the energy points in Lirian, with his detailed scan Mallark was able to discover that all 108 energy points were activated, "It''s no wonder the empress has been so tight lipped about Lirian''s pod data," he remarked softly.


    But after that he discovered the problem with Lirian and it wasn''t looking good at all, the cells inside his body were breaking down it was brought about by the strain that Lirian put on his body as well as using his mortal body to channel a destruction law.


    If Lirian had only used the destructive law he would have just needed a bit of medical attention to recover completely, but his body was already in a terrible condition when he used the destruction laws, and it was constantly causing damage to his internal organs.


    Mallark quickly used his energy to extract the remnant destructive energies from Lirian''s body, but that only stopped Lirian''s body from deteriorating it didn''t do anything to heal Lirian.

 Chapter 194 - 194 – Domain Of Shadow

    Mallark quickly began to explain the problem within Lirian''s body to Edith and tears began to spill from Edith''s eyes as she heard about Lirian''s condition.


    Edith shook her head in disbelief, "I was watching him the entire time I never saw him channel the energy through his body," Edith argued not wanting to believe what Mallark had told her.


    "When he turned the silver dome into lightning, to convert it quickly he used his body as a conduit for the energy that already had the law imbued inside it, if he didn''t he wouldn''t have been able to kill them before they got to you," Mallark explained, he had witnessed everything clearly.


    "Truth be told, him not dying immediately after what he did is a miracle, but it was far too much for his body to handle and I can''t heal him with this degree of damage."


    "Can''t you heal him, you''re a seventh grader aren''t you why can''t you heal him?" she sobbed with guilt, the only reason Lirian had to use such a desperate move was to save her, she looked expectantly at Mallark.


    "It doesn''t work like that child," Mallark said with a wry smile, "If it were normal injuries brought about by normal energy attacks it would be fine, but this is internal damage caused by laws, unless we can get a specialist¡­" he trailed off not finishing his words.


    His meaning clear to Edith, a large box appeared out of thin air in front of Mallark and he quickly stated scrummaging through it until he pulled out a vile of liquid and handed it to Edith.


    "Make him drink a mouthful of this every fifteen minutes, it won''t heal him, but it will alleviate his pain, if his condition worsens call me and I''ll try to place him under a time freeze spell, but I''m not to good with those spells so I''d rather not use one, unless there is no other choice," Mallark explained.


    "D-Don''t w-w-worry about me," they heard Lirian suddenly mumble but from his tone it sounded like he was delirious, "I''ve s-s-survived far worse t-than this," Lirian muttered.


    But they didn''t pay any heed to his words they were certain that he was just delirious from the pain he was experiencing.


    Mallark took out another object from the box before it disappeared into nothing as if it wasn''t there to begin with, "You''ll be able observe what''s happening around me with this," Mallark said handing Edith a crystal orb.


    "You can also use it to communicate with me if Lirian''s condition gets worse," Edith immediately picked up the crystal orb and activated it, she could see herself and Lirian as well as Mallark from a bird''s eye view.


    Everything seemed to revolve around him in the orb, Mallark took a quick step forward and a mirror like gate appeared in the air and then he appeared in a place that was a mixture of purple and black shadows.


    "Shit," she heard Mallark shout, "We''ve been had," as he spoke several blasts of wind that could level a mountain range shot at him from the shadows.


    Mallark was an elite from the Eden family, and he also had tons of combat experience, so while the attacks did take him by surprise, they were no where close to enough to deal with him.


    With quick reflexes that were unbefitting of a fatty like Mallark he moved his hand and mirrors appeared in the air as the blasts stuck the mirrors they crumpled and shattered like glass, but the attacks completely vanished not even leaving a draft.


    A spear that was a foot taller than the fatty appeared in his hands as he attempted to peer through the shadows and darkness.


    "Your excellency where are we?" Edith asked in a panic with the crystal orb in hand she could hardly make out anything at all, even Mallark''s image was blurry.


    "I believe that I was caught inside a shadow domain," Mallark answered while forming spells with his hands.


    "Detection Barrier,"


    "Spatial Armour,"


    Mallark formed two spells quickly one was as the name suggested a barrier of detection, it wasn''t very useful when under a domain but it would help him to react to attacks at the last second, as for Spatial Armour, it was a powerful defensive barrier that surrounded his body without getting in the way of his movements.


    When Edith heard the term domain her eyes sunk in with fear, domains were one of the most difficult to master and powerful methods to dominate one''s opponents.


    It didn''t give the creator of the domain absolute power, but it did make them omnipotent in their domains, they could observe everything happening within their domain as well as move about freely, the owner of a domain could appear on one side of their domain in one second and appear on the complete opposite side in the next.


    As Mallark moved he stepped with caution and deflected thousands of attacks constantly with his spear that was wrapped up in in his energy, but if one looked closer they would have noticed spatial laws permeating every inch of his energy, that was one of the powers of a warlock, they would infuse their energy with laws so they didn''t have to go through the trouble of controlling external laws.


    Every spin and swipe of the spear created staggering cracks in the fabric of the world and it even began to eat away at the domain, but no matter how amazing Mallark''s attacks were they were unable to reach the controller of the domain who kept themselves hidden the entire time.


    "Are we going to make it out of this alive?" Edith asked in a sombre tone these past two days were a complete roller coaster for her heart.


    First there was the mammoth attack, then there was Hinata''s attempt to kill them, and just when everything seemed fine the zealots appeared throwing her into despair, but then her mother appeared to save the day.


    Edith thought that everything was fine after her mother appeared and that they were saved, yet now she found that Lirian was on the verge of dying and to make matters worse, the person protecting them was caught in a shadow domain.


    "You could try to have a little more faith in me," Mallark grumbled as he moved about, "It''s not like my movements in here have been random," he told Edith and continued to move about.


    Edith''s eyes widened and she continued to stare through the crystal orb into the darkness, but she found it impossible to make anything out, the darkness looked the same everywhere but from Mallark''s words she could tell that their was more to the world than she could understand with her limited knowledge.


    But for a veteran combatant like Mallark dealing with domains was in his job description.


    "Oh, hey why don''t you use your domain to cancel out this domain?" Edith asked curiously, she didn''t doubt that Mallark as an elite of the Eden family would be able use a domain.


    Mallark sighed and shook his head, "I only have one domain a spatial domain and it takes a lot of time to prepare it, also I can''t have any other spells consuming my energy before I start it up!" he explained.


    "So basically all my defensive measures will have to vanish, and the world that you are in will have to vanish before I can use my domain, and if I do something like that I have no doubt that I''ll die,"


    "Ha," Mallark laughed loudly, "Found it," as he spoke he began to pool energy into his spear and spun it around.


    With every revolution the spear released a wave of ripples that began to rip into the domain devouring the shadows.


    Then he held onto his spear tightly and thrust it forward releasing dangerous levels of spatial energy onto the weakest point of the domain.


    A tug of war seemed to occur between the spatial energy and the shadow as the two seemed hell bent on devouring each-other, several minutes passed with the two powers colliding and it looked like Mallark was going to lose.


    But a smile crept up onto his face and suddenly the entire domain began to tremble and shake, the domain began to lose its shape as the shadow energy was being dispersed by violent waves of spatial energy.


    "How did you do that?" Edith asked in wonder through the crystal orb.


    "I let the shadows devour my spatial energy, but I maintained control of my energy as it was distributed throughout the domain which allowed me to completely destroy it," Mallark said in a smug tone as the domain began to fall apart around him, allowing him to see some sun light.


    "Don''t let your guard down," Lirian said suddenly taking both Edith and Mallark by surprise, "I didn''t hear you receiving any attacks while you attacked the weak point of the domain, this is a trap they wanted you to break it," Lirian said hurriedly while breathing heavily.


    Mallark''s eyes widened in realisation but it was too late, he just managed to reinforce his spatial armour when two figures appeared one coming from each side.


    With just a glance he noticed that the two figures were saints, as the weapons in their hands held powerful laws, "Shit," Mallark cursed as the weapons struck his spatial armour, from the power behind those attacks he could tell that they were prepared for a long time.

 Chapter 195 - 195 – The Whip Of Certain Death

    "Bastards forcing me to do this," Mallark roared, he released the spear in his hand as two strange symbols on his hands lit up.


    Mallark brought his hands together as he felt the swords of his enemies break through his armour and pierce into his body.


    When he brought his hands together a strange light surrounded him and teleported him away from the attack, but it didn''t take him very far.


    Mallark fell to the ground as blood gushed out from his wounds, "Mother Fucking saints," Mallark cursed as he tried to supress the laws that were clawing into his body.


    Mallark was a warlock, as a warlock his forte was not close combat, fighting pugilist''s was hard enough, because of their unparalleled destructive power, but saints were the worst, when they attack with laws, it was no different from being cut with a poisoned blade.


    Mallark''s only solace was that as a warlock he could supress and get rid of the laws clawing into his flesh, but he''d need time to do that.


    As he got back to his feet he discovered that he was already found by the zealots, "Who the fuck trained so many second accord zealots," he cursed with a fiery temper.


    Zealots were disposable pawns to all powers, so no one would ever waste the resources to create a second accord cultivator on someone disposable, yet now he discovered that he was facing three of them, on some level he began to suspect that this group was simply disguising themselves as zealots, but they belonged to real powers.


    The first zealot he faced was definitely out of the picture, if someone''s domain was broken they would receive a serious backlash, which put one person out of the fight for now, then there were the two saints that attacked him right after exiting the domain, and he couldn''t be certain that there weren''t more lurking about.


    Mallark brought his hands back together like a buddha as energy began to build up in his hands, then he pulled his hands apart to reveal a small black ball that started to stretch out like a snake.


    Edith watched closely and was startled as she could vaguely see even the rays of sunlight bending towards the black snakelike object, it resembled an abyss of darkness and Edith wondered what exactly the spell was that Mallark was using.


    It stretched until it was over a hundred feet long and then it began to thin until it was the width of a rope, the black rope soon floated to Mallark''s hands and he grasped it like a whip.


    As he finished preparing his spell the zealots appeared, it was the same two from earlier and they began to brandish their swords, releasing hundreds of sword beams at Mallark at the same time they charged forward closing the gap between them and Mallark.


    "Ha," Mallark snapped the black whip in his hands to intercept the gigantic sword energies and as they met the fragile looking black whip an astonishing sight occurred.


    The sword attacks looked like they hit water and got sucked into the whip by an uncontrollable suction force.


    The saints halted their footsteps as they witnessed the sight of their attacks being devoured, but they didn''t get the chance to think before Mallark snapped the whip and several hundred bodies of light shot out from the whip in their direction.


    The saints recognized the energy in the attack, it was their own sword beams that were coming back at them, so with a quick flip of their hands they dispersed the sword beams, but just as they thought that they won the whip snapped again.


    It shot forward hiding behind the sword lights and like a venomous snake it darted at the saints, the first saint didn''t even know what hit him as the whip struck him in the chest and went through his back, in just seconds he got crushed by the compressive force hidden within the whip.


    The second saint noticed the whip in time to see it pierce through his partner and dart at him, he tried to surround his hand with energy to block the whip but the whip pushed through the energy barrier with ease, and the saint let out a pained scream as he felt his arm being torn from his body.


    The saint knew that if he let things continue his entire body would be sucked in, a look of determination flashed through his eyes, the saint raised his sword and cut through his arm.


    As he saw his arm disappear the saint leapt back and a trail of blood blossomed on the ground from where he lost his arm to his current position, he panted heavily and looked at Mallark''s black whip with a look of apprehension in his eyes.


    "Hahaha," Mallark laughed loudly, "What''s the matter, don''t you want the prince candidate, why are you suddenly so scared!" he mocked the zealot with a gloating voice while gripping tightly onto the black whip.


    "If your going to run away then you can have this back," Mallark snapped the whip and two tiny pellets shot out of the black whip they travelled so fast that they created a scorch trail in their path and cut two extremely deep ravines into the earth, blasting every thing in their path to splinters.


    The other zealot wisely chose to dodge the attacks and once they came to a halt the only thing he could see were two tiny pellets, he looked back at Mallark with a bewildered look in his eyes.


    "You don''t recognise them huh?" Mallark asked with a barking laugh, "The first one is your friend that I just killed, the second one is your arm," Mallark mocked as he revealed the true power of his whip.


    It would suck whatever it came into contact with before compressing it and spitting it back out, it was the power of a truly powerful warlock, while it was obvious that Mallark didn''t practice much in other spells it was clear that he had achieved a mastery over one of the hardest types of nature''s to master, space.


    Just as Mallark was mocking the saint, another two figures came flying in the air, garbed in the same black zealot uniform, and from the aura the one in the lead was emitting Mallark could tell that she was the leader of the group.


    The person who appeared was the one the zealot''s referred to as Number 1, earlier when she noticed how many of the elites were surrounding Lirian she knew that it would be almost impossible to win the battle, so she came up with a plan to split up the group.


    She sent seven of Telamons second accord zealots into the main battle to draw out the main elites and it worked perfectly, leaving her with only a single obstacle to kill Lirian.


    She sent one of the zealots after the other target Telamon gave them and trailed after Mallark with the remaining five.


    She thought that she estimated the power of the great families elites accurately, she was constantly overestimating them in her evaluation but she still failed to judge accurately.


    She looked at Mallark with a deep gaze, despite being trapped and cornered he came out on top every time, she finally understood what it meant to be an elite after watching Mallark''s battle.


    Despite being outnumbered and out maneuverer, their mage was out of the battle after his domain was broken, then they lost one saint while the other was severely injured, she hated to admit it but despite all her overestimations she still underestimated her opponents.


    All she had left was herself and one pugilist, but her greatest concern was the other battlefield if the other elites were only half as good as the man she was facing now, she feared that the battle on the other side wouldn''t last for long and at that time this mission would end in a complete failure.


    She looked down at Mallark from the sky and spoke confidently, "Our only target is the prince candidate, give him to us and we''ll walk away, there is no need for you to die on the account of some arrogant child that thinks himself above everyone else," she said trying to reason with Mallark.


    As a warlock herself she could tell how draining the whip was on Mallark''s energy reserve''s, based on her observation Mallark didn''t have much time before he would run out of energy. So, it was a logical decision for him to save himself and give up Lirian in this situation.


    "Arrogant and thinks himself above everyone else," Mallark mused as he thought back to how Lirian spoke to all the elites when they saved him, in fact he didn''t even offer a word of thanks, Mallark released a dry chuckle, "I won''t say you''re wrong about that, but if I had even half as much talent as that boy I would be the same," Mallark laughed.


    "If you are so sure of your victory, then stop wasting time and come at me," he roared and started to spin the whip it spun around Mallark like a vortex of death that would destroy all who approached.

 Chapter 196 - 196 – Rampant Laws 1

    Anya was racing through the forests with a worried look in her eyes, a short while ago Lirian''s signal vanished from her watch.


    She was having no trouble tracing it as she ran in a straight line towards the signal, not slowing her footsteps in the slightest, she knew that she was close when the signal disappeared.


    Anya gnashed her teeth in anger and began to emit her blood lust, enough to overwhelm everything around her, just a short distance behind her she noticed someone falling from the air as she turned to look she recognised the base commander Pexis falling to the ground with blood leaking from his ears.


    He had insisted on joining Anya when the expedition was called off, as the commander he was responsible for any unforeseen problems that occurred on world but Anya only sighed as she looked at him.


    He was the only seventh grader from the army on the planet, and he fell on the weaker side of the spectrum even amongst seventh graders, it was evident from the fact that he couldn''t even handle Anya''s blood lust for a few seconds before losing the ability to fly.


    Anya didn''t bother with him, because she was far too worried about Lirian, she grabbed the watch on her hand and began to rapidly initiate a search again and again, but nothing worked as she grew more annoyed a red tint entered her green eyes.


    "Your excellency, is something wrong," commander Pexis asked with caution after noticing that Anya had completely stopped moving.


    "I can''t track Lirian anymore," she said through gritted teeth, fearing that the worst had already happened.


    The commanders eye''s lit up as he pulled out a device and began to type on it, after a minute he brought it to Anya, "The watches that we gave to each of the students are tracked, I''m unable to find Lirian but I do have his last position," the commander explained and pointed to a position on the device.


    Unknown to Anya and the commander it was the exact location that Lirian had entered into Mallark''s spatial world.


    Anya didn''t seem to hold onto much hope, with Lirian''s signal gone she was certain that he was dead which put her in an extremely foul mood but she quickly continued to rush forward, that position was the only hope she had left.


    Anya and the commander rushed for several more minutes when Anya came to a halt with a serious frown as she hovered in the air and scanned the area intently, it was only for an instant but she was almost certain that she felt a fluctuation of energy in her surroundings.


    She looked around for a good half minute but found nothing so she turned to the commander, he might be useless in a fight but as a mental psychic his detection abilities were top notch.


    "Did you feel any energy trace around here?" she asked.


    The commander looked at her blankly and shook his head, little did they know that this was the place that Mallark had just been pulled into the shadow domain.


    It wasn''t their fault that they couldn''t detect anything, that was the essence of shadow magic to hide things and make it impossible to discover.


    The commander flew higher into the air and used his most powerful methods of detection, after a while he was about to give up when his face lit up after finding something.


    "What is it?" Anya asked expectantly.


    The commander shook his head and sighed, "I didn''t find anything here, but I detected the expedition group, they aren''t too far from here, if you want to know what happened we can go to them," he said.


    A look of indecision entered Anya''s eye''s, to proceed towards Lirian''s last location or the expedition group, as for all that she knew it was possible that Lirian was currently with the group, but there was the chance that he wasn''t and that was only if he was alive.


    "Your excellency how about we split up, I''ll go to the expedition group and you can investigate Lirian''s last position," the commander suggested.


    Anya gave a quick nod of her head, it was the best solution and she didn''t have anytime to waste, she grabbed the tracking device from the commander and rushed towards Lirian''s last known position.


    Anya travelled at her fastest speed, but long before she could even reach the location, she was able to sense over a hundred aura''s, and some of them were quite decent in her eyes.


    She found it hard to believe that there were so many seventh graders in a battle as she drew closer she discovered that there were many people garbed in black outfits, and then she saw the green uniform of the Eden family and the white uniforms of the Jane family.


    She recognised a few of the more important figures and sighed in relief, she didn''t bother with figuring out what they were doing here, because in her book if they were here it was most likely good news for Lirian.


    She soared over the battle field and unleashed her unbridled killing intent, along with her slaughter energy, it went crashing down onto the battle field, stifling everyone present, then two red blades appeared in her hands one long and one short.


    As everyone looked up they could see her looking on them like a red spectre of death and as they watched a sound could be heard, it was like a melody as sweet melody yet it caused their hairs to stand on end as they realised that the melody was in fact a song, a song being sung from the blood red blades in Anya''s hands.


    It wasn''t just the zealots that were terrified even the elites were looking at Anya in terror, for her blade were singing, it was the legendary song of death that could only be used by saints.


    It was just like the saying went, "When a saints sword sings, the song of death begins."


    The power released by Anya made their blood run cold simply looking at her floating above them like a sovereign of death made even the elites feared for their lives and they knew that Anya was on their side yet they still feared her.


    "Tell me where Lirian is?" Anya''s voice resounded in their ears making all them feel tiny in comparison, each and everyone of them were standing at the pinnacle in the respective worlds yet they felt tiny in front of Anya''s power.


    Those from the families were even more terrified some of them were acquainted with Anya during her glory days as an empress candidate, yet the power she was displaying left them in disbelief, it wasn''t even a century since then yet her power was in a completely different league.


    They strongly believed that aside from those that pushed two of their centres of power into the immortal realm no one would be able to compare with the current her, they even suspected that some of the emperors and empress''s of the other great civilizations were likely to lose out when compared to her.


    "Lirian is safe, I sent him away with one of my subordinates," Milan answered Anya respectfully and released a heavy breath.


    Anya released a sigh of relief and the killing intent she emitted lessened significantly, her gaze turned to the zealots, "For the crime of attacking a candidate of the civilization of Clovis, I sentence you to death," Anya said coldly and prepared to strike the zealots down.


    "Your excellency please wait," Milan shouted in a panic, Anya snapped her head to Milan and Milan felt chills run down her spine as Anya''s killing intent was directed onto her.


    "We are here under orders of his majesty the emperor, we are required to take a few captives," she said in a rush to explain herself.


    A look of surprise entered Anya''s eye''s but she nodded in understanding, and turned her focus onto all the weak ones, if captives were needed, the stronger ones would have most of the information so she brought her swords forward to kill all the small fry with a single attack.


    As she was about to release her attack something caught her eye in the distance, a strange ripple burst forth it spread in every direction as if it would enshroud the entire world.


    Anya looked at the ripple strangely as it had a black tint to it but mostly there was a strange silver light, it didn''t seem all that dangerous but it gave her a strange feeling.


    But just as the ripple passed through her she felt that something was wrong, the laws that were infused into her body began to spiral out of her control.


    It started of a s a mild annoyance but soon she felt her two most powerful laws, slaughter and severance, that she spent an endless amount of time imprinting into every cell of her body struggling to break free.


    She released a pained cry and began to cough up droplets of blood, she looked down in worry fearing that she was going to be attacked, but she realised that it wasn''t just her who was suffering as she looked at the pugilist, she could see the elemental energies in their wreaking havoc on their bodies.


    The warlock''s laws that were bound to their energy was struggling to break free and the saints were in the same position as her, all those of the first accord however had fallen unconscious with blood leaking from their seven orifices.


    Anya was looking around in confusion when she felt a sensation being released from the laws into her, it was grief pure heart wrenching grief, that made her heart tighten in pain.


    Tears began to leak from her eyes and she didn''t understand why, she only knew the pain that was scorching her heart, and it wasn''t only her, even the zealots who were trained to suppress all their emotions, were crying loudly as if they had lost their beloved.


    Anya looked around in shock as some of the elites began to curl up it to balls on the ground and beg for death as they slammed their heads against the ground, and she felt no different from them, it was like some part of her felt that only death would offer her release from the pain she was feeling.


    She looked back into the sky to the direction the ripple originated from and high up in the sky she could see a monumentally large apparition that blocked out the light of the sky, and in its place a gigantic serpent appeared in the sky.


    The serpent emitted a holy and sacred light onto the world, as it formed a circle with the serpent''s mouth closing onto its own tail.


    It was an ouroboros that was shining down onto the world.


    "What is going on?" Anya asked in bewilderment, she knew about the abnormal signs brought about by people with special body constitutions, and not even the emperor''s apparition was so lifelike and powerful when he broke through into the seventh grade.


    That spectacle was recorded for the entire universe to witness yet the golden eagle apparition of the emperor''s heavenly body was tiny in comparison to the snake that covered the entire sky and seemed like it could swallow the entire world whole.

 Chapter 197 - 197 – Rampant Laws 2

    Tobias and Media sat on their horses in the lead of the expedition group, as they made their way back to the base, they heard more than a few people cursing out a Lirian for calling of the expedition.


    As much as they wanted to explain the situation to the students they were clueless themselves, they sighed hopelessly and continued to lead the group, until Wentian and Cole returned riding quickly on their horses.


    "There is still no sign of them," Cole said with a worried look, "You guys don''t think that something happened to them right?"


    The candidate''s glanced at each other and shook their heads simultaneously, "It''s Lirian we are talking about, if there''s any trouble I''m sure he can handle it," Media said confidently.


    "Under normal circumstances, but you all saw how panicked he got when he gave up on the expedition not to mention that he wasn''t in a good condition," Wentian argued dossing cold water on them.


    "We need to go back, they could be in trouble," Wentian said firmly and turned around to leave he could see the struggle in Media''s and Tobias''s eyes, they were supposed to be leaving just as Lirian ordered them to but there was a chance that Lirian needed their help.


    Boom.


    A resounding explosion echoed behind them it wasn''t the first time such a thing happened, they had been hearing it for a while now and every time they heard one a wave of energy would slam into them knocking the wind out of everyone.


    This time however it was different as it sounded like a hundred explosion went off all at once


    "You guys don''t think that Lirian is involved in what ever is causing those waves?" Cole asked nervously casting a glance behind them after the tremors passed and they could stand firmly.


    "I don''t know how powerful someone has to be to send shockwave this far, but if we get involved we''ll die without knowing what happened," Tobias said.


    "If Lirian and Edith are really there, they are either dead or someone is protecting them, either way we are powerless to do anything, we''ll keep going," said Tobias firmly, it might have sounded heartless, but it was the truth.


    Tobias and Cole both looked unwilling and a trace of sadness appeared in Media''s eyes, she cast one last gaze backwards hoping that she might see Edith and Lirian but reality didn''t give her what she wanted so she turned around to continue directing the group.


    Just then someone came flying from above with an image in their hand, no one could see the person, but the person could see them, their eyes traveling through the group until they found their target.


    The person in the shadows looked at the image one more time to confirm, the image held a picture of a boy with long black hair, sharp eye brows and a pair of black eyes.


    The person eye''s were fixed onto Wentian who was sitting on a horse, "Target confirmed," a woman''s voice echoed from behind the black clothing.


    She pulled out a spear and several laws as well as a bright yellow light formed, then with a thrust the spear light smashed down to the ground, creating a huge crater on the ground, it didn''t just hit where Wentian was, but it struck a large area of the group.


    However the woman frowned and looked around because she was certain that her attack didn''t make contact, as she looked around she found a man in military uniform floating in the air, and all those that were supposed to be killed in her attack were moved away.


    "You are?" she asked with a frown as she stared at the man with killing intent.


    "Commander Pexis, I''m afraid that you don''t belong here so I''ll be removing you," Commander Pexis said but he lacked in confidence, just from that earlier attack he could tell that the woman was a second accord cultivator and he stood no chance against her.


    "All of you run away from here while I hold this person off," he said to the students with an encouraging smile.


    The students began to run away in a panic but they were so slow in the commanders eyes that he couldn''t help but sigh.


    "Hump," the zealot snorted coldly, "If you think you can protect them you are sadly mistaken," she said dismissively, but a sudden piercing pain entered her head, and when she looked around it looked like the entire world was spinning around giving her a nauseous feeling in her gut.


    "You''re right," commander Pexis admitted, "but even if I can''t win I''m pretty confident in my ability to stall you," he said as he placed his fingers on his temples and directed mental attacks at the zealot.


    The woman gritted her teeth in frustration as her vision started to resemble a shattered mirror, showing everything in strange angles, she could see the same person running in six different directions, and she found it difficult to fly forwards or backwards because everything seemed to return her to the same position.


    "This isn''t enough if you want to stall me," she roared and a law of crushing was emanated from her body smashing apart the energy that sustained the illusion.


    Commander Pexis felt like a blade had pierced into his skull when the illusion shattered and when he looked up again he saw the woman flying towards, she came flying with a soaring kick into his gut.


    The commander spat out spittle as he went flying through the sky at break neck speed and crashed onto the ground with his body broken, as he turned his head to look down he could see a few ribs sticking out of his chest and fell back down powerlessly.


    Wentian was urging his horse to move as fast as possible, he knew that he narrowly avoided death by a tiny margin just a few seconds ago.


    The students had lost all order as they fluttered about in a mad panic, not paying the slightest heed to the shouts of the candidates'', who were doing their best to keep themselves calm, but the candidates were powerless to enforce any order.


    Just when everything seemed like it could not get any worse, they heard a loud crash and saw a bunch of dust fill the air, when they looked back they saw the black clothed woman that was trying to kill them standing strong while the commander was gone.


    The already chaotic students started to split of from each other in every direction possible while screaming frantically at the top of their lungs, even the candidates were no longer able to control their fear, as they ran their separate ways.


    Boom.


    Another deafening explosion rung out this one was a lot closer to the group and they could feel the earth beneath their feet crumbling, as they looked in the direction of the explosion, they saw a massive cloud of dust and dirt covering their view, but they also noticed entire trees and rocks flying out of the cloud in all direction.


    But that wasn''t the end of it because the ground beneath their feet started to crumble and many screams were heard as people got sucked into the opening earth, they were completely powerless against the sinking land.


    One of Wentian''s horse legs sunk into the ground, due to its speed the horse flipped through the air and Wentian went crashing from the saddle and onto the sinking ground.


    His head slammed hard against the ground and his eyes rolled in opposite directions.


    Wentian gasped for breath as he tried to claw his way up, but every movement made him feel like he was seeing stars, but he forced himself to move as he could still feel the earth crumbling under his feet.


    Wentian just reached a ledge when he felt the ground completely give way under him, he lurched forward desperately trying to grab the ledge but he couldn''t make it, a look of hopelessness entered his eyes when he felt a hand wrapping his arm and holding him tightly.


    "Hang in there buddy," he heard a familiar voice and looked up to see Cole holding his arm, from the looks of things Cole didn''t fair much better than him, as their were cuts and bruises all over his face.


    "I''ll get you up in just a sec," Cole panted with a weak smile, making Wentian sigh in relief as he dangled on the ledge, but then he heard as strange sound and something wet splashed on his face.


    It took Wentian a few seconds to register that he was falling, before he knew it hit the ground and tumbled through the dirt.


    He just barely managed to pull himself up and when he looked at his hand he found that Coles arm was hanging from it with blood still gushing from it, he raised a hand to his face and felt the blood that splattered on him.


    He fell down weakly with his long hair coming loose and fluttering in the wind, when he looked around he saw the black cloaked woman standing just a few steps away from him.


    "Why are you doing this to me!" he roared loudly with anger filling his voice, he could tell that this person was targeting him from the beginning, "What did I ever do to you?"


    The zealot looked on coldly, "This is the price for investigating people that you have no business investigating!" the zealot said coldly and sliced with her spear.


    A look of bewilderment entered Wentian''s eyes, he understood that it was because he tried to investigate Telamon, but the only ones who knew were his family and the other candidate''s.


    It would be pretty stupid for his family to sell him out because that could even bring trouble to his family, which meant that one of the candidate sold him out, a look unwillingness and betrayal flashed through his eyes as he looked up at the sky.


    It was his final moment and he thought himself to be hallucinating as a monolithic silver serpent appeared in the sky from the centre of the dust cloud, then the whole world started to tilt.


    Wentian blinked as he saw his body, then his eyes lost their light as his head rolled on the ground separated from his body.


    As she finished delivering the final blow the zealot lost the strength in her arms as she felt a strange ripple pass through her body.


    Then she felt the laws in her every cell run rampant like a million blades threatening to cut and crush her from the inside, it was like the laws were desperate to go else where.


    She held onto the laws tightly, and the tighter she gripped onto it the more pain she was over come with, not pain of the flesh but pain of the heart, it was like the laws were feeling emotions and she was feeling the emotions of her laws, emotions she thought she had forgotten how to feel came pouring into her making her desire release from the pain.


    Her gaze turned to the sky in the direction her laws seemed to be pulling her and she saw a silver serpent, with a tinge of black mixed in, filling every inch of the sky.


    The power seemed all powerful, it made her feel so tiny like a spec of dust within the boundless universe, ''Is this the power of a god?'' she wondered as she looked up at the sky.

 Chapter 198 - 198 – The Blindfold Came Off

    Mallark spun his black whip of death, as it hit the ground and trees in the surroundings there was not a sound from the impacts, as everything it touched got sucked in faster than a person could blink.


    Barely a second passed before the area Mallark was standing on resembled a small island in the middle of a gigantic crater, everything in his surroundings was sucked into the black whip.


    Number one looked on coldly and began to emit a chilly aura dropping the temperature by a thousand degrees, but as she faced Mallark she realised that it was having absolutely no effect on him.


    Her gaze turned back to the whip as she realised that it held more than just spatial, suction and compression laws, those three all synergized extremely well together, but from what she could tell there was some sort of law imbued into it that negated all external temperature fluctuations.


    Mallark flew closer to his opponents but he kept a distance of a dozen yards as he snapped his whip, as it lashed out the zealots all fled backwards, they had seen just how deadly the whip was, so they dared not face it head on.


    But as they darted back they noticed tiny pellets being shot from the whip with enough power to put even meteors to shame.


    Mallark released everything he gathered from sucking up the trees and earth, in a mad flurry, over a thousand pellets of compressed matter streaked across the land, the pellets might have been tiny in size but they each weighed 100''s of tons as they were propelled.


    Mallark breathed heavily as watched the pellets rip the ground apart and force the zealots to scatter, but just as he began to move he noticed that the leader of the group vanished from his sense''s.


    He knew that there was no way his attack could have done in any of them, it was just an attack to pressure them and push them apart, and from the group the only one he found that seemed to have the power to resist him was the leader.


    Mallark didn''t have time to think about it so while increasing the number of detection barriers around himself he chased after the saint he injured earlier.


    While the saint lost an arm, he was still a seventh grade saint, if the saint managed to find a single opening to close the distance on him he didn''t have the ability to dodge it again like last time, and if he received another wound, Mallark doubted his ability to suppress three wounds while maintaining the whip.


    As things stood he was having trouble to supress the laws that were clawing into him from earlier, as he got closer to the saint Mallark snapped the whip on to the ground sucking in the earth from a thousand feet deep and shot it at the saint in numerous pellets.


    The saint brandished his sword and fired of waves of energy at the pellets but they were two small and numerous for him to accurately attack them.


    As his attacks hit the pellets they released waves of energy and burst like bubbles, knocked into the other pellets and knocking them of course, seeing that he was no longer able to predict the course of the pellets, the saint shot up into the sky as he witnessed the forest get devasted beneath him.


    As he reached the sky his senses shot danger warnings to him, as he glanced around he found the black whip just a hairs breath away from his body.


    "Far to inexperienced," Mallark mocked the zealot for falling into his trap, and just as he was about to land and his strike he pulled back as the sensation of impending death washed over him.


    He looked around while using a special observational technique in his eyes, it was only then that he saw what was coming at him but it was too late.


    Surging waves of frost laws overwhelmed the whips ability to negate the temperature fluctuations and Mallark felt his body freeze up for only a second but that was all it took for an attack to strike him.


    Mallark cursed at his incompetence, the reason he was unable to detect anything was because Number 1 hid her presence behind shadow laws and used the shadow to hide her attack, the shadow removed all it''s energy fluctuations and allowed Number 1 to attack him freely without him suspecting a thing.


    Mallark froze in place and what he saw was Number 1 appearing in front of him with an ice-blue sword in her hands.


    Mallark recognised the sword to be one formed from a spell, and a trace of fear entered his eyes as the sword came at him, if it were to impale his body he knew that he''d turn into a block of ice instantly.


    But it was to late as the blade pushed its way through his spatial armour and Number 1 buried it in his chest.


    Mallark''s eyes opened wide in disbelief as he felt the cold take him, his body went still and he fell from the air as his body hit the scarred earth it shattered into fine shards of ice.


    ---


    "NOOO!" Edith shouted as she watched everything happen from inside the spatial world, she didn''t want to believe it but the world she was in began to crumble on itself, it was clear to her from that, that Mallark had truly died.


    Edith grabbed Lirian in her arms and started to run, she could see tears appearing in the spatial world revealing the outside world.


    A discouraged look appeared on her face as she looked through the tears, if she stayed there the crumbling world would kill them, if she ran through the tear, the zealots would kill them either way they were dead.


    She carried Lirian with a heavy heart and ran towards the tear as she stepped through the tear a jolting force pushed her forward, causing her to stumble as she crashed into the ground, but she held onto Lirian tightly not allowing him to leave her arms.


    "J-just stay close to me and w-w-we''ll be safe," Lirian muttered weakly, but his words did nothing to reassure Edith as tears began to drip down her face and sprinkle on Lirian, "Just a f-f-few seconds and I-I''ll get us out of here," he muttered as he pushed his mind into the throne world and began to activate the geneses world manually.


    Snot and tears poured down Edith''s face as she looked at Lirian, she still believed that he was delirious and it hurt more than anything for her to see him like this, she didn''t want him to die like this, after everything he had done to die against an opponent that he didn''t even have a chance against it was too unfair.


    She turned to look at the zealot with anger in her eye''s but she didn''t bother saying anything, nothing she said would change anything.


    "If you want to blame someone for this blame your boyfriend for being to weak," Number 1 said to Edith another blade of ice formed in her hand, this one was just the size of a dagger and it hovered over her finger, with a flick of her finger it darted towards Lirian.


    To Edith it was like the entire world had slowed down as she saw that dagger racing towards Lirian, "I''m sorry," she muttered to Lirian cupping his face gently, then she shoved him behind herself and used her body as a shield.


    Putt.


    The ice dagger sunk into her back and she felt the cold rush into her body, but she showed no sign of pain on her face, only a final beautiful smile remained that was oddly happy.


    Her frozen gaze was lock on Lirian because she saw a sight that Lirian usually covered up in her last moment.


    The blindfold came off and she she saw those wonderous eyes one final time.


    ---


    In a place hidden.


    In a place lost.


    In a placed that never existed to begin with.


    A pair of sapphire blue eyes stopped peering through the crack in reality and turned her eyes onto the silver eyed man whose eyes shed crystal like tears none stop.


    She glanced at her shadow like body which began to wither away and drift like smoke in the wind, "I don''t regret my decision in the slightest," she said with a smile while looking at the silver eyed man.


    She directed her next words at the purple-eyed woman, "You know I never really liked you," she said, ", and I know that you never liked me, but thank you for taking care of him with me all this time," she bowed slightly to the purple eyed woman.


    "Humph," the purple eyed woman snorted coldly, "Stop thanking me, it''s not like I''m doing this for you," she said turning to face the silver eyed man.


    "You''re so lucky," she muttered enviously, "This version of you still got to meet him and you loved each other, but I''ll be lucky if he even meets me this time around, I''ll be even luckier if we aren''t enemies."


    As she spoke the purple eyed woman looked in another direction, her eyes looked beyond the stars and galaxies, breaking through the limits of the various universe''s and into the void where her gaze landed on an entirely different plain.


    The blue-eyed woman followed her gaze with a bit of sympathy in her eyes, "I managed to force my existence to interact with him, with how different this reality is the me of this reality should have never been able to interact with him, but I managed to force our meeting, maybe you can do the same if the opportunity presents itself."


    "I don''t need your sympathy," the purple-eyed woman snapped back, she considered the possibility so many times that she felt like she would go mad, but even if she could force their meeting, she couldn''t temper with the emotions of the her in this reality.


    Based on where she came from it was unlikely that things would go as she hoped.


    The blue-eyed woman showed no anger at the woman''s words, she understood her pain more than anyone.


    "I''m just saying who knows what fate has written for us all, and besides," she turned to peer back at Lirian, "Samsara has always been a peculiar one, no matter what happens I''m sure he''ll surprise us," she said her voice laced with intimacy as her body continued to fade away.


    To that the purple eyed woman gave a nod, there was no arguing with that point.

 Chapter 199 - 199 – Samsara’s Eyes Shine Once More 1

    All fell still and silent to Lirian as he left Edith''s arms and landed on the ground.


    He felt the blindfold slip of his face as he hit the ground, turning his head in Edith''s direction, but the world in his eyes was filled with only white.


    He couldn''t see anything but he knew what happened, he staggered up with a bewildered look on his face as if he couldn''t quite register what had happened.


    The world fell so silent as if time had frozen everything in place, but Lirian was well aware that the time was flowing onwards, he just didn''t want to except it.


    It was a far too cruel reality, because he knew that had Edith just held on to him when that dagger struck the geneses world would have opened up under the guidance of the system, yet she sacrificed herself in an attempt to buy him more time.


    ''Oh, that''s right, how could I have forgotten that reality has never been fair to begin with,'' a voice echoed in Lirian''s head, it was his own.


    "Edith!", he shouted with a burst of strength he rushed forward to grab onto her, ''I used to be a god so I can still save her,'' he thought but as he touched her, it was like his warmth had a detrimental effect on her frozen body as it started to crumble.


    Boiling hot tears stained Lirian''s face as he caught a whiff of her scent, deep down he knew that it was the last time he''d ever smell her, but as he sniffed it in it only made the pain more unbearable.


    "NO, NO, NO, NO, I USED TO A BE GOD!" Lirian roared into the sky, "I HAVE ENDURED YOUR CURSE, AND FACED YOUR EVERY TRIBULATION IN SOLITUDE, WITH NO ONE TO EVER HELP ME,"


    "YOU MADE THE WOMAN I LOVED BETRAY ME AND YOU TOOK MY DAUGHTER FROM ME, YOU HAVE PUSHED ME THROUGH EVERY HELL ALREADY,"


    "SO WHY, WHY, WHY! DO YOU STILL KEEP TAKING THE THINGS THAT ARE IMPORTANT TO ME AWAY!" Lirian roared to the skies as if asking the heavens for an explanation.


    "EVERYTIME I''M HAPPY YOU BREAK ME IN WAYS WORSE THAN THE LAST, WHY!" as Lirian roared into the sky he smashed the ground with his fist, they were weak and powerless, but strange ripples were released with every strike.


    "HOW HAVE I EVER WRONG ANYONE TO RECEIVE SUCH TREATMENT, WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE HER? SHE WAS JUST AN INNOCENT CHILD!"


    "AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH," a harrowed heart ranching scream filled with pain and grief left Lirian''s mouth as he howled into the sky with grievance.


    The zealots had heard Lirian''s every word at first they thought that they broke his mind, but as he continued to scream, fear filled their bodies making them shake like leaves in the wind.


    Lirian''s voice had underwent a monstrous change, at first it was just his, but then there were dozens of different voices that seemed to belong to demons from the lowest depts of hell.


    Each voiced sounded ancient and powerful, and every word was mixed with killing intent, they could only thank their lucky stars that the killing intent wasn''t directed at them because it seemed like those words alone were enough to erase them from existence.


    No those words held enough power to erased the world and every star in sight, they held the power to challenge the heavens itself.


    They couldn''t help but feel like they challenged a monster that no one could afford to provoke as boundless ripples of silver and black began to seep into their bodies.


    As it sunk in they felt the laws in their bodies struggling to break free, desperate to run in Lirians direction, it was as if Lirian was their master and they had to help him no matter the cost.


    Then they began to feel emotions, emotions they thought they had forgotten, they were emotion of grief so much grief that it felt like their entire world was coming to an end.


    The zealots realised that the laws were actually experiencing the pain Lirian was feeling, it was his grief that was affecting the laws of the world, the raw laws that existed in nature were surrounding Lirian and their laws which they had painstakingly bound to themselves seemed to feel the same anguish as Lirian.


    "Is this the power of a god?" the zealots asked in disbelief as tears formed in their eyes, and they released howls of sorrow.


    How could any of them imagine the true pain Lirian was experiencing, as one who rarely ever got to experience true comradery and love and friendship throughout countless years of life.


    Losing it was worse than a million deaths, and the manner in which he lost it only filled him with guilt.


    ''Had I shared my secrets with her and told her the truth, then maybe she wouldn''t have done something so stupid,'' he cried to himself with guilt.


    Lirian sunk into the throne world all around him the world became unstable as it shrunk in size, all the seats that surrounded the throne were locked in a tight circle around the throne.


    The swirling green auroras had fallen completely still and the black madness it held back was releasing its darkness on to the throne world without any restraints.


    As for Lirian''s other selves all of them were curled up in balls rocking back and forth while howling at the top of their lungs, the scene reminded him of when they lost Ella and Katerina betrayed him.


    Lirian stared at the black madness, it was an endless abyss of truths and nightmares, off all the things he kept suppressed, the things he didn''t want to remember.


    It always forced itself on him in the worst moments as if desperate to embrace him, yet no matter how hard he tried to distance himself it couldn''t be removed.


    Deep within his body he could feel the gods essence creating a mild reaction on the outside world but he didn''t have the heart to bother with it, he could only visualise Edith''s body crumbling at his touch.


    "We warned you!"


    "We told you not to get close to her,"


    "Now look at what you''ve done to us," Lirian''s past selves began to shout frantically as the black madness forced it''s way into their minds, tormenting them with their pasts and shoving their every humiliation and failure in their faces.


    It was an endless agony for them all, like a death by a million cuts, every memory served to act as a reminder, of how pathetic they were.


    "This life is hell," Lirian muttered, "Who wants the throne?" he asked his other selves, but no answer came not even the demented ones uttered a word to take it, it was as if his other selves had come to fear this life without the curse.


    Lirian looked down despondently with a blank look in his eyes, "If no one want''s it then what do I do?" he questioned.


    "THE ONLY THING WE KNOW, KILL THEM ALL!" all of his selves shouted together in harmony it was like the chorus of their soul, for he knew more about killing than them, who had ripped apart entire worlds, and snuffed out the stars of entire galaxies and shattered entire plains.


    A new light entered Lirian''s eyes one of determination to see the world burn, initially Lirian had two ways of surviving, he opted for the first option which was to use the geneses world to escape, because the other method was extremely wasteful.


    But now it didn''t seem to wasteful anymore, with a thought the doors to the soul vault opened releasing a bright light on the throne world and when the light vanished a single object was floating in front of Lirian.


    It looked like an azure blue fluid in a constant state of flux, releasing pulses every second as if alive, it was one of Lirian''s Ethereal Revival Embryo''s.


    Lirian was extremely lucky to have been able to make several of these, and he doubted that he''d be able to gather all the materials to make another ever again, but the primary material used to create it was the energy of the three sources, geneses, cosmic and celestial.


    "Burn it!" the voices of his other selves echoed in unison.


    They all knew how wasteful it was to use a spare life to kill some small fry, but it was the only thing that could temporarily give Lirian a cultivation capable of contending against his enemies.


    "Burn it," Lirian echoed he was commanding the system to carry out the task.


    [Initiating¡­]


    [Error¡­ hosts waylines were damaged in hosts fall from the god realm]


    [Redirecting power to restore the waylines, host will only be able to reach the fifth stage of sixth grade cultivation]


    "That''s more than enough for me to erase this entire world," Lirian muttered coldly.


    ---


    The zealots were watching Lirian in a panic as the laws and elemental energies in their bodies were being pulled out.


    The pugilist managed to struggle to his feet, for a while now Lirian had gone silent and he looked like he wasn''t going to move anytime soon.


    The pugilist figured that now was the only chance they had left, sure Lirian was emitting a crazy killing intent and the laws in the world seemed to be on his side, but he lacked any cultivation, without cultivation all those laws and killing intent were useless.


    The pugilist entered a fighting stance and despite his elemental energy trying to break free from him he held it firmly and channelled it into his stance.


    It was a special combat art that he picked up in a trial ground, and he had never seen anything like it ever since.


    He channelled the elemental powers of fire and earth through his body, until he resembled a rock golem with lava flowing through his veins.


    He dashed forward channelling every last drop of his power into his attack, even if he didn''t want to admit it the laws around Lirian did make him panic so he spared no effort in his attack.


    "Sinking Star," he roared calling out the name of the most powerful move from his combat art.


    It was just a single direct fist unfortunately it didn''t live up to its name, but it held enough power to shake an entire country which the pugilist believed to be enough to take care of Lirian.


    As he brought his fist crashing down, it hit the laws surrounding Lirian like barriers, there were so many layers that he lost count but he still held confidence in his fist as the fire elemental energy burned everything in its path and the earth energy absorbed the attacks from the laws.


    He smiled with glee as his fist came down to Lirian''s face, but then he felt something touching his arm and all his energy was redistributed into ground.


    There was a deafening explosion and he was in the centre off that explosion, and he watched as the earth all around him went soaring in to the sky creating a cloud of dust and every object within 50 miles was shot into the sky no matter how heavy it was.


    As the pugilist lowered his head he could see Lirian standing there a full three feet shorter than him with his arm raised in a casual manner holding the pugilist arm back.


    But most of all he could see two bright silver eyes, shining brighter than the sun looking at him with a mocking smile.


    "It''s such a pity that thrash like you has such a move, here I''ll show you how to execute it properly, take it as a parting gift," he heard Lirian say in a mocking tone then he ran a finger on the pugilists spine and dantian, and the pugilist howled in pain as he felt his fire and earth elemental energies forcefully getting ripped from his body.


    Not even a split of a second passed before he felt the energies leave his body forever.

 Chapter 200 - 200 – Samsara’s Eyes Shine Once More 2

    Lirian felt the energy bursting through his body and a look of intoxication filled his face as he felt power real power enter his body again.


    The revival embryo did more than just give him power it also healed all his internal injuries, restoring his body to its peak state.


    Lirian didn''t use any of his esper techniques to redirect the energy and alter the form of his waylines he allowed the energy to flow through the waylines he was born with.


    "So, this is samsaric esper breath," Lirian mutter while clenching his fist, "It''s different than I expected though surprisingly it''s at the intermediate level and not an elementary esper technique," Lirian mused.


    The power was very different in its nature compared to the breath created by his techniques, it didn''t carry the destructive properties and it held a sort of sacredness that Lirian was struggling to understand.


    Esper techniques were usually created by geniuses amongst geniuses, and even to them it would take a while for them to fully grasp the power of their esper techniques.


    If this was an ordinary elementary technique Lirian didn''t doubt his ability to fully analyse and understand the technique but the level of the technique was too advanced for him to analyse it and the system didn''t have the resources to do an analyses.


    ''I can feel the law of samsara in my body,'' Lirian realised with widened eyes, the law was so different from what he believed it to be and in his case the law was like an inseparable part of his existence.


    Lirian had desperately tried to study the law of samsara during his past lives but it always ended in failure as the law was extremely complex even for him, but he believed that by understanding it he would be able to break his cycle of rebirth.


    Over time Lirian had learned a lot about the law and he could use it on himself to a slight degree, but currently he was gaining an understanding of the law like never before and he knew that this was just the surface.


    It would take hundreds of thousands of years for him to unearth the true essence of his power, which was a short time in comparison to the countless years he spent trying to understand the law in vein.


    ''It looks like I don''t have any other laws or elemental energies in my body, I suppose this is what it means to be born a god,'' Lirian thought, usually by the time one becomes a god aside from the laws they specialise in and linked their essence to, they would have hundreds of other high level laws and elemental energies fused into their body.


    ''It''s no matter this is enough,'' he said to himself with a determined look in his eyes.


    Lirian felt the laws in the world that were rushing to protect him shattering continuously disturbing his thoughts.


    Lirian faced his enemy and his eyes snapped open like a spark of brilliance his eyes illuminated the world for he could see the world once more.


    Lirian wasn''t actually blind, his blindness was brought about by his body that was unable to handle the power of his eyes, but so long as his body adjusted for two hundred years or he reached the third-grade his eyes would regain their light.


    ''Such a waste of energy,'' Lirian though with a ridicule as he watched the pugilist crash through the laws while shouting the name of his attack bringing a fist filled with elemental energy down to his face.


    Lirian raised a palm casually and with a simple thought the energy of the pugilist moved into Lirian in surging waves and was redirected into the ground, after causing complete destruction on the world.


    When the shaking ground returned to its normal state Lirian looked on unimpressed at the pugilist whose eyes were filled with disbelief at Lirian''s actions.


    "It''s such a pity that thrash like you has such a move, here I''ll show you how to execute it properly, take it as a parting gift," Lirian mocked the pugilist, but the pugilist didn''t hear the mocking tone.


    He only heard the devilish voices within Lirian that all spoke as one, just the power of those voices was enough to damage his mind and make it almost impossible to form coherent thoughts.


    Lirian''s voice resembled death it was vile and savage, but the most nerve wrecking part of it was the divinity it held, like every word spoken was a decree that must be obeyed.


    Lirian sincerely believed that in the hands of any decent pugilist that the combat art the pugilist practiced had the power to punch a hole through a star and make it collapse on itself, but since he was dealing with thrash he held no expectations.


    Lirian quickly ran a finger over the pugilist''s dantian and spine, the two centres of power that make a pugilist and he found the elemental energies of earth and fire the pugilist used to create the earlier attack.


    With a thought Lirian ripped the elemental energies from the pugilist making him howl in pain as the energies damaged his centre''s of power on their way out of his body.


    The pugilist panted while holding himself up on his hand as he stared at Lirian in disbelief, "You! How? What did you¡­?" the pugilist fumbled his words in disbelief.


    He could understand laws and elemental energies going rampant, it was a rare occurrence, but it did happen from time to time.


    But for laws and elemental energies to be ripped out of someone''s body and so quickly at that, it was inconceivable to the pugilist.


    Laws and elemental energies could usually only be suppressed and forced to go rampant by those that held higher level laws and elemental energies, and extractions could only be done on corpses.


    But the hardest thing for the pugilist to believe was Lirians power when Lirian redirected his attack earlier he felt Lirian''s cultivation, he was only at the fifth stage of the sixth grade while he was at the fourth stage of the seventh grade with an advanced second accord cultivation technique.


    Yet he felt powerless before Lirian.


    "I just took your elemental energies," Lirian said nonchalantly shrugging his shoulders, "It''s easy peezy lemon squeezy," Lirian added but his voice sounded anything but nonchalant.


    "Don''t tell me that you''ve never seen someone do such a thing," Lirian rubbed his chin thoughtfully, in truth Lirian knew that it was unlikely that anyone in the mortal realm could perform such a thing, he was just enjoying humiliating the pugilist.


    To make a person powerless by stripping their power then using the same power they were so proud of to kill them, that was what it meant to truly humiliate someone.


    Lirian opened his hands and the two elemental energies spun in his palm releasing their energy into his body, "It looks like even your elementals are desperate to see you off," Lirian said with a cold chuckle.


    Lirian tightened his fist and began to imitate the pugilist''s movements with ease, but he suddenly came to a halt as his samsaric power began to emerge from his body and took on a corporeal form.


    ''Huh, I guess that I couldn''t keep you tucked away after all,'' Lirian thought as silver energy with a black tinge seeped out of his body rushing into the sky and pushed its way even further beyond the atmospheric shell of the planet.


    It was as if the power in his body was declaring that neither the earth nor the heavens were worthy of it as it placed itself above all.


    Then the energy began to take on the form of a silver serpent as it paraded itself through space, and it released such oppressive might that all things in the universe seemed tiny in comparison.


    Lirian knew a fair bit about body constitutions, from his experience he knew that the constitutions were like a gift from the heavens that held a degree of sentience, but never before did he see a special constitution that placed itself even above the heavens.


    From the standpoint of the special constitutions, the heavens were like a parent, so placing themselves above the heavens was like an act of blasphemy, but Lirian whose existence was fundamentally linked to that power could feel its overbearingness.


    The power truly placed itself above all things and it showcased its might to all who bore witness, and it was also a reminder to Lirian by his own power, it was his power telling him how powerful it was and that he had to live up to it or it would consume him entirely.


    "So this is the power of my godly constitution," Lirian muttered as the serpent in the sky closed it''s mouth on its tail.


    With that done it released a sacred aura onto the world as it blocked out the entire sky with its body despite it being high up in space, it looked as if it was floating above the clouds.


    "You, what are you?" the pugilist cried out with his body trembling in fear, Lirian himself was already enough to make the pugilist give up, but that snake that was released from his body was like using the ocean to drown an ant, it was just too much.


    Lirian wasn''t paying too much attention to the pugilist with his eyes fixed on the ouroboros, ''So my sign is a snake, I wonder what it would be like to defang it,'' Lirian wondered as he looked at the fangs on the apparition.


    ''Those fangs are large enough to go in through one side of a planet and come out the other side they could totally replace a planets axis,'' Lirian thought in wonder, he always had a thing about snakes when he saw one he had an unbelievable urge to defang it.


    Looking at his apparition that was the first thought that came to mind.


    ''Sssssss''


    A sharp hiss left the snakes mouth that made the entire world shake, Lirian''s eyes widened as he realised that the hiss was aimed at him, the apparition was apart of him so it made sense that it could understand his thoughts.


    Lirian didn''t bother to respond to it, it did belong to him so he didn''t care.


    After a while the apparition remained not showing any sign of disappearing so Lirian turned his focus back to the pugilist, "Where were we?" Lirian asked with all the wonder in his eyes gone as killing intent filled his eyes.

 Chapter 201 - 201 – Samsara’s Eyes Shine Once More 3

    The ouroboros hung above Lirians head while shining directly on him casting a sacred light on Lirian the light changed to form a set of silver robes on Lirian that twinkled with silver light.


    "Where were we?" Lirian asked coldly as he turned back to the pugilist, his voice like the death bells of hell calling the pugilist to the afterlife.


    "That''s right I was about to give you a gift," Lirian said with a smile as the elemental energies began to wrap around his arm.


    Lirian imitated the movements of the pugilist perfectly then he proceeded and shaved off every last bit of wasted movement in the combat art honing it to perfection.


    To the pugilist Lirian''s movement looked more like the natural flow of the energies within the universe, with a simple move Lirian appeared to have become one with the elements of nature.


    He could even feel the energy in Lirian''s attack, it didn''t even use a hundredth of the power he used to release it, yet it emanated such might that the pugilist found himself incapable of avoiding it.


    "Sinking Star," Lirian shouted as he hooked his fist and smashed the pugilist with the power of earth and fire.


    The pugilist felt surging waves of unparalleled power course through his body from the point of impact, it felt like his body was being stretched like a sling shot, the world became a blur as he felt his body shoot up like a rocket.


    As he went up he could feel the fabric of the world splitting in his path as he continued to rapidly push through the atmosphere without showing any signs of slowing down.


    The entire world went dark in his eyes then it returned to normal then it went dark again, the cycle went on for several time before the pugilist lost all his power and his mind went blank, without him actively trying to stop his body from breaking, his body splattered into pulp under the momentum.


    Lirian looked up to the sky and had to admit that the technique he copied wasn''t bad, if he had to guess he would say that the technique came from a gods trail ground, the technique was to profound for a mortal to come up with and any immortal who created such a technique would hold it close not sharing it with anyone.


    ''He must have got it by some lucky coincidence,'' Lirian thought looking at the trail left behind by the pugilist.


    The pugilist was hit so hard that he smashed space apart creating dozens of rips in the fabric of the world, every time he saw darkness it was because he entered a spatial tear, finally he cut through the atmospheric shell of the planet creating a hole in the atmosphere.


    ''Looks like I''ve already caused damage to this planet,'' Lirian mused in satisfaction as the clouds and air began to rush towards the hole, the world resembled a balloon that had just been popped, but just a short while later the laws of the world came together and stitched up the hole returning stability to the world.


    Lirian soared up into the sky with a feeling of dissatisfaction, he was happy with his power, but that little attack of his did nothing to quell the rage brewing inside him, he turned his focus back to his other selves in the throne world.


    They were currently enduring the black madness that was burrowing in to their minds and shielding Lirian from its touch, if they didn''t do anything it would have landed solely on Lirian, making it impossible for him to focus, in fact he''d be lucky to move while enduring it.


    Seeing that the situation was still under control Lirian looked down, everything in sight was still covered in a dust cloud, Lirian spread his hands out and released a wave of energy that expanded outward in all directions sweeping the dust cloud away and returning visibility to the region.


    In just a second Lirian spotted a group of three and he recognised the auras of the group.


    One aura belonged to the warlock that created the shadow domain, the other belonged to the saint who was missing an arm and the last one, was one that pushed Lirian''s killing intent to new hights.


    When the pugilist attacked, they all ran as fast they could to get out of range of the attack, they felt like it was sure kill attack even they feared being hit directly by such an attack and they did not want to be anywhere near the centre of the explosion.


    They regrouped in the dust cloud and waited for the pugilist to appear, but that was when they saw the apparition of the snake in the sky, its radiance was so great that even in the dust in which they could barely see each other they could clearly see the serpent in the sky clearly showing of its unfathomable might.


    They couldn''t help but feel a sense of impending doom as they saw the serpent, they gave up on running in the face of such a creature, that could swallow a world whole, what would running even accomplish.


    The apparition was so lifelike, that they couldn''t even see that the snake wasn''t real, while filled with fear a sense of relief washed over them.


    They knew that they were going to die at the end of their mission, but there were so many problems that came up, they were uncertain if Lirian truly died, and there were the elites from the family, if any off them returned alive it would spell big trouble for their masters.


    But with such a monstrous creature looming over the world no one could possibly survive, everything would be written off as an accident, and no trouble would come to their master.


    "The heavens are helping us, the heavens are on our side," Number 1 cried out with an emotional voice, zealots weren''t supposed to have any emotions the only emotions they held was loyalty to their master.


    Number 1''s voice rang out with fanatical zeal as she repeated her words like a broken record, each time she said it her voice was filled with more conviction she was convinced that the heavens were aiding her master, if this wasn''t a sign that her master was protected by the heavens then what was?


    As Number 1 was lost in her fantasy of Telamon''s greatness, the dust suddenly vanished, and a loud voice boomed in their ears, no not a single voice but many voices filled with maliciousness all resounding in unison.


    "The heavens care only for itself!" as they heard the voices all of them turned around in disbelief, with their gazes fixed on a figure in a silver robe that hovered in the sky.


    Number 1''s eyes narrowed in disbelief as she saw Lirian looking down at her with killing intent that forced her to her knees and left her feeling powerless to move.


    "H-h-h-ow?" she mouthed unable to even let out a sound, the killing intent was so stifling and she couldn''t understand how it locked her in place, killing intent didn''t have the power to do such a thing.


    That''s when Lirian let a bit of his aura leak out and understanding dawned in Number 1''s eyes, she could tell that Lirian''s cultivation was much lower than her own but the quality of his cultivation energy, was from a different world all together, it was power that didn''t belong to the world of mortals.


    But that was only the beginning of her shock because she could make out an aura identical to the serpent in sky radiating from Lirian.


    The final thing that was gnawing on her mind was Lirian''s ability to fly that was a power bestowed by the heavens onto those who reached the seventh grade, yet Lirian who was at the sixth grade was able to fly.


    It was then that she understood, it was the opposite of her of earlier words, the heavens were not helping them, no the heavens were against them, completely against them.


    "No this can''t be right our master, is a great man chosen by the heavens to lead the civilization of Clovis on the right path," she cried out with a grievance filled voice.


    "Telamon chosen?!" Lirian barked out in a crazed laughter mixed with anger, fury and ridicule.


    "It''s like a said earlier the heavens help no one but itself, and let''s say for just a second that the heavens were to help someone, there is no way that it would help filth like Telamon," Lirian''s words were like an decree filled with imposing might that made it impossible for Number 1 argue against.


    "No, I refuse to except thi¡­" Number 1 started to say but Lirian''s voice filled with killing intent cut her off.


    "Shut up!" Lirian roared, it was taking all his will power not to smash her to pieces instantly, the only reason she wasn''t dead yet was because she didn''t deserve an easy death, so Lirian intended to break her mind before sending her on her way.


    "Now then come at me!" Lirian ordered with his eyes blazing, the first step to breaking her mind was to thoroughly defeat her so he released her from his oppressive might and let her begin her assault.

 Chapter 202 - 202 – Spells

    "Now then come at me!" Lirian ordered with his eyes blazing, the first step to breaking her mind was to thoroughly defeat her so he released her from his oppressive might and let her begin her assault.


    The more Number 1 learned of Lirian the less she felt she knew, it was a twisted kind of irony, she thought that he was just a brat with potential at the beginning but now she had to revaluate, she had heard him say that he used to be a god.


    It was unbelievable to her but she felt like she had to treat his words as truth, nothing else would explain his ability to become a sixth grade cultivator, when just a few minutes ago he was a weak mortal that she could flatten with a thought.


    Number one started to prepare her spells, she knew that this was going to be a tough fight so she turned to the other warlock and the saint, both of them were suffering from injuries, the warlock had his domain shattered and the saint was missing his arm but she needed them for this battle.


    Just then two little balls of purple light no larger than a nail shaving drifted down from the sky and fell onto the two of them, a purple light filled their bodies and in moments both of them began to heal, the backlash of the warlock faded away and the saints arm started to regrow at rapid speed.


    In the blink of an eye his arm was restored, but they were all startled as they turned to look at their healer it was Lirian.


    In his palm they could see a ball of fire elemental energies, but the elemental energy seemed to have lost a lot of its power as it shrunk down in size.


    "Fire holds the potential of absolute destruction, but it is also the element of life," Lirian said softly with a distant look in his eyes while holding onto the elemental energy but his words were filled with malice.


    "What''s the meaning of this?" they asked with strange looks in their eyes fearing that this was some strange ploy of Lirians.


    To their words Lirian chuckled coldly, "Today I will teach you of despair, and I will ingrain the lesson in the depths of your souls never to be forgotten even in a million lives!" Lirian declared to them.


    The meaning behind Lirian''s words were clear to them, he felt that even with the three of them working together they would have no chance against him, it infuriated them, but then a smile filled their faces.


    "Since you wish to die so badly, don''t blame us for your own foolishness," the other warlock shouted and floated backwards, creating a formation with Number one and the saint.


    The two warlocks stood in the back and the saint stood in the front to form a triangle formation.


    "How basic," Lirian commented with disdain as the saint charged at him.


    The sword of the saint lit up with yellow light as it streaked down, Lirian slowly extended a hand and the blades edge struck Lirian''s palm.


    But it failed to go through when Lirian caught the blade with his fingers, "A low level crushing law," Lirian spat, "Is that where your confidence comes from," Lirian spat with anger not even caring about the look of disbelief on the saints face, to Lirian the saint was no different from a country bumpkin so naturally he''d be unable to understand Lirian''s abilities.


    A crushing law was a law created by merging two other laws, suction and compression, a successful merge would create a crushing law, but it was a low-level crushing law for someone of the seventh grade to still have such a weak law was something to be looked down on.


    Lirian stretched out his other hand to empty air, but as he did so powerful ripples were released into the air and the area began to distort until a ball of black shadow appeared only to pop like a bubble revealing a blue sword.


    "Don''t you know any other tricks?!" Lirian asked coldly the attack by Number 1 was identical to her surprise attack on Mallark.


    Lirian cast a bored glance at the other warlock, who was pretending to use shadow laws to mask Number 1''s attack, but Lirian knew that Number 1 was well verse in both shadow and frost laws.


    "Hurry up and open your domain, it will be to boring if I kill your companions like this," Lirian said with impatience taking them by surprise, they were trying to make it look like their companion was using shadow laws to hide Number 1''s attacks while he secretly set up his domain, but Lirian saw through their plan.


    But worse than that Lirian didn''t seem to care about their plans, his attitude simply showed how little he thought of them.


    Without the need to hide it anymore the warlock acted openly increasing the speed of opening his domain while Number 1 looked up with anger filled eyes, she opened her hand and clenched it into a tight fist.


    "Hump," Lirian snorted, "Did you think I wouldn''t know about the others," Lirian said plainly, and a ring of silver light expanded all around him as a dozen more balls of shadow were revealed each holding an icy sword in them.


    Number 1 one looked at the ring of silver light in disbelief as she realised that it was in fact a spell, the speciality of warlocks, as numerous lines and patterns formed she could tell with a glance that it was a spell that even the empire itself would spare no cost to obtain.


    "Reality Warp," Lirian shouted and the world seemed to fragment in the area of the circle the only thing that remained clear was the dozen icy swords that hung in the air.


    Then the space began to fold in on itself and the several icy swords started to look like illusory images in a mirror as they vanished from sight.


    The silver ring disappeared and in its place the world looked just like it did before with the exception of one thing all the swords vanished with only one remaining, but Number 1 could feel the power being released by that sword, it seemed to hold the power of all the swords combined.


    Each and every one of those swords had the power to kill seventh grade cultivators yet now all of that power was fused together, Number 1 knew that it was impossible for her to combine the power of just two of her sword let alone a dozen of them, but as she looked up a smile blossomed on her face.


    "You fool thanks for the gift," she laughed mockingly as she extended her hand to control her sword, but then her face shrank as she tried to control the sword she felt that her connection was severed, and the sword released its icy aura trough her energy and into her body.


    Number 1 fell to the ground and coughed frantically as she suppressed the effect of the sword, if not for her powerful control over frost laws she feared it would have killed her, and that was just from it releasing its aura, she couldn''t imagine what would happen if the blade pierced her body, she suspected that even with her laws of frost she wouldn''t be able to contend against it.


    Lirian extended his free hand and grabbed the blade of the sword, its icy nature did nothing to him as he brandished it around to get a feel for it all whilst still holding onto the saint''s sword.


    Lirian didn''t have any of his own laws to use in combat currently, so he used a spell instead, while Lirian knew he could beat them back with spells alone, he also wanted to torment them as much as possible, a victory through pure strength was not enough to satiate his rage, there had to be more to his victory, how else could he get vengeance for Edith.


    "You fool thanks for the gift," Lirian mocked sending Number 1''s words right back at her as he brandished the sword in her face Lirian''s control of the sword was so flawless that it cut silence into the air but to Number 1 it was like cutting humiliation into her mind as her power was serving another.


    Lirian turned back to the saint who was desperately putting pressure on his sword, as he tried to extract it from Lirian''s grasp in vain.


    "What''s the opposite of crushing?" Lirian asked in an amused but scary tone.


    The saint looked at him blankly, not seeing where Lirian''s question was going.


    "You people really are a bore," Lirian cursed when he got no reply after several second, "The answer is expansion."


    "Reverse Polarity," Lirian chanted and a silver ring raced down Lirian''s arm and through the sword, after seeing one of Lirian''s spells earlier the saint dared not wait and released the sword immediately, but he was still too late as the silver ring entered his body.

 Chapter 203 - 203 – Solitudes Scar

    "Reverse Polarity," Lirian chanted and a silver ring raced down Lirian''s arm and through the sword, after seeing one of Lirian''s spells earlier the saint dared not wait and released the sword immediately, but he was still too late as the silver ring entered his body.


    The saint felt fine at first but then he felt a fundamental change occurring to the law in his body it was his law fighting a forceful change and his body itself became the battlefield of his laws fight against the foreign spell.


    "How are you doing this to me?" he shouted at Lirian with a hateful gaze.


    "If you had a high-level or perfected-level law this wouldn''t be possible, but with such a low level law it''s easy to change, and since you''ve adapted your law tightly to your body, can you imagine what''s going to happen when your law becomes it''s complete opposite," Lirian laughed and made a gesture of an explosion with his hands.


    "Nonsense," he roared back at Lirian, changing a law''s nature, that was impossible, no not just impossible it didn''t even make any sense.


    Laws were governors of order, to change a laws nature would be to go against the order of the heavens, it was an incarnation of chaos, such a thing was impossible many had tried it, some great warlocks theorised the possibility and spent their entire life time to do it.


    They used countless resources and built all kinds of contraptions to change the nature of laws, but most of them died having achieved nothing and those that did come close to succeeding were struck down by the heavens, showing everyone that it was impossible to change the nature of laws.


    Yet Lirian dared to claim that he achieved what countless others had spent their whole lives trying to achieve, not to mention that he did it with a spell he effortlessly cast while in the middle of a battle, it was ridiculous to the saint.


    "Hehe, don''t believe me if you don''t want to but you have like five minutes left to live," Lirian chuckled with a gleeful voice and kicked the saint.


    "Take good care of your friend but I''d advise not keep him too close to him, I don''t want all of you dying on me yet, I still have plans for you," Lirian said to the two warlocks as the saint was kicked in their direction.


    Number 1 didn''t believe in Lirian''s word but she could see the damage Lirian''s spell was causing to the saints body so she used her energy to probe it but just as quickly as she moved her energy into the saints body she pulled it back with a look of pure terror on her face.


    She didn''t even get to check the saints condition because she felt Lirian''s spell attack her frost and shadow laws, both her laws had reached the high-level but they were still affected by Lirian''s spell if she kept her energy in contact with the saint she feared that her laws would be affected.


    "Did you not learn your lesson from probing my spells earlier?" Lirian mocked her as he flashed the icy sword in front of her.


    Number 1 gritted her teeth in anger as she distanced herself from the saint, as much as she hated to admit to it she felt that she had no choice but to believe in Lirian''s words.


    As she stared at Lirian a black shadow started to envelop the area and soon the entire world became a domain of shadow.


    "Took you long enough," Lirian said in annoyed tone as if the domain was something he ordered at a restaurant and the service was horrendously slow.


    The warlock who just created his domain gritted his teeth in anger at Lirian''s tone, "I''ll see if you can still laugh when I''m done with you," he roared and began to launch attacks while also moving Number 1 around inside it the two of them began to use their energy and they even used some of their spells against Lirian.


    But in just second the two of them were despairing, even when they launched attacks from beneath Lirian''s feet or from just an inch from his face, Lirian still dodged every attack and when they used spells, they were met with counter spells that left their spells useless.


    More than once Lirian went so far as to turn their own spells against them, it was like he got a sick sense of twisted joy from turning their attacks against them.


    They were utterly powerless against him even in a domain, and that''s when they noticed that the saint had gone completely still, not even making a sound of complaint as his body expanded to five time its original size.


    They did light probes that only allowed them to examine the outside of their companion as they discovered that that was the only thing they could do, and to their horror they could see that his every cell expanded in size and it was continuing.


    The saint had fallen unconscious from the pain but that only allowed the process to speed up without the saint fighting the spell his body expanded rapidly, becoming ten times larger then a hundred soon he was even larger than a house.


    BOOM.


    His body erupted but nothing fell to the ground instead his every cell seemed weightless and unbound by gravity as it drifted through the air being scattered by the wind.


    That''s when they were finally able to sense the law in the saint''s body and it wasn''t the compression law that they knew it was instead a law of expansion.


    "By the gods!" they muttered in disbelief it was just as Lirian had said earlier he managed to change a law with a spell.


    Lirian felt his spell disappear, he knew that it was the result of the saint dying.


    "Do any of you know how a trial ground is created by mortals and immortals?" Lirian asked with a smile as he strolled through the domain as if he owned the place he didn''t even show the slightest bit of fear while inside it, in fact it seemed more like he was in control of the world than the warlock.


    Lirian didn''t wait for a response and continued, "It''s a pretty long process with a long list of things that need to be done but in short, when a person nears the end of their life if they wish to leave behind their knowledge and possessions to a fated individual they create a trial ground,"


    "They use their mind as the core of the trial ground it allows them to escape death temporally they can live for millions of years sometimes even billions however their minds are forever bound to the trial ground making it impossible for them to ever leave, but the most important part in creating a trial ground is in fact what I''m standing in right now,"


    "A domain is what acts as the world of a trail ground, and as it so happens I know a spell to force the process, I''ve been preparing it since I noticed you creating the domain, I wonder what it will be like for you to be trapped in here forever," Lirian didn''t even finish his words before the domain started to disappear.


    When it vanished he saw Number 1 and the other warlock looking extremely dishevelled as he looked at Lirian, clearly the thought of being trapped in the trail world forever was not something he appreciated, he''d rather die than live all alone in such a world.


    "A wise choice," Lirian said with a teasing smile, "A life of solitude is truly an unbearable one," Lirian spoke with a distant look in his eyes as if remembering something unpleasant.


    But the look disappeared just a quickly as he looked at the warlock this time even his smile was completely mocking, "Sadly releasing your domain was a bad move because I forgot to mention one very important detail about the spell, even for me, I have to be at least three cultivation stages above my opponent to use the spell," Lirian said breaking into a violent fit of laughs.


    "YOU BASTARD!!!" the warlock roared in anger, he was taken as a complete fool by Lirian, after seeing Lirian''s spell change a laws nature he didn''t doubt Lirian''s words in the slightest so he immediately released the domain when Lirian spoke about his spell.


    Just a he finished screaming at Lirian, his body shuddered violently, causing him to take he several steps back from Lirian as he felt Lirian''s gaze fall on him, it was suffocating him, it was just a gaze yet if made him forget how to breathe.


    "I told you about the pain brought about by solitude, and you lot have taken away one of those that helped me forget about mine," said Lirian but his voice was shaking, no it was trembling like an earthquake had hit him.


    "You don''t have the right to raise your voice at me or complain about anything I do to you!" Lirian spat with an unstable voice, it was like all that he had done, had no effect on his rage it was like it had the opposite effect and forced it to burn to even greater hights.


    ''It was just like this when Ella died, I got my revenge, but it didn''t take away the pain,'' Lirian thought as he remembered his suicides that followed after his initial suicide as Killian.

 Chapter 204 - 204 – Samsara’s Madness

    A/N: This chapter deals with some mental issues, if anyone has any mental conditions or suicidal tendencies, please refrain from reading this chapter.


    ------------------


    Lirian released his life hierarchy pressure, and to the warlock''s surprise, he who was of the seventh grade was powerless against a sixth grade cultivator''s life hierarchy pressure.


    "You, you''re of the third accord!" he shouted in disbelief as he looked into Lirian''s eyes with even greater fear, he had nothing to base his claims on, but he had an advanced second accord technique, even the emperor and empress with their perfect techniques would have a hard time making him feel any suppression at all.


    Even as he shouted it he didn''t believe it to be possible, the fabled third accord that was grasped only by a few great individuals within the immortal realm, yet right before his eyes a child was utilizing such a cultivation technique.


    "Number 1 run from here you have to report this our master no matter the cost!" the warlock shouted as Lirian didn''t refute his guess at all in fact Lirian nodded along.


    This was monumental if this knowledge could reach the hands of their master, it would change everything, even if Telamons deeds were exposed if he announced that Lirian had a third accord cultivation technique, even the emperor would want to kill Lirian to obtain the technique.


    If their master were to use this knowledge as a bargaining chip, his life would be safe, and even if the emperor still wanted to take care of their master, it would also work as a powerful threat against the emperor.


    Telamon could release the knowledge to the world, if it was Telamon who said it even the leaders of the other empires would give the intel some consideration, and Lirian would become the target of the world, not even the emperor and empress had the power to protect Lirian at all times.


    And the more they protected Lirian the more suspicious the other great civilizations would become of Lirian, at that time protecting Lirian would not be worth a war against the other civilizations and without a doubt the great civilizations would move against the civilization of Clovis for a third accord technique.


    It wasn''t even a question but a certainty, cultivators would do everything in their power to get their hands on the things they desired.


    The warlock knew just how powerful this intel was so without any hesitation he threw himself in Lirian''s path blocking him as he urged Number 1 to flee.


    Number 1 was caught under Lirian''s pressure and her thoughts were almost identical to the warlock, she was planning to escape with a onetime use teleportation spell that was inscribed on her body.


    She looked to the warlock besides her and could tell that he was igniting his power, to unleash a suicidal blast, while he didn''t know if it would kill Lirian it definitely had the power to buy them some time.


    The warlock felt his suicidal spell succeed, he looked at Lirian with a relieved smile as his body began to expand.


    Pssst.


    The sound of a blade puncturing flesh sounded and the warlock''s eyes widened in surprise, he realised that his body stopped expanding and even his energy stopped flowing.


    As he looked at the figure in front of him he saw Lirian sticking the icy blade he condensed from Number 1''s spell into his body, the icy sensation passed through his body and he felt the cold quickly eating away at his life.


    As the ice reached his head he looked at Lirian''s face one final time, it was cold and filled with hate, but in the depths of his eyes he could make out another emotion that drowned out all the others it was despair, the type of despair that made one wish they were dead.


    Lirian pulled out the sword in a rush but the damage was done, the warlock was already frozen solid, "Dammit!" Lirian roared and smashed the ice in a fit of anger, "Fucking useless dog!" Lirian howled, their deaths weren''t supposed to be so quick and easy.


    Lirian didn''t want it to end so soon, they were supposed to suffer, but the warlock was so useless, he couldn''t even survive the sword for a second.


    Lirian took a deep breath while gritting his teeth so tightly that they threatened to shatter, his rage didn''t even come close to being quelled, and they were dying to easily, Lirian felt it unfair, they deserved to suffer for what they did, but they were just so weak.


    "Ahhhhhhhhhh," Lirian screamed at the top of his lungs, it felt like nothing he did would be enough.


    Lirian panted loudly with watery eyes as the cold air filled his lungs, he looked back down to see that Number 1 had vanished, but he could still sense her, she didn''t go too far away.


    With the power Lirian currently held, he could feel everything that was on this planet within his grasp and the apparition did more that just look magnificent it was sealing of this entire world nothing could get in or go out.


    Instead of chasing after Number 1 Lirian turned his eyes to another place, a place that he had been doing everything in his power to avoid looking at, but he had to look at that place eventually, it would be disrespectful to her if he didn''t.


    Instead of flying, Lirian walked through the ruined forests, it didn''t qualify to be called that anymore, hack Lirian didn''t even know what to call it anymore, even calling it a ruin would be an understatement.


    What was once a forest now held no trees or any life for that matter, the ground was scarred black and riddled with holes and trenches that were cut so deep that fresh magma was pouring through the cracks, and everything was like that as far as the eye could see.


    Such was the power of seventh grade cultivators.


    Lirian stumbled across the ground barely paying it any mind his only goal was to find where she died.


    After a while Lirian discovered the place where the warlock attacked him earlier, it was the centre of all the destruction and just feet away shards of ice were being protected by a barrier.


    When the pugilist struck, the first thing Lirian did was protect what was left of her, he couldn''t let her disappear.


    Lirian''s heart started to race erratically as he released the protective barrier.


    The sight of the shards made Lirian feel as if a hundred mountains were suddenly pressed against his chest under its weight his knees gave out.


    Splatter, Splatter, Splatter.


    Water poured down from his eyes like rain drops in a violent storm as he sunk to his knees and ran his hands through the shards of ice.


    Lirian scooped up handfuls of the little shards bringing them into his embrace.


    Clank, Clank, Clank.


    The shards slid through his fingers and rained back down as Lirian''s entire body trembled in a fit of pain.


    Lirian fell to the ground and curled up into a ball while clutching onto a few shards of ice.


    "Why''d¡­y-you have to go¡­ and leave me like this,"


    "Don''t you know that the stories are all wrong and the writer''s fools, you don''t die for the people you love!"


    "You live for them!"


    "If you loved me, you were supposed to live for me, you stupid girl!" Lirian whispered between sobs to the ice in his hands as if it could hear him.


    "You know I don''t think that killing them is going to help me get rid of the pain," Lirian whispered with a haggard laugh.


    "Your death is all my fault, they were here only because of me and if I told you my secrets when you asked you would never have done something so stupid,"


    "Do you know the real reason I didn''t tell you anything was because I was afraid,"


    "Hahahaha," a broken laugh escaped Lirian''s mouth, "Yes, I a god was afraid, that you''d reject me if you knew my truth, in this life that''s all that I''ve feared, rejection, because this time I don''t have any excuse for being rejected, my curse is gone,"


    "But look at me now, my fear is what got you killed, even without my curse, I''m a curse unto the world, no the world can be damned for all I care but it''s true I''m a curse to those that I love," Lirian said with a dead look in his eyes.


    "I''ve known you for such a short time, yet somehow I''ve come to love you, hahahaha, now that''s the greatest irony, I''ve lived for so long and I was so desperate for the acceptance of others that I actually fell in love with you because you accepted me,"


    "I must be so pathetic, some great god I turned out to be, hahaha¡­" Lirian laughed, and his laugh was strained and depraved, filled with hopelessness.


    "But don''t you worry about me, because I know a solution to get rid off all my pain," Lirian whispered his words as if it was a secret.


    "And you know what this time it will actually work, as long as that mysterious person wasn''t lying," a crazed look entered into Lirian''s eyes as he wrapped his hand around the icy sword, he looked at it with a look of one who had seen their saviour.


    "With this the voices in my head will all disappear forever," Lirian whispered and a look of yearning filled his eyes.


    "Finally, my meaningless existence can come to an end!" he shouted in celebration and brought the icy blade to his throat.


    "Because I can die this time and I won''t be coming back!" there was only madness that filled Lirian''s eyes and voice as the cold entered his throat.

 Chapter 205 - 205 – Samsara’s Madness 2

    The Domain of Pride


    The Immortal Realm


    "Papa!" a childish voice sounded with a hint of annoyance, "Why won''t you let me see what''s happening?" the childish voice was filled with indignance.


    "Are you cheating on mommy again with that stupid girl, I don''t like her you should stop your self from being with that girl, you only belong to mommy," the child echoed in Lucian''s ears with an angry pout.


    Lucian didn''t have the heart to bother with Ella''s ramblings, his gaze was fixed on the him in the image.


    ''Mysterious entity!'' he echoed in his head, with a glance to his back he turned to the entity that occupied Katerina''s throne.


    "You met with my main body?" he asked the entity, but he was already certain of his deduction.


    "Something unforeseen happened, and I had to intervene, then I spoke with your main body," the entity said with a distracted air in the blueish mists that surrounded the throne.


    "Did you really tell my main self that we would die permanently this time? Is that even true?" Lucian questioned with a grave voice, he knew himself quite well, throughout the many lives he lived he was an extremely suicidal person, the only thing that stopped him was knowing that he''d come back.


    Being reborn always came with a whole set of problems, and the time to regain ones power was always a problematic time filled with unknowns, it was simply a better choice to keep living and research new means for a potential permanent death.


    Half of Lirian''s research was spent on finding a solution to his death, and now the entity told him that he could end it all, that was no different from handing a person with suicidal tendencies a stand and a hanging rope.


    "It''s true, no more revives for you, but of course there are all your avatars including the you in front of me that can bring back the main body if it falls," the entity said with an excited tone as if this was all one big game to him.


    "Dammit," Lucian cursed, "I have to stop this, Katerina please don''t let Ella see what''s happening down there while I''m gone,"


    Without waiting for a reply Lucian shoved his mind into the throne world, if he knew anything about himself, it was that revenge always came first, so the fact that his main body was already suicidal before killing all those zealots meant that his mind was already being attacked by the black mists.


    But just as Lucian pushed his mind forward he felt a barrier preventing him from linking, he opened his eyes with a startled look, "Where are we?" he asked with a shaken look.


    "We are in a different universe, The Domain of Pride," Katerina answered, "Your main body is not yet an immortal, you can''t link to your throne world across the universes," she said with a knowing look in her eyes.


    Everything that she knew about Lirian, was from the secrets he shared with her.


    "I never took you for a suicidal maniac," she said with an amused smile as she looked through the conflux of fate.


    "You can take credit for that, while I did consider it many times, you''re the first that managed to push me over the edge," Lucian spat coldly at her.


    "Your fighting again," a small and cute voice shouted angrily, "Hump, you might have stopped me from listening but I can still tell when you fight," Ella humped angrily and Lucian could see the little ball of light glow red in annoyance.


    Lucian shook his head and turned back to the entity, "Send me back to the sixth universe, I need to stop myself from doing this,"


    "NO!" the entity said strongly and for the first time it seemed mildly annoyed my Lucian, "You are needed here to act as a bridge, there is someone that must survive that ordeal, besides this is a tribulation your main body will succumb to the loss or overcome it."


    "Damn you," Lucian roared at the entity and several red rings began to manifest around him, "If you don''t want to then I''ll just leave myself."


    The rings merged together to form a gate, but it started to crumble just as quickly as it formed, "Did seeing your main bodies increase in power confuse you," the entity ridiculed.


    "Ha, even with your main bodies current power, you know that it''s not possible to cross the universes, so why waste your effort," the entity laughed.


    "True, but as you''ve noticed I tend to have suicidal tendencies," Lucian scoffed and removed a hand on his chest to reveal a red ring of light.


    "Since it seems like I''m important to your plan I wonder what would happen if I die here," Lucian threatened his draconic grey eyes were filled with determination and completely unfazed by the thought of death.


    The being in the mist looked on coldly a dangerous air filled the mist and even Katerina began to panic slightly as she felt the power in the entity grow.


    Lucian was desperate to stop himself from committing suicide, but at the same time he was feeling all the pain of his main body, they were the same person in the end of the day, who else could understand the pain better than him.


    No matter what he was determined to return and if he couldn''t he''d really take his own life, but just then an energy permeated his entire body and washed away the spell that locked into his body.


    "What the hell that was a¡­" Lucian said looking at the entity with shock, it completely dispelled a very intricate spell, one that Lucian was confident could not be broken, it was where he got his confidence from, yet it was broken so effortlessly by the entity.


    "A sacred spell that you developed yourself, I know, but so what my power is greater than you can fathom," the entity said in a chilling voice as its energy completely sealed Lucian.


    "Katerina the conflux will soon come to a close, that will be your time to act," the entity said and continued to gaze at the images.


    ---


    The Throne World.


    Darkness encroached on the world covering every inch of it, the green auroras were nowhere to be seen and the black mists had condensed in a black ball that hung in the world.


    The ball emitted dark light like a sun only it released scorching darkness, that burned into the minds of the past lives of Samsara.


    Thin tendrils of black crept from the centre of their heads and enshrouded their bodies in vines of darkness, and on the main throne the darkness finally broke through the barriers and crept into Lirian''s mind pushing him over the edge.


    ---


    Lirian breathed out with relief as the cold edge of the blade kissed his throat.


    There was a simplicity to death that he yearned for with desperation, and now it was finally an option.


    The blade sunk through his skin but a look of annoyance quickly entered his eye, his samsaric esper energy was actually able to contend against the power of the blade, despite him suppressing his own power.


    "Then I supposed it''s off with my head," Lirian muttered and swung the sword at his neck.


    "LIRIAN!" a hoarse voice shouted with desperation, but Lirian paid it no mind at all and continued with his motion.


    "STOP!" the voice shouted once more but this time a wave of surging might was released by the voice to forcibly stop Lirian.


    Lirian swung his blade but the pressure forced his blade to come to a halt, he looked up in annoyance and saw Anya racing through the sky towards him, with a panicked look in her eyes.


    "What do you want Anya?" he asked looking up but his voice was not one she recognised, there were several horrifying voices all combined into one, and there was a lack of any human emotions


    Anya''s mind was incomplete chaos as she looked at Lirian, he looked the same, but everything else was completely different, it was like she was looking at a stranger.


    She couldn''t feel his power as he was concealing it, but she was certain that he was holding a lot of power, her earlier suppression should have been enough to lock down the movements of a seventh grader, yet it only managed to stop the strike that Lirian had aimed at himself.


    He didn''t even use his cultivation to shrug of her pressure.


    "Who are you? What have you done to Lirian?" she asked with fear in her eyes as the only thing she could imagine was that Lirian was possessed by some ancient and very powerful spirit.


    Lirian threw his head back and cold laughter rung in the air sending chills down her spine, but it wasn''t just her, because at that moment the other elites arrived, followed by the zealots.


    Shortly after the apparition appeared the laws regained their calmness, but the cultivators were all panicked, they stopped their battle and all of them came racing to find out what had happened, and now when they found the centre of the destruction.


    But fear crept into their bodies as they gazed at the person who stood at the centre of the destruction, they recognised the figure, but none of them recognised that bone crushing voice, just those laughs were enough to push their minds onto the brink of madness.

 Chapter 206 - 206 – Samsara’s Madness 3

    "Who am I? And what did I do to Lirian?" Lirian mused after his laughter came to an end.


    "What''s the matter Anya, after all I''ve told you about myself, why is it that you can''t recognise that this is the real me?" Lirian''s words were filled with power as they reached the ears of everyone present, but no one seemed to believe that the person before their eyes was Lirian.


    To them it was simply impossible, how could a brat be so frightening, to them the only possibility was that something possessed his body, however amongst them only Anya seemed to believe that the person before her eyes was Lirian.


    She knew him better than anyone else and he had shared many of his stories with her about the person he was, while Lirian''s current aura held an absolute sacredness to it that didn''t match with his stories, the voices she could hear and the savagery in his eyes fit perfectly with the descriptions.


    "If you really are Lirian, then why would you be trying to kill yourself?" Anya asked voicing her doubt, she couldn''t figure out why Lirian would try to kill himself.


    At her question the clarity that appeared in Lirian''s eyes faded away, and were filled with gloomy despair, he sunk back to his knees and sifted through the ice shards at his feet, no longer paying any attention to those hovering in the air above him.


    "M-my d-daughter and Mallark, where are they?" Milan asked from the group with her eyes fixed tightly on the ice shards, with fear and nervousness evident on her face.


    "Daughter," Lirian muttered, "You still dare to call her your daughter after you hurt her, do you have any idea how much it hurt her when you said that you weren''t going to see her off to her trial,"


    "Some mother you turned out to be, but now you don''t have to free up your schedule for your daughter anymore, you don''t have to inconvenience yourself on her account, because she''s¡­" Lirian spat out his every word and they stung Milan in the worst places, but at the end he trailed of and scooped a handful of the ice and showed it to Milan.


    "Because this is all that''s left of her," Lirian sobbed those words out, and held onto the shards tightly like they were a precious treasure.


    Milan''s entire body wobbled in the air as her deepest fear was confirmed, it was just months ago when her first daughter had died and now her other daughter was lost to her as well.


    It was against the rules, she wasn''t supposed to grow close to her children before they matured, but it still happened against her better judgement, and now all she felt was lost as she fell to the ground and walked towards the shards of ice.


    "Stay away!" Lirian roared, "You weren''t worthy of calling yourself her mother," his words sounded like a clasp of thunder in Milan''s ears, and there was truth to his words that she couldn''t deny.


    It only served to make the pain even worse, Lirian''s words were like meticulously thrown daggers, each striking a vital point.


    "No one was worthy of her!" Lirian cried, "Not you, and certainly not me, and all those that caused her death deserve death, including this world that did nothing to protect her!" Lirian said with clarity filling his eyes and an immense power begun to erupt from Lirian and the world.


    Milan got up in shock as she heard Lirian chanting something, they were words that she had never heard before in her life, and just as quickly as she heard them they faded from her memory she knew that Lirian said something but she couldn''t remember the words.


    The ice shards started to float around Lirian and the ground beneath his feet began to gush out streams of boiling hot magma.


    ''What is happening?'' she wondered as Lirian disappeared from her sight and hovered high up in the sky with thick black clouds forming around him, like he was the centre of the storm.


    "dalllalac-------tratanazina?kudallan` duhaka as` ragnar?k," words poured forth from Lirian''s mouth each word filled profoundness that changed the entire world.


    Each word called for ruin and destruction to the world, and the words rained calamity onto the world, the oceans began to burn up and in seconds all the oceans became a lifeless waste and dried up.


    All the water in the world turned to vapour and joined the accumulated clouds in the sky, all of it ripping the violently into a frenzied storm that revolved around Lirian and Lirian alone.


    The oceans and rivers of the world now hovered in the sky crashing together like waves and revealed arcs of lightning that filled the skies of the entire world.


    And below Lirian the entire world was falling apart with magma shooting into the clouds and falling like rain, it was like the end of days had come.


    All of the elites and zealot had found their power to fly locked it was like the heavens revoked their right to fly and so they had to fend of against the falling apart world as they looked to the skies in horror.


    They didn''t know which was the greater calamity, the burning world at their feet, or the lightning filled skies, it wasn''t just the lightning but the winds and water that were in the sky all of it resembled death even to them.


    [Warning, Warning, Warning]


    [Host''s usage of the words of heaven are evoking the wrath of the heavens]


    [Host will die if this continues]


    [Advising host to release the power of the heavens immediately]


    The system blared alerts in Lirian''s mind, all that it said was true Lirian was using the supreme power of the heavens, it was the heavens power itself.


    The words of heaven were inscribed into the fabric of a plain, they were the words that made the rules and dictated the order of the world.


    The words of heaven were something seen by all, but all people lacked the ability to remember and comprehend the words.


    There was only one type of person with such an ability and that person was the one who became an equal of the heaven.


    That was the only person that could read, remember and use the words of heaven without any retaliation from the heaven.


    In other plains Lirian had learnt the words of heaven when he became their equal, the words of heaven are similar but different between each plain, all plains have their own unique properties and those properties are reflected in their words of heaven.


    And the more shattering''s a plain experienced the more profound the plains words of heaven become.


    Lirian had long discover that the words of heaven in the 33 Neather Heavens were extremely similar to each other, but during his lives as Kallidin and Lucian when he learned the words of heaven belonging to those plains, it was completely different from the 33 Neather Heavens.


    Being in the main universe of the 33 Neather Heavens Lirian knew that his words of heaven would still take effect, he might not completely understand the ones in this plain, but to destroy an entire world was easy with what he knew.


    Lirian paid no mind to the system, he''d already made his decision.


    He spread his arms out in eye of the storm, and thick bolts of purple lightning came racing out of the clouds, each bolt looked thicker than a tree trunk as they coursed through Lirian''s body wrapping around him like branches of a tree.


    "By the gods," Milan whispered as she froze the erupting magma at her feet, "Isn''t that tribulation lightning?" she asked with a look of fear.


    Normal lightning when controlled extremely well was already scary to deal with as for tribulation lightning, all cultivators had to face it when they achieved a break through, a first accord cultivator would face 1 for every grade they broke through and a second accord cultivator would face two for every grade they broke through.


    So for all the seventh grade elites they faced 14 bolts on their last break through, and to each and everyone of them it was a fear inducing nightmare.


    There wasn''t a single second accord cultivator that didn''t almost die during their breakthrough in to the seventh grade yet now they were faced with a sky filled with countless bolts of tribulation lightning and those bolts were far more impressive than ordinary tribulation lightning.


    The elites sunk to their knees hopelessly, as they experienced Lirian''s madness first-hand, because of Edith''s death he planned to destroy the world and take everyone with him.


    They were lost in emotions of hopelessness and disbelief, as they looked at the world, the mountains were crumbling all the animals and plants were on the verge of dying as the world was swept up in a tide of magma.


    They were witnessing the end of the world and they could not even fathom how it was possible, in the past when worlds were destroyed it was because hundreds if not thousands of seventh grade warriors fought vicious battles.


    With weapons of mass destruction being aimed at the world from the skies above, that was what it took to bring a world to ruin yet before their very eyes a single person was pushing the world to its end.

 Chapter 207 - 207 – Temporal Time Laws

    In a place hidden.


    In a place lost.


    In a place that never existed to begin with.


    The last vestige of the blue-eyed woman remained.


    She looked through the hole in reality and stepped forward, her steps lighter than the wind.


    Her two transparent hands were brought together, "Temporal Time laws activate," she whispered.


    With just those words her entire being vanished with only her eyes remaining, it took one last glance at the silver eyed man who remained stuck and unmoving, before crumbling into dust.


    The winds scattered the dust and blew all that remained of her into the lost world, in this place where nothing ever existed in the first place.


    ---


    The lightning connected to Lirian from the stormy clouds, the purple bolts looked more like the branches of a worlds tree that connected to Lirian.


    His gaze swept onto the destroyed world, ''It''s not enough,'' was all Lirian thought, but he was tired of waiting.


    The lightning flowed into him and bent to his will like a subject obeying its king, Lirian released a breath of relief, no, a breath of release from all his pain.


    All he needed to do was unleash the lightning and everything would come to an end, this world would shatter and break, splintering into a billion pieces that would drift across the vacuum of space.


    Some of the debris would become comets that light up the night sky and create a spectacle for people to observe, the smaller ones would burn up in the atmosphere of other planets and some of the larger ones would go on to hit planets out of their orbit, bringing the end of days to the people of those worlds.


    There was a beauty and order to the destruction that Lirian could see with his eyes, in one of the meteorite''s he saw a body, a body of someone he knew very well, it was Anya''s her dead body that was drifting on a piece of the broken world and in centuries from now it would land on a nearby planet.


    Lirian could see the body get buried in the earth, with time her body would start to rot and break down becoming nothing but a skeleton, with no one to remember her name, it was the same for many of the people present.


    All of it was simply flashing through Lirian''s eye, ''These are fragments of the potential future,'' Lirian realised and touched his eyes he''d never experienced such a thing before, it was the power of his eyes.


    ''These eyes are truly special, a pity that I won''t ever master this power,'' Lirian thought, even the vision of Anya dying wasn''t enough to stop him, he''d already chosen his path.


    Lirian shut his eyes and prepared to release the tribulation lightning.


    "Just because you''ve chosen a path doesn''t mean that you have to stick with it to the end," but just then a voice from beside him shook Lirian to the core.


    His eyes snapped open and he looked at the figure in front of him in disbelief.


    The shards of ice were rapidly stitching themselves together to take on the form of Edith, "Samsara," she said with a smile so beautiful that it sent shock waves through Lirian''s entire being, yet those shock waves seemed to help him greatly.


    In his throne world the black ball of madness stopped releasing its power and the green auroras began dancing once more, pulling the black ball of condensed mist back into its depths.


    Lirian shook his head slightly and rubbed his eyes, every single sense of his was telling him that the Edith in front of him was real, even the system was running scan after scan on the Edith before him and all the result were telling him that she was real.


    "E-Edith," Lirian stammered, but he quickly shook his head and looked at her once more, sure she looked exactly like Edith, but she was far more beautiful than the Edith he knew, and her aura was other worldly like a goddess.


    Most importantly she called him by his name, not Lirian but his real name Samsara.


    "You''re not my Edith, just who exactly are you?" Lirian shouted trying to reign in his emotions, he wanted to kill the person in front of him for impersonating her, but they were so alike that he couldn''t bring himself to attack.


    The woman didn''t stop smiling and as she looked at Lirian, in fact fresh tears formed in her eyes as she floated towards Lirian not allowing him to back away any further.


    "Your right I''m not the Edith you know," she said when she stood in Lirian''s face, "But I am yours and you are mine," she spoke with conviction in her every word, each word like an almighty decree that not even the heavens had any say in.


    With just the power of her words, Lirian was certain of his earlier guess the woman before him was undoubtedly a goddess and a very powerful one at that, a second-grade goddess at least.


    Her hand cupped Lirian''s face and at the simplest touch a look of unbelievable joy and euphoria filled her face.


    As Lirian looked closely he found that a set laws around Edith''s body appeared, the laws were concealed by the power of a god and from it Lirian could understand just vaguely what was happening.


    "Temporal Time laws," Lirian muttered with surprise filling his face, it was a very complex branch of time magic that was hard to grasp and even harder to use properly.


    "Yes," she answered with a bright smile, "We don''t have much time before the spell wears of, at that time I''ll¡­" her words trailed of and she glanced at Lirian sadly but she didn''t say anything more, they both knew what would happen when the time they had was up.


    "You''re from a different reality?!" Lirian questioned with only a little certainty but the anger in his voice disappeared, this law was far too unpredictable for any certainty.


    "Not exactly, I''m from a very different future of this world," she said but didn''t elaborate.


    "You created a nexus!" Lirian shouted in disbelief, a little overwhelmed, by his emotion, but this news was just insane.


    Lirian had a saying concerning the two governors of order, fate and time, fate was a vengeful bitch that played all those that try to steal its secrets to a sorrowful death.


    But in comparison to time it was a push over, time was like a mad dog, if someone tried to rewrite the course of events it would flip out, due to the actions of one person, trying to bring their dead lover back to life, it would wipe that person, their world and the next 100 galaxies out of existence.


    Time was an easy law to use for gods, but gods only used it for parlour tricks, even god feared the consequences of messing with time, it was far too unpredictable.


    "Me!" she laughed with an enchanting laugh that could calm the oceans, her laugh was so bright and happy that it made Lirian shudder in joy, "As if I''m stupid enough to do something like that," she said in an amused tone.


    "Then who?" Lirian asked curiously wanting to know who in the world would be so daring.


    Edith twirled her finger around enticingly and gently pressed it against Lirian''s chest.


    Lirian felt his heart slow down a notch at her touch and took him a short moment to realise that she was pointing at him while coming extremely close to him, there was barely even the distance of a hair''s width between them.


    With every breath they took her breasts brushed against his chest and she smiled even more enchantingly every time it happened.


    "I did!" Lirian was startled, he had genuinely tried to create nexus''s in the past, when Ella died it was all that he could think of doing but they always ended in failure, because time was a mad dog.


    The enticing look in Edith''s eyes vanished and she looked around a little distracted, "But Samsara you need to know that this is not the only nexus you''re living in, this entire world of the seven great civilizations, is a nexus as well, we''ve been watching things, and you for a long time, but we have no idea who or how the other nexus was created, so you have to be careful."


    "There is someone out there who has managed to do what only you have so its reasonable to say that you might have a very dangerous enemy out there," she cautioned Lirian with a worried look in her eyes.


    Lirian nodded at the warning but a concerned look entered his eyes, "You were very happy to see me," Lirian said with a bit of caution in his voice.


    "Did something happen to me in your future?" Lirian had to be cautious with his questions, it wasn''t a good idea to know many details about the future.

 Chapter 208 - 208 – Nexus

    A saddened look entered the eyes of the Edith from the future, but she quickly shook her head.


    "My love," she whispered softly and stroked Lirian''s face with a look of guilt, "The situation that made you create the nexus is simple at a glance but also extremely complex, I can''t tell you any of the details, but I will tell you this, the nexus was a small part of the spell you cast,"


    "I know that everything you''ve experienced may have seemed meaningless, but there was a purpose behind it all, a greater purpose that you designed yourself," Edith said with teary eyes, but most of all in her eyes was guilt.


    "What are you trying to say?" Lirian asked with a startled expression as he starred into the depths of her eyes, he could see a battle taking place in her mind, she was struggling with whether she should continue or stop.


    With a great deal of effort she shook her head and looked at Lirian with an apologetic smile, "I think that I''ve already said to much," she said softly then she tore her gaze away from Lirian with great effort to look at the world.


    "You are truly one that never tires of destroying," she said with a saddened tone as the world continued to crumble.


    "This world deserves it," Lirian whispered, "Even if I''m able to speak to you now, how much time do we even have, five minutes? Ten minutes? An hour or a day?"


    "So, what if I have a little bit of extra time with you, you''ll be gone and I''ll have still lost you," Lirian replied.


    "I''m tired of living, I just want everything to come to an end, and this is my chance to finally rest, I know what you want me to do, but I''ve already chosen my path!" Lirian said he was unwilling to change his decision.


    "You''re so head strong," Edith said with a smile, "It''s probably why I was so taken by you," she said with a look of reminiscence in her sapphire blue eyes.


    "I may not be able to change your mind after all I''m not your Edith, but I know someone who just might be able to do the trick!" she said coming closer to Lirian.


    "Farwell my love," she said with a breaking voice and pressed her lips against his.


    Lirian didn''t try to stop her as he indulged himself in her taste but as they kissed he felt the other worldly aura disappear from Edith.


    Lirian quickly grabbed her with a worried look in his eyes but seeing as she was still breathing he looked at her curiously.


    "Lirian!" Edith cried out and wrapped her arms around him hugging him tightly, the enchanting and mature voice she had from earlier disappeared but her voice had just as powerful an impact on Lirian''s heart.


    It was Edith, his Edith he wrapped in a hug, he wanted to pull her close to him with all his strength but with his current power he had to be very careful, he could easily crush her to death by accident.


    They remained like that for a long time, locked in a tight hug without saying a word, they didn''t need words to communicate their feelings, it was all there in their embrace, from that alone they could understand the feelings of each other.


    A long time passed before Lirian loosened his grip on her slightly and pressed his head against hers, their every breath kissing each-others skin.


    "Edith you probably want to know what''s going on?" Lirian said gently with burdened eyes, he didn''t know how to tell her that their time was limited, it was the last thing he wanted to even think about now that he had her in his arms but it was the only thing he could think off.


    But to his surprise she shook her head, "The moment that I-I-I died," Edith stammered slightly and rubbed the place on her back where the dagger entered her body, "That other me started to talk to me!" she said with a look of disbelief in her eyes.


    It was as if she was still struggling to understand what happened and talking about another version of herself was disconcerting on her mind.


    Lirian didn''t blame her she was just a child, the mysteries of cultivation were still unknown her to her, she knew more about the strength that came with cultivation and very little about its miraculous side.


    "I saw everything that happened to you after I died, and all the while she was speaking to me whispering things that sounded impossible, but as I watched you I started to believe them!" she said slowly with a perplexing look in her eyes.


    She looked at Lirian for a confirmation that it wasn''t a dream and everything she heard was real, to which Lirian nodded his head, he wasn''t sure what the Edith of the future told her, but he doubted that she''d lie to herself.


    "So, you really used to be a god?!" Edith asked with a look of expectation and also disbelief in her eyes.


    "Yes," Lirian nodded with a strained smile, to him reaching godhood wasn''t anything to special, but too her it was probably a realm that she didn''t even dare to dream of touching, how few gods ever existed, and every last one of their names shook the entire universe they belonged to.


    "It''s no wonder you beat me at everything, you cheater!" Edith laughed loudly and pointed at Lirian, her sudden change took Lirian by surprise, but he was glad to see her smile.


    "When you live as long as I have you''re bound to learn a few things," Lirian said rubbing his head embarrassedly.


    A smile appeared on Edith''s face as she got her answer, "Hump, too think that I actually doubted my own ability because of you," she said with a wronged look and pouted at Lirian.


    "Well even if I told you that I was a many trillion year old reincarnated god, you would have thought I was crazy," Lirian complained but the smile on his face never left, this was the Edith he remembered, the Edith who''d call him dressed in very revealing clothes and flaunt herself to him a little while talking none stop for hours about silly ignition powder weapons.


    The skies continued to rage and the earth continued to burn as they spoke cheerily for hours on end in the eye of the storm like doomsday hadn''t come for the world.


    Many hours passed when Edith looked to her hand and she breathed out a heavy breath before turning to look at Lirian again, she could tell that time was almost up she''d be lying if she said she wasn''t terrified but she wanted Lirian to remember her as someone strong.


    "Lirian please stop what you''re doing!" Edith said in a pleading tone as she looked at the world, "That other me told me what the price will be if you go through with this!" she said with a look of concern.


    But Lirian shook his head, "You heard me earlier, I''m not going to stop, I''ve made my decision!" his stance was firm and unyielding.


    "Is this the way the great god Samsara wants his legacy to end, a death by suicide a death that no one will remember!" Edith shouted at Lirian desperately as she tried to persuade him to keep living.


    "Edith you should know that I''ve never cared how the world see''s me, and I care even less about my legacy, and so what if I''m forgotten all things are eventually forgotten in the river time," Lirian replied with a calm smile.


    Even without the black mists affecting his mind he had made his decision, there was such a thing as living for too long and he believed that he was an embodiment of that belief.


    "Liar!" Edith cried, "I heard you earlier when you were speaking to my remains, you said that that you wanted to be accepted, and you know that wasn''t a lie, its what you said when you were at your lowest, that isn''t the desire of someone that doesn''t care about how the world see him,"


    Lirian''s eye''s snapped wide open at her evaluation of him with a perplexing look in his eyes, but he shook his head denying the thought, it was just a deduction she made, it couldn''t be true, Lirian thought to calm himself.


    "I gave up my life so that you could live!" Edith cried in outrage and desperation, "Are you going to waste my sacrifice, I know many things about you Lirian but I never took you to be an ungrateful fool!"


    "If you don''t live through this, I''ll regret my decision through every one of my reincarnations until my soul is extinguished, if you don''t survive this then you''re not worth my sacrifice!" Edith shouted and sobbed at the same time doing everything in her power to guilt Lirian into living.


    Lirian could deny anything she said about him, but those words about him wasting her sacrifice cut deep, so deep that it filled him with anguish.

 Chapter 209 - 209 – The Conflux Closes

    A look of anguish filled Lirian''s eyes as he looked at Edith, the thought of death was so enticing to him, to Lirian death was hope, it was the opposite of what all others thought of death.


    It was like a lover and a friend he''d been waiting to meet for the longest time, and now that he resolved himself to embrace it, it was like his long-cherished wish would finally be answered.


    There was struggle in his eyes as he heard Edith''s cries of desperation, her cries only grew more desperate as she lashed out at him with every insult she could.


    She told him that he would be an unfilial son to the empress if he gave up on life and that he''d be betraying Anya who protected him all those years he spent growing up on Xelia.


    In the end Edith was crying miserably between her shouts, at some point she forgot what she was saying as she yelled whatever came to mind, it was at that point that she felt two arms wrap around her, it was a gentle and firm hug and she could feel something warm dripping on her head.


    "Your words cut deep, deeper than any blade can cut" she heard Lirian say in a morbid tone, "But your right, if you truly wish for me to live then I shall grant you your wish!" Lirian said solemnly.


    Edith looked up with hopeful eyes and brushed away Lirian''s tears, "Thank you!" she finally said, she didn''t know why Lirian wanted to die so badly but she was glad that he decided to keep living.


    [The conflux of fate has closed]


    [Fate functions restored]


    The system stated to Lirian, "I see," Lirian muttered softly, "The conflux was for me after all," Lirian muttered in realisation as he began to scan the world.


    Lirian looked down while holding onto Edith tightly, he peered through the raging storms and scanned the lands.


    He took in everything in the world with a glance, in the far distance the main base of the army was in complete ruin but most of the people there were still alive, the magma didn''t reach those parts yet.


    To his surprise there was a small number of students from the expedition still alive, Tobias and Media were leading them up a mountain that didn''t collapse it was one of the few safe places left.


    A little ways away he found Wentian''s corpse and on the slopes above Wentian, Cole was lying unconscious with a missing arm, he looked like he was on the verge of dying.


    The transport ship that took the students who gave up on the expedition had crashed after being hit by the raging storms, almost everyone on board had died.


    Lirian looked directly beneath him, it was the most dangerous region on the world currently and beside the second accord cultivators all the others were dead, which put a frown on Lirian''s face, those first accord zealots weren''t necessary, but they would have aided his cause against Telamon.


    Then there were one other individuals that still lived, the one they called Number 1 she was looking extremely dishevelled as she streaked across the land at her top speed while staring at the lightning filled sky in fear, she had already taken six bolts of tribulation lightning and it was only getting stronger with each strike.


    Lirian turned to another place where he expected someone to be but there was only fresh magma filling the world at that location.


    "I guess that using the words of heaven rendered the heavens chosen boon useless to protect her," Lirian thought, the place he looked to was where Hinata was pinned.


    "It''s a pity about the katana," Lirian thought it seemed to have the ability to grow which was a very rare trait even amongst fate forged weapons.


    But it was only at the mystic grade, even with the laws it held it would be impossible for the katana to have survived the magma.


    "First things first lets take care of the trash," Lirian said to Edith and silver rings formed around his hand, as they came of his hand the rings joint together and opened up a gate.


    In the next moment a figure stumbled through the gate appearing in front of Edith and Lirian.


    When Edith saw the person, her entire body tensed up and her hand shot to her back where she very vividly membered a cold icy dagger piercing her body.


    Number 1 didn''t know what happened she was running when all of a sudden a strange gate appeared directly in her path, she was moving so fast that she couldn''t react and ended up going straight through it.


    When she arrived on the other side of the gate she could see the person she was fleeing in terror from right before her, and to the side of him she could see someone she had killed a few hours ago.


    She was so close to the ship they arrived with, it would have been a few minutes at most and she would have been able to send the intel to her master, but when it seemed like she had a chance she found herself back to where she begun.


    "You, you monster, just what the hell are you?" Number 1 shouted while looking between Lirian and the supposed to be dead Edith, part of her believed that she somehow died and entered the yellow springs, so that she could be tormented by her failure.


    "Monster!" Lirian chuckled coldly while looking at Number 1 who was looking around frantically.


    "You''re only partially right about that, you see this plain still doesn''t know me yet but if you were to visit the others you''d know the truth,"


    "I am the monster that all monsters know to fear, the monster of the stories that all monsters tell their children about to make them behave, a monster that must never be provoked," Lirian said coldly.


    "So, I salute you and your master for making a mistake that even monsters fear to make," Lirian said one word at a time as he wrapped his hand around Number 1''s throat.


    Edith calmed down a lot as she saw how completely powerless Number 1 was before Lirian, when she was talking with the other her, she was told what Lirian''s cultivation was, and the cultivation of Number 1, but it still left her in complete awe.


    "Is this the power of the third accord?" she asked Lirian excitedly.


    Lirian scratched his head a little at the question, "To a degree yes," Lirian said he didn''t want to get into the detail of the third accord right now, "But for the most part, its talent, knowledge and eons of practice to hone my skills," Lirian added with a grin at Edith.


    "So how would you like to deal with her?" Lirian asked giving Edith the chance to get her own revenge.


    But Edith shook her head slightly, "I really want to," Edith explained with a slightly shaky voice, "But you can use her against Telamon, and since she''s the leader it''s likely that she''ll be the most useful," Edith explained.


    "Never!" Number 1 shouted, "I''ll die before I betray my master," she shouted resolutely and started to ignite her power.


    "Ha, not this time," Lirian spat and with a wave of his hands Number 1 felt a strange restrictive force engulf her from the inside.


    As she focused on her body she found that her own frost laws were sealing her power, frost laws were very convenient for sealing things so Lirian put them to good use.


    "Do you think you''ll be able to use her?" Edith asked with a pondering look after some time, she had heard about the brain washing ceremony that zealots go through, and it was extremely rare that they were broken through, and even then the information that could be extracted from a person with a broken mind was limited.


    As he looked at Number 1 Lirian had an epiphany as for how to use her against Telamon, and seeing how devoted she was to Telamon, Lirian also felt like it was the perfect way to break her.


    "I have an idea," Lirian said with a twisted and cruel smile, "It seems to me that Telamon is your whole world, so I''m going to make you betray your master and all your beliefs,"


    Lirian ran his hand over his eyes, "I''ve been wanting to test out these eyes of mine," he said while looking at Number 1, peering beyond her flesh and into her fate string.


    Lirian decided to use the power of his eyes, originally when he wasn''t blind he could barely even use his eyes for more than a second before it started to cause him harm.


    Third grade was the requirement for him to be able to start using it, so now that he was sixth grade it should be able to work.


    Earlier he had seen fragments of a possible future, but that wasn''t the true power of his eyes, its true power was to peer through fate strings and souls, it was almost like being able to do a fate string scan but without consuming fate particles.


    The thought excited Lirian to no end as he activated his , <Samsaric Vision>.

 Chapter 210 - 210 – Samsaric Vision

    "Samsaric Vision," Lirian thought and peered into the fate string of Number 1.


    It was like Lirian placed a key into a lock and the door slammed open, revealing a long corridor that stretched on seemingly forever, and the walls were filled with images, images of a baby girl, they showed the girl growing up until one day she started to attend the academy.


    She was a girl of common birth, so she was picked on and bullied a lot, even more so because she was very talented, but there was just one person who made it bearable, it was the headmaster Telamon Dao.


    As Lirian moved through the memories he saw that the girls name used to Alice, and she used to be in the same class as a prince candidate, and a very important one.


    The prince candidate was the child of the empress so basically Lirian''s elder brother, Lirian recognised him it was his mothers third son, he''d seen the portrait many times.


    Alice used to report everything the prince did to Telamon, it was just like how Telamon was using Hinata.


    As Lirian felt immersed in the memories a sudden blinding pain hit his eyes and Lirian pulled back, releasing the ability.


    At first he was shocked thinking that Number 1 figured out how to resist the search but he quickly realised that it was his eyes, his eyes couldn''t bare such usage.


    "Run a diagnosis," Lirian ordered the system as he felt his vision go black for a few seconds.


    [Initiating¡­]


    [Conclusion, Samsaric Vision is the power of a god, it can only be used to a limited degree until godhood his achieved.]


    [Discovery¡­]


    [An effect of the Samsaric vision has been found, if used in conjunction with a fate string search, it will reduce the consumption of resources]


    The system performed its task perfectly and in seconds Lirian got his answers.


    He was a little disappointed, but it did make sense for his godly ability to only work properly when he became a god.


    "Very well let''s do this with the system," Lirian said and used it to do a fate string scan.


    Number 1 held many secrets of Telamon which gave her fate string a very high value 150 trillion fate particle were required to perform the search, but due to his eyes the cost was reduced to 120 trillion fate particles.


    Lirian still had over 900 trillion fate particles so it was more than enough to get the job done, once more he entered her fate string, but it wasn''t as clear as the last time when he used his eyes to open it.


    In just moments tons of information was revealed to Lirian and some of the things left even Lirian with shock, but the thing that made him the happiest was an object that Alice was carrying.


    The calamity grade submission disc that Telamon used to control the students.


    As Lirian looked at Alice she was having a wild fit, Lirian wasn''t gentle at all with his search and it left her in a horrible state with foam and blood leaking from her seven orifices.


    Lirian took a ring of her finger and in it he found the submission disc, Lirian let out a light chuckle as he dispelled a self-destruction mechanism placed on the disc in case it fell into the hands of an outsider.


    "Oh, Telamon oh Telamon, this is what I call a gift," Lirian praised Telamon with a look of elation, because as he probed the disc he found that all the zealots were bound to it to.


    There were only two problems that Lirian had left, in Alice''s memories Lirian found that all the first accord zealots were not Telamons which meant that all of Efrideet''s zealots died, and Telamon''s zealots didn''t know which power those other zealots belonged to, so it was useless to try getting a confession out of them.


    The other problem was the people below, they had seen a lot, to much in fact.


    "You can''t kill them," Edith suddenly said to Lirian and grabbed onto his hand tightly.


    "My mother is down there," Edith said.


    Lirian was only planning to spare Anya, as for the zealots he could use the disc to command them to hide what they learnt, while it wouldn''t hold for long it wouldn''t matter because they were destined to die once the truth came out.


    "Fine your mother and Anya get to live but I have to get rid of the rest," Lirian said seriously to Edith.


    But Edith shook her head, "You used to be a god, don''t you have some way to wipe their memories," she pleaded with Lirian, "They did come here to protect you," Edith reminded him.


    "Ghhh," Lirian grunted in annoyance, "Edith its not impossible but the odds are low of it holding in the long term," Lirian complained he wanted to silence them, but he also wanted to let Edith have things go her way.


    "Why won''t it hold?" Edith asked curiously as she clung onto Lirian''s arm with a happy smile on her face, she knew that Lirian would let her have her way.


    "Because I created a very powerful and shocking memory in their minds, it''s already affected their minds on a primal level, if I remove the memory they''ll become dumb,"


    "But lucky for them they received another shock that has imprinted itself in their heads at the same time that I shocked them," Lirian said pointing to the serpent that still loomed over the world.


    "I''ll rewrite their memories to make it seem like my apparition did all of this, but a small part of their minds already associate the serpent with me, that''s why they might be able to see through the change eventually," Lirian said with a sigh.


    As he spoke he prepared the spell and released it onto the elites, the spell immediately took effect and their eyes rolled back in their heads making all of them pass out, the only person who wasn''t caught by the spell was Anya, but a different one entered her mind.


    In it she saw the reality Lirian created, but it didn''t affect her mind, because the entire time she could remember the true reality, in her head their were now two versions of all that happened, one was the version with Lirian and the serpent in the sky, the other one had only the serpent in it, in that version it was the serpent that caused all the destruction.


    "Anya," she heard a voice from with the storm, it was a voice she recognised to be Lirian''s, his voice had returned to its normal smooth and honeyed tone.


    "Watch over all of them for a bit I''ll come join all of you in a little bit," she heard Lirian''s voice but she couldn''t see through the raging storms to see Lirian.


    Just then she saw hundreds of rings firing out of the sky and hitting people as it hit them they vanished, until finally one hit her.


    Anya blinked and found herself on a lovely cruiser ship, she looked around in confusion until she saw, a muscular blonde-haired man sweating profusely while working with the controls of the ship.


    "Alastor," Anya said in confusion as she recognised the man.


    "Holy fucking hell," Alastor shouted as he jumped up in fright, and who wouldn''t in his position, he was alone on the ship with no one else on board, then he suddenly felt a presence and it was Anya of all people, he still had a very profound impression of her from the last time she nearly beat him to death.


    "What are you doing here?" Anya questioned sternly.


    "You handed me Lirian''s cruiser fleet controls and his instruction," Alastor pointed out and held the controller up, "Now tell me how you got on the ship?" Alastor question sceptically, but as he spoke several more rings opened up.


    The elites fell through, then the surviving students started to hit the deck, in the end over 300 people appeared, which was a very small number, but those were all the survivors and even amongst them many were severely injured.


    "What the hell is going on?" Alastor questioned Anya as people continued to fill up the ship.


    "Let''s sort out the injured first then I''ll get to your questions?" Anya said in an annoyed tone, she was quite puzzled herself, with all that was happening and until Lirian returned she didn''t even know what to say.


    It was then that another ring opened up and she saw Lirian step through, in his arms he held onto Edith tightly, but with just a glance Anya could tell that the body was lifeless.


    "Lirian," Anya called out to him, but he quickly brushed past her.


    "Not now Anya," Lirian said through gritted teeth and Anya could tell that it was taking all of Lirian''s effort to stop his voice from shaking.


    Lirian cast a quick glance at Alastor and a silver ring of light hit his head, it was similar to the ones Lirian used to alter the memories of everyone, he obviously planted some stuff in Alastor''s mind.


    As Lirian walked passed them another ring opened up and the zealots all fell through it, they were unconscious at Anya''s feet.


    When she turned back to Lirian he had already left the control room walked down the corridor and out of sight, but she could still hear him, at that moment he was crying.

 Chapter 211 - 211 – Aftermath

    The world was hazy as Lirian looked around with tired eyes.


    There were two figures in the centre of his vision, but they were hazy and difficult to make out, yet they looked so familiar.


    "¡­with my power maybe it might be possible," one of the figures was saying an edge of desperation was mixed into his voice.


    ''That voice it''s so familiar,'' Lirian couldn''t help feeling that there was something familiar about the voice.


    "I''ll burn it all, everything that I have, it might just work," the voice said desperately, but there was an edge of hope in the voice.


    Lirian looked around and the haze started to vanish, ''Oh right that was me,'' Lirian realised with clarity returning to his mind.


    But as the haze disappeared so did everything else even the two figures faded away, then Lirian''s eyes opened a creak.


    Lirian was lying in bed under his sheets, he climbed up and took in the sight of the master bedroom, from within it no one would think that they were on a spaceship.


    It resembled a luxurious suite at a glance and there were even windows on the ship, through the windows Lirian could see a vast misty mountain range, he knew that it was just a projection but it was extremely life like.


    Everyday the view would change to some other wonderful view, Lirian spent most of the past week starring into those projections, it was the only thing with the ability to distract his mind other than wine and Anya had tossed out everything that was on the ship after she saw how much Lirian had been drinking.


    Lirian rolled out of bed with mighty effort, in truth he just wanted to stay there and not move, but then he''d be breaking his promise to her, at the end she told him that he had to live a long life and do everything in his power to be happy.


    Lirian rubbed his eyes and grunted as he recalled the dream, that same dream kept replaying in his head every time he shut his eyes, it was his eternal nightmare.


    Lirian stumbled over to a couch and fell into it, if you asked anyone else they would say that it stank, but Lirian didn''t care he desperate breathed in the stench, it was left there by her.


    Lirian had been refusing to let anyone take her body away for days, but in the night prior Anya came in with Milan and forcibly took Edith''s body away because it was starting to deteriorate and rot.


    Lirian was powerless to stop them, not long after they got on the ship his power faded away, and with every passing moment Lirian could feel the light in his eyes being sealed away.


    "How long until my blindness returns," Lirian asked the system.


    [¡­]


    After a short while passed there was no reply, that was when Lirian looked to the system again and remembered that all its resources had been spent including his own.


    [Fate Particles: 1]


    That was all that remained without it the system would have gone completely blank, he burned it all, but his wish was not answered his final attempt to save her ended in failure.


    Not even the system had the ability to analyse and understand Samsaric power.


    A full hour passed before Lirian pulled himself up and went to the window to gaze at the misty mountains, there wasn''t much time left before his eyes went dark again so he was taking in the view.


    Eventually Lirian entered the closet in his room and pulled out a set of formal attire, black pants a white shirt and a black blazer.


    Lirian got dress but left his shirt untucked and his blazer was left open, he was never one to care about looking to presentable, then he put his gold earing in place letting it dangle from his ear lastly he placed the blindfold over his eye''s.


    He didn''t have his power anymore so there was no more memory altering that he could do, so he had to keep up his appearance as a blind man, he''d be one again by the time they reached Xelia anyway.


    Lirian strolled through the metallic corridors of the ship, there was over a three hundred people on board but on a cruiser this size the number was negligible.


    Even when Lirian walked past, no one seemed to care to greet or start up a conversation, it was to Lirian''s satisfaction, he didn''t have the energy to make any small talk, and that sentiment held true for everyone else.


    They had all lost too much, out of 3000 students just a little over 200 remained, the events of that world still lingered in their minds, giving them trauma that children their age should have never had to face.


    Such events can shake the hearts of those with iron wills let alone children that have been sheltered from war and suffering their entire lives.


    Lirian made his way down into the cargo hold and after a while of searching for any remaining alcohol Lirian gave up on that thought and opened the door to a room that wasn''t too far away.


    When Lirian stepped inside he felt the presence of two others, it was Tobias and Media, they''d come to do the same thing as Lirian, they spent most of their time in this room since they got on the ship.


    Lirian walked towards a pair of capsules'' without saying a word to them, in the past few days none of them said much of anything to each other, most of their time was spent paying their respects to the corpse''s that were in the capsules.


    "I heard from a doctor that Cole might pull through!" Media suddenly said after hours had passed in silence.


    "Mmmh," Tobias sounded in agreement, "I also heard that due his injuries coming from some zealot the families might agree to let him have a new arm, those injuries weren''t because of any fault of his own, nor his own inability!"


    "Lirian you have to tell the empress to push for Cole''s healing, with her say it will happen in an instant," Media said to Lirian with a little happiness in her voice, it was probably the only good news that they got since the expedition begun.


    "I''m surprised that you still know how to care for your fellow candidates," Lirian snapped his head at Media and spat coldly.


    Media''s eyes immediately shrunk as she looked at Lirian but she forced herself to remain calm and said, "I know that you''re hurting Lirian but there is no need to take it out on me, we are on the same side," Media said tactfully.


    "You really are a sly one," Lirian cursed at Media when he read Alice''s fate string he found the power that sold the information to Telamon about people investigating him, it was the Enchantia family, Media''s family.


    It was because of her that Wentian was targeted specifically by the zealots, she was the one that sold him out, and the only reason there was anything to be sold was because Wentian tried to help him.


    It was another person whose death Lirian could credit to his name.


    Tobias looked between the two of them and sighed, he didn''t know what Lirian was going on about but in the past few days he felt like he didn''t understand Lirian at all.


    It was like Edith''s death snapped something inside of him and he was lashing out at everyone around him.


    "Stop trying to pin the blame on Media," Tobias said to Lirian, "I think that we all know who the main person responsible for this catastrophe is, but you don''t see us pointing any blame," Tobias said to Lirian dryly.


    It didn''t take a genius to understand the underlying meaning of Tobias''s words.


    Lirian immediately frowned at him, it was true that he was the reason for the zealots attack, but it wasn''t like he intended to harm them, it was different from Media who sold out a comrade for profit.


    But Lirian didn''t care to justify his actions he let out a dry chuckle and spoke to Tobias, "Defend her if you will, but if I were you I''d watch out for daggers in my back," Lirian spat coldly and walked to the door, but before he left he turned to Media.


    "You know what you did so in the future, when I walk down a corridor, I best not so much as hear a single breath coming out of your mouth," Lirian threatened, "The only reason you are still alive is because of our past friendship," Lirian turned around with those words and walked out the doors, with that he cut of all ties with Media.


    Media sunk to the ground with her legs gone weak, she felt Lirian''s killing intent on her and it was the real deal, it was even more devastating than that time he used it against that foolish candidate Indra.


    Media felt like she had seen her death, just then she turned to see Tobias gently running his hand against Edith''s capsule, "Look at us, you''ve only been gone a few a days and all you''ve strived to build is already falling apart," Tobias muttered with a grievance filled voice.

 Chapter 212 - 212 – Disc Of Submission

    Lirian took deep breaths to calm himself, he''d been quiet these past days, bottling everything up inside, it was how he always done things in the past it was the only way he truly knew how to endure.


    But currently he was glad about the anger, it was the first feeling he felt since Edith''s death and it sure as hell beat whatever he''d been feeling since then.


    He strode back to his room with his hands tucked in his pockets, and when he entered he found Anya already there, as Lirian shut the doors he pulled of the blindfold to see her sitting at the foot of his bed starring at him intently.


    "Is there something you need?" Lirian asked but refused to make eye contact with her, she had been probing into things a lot over the past few days, asking him many questions that he wasn''t ready to answer.


    "You look better today," Anya commented, in the past few days Lirian had been completely downcast with an unbreakable air of gloom around him, but currently the gloom seemed to have lessened significantly and a greater range of emotions appeared on his face.


    "Yes, well I''m angry," Lirian said plainly not explaining any further.


    Anya sighed in exasperation, "Lirian I need you to explain to me what happened and what your plans are?"


    "The elites from the families are one thing I can shrug them off all I want to but his majesty the emperor is also requesting your presence, you can''t keep shrugging him off!" Anya complained to Lirian.


    "If you don''t want to open up that''s fine but I need details, I''ve been threading lightly around Alastor, he doesn''t seem to bothered about finding out how we got on the ship, but I don''t even know what memory you planted in his head, how do I answer the elites questions and the emperors?" Anya continued to complain, because Lirian was not saying anything it even felt like Lirian was giving her the cold shoulder which frustrated her to no end.


    "I planted a memory in Alastor''s mind of him coming down to pick up the survivors," Lirian said plainly and sunk into a couch.


    Then Lirian pulled out a ring from his pocket and tossed it to Anya, "That was everything that was on the leader of the zealots, show the items to the emperor he''ll understand and tell him to continue the plan as scheduled, when you are done return the black disc to me, you can leave now," Lirian said and closed his eyes.


    Anya clenched her fists in frustration seeing Lirian''s attitude, she knew that she had to take the credit for capturing the zealots, it was all in the fake memories Lirian gave her, but she didn''t know what some of the items were and Lirian showed no intention of sharing.


    "Are you angry at me about something, is there a reason that you''re treating me like empty air?" Anya asked with a fuming voice.


    Lirian didn''t respond for a while, but his next words only angered her even more, "Tell Alastor to put the fleet into dark mode, I don''t want anyone discovering us before we arrive at the banquet."


    Anya gritted her teeth together and stomped out of the room in anger, Lirian wasn''t just treating her like empty air, no, he was treating her like some common servant.


    She couldn''t understand what the hell was going through his mind, she was the only one aware that the memories in her head were fake, which had to mean that Lirian trusted her to keep his secrets, but if he trusted her then why was he so cold to her, she couldn''t understand him at all.


    A short while later Anya was alone in a her room, when she contacted the emperor and took out the items in the ring, but amongst them their was only one that caught her eye a black disc, she couldn''t tell what it did but she could tell from its aura that it was calamity grade.


    The disc looked very ordinary which is why Anya was confused when the emperor was staring at it fixedly, with a great deal of anger.


    "Your majesty, do you know what this is?" Anya probed sensing that it was a very complicated matter.


    "All of those devices were supposed to have been destroyed," the emperor fumed he didn''t need the AI to identify the submission disc, it was a cause of serious trouble during his first days as emperor.


    An object that could enslave even seventh grader cultivators, a troubling object that came from a gods trial ground and that he went through great effort to find and destroy every disc like it.


    He even got the other civilisations involved and they used their authority to find every last one in the universe.


    "Why have you only found this now?" the emperor questioned Anya.


    "It was hidden inside the zealot''s body," Anya lied she was prepared for this question and this was the only answer she could give.


    "Keep that object close and do not let anyone know about it at all," the emperor said seriously, "When you get to Xelia give it to your empress, she knows how to handle it," the emperor said and cut off the connection.


    "Still no explanation," Anya complained after the called ended and looked at the disc, ''It''s seems a little like an oath disc, but the feeling I get from it is slightly off,'' Anya thought and gave it a light probe with her energy.


    She immediately felt a connection from the disc to several people on the ship, and as she looked through it she found that the connections were linked to all the zealots that were currently locked up in the ship.


    Anya felt power over them through the link, the power to completely control and dominate their thoughts and their every movement.


    The power she held over them was intoxicating but it also terrified her, she quickly released the connection and put the disc away, "It''s no wonder his majesty was so angry to see this," Anya muttered thoughtfully.


    She wasn''t around when the emperor first took his throne, but she did learn a few things from her comrades, and it her speculation was correct that disc must be one of the submission discs that was used to begin a rebellion, some very important figure were bound by the discs, and betrayed the empire.


    It caused a great deal of chaos and many nobles were wrongly accused of betraying the empire, when the truth was found out that the nobles weren''t traitors and they were controlled, it created a very bad image for the emperor at the time.


    The nobles claimed that he should have investigated more before performing the executions, the entire thing was disaster, that the emperor probably wanted to forget.


    ---


    Taliyah was dressed in a lovely golden dress that revealed her bronze shoulders and a lot of her lovely long legs.


    She sat in front of her mirror as her hair was being braided into a crown on her head, a crown of black and white, having a child again Taliyah believed that her hair might return to it''s usual full black, but none of that happened.


    She figured it was because Lirian gave her far too much anxiety, the thing that she didn''t expect was that her head of hair that was black and white became a trend amongst the nobles.


    For the past few days numerous nobles had visited her and she meet many women whose hair resembled her own, but more than that she ended up meeting several lords that imitated her hair colour as well.


    That was the thing about being the empress, if it was anyone else they would have called her change in hair colour a curse or a sign of bad health, which it was, but because she was the empress it became a new fashion trend.


    Taliyah didn''t mind it to much, the thing that she truly minded at that moment was the blaring trumpets that were sounding one after the other without stop for the past several hours.


    There was a barker shouting out the names of the newly arrived nobles between the trumpets explosions of sound, but Taliyah couldn''t hear the introductions, and she highly doubted that anyone else could, because every blast of the trumpets made her ears ring.


    "Belinda would you please stop the sound from reaching my ears, it''s frustrating," Taliyah complained to her aid.


    Belinda lightly shook her head, she knew this was going to come eventually, her majesty always did hate the blaring trumpets, once she even partition for the trumpets to be changed to violins, but there was something about violins not being as attention grabbing as trumpets, which foiled her noble crusade.


    With a flip of her hands the sound of the trumpets was drowned out and a relaxed smile appeared on Taliyah''s face, only for a look of anxiousness to fill her face.


    She got a call from her husband a few weeks ago, and from it she heard that Lirian had performed so exceptionally on the expedition that her husband called him personally, and from there they discussed a few things and Lirian decided to take the road of no return by challenging the unbeatable trial.


    For that reason she had to throw a huge a banquet and many nobles from the different star zones were gathering here for the banquet and show.


    Knowing Lirian, Taliyah believed that he could easy accomplish what no other had before, but her worry came from the news she received four days ago, the teleporters had trouble and it was said that it would only come back online today.


    For that reason the teleporters were brought from the academy to the manor and set up in the gardens.


    It was then that another blast of the trumpets went of, but it didn''t affect Taliyah in the slightest, and this time she could hear the barker introducing the guest.


    "Welcoming the former advisor of the emperor and the current headmaster of the Xelia academy, his excellency Telamon Dao!"

 Chapter 213 - 213 – The Banquet Has Only Just Begun

    Taliyah smiled lightly when she heard her masters name being called out, before the expedition she planned to have Lirian and her master sit down to clear the air between them.


    This banquet was a good opportunity to write off all their troubles, it was more crowdy than she hoped it to be, but she figured that having a crowd might make Lirian a little more reserved if only just a tiny bit.


    A short while later when her make up and hair was done, Taliyah heard that the trumpeters had gone to rest from Belinda, it meant that all the invited nobles had arrived, but the best news of all for her was that she wouldn''t have to see the trumpets when she went down.


    The emperor and empress always arrive last so it was finally her turn.


    Taliyah''s aides led the way as she trailed behind them, a golden carpet was spread out wherever she had to walk, and the aides walked on both sides just an inch away from the carpet.


    As Taliyah got to the stairs she suddenly shot an angry glance at Belinda, as the trumpeters were still there standing patiently and at her appearance they all exploded with earth shaking noise.


    "My apologies your majesty, I must have heard wrong," Belinda said to her via voice transmission in a very innocent voice, and her face looked as innocent as a little child.


    "Introducing the saviour of Scavanour, the breaker of¡­" the barker began to introduce the empress, but she quickly cut him off.


    "Be a dear and skip the hundred titles, I have a party to attend to and I''d prefer to attend it today," Taliyah said with a feigned yawn.


    ''Huh, every time,'' the barker thought with a sigh, not once would she ever allow him to recite her titles, so he gave the abbreviated introductions to the crowd.


    "Now then would everyone please join me in the gardens, the party will officially begin once my son arrives," Taliyah said to the crowd and they soon obeyed her desire as they filled in through the halls and made for the rear gardens where the portals had been set up.


    "Master would you care to join me for a walk," Taliyah smiled into the crowd at Telamon.


    As if expecting the invitation Telamon came forward through the crowd and gave a small bow to Taliyah and a warm smile crept onto his aged face, "As if I''ve ever been able to deny my favourite students invitations," he said and hooked his arm around hers like a true gentlemen.


    "You look beautiful child," Telamon whispered to her as they walked at the back of the crowd.


    Taliyah smiled in response and pulled her master closer, "Master have you heard why the teleporters aren''t working properly?" she whispered with worry in her voice.


    "Ah, child you worry to much, I got a report from the base, some strange phenomena occurred and it messed up all the systems, it took all they had to get a message out to me, but they said the problem will disappear on its own," the reports that he got were all feigned by the emperor''s AI so even Telamon was in the dark on the matter.


    Telamon would be lying if he said he wasn''t completely at ease, he discovered that only some of the zealots had died, he had life crystals attached to them, and four of them went out in close proximity to each other but the rest didn''t.


    They were all supposed to commit suicide in the end, yet most of them were still alive, he could only hope that it was because they wanted to transfer some intel to him before dying, but they couldn''t due to the interference from the phenomena.


    Only one of them was supposed to return alive to return the submission disc, after that that zealot would also commit suicide.


    "However there is some bad news Taliyah, I''ve heard that a few students died!" Telamon whispered softly, and he felt Taliyah shake slightly at his words.


    He gave Taliyah a gentle smile, "You know your son better than me I''m sure that he isn''t one of the casualties, unfortunately they were tight lipped about it in the report, so it''s either some one of no importance or one of the candidates," Telamon consoled her and stroked her fears in a single breath.


    But he was certain that the death was Lirian''s, with everything he invested into killing him, it would be impossible if Lirian had an intact corpse.


    Taliyah shook her head, "When you say it like that it gives me even more of scare," Taliyah complained with a pout.


    "Haha," Telamon chuckled merrily, "I''m sure that Lirian will return with some great achievements, enough to stun all the nobles here, and make them drown in envy," Telamon said with an exaggerated air to his words.


    "Oh," Taliyah suddenly opened her eyes wide, "I''ve really been stupid panicking, Albus has already told me about Lirian''s achievements, you won''t believe it but Albus claims Lirian killed a third grade mammoth, hell I''m his mother and even I couldn''t believe it," Taliyah said practically skipping with joy as she bragged to her master, but she felt Telamon suddenly go stiff.


    "Are you alright master?" Taliyah asked with concern.


    "It''s nothing," Telamon said forcing his calmness, "Was his majesty truly observing the expedition?" he asked but a little worry unconsciously crept into his tone.


    Taliyah shrugged her shoulders, "He was probably just monitoring Lirian''s scores from time to time, you know him, he rarely ever dedicates all his attention to a single thing," Taliyah said with a slight pout as she thought about Albus.


    "Why, this seems to have you very concerned master?" Taliyah said with a teasing smile while holding onto Telamon''s arm tightly, the aides looking from the side were surprised by how easy-going Taliyah was with Telamon it was like in his presence she became a child again and wanted her master''s attention.


    "I just fear that the noble''s will think his majesty to be favouring Lirian if they find out that he was monitoring the expedition," Telamon said tactfully but his eyes started to wonder around with a barely concealed panic.


    "Master you''re always such a worry-wot, Albus did the same with all our children, and no one ever learnt of it," she whispered secretively as they arrived in the gardens.


    "I take it that it was his majesty that wanted this banquet to be held," Telamon said with a knowing look in his eyes, "It''s no wonder it was on such short notice, it was because of Lirian''s performance that he suddenly decided to have Lirian take the unbeatable challenge," Telamon said more to himself than to Taliyah, deducing the situation.


    "Master is as smart as ever," Taliyah praised with glittering eyes, her master was always exceptional at deducing, he always said that it was what made such a good advisor, deduction was the key, to form crazy theories and use deduction to confirm or deny the possibility of something.


    Telamon had a bad feeling, earlier it was just a slight worry that things didn''t go smoothly, but now if the emperor was involved it was very likely that his activities were exposed, if that was the case then this entire event was one major trap planned, to make him let his guard down.


    ''A bold move,'' Telamon thought feeling distress, ''This is totally unlike the Albus I know he always tries to be discreet with his actions unless he has no choice,'' Telamon thought and that''s when it hit him, this was a very bold move, and the only person who held anything against him that was so bold was undoubtedly Lirian.


    ''The emperor is aiding Lirian,'' Telamon concluded with fine drops of sweat appearing on his head.


    "Taliyah¡­" Telamon started but his voice was drowned out by Taliyah who started to say something at the same time.


    "Sorry master," she apologized, "But this is important to me, do you remember before the expedition, you were supposed to meet with Lirian to clear the air between the two of you?" she asked nervously not looking directly at her master, she was embarrassed by Lirians treatment of her master so she felt extremely ashamed of herself.


    Telamon nodded absentmindedly, but he was looking around with fear in his eyes.


    "Master would it be possible for you to have a nice long discussion with Lirian when he returns, I know that''s its his fault but he''s just a child, and you know how jealous children can get when their parents praise other people?" she said with an embarrassed smile as she looked at her master again.


    "Are you sure your alright?" Taliyah asked seeing that he was dripping with sweat.


    "Yes I''m fine child," Telamon said forcing a smile, "You know what you''re absolutely correct, so in the name of making things right between myself and young Lirian, would you allow me to return to the academy, I have a gift in mind that I''m sure young Lirian will appreciate," Telamon said still forcing a smile.


    "I knew you''d understand," Taliyah said with a bright smile and released Telamons arm, but just as Telamon was about to leave, someone shouted from the portal control panel.


    "Someone has infiltrated the system and they are changing the coordinates we are receiving from!" one of the portal technicians shouted in alarm, and that got the attention of everyone else.


    As the nobles started to question if it was some sort of terrorist attack, none of them panicked they were the people that stood at the pinnacle of the world so there was no way they would be afraid.


    So, aside from the younger generation the nobles all stood their ground when the portal opened up.


    "Where is the gate opening from?" Taliyah questioned calmly.


    "Your majesty it''s¡­" the technician looked at the coordinates with confusion, then looked up in the sky, "It''s coming from up there," he muttered as if not sure himself as he pointed to the sky.


    Just then the gate opened and a figure came striding through the portal.


    Everyone saw the silver hair first then the blindfold wrapped around the persons eyes and the golden earing with the Clovis home world map engraved into it, the person was dress in an extremely well-tailored black suit with a red inner.


    They had all seen a photo or a recording of Lirian at one point and they all recognised him instantly as he whipped out his walking cane and stepped into their view.


    "Telamon Dao, why are you in such a rush to leave, this banquet has only just begun!" Lirian called out loudly, his voice was cold and chilling as it grated every ones ears but most of all it made Telamon feel chills, the same chills he felt when he saw the shadowy figure in Efrideet''s vision.


    It was the voice of a monster.

 Chapter 214 - 214 – Fear That Lingers

    Lirian was sipping on a drink in his room when he got the news that they were approaching Xelia, in just a few short minutes they would enter the detection range of Xelia.


    Xelia wasn''t like the outlier planet which could be easily infiltrated, it was a high world that held one of the ten academies in the Opal Star Zone, so its security was almost unbreachable even with the best stealth devices, and if that wasn''t bad enough the empresses personal fleet was stationed above the planets atmosphere.


    Then there were the fleets that all the nobles had come with, without a doubt the skies of Xelia were a death for any unwanted guests, and for a ship that remained hidden in stealth, they''d be lucky if they weren''t immediately incinerated once they were discovered.


    It was likely to be a no questions asked situation, and even the elites from the family were just slightly nervous, they had been imploring Lirian to reveal the ship, but Lirian had been insistent on only revealing himself at the last minute.


    Lirian climbed out of his seat and placed the goblet down, as his lips curled into a smile, it was finally time for him to get his revenge and he wouldn''t allow anyone to get in his way.


    He walked down the corridors with purpose after getting dressed, and found Alastor, "I need my control for the fleet," Lirian said opening his hand to Alastor.


    They were on board the ship so it wasn''t like Alastor really needed the controller, the controller was mainly meant for controlling the vehicles remotely, the remote in itself was one of the best pieces of tech developed by the Jane family.


    Alastor looked at Lirian curiously but he still returned the controller it didn''t belong to him in the first place.


    "What are you up to?" Alastor asked as Lirian started to walk away, from the way Lirian was walking Alastor could see that his steps were full of purpose.


    "Putting on a show that all those damned nobles will not soon forget!" Lirian left those words in a cold and empathic tone, before vanishing.


    "Just what is that kid up to," Alastor muttered but he didn''t follow after Lirian he had a ship to control.


    Lirian made his way to the room that housed two capsules, inside them were the bodies of the two fallen candidates, Lirian didn''t have the time to think to much as he pushed the two capsules from the room and locked them together inside a drop pod.


    Then he went back up and found Anya, "The disc that was inside the ring I need it!" Lirian said to Anya opening his hand and gesturing for her to return it.


    Anya coldly glared at Lirian, through out the entire trip he''d been giving her the cold shoulder, treating her like some common servant and now he was demanding that she return something extremely dangerous.


    "Sorry no can do," Anya said putting on airs of her own and walked around Lirian.


    "I have been granted the authority to deal with Telamon and I need that disc in order to deal with him!" Lirian said in annoyance.


    "The emperor told me to keep the disc hidden and no one is allowed to find out about it!" she answered with a feigned yawn and turned her back on Lirian.


    As she walked away she felt he watch vibrate and when she looked down she got a shock, at the emblem that was being projected, "The emperor actually gave you that?!" Anya yelped in disbelief.


    She quickly deciphered the code in the emblem, and it completely checked out and once she read the contents she was in complete disbelief.


    "I need the disc Anya," Lirian said extending his hand and this time Anya reluctantly pulled it out and handed it to him.


    Lirian smiled and turned around, "Did I wrong you in some way?" Anya shouted from behind Lirian with anger filling her voice, she''d always did her best to protect him and take care of him, so she couldn''t understand why he was being so cold to her, or the scarier thing to her was that this is who Lirian truly was.


    Lirian halted his footsteps and turned back to her, "I can answer your question, but I''d suggest that you head to the control room in about fifty seconds this entire ship will be destroyed if you aren''t there," as Lirian spoke he pressed a button on the controller and as he did the entire ship started to accelerate at full throttle.


    Anya looked at Lirian in annoyance, then the ships systems started to ring.


    [Warning. Warning. Warning.]


    [Ship has been forcibly taken over by remote device, all manual overrides have been disengaged.]


    Anya looked at Lirian with widened eyes, "Just what are you up to?" she questioned Lirian with anger filling her eyes.


    But Lirian only raised a finger and wagged it from side to side, "Tick, tock, tick, tock," Lirian repeated with an amused smile, his answer was clear he wasn''t going to tell her anything but if she stayed it was just a matter of time before the Xelia guards and the empress''s fleet opened fire on the ship.


    "Arg, Dammit," she cursed and ran to control room leaving Lirian alone.


    "I''m sorry Anya but I want this over with as soon as possible, and if the elites come down, there is no doubt that I''m going to have to run all of their testimonies by the nobles, and I don''t want to waste any time, if anything the more time we give Telamon the likelier he is to escape, and I can''t allow any chances," Lirian muttered and walked to the hold where the zealots were being kept.


    They were all bound tightly by contraptions on the ship, but those alone couldn''t hold them the main thing stopping them from fighting back was a few serums that were regularly injected into their bodies and there were many spells placed on them to prevent them from committing suicide.


    Lirian walked over to Number 1, and from her rough and pained breathing Lirian could tell that she had it the worst, every day Milan had paid special attention to her, and used a hundred different kinds of torture on her, it was Milan''s way of getting revenge for Edith.


    Lirian stepped into the room and as he did all the zealots found themselves shivering in terror as they looked at Lirian, none of them could explain the reason, but they were completely overcome with fear in his presence and Number 1 was frantically trying to push herself through the wall as she screamed in horror.


    All of their memories had been altered by Lirian yet his presence still left them in such a state, and it wasn''t just them, even the elites seemed scared to face Lirian over the days in the ship.


    Lirian found it very annoying and it made up a bigger part of the reason why he didn''t want the elites down there when he confronted Telamon, if they witnessed his blood lust in the flesh, he didn''t want to imagine it unravelling the memories he placed in their minds.


    The only reason for their heavy reactions that Lirian could figure out was that he had left far to profound an impact on their minds, so much so that it was close to rivalling what they felt from his apparition.


    Lirian walked up to Number 1 and grabbed her by the chin, "Tell me Alice are you ready to betray your master and reveal his secrets to the entire world?" Lirian asked with a cruel smile.


    "You how, you can''t know that name!" she shouted frantically as Lirian called her by her name.


    "Oh I already know everything about you, I also happen to know that you are the one who commission the Black Hand to kill me when I was being transported to Xelia, on your masters orders," Lirian said revealing one of the many secrets she held.


    As her eyes widened Lirian pulled out the submission disc and showed it to them, "Tell me will you betray Telamon?" Lirian asked as he showed off the disc, but none of them showed any fear, they knew that the disc had a self-destruction spell on it if anyone tried to use it, it would shatter.


    Lirian only smiled at their silence then he entered the control panel of the room and after a few minutes they all found themselves free from their restraints.


    They looked at Lirian wide eyed as they tried to understand what he was trying to do, "Bad move!" a zealot shouted and jumped at Lirian with a mad laugh.


    "Stand still all of you!" Lirian ordered with the disc and with just that they all fell completely still even the zealot who was about to kill Lirian, and their eyes all darted to the disc in Lirian''s hands with horror.


    "Follow me, be quite and do not do anything I do not allow you to do," Lirian ordered them once more and they lined up with discipline and followed after Lirian without any questions.


    Lirian soon guided them to another drop pod on the ship, "Go inside and wait soon the opportunity for all of you to betray your master will arrive," Lirian laughed and shut the pod.


    Lirian took a deep breath as he walked down the corridor towards the portal device, "Soon I''ll get revenge for you Edith, it''s a pity that I''ll only get Telamon this time, but I promise one day I''ll make Efrideet pay for her role in all of this," Lirian swore and started to break through the defences of the portal on Xelia, it was time for his grand entrance.

 Chapter 215 - 215 – Revelation

    The garden had tables filled with food, and the sweet smell of fresh baked goods drifted into Lirian''s nose as he walked around the garden with his cane in hand, but he was using it more like a walking stick as he strode around the garden with familiarity.


    Once Lirian got out of the range of the portal it quickly closed, to everyone''s surprise they had been expecting the entire expedition group to come out at this location.


    It was why there was so much food at this place, it was set up for the successful expedition group to enjoy upon their return home.


    It took a while for the nobles to calm down as they were spiritedly discussing the sudden change in events, they were expecting a celebration, but the first thing they got was Lirian living up to his name of being a rude and disrespectful child.


    It wasn''t what they came here for but it certainly made things more interesting and their were many nobles muttering words to each other in giddy tones.


    They were making bets, some of them were making bets with each about the severity of Lirian''s punishment for calling his excellency Telamon by name in front of the entire crowd, some of them were betting that the empress would be spanking Lirian until his ass started bleeding in front of the entire crowd.


    They all turned their gazes to Telamon who they just realised was floating in the air slightly as if preparing to leave, but faced with the numerous eyes Telamon forced himself to look calm and landed back besides the empress.


    Taliyah however was looking at Lirian with a whole range of emotions but most of all there was a strange glint in her eyes, she could sense a thread of Lirian''s killing intent, at one point in time she was subjected to that killing intent and she remembered how dreadful it was.


    At that moment she could feel that killing intent in Lirian it was barely disguised but it was fixed on Telamon, she didn''t know why that was the case but a feeling of foreboding filled her as she looked at Lirian.


    The crowd was very surprised by the lingering silence, in that time Lirian had grabbed a few items from the table took a seat began to chow down on them as if this was completely natural while facing Telamon and his mother.


    Yet in all that time no one said a word, not Telamon nor the empress and the nobles were all looking on in anticipation as the silence filled the entire garden, even the music stopped leaving only silence.


    "Did you eat as yet?" Lirian asked while cracking down on a pastry in his mouth, everyone knew that his question was voiced at Telamon.


    And to everyone''s surprise Telamon was trembling slightly when Lirian questioned him they all thought that it was probably due to the anger of being disrespected by Lirian but when Telamon spoke he was surprisingly very polite to Lirian.


    "Young Lirian, I know that I was hard on you in the past, but after speaking with your mother, my beloved disciple, I''ve realised that my treatment of you was unfair and I''d like to make it up to you with a gift if you''ll allow me, I need only a moment to retrieve it," Telamon already knew that things were bad so he tried the only thing he could.


    Bribery!


    It was the most effective solution to get out of any bad situation, it was hopeless to beg, it was useless to try defending himself before Lirian threw any accusations at him, and it was the worst choice to lash out at Lirian from the start, since Lirian was here it meant he came prepared.


    If he tried to slander Lirian, Lirian would just use what ever evidence he had and end things, but he saw a sliver of hope, Lirian was offering him a chance to speak, before accusing him, it was typical situation when someone knows that they won but instead of taking out the person they beat, they turn them into a follower.


    Using the knowledge of their crime as leverage, in other words it was what nobles loved to call diplomacy.


    His offering of a gift was the same as him saying that he was accepting defeat and it fit in with what he discussed with the empress, it was his only hope so he desperately clung onto it.


    "Huh," Lirian let out a disappointed sigh and shook his head, "It was such a simple question," Lirian mused as he poured a cup of hot tea and sipped on it.


    "Mother," Lirian called out turning to the empress, "Has the treacherous dog of the Clovis civilization besides you had anything to eat yet?" Lirian asked.


    Those words seemed to completely still even the movements of the nobles, earlier they still whispered to their friends spiritedly, but this was no longer a funny joke to them.


    Lirian just called Telamon Dao a traitor to the civilisation of Clovis, an accusation like that was extremely stupid, even for the empresses son, that was an offence worthy of beheading, not even the lords and ladies of the super worlds would dare to utter such words in their tight circles of friends.


    Yet Lirian had made such a declaration in front of the nobles of at least 5 star zones, and most important of all he said it to his mother, the empress and disciple of Telamon.


    The person who was the most shocked of all was undoubtedly the empress, from the very beginning she felt that something was wrong, but this was completely out of her expectations, she looked at Lirian with a shaking heart then she looked to her master, to see that he was shivering.


    Whether anger or fear, she didn''t know she only knew something wasn''t right with her masters reaction, and she was starting to understand that something extremely bad must have happened on the expedition.


    It would also explain why Albus had contacted her and had her arrange this event on such short notice, she did find it odd, but didn''t have any reason to suspect her husband, he never lied to her about anything.


    But know she understood why he lied, it was because he didn''t want her to seem off when facing her master, this entire thing was just a trap, hatched by her husband and son to trap her master.


    "Master?" Taliyah question, with a shaky voice as she looked at Telamon, and she recalled all his behaviour from the moment she mentioned that Albus told her about Lirian''s attainments, it was like he was radiating guilt, that was also why he was so desperate to leave.


    This turn of events took everyone by surprise, seeing the empress question her master instead of Lirian, it was all just too far from what they expected.


    "Your majesty," a noble suddenly spoke out from the crowd, "Surely you are jesting with us, to question your own master and believe the words of your nip-twit of a son, a child who hasn''t even sprouted his first hairs," Lord Draco the lord of a super world spoke up.


    Lord Draco was one of the few with enough authority to speak up, the main reason he dared to address the empress like that was because he was one of the Emperor''s first followers back when he campaigned to become emperor, it put him in the eternal good graces of the emperor, and it is also how he became a very successful leader of a super world.


    It was only the lords and ladies of super worlds that had any authority to speak in such a situation, and shortly after Lord Draco spoke, there were two other Super world leaders that stepped forward in agreement.


    However there were two lords standing side by side, one of them was Lord Eden the other was Lord Haltz, he was from the neighbouring star zone and the two of them had always been extremely close, so it came as no surprise that they were together, but the fact that they didn''t stand with the other leaders of the Super Worlds caught everyone''s attention.


    Lord Draco frowned as he looked at the two of them and he said in an annoyed tone to them, "Callum, Stanley don''t tell me that your buying any of this bullshit, it''s a very well known fact that her majesty favours her children to much, but this one is pushing it don''t you think,"


    "To chose her child over a pillar who has held up our empire since before we were born, not to mention that the person is her master, this is absolutely unfilial behaviour, it''s a disgrace for one carrying the title of empress," Lord Draco said vehemently.


    Lord Stanley Haltz was at a loss as to what he should do the only reason he didn''t stand with the others was because his friend advised him not to act rashly.


    Lord Callum Eden however was rather calm in the face of Lord Draco''s words, he had sent his own elites to back up Lirian under the emperors orders and it was all on the crazy speculation that Telamon was a traitor, then Lirian strode in here and announced that Telamon was a traitor how could he not connect the dots.


    "I think that we should learn what happened on the expedition first, before we say anything foolish," he said taking a jab at Draco, because if Lirian''s words were true, it meant that Lord Draco had seriously offended the empress with the last words he said.


    All eyes soon returned on Lirian who was happily indulging himself in a meal as if he wasn''t the one who caused this entire mess.

 Chapter 216 - 216 – The Empress’s Determination

    As all eyes turned to Lirian, he continued to eat his weight in savouries and desserts, not giving a care to the nobles who were waiting for his explanation.


    His attitude didn''t earn him the good will of any of the nobles, even the ones who were more amused by Lirian felt annoyed at his lack of respect.


    "Young Lirian would care to explain your words, this accusation that you''re making is no small matter," Lord Callum said loudly to Lirian, putting on airs of righteousness as he spoke.


    "Fucking nobles," Lirian muttered to softly for anyone to hear, he knew that Lord Callum was on his side, but he knew that Lord Callum would have joined the other nobles had he not known about the situation.


    The thing that bugged Lirian was that despite Lord Callum''s knowledge on the subject he was still playing things completely safe, and trying to see the full picture before taking any specific stance.


    Lirian continued to silently dig into the food as if he heard nothing at all, he was waiting patiently, from the beginning he was only focused on Telamon, sensing all the changes happening to Telamon and right at that moment Telamon seemed to regain his calm.


    While the nobles were gritting their teeth in annoyance at Lirian silence Telamon finally spoke, "There is no need for the boy to say anything," Telamon''s voice sounded firmly and all the nobles turned to look at him.


    Telamon felt like he''d been played for a fool earlier when he tried to resolve things diplomatically with Lirian, but as it turned out that was just part of Lirian''s plan to make him feel like a fool.


    Telamon turned to Taliyah and looked her in the eye, "Taliyah I''m going to say this as your master, this behaviour of you spoiling your children can go on no more," he said loudly and with a hint of disappointment to his voice.


    The nobles were not to surprised by this turn of events, many of them had discussed the empress''s treatment of her children with their peers and without a doubt many of their conversations had reach Telamon''s ears.


    It was high time that someone addressed the empress on the issue and it was all the better because it was coming from the empress''s master himself, other than the emperor he was the only one in the empire that could address her by name.


    And he was probably also the only one that could discuss this matter with the empress without facing any punishment.


    "Taliyah, I have always placed your interests as what is most important to me, I have given up my post as advisor to act as a guardian and guidance counsellor to your late children,"


    "All that I have done since I found you in a prison cell ready to be executed on Scavanour, was to help you grow into an incredible woman, and you have," Telamon said those words with purpose, reminding everyone of his love for the empress and the thing he sacrificed to help her.


    "I have watched over your every child as they grew up, but you know as well as I do that he has never shown me even the slightest bit of respect a child should his elder let alone what should be shown to a benefactor,"


    "As your master I must say that the manners of a child are a reflection of their upbringing, in which you have failed dearly this time, if you were any other student of mine I would beat you until your skin changed colour for raising such a disobedient child,"


    "A child of yours has openly thrown threats at me, and disrespected me by calling me incompetent and now he accuses me of treason to the empire I have served and protected with my life, I was even willing to look past all his actions on your account but this goes to far, you know what the punishment for slandering my name is and I expect it to be carried out immediately,"


    "Even if you call him your son this is not the behaviour of a child, it is the behaviour of a brat who has never been disciplined in his life, I will not allow such a child to tarnish the reputation of our empire," Telamon said resolutely, and his words had a very powerful effect on the crowd.


    There were several nobles that even stood up and walked in Lirian''s direction, all they were waiting for was a word from Telamon and they would carry out the punishment to kill Lirian, from this it could be seen what a powerful influence Telamon had accrued over the years.


    "Anyone who dares to direct their thoughts onto my son will have their entire worlds eradicated by me personally!" Taliyah said in a chilly voice, she didn''t let out her aura yet the nobles who were moving towards Lirian froze in place, none of them dared to doubt her words.


    Taliyah was clenching her fists in anger, as she looked at her master with disbelief in her eyes, he wanted Lirian dead and he wanted the execution to be done immediately.


    She knew that her master was a very rational man, for something like this he could have given it time before the execution, his desire for it to be immediate only told one thing, that her master had something to hide.


    Taliyah felt like her heart was breaking as she looked at her master, a man she loved as if he was her father, but all the evidence was pointing at him being guilty of some crime, and she knew Lirian he wouldn''t say such words so openly unless he had some form of proof.


    Taliyah''s heart was trembling with pain as she looked at Telamon, she didn''t care about being rebuked, but if he truly did something to harm Lirian, she had no idea how to handle it, yet everything was in her hands currently.


    With just a word she could end things here, it would raise a lot of question but no one would be able to do anything about it or she could choose a side her masters or her sons, it was all up to her and it left her shaking inside with grief.


    Taliyah looked between them with gloomy eyes and slowly she turned her back to Lirian and walked towards her master.


    The nobles all breathed out in shock, they thought that the empress would either drop things or side with Lirian, because siding with her master was the same as killing Lirian.


    Telamon smiled seeing Taliyah''s decision, he honestly believed that Taliyah was a lost cause, she had far too much of a soft spot for her children, but he supposed it was probably because there was no real blood ties between her and Lirian that she could give up on him.


    Telamon finally saw some hope, as far as he could tell it was very likely that the emperor was involved, the moment the emperor arrived, he''d be dead for sure, but with this he could rid the empire of its great threat first.


    If Lirian died the future he saw would never come to pass, and the empire would remain safe, with that he could save the empire from a disaster, it was all he needed to do.


    He looked at Lirian who continued to eat as if he had not a worry in the world as Taliyah stood by his side and faced Lirian with him, like an obedient student.


    "I''d offer you last words, but I''m certain it would be just a bunch of made up crap to slander me," Telamon said to Lirian as the entire crowd closed in around him.


    Lirian however merely placed down his food and smiled lightly at Telamon without a single trace of fear or worry.


    The nobles were completely perplexed by his demeanour, especially since his own mother had just abandoned him and practically signed his death warrant, they would have expected him to feel betrayed or to be furious, and most of all scared, but he was just as the rumours claimed a fearless individual, even n the face of betrayal he remained perfectly calm.


    It was like he never cared about it from the beginning.


    "So, you''ve finally excepted the truth mother," Lirian said with a smile then he tilted his head slightly to face Telamon and he tapped two fingers against his throat.


    Telamon looked at Lirian in confusion for just a second when he felt something cold pressed up against his throat, and as he turned to look he saw the sword held firmly in Taliyah''s hand a look of determination filled her eyes as she looked at Telamon.


    "My son asked you a question, as the empress I order you to answer him," Taliyah said with a shaky voice, but all that mattered was that she was standing on Lirian''s side.


    A smile blossomed fully on Lirian''s face, his smile was enough to capture the hearts of even the most cold hearted of people, and they could sense pure joy radiating from his smile, the joy was infectious in its power.


    Lirian was truly happy at that moment, because his mother finally made her decision, and she chose him, she chose him without knowing the details of the events, without any certain guaranty that he was correct, that was all that mattered to him.


    That was what Lirian wanted, for her to choose him, he knew that her heart was breaking inside, but sometimes people have to be selfish to get what they want and he''d never regret his choice.


    All that mattered was that she chose him over her master before being made aware of the truth, had the elites been here they would have blabbed already and made it impossible to force Taliyah to make the decision between him or Telamon.


    If the truth was revealed then the decision would have been rendered meaningless, it was also why Lirian refused to speak, he wanted this decision to be made before he revealed the truth.

 Chapter 217 - 217 – The Paragon Restriction

    Telamon felt the immortal energy of Taliyah lock him in place, he was completely powerless against it and it only allowed for him to speak but nothing else.


    "Telamon oh Telamon," Lirian said his name with a joyful smile, but his words were mixed in with killing intent that was extremely frightening.


    "Tell me have you eaten yet?" Lirian asked again, it was the third time that he repeated the same question, but this time his tone was very excited.


    "Boy don''t do this here, it will tarnish the empire''s name," Telamon said through gritted teeth, he knew that it was over for him, but he had to save the reputation of the empire, he was certain that there wasn''t much proof about his crimes, but even the small ones were damaging to the empires reputation.


    "Do not make me repeat my question for a fourth time," Lirian said in an irritated tone not paying any heed to Telamon''s plea.


    Telamon didn''t know what him eating had to do with anything, but he gritted his teeth and answered, "No!" he said with a shake of his head.


    Lirian nodded his head in satisfaction and went to a table to grab a large clear jug of water, he turned it over emptying its contents onto the ground then placed it over his mouth while pressing his stomach with the other hand.


    All the nobles suddenly turned their heads away in disgust and some of them involuntarily gagged as they watched Lirian spewing out all the food he had eaten since arriving.


    They watched from the corners of their eye, with a mixture of wanting to see and not wanting to see what Lirian was going to do next.


    That transparent jug, was completely disgusting to look at, it had chunks of half eaten food, saliva and bile in it.


    They watched as Lirian offloaded it into the jug and walked over to Telamon, "They say that you should feed an animal before you slaughter it," Lirian said while wiping his mouth with his sleeve.


    "This is for Edith," Lirian said loud enough for everyone to hear as he shoved the jug in Telamon''s face and poured the puke into his mouth while blocking Telamon''s nose.


    Telamon tried to resist but he couldn''t move at all and once Lirian blocked his nose it became impossible for him not to suck in bits of the puke as he gulped for air.


    "Drink it all!" Lirian scolded as the puke spluttered all over and some even messed on his clothes, "Or else I''ll make up another serving and I''ll add my piss to it," Lirian''s voice was ice cold and everyone could feel the hate in his tone, that was not the anger that someone feels towards someone they are jealous of they have a small grudge against.


    The nobles were all old monsters, who had experienced a few things especially the family leaders who had all once been candidates, they understood that anger and hate, at one point or another they had all felt varying scales of that emotion.


    And from Lirian''s tone it was evident that he had lost something or someone very precious to him, that''s when they all recalled him saying that this was for Edith.


    The name rung bells in the heads of the nobles and soon all their eyes fell not on Lirian but Lord Callum Eden, they all knew that he was Edith''s father by blood.


    A sense of unease filled Lord Callum as he looked between Lirian and Telamon, "Young Lirian what did you mean by those words?" he asked with concern but he didn''t jump to conclusions right away.


    "What do you think I mean," Lirian said with self-reproach in his voice, "Edith is dead, curtesy of Telamon," as he spoke he push the jug with even more force and force fed it to Telamon, this time Telamon excepted the humiliation not resisting, puke was bad but piss would be worse.


    Lord Callum took a deep breath while looking at Lirian intently looking for any trace of a lie, but he could see nothing of the sort, "How?" he asked in a calm voice, but everyone could hear the anger in his voice.


    Lord Callum was one to obey the rules always, the rules said not to get close to his children until they matured, he knew the reason so he obeyed it without question.


    He was a candidate himself once, he knew how easy it was for a candidate to die so he made all the more effort to keep himself away from Edith.


    He could accept her death if she made a blunder during an expedition, or if she succumbed to the trial of candidate''s, that would be her own fault, he could accept it.


    But if someone had assassinated her, targeted her specifically it was an entirely different story, since he became the Lord of Eden he had only two children that he was certain had the potential to surpass himself.


    One of them was Ilma but she had just returned home as a corpse a little over a month ago, and the other who seemed even more exceptional was Edith yet now he found out that both of them had died one after the other, it was not just a blow to him, it was a blow to his people.


    He felt that he was the most fortunate man alive to have two children with the same woman who were so exceptional, their existences should have been the hope of the Eden family, but now it was something to morn.


    "She sacrificed herself, to save me, from a zealot that was sent to kill me by Telamon," Lirian said slowly, and a tremor was evident in his voice as he spoke, it was also filled with guilt, the guilt he felt was almost tangible to the nobles, it hung on Lirian''s shoulders like mountains.


    But just as Lirian finished speaking a ridiculing laugh echoed from the crowd, all eye''s turned to look at the source, it was Lord Draco.


    "A member of the paragon families creating zealots," he spat coldly at Lirian with a ridiculing tone, "We all know that it''s impossible, you know what Callum the way I see it the boy killed your daughter and fabricated this lie to get your support,"


    "But the stupid fellow didn''t do his homework properly, as we all know it''s impossible for the paragon family members to act against the interests of the empire, and killing a candidate goes against the interests of the empire especially promising ones,"


    "The paragon restriction would have taken effect, and as for creating a zealot it''s just as impossible, without the means to completely control a zealot there is no way of guarantying that they won''t betray the empire,"


    "The paragon restriction will make it impossible for any member of the paragon families to have a zealot under their command," Lord Draco said to the crowd with certainty, and his words were in fact completely true.


    Many of the nobles nodded their heads along, it''s not like it was a secret they were just caught up by Lirian''s emotions and weren''t thinking clearly, but now that the words were said it was clear that Lirian was lying about the zealot.


    Clap. Clap. Clap.


    The nobles turned to see Lirian clapping with a delightful smile, "Beautifully said, in fact marvellously said, I was afraid that I''d have waste my breath explaining it to everyone, but you''ve taken care of it but not just that you put it so simply that even a child could understand it,"


    "I see why Efrideet keeps you as her loyal dog, its because your bark can be surprisingly helpful Lord Draco," Lirian said with a cunning smile as he revealed Lord Draco''s identity as one of Efrideet''s dogs.


    There were many people with friendly ties to Efrideet through out the empire, it was only natural that she would have a handful of allies here that would report things back to her, and it wasn''t like there was anything wrong with that, Efrideet was a member of the empire and a very influential one at that.


    Even if the empress knew that they were allied with Efrideet it wasn''t like she could punish them, doing so would be the same as saying that Efrideet was an enemy of the empire, and that would be enough to spark a civil war due to how great her influence was.


    But Efrideet always needed people who were allied with her but that weren''t known to be allied with her, it made it easier for her to collect intel, and the same reigned true for any noble who had a rival in power.


    Lirian had set up his feedback loop during the first meeting of the candidates four years ago, as long as someone was watching it he could gather what they were saying and doing which is how he learned of Lord Draco''s identity, and it wasn''t just him there many others that he discovered.


    Lord Draco had left an impression on Lirian because he was the first lord of a super world that Lirian discovered was on Efrideet''s side and he was very loyal to her, or rather he was one of those that thought more with his dick pursuing Efrideet and serving her to satiate his lust.


    As Draco watched the footage he called Efrideet with extreme joy and sent her the footage of Lirian, Lirian didn''t see much after that, since the footage didn''t work in the presence of diviners, prophets, oracles and seers, a little safety measure that Lirian tied into the feedback loop.

 Chapter 218 - 218 – The Loophole

    "You should watch yourself when you make accusations, an accusation without proof is meaningless," Lord Draco said coldly to Lirian if the empress wasn''t standing there he would have already beaten Lirian until he was unrecognizable for insulting him.


    "An accusation!" Lirian said in surprise.


    "Last time I checked Efrideet was still a member of the empire, there is nothing wrong with being her ally," Lirian said with a playful smile, "But your reaction really makes me wonder," Lirian chuckled lightly.


    Lord Draco gritted his teeth in anger, this situation made him furious, a child managed to rile him up and make him slip up, it was an utter embarrassment to him.


    Lirian turned away and pulled out a remote from his pocket, ''It should be in position now,'' Lirian thought as he pressed a button.


    "Mother two pods are about to crash down here, and it won''t be good if they are shot out of the sky," Lirian said to Taliyah, she looked to one of her aides and in the next moment a message was sent to the planetary defence unit to allow the pods to land safely.


    Lirian turned back to the crowd and called out, "Lady Xuanuan, please step forward and prepare yourself Edith was not the only candidate to be murdered by Telamon''s order," Lirian said, Lady Xuanuan was the leader of the family Wentian came from it was one of the second class high worlds of the Opal star zone.


    In the setting of the banquet her world didn''t gather to much attention when compared to the other powers, but she remained calm with all of the attention suddenly falling on her.


    "You''re saying that Wentian was killed as well," she said her voice was completely calm, it seemed as if she was completely unfazed by the news.


    Unlike Lord Callum, she wasn''t a parent to her families candidate, Wentian''s parents had made a blunder at one point and due to that he was chosen to be a candidate his life and death would determine the fate of his parents.


    It was a very common situation amongst the nobles, to use their children as pieces to improve their lives and make up for their mistakes, if the child performed well it would benefit the family as a whole and help their parents but if they didn''t perform well then their parents would be served their punishment.


    It could even be called a gamble on the parents part, and Wentian was one such sacrifice due to that his family wouldn''t place to much expectations on him even the family leader wasn''t shaken at all by his death.


    "How did he die?" she asked with her lips pulled into a thin line, while she didn''t care for Wentian if he was assassinated it was no different from a slap to her family and that could not be tolerated.


    "Shortly before the princess candidate Ilma''s death, Wentian was trying to investigate a couple of things about Telamon for me, Telamon didn''t approve so when he sent his zealots to kill me he gave them an additional mission while they were at it, to kill the prince candidate Wentian," Lirian stated the truth plainly.


    Just as he finished speaking two pods came crashing from the sky, the thrusters activated as they came within view and the pods landed steadily in the middle of the garden.


    Lirian pressed a button and one of the pods opened up, Lirian quickly entered, it was the type of task that most people would leave to the servants but Lirian didn''t want anyone getting to close to Edith''s body.


    It was silly, but he felt that it only right that he brought her body out by himself, soon everyone saw the capsules being pushed out by Lirian and through the clear glass they could see the two corpse''s.


    One of a boy with long hair a sharp face and very serious brows, just looking at his body one would think that he was the type that had no sense of humour and was always serious, on his neck they could see stitches in place holding his head onto his body.


    When they looked at the next capsule they could see Lirian moving it like it was a fragile object and inside it they could see an extremely beautiful girl, with creamy white skin that made her skin look like a dolls, black hair that fell to her shoulders and a sleek oval shaped face, making her look extremely elegant.


    "Lords and Ladies of the empire I have a question for you, what is the punishment for the crime of killing a candidate?" Lirian asked loudly.


    Lord Callum stepped forward and looked at his daughter with saddened eyes then he looked at Telamon, "The punishment would depend on the station of the person who had the candidate killed, it were a faction leader in my family, that whole faction would be killed, if it were an ordinary subordinate their bloodline would be exterminated, and if it were a family leader, the entire family would be executed,"


    "In this case it is different, as the paragon families are the pillars of the emperors and emperor''s strength, such killing won''t be allowed, only the one guilty would be punished along with co-conspirators," Lord Callum said while looking at Telamon in anger.


    "Young Lirian, even if Telamon is guilty of what you say, you must present proof before anything is done," Lord Callum reminded.


    "Of course, I did come prepared" Lirian said and as he did the second pod began to open up.


    The nobles could already sense the presence of the people inside, as the pod opened up they looked on expectantly at the group.


    Without anyone noticing Lirian slipped the submission disc from his pocket and gave an order, at that moment the zealots all stepped out and walked in a line under Lirian''s order.


    "I present to you the zealots that have been breed and trained by the traitor Telamon Dao," Lirian said with a gesture of his hand.


    The zealots all fell still as Lirian gestured to them and the nobles could see panic on their faces which was uncharacteristic with how orderly they were walking, there bodies and faces seemed to belong to different people.


    "Lord Draco has told you all the condition on which a paragon member would be able to control a zealot, by ensuring that it''s impossible for the zealot to betray them,"


    "An extremely difficult condition, because even the most restrictive of oaths have loopholes, however there is one such object in existence capable of fulfilling the task," Lirian said.


    "I''m sure that some of you remember this object personally as it caused a fair bit of trouble during your time," as Lirian spoke he brought out the submission disc and showed it to the crowd.


    As the submission disc came into view, their were many nobles that recognised the black disc in Lirian''s hands, the empire lost 23 leaders of super worlds due to the object, and there were some in this very crowd that wrongly believed they were betrayed by their own trusted family and executed them, to later find that they were being controlled.


    Lirian could hear the nobles break out into a chatter, and he could feel looks of hate being directed at the object in his hand, but most of all Lirian was focused on Telamon who had gone completely pale.


    Telamon recognised that his zealots were being controlled with the disc, other wise there was no way they would have walked out of that pod, they would have died first before revealing themselves.


    Telamon was a very accomplished warlock, the disc was a calamity grade item, so in order to place the self-destruction seal on the disc, in case it landed in someone else''s hands, he spared no resource and effort, yet before his very eyes he could see Lirian using it.


    Even the other spells he placed for it to kill the user weren''t working, seeing that he lost all hope, without a doubt everything was over for him, almost all his secrets would be exposed, the only thing that he could be happy about, was that his relations with Efrideet weren''t known to the zealots.


    He was extremely tight lipped about that and he was glad about it, ''It looks like it''s over for me Efrideet, I leave the rest to you, only you have what it takes to save the empire now,'' Telamon thought with lifeless eyes.


    Taliyah was staring fixedly at the object, she remembered how much of damage those items had caused, because of it neither her nor Albus had any rest for almost a decade.


    She looked to Telamon with disbelief in her eyes, those objects were all supposed to be destroyed it was a capital crime to possess one a crime that warranted death if a link was found between the disc and a person.


    When she looked at Telamon it was like she was looking at a complete stranger, the crimes he committed, possession of a submission disc, the murder of candidates, creating zealots as a member of a paragon family, each one warranted death without exception.


    Just then Lirian walked to one of the woman amongst the zealots, "Tell me are you ready to betray your master, your entire world," Lirian whispered in her ear in a menacing tone as a cruel smile formed on his lips.

 Chapter 219 - 219 – The Zealots Confession

    The zealot who was once known as Alice began to tremble violently, "No!" she shouted at Lirian with a desperate voice, "Please don''t do this, I''m begging you, I''ll do anything!" she screamed miserably.


    Lirian faced her with an amused smile and whispered, "You can only blame yourself for not being strong enough," Alice recognised those words she had said those words to Edith before she tried to kill Lirian, and just seconds after that Edith sacrificed herself for Lirian.


    Lirian stepped away from her and held the disc up in his hand so that everyone could see it clearly.


    "I''m sure that all of you know about the history of the submission discs, and it''s use, based on how many of you are looking at it, I can tell that you''ve been deceived by these objects at some points, so I''m sure you are all aware of the punishment that is delivered to anyone that is linked to a submission disc," Lirian said.


    "I would like it if a warlock could test to see it it''s linked to someone," Lirian said calmly, and as he spoke several of his mother''s aides came forward already preparing the spells to test the link.


    "I thank you for coming forward," Lirian said, "But since my mother is on my side, you are on my side, it makes any tests you conduct sceptical at best," Lirian said rejecting them, Belinda who was at the front realised that he was correct so she quickly stepped back.


    The nobles around were also very impressed by Lirian''s decision, it took foresight to see how in the future the credibility of the test would be doubted.


    "Haha," a light chuckle was heard and Lord Draco spoke, "Since that''s the case why don''t you let me give it to one of my warlocks to conduct the test," he said opening his hand for Lirian to pass him the disc.


    But Lirian acted as if he didn''t even hear him, he ignored Lord Draco even as he spoke and immediately after Lord Draco finished, Lirian began to address the crowd again not even acknowledging that Lord Draco spoke.


    "I believe that amongst us there are two people in particular that are extremely motivated to learn the truth behind the deaths of the candidates," Lirian said turning to Lord Callum and Lady Xuanuan.


    "I believe that the most trust worthy people to learn the truth, would be Lord Callum and Lady Xuanuan, no one wants to find the real culprit more besides them," as Lirian spoke he indicated for them to come forward and handed the disc to lord Callum, as he was a warlock and Lady Xuanuan wasn''t he was the only one that could perform the spell.


    Lirian''s choice was extremely well thought out in the eyes of the nobles, it was just as he said, no one wanted the truth more than the families that lost the candidates, and from how angry Lord Callum was.


    It was certain that he would not play any tricks, he would not be satisfied until he exposed the one responsible for the crime.


    With that Lirian handed the disc to Lord Callum, and the link testing spell was used, in seconds it released two yellow beams of light one shone on Lirian and the other shone on Telamon.


    In order to use the disc Lirian naturally had to form a link with it so naturally it also shone on him.


    As the light hit Telamon however everyone started to chatter wildly, many of them were anticipating that there would be no link and the entire thing was a fa?ade, but the yellow light proved them wrong.


    "Wait," Lady Xuanuan said suddenly, "The test is accurate, but there are ways of placing aura inside an object to fake the result," she said to the crowd then turned to the empress and bowed deeply.


    "Your majesty, if you''d allow me to create a link with the disc to personally question the zealots!" she requested while bowing deeply, it was a bit of an impudent request and she knew that Lirian who already had a link could do the questioning but she''d only be assured if she could do it personally.


    "Mother, I think that what Lady Xuanuan requests is fair," Lirian spoke up with confidence, "Also Lord Callum should also form a link just for an extra layer of security," Lirian quickly added.


    Lirian''s confidence was reflected in those words by that point no noble doubted his claims at all anymore the fact that he was willing to allow others to do the interrogation instead of himself showed that he had nothing at all to fear.


    A ripple of surprise passed through Lady Xuanuan''s cold eyes, she was expecting people to start criticizing her for her suggestion, but the first person to support her was the person who she was basically doubting by making such a request.


    The empress gave a quick nod of her head to show her approval, from the look on her face everyone could tell that she wanted this entire thing over with as soon as possible.


    After getting the approval they formed the link and with it they could feel over a hundred connections to the disc, it belonged to all the remaining students that Telamon had under his control as well as the zealots he still had in training and most importantly they could feel the link to the zealots in front of them.


    "Tell us who is your master?" both Lord Callum and Lady Xuanuan asked together.


    The zealots entire bodies went stiff when the question was finally asked, pained looks filled their faces as they gritted their teeth together and used all their will power to resist answering.


    At first they released only muffled sounds, but slowly they started to sound the alphabets that made up Telamon''s name as time passed their words finally became coherent and the first one broke.


    "T-----T-TE¡ªL-L-A----M---ON D---AO," as soon as the first one cracked it was like a damn had been burst open, seeing that one of their own had already said their masters name, the others all lost the will power to resist they knew it was over.


    "Telamon Dao, Telamon Dao, Telamon Dao¡­" they started to echo in unison, and despite already being prepared for it the nobles still gasped in shock when they said Telamons name as they revealed their masters name their eyes all seemed to become lifeless.


    As zealots they had just committed the ultimate taboo, and they were powerless to resist.


    "NOOOOO!" one of the zealots started to scream frantically with tears streaming down her face, it was Alice, "Please master is a good man," she cried in desperation.


    "Master made us to protect the empire, to get rid of the trash, master is a saviour you have to protect him!" Alice knew that it was over so she resorted to begging in desperation, the truth was revealed so she had to find a way to save her master no matter what.


    But her words landed on deaf ears, the only thing anyone thought of her was that she was pitiful, so were all zealots in a way.


    Zealots were brainwashed to see their masters as the sun and the moon, and the people of the empire had mastered the art of creating zealots, any noble at the banquet had their own hidden zealots and they''d bet that in the event of their deaths, a majority of their zealots would commit suicide out of despair.


    "Which of you killed the candidates and why?" Lord Callum questioned and the zealots fell silent, before two of them spoke.


    The first one to speak was the one who killed Wentian and she also explained the reason, it was exactly as Lirian had said earlier.


    Alice trembled in fear as she spoke, "I didn''t mean to, my only target was him," she said involuntarily pointing at Lirian, "But the princess candidate jumped in the way and my spell killed her," she said, but as she did a strange look entered her eyes.


    She glanced to the capsule that held Edith''s body, she couldn''t quite explain it but something felt off to her, like the body shouldn''t have existed, but as she tried to look back on the memory she was reminded of the snake that appeared in the sky making her shudder even more violently.


    After that the two leaders began to ask them a series of questions, from which they learned the circumstance''s of the entire expedition.


    The zealots were forced to explain how they roused the creatures of the forest to attack the expedition, as well as the mammoth, they explained that it was all to mask the event as an accident, but that Lirian managed to over come the obstacles they threw his way until they were forced to act.


    Then they proceeded to speak about the course of events when the elites from the Jane and Eden families appeared.


    At that points Lady Elizabeth and Lord Callum had to calm down the crowd and explain that it was all done under the orders of the emperor.


    From there they explained the course of events and as it unfolded when they mentioned the serpent that could swallow an entire world whole, the entire crowd was bewildered, even Taliyah and Telamon were shocked.


    The nobles wanted to call them out for making things up but they were being controlled by the submission disc, it was impossible for them to do such a thing.


    Shortly after the zealots finished recounting the course of events lady Xuanuan turned to Lirian, "To have survived such an ordeal boy, the heavens must have truly been favouring you," she said with a look of appreciation for Lirian.


    Contrary to her expectations a scowl formed on Lirian''s face, "The favour of the heavens," he muttered coldly but no one heard him, in his opinion if the heavens did favour him it would have allowed him to rest.

 Chapter 220 - 220 – Fate’s Vengeance

    The nobles all looked at Lirian with profound gazes, from the description the zealots gave, they were on the verge of killing Lirian, when that serpent appeared bringing doomsday to the planet.


    To say that Lirian was beyond lucky was like saying the sun is hot, it went without question.


    The nobles were chattering excitedly when they noticed that Lord Callum was walking forward to the zealots, "Since you''ve served your purpose you can die now!" he said coldly and a huge body length executioners blade appeared in his hand, he offered it to Lady Xuanuan she was a saint which made her far more suitable to wield it.


    As she took the executioners blade it seemed like a perfect fit in her hand, it was the same for almost any saint, put even a tree branch in their hands and it will look like a mighty weapon, she stepped forward and with a swing the heads of almost all the zealots rolled.


    The only remaining one was Alice who killed Edith, Lord Callum would naturally want to deal with Edith''s murderer personally, just as she wanted to kill the one who killed a member of her family.


    As Lord Callum prepared a spell, "Wait," Lirian suddenly shouted, "That one carries more secrets that needs to be exposed, you can kill her when I''m done," he explained and took the submission disc from Lord Callum.


    "Would you care to explain to everyone how you came to be one of Telamon''s zealots," Lirian said to her surprising everyone with his question.


    The way that all nobles generally chose their zealots, was by looking for a discarded child with a decent amount of talent, it wasn''t a complicated process, from there they would feed them, give them a home, make them feel needed while cutting them off from the rest of the world and slowly they''d brain wash them into worshipping them as their master.


    Alice seemed to want to bite of her own tongue but due to Lirian''s commands she was unable to, as she divulged her origins.


    She explained to them where she was born and the academy she attended as well as the fact that she was in the class of the empress''s third son Caleb, she explained how she used to spy on him and report his actions to Telamon.


    She told them how a few years after she completed the academy she feigned her death and became a zealot for Telamon.


    "Now then I have two more questions for you, Telamon is a warlock, so it make sense that he was able to pass his advanced warlock technique to you and the other zealots, but the other zealots possessed advanced pugilist and saint techniques would you explain how you obtained those," Lirian ordered.


    This was an extremely big deal, in the empire the only ones granted advanced techniques were the emperor/empress candidates and a very rare few who performed meritorious deeds to the empire, one such person was Telamon which is how he got his technique.


    Yet the zealots all possessed second accord techniques, just sharing his own technique was already a serious crime but illegal possession of the other techniques was enough to seal him beneath the earth in a cell until he died.


    "Master was able to obtain intel, in the Golgoth empire, it was enough intel to give an organization in the Golgoth empire complete control over a star zone, master sold it to a power in exchange for the techniques, I handled the trade personally," she said exposing Telamon''s crime.


    In the hands of the empire such knowledge would have granted them a whole new star zone, Telamon could have given it to the empire but if he did it would have made it extremely suspicious if he requested the other techniques when he was already a warlock.


    Lirian could hear the gasps of shock from the nobles but he paid no heed to them as he moved onto his final question, "Now tell them about the assassinations on the children of the empress," Lirians words were soft but this time it truly caused an absolute dead silence to spread out.


    And their hearts began to race violently, Lirian could hear their hearts pulsing out of control and most of all he could hear his mother''s heartbeat, it was already unstable to begin with and now it seemed like she had forgotten how to breathe.


    "Under the orders of master, I was involved in the assassinations of three of her majesties children when they were undergoing their trials, and I orchestrated and personally witness the death of her majesties last daughter and child, the princess candidate Al-Mira," she spoke those words through clenched teeth, she was clenching so tightly that everyone could clearly hear her teeth shattering.


    As soon as she finished speaking, power that certainly did not belong to the mortal world came crashing down with unbridled might.


    Not a second passed before Alice was ripped into bloody shreds by the power, and then her body exploded, everyone knew who did it, their was no need to even think about it.


    Even if they didn''t feel the immortal energy, they knew that the only one who had any reason to react in such a manner was the empress and they could feel her surging blood lust as golden energies wrapped around her.


    An unspeakable pressure descended on the world making it impossible for anyone to resist, every noble was pressed into the ground by the power, and not even the aides of the empress was spared, only one person remained standing beside the empress and that was Lirian.


    He could feel the life hierarchy pressure being released, but it had absolutely no effect on him, and Lirian could tell that it was quasi-immortal energy after all his mother still had one centre of power in the mortal realm, the moment she completed the transition, the laws of the world would eject her from the mortal realm and toss her in the immortal realm.


    "Why?!" Taliyah bellowed at Telamon as tears poured down her face, he of all people knew what being a mother meant to her, so she just couldn''t fathom why he would do such a thing to her.


    She was already furious as she learned that he tried to kill Lirian, but on some level she could understand that it was due to Lirian''s disrespect of him, but her other children, what did they ever do to him.


    Her single word crashed on to everyone it was deafening as it was the pressure was making them incapable of thinking clearly but now the empress''s shout made them fell like they were inside a ringing bell as it completely rattled their heads.


    Telamon was pushed to his knees as he looked at Taliyah, "Everything I''ve done was for the empire, I saw the future, and in it I saw a fiend wrapped in shadow, I learned that the fiend was your child, that fiend will bring ruin and destruction to the entire empire and it won''t stop there Taliyah,"


    "I had to do it for the empire, all of the crimes I did, it was for the empire, and that boy I know that you love him Taliyah, but he will bring about this worlds ruin, you have to kill him even if you love him, I''m certain that he was the one I saw,"


    Telamon knew that it was over, so he took his last chance it was probably hopeless, but he had to try, "That boy is a monster Taliyah," Telamon cried in desperation.


    "You''re right I am a monster," Lirian said walking through the field of suppression with ease, both Telamon and Taliyah were astounded to see him walking in the field of suppression created by Taliyah, within the mortal realm it should be impossible for anyone to resist the pressure, yet Lirian was doing so with ease.


    "But you know what at least I''m not a fool who gleams at a potential future and takes it to be reality," Lirian said as he stepped forward, he pulled of the blind fold and looked into Telamon''s eyes.


    Lirian had expected his eyes to go dark before he reached Xelia, but the remnant effects of the revival embryo still lingered, but he felt that there were just hours left before his blindness returned.


    "That must me the reason you joined Efrideet, she showed you a future and you believed her," Lirian said with a laugh while locking his eye''s with Telamon.


    In his eyes that all other would call beautiful Telamon saw hatred and killing intent, that could wash the darkness of space in red.


    "But let me tell you a secret, fate is a vengeful bitch, it hates when others peer at it''s secrets directly, when you do such a foolish thing, it makes those who act on that future craft the future they fear," Lirian said coldly.


    "You killed every last one of my mothers children, which led my mother to make a wish, a wish so powerful that a mortal was able to summon me, and it made my mother adopt me," Lirian said with a laugh.


    "And guess what, it''s all your doing Telamon, no one else''s, so now you can die with the knowledge that in your fear of me, you created the future you so desperately tried to prevent," Lirian explained and enjoyed looking at the twisted expression that appeared on Telamon''s face.

 Chapter 221 - [Bonus ]221 – The Emperor’s Arrival

    Lirian climbed back to his feet and looked at his mother, he had to admit that she looked absolutely beautiful, he wasn''t a big fan of gold, but the colour suited her bronze skin perfectly the only thing that ruined her image was the tears that soaked her face.


    She was still looking at him in shock because of his ability to resist her life hierarchy pressure, and the things he said about fate and Telamon working with Efrideet, it was a little hard for her to accept, but it helped her understand a great deal more.


    "Your eyes," she said to Lirian in surprise, she missed seeing those eyes, every time she saw them in the past, it was like a reminder to her that there was a whole world out there, filled with marvels and mysteries she had yet to see.


    Lirian smiled slightly at her, if there was one good thing that came out of this entire ordeal, he''d have to say that it was being able to see his mother again with his own two eyes.


    "It''s only temporary, I''ll go blind again in a few hours at best, it''s a long story to explain" Lirian said calmly.


    Taliyah nodded but Lirian could tell with a glance that she was disappointed that he would continue to be blind, "Everything my m¡­" Taliyah hesitated and shook her head , "Telamon said about the future, it''s true?" she asked Lirian and changed the way she addressed Telamon.


    Taliyah still found it hard to fathom at times that her son was a former god, most of the time he just seemed a little overbearing and rude and he could be oddly childish at times, it was only in serious situations like this one that she was reminded of his origins.


    Lirian smiled wryly, "It''s complicated, there is no certainty to it, it could be that killing me would guarantee that the future he saw won''t happen, but there is also the chance that in the future he saw there was a battle and I had a huge role in it," Lirian explained.


    "I''m not dumb enough to look at the future, other than predicting some key events that could affect me, I never look into the future, it''s too dangerous," Lirian said taking a glance at Telamon.


    "Whatever the future holds, if the path is already set then we must walk it or succumb to it," Lirian said simply.


    Telamon had listened intently to all Lirian said and he suddenly had an idea, not one that could save him, but one that he thought could get Lirian killed.


    "Taliyah it''s all his fault when you think about it," he muttered weakly, "I killed all your children because of him, if I hadn''t seen him, none of your children would have ever died, it''s all because of him!" Telamon said desperately.


    "In the future I saw he purposely hid his face, he saw me in that future, he could have killed me, he said so himself but he didn''t Taliyah,"


    "If he killed me then I would have never been able to kill all your children, he left me alive so I could kill them, he left me alive so you would chose him," he cried as he desperately came up with a theory of his own, and he even marvelled at how convincing it sounded in his head.


    It was then that he realised that he was probably right, it was no wonder that the fiend let him live, the theory he came up with was on the spot suddenly seemed like it was the truth, but when he looked at Taliyah again all he saw was absolute fury.


    "That''s enough out of you, how dare you blame the actions you took on my son!" she roared loudly as her killing intent soared, and in her anger she unleashed her power on Telamon.


    When the energy vanished, a terrifying crack in space appeared violently sucking everything around it.


    Taliyah grabbed onto Lirian as, she saw him getting pulled into the crack and quickly used her power to suppress the spatial rip her attack created.


    When the crack finally disappeared, an area filled with destructive energies remained, and Telamon was gone completely dead and gone, not a shred of him remained.


    Taliyah looked on with shaking eyes, she still found it hard to accept that the master she had loved for so long was the person responsible for all her pain and suffering, she was so angry when he started to blame his actions on Lirian that she forgot to ask him a very important question.


    She wanted to know if he orchestrated her poisoning as well that made it impossible for her to have a child that was not deformed, but now she would never know.


    Taliyah turned back to Lirian she could see him looked at her with a concerned gaze, she raised a hand gently and stroked his cheek, she remembered that not long ago she had slapped him there for speaking badly of Telamon.


    As she thought of that she felt guilty and fresh tears began to leak down her face, "I''m so¡­" but the rest of her words were cut off when Lirian wrapped his arms around her in a hug.


    "You don''t need to apologise," Lirian said, "I understand you loved him and never thought he would try to harm you," Lirian said comforting her while looking down with heavy eyes, he understood that he wasn''t the only one in pain from losing someone.


    "Besides, I''ve had people gut me and rip out my insides before my eyes," Lirian continued, "A slap hardly counts as a punishment," Lirian said but his words only caused Taliyah to feel like she was about to fall over from shock, and that anxiety Lirian always made her feel came crashing back.


    Taliyah wrapped Lirian tightly in a hug pressing his head between her bosom as her eyes drifted to the capsule with Edith''s body.


    "You used to be very close to her, did something happen between the two of you?" she asked Lirian gently.


    A long silence ensued before Lirian nodded his head, but he didn''t say anything else, but that alone was enough for Taliyah to understand everything.


    She wouldn''t claim to know even a fraction about Lirian''s past, he didn''t like to talk about it all that much, but she knew that he was always alone and he made it a habit to suppress his emotions, the fact that he allowed Edith in meant that she must have meant a lot to him, and her loss must have hurt him even more.


    After a while Lirian broke away and retied the blindfold.


    Taliyah took it as her time to stop releasing her pressure in the surroundings.


    As soon as the pressure was lifted the nobles all climbed to their feet and dusted the dirt from their clothes as they looked around they saw the empress and Lirian standing together and in the spot where Telamon was, they could see the destructive energies that lingered.


    What happened was clear to all Telamon Dao, one of the most respected and admired men in the empire had been executed for treason by the empress and his disciple.


    They witnessed a lot more than they bargained for, by coming to this banquet, sure they witnessed a hero of the empire die, but they were glad to have personally witnessed the events.


    Lirian took a step forward and turned to face the group of nobles, "Four years ago during the first meeting of the candidates in the Xelia academy, I warned every last one of you about the consequences of playing with me," Lirian said in a cold tone towards the nobles.


    "Today I''m a powerless mortal, and you have all seen what the consequences are of playing with my life," Lirian said pointing at the dead zealots then to the spot where Telamon was killed.


    "When I return from my trial in 86 years I will not be as powerless as I am today, so I will advise every last one of you to remember this day when I return, because this is just the start," Lirian''s voice echoed loudly in everyone''s ears and oddly enough they noted it.


    They heard from the zealots how he took down a third grade mammoth, which should have been practically impossible, but the thing that made them note it even more was what Lady Xuanuan had said earlier about him having the favour of the heavens, if he was such a child than no matter what he was someone to always watch out for even if he was just a brat.


    But just then something happened that took all of them by surprise, surging ripples of energy erupted in the middle of the garden creating a blinding light that threatened to pop their eyes if they continued looking.


    When the light finally vanished they saw a person, and without a doubt it was a man, because they could see his stick hanging there in the open, it was a very note worthy object to everyone as their eyes drifted up the man''s body.


    But they soon noted another problem the man was butt naked and blood was pouring out from all over his body, the only things he had on him were the three rings that were placed on his fingers.


    When they finally reached the mans face they all almost had a heart attack, they didn''t know what the protocol was in such a situation, were they supposed to drape the man in clothes, or tend to his wounds or fall to their knees and bow.


    The man before them had a thick mane of blonde hair that fell to his shoulders and a pair of green eyes that were extremely intelligent at a glance.


    "Albus!" Taliyah shouted in alarm as she recognised the man and raced to his side to catch him, a look of panic filled her eyes as she saw the horrible condition of her husband and emperor of the Clovis Empire.

 Chapter 222 - 222 – Quantum Transfer

    The Emperor stood with the support of the Taliyah, as she fussed over the severe injuries that covered his body.


    He flashed her a light smile between pained coughs as the nobles one by one fell to their knees and bowed respectfully and seeing that the emperor was still butt naked they directed their gazes to the ground.


    However much to the annoyance of Taliyah she noticed a fair number of the woman who kept chancing glances at the emperor when they thought she wouldn''t notice.


    She already barely tolerated her husband''s concubines, but she accepted it since he needed to produce heirs, and she didn''t need anyone else running and offering themselves to him.


    "D-did I miss it?" the emperor asked Taliyah in a weak voice as she took a shawl from her spatial ring and wrapped it around his waist.


    Taliyah took a deep look at her husband, she was aware that he helped Lirian in some way to get rid of Telamon, so she figured that he was talking about the execution of Telamon.


    "Telamon''s dead, I killed him," Taliyah said after taking a deep breath to calm herself, "But that doesn''t matter now just what did you do to put yourself in such a state?" she said angrily but her eyes flashed as she thought of something.


    "Your quantum transportation device worked?" Taliyah said with disbelief as she looked at her husband.


    Quantum technologies were the current trend in all the civilizations, with it the entire universe would become a much smaller place, but it was an ongoing race for over a billion years.


    To achieve Quantum transfer of living beings would also revolutionise war, to appear from within your enemies ranks and attack them, or to suddenly pop up in your enemies home base and launch a surprise attack, the ability to reach a new destination months or even years ahead of others.


    Those were the perks of quantum technologies that every empire was desperately trying to have.


    Quantum information transfer had long since been achieved, and it was why intel could be sent across the universe so quickly and with such ease, however the next step was matter transference.


    Until the present day the best that people had been able send through quantum transportation was top of the range calamity grade items, they were the only objects that didn''t disintegrate during the process.


    All living trials to date had been absolute failures, even peek seventh grade cultivators would arrive on their last breath.


    Albus shook his head glumly, "No it was a complete failure," he said in a hoarse voice and Taliyah could hear the frustration behind his voice.


    "I activated it when Lirian was still approaching Xelia," Albus said, "It should have been an instantaneous relay but it''s probably been a few hours and it almost killed me, if not for my heavenly body, I''d have died," Albus explained as he started recovering.


    Spells started to take effect all over the emperor''s body and with it all the wounds on his body were rapidly healing, but everyone could feel that his aura was still weak.


    "Why would you do something so stupid?" Taliyah complained in his ear as he healed up, for the emperor to act as a test subject on experimental technology, it wasn''t just stupid in Taliyah''s book it was downright irresponsible.


    Taliyah could already hear the voices of the council when Albus returned to the home world, they''d be utterly furious at him, and they''d take the opportunity to rant about everything that dissatisfied them while they were at it, just the thought gave her a headache.


    "Well I had to send the talent steps over for the test," the emperor said pointing to one of the rings that survived the transmission, "So I figured I''d test my improvements on the technology and I do want to see just how high the boy will climb with my own eyes," he said flashing a smile to Taliyah.


    The main reason that he resorted to such means was because the trip from the home world to Xelia was a lengthy one and eighteen days was nowhere close to enough time to get it to Xelia.


    "You risked your life just for that," Taliyah yelled at him no longer caring that there were thousands of nobles watching.


    "No of course not," the emperor argued back with a feint smile, "I also really wanted to spend some quality time with my wife," he said cupping her chin as a charming smile filled his face.


    Taliyah''s entire haughty demeanour changed and her face even took on a shade of deep crimson as she stared at the emperor intently with a fluttering heart.


    While the nobles were busy giving the emperor a thumbs up internally for his wise choice of words, Lirian made an audible gagging noise which made both Taliyah and Albus turn to him with slightly embarrassed smiles on their faces.


    "If you two are going to flirt, please do it when others aren''t in your presence," Lirian said in a dry tone, he knew his mother really well and judging from her heart beat he could tell just how excited she was to see the emperor.


    Lirian also knew just how little self-control his mother had when she got caught up in something, with how his mothers heart was fluttering like some newly wedded bride, he feared that he''d have to witness a very long a passionate kiss if they were left uninterrupted, so he took it on himself to save everyone from witnessing such a scene.


    There was an awkward silence that filled the air for a while when Lirian felt a buzzing sensation in his pocket, it was the controller for his cruiser, it was telling him that the cruiser was coming down.


    Lirian turned to the servants and told them to receive the expedition group as he walked away from the crowd and into the manor.


    As he walked away Lirian felt two people glaring at his back with killing intent, he recognised the gaze of one person it was Lord Draco, that he had humiliated earlier, and the other gaze was coming from right next to him.


    Lirian looked at the system with a very satisfied smile at that moment, he exposed Telamon and all his secrets, made a massive impact on the nobles and achieved his own personal revenge, if that wasn''t enough for Lirian to celebrate, his fate particles that flat lined when he tried save Edith was now thrice as fat as it was before.


    There were over 2.7 quadrillion fate particles on the system, Lirian had a great need for those particles and he didn''t know if what he had was enough for what he had in mind to activate three esper techniques simultaneously but he felt that with it he had a good chance of succeeding in one go.


    If he activated all three techniques at once at the very beginning of his journey, it would be a first even for him.


    Since he had the large number of fate particles, Lirian decided to probe into the other person, from his aura Lirian could tell that he was of the younger generation, but it was impossible for him to get anything else without his system.


    [Initiating¡­] the system chimed quickly and soon brough up a basic read of the person beside Lord Draco.


    [Name: Kaher Draco


    Tittle: Prince of Clovis


    Affiliation: Clovis Empire/House Draco/House Capriska


    Cultivation: Fifth Grade, Third Stage


    ¡­]


    "Prince Kaher," Lirian muttered to himself as he processed the relevant intel about him, he did read up on all the princes/princess of the empire, as well the emperor/empress candidate''s, but well there was a very extensive list of them.


    But Lirian was no ordinary person even without the system his memory itself was exceptional, so he quickly thought about everything he knew about Kaher.


    In truth Kaher didn''t do all that much, but there were various rumours that said he would be able to take a spot as an emperor candidate in due time.


    "It would seem that it''s not just Lord Draco that is in cahoots with Efrideet, he is secretly allying his younger generation with Efrideet as well," Lirian muttered to himself softly.


    ''Oh, and it seems that he''s not the only prince here,'' Lirian realised, he felt a little foolish for not thinking about it sooner, but it was only natural that many of them would attend a gathering like this.


    The prince/princess phase was all about building up a network of contacts and finding supporters, and right then he could fell plenty of the other glaring at him with dissatisfaction.


    Most of them were lucky to have a few seventh grade cultivators in their crews, it made their current achievements very miniscule, aside from maybe helping to conquer a new world none of them had any other noteworthy achievements, yet Lirian who was a candidate had just held a trial and execution for a hero of the empire.


    It was like they belonged to two completely different worlds, had they made that speech that he just gave they''d be luck if the nobles only laughed them, yet not just the ordinary nobles but the family leaders took his words seriously.


    If they were to compare themselves they would be utter disgraces, which left a foul taste in all their mouths, without even realizing it the princes and princesses had marked Lirian as a threat in their minds.

 Chapter 223 - 223 – The Talent Steps 1

    The hours quickly passed, the expedition arrived and joined the banquet and before long the sun went down, and the party moved inside the manor.


    There wasn''t a single place in the manor that wasn''t lively as people walked around chatting and enjoying the music that was being played by a full orchestra.


    Within the ball room dozens of tables were lined up on the side as people took to the dance floor and moved to the music.


    At the centre of everyone''s attention was the empress in her beautiful gold dress and the emperor who was looking much better than when he first arrived as well and to the dismay of many of the ladies he was fully clothed.


    Sitting right besides them in the seat of honour was Lirian and at that moment he was downing a large glass of wine like it would run away if he left it alone for even a second.


    Through the hustle and bustle of the crowd Lirian could hear many conversations going on about him, it was primarily the people from the expedition that were speaking.


    After their arrival the nobles couldn''t stop them selves from asking about the course of events from the students because unfortunately for them Lirian seemed to have no intention of saying anything to them.


    At first the students weren''t all that eager to speak, but after they were very tactfully fed several glasses of wine and offered very generous amounts of credits by the nobles, they started to open up.


    Before long the story spread and there were those that felt the need to add in their own details, and before long a fantastical tale with multiple different version had been created, and the nobles spiritedly discussed the events with each other.


    Lirian was fine with it at first, but soon the topic turned to him and Edith, some one had let it slip that Lirian and Edith had sex in the forest and they gave a very detailed description of the sounds Lirian and Edith made.


    It was at that point that Lirian started on his first cup of wine, but before long there were some very daring nobles that actually came forward to Lirian to get a confirmation, they wanted to know if what they had heard was true.


    Lirian had almost hit a few people when they came forward, but lucky for them the empress immediately sent them away when she saw the anger in Lirian''s face.


    But despite that Lirian could still hear many a story about him and Edith, and by this point he''d lost count of the sheer number of wine cups he emptied.


    "Lirian dear," Taliyah said to him from the side, "Don''t you think you''ve had a little too much to drink?"


    "I know I said you can drink for today, but I think you''re pushing it," she complained to Lirian as she realised that he had downed what must have been the twelfth glass that she had seen and who knew how many more he downed when she wasn''t looking.


    "Mmm-May I leave the party-y-y-y and go to my room?" Lirian asked with a slurred voice.


    "This party is for you Lirian, it would be rude of you too excuse yourself," Taliyah whispered back to him as she looked on at the dancing crowd.


    "Then I haven''t had enough to drink," Lirian said, this time his words weren''t slurred, but Taliyah could hear the effort it took for him to speak properly.


    "Lirian you still have to climb the talent steps and complete the tests on the empires history, power structure and lineage trees, you can''t do that if you''re drunk as a door nail," Taliyah complained and snatched the drink that Lirian grabbed from a passing waiter.


    She caught the waiters sleeve and said, "Tell the staff my son is cut off, no more drinks for him for the night."


    "Urg, mother, I could pass those tests in my sleep let alone if I''m a little drunk," Lirian complained and sneakily moved his hands to take the wine glass back.


    Taliyah smiled in amusement and caught his hand, "Your slight of hand is amazing as always dear, but you''ve gotten so drunk that you slipped up," she said with a giggle to Lirian and emptied the wine into her mouth.


    Their entire conversation was heard by the crowd and many people were looking at Lirian with amused smile''s, and there were those that were looking on with displeasure, those ones were undoubtedly the princes and princesses.


    Every candidate was allowed to challenge the unbeatable challenge once, and most of them at least attempted it before they left for their trial.


    The talent steps were the first part, as long as someone successfully climbed to the ninth step they were free to take on the next test, but the first test was already more than most could handle, simply reaching the fifth step was challenge for most candidates.


    Albus sat beside Taliyah and listened in on the conversation with an amused smile as he swirled his drink, "Boy you''re very confident in yourself," he said loudly bringing all attention onto their conversation.


    "How high do you think you''ll be able to climb up the stairs?" he asked Lirian, the emperor felt that the party had gone on for long enough, which made it time for the main event.


    "How¡­ high?" Lirian muttered with a hiccup between his words and a frown appeared on his face.


    The people all thought that he was so drunk that he couldn''t think of a number.


    "Are you trying to say that people are allowed to take on the test even if they don''t climb all the way to the top?" Lirian asked incredulously, in fact he seemed horror struck by the thought, what would be the point of the test if someone could pass without completing it was all Lirian could think at the moment.


    Lirian''s question caused a sudden silence to pass through the halls and several people started to laugh loudly as everyone turned they found that it was none other than a group of princes and princess that were sniggering while clenching their stomachs.


    Seeing who it was that was laughing no one dared to rebuke them for being rude.


    "Did you all hear that," Prince Kaher said to the crowd in a smug tone, "It sounds like the empress''s brat thinks he can climb to the top of the talent steps," he said with a resounding laugh and this time many people joined in.


    "The talent steps are artefacts sent by the gods to the six civilisations," the emperor explained to Lirian as the laughter echoed, "No one has ever come close to the half way mark let alone reached the top," he explained with a calm smile, he did nothing to stop the mocking laughter and neither did the empress.


    This could be said to be an affair between the younger generation so unless things came to blows they would just watch on without getting involved.


    Lirian also ignored the laughter as if it didn''t consider him and asked, "What was the highest step ever reached?"


    Lord Albus sighed slightly, "That record was made during the time of the mother of the current era, lady Titania of the fairy race achieved the 24th step, and no one has ever reach the 24th step since then, both your mother and I managed to achieve the 22th step though, the same as our founding father his majesty Clovis himself," he said with feint reverence on his face.


    "So absolutely no one reached the top?" Lirian asked a little incredulously, if it was here since then it meant that in 52 billion years there was not a single person who had enough talent to reach the top.


    Albus glanced at Taliyah and she just lightly shrugged her shoulders as if saying ''entertain him'' with a light smile on her face, she always wanted Albus to get along with their children, but he never chose to meet them, seeing that he was here now and voluntarily speaking with Lirian she hoped to see more of them talking to each other.


    "Well it''s just a rumour to be honest, but during Quaria''s time, she was said to have had a lover, and that man was the strongest of all her guardians, I''m sure you heard many stories about him,"


    "Arthur Pendragon the man who single handedly killed the black dragon of despair that was born from a desolation,"


    "Arthur Pendragon was always very lowkey in his actions, but his name is known for having been with Quaria from the start of their journey, rarely did he ever fight but when he did no one ever survived a single strike of his,"


    "And the black dragon of despair went on a rampage when Quaria''s people invaded its world, from there it travelled to many of the worlds causing absolute chaos, it destroyed forty worlds in its rampage and none of the guardians were able to defeat it not even Titania, even when they joined hands,"


    "When all seemed hopeless Arthur Pendragon arrived with Excalibur in hand, the blade was said to have morphed from a sword into a mighty axe that eclipsed the sky, and with a single strike he brought down the black dragon of despair,"


    "He was the greatest warrior of all time who none could compare with, however did you know that no one ever saw him climb the steps," he said to Lirian with a secretive smile.


    "But just between you me kid, there is a mention of Arthur climbing the steps, in the journals of his majesty Clovis and the other founders of the empires there is a detail they all mentioned,"


    "It''s said that Arthur climbed the steps in private with only Quaria to bare witness, they tried to hide it but after Arthur climbed up the steps it released a phenomena that could not be hidden, they all witnessed the spectacle, but they never saw how high Arthur climbed,"


    "But because the steps released a phenomena they believed he ascended to the very top," Albus said to Lirian with a feint smile.

 Chapter 224 - 224 – The Talent Steps 2

    "How did they know the phenomena was caused by the steps if they didn''t see Arthur climbing the steps personally?" Lirian asked curiously, for once he felt like there was something in this world that intrigued him, and it even made his head that was muddled from drinking a little clear.


    A feint smile crept up on to Albus''s face, "Can you guess why reaching the ninth step is what we consider as passing the talents steps?" he asked Lirian.


    "Does a change occur in the steps?" Lirian asked, it was the only logical explanation he could come up with, and when he thought that the steps came from a god, it struck Lirian that it would obviously have multiple stages to it, gods liked to do things like that.


    As a former god he understood the thoughts of gods rather well, in general gods would send things down to help mortals progress, or at least that''s how it appeared on the surface, gods mainly did such things to observe how their influence would turn the tides of a world.


    It was how gods gained a better understanding of the universe and of themselves, it was a very important thing that gods would do in order to progress themselves.


    What appeared to be a selfless act was in fact selfish and how could it not be expected of them, in order to become a god a key requirement was to be self absorbed with near fanatical belief in ones self, how could such a being be charitable and selfless to random puny mortals.


    When gods sent objects down that were two difficult for people to use it often got discarded and lost, making the god waste a lot of effort and time, so the gods would create items that had multiple levels to it.


    The levels would entertain the mortals and grant them an ego, and when that happened people would compete to surpass each other, making the item the centre of attention, and by doing that it was almost guaranteed that someone would come along who could reach the highest level as the god intended.


    In Lirian''s opinion the talent steps fit that criteria perfectly.


    "You''re quite sharp for a child," Albus said, "Yes the steps reveal an image on the sides, depending on how high the person climbs it reveals more of the image and makes it a lot clearer,"


    "With the candidate in particular, the steps has often given them name of worlds, the same worlds that are an option for them to go to you could say that the steps shows them the best path for their growth."


    "For some it shows the image of a person, or an item and as the person goes higher up the stairs the image becomes clearer and easier to understand,"


    "Take me for instance when I climbed it a saw an image of your mother it was hundreds of years before I ever met her, but it showed me her image,"


    "And let me tell you all those that have found what was in the image have experienced great changes to themselves like experiencing a metamorphosis,"


    "So the steps read an important part of a persons fate and show it to them," Lirian said in surprise, it was basically a divining tool that was made to be used without any diviner controlling it, even by Lirian''s standards it was an amazing piece, and he couldn''t help but wonder which god created it.


    Lirian would bet that even his bitch of an ex-wife Katerina, would be lost in admiration of the device.


    "But that still doesn''t explain how the guardians knew the apparition was from the steps?" Lirian quickly added when he realised that his words had actually put his mother and the emperor in a pondering state.


    Neither of them had ever thought of the steps in the way Lirian put it, they always figured that it was an object that showed people a path of good fortune and success, as everyone that found what was in the image had achieved greatness, and those that didn''t ultimately died.


    Lirian felt that his guess was spot on and there was more to it, the device was something that tempered with fate without revealing it''s secrets, it was definitely made by a god with a deep understanding of fate.


    Albus snapped out of his thoughts to look at Lirian with a profound gaze, "The images shown by the steps always display seven dots like stars in the sky,"


    "When the phenomena occurred, they saw the seven dots rise into the sky along with the image of a girl," said Albus.


    "A girl?" Lirian asked.


    Albus sighed lightly, "They couldn''t remember what the image looked like after it passed, they only knew that it was a girl, for that reason they believed that the image could only be seen clearly by whoever climbed to the top of the steps," Albus said to Lirian.


    "So, tell me Lirian do you think you can climb the steps to its peek?" he asked Lirian in an expectant tone and now his voice was loud enough that it cut through everyone''s conversations stopping all their mocking words.


    "It will be a piece of cake!" Lirian said with a shrug of his shoulders, if that Arthur person could do it then so could he and he''d do it with ease.


    When Lirian finished speaking the emperor extended his hand and a small item hovered in his hand and floated into the middle of the ball room, when it landed it started to expand in size until a fifty foot set of stairs stood in the middle of the room.


    It released a divine aura, evidentially showing of its divine origins as a creation of a god.


    Albus got up and addressed the nobles, "It is time for us to witness what we all came here to see, as you have all heard my foster son has declared that he can reach the top of the talent stairs," he said and few people chuckled loudly in response.


    "From the time the great civilizations were founded not a single person has achieved this feat and back when the empire was just founded it was declared that should a person reach the top they would be granted an elementary second accord cultivation technique as well as the secrets of how to achieve the second accord," the emperor said in a serious tone that took everyone by surprise.


    "Lirian if you are able to do as you''ve said, then not only will you have brought great honour to the empire, but you will have made history, as your foster father and emperor I wish that you can do what no other has done before, I believe in your ability and I''m sure that you already know this but so does your mother,"


    The seriousness with which the emperor was treating Lirian and his declaration took even the nobles that knew the emperor their whole life by surprise.


    In their eyes the emperor was always an aloof and amiable person, but he rarely ever took things very seriously, but it was then that they were reminded that the emperor had actually risked his life to come here.


    And he did say that he wanted to personally see Lirian climb the steps when he arrived, they wondered if the emperor truly thought so highly of Lirian that he thought he''d be able to do what had long been deemed an impossible task.


    Lirian was also slightly taken aback by how seriously the emperor was taking this, and due to how serious the emperor was not a single person dared to even laugh, it made the whole task a lot less annoying for Lirian.


    "Prince candidate Lirian, step forward and place your foot on the stairs," the emperor said gesturing for Lirian to go forward.


    Albus stepped back and sat down besides Taliyah, she smiled at him, "Thank you," she whispered to him, he didn''t need to ask why, he already knew that he fulfilled a long cherished wish of hers by taking some time to speak with Lirian and by showing his support of Lirian.


    Lirian stepped forward and took a breath, he naturally didn''t care about the cultivation technique and knowledge he''d be given, but he did want to know what the steps would show him when he reached the peek.


    When Lirian placed his foot on the steps he felt a surge of power completely sealing of his centres of power, he quickly realised that this was how the stairs maintained fairness, it turned anyone who climbed it into an ordinary mortal before they began the climb.


    Lirian felt another sensation enter his body as he placed his other foot on the steps, it was a type of pressure that acted against his spine, his dantian, and his mind, and finally there was an energy that coursed through his opened energy points in his body.


    Lirian understood at that moment that it was a true test of talent and will power, as he climbed the pressure would double with every step he took placing a tremendous burden on his entire being.


    But he showed no fear at all in fact an elated smile hung on his lips.

 Chapter 225 - 225 – They All Really Want To See Me Naked

    As Lirian walked towards the steps the crowd was taken by surprise as Lirian didn''t seem to resemble a drunk person at all.


    His steps were firm and graceful, he made walking look like an art as he strode forward with confidence.


    "I think that Lirian has been secretly drinking without you knowing and a lot at that," Albus whispered to Taliyah''s ear in an amused tone.


    Taliyah however was of a different mind she knew that Lirian was no child, but still she was impressed by his mental fortitude, former god or not, his body was still that of a mortals, he''d drank enough to put any ordinary mortal in a coma yet he was still able to speak properly and walk in a straight line.


    But she didn''t say anything that was one secret of Lirian''s she believed had to remain secret no matter what the few people that knew the better, she gave a wry smile as if saying, ''I can''t believe that he did such a thing without me knowing,'' and continued to watch Lirian intently.


    Lirian felt all the sealing energies and pressuring energies as he climbed the to the first step and ahead of him he could sense the 49 remaining steps like mountains waiting to crush who so ever dared to place their foot on it.


    In the blink of an eye Lirian suddenly landed on the 5th step, the place that made most people fall of and he felt very disappointed, the pressure might have doubled five time but it wasn''t enough to make him feel even the slightest pressure, yet this was the pressure that forced most candidate''s of the talent steps


    Lirian turned to crowd and took a seat on the step with a relaxed smile, "If this is where most candidates can''t go on I have to say I''m quite disappointed I expected more from those ones who were being so arrogant and laughing at me earlier," Lirian said shaking his head.


    Then with a light shrug of his shoulder he muttered in a very soft yet audible voice, "Trash is trash, they just can''t help themselves I suppose," it was like he was saying to himself, but his words were still heard clearly by the crowd.


    And the princes and princesses went red without exception in anger, as they were being insulted by a mere candidate.


    "You sure do know how to speak big," Prince Kaher said with a sneer, "But why did you stop on the fifth step, it''s probably because you know you won''t be able to talk when you land on the next step," he said with an amused laugh.


    "I doubt you''ll even be able to reach my record, I made it to the 14th step," he bragged loudly reminding everyone of his accomplishment, the 14th step was no joke to reach at his age, it could be said to be on par with many of the past emperors and empress''s.


    As people tempered their will and their minds it would become possible for them achieve higher points on the steps, and to date the greatest improvement anyone ever had, was 12 steps, from being stuck at the 8th step they reached the 20th.


    However after a person climbed the steps for the first time they would never receive it''s guidance again.


    Lirian smiled an pulled himself up to the next step, then a another and again until he reached the eight step, "See it''s so easy," Lirian said with a laugh his voice was so relaxed and his attitude was completely carefree.


    In the eyes of the crowd he might as well have been sitting on a couch comfortably, a look of astonishment filled their eyes because not to mention them even the emperor and empress would begin to feel slightly pressured by the time they reached the eight step, yet Lirian showed no such indication at all.


    "This is impossible!" Kaher shouted, by the time he reached the eight step he had to be fully focused on keeping his breathing steady, he''d be able to talk but it would be burdensome.


    "Your majesty," Prince Kaher said walking forward and bowing to the emperor, "I believe that the prince candidate Lirian is using some means to temper with the talent steps,"


    "As a prince of the empire I can''t tolerate seeing him disrespect the divine artefact, I ask that he be removed from the steps and forcefully stripped of any and all items on him before he is allowed to climb the steps," Prince Kaher played his card as a devoted prince seeking fairness, he knew it was the only way he could ask such a thing without receiving a punishment.


    "That is a divine artefact as you''ve said so yourself, it is impossible for Lirian to temper with it," the emperor said, and his tone was filled with annoyance at the interruption.


    "What your majesty said is correct, however should Lirian have obtained some special item, it wouldn''t be impossible," Prince Kaher insisted and as he said those words, he cast a quick glance at the empress.


    That look did not slip past the emperor or empress and as the empress grew angry so did the emperor, "Are you trying to accuse my wife of cheating?" the emperor asked and his voice had taken a scary change that sent shivers down prince Kaher''s spine.


    "No, no, your majesty I''d never dare," Kaher said frantically as his entire body quivered in fear, "I merely fear that prince candidate Lirian, might have stolen a treasure of her majesties and is using it," Kaher explained still trying to push his thoughts.


    Even if he was wrong if Lirian was forced to climbed the steps naked it would be an utter humiliation to him, even if he still wore his underpants, the fact that he''d have to remove his clothes would be something that he''d never be able to live down.


    Prince Kaher turned to Lord Draco with a pleading look, the lord of his family had also been insulted by Lirian, so it would only make sense that Lord Draco would side with him.


    Sure enough a wicked smile could be seen forming on the edge of Lord Draco''s lips as he silently praised his successor, but before he could speak up, there were several voices of agreement, it came from the princes and princess''s who were just insulted.


    They understood Kaher''s ploy to humiliate Lirian so naturally they''d join in on the fun, they wouldn''t be outdone by a brat.


    At that point the empress exploded as she stood up, "First you mock my son, then you call him a cheater and accuse him of being a thief, and now you lot want to humiliate my son," she roared in anger startling the entire crowd.


    "The lot of you can get the hell out of my home and you are forever banned from going to any event I attend," she said coldly to the prince''s and princess''s.


    Her punishment was swift and without mercy, for the empress to say such words it was no different from ruining their political careers with a snap of her fingers.


    If the empress didn''t want them in her presence, anyone that wanted to make so much a slightly good impression on the empress would not invite their presence either.


    The prince''s and princess''s all looked distraught, they were just trying to get back at Lirian but they never imagined that just a few words would earn them such a punishment, and the one who was the most effected was Kaher.


    To be forcibly thrown out of the empress''s home would be an absolute humiliation, and it would make it almost impossible for him to meet the requirements to become an emperor candidate without relying on Efrideet''s influence which would be besides the point of his assignment.


    He needed to be shown as being neutral in the feud between Efrideet and Taliyah, so that when tension rose between them in the future and they needed to create more allies the empress would come to him, it was all part of the master plan of her Highness Efrideet.


    He just wanted to knock Lirian down a peg to earn Efrideet''s favour when she learned of his deeds, but if the empress cast him out in anger it would ruin his ability to grow his influence and mess up the greater part of Efrideet''s plans.


    He turned to Lord Draco in desperation, this time however he could see a look of anxiety on his Lords faces.


    "Your majesties," Lord Draco said though he was mostly speaking to the emperor, due to their friendship he felt like his only way to salvage things was through him, "Please forgive the boy, he is young and foolish so he spoke out of turn," he begged dropping his head low and acting subservient.


    A stern expression was fixed on Albus''s face as he looked at his old friend, but eventually he let out a sigh.


    But before he could utter a word the empress spoke, "Another word out of you and you''ll receive the same punishment and the same goes to anyone that wants to speak out against my decision," she said coldly to the crowd and all the nobles and family leaders who had come with their own prince''s and princess''s were gritting their teeth in unwillingness.


    But they dared not say anything more.


    Albus merely sighed, he wasn''t about to retract his wife''s decision now that it was made, but just then a humour filled laugh echoed from the centre of the room.


    As all eyes landed on Lirian he smiled beautifully, "Mother there is no need to be so serious, I think I know why all the prince''s and princess''s want this so badly,"


    "They all really want to see me naked!" he said with a mischievous laugh that resounded through the ball room.

 Chapter 226 - 226 – Cursed With Overwhelming Beauty

    "I suppose it can''t be helped; I am really cursed with over whelming beauty!" Lirian mused aloud making the nobles openly gap, as they looked to each other with flabbergasted expressions, as if asking each other if they heard the same thing.


    "That is why you all want to see me naked?" Lirian asked directing his question at the prince''s and princess''s, "It''s because just looking at me made all of you horny?" Lirian question with a mischievous smile.


    As time went on Lirian continued to say many self-praising things about his divine looks each one more shameless than the last he even made up vulgar stories about the things they wished to do to him and when he was done he turned to the prince''s and princess''s with a smile.


    "That is the reason you want to see me naked right?" Lirian said with a humour filled laugh.


    They were no fools, they could tell that it was a life line Lirian was offering them as soon as they admitted his words to be true they''d be saved, but that''s where the problem lay, they did not want to admit to a single word of Lirian''s story being true, it would be especially humiliating for them.


    The princess''s were red in their faces as they considered saying that Lirian''s stories were true, but the princes had gone green in the face, they gagged involuntarily as they played out some of the stories in their heads, but there was always an exception, one of the boys grinned from ear to ear as he imagined one of the stories and happily admitted to it, with so much vigour that there was no doubt about his sexual orientation.


    But the others were still torn with indecision that''s when Lirian started again, making up another story at that point one of the princess''s practically jumped, "I admit that what prince candidate Lirian said is true," she declared loudly.


    "Oh," Lirian smiled and turned towards her, "You''ll have to be more specific, my memory is rather bad you see so I completely forgot what it was you wanted to do to me," Lirian said in a very apologetic voice.


    The princess''s eyes widened with shock, "But Dalinar didn''t have too," she protested.


    "Prince Dalinar was the first so he doesn''t have to, but the later you say something the more descriptive you''ll have to be princess," Lirian said with a shrug as if it was only common knowledge.


    And as he spoke the rest of the prince''s and princesses practically fought to be heard the loudest as they admitted to Lirian''s stories, even Kaher didn''t hesitate, sure it was humiliating, but it was better than losing Efrideet''s favour.


    "You still have to say what you wanted me to do to you!" Lirian reminded them.


    Their voices were suddenly the opposite of what it had been before, they were loud and battling to be heard the loudest, but now they were dead silent and it looked like they wanted to hide away and die.


    Lirian sighed softly when they said nothing, "Mother it would appear that I misjudged them, they only wanted to humiliate me nothing else!" Lirian said as if disappointed.


    "I wanted you to ravish my vagina until I started screaming for my mommy," one of the princess''s shouted as she realised that things weren''t looking good for her, oddly enough she didn''t stutter but when she finished she fell to her knees and started to cry.


    The princess''s had an easier time saying the words out loud, though they were all beat red in the face when they finished and it didn''t help them when they could hear the noble''s sniggers, that were soft at first before breaking out into full blown uncontrolled laughter.


    Some even flipped from their chairs as they wrapped their arms around their stomachs as they struggled for breath, to hear the proud an arrogant princes and princess''s speak such demeaning words was a spectacle.


    Lirian did not at all expect his mother to deliver such a harsh punishment to them, but he figured it was perfect to play with, to get the best effect possible out of it, It was a happy surprise for Lirian.


    The princes were still having a hard time as their faces were filled with so much disgust it look like their faces were rotting as they forced the words, "I desperately¡ªw-w-w-anted mm-my a-a-anus plunged, by his l-l-l-lovely p-e-nis," a princes stuttered his words and as he finished he was like a projectile high classed weapon, as he threw up, releasing all his food and wine across the ball room creating a slip and slide on the floor.


    When prince Kaher finished he fell to his legs with a lifeless look in his eyes, from now on he knew that people would be calling him the prince of anal plunge or a hundred other demeaning names.


    Lirian laughed merrily from the steps, "You guys are to much, I really didn''t expect you to go through with it, in truth my mother was just lying about the punishment," Lirian lied, he was almost certain that his mother was serious, but he just wanted to rile them up even further.


    And sure enough some of them had their eyes roll back in their heads as looked to the empress and she nodded her head in agreement, she was delighted with the turn of events and it made her look less cruel, so it was a win-win for her.


    Lirian laughed as he turned on the steps, "You know since you guys are all so suspicious of me I don''t mind climbing naked," Lirian said and started to disrobe pulling off everything other than his shorts.


    As the nobles watched they were looking with utter disbelief as Lirian pulled of his clothes so naturally revealing his amazingly ripped muscles and well-toned body, and his skin was pure white like fresh snow, without a single blemish or spot.


    His body looked like a divine sculpture sent by the gods the nobles lost control of their mouths as some of them started to gulp and salivate just by looking at Lirian, they had all thought that Lirian had exceptionally good looks that were divine already, but it was then that they realised that Lirian''s earlier words about his own beauty were understated.


    His body had an almost divine look that would make one mistake him as a holy sovereign if they didn''t know him.


    As Lirian finished taking of his clothes he moved to his shorts, "Good graciousness Lirian, keep those on," Taliyah suddenly scolded Lirian, him disrobing in public was already to much for her to bare, and she could see that some of the nobles were losing their minds as they looked at Lirian.


    She had given him plenty of baths as a child and she knew just how unbelievably attractive his body could be, and she was certain that Anya had grown a little over fond of him because of that, it was why she enchanted all his clothes to dim that effect of his.


    "Oh yeah you''re right mother," Lirian said with a slight smile, "We wouldn''t want all the men here feeling inadequate," Lirian said in such an apologetic and sincere voice that the people believed he wasn''t lying about his claim, and well Lirian was only wearing his shorts it made it plenty easy to see what he was hiding and even the princess from earlier who were ashamed of the words they said no longer felt so ashamed as the gulped aloud.


    Taliyah sighed as she rubbed her temples, sometimes Lirian could give shameless a whole new meaning in her opinion.


    Lirian faced the princes and princesses, "Earlier you claimed that I was cheating with some item, and you mocked me for overestimating myself,"


    "So, I pose a challenge to all of you, climb the steps with me that way you''ll know that there is nothing tempering with the steps and you''ll be able to show me how it''s done?" Lirian said mocking them with a smile.


    "But you know if you''re too scared that I''ll show you up, your welcome to admit that you''re to scared to challenge me," Lirian said and took another step with just as much ease as he did before.


    When Lirian reached the ninth step he felt the pressure triple on his body and the entire steps changed colour as it began to emit a vague grey spoke and an illusory image appeared on the sides of the steps, that was impossible to make out.


    As for Lirian he believed that the steps could sense that he was blind, so it projected the image directly into his mind.


    Lirian stood firmly and turned around with a provocative expression, he was waiting for the prince''s and princess''s to climb up, given their station they were all people that survived the trial of candidates, which definitely tempered their will power.


    So even if they couldn''t reach the ninth step in the past Lirian was certain they''d be able to now.

 Chapter 227 - [Bonus ]227 – Lirian Strikes

    The prince''s and princess''s while feeling completely humiliated, still felt that this was an opportunity for them to prove to Lirian who it was that sat on the top.


    But unknown to them some of the princess''s just wanted to get closer to Lirian, despite the humiliation seeing Lirian''s body, filled their minds with other things and it was all they could think about.


    The looks in the eyes of some of the princes had also changed as if they were rethinking their sexual orientation and as they realised what they were thinking, they slapped themselves without holding back, to steady their thoughts.


    There was one prince however that seemed to be frothing from the mouth in anticipation to start climbing his eyes were fixed on Lirian like he was prey, Lirian had truly unleashed a beast.


    The prince''s and princess''s all looked to their respectively family leaders then to the emperor, they were asking for permission to go to the talent steps, even if Lirian invited them it wasn''t proper of them to go without getting approval.


    Seeing how eager they were there were many nobles that started to call out for them to join in on the steps.


    The talent steps was usually always a show for the nobles, every twenty years when a new batch of candidates were ready they would be brought from the various academies to specific destinations, as each empire only had a few talent steps they had to place them in strategic locations to use them effectively.


    During those events there were thousands of candidates present all battling to climb the steps, it made for a very entertaining event, Lirian''s had certainly given them a lot to talk about, but this would truly make things exciting.


    For a candidate to challenge prince''s and princess''s it wasn''t a first in history, but it was rare enough that it got the nobles very excited, their only disappointment was that there were only 15 prince''s and princess''s present.


    The emperor nodded in approval, and he did think that it would liven up the party a little, giving everyone a little more to talk about.


    Lirian sat on the ninth step comfortably and calmly waited for the prince''s and princess''s arrival, all of them successfully reached the fifth step, and it could be seen that they were trying to rapidly climb to that point just as Lirian did to make a point.


    But it back fired as they ended up staggering under the pressure, the first five steps should have been the easiest but some of them were already breathing heavily due to their attempts to show off.


    Lirian smiled in amusement as they suffered from their blunder, but he turned his attention to Kaher who was climbing at a fixed pace he got past the first five steps with ease and stopped when he reached the seventh, the pressure had finally started to affect him so he took a moment to adjust.


    Kaher tightened his fists as he took a step into the eight step and then he rapidly took another step placing him on the ninth, he turned to look at Lirian with a smug look as if saying, you''re not the only one that can reach this point, and he took another step up onto the tenth.


    He looked back down at Lirian to gloat at him but to his surprise he found that Lirian wasn''t there, "Yo, I''m up here," he heard Lirian''s mocking voice and when he turn to look he saw that Lirian was standing two steps above him smiling smugly.


    "Damn you," he cursed through clenched teeth as the pressure was making it almost impossible for him to speak, and that was all he could get out, yet Lirian was still as lively as ever.


    Kaher took several deep breaths and now his fists were clenched extremely tightly as he had to fight the growing pressure, from the nineth step upwards the pressure tripled with each step, it was already miraculous that he could perform a double step from the nineth step to the tenth, and now he struggled desperately to push forward to the twelfth.


    Just as he reached the twelfth step he turned to Lirian only to find that he took two rapid steps up and landed on the fourteenth step.


    "I-m-mpossible," Kaher squealed like a dying pig as his entire body started to shake as he pushed his way up to the fourteenth step, when he arrived this time he found that Lirian was still standing there facing him with a large smile on his face.


    "Good job on reaching this point, I feared that I''d have to come down to teach you your lesson," Lirian said ecstatically with a bright happy smile.


    "Huh," Kaher said dumbly as if he didn''t quite understand what Lirian was saying, but before he could do anything he felt Lirian close in on him at rapid speed he felt a pain on his neck as Lirian''s hands wrapped firmly around his neck.


    On the talent steps all cultivation was sealed of which meant only one thing mattered on the talent steps skill and only skill.


    Lirian skill was far beyond that of even the greatest figures in the mortal realm, add on the fact that the talent steps pressure at this point did almost nothing to Lirian at all taking down Kaher was child play.


    "Impudence!" Lord Draco roared at the top of his lungs the moment he saw Lirian grasping Kaher by his throat.


    Lirian seemed annoyed by the roaring voice so he lifted Kaher by the throat and let him dangle in the air for anyone to see.


    "Release him this instant!" Lord Draco roared at Lirian in pure anger.


    Creak, Crack.


    The nobles were all gasping at the sudden turn of event, but they were horrified when they heard the cracking sounds, it was the bones in Kaher''s neck, he wasn''t dead yet they could still hear his breathing, but they could tell that anymore twisting on Lirian''s part and Kaher''s neck would snap.


    "I really, really don''t like being ordered around," Lirian said in an annoyed voice, "Trying saying that again and we''ll see if your precious successor can survive," Lirian said coldly, and the people could tell he wasn''t joking, he truly had no qualms with killing Kaher if anyone displeased him.


    "Lirian, you should stop with what you''re doing," the emperor said in a grave voice, his brows were knitted together tightly and a frown had formed on his face.


    He was on Lirian''s side but this was taking things to far, he felt that he might have shown a little to much favour for Lirian and it went to Lirian''s head, even the empress was frowning at Lirian''s actions, he was taking things too far.


    Lord Draco smiled seeing that the emperor had taken his side and even the empress seemed displeased by her son''s actions.


    But to everyone''s surprise Lirian pretended as if he heard nothing, "Draco get on your knees and beg for my forgiveness," Lirian said, and his word caused everyone to suck in breaths of cold air, because now Lirian wasn''t just fighting a prince he was also attacking a Lord of a super world, that was no different from turning an entire star zone into an enemy.


    "You want me to what?!" Lord Draco roared at the top his lungs and shot a blade of energy at the talent step as if it reached the steps it broke down, no power could reach the steps, but it was his attempt to scare Lirian shitless.


    Even with what Lirian had done he wouldn''t dare to directly attack him with the empress present.


    The empress recognised Lord Draco''s intention, so she didn''t jump into a rage right away, she also knew that Lirian was in the wrong.


    "Taliyah say something to him," Albus urged her in a whisper, he figured that the only reason Lirian ignored him was because he felt that he could still rely on his mother to get out of this scot free.


    Taliyah nodded she did intend to anyway, "Lirian please stop this now and we can act like nothing happened at all," she said gently to Lirian trying to reason with him, in truth she didn''t know if her words would have any effect at all on Lirian.


    He wasn''t the type to do things without reason or thinking things through, and she also recalled that Lirian mentioned that Lord Draco was in cahoots with Efrideet, if that was true it was possible that this was his attempt to expose Lord Draco, but this wasn''t the right way to do it.


    Even if he was on Efrideet''s side, it wasn''t a crime, so it didn''t justify his actions.


    "You will apologise for being an inadequate waste of space, that is incapable of disciplining your family members," Lirian said coldly, this time even disregarding his mother, with that he burnt all bridges of reconciliation.

 Chapter 228 - 228 – God Breaker

    "You will apologise for being an inadequate waste of space, that is incapable of disciplining your family members," Lirian said coldly, this time even disregarding his mother, with that he burnt all bridges of reconciliation.


    "You little bastard," lord Draco roared and this time he launched himself forward in anger and landed directly on the talent steps before anyone could stop him.


    The empress and emperor both dashed towards the talent step when they saw him land, they knew that things had spiralled out of control, and as long as someone was on the steps, it was impossible for them to retract it.


    Lirian however only snorted coldly, "It seems that you care nothing for your successors survival," he said with a twisted grin.


    "Killing this trash is easy, but you know what I wonder, what will happen when I forcibly pull some up a step or two," Lirian said with a cruel smile as Lord Draco ascended as fast as possible, but no matter what he''d never be as fast as Lirian.


    Lirian took a step up and pulled Kaher with him in just a second he reached the 17th step and Kaher started to roar at the top of his lungs, blood splattered from his mouth so did a ton of other liquids, Lirian took a sniff and realised that the pressure was actually liquifying his organs, most of that liquid that spilt was mushed organs.


    "So that''s what it does," Lirian said with a chuckle as Lord Draco reached him.


    Lord Draco was breathing heavily and sweating profusely when he reach the 17th step two more and it would be his limit, but he reached Lirian in time, and a cold grin extended on his face.


    "You disrespectful bastard, I''ll teach you the meaning of discipline!" he roared at Lirian and step in to attack Lirian.


    Lirian chuckled, "Just you alone?" he asked and to Lord Draco''s disbelief he could feel the conviction behind Lirian''s words, he was truly asking if he thought he had what it takes.


    "You little bastard," he roared through gritted teeth.


    And his aura began to soar, his cultivation was sealed but his techniques weren''t as a saint he had achieved great hights in frontal combat, first came forms, second was the combination of forms, then came free striking and tension forms.


    But after that is where people were tested the next stage was called form creation, it was the stage that took saints the longest to achieve and it was the most difficult to attain, with that one had to create a set of forms tailored to themselves.


    All other forms were just imitations it was at this realm that true talent was shown and after that came form merging, to become one with your form, and finally the next realm was called mastery, where one would remain in a state of form merging permanently, their every action would extend their understanding of combat.


    Lord Draco hadn''t reached that stage but he did grasp onto form merging firmly so he unleashed that, it was a skill he attained over countless years so the steps couldn''t restrict it.


    "Path Breaker," Lord Draco said the name his self-created technique.


    Lirian scowled coldly at lord Draco, "What''s the matter, you scared brat," he laughed wildly as he prepared to kill Lirian, that''s right he wanted to kill Lirian at that moment, at that moment both the emperor and empress entered the steps and started to rapidly climb.


    As they climbed they could hear what was being said and the emperor especially was shocked by what he heard.


    "Scared!" Lirian laughed, "You''ve reached the seventh grade as a saint and you can only use form merging, you''re a disgrace," Lirian said coldly.


    Lirian had grown up training with his mother so he had a high expectation of all other members in the empire, his mother reached the state of mastery, which was also the reason she didn''t like to use her weapon when sparing with Lirian, she feared injuring him because in the state of mastery even her weak attacks were powerful, which made it difficult for her to hold back.


    Holding back was a lot harder than unleashing all of her power.


    "But, oh well a disappointment of a prince and disappointment of a family leader, it all adds up," Lirian said shaking his head.


    "Your form is called Path Breaker, so I''ll show you one that I know with a similar name, though don''t try comparing the two it''s the literal definition of the difference between heaven and earth," Lirian said.


    "You should be honoured that I''m using it against you, you are unworthy of it''s use, but well I need to make a point,"


    "GOD BREAKER!" Lirian''s words sounded like a divine decree as he took a quick step forward, his aura completely stifled Lord Draco allowing Lirian to break through his guard with ease and a single punch push through landing directly on Lord Draco''s chest.


    Lord Draco''s entire being warped as his ribs shattered, every last one without discrimination broke and he fell over puking up blood and howling in pain, if not for his top quality clothing that absorbed 90 percent of the blow, his body would have broken in two from Lirian''s strike.


    Just as quickly as it came Lirian''s aura vanished and a layer of sweat covered his body, that move was definitely to much for his body but he had a point to make and he did it beautifully, though he was disappointed as he looked at Lord Draco.


    "It would seem that I''ve thought to highly of the leaders of the super worlds," Lirian said coldly, and the nobles were all gasping in utter disbelief.


    The person lying down like a dead dog, was a Lord, a sacred Lord that stood at the top of the civilization like a king, he''d been taken down in just a single blow from Lirian.


    Even Albus and Taliyah stopped in their tracks, just a step away, looking on without being able to fathom what just happened, Lord Draco was thousands of years old and his body had been tempered to be able to reach such a state, but what about Lirian he''d only done one serious tempering on his body.


    While it was extreme, it certainly wasn''t enough for his body to attain such a level of power, even Taliyah was shaking from seeing that blow, even with all her power and mastery she feared that strike, she felt that if used with actual saints grace energy that attack would rip a whole through a solar system with ease, it was that scary and she didn''t doubt that she''d be just as broken after being hit by it.


    Lirian stepped up to Lord Draco and pulled him up and whispered into his ear, it wasn''t loud enough for the audience to hear but Albus and Taliyah could hear.


    "When you leave here, be a good dog and tell your master that I have a message for her,"


    "Tell Efrideet that Lirian offers his congratulations on her miraculous recovery, and tell her that I said she aught to treasure the next 86 years of life, treating everyday as if it''s her last, because when I return I''ll be repaying her for Edith''s death and my eyes with 86 years of interest," Lirian whispered coldly into his ear.


    The heavens chosen curse was something that would attack anyone who tried to kill a heaven chosen without having been already attacked or harmed by that heavens chosen, when Efrideet severed Lirian''s fate string she triggered that curse.


    However when Lirian raised his cultivation to get revenge for Edith, it broke the curse, returning to Efrideet her power and health.


    Every word sounded like it could take a life and when he was done he threw Lord Draco of the steps, Lord Draco landed with a heavy thud, but since his power returned he didn''t receive anymore damage, but that didn''t change what had already been done to him, his condition was bad if one was being optimistic.


    Lirian took a step and faced Kaher, who was still dangling in his arm, that was the aspect most of the nobles were fixated on, in all that time Lirian had taken care of Lord Draco using a single strike, using only one hand, because his other hand was still occupied.


    Lirian walked down the steps until he reached the 9th step, "I have warned every last one of you time and time again, that I am not one to be played with because I am not your toy!" Lirian''s voice was smooth yet oddly dominant.


    "But it seems that the message never goes through your thick skulls, you people thought you could humiliate me here today, but I will show you what humiliation is today," as he finished speaking a ripping sound was heard, and before everyone''s eye''s Prince Kaher was buck naked, with his shrivelled up penis showing to the crowd, it was barely long enough to dangle but it just barely managed.


    Lirian lifted him up and tossed him on the floor, but Lirian wasn''t done yet, he immediately went to the prince''s and princess''s who were still on the steps he ripped of their clothes and dresses, he cared little if they were man of woman.


    In the end of the day they were the same, utter trash that deserved no humility in Lirian''s eyes, and he threw them as naked messes onto the floor he laughed coldly.


    "The next time you want to humiliate someone, you best think about who it is that you''re messing with," Lirian said coldly as he ripped the dress of the last begging and crying princess, before throwing her to the floor.


    "Cry all you want, but be glad that you are unworthy of me, or I would have had my own fun with you in front of the crowd," Lirian scoffed at the princess and everyone went pale at his words.


    ''Did he just say that he''d **** the princess in front of everyone if he didn''t think her unworthy?'' they were all asking each other with questioning eyes, and disbelief.


    Lirian started to walk back up the steps without a care as he walked past the emperor and empress who were still staring at him with gapping eyes.


    "Let''s get this over with," Lirian said softly as he placed his foot on the 18th step and the pressure suddenly increased by 4 times as the colour of the stairs changed again from grey to blue.

 Chapter 229 - 229 – Mounting The Peek

    The ball room was still a spectacle of silence as the nobles were still gaping with disbelief at the ease with which Lirian took down a Lord.


    Lord Draco was after all someone who had overcome tons of obstacles with his own ability, if he wasn''t a great fighter there was no way he would have had a chance to hold his current position yet he was lying on the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut.


    Crying out in pain, as he lay on the verge of dying, and all of it was just from a single strike of a prince candidate, it was an indication of just how monstrous Lirian''s ability was, and it spoke volumes of how incredible his future achievements would be.


    It was a completely different thing from when he had Telamon killed, then it was a trial and the empress was the executioner, but this was Lirian giving Lord Draco a physical defeat in a clash of skill.


    The silence was suddenly broken when one of the princess who was crying got up a fled while trying to cover her private parts, as she did the members of her family came running to drape her in cloth and the family made an immediate departure, and the others all followed in suit.


    Their families had been utterly humiliated by Lirian, and this would leave a scar on their successors for life, the people of the Draco family also carefully picked up their Lord and Prince before leaving.


    They all cast hateful gazes at Lirian on their way out but dared not say anything in the presence of the emperor and empress.


    When they all turned back to the talent steps they found that Lirian was standing on the 18th step and the colour had changed from grey to blue, they also noted that Lirian was fully clothed once more as he prepared to take the next step.


    "Wait," the emperor said to Lirian, "Lirian explain yourself, your actions are not something that can be ignored or taken lightly," he said in a grave tone.


    "I already have," Lirian said plainly, "I will not tolerate anyone trying to humiliate me and I will absolutely not allow anyone to think themselves my superior, if you or anyone dares to think differently you are all welcome to climb up here and challenge me,"


    "It makes no difference whether one or all of you come, I will crush you all the same," Lirian spoke while clenching his fist, and his every word was absolutely tyrannical in nature.


    He showed that he placed no one at all within his eyes not the nobles, not the empress nor the emperor, his words showed his absolute arrogance and confidence in his ability, on a place where all other were made equal, he truly believed that none could equal him.


    And after witnessing his single attack on Lord Draco who could doubt him.


    The emperor was taken aback by the unbelievable arrogance of Lirian, and he too gritted his teeth in anger at Lirian''s tone, as Lirian was not even placing him in his eyes at all, just as he was about to rebuke Lirian, he felt a gentle touch and turned to see his wife locking eyes with him.


    The empress looked at Lirian with a complicated look in her eyes, and sighed, on some level she always knew that this is who Lirian truly was, he was after all a god, how could she even dream of being seen as someone with talent by Lirian.


    "Leave things be for now, we''ll discuss things when it is settled and done," she said to the emperor.


    Seeing the pleading look in her eyes, he sighed but let her have her way and the two of them promptly climbed back down and watched as Lirian climbed, but now Lirian didn''t walk he ran up the steps.


    Lirian ran up the stairs, now that he was done engraving his image into the minds of the nobles he had nothing to wait for, in a second he reached the 22nd step breaking past the limit of Emperor Clovis, Emperor Albus and his mother, and soared up.


    Lirian bounced off the highest step ever achieved the 24th step, the step that only the Guardian Titania had reached, yet he didn''t linger there for even a second, the nobles all lost their minds when they saw what Lirian managed to accomplish.


    A feat that was never replicated since the founding of the seven civilizations, and yet he achieved it with absolute ease, with his next step Lirian became the first to ever break the halfway mark of the stairs.


    When Lirian reached the 27th step he felt the pressure increase by 5 times, and the colour of the stairs changed once more from blue to green, creating another first.


    Lirian continued to run unhindered up the stairs, and pushed through with ease until he reached the 36th step, it was there that he finally started to feel a bit of the restraining pressure, acting against him.


    It was also on that step that the pressure increased by 6 time and the stairs changed from green to yellow, and it was there that Lirian finally slowed down a little to a jog rather than a sprint.


    In no time at all he landed on the 45th step and the crushing pressure was amplified once more by 7 times, this time the steps released a blinding red light like the fires of hell had come to life.


    It was then that Lirian finally felt real resistance as he took the next step, on the next step however there was a change, the pressure increased to 8 times and when Lirian reached the 47th step the pressure climbed up again to 9 times.


    Lirian could feel it acting on his centre''s of power, his dantian the core of all energy and his spine the core of strength were still fine but it was his mind that started to get affected.


    Lirian knew why, he did have a an extremely firm will, one that was tempered and built up over countless life times, but currently Lirian''s will had been shaken.


    He was even suicidal after Edith''s death which is why his mind was being affected, but then Lirian thought to his final promise to Edith before she died, he promised her that he''d do everything in his power to move past her death, and live a good life.


    He didn''t know if he''d be able to but he gave his word so he had to try, with that belief firmly anchoring his mind and will Lirian pushed himself onto the next step, and in no time at all he hit the 49th step where the pressure was 11 times greater.


    Lirian took one last deep breath and pushed his way up, finally mounting the peek of the steps, essentially making history, if he didn''t count Arthur Pendragon''s ascent.


    In the back of his mind Lirian secretly wished he could find that Arthur Pendragon and crush him under his foot, for no other reason than he helped Katerina, that was more than enough for him to want to rip him apart, but that was 52 billion years ago, unless Arthur became a god it was impossible.


    And from what the goddess of pride Anuka had told Lirian no new gods were born over the past 40 trillion years, so he didn''t think he''d get the chance.


    When Lirian reached the top everyone watched with batted breath, as the entire steps lit up in a black light, and the darkness started to spread.


    In just seconds the ball room seemed to have vanished and be replaced by empty space, but everyone could still feel the ground beneath their feet and the chairs they were lounging in.


    As they looked around they could see each-other and above them they could see the seven dots that always appeared on the images shown by the steps hanging in the sky, and the sixth dot was shining brightly like a luminous star in the galaxy.


    Lirian could see all of this too as it was being projected into his mind, but just then he felt an eye, yes a single eye that had a very unique power to it peering at him.


    "CURIOUS!" Lirian heard a voice explode inside his head, from the power within that voice Lirian immediately understood that it was a gods and it even released it''s its imposing might on him.


    Lirian had felt some truly terrifying existence''s when he was brought into the god realm, and other than his father the most powerful existence he felt belonged to a little azure dragon that spent a lot of it''s time perched on his father''s head, the dragon god Kalatis was his name.


    This was not Kalatis by any means, but Lirian did sense a power equal to that of the dragon god Kalatis, a power that sat just a hairs breath away from the third-grade of gods.

 Chapter 230 - 230 – Passing The Trial

    This was not Kalatis by any means, but Lirian did sense a power equal to that of the dragon god Kalatis, a power that sat just a hairs breath away from the third-grade of gods.


    "Who are you?" Lirian asked.


    "You can perceive me!?" the god said in wonder, "Just like the other one," the god said and as Lirian listened to the voice he felt that it was rather strange, if Lirian had to say what it sounded like, it was as if the god was mentally deranged, it wasn''t all that uncommon though.


    Gods did tend to be of their rockers a majority off the time, living for so long that you had few peers who could relate to you, was enough to drive anyone crazy, even gods could not escape that fate.


    Lirian was just about to ask another question when the gods laugh echoed in his head, he laughed like a lunatic and when he finished laughing Lirian felt the presence vanish entirely.


    Lirian saw it as an opportunity to learn of the current state of the god realm, it had been 100 000 years since he left, thanks to the unstable portal he left through, that launched him 100 000 years ahead of where he should have landed.


    To his knowledge the void tears had been opening rather quickly in the god realm, and it was likely that the invaders from the other plains had discovered the tears and were using them to send forces into the god realm.


    While it was very unlikely that the god realm would fall so soon, it did stand that Lirian''s father as well as the seven sins and seven virtues as well as four of the greatest beast gods, were all afflicted by his curse.


    All them were the elite forces of the gods, and his father was the main power of the gods, but due to his curse the gods titled them as the traitors, so without their aid it was likely that things weren''t to favourable for the other gods.


    Especially if the invading plain had any existences equivalent to a third-grade god, it would make for some very bad times for the gods.


    But now he had no way of learning anything since the god''s consciousness vanished.


    The darkness started to retreat when the presence vanished, the darkness rushed back in the steps and Lirian found himself still at the top of the stairs, it no longer released any pressure on him, and an image with a name branded itself in his mind.


    Lirian could hear grunts coming from the nobles as they held on to their heads as if suffering from a severe hangover.


    "What was that?" many people were asking as they grabbed their heads tightly and tried to recall what they saw, but everyone was coming up blank, the only thing they remembered was one of the seven dots that hung over their heads lighting up.


    Several people came running into the ball room and came running to the emperor and empress telling them that a black shadow enveloped everything on the planet.


    They were getting reports from all over the world of people saying that they found themselves in a black world where seven dots hung over their head and one of the dots shone like a brilliant star.


    As it turned out the steps released the phenomena across the entire world.


    "Lirian dear," Taliyah called out, "Do you know what happened?" she asked as she thought back to her husbands'' story about how the guardians were unable to recall the phenomena when Arthur Pendragon ascended the steps.


    "Nope, nothing at all!" Lirian said with a shrug of his shoulders, Taliyah could tell that he was lying, but as she thought on it more she realised that it was dumb of her to ask about it with such a large audience.


    She glanced at Albus and as their eyes met they nodded, it would appear that their thoughts were the same, now wasn''t the time to get into the details, Lirian still had the other tests to complete.


    The other test weren''t all that flashy or rather they weren''t flashy at all, it was essentially a test of knowledge, the history of the empire, the power structures, the lineages that link the various houses all of that was a part of the next test.


    In history there were numerous people that passed the talents steps 9th step, but this is where almost all of them ended up failing.


    In the test of knowledge, the academies were created with a two hundred year system, that was how long it would take for a person to complete the academies course.


    The two hundred year course was made to present all the information a candidate needed to pass the test of knowledge, but it was there that the problem lay.


    Candidates only had twenty years before leaving for their trial, which made it practically impossible for them to complete this part, it wasn''t the talent steps that made this an unbeatable test, it was the knowledge part.


    As they say knowledge is power, and any candidate who wanted to truly earn a place in the universe, needed to navigate and understand the powers of the empire before they did anything, that knowledge was fundamental, but it was too much for a twenty year old to possess.


    In the history of the empire there were a few that passed this phase, but only a few in 52 billion years of history and including all the other great civilizations, the total number did not exceed the triple digits.


    But the main reason this was called the unbeatable challenge was due to the final phase, the trial world, the time limit given to candidate''s was cut in half, but that wasn''t why it was called unbeatable.


    There were a total of 46 worlds marked out by the great civilisations they all knew of the 46 worlds, and those worlds were the trial worlds that a candidate who passed the knowledge phase of the unbeatable challenge had to choose from.


    It was a rule from the time the seven civilizations were founded, and the civilization upheld that rule despite the fact that not a single one of those geniuses returned alive from those trial worlds.


    Supposedly when Quaria negotiated with the gods to aide the mortal realm of the sixth universe, this was apart of the agreement they made, and should the agreement ever be broken, the vengeance of the gods would sweep across the universe.


    It was a well known fact that Lirian had practically cleared the entire coarse of the academy and the nobles that followed the news about Lirian had been anticipating this part for a long time, they wanted to see if the rumours were true about Lirian''s knowledge.


    It had to be known that Lirian was only 14 years old, yet he already supposedly completed the 200-year course of the academy.


    Only by completing the knowledge phase of the academy could Lirian face the trial ahead of time, which is why he chose to do it, but there were still problems with facing the trial ahead of time.


    If Lirian waited six years and went for his trial he''d get his full 100 years, but since he opted to do it before the time his batch of candidate were sent on their expedition, he''d be batched up with the previous batch, it was 14 years since they left, which took 14 years from Lirian''s time, hence he only had 86 years to complete his trial, which was also a trial that was extremely likely to kill him.


    With the added rush to grow stronger faster, who knew what additional dangers Lirian would expose himself to, it severely increased his odds of death.


    When Lirian began the trial of knowledge, everyone was blown away by how quickly he answered every question thrown his way.


    It was two hundred years'' worth of knowledge so it only stood to reason that there were thousands of questions to go through, which took almost two days to complete.


    For cultivators staying awake for an entire year without rest was easy, but Lirian was only a mortal yet he showed not a single sign of being tired or tried to abbreviate his answers, every last one was detailed and filled with careful deliberation.


    It wasn''t like the nobles didn''t know the answers, but they all felt that even they would need some time to carefully consider the answers before giving them yet Lirian''s answers were given as soon as the question was asked, without a breath of delay.


    He even managed to navigate around many of the trick questions that were thrown in there to shake things up, hack many of the well versed nobles were tripped up by the questions, yet Lirian answered with absolute ease.


    In all that time there was only one question that Lirian answered wrongly, but it was a very interesting answer that Lirian gave.


    It was a question about how the resolution of the Uldwin family was taken care off.


    In the history books during the reign of Emperor Albert, the Uldwin family were trying to establish their power in the old Golgoth empire, and they were establishing a huge power, but they declared that all their gathering forces was to make for a powerful push in the exploration of the universe.


    There were numerous other powers that were on board with the idea and concealed the intel, but the empire still found out however there was no proof that the empire could use to forcibly stop the push.


    That was when the twin brother of Emperor Albert, Alfred Dao tried to advise the Uldwin family against such action, but ultimately failed.


    A short while later it was discovered that Alfred Dao had been assassinated and the empire declared that the Uldwin family did it due to Alfred saying some heated words to them in anger.


    This is what allowed the empire to stop the Uldwin families push for power and it made all their allies back off and scrap their plans.


    But Lirian however had a different opinion on the matter.


    Lirian claimed that there were no heated words between Alfred and the Uldwin family, he even stated that even if there were such words it made absolutely no sense for the Uldwin family to assassinate the brother of the emperor when they were so close to their goal.


    Lirian said that it was a ploy created by Telamon Dao who was the emperor''s advisor, Lirian claimed that Telamon convinced the emperor to kill his own brother who he had dearly loved from child hood, and claim that he was assassinated after saying some heated words to the Uldwin family.


    Lirian also said that, it also explained why the Uldwin family was still alive instead of being completely exterminated, it was because Emperor Albert felt guilty about laying a false charge on them so he spared them from total annihilation and only stripped them of most of their power.


    The final straw that Lirian pulled on to justify his theory was Emperor Alberts suicide after he passed on the mantel of emperor, Lirian said that it was due to his guilt over murdering his own brother, that made him take his own life.


    And Lirian pinned all the blame on Telamon, it was his final attempt to smear Telamon''s name, he knew it to be true he wasted tons of fate particles to form and confirm his theory.


    But that didn''t mean the nobles bought it, at most they thought that it was something to look into at a later date, and fun topic to talk about.


    It wasn''t like no one had ever thought of the possibility that in his desperation to prevent the Uldwin families schemes, Emperor Albert killed his own brother.


    But it was ridiculous so most people thought little of the possibility, and Lirian pinning the blame on Telamon, just proved how far his hate of Telamon went.


    All in all, with the exception of that one question that was declared wrong, Lirian passed getting everything else correct, scoring an almost perfect score, it was likely the only test that Lirian didn''t get full marks in.

 Chapter 231 - 231 – Efrideet’s Fury

    "Get out!" Lord Draco tried to yell at the people surrounding him, various healers were currently using spells and medicinal herbs to stabilise Lord Draco''s condition.


    A body cast was wrapped tightly around him to keep him intact, even as they continued to heal him, the healers were dumbfounded by the severity of the wounds.


    The wounds were merely made by a boy, which was already shocking, but with Lord Draco''s saint body, he should have been able to recover to a decent degree in a few hours, but by now two full days had past and Lord Draco had only just woken up, and his injuries were healing as if he was an ordinary person.


    When Lord Draco learned of the news he grew furious with them but, he lacked the strength to even scream, right now all he wanted was to be alone, because the humiliation was still fresh in his mind.


    Just before the healers left he asked, "How is Kaher?" it was important, Kaher''s had a part to play in Efrideet''s plans, even if he was humiliated he still needed to ensure that Kaher was fine.


    The healers all seemed to shiver and looks of reluctance cover their faces, "My Lord, he will make a full recovery physically, but his mind my lord has been affected in ways I''ve never seen before, it''s likely the effect of being pulled higher up the steps than he could bare,"


    "It could also be that the prince candidate''s actions have caused trauma or a combination of the two, my lord he will never be the same again," the head healer spoke apologetically.


    "Get out!" Lord Draco yelled this time his voice held a little power, as they all left he took wheezing breaths, before feinting from anger and weakness.


    ---


    "I''ve heard about your recent failure," a cold and aloof voice sounded in Lord Draco''s ears.


    His eyes snapped open with a start, and he found himself lying down in a world of white, Lord Draco climbed to his feet surprised that his body was working properly and that there was no pain in his body.


    "Your Highness!" he cried out in reverence as he realised that he was in a dreamscape, his mind was being projected into the place and he recognised the voice it belonged to Efrideet.


    "Forgive me your highness, but that prince candidate there is something unfathomable him, he is a monster, a monster a monster!" he screamed frantically like just the thought off what happened would drive him mad.


    Efrideet appeared with her long pink hair draping across the ground as she walked and the blue lines on her body made a stark contrast with her pink hair.


    As he raised his head to look at her, a lascivious light flashed through his eyes as he peered at her beautiful body.


    "You still dare to have such thoughts of me after your recent failure," she snorted coldly at Draco as he grovelled at her feet like a dog.


    "You''re the laughing stock of the empire, you are an utter disgrace to the empire," she sneered at Lord Draco, she was truly more repulsed than ever.


    In the past she allowed him to fantasise because he had his uses, but now if she didn''t have one final use for this trash, she wouldn''t even say a word to him.


    Lord Draco shivered as he was rebuked, but then his eyes suddenly flashed with light as he remembered something, "Y-y-your Highness," he snivelled like a dying pig.


    "I don''t know how but the prince candidate knew about our alliance," he said.


    But Efrideet shook her head, she had heard everything that happened from other sources who were at the banquet, at one point Lirian called Draco her loyal pet dog.


    But there was no way Lirian could know, it was probably just a bluff to paint the person who was speaking against the empress as an agent of Efrideet, many people did the same so it was nothing new to her.


    "You''re such an easily scared fool," she dreuled in annoyance as she circled around him.


    But Lord Draco shook his head with widened eyes, "It happened a-a-after he struck m-m-me," Draco said in a shaking voice.


    "He told me, to p-p-pass you a m-m-essage," Draco said with widened eyes full of horror as he remembered that moment.


    When the fist struck him he was certain that he saw a shadow of divinity, in that attack, it rendered him completely helpless, and as he thought he was going to die, Lirian gave him a message to pass on to Efrideet.


    "Congratulations on recovering from your illness, live the next 86 years to your fullest, I''ll repay you with interest for my eyes," Draco said in a hurry, forcing the words out his mouth, he paraphrased but he was sure that was the jist of what Lirian had said.


    Efrideet''s entire body stilled at what Draco said, she remembered on that day when she tried to make the empress make a blunder when Lirian''s eyes had fixed on her across space staring directly at her, he mouthed a few words.


    She remembered how she panicked and tried to, no she did sever his fate string, yet somehow he survived through something that was impossible to survive, then she was struck by that dreadful curse, that almost made her take her own life several times.


    Twenty days ago the curse suddenly lifted miraculously she didn''t even know how, only her most trusted servants knew of her affliction, the rest of the world was completely in the dark about her illness.


    Yet not only did Lirian know about it he also knew that it was gone.


    Her breathing started to go wild as she gnashed her teeth together, "I AM THE DIVINER!!!!!!!!" she roared in pure anger, she was unwilling to accept that a brat could know things she had kept secret.


    She abandoned the road of physical might and power all so that she could have the power of knowledge and foresight, to always know more than her enemies she gave up so much to have this power, so she could not accept that a brat, could know things she didn''t want him to.


    She was the one destined to surpass even the mighty Quaria, so how could a brat surprise her, time and time again, never before had she been out done in a match of knowledge, no one ever knew more than her because of her greatness.


    "How can you favour that bitch''s child so!" she roared to the heavens in fury, her fury made Draco who was grovelling shudder in fear, never had he seen the great Efrideet so riled up and out of control.


    Efrideet looked at Draco with flaring nostrils, "I will be sending you some intel, be sure that the intel can be obtained throughout every empire, I don''t care how it''s done," she said gritting her teeth.


    When she finished the dreamscape unravelled and Draco found himself back in his body with all the pain returning.


    He heard a ping from his communicator and when he looked at what it displayed his eyes widened, it was a confidential file about the prince candidate Lirian.


    ---


    Lirian was eating breakfast with the aides all surrounding him, since he made such a big commotion they had been around him almost every second of the day guarding him.


    They all ate together like always, but there was one thing that was making him groan in annoyance for the past two days.


    "Must they be so loud!" he yelled in annoyance, and the aides merely giggled in response.


    "They haven''t been with each other for 14 years thanks to you, it''s only natural that they''d want to make up for lost time," Belinda said with a smile as a world-shaking moan echoed throughout the mansion again.


    "Just try to ignore it," she said lightly.


    "Ignore it!" Lirian cried out, "You want a blind person to ignore the main sense he uses to get around," Lirian cried incredulous as his mother released another passionate moan.


    "Let''s say that I could for a second ignore it, I can''t use my sense of touch through my walking cane because the manor''s been shaking none stop for the past two days," Lirian complained through gritted.


    "I think I know what this is about," Helene chimed in with a laugh, "Little Lirian is jealous that his mommy is giving her attention to another man," she smiled mischievously.


    "Hah, as if!" Lirian said coldly folding his arms and got up to leave, every time he complained about the noise, one of his mothers aides would find a way to poke at him, and it was driving him mad.


    As he walked out and headed back to his room, Anya was standing there waiting for him at the door.


    "Are you still acting like I don''t exist?" she asked as Lirian walked past her without a word.


    Lirian sighed softly, "What do you want?" he finally asked.

 Chapter 232 - 232 – Nebula-6

    "What do I want?" Anya yelled and grabbed on to Lirian pushing him against a wall, she was careful not to hurt him, but she''d be lying if she said she didn''t want to hurt him a little bit.


    "You know I''ve been with you every step of the way, from the time you landed on the Clovis home world, and I can count the number of times that I''ve let you escape my sense in fourteen years on a single hand," she said angrily


    "I have been there to protect you and take care of you every step of the way," she said holding Lirian firmly against the wall.


    "And now you are giving me the cold shoulder like I''ve wronged you in some way, and I don''t even know what I did wrong" she yelled as droplets of tears formed in the corner of her eyes.


    "Is it because you finally tasted your old power, that you are done with me and think that I''m some useless waste of space," she cried in anger, she was dangerously close to pushing Lirian straight through the wall.


    Anya herself was slightly shocked by her own actions but she''d be lying if she said it didn''t hurt to be treated like cold air by someone she would do almost anything for.


    Lirian''s mouth trembled a little as he felt her anger and heart break, "I stalled for time," Lirian said with a shaky voice.


    "I stalled for so much time, waiting for you,"


    "But you never came, if you did she''d still be here," Lirian said with a trembling voice, he knew that it was dumb, but he needed a way to lighten his guilt.


    Had he just used his power or the geneses world from the start, Edith would have lived, there was so much self-blame and guilt inside him that he felt like it would consume him if he couldn''t shift the blame elsewhere, Telamon was dead now, and the only other person he could fairly place the guilt on was Efrideet, but he had no way of taking it out on Efrideet


    So, he chose the only other person he could take it out on Anya.


    Lirian felt himself slide to the floor as Anya released him and took two steps back, her eyes were shaking wildly, now she had been truly hurt, it wasn''t like she didn''t try her best, when she found out that Lirian was in trouble she ran in a mad panic.


    Fearing that she''d only find a corpse, or worse that there wouldn''t even be a corpse remaining, she thought that she''d go mad with worry.


    But now she was being blamed for something that wasn''t even her duty, if she could have saved Edith she obviously would have, but it wasn''t like Edith had anything to do with her in the first place.


    "You''re a spineless dog," she cursed Lirian in a quivering voice.


    She took a deep breath to calm her emotions and spoke to Lirian in a cold tone, "The Eden family will be holding a funeral ceremony for Edith in a month, they sent you an invite to attend, they''ll be burying her as if she were an official princess," Anya said.


    Then something appeared in her hand and she tossed it to Lirian, "Alastor said that this is something you requested," she spat coldly and ran out of his room as if fleeing.


    Lirian was slumped against the wall sitting there with a lifeless look to him, ''Katerina also thought that I was spineless at the end,'' Lirian chuckled dryly at the irony as he grabbed onto the item Anya tossed to him.


    He knew what it was, and just holding it made him relive his memories of Edith she always loved those stupid noise inducing ignition powder weapons.


    A while back Alastor told him that he could find such items, they were rare and useless, but there were still people that collected them and it just so happened that he could get his hands on one that was a complete mess and needed restoring.


    The restoration of such weapons was one of Edith''s favourite things to do, so he intended to get it for her as a gift, but now that it was here, it only served as a reminder of his failure.


    ---


    A long while passed before Lirian climbed back to his feet, when he got up he realised that the house had finally stopped shaking and when he had his watch tell him the time, he found out that the sun was already gone down.


    He had actually sat there from earlier in the morning until the evening without even realising it.


    He kicked the rifle across the floor and carried himself to the bed with the desire to forget that the day even happened but a short while later his doors opened, and his mother came in with her husband at her side.


    "Dear," she said coming to Lirian and placing his head in her lap, with a bright smile on her face, Lirian couldn''t see anything but he could feel her joyous mood, clearly she had been having a great day so far.


    "Have you ever heard off sound barriers?" Lirian asked in a complaining tone as she ran her fingers through his hair.


    Taliyah laughed happily and flashed a naughty smile at Albus, but she didn''t apologise, she was the empress and he was the emperor if they didn''t have the right to be as loud as they wanted to then who did.


    The emperor shook his head with an amused smile, but his face quickly turned serious as he looked at Lirian, "Can you tell us what the steps showed you?" he asked getting to the point there was a lot that still needed to be discussed.


    "Those seven dots, that you spoke off are planets in the mortal realm," Lirian said.


    "As you all saw it was the sixth planet that lit up, that is where I need to go for my trial,"


    "The world is called Nebula-6," Lirian stated openly, as soon as he said that he knew that something was wrong, the emperor had gone awfully silent and his mothers hand stilled as she rubbed his hair and she trembled slightly.


    "No!," she said shaking her head, "Absolutely not, Lirian you can go to any of the worlds but you absolutely must not go to the Nebula worlds all 7 of them are pits of absolute death even more so than the others," she said vehemently.


    "The dots match the number of Nebular planets," the emperor said suddenly with realisation, and he chuckled softly, "People have been trying to find out what the seven dots represent since the beginning of the great civilizations, and now it''s explained just like that," he muttered with an excited voice.


    Feeling his wife''s angry gaze on him he sighed, "Though your mother is right, the Nebula worlds are death traps like no other," he said with a sigh.


    "Mother, I know that you''re worried, but I can take care of myself, even if it''s one of the Nebula worlds, no matter how dangerous I''ll survive," Lirian said but he frowned, because he felt how tense she was becoming.


    "Lirian you don''t understand," she said, "The empire has a special contract that we uphold with the gods and the Nebula worlds could be said to be special even amongst the other worlds, but we can''t discuss the details about those seven worlds in particular," Taliyah was panicking as she tried to explain.


    Seeing her panicking state it was clear to Albus that she wasn''t going to make much sense if she spoke, so he filled Lirian in on the details.


    "There are 46 worlds for you to choose from for your trial, but the empires have a rule of not revealing the Nebula worlds, because even we are completely clueless as to what happens on those seven worlds,"


    "With the other 39 worlds we can send a few elites to investigate the worlds ahead of time, and we can get intel about those worlds to a degree, in fact we have a rough understanding as to why it''s so difficult for candidate''s to return alive from those worlds, but as for the Nebula worlds it''s entirely different,"


    "We have a special pact with the Nebula worlds, I can''t get into details, but let''s just say that we provide certain merchandise to those worlds,"


    "But we are incapable of entering those worlds, we''ve had the greatest of elites, in some case the retired emperor''s and empress''s have tried to enter the worlds, and on one occasion someone managed to complete their immortal transformation as they entered the world,"


    "But without fail they all die in seconds," the emperor said gravely.


    "That said candidates don''t die immediately on entry, but those that have entered all died within days, the longest to survive was two weeks, we believe that the world has a deadly atmosphere that prevents the candidates from surviving, and as for anyone with a cultivation that goes in, we believe that they die because they violate the rules set by the gods on those worlds," the emperor explained.

 Chapter 233 - [Bonus ]233 – Epilogue To The Candidates Games

    Lirian nodded in understanding, and said resolutely, "I think that I know why I have to go to Nebula-6," he said taking them by surprise.


    "It''s probably a death trap, but it''s also the only place that I have any chance of being safe while I grow," Lirian said with a pondering look.


    Both his mother and Albus looked at him surprise, so he continued to explain, "At the end of the year when I leave my pod data will be made known to a majority of the nobles, and with the enemies I just made, I don''t doubt that the data will end up in the hands of the other empires,"


    "As thing stand there are people in our empire that want me dead, once they see how many energy points I''ve opened, they will spare no effort to kill me, if I go to one of the 39 planets, they''ll find me in no time at all,"


    "The way I see it the only safe place for me currently is Nebula-6," Lirian said, his argument was perfectly logical, and they couldn''t say that his logic was wrong.


    Albus had been truly been annoyed by Lirian''s actions at the banquet, but he had to admit that Lirian did think things through properly and effectively, and he wasn''t so foolish as to overestimate his ability to hide from the other empires.


    It was also clear that he had no intention of letting the empire fend for him, he wanted to grow stronger and fight his own battle''s, it was something worthy of admiration.


    The doors suddenly slammed open Taliyah and Albus both turned around wondering who would be so rude as to interrupt their conversation, when they turned around they found Belinda and Helen standing there with serious looks as they approached the emperor and empress.


    "Your majesties," they both said in a hurry as they got to their knees, "Forgive our intrusion, but there is a problem, a big one," they said seriously.


    Belinda pulled out her communicator and began to explain, "We were doing a routine check on everything that happened at the banquet when we found a file about Lirian worth 100 billion credits on the black market,"


    "I purchased it immediately, I know that it was an absorbent amount," Belinda said to the empress immediately, "But your majesties you have to look at this," as she said that she brought up the file on her communicator.


    A look of anger crept into Taliyah''s eyes as she looked at the details, it showed Lirian''s pod data, with the exact same 72 points that were opened when he was four years old.


    "Is it my pod data?" Lirian asked calmly, it was the only intel on him that he believed could be worth so much value.


    "Yes," Belinda told him, she was slightly surprised by how calmly he was taking it, not even the emperor was as calm as him.


    "Everyone else still thinks that it''s a joke but, it''s only a matter of time before people start linking it with the talent you displayed and the other empires move," Belinda said gravely.


    Lirian stood up straight and firm as he released a heavy breath, there was a disappointed look on his face as he took in the new information.


    "How is this even possible," Taliyah said through the gritted teeth.


    "Telamon," Lirian said, "I told you that he passed it on to Efrideet and now Efrideet has made it public, but since we have no proof it''s pointless to point fingers for the blame," Lirian said as he regained his calm.


    "It would appear, that I''ve run out of time I have to leave immediately!" Lirian said in a saddened voice and there was a bit of unwillingness in his voice as well.


    As things stood half the time that he went to the academy, there were people that tried to assassinate him, and from what Lirian had learned it wasn''t Telamon, it was possibly Efrideet, but there was also the chance that the other empires were probing into Lirian''s defenses as well with those attacks.


    So far, all they sent were probes, but with his full talent being revealed, he wouldn''t be surprised if the other empires started to send their sleeper agents to kill him tomorrow, and that''s before the real assassins arrive.


    He didn''t want it to be so soon, he still wanted to spend some time with his mother, he wanted to be there for Edith''s funeral, there was still a lot he wished to do here, but now he had to flee with is tail between his legs.


    "Where is the portal that can take me to Nebula-6?" Lirian asked turning to the emperor.


    "It''s all the way on the home world," he said, "We''ll have to move in secret using my secret portal route, so our first destination will be Quaria''s Basin," he said it was his closest portal to Xelia.


    Lirian remembered that portal route, he never imagined that he''d be using the same route he took to get to Xelia to escape back to the home world of Clovis.


    Lirian strolled out of his room with purpose and quickly made his way to Anya''s room.


    He paused for a second before stepping in, "Anya I¡­" Lirian began but he was cut off by Anya.


    "I already heard everything," she said, Lirian sniffed and detected the smell of tears, he realised that he wasn''t the only one that had an awful day.


    Lirian nodded with a guilt-ridden face, "You''re not the first important person to me that''s said those words to me you know," Lirian admitted.


    "And it''s probably true," Lirian said in a heavy tone.


    "I wanted to tell you, that I let you keep your memories for reason, it''s because you''re probably one of the only people I''ve ever trusted, and I know that it''s probably hard to keep such a thing to yourself, so you can share it with my mother, you can tell her everything," Lirian said.


    "Also," Lirian took another heavy breath as he tried to stop his voice from croaking, "Thank you for taking care of me all these years, and for always standing by my side, I know that I hurt you and I''m a fool for blaming you, but it''s the only way I can cope¡­." Lirian was panting and he felt his blindfold grow wet as he struggled to force more words up.


    "Goodbye Anya," he said turning around and walking away to meet with his mother and the rest of the aides who were gathering.


    Anya was sitting with her back facing Lirian the entire time, as Lirian spoke her face became wet with tears, as she heard him.


    She was amazed that he could shed tears for her, and she could hear how apologetic he was in his voice, but he didn''t say that he was sorry.


    She felt that she was deserving of him saying those words to her after all she had done for him, it was her duty to guard him, but it wasn''t her duty to be his friend, so she wanted a proper apology out of him or she would never forgive him for blaming her in such a way.


    She wiped away her tears and quickly started to get ready and pack up her things from the sound of things she could tell that everyone was getting ready to leave, their time on Xelia had come to a close.


    ---


    In another place on Xelia.


    Media was busy at her make-up station putting on a fresh layer of her favourite rose lip stick, when she noticed someone enter her room, she was startled at first, but she quickly recognised the intruder.


    "Tobias, what are you doing here so late?" she asked with a smile as she saw Tobias through the mirror.


    He was awfully quite, so she was feeling a bit concerned, but before she could turn her head to look she felt something cold on her neck, as she looked at the reflection in the mirror, she could see that Tobias was holding the sword and pressing it against her neck, a slight trickle of blood escaped her throat.


    "What are you doing?" she asked in a panic with widened eyes.


    Tobias gulped audibly as if he couldn''t believe what he was doing himself, "Tell me why you sold out Wentian?" he asked.


    "Tobias you know that Lirian was just¡­." Media tried to explain.


    "He''s always right," Tobias said taking a deep breath.


    "Lirian I mean, honestly when he accused Telamon of those crimes I was doubtful to say the least and I held my reservations, but he was absolutely correct in all that he said, he''s never been wrong, and he said that you sold out Wentian so explain yourself or I''ll kill you," he said while shaking slightly.


    Media was also worried, she didn''t know if her guards were watching this, no one would have ever expected Tobias of all people to do such a thing.


    "Okay fine it was me," she admitted, "But you know what Wentian was like, he was straight forward, direct and loyal, a great friend, but he was not candidate material,"


    "Candidates must be cunning and manipulative, it''s the only way for someone to be an effective leader, historically speaking, Wentian''s type makes for good soldiers, but as far as leaders, he is the type that is unbending he is more likely to get those who stand on his side killed due to his stubborn personality,"


    "Even if he somehow survived the trial, he would have made a terrible prince, so I sold him out for profit and to increase my standing in my family,"


    "I could have done the same to Edith but she was the perfect example of a great candidate, so I didn''t, Tobias you have to believe me if all I was after was profit I could have just as easily sold out Edith," she explained desperately.


    Tobias nodded and pulled back the blade, making Media breathe out in relief.


    "So, you were just a traitor," Tobias said and brought down the blade directly at her neck.


    Puchi.


    Tobias suddenly frowned when he realised that he missed and found a dagger buried directly in his heart.


    "You really are a sly one," he muttered as blood spilled from his mouth and he crumpled to the ground.


    "I wouldn''t have done it if you didn''t force my hand," Media said calmly.


    She bent down and dipped her fingers into his blood that was still warm, and gently smeared it on her lips.


    She took one last look in the mirror and put on her signature sweet bloody smile.


    "These are¡­ The Candidates Games," she whispered softly.


    --------


    THE END OF VOLUME ONE!!!!!

 Chapter 234 - A Word From The Author

    Yo hey guys it''s your author Silver


    I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who read, commented, voted, and reviewed the first volume of 33 Risen, I had a lot of fun writing this and I''m glad that you''ve enjoyed what I''ve written


    it was much larger than I intended by far, as some of you are aware this was only supposed to be a 80 chapter volume, and if you''re reading this then you already know how bad my time evaluation skills are, so I won''t be giving any sort of timeline on how long the next volume will be, just know that it''s going to be a long one.


    the next volume will be going premium and I hope that many if not all of you will continue reading and following the journey of Lirian.


    I''ve prepared a few prologues going forward to the next volume, which will show you what''s going on with our other important characters and what''s happening in the other important places of the world.


    you guys might be able to read all of the prologues before the premium locks in so you can still look forward to that.


    once again thank you for reading and supporting this work and I hope to see you all in Volume 2 : Lands of Desolation

 Chapter 235 - 001 – Prologue 1 : God Realm 1

    A torrent of water gushed forth in the vacuum of space crossing worlds and stars faster than one could blink.


    It cut a line across star zones seconds before finally coming to a stop, when a great tree appeared in its path.


    The tree extended on for what a mortal would call forever, it''s shadow stretched further then the length of a solar system as it stood upright attacked to a world that was dwarfed by the tree.


    The water torrent compressed itself together to form a large man, or rather a god, with a great ginger beard and locks of ginger hair that reached his feet.


    He water went on to form a set of a cyan coloured armour that was reminiscent of coral, and finally in his hand a mighty blue trident appeared in his hand, there was lingering ichor on the tips of the trident.


    The god descended to the world the tree was attached to and landed at the base of the tree, he reached out with a hand and gently caressed the tree.


    "Guntree," the god called out in a deep voice, "I received a message to come here from the battlefield, has anyone arrived before me?" the god asked the tree.


    There was a very long silence before the sound of deep rumbles thundered, exploding in the gods ears, any one within the system would have been able to hear the rumble.


    "Alright geeze," the god complained as he massaged his ears, "I take it from your answer, that others have already arrived, I''ll go find them myself," the god said rolling his eyes at the Ent.


    The god strode around casually and mumbled softly, "Bloody Ent''s, sleep for eons without doing shit and they still get mad about being roused."


    He walked around for a while until he saw the figure of a familiar goddess, "Hades," he called out to the goddess who had bewitching long black hair and was garbed in a red cloak that held the images of skulls, that twisted around on her clothing as if they were being tormented.


    "You''re here too Pos,Pos," Hades cried out with a wicked smile, or at least it appeared that it was wicked but any one that knew Hades would be able to tell that that was her happy smile.


    The god sighed in exasperation, "You have got to stop calling me that," he complained and started to walk past Hade''s.


    "Oy, stop being so moody," Hades cried out and grabbed his arm, "You used to be so much more fun when you just became a god Poseidon," she said with a pout and started to walk along side him.


    "You know who called for us?" she asked Poseidon while glancing around, there were millions of concealment layers and barrier that was disrupting their sense''s, so they had to do things the old fashion way.


    Poseidon shook his head, "Have you seen anyone else?"


    Hade''s nodded with a smirk stretching out on her lips, "On my here I passed Michael and Azazel, they are slow pokes, so I left them in my dust, but they were heading here too," she said.


    "Those two were together and not trying to kill each-other?" Poseidon asked in an amused tone, while in general gods were beyond all racial discrimination, fallen angels and angels still held onto a very deep rivalry that could not be curbed.


    Michael was one of the leaders of the angels and Azazel was one of the leaders of the fallen angels they were like destined rivals.


    Hades gave a bewitching smile, "I was as surprised as you are, but they seemed to know what this was about, it''s probably why they weren''t fighting, though they said that I''ll find out after I got here, they said I couldn''t miss it," she said in a mildly annoyed tone.


    "I think I know who called us here," Poseidon suddenly said while looking up, Hades quickly raised her head and felt a slight tremor run through her body.


    "That bloody madman," she spat while backing up behind Poseidon.


    High up in the sky what looked to be a thick leather rope extended from one of the branches, with a glance Poseidon and Hades knew that it was no leather rope, it was a snake a very thick and long snake, that could wrap itself around a world and crush it to bits with ease.


    But the snake wasn''t the one that Hades was afraid of, the one she feared and called a madman was the god who the snake had coiled itself around and had its fangs plunged into his face.


    Drops lets of venom seeped into the gods face as he dangled in the air from the maws of the snake, Poseidon leapt into the air and placed a hand on the snake''s body.


    He rubbed the snake''s body gently and looked at the snake apologetically, "Akasha you can let go of him now," Poseidon said to the snake gently and met its eyes.


    The Akashic snake looked at Poseidon hesitantly, then glanced at the god it was injecting with its venom.


    It seemed to be considering things, before it rapidly pulled itself of the god it was wrapped around and started to flee in terror, "Freak," the Akashic snake left those words behind as it slithered of into space a disappeared from the senses of the gods.


    "Why''d you ruin my fun Pos, Pos," the god said teasingly as he turned to Poseidon with an aggrieved look on his face that held four puncture wounds and green poison still coloured the wounds.


    The main thing of note was that the god''s one eye was covered by a patch while the other met Poseidon''s gaze.


    Poseidon sighed evidently the god before him had heard the conversation between him and Hades earlier, given who the god was Poseidon wasn''t surprised.


    "You promised not to bully Akasha any more All-Father," Poseidon reminded him, the god before Poseidon was the leader of the Norsic Tide, Odin, he was also known as the All-Father for his abundant knowledge of all things.


    "That lazy thing hasn''t even joined in the war efforts, so I figured I''d put him to use for once," Odin sniggered and laughed manically as the poison sizzled in his body.


    Poseidon shook his head, he always knew that the All-Father was special, that same poison would put a god like him in to miserable agony for years, yet the All-Father would be fine he claimed that the agony gave him visions.


    "Did you see anything?" Poseidon asked curiously.


    Odin''s eyes flashed as he gave exaggerated nods, "Another one managed to do it and just seconds, or hours, maybe day ago, it could even be a year or more, how long was I hanging there?" he asked in excitement.


    "What are you on about you lunatic?" Hades questioned in annoyance, but she tactfully hid behind Poseidon when she insulted him.


    "Kakakahaha," Odin sniggered and laughed not caring about the insult, that was the thing about Odin that drove Hades mad, you have no idea when he''ll take an insult seriously or when he''ll just shrug it off like nothing happened.


    He was the real deal a true madman, and almost every god had lingering fear of him due to his crazed experiments that he''d conduct, word was that he even got himself killed by Adolin on more than a few occasions.


    Odin truly feared nothing not even Adolin who could give him a permanent death with a snap of his fingers.


    "Another one ascended to the top of the talent steps," Odin said joyfully.


    "Impossible," Poseidon and Hades said together, they even noticed the Ent Guntree had stilled.


    "The talent stairs are old they are probably malfunctioning," Poseidon said shaking his head, even the gods had trouble with the stairs, there wasn''t a single god that reached the peek, most gods fell of by 40th and even Odin himself, the creator of the steps, had only reached the 49th step, so they would never believe it possible for someone who wasn''t a god to reach the peek.


    They didn''t believe it the first time and they would not believe it this time either.


    "That bloody trident of your is a thousand times older than my steps, is their anything wrong with it!!!!" Odin yelled in Poseidon''s face, the change was as different of night and day from his earlier attitude.


    "The steps are just fine and the two that I said reached the peek, did so, just because you can''t do it doesn''t mean others can''t," he said angrily.


    "I swear you old gods minds are pathetically inflexible, it''s no wonder I was able to surpass all of you with such ease," Odin said disdainfully, it was true as far as age went there was no god that was younger than Odin, he was the youngest of all the gods.


    He was the last god to be born 40 trillion years ago, and currently he was one of the gods that stood at the peek of the god realm.

 Chapter 236 - 002 – Prologue 1 : God Realm 2

    Poseidon and Hades both felt that Odin was about to go on a rant, but just then their saviors came fluttering down from above doing fancy maneuverers as they landed.


    The two of them both seemed to want to out do each-other as they added more complicated swirls and turns that showed off their beautiful wings.


    One of the two had two beautiful white wings shaped like arcs that could stretch across the horizon, it gave of a majestic vibe as it was spread open and fluttered creating mighty winds.


    The other person had four black wings with a very sharp look to it, they were equally as majestic as the white wings as they wrapped themselves around a woman''s curvy body.


    As the black winged woman landed she looked to their three spectators and asked loudly, "Who won?" she asked with a confident grin.


    "You tied Azazel," the three gods all said, without a second thought, they knew the two before them, if they gave either one the edge in a vote, they''d have to endure a very long tirade of insults being hurled, then a battle would ensue, and a battle between gods could take a while.


    Azazel''s face turned ugly as she turned to Michael, "Next time I''ll beat your ass you bitch," she said in anger and floated towards the gathered gods.


    "Hump," Michael snorted coldly, "As if you''re capable," she said and followed her towards the gathered gods.


    "Hey slow pokes, what took you so long?" Hades waved at the two of them cheerily.


    Azazel looked at Hades scornfully, "Just you wait, I captured an invader from the other plain, who is very compatible with my power, once I''m done assimilating him, I''d like to hear you say that again?" Azazel bragged.


    "Oh, you''re such a bore sweetie," Hades said with a smile and turned back to Odin, "Can you explain why you brought all of us here?" she asked.


    Odin practically ignored her and turned to Michael and Azazel, "Did you two bring the prisoner?" he asked.


    Azazel and Michael both looked to each other and nodded, two unique energies were released from them and it merged in the air slowly.


    "That seal you devised was brilliant," Michael and Azazel said together as they realised what they had done they turned to each other and glared before Azazel snorted and dedicated all her attention to the seal.


    "This was one tough bastard to wear down, but that seal locked him away with ease," Michael said in admiration, though she did resent that it took her working together with Azazel to form the seal.


    Odin had used their combined individualities as the key for creating the technique, no gods would be able to copy it.


    "The two of you just came from the battlefield too?" Poseidon asked as the seal was slowly unravelling and revealing a person that looked no different from the people of this plain.


    Azazel shook her head, "This bastard broke away from their invasion force, he was trying to scout out new area''s so Odin asked us to catch him while his guard was down."


    "Speaking of which is it true that Adolin appeared?" she asked Poseidon with questioning eyes.


    A complicated light flashed through Poseidon''s eyes as he slowly nodded, "The enemy had three people that no one could deal with, all of them were equivalents of the third-grade,"


    "Where ever they went we struggled to hold on," he said shaking his head, "That''s when Adolin arrived he beat all of them down and even managed to kill one of them, and he might have been able to kill the other two if we didn''t stop him," Poseidon said gravely.


    "You should have just let him kill them all?" Azazel said in annoyance.


    But Poseidon just shook his head, "You still haven''t seen Adolin since his change," Poseidon said gravely "As it is he took the body of that god he killed,"


    "If it''s compatible with him he will grow even stronger, I can''t imagine what will happen if he got his hands on all three, what if he breaks the barrier and ascends to what ever lies above a god," Poseidon said shaking his head, "It''s too risky,"


    Shortly after Poseidon finished speaking the seal unravelled and a man fell down, he just got a look at them when Odin suddenly plunged his hand into the man killing him and pulled out his soul, keeping it completely intact as he held it and offered it to Hades.


    "Your skill with souls is the best Hades," Odin said, "I need you to read his soul he should be filled with important intel," Odin said.


    Hade''s sighed while shaking her head and lifted her arm and showed of the sleeves of her red clothes, she wanted everyone to take a good look as the skulls all lit up revealing millions upon millions of souls.


    "These are all the souls I''ve gathered from the invaders, I''ve been trying to extract intel from them but there is something sealing their souls, I can get anything out of them," she explained in a sullen tone, it was a great failure of hers, that she believed could cost them the war.


    "Well you haven''t had me helping you," Odin said and revealed an item that resembled a hair pin, "Use this it will help break down the defence''s on his soul," he explained and handed the pin to her.


    "This isn''t going to have any effect on me is it," Hades questioned in a fearful tone as she took the pin, it was because of things like this that many gods feared Odin, he was a master of analysing the power of other gods, and creating items that could enhance their abilities, but there were almost always side effects.


    Take the leader of the Olympians Zeus, after using an artefact made by Odin, he had the insane urge to hump things, in the end he humped several holes through a planet, after that Odin called a meeting with the gods, and together the gods came up with a new name for the planet Zeus defiled.


    Zeus''s greatest shame would forever be known as planet Glory Hole, and it became a very famous tourist attraction, that anyone in the god realm could visit.


    Odin chuckled lightly at her fear, "Of course not, this is a serious matter," he said putting on a dignified expression, that did absolutely nothing to alleviate her worries.


    Hades sighed and took the fresh soul, the fresher the soul the easier it was to read, her eyes lit up with a black radiance as she placed the soul in her mouth.


    She released a delighted moan and panted as the soul made it''s way into her body and slid onto the sleeves of her clothes, "That was one delicious soul," she said euphorically as she licked her lips and grabbed onto the pin.


    A look of concentration filled her devilish face as she probed into the soul but after a few minutes she pulled back and shook her head, "It''s no use, the seal is to powerful," she said in confusion, from the looks of it she was almost certain that the seal was not placed by a god, but it was from the plain of the invaders itself.


    Odin shook his head slightly in disappointment, "Try using the pin on one of the weaker souls you have," he said seriously.


    Hades felt like it was hopeless, but decided to give it a try and to her surprise it worked, but just slightly, her brows relaxed significantly when she got some results, but within a minute cracks started to spread through the pin, and it fell apart.


    Hades was forcefully stopped by the seal and stopped trying to read the soul.


    "Did you get anything useful?" Odin asked eagerly and the eyes of the other gods all focused on her intently.


    Hades shook her head, "It''s not much and I doubt that it will help our war effort, but there is a little I learned," she said.


    "I saw a world, it was different from ours, I saw the energy, it was thick like water in the air, but people could breathe in it, also the world was rather dark, it was like the sky had a never ending ceiling,"


    "But most importantly was this type of information form linked to everyone''s minds," she said in an uncertain tone.


    Of all the things she saw the information form that was in everyone''s minds is what stood out to her the most, "It was like a universal guide that showed people how to progress themselves and become stronger but that wasn''t it''s only function there was so much more, but I didn''t get to see it," she said in an annoyed tone.


    "You don''t have anymore of those pins?" she asked Odin enthusiastically.


    "Oh, now you want one, earlier you seemed so reluctant," Odin mused with a smile.


    "Arg," Hades groaned, "Fine be like that I won''t do it again even if you begged me to," she said folding her arms wilfully.


    "It took me forever to make that," Odin said looking to the sky, "It was the only one of its kind, but I learned enough for the next phase," Odin said seriously.


    "The reason I asked all of you here is because I have a request to ask you,"


    "How would all of you like to join me on a trip?" Odin asked with a crazed look in his eyes and sniggered, "A trip with almost a 100 percent certainty of death, come with me to the other plain."

 Chapter 237 - 003 – Prologue 1: God Realm 3

    The four gods all went silent upon hearing Odin, they knew that he wasn''t joking around, and that he was serious about crossing into the other plain, but it came with a fair share of risk.


    It was something that the other gods had frequently discussed, but they didn''t have the means to cross plains, which was the first hurdle, and then there was the risk factor of going to another plain without having any knowledge about it.


    The searches done on the plain invaders were always unfruitful, so their knowledge on the other plain was abysmally small, what they had just learned was probably the greatest leap in intel they got, and it was almost negligible.


    When compared to the plain invaders, that targeted their plain from the time the boundaries of the plain weakened and gathered intel about them, they were at severe disadvantage in this war.


    The gods carefully considered before coming to a decision, "If you have a way to get there then I''m in," Poseidon said firmly, and the other gods echoed similar sentiments.


    "I just want to know why none of your subordinates are here?" Hades asked warily, Odin had a very large power behind him, so it stood to reason that he should have gotten them on board first.


    "Don''t tell me you''re trying use us as sacrifices for your plans?" she asked warily and prepared to flee at any moment.


    "Kekekeke," Odin suddenly laughed manically, "Thor will be the only one from my organisation joining us, but he is currently retrieving someone that we desperately need to carry out our operation," Odin explained putting her worries at ease.


    "Our group needs to be small but powerful and adaptive, which is why I asked all of you to come with me, and since all of us are from different groups our organisations won''t be able to take advantage of each-other, due to a power vacuum."


    "The other gods are not going to be to happy when they learn about this," Azazel muttered aloud.


    The gods seemed to believe that trying to cross the plains was a bad idea, they kept going on about how attempting to cross the plains would split the power they had at hand and make it easier for the invaders to beat them.


    "The old gods are a bunch of narrow minded fools," Odin said, he knew better than anyone that knowledge was where power truly lay, with enough knowledge about the invaders he was certain that he could turn the tide of the battle.


    But most importantly Odin could feel an attraction to the other world, he had pushed himself infinitely close to reaching the third grade but he knew that this was his limit.


    He needed answers to break that barrier, and he believed that the answers lay in the other plain, if he was successful, he would become the second third grade god.


    It would give their plain a better chance at survival, in the war and there was one other thing, it was like Azazel had said to Hades about assimilating people from the other plain when they were compatible, if they could selectively find, kill ,and assimilate people of the other plain, it would drastically increase their combat power in a very short period of time.


    Even if their search for intel ended in failure, if they could significantly power up, it would make a complete world of difference in the battle.


    The main reason he chose this particular group was because he believed that they had the potential to break the barrier of the second grade, it was his back-up plan, but in the end of the day it was all one big gamble.


    Odin suddenly took to the sky and the other gods all followed after him with purpose, they did agree with his sentiment about the gods being fools, in any war it was obvious that the side who understands his enemy better would win.


    But the gods had been spooked especially after the last battle, when the invaders made their push with three existences that held a power on the same level as a third grade god, if not for Adolins arrival, even if they won they would have lost to much to be able to consider it a victory.


    They headed for the battlefield, it was close to the void tear that connected the other plain to their own and as they got close they were taken aback by the darkness that engulfed everything.


    "This is the aftermath of Adolins battle," Poseidon said calmly, over a thousand star zones were swept from the skies, every world every star all of it was turned into nothing.


    Even the bodies of the fallen were not spared that fate, such was the power of a third-grade god, it left a big gapping hole of nothing, that was unfathomable.


    "There is no time to bother with this, we need to reach that void tear," Odin said to them and continued to make his way into the empty place, it didn''t take long for them to draw close to the place.


    It was a big black cut in the skin of the universe with an eery red aura that lingered within and around it they could see structures being built and numerous people from the other plain all working endlessly as they built new structures or restored old ones.


    "They sure do work fast," Hades commented seeing that the invaders base seemed almost as good as new, when the battle had only just finished a few days ago.


    "The damage to their base wasn''t all that bad, their leaders were determined to protect it even when they were being beaten back,"


    "Leaders?" Odin snorted, "Those three are just the small fry amongst their third grade god equivalents," he said knowingly.


    It was basic strategy, even if you play a strong hand at the start, you never put your aces in the first battle, your aces come later when the main battle begins.


    "I''m glad to see that your brain hasn''t grown dull with age brat," a ripple appeared besides the group and two people came walking out of the ripple.


    The gods all recognised one of the two it was a big burly man that looked like he ate muscles for breakfast lunch and dinner every day of his life Thor, Odin''s third in command, as for the other they could instantly tell that he was a very powerful god on the same level as Odin but they didn''t recognise him.


    He had a misty blue aura that surrounded him, it wouldn''t be wrong to say that his body seemed to be made of the misty blue substance, and his eyes were pitch black with no other colour visible in them, and short blue hairs filled his head.


    "Lord Baylord," Odin said stepping forward and giving the man a bear hug, that was uncharacteristic of him, it showed that he had a very deep relationship with the man who had just called him a brat.


    "Lord Baylord?!" the gods said in surprise looking at the newcomer, "You''re the void overlord?" they asked in surprise.


    They all knew of Lord Baylord''s name naturally, he was one of the oldest gods in existence and a very elusive god at that, it was said that he almost always remains in the void, and rarely returned to the plain.


    For most gods traveling through the void was dangerous, it was impossible to restore ones power, and one had to constantly use their power to fend of the erosion of the void, even gods couldn''t last for more than a few years within the void before being forced to return to the plain.


    The exception to the rule was none other than the god before them who learned the mysteries of the void and based his esper technique around the void, which allowed him to live within the void.


    Due to that he rarely ever returned to the plain and very few of the gods had ever met him, but they all had heard of his name.


    "Thor has informed me about your plan, in truth I had just returned not long ago and was planning to do the same thing once I learned how serious the situation is," Baylord said getting straight to the point he wasn''t much of a people person to begin with, so he was very direct.


    "I can take all of you with me, but be warned we''ll be gone for quite some time and that is before we arrive, the journey through their tunnel could take a few hundred years if we are lucky or a few thousand years if we aren''t,"


    "Why not just make a path through the void directly to their plain?" Michael asked, it seemed much safer than using their tunnel which would also very likely lead them directly into enemy territory.


    "Because I have no clue where their plain is, and to blindly search in the void is just a waste of time, I''ve only discovered a handful of plains in my searches over all these years," Baylord explained.


    "Okay one last question," Michael said, "If we die in the other plain will we be able to revive from our embryo''s?" she asked a question that all the other gods were a little too scared to ask.


    "No idea," Baylord answered and sucked them all into his body, his body had its own world within then he set his two pitch black eyes onto the void tear.


    "Elysium Plain here I come," he muttered softly as he penetrated the tear.

 Chapter 238 - 004 – Prologue 2: Arthur, Quaria And The Hateful Little Wisp

    Lucian was bound by the power of the mysterious entity, when he finally saw his main body give up on committing suicide he breathed out in relief.


    "See there was no need for you to get involved," the mysterious entity said to him in a knowing voice.


    Lucian felt the constraints loosening slightly and slowly turned to the entity, "You say that as if you knew the outcome, but that is a fate conflux it''s impossible to kno¡­"


    "Impossible for you to know, not impossible for me Lucian," the entity said, "Now Katerina," the entity said.


    Lucian''s eyes widened as he turned to look at what Katerina was doing, but with the suppression still acting on him it took him a while to turn around.


    By the time Lucian turned around the gate through which they were observing Lirian had vanished, but he could see an object being held in Katerina''s hands, a long metallic blue katana was held firmly in her hands.


    It released torrents of lightning at Katerina as she held it, but the fate strings around her seemed to consume the lightning like it was a thirst-quenching drink.


    "You did all of that to get the blade?" Lucian asked in surprise.


    "It''s a special blade," Katerina said while frowning and released the blade from her grasp, she was a peek immortal so naturally the blade was unable to do anything to her, but she found that despite her power she was unable to perform a forceful submission when she held the blade in her hands.


    She could feel the blade humming it seemed to be saying that she did not compare to its master.


    Katerina was a very old monster, so naturally her skill with weapons was top-notch, but due to her path as a diviner which forbade her from engaging in any real combat, it was only natural that any weapon would be useless in her hands.


    Katerina approached the steps and carefully placed her gorgeous bare feet on the steps, when it was just an inch away from the steps, the fate strings rushed between her feet and the ground, it wouldn''t allow anything to desecrate her sacred body.


    "Great one," she said and presented the sword to the entity, but it seemed that the entity had no intention to take the blade.


    "Return it to it''s owner," the entity said and Katerina had a perplexed look in her eyes as she turned around, wondering what was the point of retrieving it if she was simply going to return it, the ''Fate Rewrite'' technique wasn''t a difficult technique, but it did use up a lot of fate particles which she was extremely low on currently.


    But that''s when her cold blue eyes landed on Lucian and realisation struck her, he was technically also the owner of the blade.


    "Hump," she snorted and tossed the blade to Lucian, she couldn''t believe that the last of her fate particles were used to help him.


    Lucian extended his hand out instinctively and caught the blade from the air, it stopped releasing the lightning immediately, and after a brief moment of resistance it accepted him as its master.


    Lucian could feel that the blade was feeling confused, in his hands, it only wanted to serve one master and that was Lirian, and it had no choice when Hinata picked it up.


    But in his hands the blade was getting a vague sense of its master which is what left it in such a confused state.


    Lucian didn''t blame the blade for being confused, the method that was used for him to split him self was one that not even gods would be able see through, the uniqueness of the ethereal revival embryo was it''s ability to give each version of himself their unique aura.


    Despite being fundamentally one person, they were all unique existences, it was confusing even for Lucian to think about and he knew the details that made their existence possible, so he could only imagine the confusion of the katana that was still developing its awareness.


    "What exactly is it that you want me to do?" Lucian asked the entity, he knew that there was no such thing as a free lunch, the entity had already set up a few things in his path and now it gave him the katana, it was definitely up to something.


    "How would you like to experience what its like to stand at the centre of a nexus?" the entity asked in an enticing voice.


    "A nexus!" Lucian cried aloud "That''s impo¡­" but he suddenly froze as a thought struck him.


    The conditions to create a nexus was to have fate and time work together, something that was deemed impossible by himself after countless attempts, but he had just spent the better part of 3 years in a place that held such conditions.


    "Then the script," Lucian muttered absentmindedly.


    "Is your paradox and guide," the entity finished for Lucian as if it could read his thoughts.


    Lucian also thought back to what that version of Edith had said about the nexus''s, there were two, one made by him in the future and one that was made around the six civilizations, he also came to realise that the only reason he could see the temporal time laws around Edith was because the entity wanted him to see it.


    The more he thought of it the more unfathomable he thought the entity was, it knew so many things and could do so many things that even he had a hard time grasping, he didn''t know if he was working with an enemy or a friend.


    "What if I refuse?" Lucian asked as he fell into thought.


    "That is an option," the entity said, "But I think you already explained the consequences pretty well to the lovely Morgana Pendragon,"


    "This entire six civilizations will vanish, the influence they had over the entire plain will also disappear, but on the bright side there is a chance that the lover your main body took will not die and live her life to become a god, just like you saw," the entity said in an amused tone.


    Lucian suddenly smiled wryly he could tell that the entity was lying, since the nexus was already made, the consequences of it being undone would be a disaster like no other.


    The immediate destruction of the plain was a very likely consequence and given how weak the plain was, Lucian realised that his choice was just a delusion, he had to fulfil the conditions of the nexus and it was like the entity said the script would be his guide to ensure that all things went smoothly.


    Lucian processed a bit of the knowledge from the script and with it he realised that Katerina was a necessary part, but he looked at her hesitantly.


    "Is there anyway to ensure that, that extremely annoying trade mark of all the eternals doesn''t activate with her?" he asked, the eternals were a special bunch that reincarnated within the 33 Neather Plains endlessly just like him.


    They were a bunch that were completely immune to the curse so when he had first discovered one he had become a near fanatical believer of that eternal, his name was Vincent, he had devoted his everything to the one person who accepted him for the first time ever.


    But the eternals had their own little twist, the reason the curse didn''t affect them was because they had a special purpose in turning his life into a living hell, the first step was making him feel accepted by them as they earned his trust and when that was all said and done, it was like the eternals had a personality shift.


    Where they would do a one eighty and completely break him, they''d betray his trust and do everything in their power to give him the most miserable of deaths, if someone wanted to know where he developed his trust issues, then look no further the eternals were the reason.


    Lirian learned much later that it was an impulse built into their souls which they could not help but obey, even if they supressed it the desire only grew stronger over time.


    Being in his presence was the same as putting a thick and saucy steak in front of a starving man and telling him not to eat, sooner or later the starving man would cave and eat, it was just a matter of time.


    "I''ve taken measures but try not to spend too much time together," the entity said and turned to Katerina the blue mist suddenly engulfed her and when she was released her cultivation had been altered, she was no longer an immortal.


    If she remained as one, it would have been impossible to go down into the mortal realm, and she was already prepared for it, "It''s time to go," Lucian said while waving the katana around.


    "Wait," a sweet and childish voice yelled, "I''m coming with you, and I won''t be taking no for an answer," Lucian turned to see a little ball of light glowing brightly with excitement as two little arms of light took form and grabbed onto his clothes with a haughty attitude.


    And so, the journey of Arthur Pendragon, Quaria, and a hateful little wisp began.

 Chapter 239 - 005 – Prologue 3: The Road To Nebula 1

    The entity reached out from the throne and the converging laws of time and fate interweaved creating a gate that radiated a, an ethereal purple glow.


    Without any hesitation the trio moved into the gate and vanished.


    Not a second passed before a man emerged walking through the gate that had just been opened.


    The man was geared in a layer of exquisite armour and two shoulder guards that supported a thick and heavy crimson cape that flowed to his feet.


    The man was big in size and he had a thick mane of crimson red hair that almost reached his knees and two thick bundles of his crimson mane draped over his shoulders and fell on his chest plate.


    There were however two note worthy things about the man, his aura was causing even this place in the immortal realm to shake, but he did not have the power of an immortal no he had the power of a seventh grade mortal, yet his aura was bottomless.


    The other note worthy thing was his eyes, they were two fierce grey draconic eyes, that would make anyone run in terror should the mans eyes land on them.


    "So, you''ve returned Lucian or should I say Arthur Pendragon," the entity said and took a glance, Lucian still looked very similar to his old self, but several wrinkles had etched themselves to his eyes and his brows were tight with burdensome weight.


    Lucian paid no heed to the entities words as he entered into the throne room, he walked quickly to one of the walls and placed a hand on it, as he did a capsule emerged and floated into his hand.


    As the capsule opened up, he pulled out a little wisp of light that was on the verge of going out, and with gentle hands he placed it into the capsule.


    "Papa," a little voice said weakly and a little tendril of light extended to gently caress his face, "I''m happy, you know, that we had all those adventures together," the voice was feeble and weak, Lucian trembled as he heard it.


    "Just hang in there little one, I''ve found the way to save you," he muttered and sealed of the capsule, they''d been gone for a very long time too long for her soul to hold out.


    "I know that she''s alive," Lucian said turning to the entity, "Send me to her," his voice boomed with power as he spoke.


    "Do you not wish to wait for your wife?" the entity asked in an amused tone.


    A complicated light entered into Lucian''s eyes as he shook his head, "We already said our good byes, and when she returns from the immortal realm she''ll likely be ready to become a god, this can''t wait," Lucian said in a rush.


    "Very well," the entity said and waved his power onto Lucian, and Lucian suddenly vanished from the spot.


    ---


    Hinata lay against the tree trunk, it''s not like she had much of a choice anyway, her legs were just in front of her but the weren''t attached to her body anymore.


    They were right within reach, but funnily enough her hands were gone too, they were beside her severed legs.


    And a katana was holding her limbless body in place, making her dangle from the tree, she didn''t know how she was still awake or alive for that matter.


    She''d lost so much blood already, and everything in her surroundings was destroyed somehow just the tree she was pinned too remained firm and upright not even swaying to the winds or battles taking place around her.


    Some would call her lucky she imagined, all this death and destruction and she was alive, but she didn''t want to be alive, she wanted to cry, but well her body was almost all out of liquids, so crying was of the tables.


    Everything that happened just kept replaying in her head, she had the advantage yet she lost, she lost in so many more ways than just one.


    Telamon was treating her as a servant and making her obey his commands unknowingly, she had been brain washed like a foolish girl, she didn''t know why she believed Lirian, but she just did she couldn''t explain it, she only knew that what he said was the truth.


    It made her question everything, was her faith in Telamon something he planted in her or was it her own admiration, was anything real or was it all fake she didn''t know.


    She only knew that she was played with by the schemes of noble, ''damn bastard nobles'' that always made her life hell, but it was all okay she was going to die now, she could see it the lightning that covered the sky, the great serpent that threated to consume all and the magma that had just devoured her severed limbs.


    All three were calamities that she was stuck in the middle of so naturally one of them would kill her.


    Suddenly a feeling of weightlessness took her and she fell to the ground in surprise, when she looked down the katana was gone and she was on the ground, she didn''t know what happened but she was thankful for it, now she didn''t have to wait, she could feel the bubbling heat of the magma, it was just inches away from her any second now it would devour her alive.


    But then white strings suddenly appeared from nowhere and wrapped itself around her, she blinked in surprise as she was somewhere else entirely.


    A cool breeze swept over her as she slumped down in the grass, she couldn''t move much but she could hear the sound of crashing water smashing against rocks and the salty smell of the sea entered her nostrils.


    She raised her head slightly to see that she was at the top of a very tall cliff and she could vaguely make out the ocean covering everything in sight, then she blinked again and suddenly a person was there perched at the top of the cliff.


    The winds lifted his thick red cape and made it lap wildly, but oddly enough the person''s hair remained unmoving as he continued peering into the endless sea''s as if he could see the corals and fish at it''s depths.


    The thing that drew her eyes the most was the weapon he held, his two hands were wrapped around the pommel and extended down into the cliff tops, but every second the form of the weapon seemed to change, from sword to axe to spear and more.


    It was just like the sword from the stories, the weapon of Arthur Pendragon, Excalibur.


    "Kill me," however Hinata had already accepted that she was going to die, and what was the point of living if she was going to be a cripple, better to die than become someone''s burden.


    "I have been waiting for so long to meet you, why would I kill you when we''ve only just met," the man said from the peak of the cliff.


    "Let me ask you a question girl, what is it that you wish for?" Hinata felt her body shake as the man turned to face her revealing that piercing gaze, as she looked into his eyes, she could see the will a warrior the greatest of warriors, the will of a god, who stood above all other gods, it was oddly reminiscent of someone she knew.


    Hinata didn''t want to get her hopes up, she didn''t want to believe that she could be saved, out of the fear that would all just be a lie one final trick by fate to get her hopes up before killing her, but under that mans gaze she felt like she could tell no lie.


    "M-m-m-my hands and legs," she snivelled with hopeful eyes that were tinged with fear, fear that she was making a mistake.


    "Hump," the man snorted coldly, "I offer you anything in the universe and you ask for me to perform a parlour trick," the mans deep and powerful voice boomed with anger that made Hinata shudder.


    "Girl I ask you again, what do you wish to get out of this forsaken world?" Hinata felt like she was being pressed into the ground and the man''s gaze seemed unending those two draconic eyes seemed to gaze upon her from all angles piercing into her soul to reveal her secrets.


    "I want to become empress," she cried out, "I want to destroy the system of the nobles," she cried with righteous anger, but she seemed to hesitate to say any more as if anything more would just be her dream.


    "Well out with it girl, I can see your final wish, but unless you say it I will not help you achieve any of them," the man said with a cold smirk.


    "And¡­" she took a breath to stabilised herself as she yelled out the last desire within her heart, "I want to crush Lirian, I want to burn all that he loves, and make him regret ever being born before giving him a miserable death!" she said.


    "Good," the man said in twisted and satisfied voice, "That I can grant you, but is that the limits of your ambitions, to become the empress of some puny mortal realm,"


    "Won''t you rather become a god?" the man asked with his eyes a flame.


    But Hinata shook her head, "That will be enough for me," she said, she understood why she failed it was because she wanted to much last time, and she was done blindly trusting in people, if she could gain power she''d do what she had to but she would never blindly trust ever again.


    "Oh," the man said coldly, "Sadly if that is the limits of your ambition you will never be able to kill the one you call Lirian," the man said with a smile.


    "You know Lirian?" Hinata asked in surprise.


    "Of course I do," the man said with widened eyes, "If you want to beat him, then you must first know who he is,"


    "His real name is Samsara and he is a god, an old god, a lost god but most importantly the most powerful god of all" he said locking eyes with her as he revealed a truth to her that she would have never thought possible, but upon hearing it, it was like all the pieces in her head shifted into place, and she understood what made Lirian so special.


    "The heavens have granted you a gift like no other, your talent is miserably pathetic, no where close to what is required, but the heavens have brought us together for a reason, so that I can reforge you through the path of the stone heart, so tell me girl are you willing to walk the road of gods?"


    A look of resolution filled her eyes, "Yes," she cried out with determination.


    "Then climb up here in your current state or you can forget about getting your hands and legs back?" the man said coldly and turned back to look at the tides, he began to hum a song softly, but it still reached Hinata''s ears, it was somewhat familiar, but she couldn''t remember where she heard it, she only knew that it was a sad song that made her wish to weep.


    Hinata started to crawl up the little slope, it wasn''t very far that she had to climb but every movement made her feel like she was going to breathe her last breath.


    She had only her stumps, no fingers to grip and pull herself on, no toes to press into the ground to propel herself forward, it was only her stumps that still leaked what little blood remained in her body, and every little move felt like it would bring her death.


    She couldn''t explain it but she strongly believed that the man could grant her every wish, so somehow she steeled her determination and crawled and rolled until she reached the top, it took her hours to accomplish what an ordinary person could do in a minute, but she finally made it.


    "Good, you have will power at least," the man said and reached out with his hand to grab her.


    As his hand grew closer Hinata saw a myriad of objects appearing the world and strange circles filled with power, when the mans hand reached her she let out a shrill scream of pain and agony before passing out.


    When Hinata awoke she moved her body in disbelief, she was sore, but her hand and legs had returned, but most importantly her body was bursting with energy, it was like she had a new body altogether, even the world looked different in her eyes, it was like a purple glow had tinged the world, it was magical.


    But she quickly noticed that her cultivation was gone, she climbed in a panic and found the man still standing there with his sword in the ground and his cape fluttering in the wind, it was like he hadn''t move an inch at all.


    "My cultivation, what happened to it?" she asked, she was going to yell at first, but when she thought back to all that man had done so far she dared not speak rashly.


    "That rubbish was not cultivation," the man said plainly, "You should be well aware of what real power is after what you experienced, and you should understand that the rubbish they gave you in the academy will not aide you in the slightest,"


    "My body what did you do to it?" she asked because despite her lack of cultivation she could feel her body bursting with power.


    "Congratulations on obtaining a divine body," the man said in a bored tone, and threw Hinata a mirror.


    Hinata''s heart was beating in excitement, at what she heard and as she looked into the mirror she was taken aback, she had always been a little pretty, it''s why some of the noble boys gave her attention, but now she was a complete beauty.


    Her skin had a lovely olive glow to it and her black eyes now had a purple ring around it, and her face had become refined and eloquent, it was the dream of any girl.


    She smiled brightly as she turned to the man in red, "Good sir how do I address you?" she asked happily.


    "To the world I am merely a legend and I must remain that way," he said, "But from now on you will address me as master, now come there is a place we must go to for your training," he said motioning for her to come closer.


    Hinata happily obliged, with her new body she felt that she could take on the world, "Master where are we going?" she asked in anticipation.


    "A world that probably only you have enough luck to survive, it''s a very dangerous world, but it''s the only way to make you strong fast enough to kill Samsara, the great civilizations call it Nebula-7," he said as he opened up a portal.


    "Master you seem to know why I want to kill Lirian, but why do you want him dead?" she asked, she was grateful for all he had done but she still didn''t know if she could trust him.


    "Because," her master said with a heavy look in his eyes, "If I am to live Samsara must die."

 Chapter 240 - 006 – Prologue 4: The Road To Nebula 2

    Mordred walked into the academy for the first time since they left for the expedition, everyone had taken their own time in returning and his was two weeks.


    It was strange returning to this place when everything was suddenly different, the first four floors of the academy were pretty much the same except for all the pointing as he walked through the corridor and reached the elevator.


    He couldn''t even get a break in the elevator, because a bunch of students followed after him, but just as he thought he was going to experience an agonising ride someone came to his rescue.


    "Stop bugging the survivors and get to class," a voice rang in the students ears and they all turned to see the princess candidate Media coming close they moved aside and did as told, with glum expressions, clearly they wanted to speak to Mordred and get the first bit of gossip about him.


    "Thanks for that," Mordred said appreciatively as Media join him, after that no one entered and the doors shut, leaving them alone.


    "That''s okay, no one will leave any of us alone anymore after what happened, they''ve started to label everyone who returned from the expedition as ''The Survivors'' and they''ve even given everyone a number, you''re ''Survivor 5''," she said to Mordred just making a little small talk to fill the silence.


    Mordred nodded he had heard all about it before returning, it was mainly because of the attention the survivors were getting that he took so long to return.


    The door suddenly opened as the elevator opened up, "This is me," he said and got out, "Thanks again for earlier," he said appreciatively as he left.


    "It''s no problem, take care of yourself," Media said with a sweet smile that was a deep shade of red as she headed to her floor.


    Mordred began to move through the corridor, though it was eerily quiet, those halls that were usually bustling with students, there were always a few that would be running through the corridors making a racket, but not today, they probably never would be the same again.


    Each grade had about 600 students, his grade had only 18 survivors seven of them were from his class as for the rest they were all dead and buried on ''The World of the Serpent'', that was what everyone was calling the outlier planet now.


    Media''s grade had the most survivors 62 in all they were called the ''lucky ones'', as for Media she was like the queen of the academy currently, Edith and Wentian were dead and Tobias had gone missing mysteriously.


    No one had a clue as to what had happened, the staff from his manor said that he left in his limo with his head guard to do something, but they never heard a word from him ever since, and Cole he was currently receiving treatment for his injuries.


    As for Lirian after that intel about him spread, reporters went rushing to the manor but it was completely empty, all the servants were gone and so were, the empress, her aides, the emperor, and Lirian.


    Just as Mordred was about to reach his class he was walking past a broom closet when he heard some strange sounds which helped him take his mind of things a little and a mischievous smile filled his face as he hurried to his class, while pulling out a flask of water.


    "Hi," he greeted as he got into the class there were only 5 people inside, including him that made 6, Lucas Halts, Karen Eden, Sarah Jane, Damien Uldwin and Eido they were the other survivors also the only one not present was Shen Xia.


    Her long time childhood friend Shen Lim died in the expedition and everyone used to say that they were more than friends, as it turned out the gossip was true, even now she was still in mourning.


    "Hi," they answered back but their energy was lack lustre only Sarah seemed a little enthusiastic, though Mordred felt more awkward around her since her involuntary confession to him.


    The only thing he could feel grateful for was that that neither Sarah nor Mizuhara had died, he wasn''t sure if he loved them but the thought of them dying did scare him.


    Feeling the stifling silence was a little too much for Mordred so he opened his flask and took a sip of water as he walked to his desk, but he suddenly tripped and the water went spilling everywhere making a mess.


    "You''re always so clumsy," Sarah started to scold him immediately as she ran forward to help him.


    "Ah, crap, I messed water everywhere," Mordred complain in an exaggerated tone, "Hey Eido, can you grab me a mop from the broom closet?" he asked earnestly.


    Eido seemed extremely earnest to be able to do anything, the little devil girl had been practically left out now that her only two friends in the class were dead, so she was happy to be able to do something, as she rushed out of the class a grin formed on Mordred''s lips.


    Just seconds later a shrill scream echoed through the empty corridor, and another two voices were heard yelping, the members of the class all stood up on alert with looks of terror on their faces.


    "That''s Eido," Helen said with a worried expression and the rest of the class all followed her to the door while raising their guard.


    But just as they reached the door, Eido came charging in her purple skin was a hundred shades darker as she squirmed from embarrassment.


    "M-m-m-miss Hira and Mr Alastor," she said while shaking her head nervously and pointing at the broom closet, "They were busy in the closet," she said in a fluster.


    "Hahaha," Mordred was the first to start laughing and the others soon followed, they didn''t laugh much but it was probably the first time any of them laughed since the expedition.


    A short while later Miss Hira came rushing to the class with her clothes in order but her hair was a mess, as soon as she got to the class, she looked at Eido and prepared to speak to her alone, but seeing that her students were giggling when they saw her, she knew that they all knew.


    "Not a word of this to anyone!" she said sternly, but she was glad to see that their faces were less gloomy.


    The students nodded seriously while some of them held their sides to stop from shaking, but after a few short moments a secretary came knocking on the door, "Mordred Pendragon," she said instantly spotting him, "Come with me you have a visitor that wishes to speak with you,"


    A few minutes later Mordred found himself in one of the fanciest rooms that the academy used to entertain guests, it was the room that was actually reserved for the usage of the emperor and empress should they visit.


    That came as a huge surprise to Mordred, but not as much as the next surprise he received, a woman was sitting in one of the chairs lounging in a carefree style with her legs dangling in the air.


    Mordred gulped audibly as he looked at the dark skinned long meaty legs, and the body it was attached to that had every curve a man could ask for when he reached the woman face however she would just qualify as pretty, but she had the body to make up for it.


    The woman saw his heated gaze and didn''t seem to mind, in fact she seemed to be purposely flaunting herself as if wanting his opinion.


    "What do you think?" she asked expectantly as she placed a hand on one of her juicy thighs and looked at him.


    "You look amazing, b-b-but who are you?" Mordred answered and asked nervously as he became very self-conscious.


    "But how amazing?" the woman asked with a flirty smile, "On a scale of 1-100," she added mischievously.


    "1000," Mordred blurted out without even thinking, it was a hands down answer.


    "HA!" the woman suddenly shouted with an ecstatic look on her face, "Damn that impudent brat, he dared say that I need to wear some make-up," she yelled with a scowl, which quickly turned into a light smile as she looked at Mordred.


    "Thank you for that dear," she said to Mordred who was feeling confused, but he was also slightly disappointed the earlier heat she was giving off seemed to vanish once he gave his answer.


    "As for your answer I believe this will suffice," she said and showed him her palm, an image began to take shape on her hand and Mordred saw a severed dragons head and underneath it a ''?'' rune appeared.


    Without even thinking Mordred fell to his knees and banged his head against the ground, "Lady Matriarch forgive me for my earlier impudence," he cried out in terror.


    The ancient families were very fragmented and scattered throughout the universe, rarely did they meet with one another, and the matriarch, Morgana Pendragon, was a very elusive figure, so Mordred naturally didn''t know what she looked like.


    His parents had merely gotten orders from the family to send him to the academy the Clovis empress''s new son was going to attend and that was the end of it.


    "Quit being so terrified kid and sit down I have something I need to ask you," she said and with a twirl of her finger energy flowed from her in strange patterns that Mordred had never seen before and lifted him into a seat.


    "I have heard that you managed to take down a drake on your expedition kiddo, which already makes you a Pendragon," she said making his position official.


    "Now tell me, how did you kill the drake?" she asked while looking at him intently.


    Mordred had actually feared being asked this question, because technically he didn''t kill the drake.


    "Lady Matriarch please forgive me but I didn''t kill it alone, I know that I lied, I''ll accept any punishment," he cried out desperately, he was so nervous in the matriarchs presence that he knew it was impossible for him to continue the lie, so he just offered the truth from the start.


    "Kakahahah," the matriarch snorted and laughed at him while holding her sides, "You, take down a guardian of the forest alone!" she said in an incredulous tone.


    "Who would believe that," she chuckled while slapping her juicy thigh and shaking her head, "Now tell me kiddo, how you contributed to killing it?" she asked in amused tone.


    A look of relief and sadness entered Mordred''s eyes, he was glad that he wasn''t in trouble, but he felt disheartened by the lack of faith, after all he really did risk his life to take it down.


    So in order to hype himself up to the matriarch he created a magical tale about how he mounted the drake with Lirian, he made it seem like it was his idea and made up a part about how he helped Lirian climb the drake.


    Then he said that due to the extensive he research he''d done before the expedition he learned that all rock elemental creatures had cores that had to be destroyed, and after his valiant efforts he found the spots of the cores.


    But just then a mighty eagle knocked Lirian and just when Lirian was about to die, not only did he save Lirian he even took down the eagle after a desperate struggle, that was the only true part of the story, but due to his exaggeration, one wouldn''t be surprised if they were told the eagle was a second grade mystic beast.


    The only part he gave Lirian his true credit for was the part where Lirian swung down and smashed the second orb, ''that Mordred managed to find''.


    Morgana listened to the story and nodded along with enthusiasm, pugilist''s were empty headed in general so she believed him for the most part, and her eye especially lit up when Mordred told her that he destroyed the core under the wing.


    It was just like that final page of the script said.


    When Mordred finished his tale, Morgana pulled an empty page and showed it to Mordred, "Do you see anything?" she asked flipping the page around and letting him see both sides.


    Mordred merely shook his head as he looked at it in confusion, a moment later Morgana offered the page to him and told him to concentrate on it really hard.


    After a while Mordred shook his head and handed it back, and just when Morgana touched the page a sudden change occurred, strange lines began to pour out of the page and wrapped themselves around Mordred.


    Mordred was shocked at first but then he started to panic as the lines began to pierce his body and filled him with indescribable pain.


    Before long he collapsed to the ground with his body twitching, he was in so much pain that he couldn''t make a sound.


    Morgan looked on in shock, she was rendered immobile by a power being released by the page and as she looked at the page a set of lines began to appear.


    ''The waylines have served me well, now it is time that I return them to my successors with a little something special extra,''


    When she finished reading it, the page caught fire and disappeared freeing her from its hold and she rushed to Mordred quickly inspecting his body and what she saw startled her.


    Three sets of waylines linked up his centres of power, granting him the waylines of saints, pugilists and warlocks, it was identical to the waylines she set up for Lucian three years ago, and as she thought back to the words of the page she shook her head.


    "It can''t be," she muttered in disbelief, but she thought back to Lucians eyes and how it was exactly as Arthurs were described, she shook of the thoughts and attended to Mordred.


    She quickly found out that she was worried over nothing, there was some power in the page that kept healing Mordred as the waylines entered his body which definitely saved his life, and a few minutes later he woke up looking like he''d been reborn.


    "What happened to me?" he asked in disbelief as he clenched his fist feeling confused by the power coursing through his body, and there was also a bunch of info, about fighting techniques, spells and perfect second grade techniques in his head, that he had no idea how to use.


    "I''m not sure, but it seems like something good," Morgana said as she looked at the transformation, the thing that took her the most aback was a set of scales that appeared on Mordred''s face.


    Morgana felt excited seeing his transformation and a brilliant idea formed in her mind, "Kiddo, how would you like to become this beautiful woman''s successor?" she asked, in the back of her mind she was sad that the script was gone, because she felt that it would have been hilarious to watch the boy struggle with its incessant crap.


    "Lady Matriarch please don''t patronise me," Mordred complained, he was on a high from the new power, but his Matriarch''s teasing brought him crashing down.


    "You think I''d joke about this kiddo," she laughed, "I''m serious, but if you accept just know that you''ll have to beat all my records before I declare your status to the old crodgers," she said enthusiastically.


    Mordred was taken aback by how serious his Matriarch was being, but seeing that she was serious and that he had his new found power, he felt like he could take on the world.


    "I''ll do it," Mordred answered and no sooner than he answered did he feel himself become weightless.


    There was a loud explosion that he heard, and when he looked around he found that he was in the middle of the air in the distance he could see the academy and a big gaping hole in the top floor of the fifty storey building.


    "You could have used the door," Mordred cried out loud as his Matriarch soared through the sky and pulled him along into a ship that was hovering in the sky.


    "Doors are for wimps," Morgana laughed aloud as she entered a set of co-ordinates into the ships.


    "Where are we going?" he asked as the ship began to move.


    "To a very special training grounds kiddo, the first thing you need to know is that I your Matriarch have made history, that no one in the empires can compare with, I completed the unbeatable challenge," she said in a bragging tone.


    "And if you want to be my successor you have to beat me, unfortunately the world I went to is being restocked by the empires with¡­ merchandise¡­ so I can''t take you there, but the good news is that there are 6 other worlds like the one I used,"


    "I used the fourth world, but since it''s currently being restocked I''ll one up the difficulty which is in line with my expectations of you kiddo, so you can go to the fifth world," Morgana said with a large grin.


    "Lady Matriarch forgive me but I really have no idea what you''re saying," Mordred complained as he stared back at Xelia which was quickly escaping his view.


    "Oh my, you are so clueless about the world kiddo," Morgana laughed manically, "I''m taking you to a very dangerous world, but if you can''t conquer it then I''m afraid that you aren''t qualified to be my successor, it''s a world called Nebula-5, you''ll love it once you get there," Morgana said with a wide grin.


    "Boy what do you keep looking back for?" she asked when she realised that he wasn''t paying attention to her.


    "Couldn''t you have at least let me say my good-byes, and grab my stuff?" Mordred complained as he continued to stare at Xelia in the distance, it was quickly becoming a dot.


    "Your stuff won''t have much use where you''re going, and you can give you friends a call, but don''t tell them where I''m taking you, the last thing I want is the empires finding out where we are going!" Morgana said with a shrug and set the ship to autopilot.


    Target destination : Nebula-5

 Chapter 241 - 007 – Lirian Departs

    The portal snapped shut as Lirian walked out behind his mother and the emperor and onto the creaky floors of the house.


    It was just the three of them, the rest of the group were using the standard route with his mothers'' personal fleet to return to the home world, it was a double diversionary tactic just in case they encountered trouble along the away.


    Lirian still remembered the last time he was here, he was accompanied by Anya, Belinda and one of the emperor''s aides Cain, Lirian still hated that guy for pulling on his cheeks until they were rosy, it was a painful experience.


    Lirian followed them down the stairs of the attic and onto the floorboards that creaked loudly with even the slightest of movements, and soon he found himself outside a shabby looking house on a beach, not that he could see it.


    The sandy beach was not to Lirian''s taste however, the soft sand made it difficult to feel the vibrations through the ground and his walking cane kept sinking.


    "Lets get him to the portal first," the emperor said, "I''d rather we deal with the council after we get Lirian to his destination," he grumbled, he knew that he was going to get an earful, once they found him.


    The trip was rather quick to get to the great pyramid, Lirian lamented that he was unable to take in the beautiful sceneries and the exquisite craftsmanship that went into building the pyramids.


    The last time he was here he was kept in a single chamber; he only saw a little when he just landed and when Anya and the others were taking him to the secret portal route.


    So, he didn''t get to see much, but he did read plenty about the exquisite architecture of the Clovis main world and wanted to see it for himself.


    Lirian could have used the system, but that would be a waste of fate particles, the structures were built from extremely high graded item, and currently Lirian''s fate particles reached a all time high of 6 quadrillion, after he personally defeated a lord it soared up, and as word spread of his deeds it was rapidly climbing.


    Even with the current amount of fate particles, Lirian was not completely certain if it would be enough for his plans so he decided not to waste any thing unless it was necessary, and so they continued through the city, that had streets made from a special metal.


    The metal didn''t conduct heat at all or reflect light, it absorbed the light that hit it and used the light to power it''s magnetic properties that carried vehicles across it, it was a perfectly self-sufficient mechanism.


    The emperor didn''t dare to use his spells to teleport them into the pyramids, it had many defences set in place, even if an immortal got in, they weren''t likely to leave alive.


    Under the emperor''s concealment techniques they quickly reached the great pyramid and that''s when they received a message from Taliyah''s fleet, they had just reached the home-world them selves and were sending a signal to the planet.


    The emperor had to reveal his identity to get in the pyramid so they set up a diversion, when the fleet arrived they would draw the attention of the council, giving the emperor time to reveal his identity while the council were distracted so that they could send Lirian away quickly.


    Even if Lirian was going to Nebula-6 the less people that knew the better, it was also a way to ensure that the other empires were distracted and would waste resources looking for Lirian, it was a certainty that they would so why not make them waste more resources in vain.


    The other empires would undoubtedly send their elites to scour the 39 trial worlds, and it was possible that they would lose a few in the process, even if they could gather intel from those worlds it was still dangerous.


    Things went as planned, and a short while later they arrived in a room that sat very deep beneath the surface of the world, it was a very large area that was filled with thousands upon thousands of portal devices.


    They rushed to the secret room that only the emperor and empress could enter, and inside it were 46 portal devices each one linked to one of the 46 worlds.


    As the emperor started to prep the portal, Taliyah pulled Lirian to the side, and gently cupped his face while staring at him with reluctance and unwillingness to see him leave.


    It was six years too soon, and even then she felt like six years wasn''t enough time, there was so much more that she wished to speak to him about and learn more about him, but now those six years were stolen from her.


    Lirian could feel the unspoken words of his mother, and felt the same way, she was a beacon in his heart, that represented things he had never thought he''d have before, with how long he had lived, 14 years didn''t even qualify as the blink of an eye, just as quickly as he got something good he was being forced away by circumstance.


    He''d never felt a sense of belonging or a sense of home until Taliyah became his mother, as the unspoken words were being passed on between the two of them the portal opened and the emperor turned to them.


    "It''s time," he said feeling a little complicated at seeing how intimately his wife was being with Lirian, but he just figured it was how any mortal parent would act if they were going to be saying good-bye to their child and possibly sending them to their death.


    Lirian soon broke of the hug and stepped towards the emperor, as he got to the emperor the emperor pulled out a few items and handed them to Lirian.


    The first item was a spatial ring, it was very ugly in appearance and looked extremely ordinary, the ring would break down as soon as the item inside it was released, ''They don''t make anything easy on the candidate,'' Lirian thought, they wouldn''t even grant him a mediocre ring that could be used to store some small items.


    Inside the ring was a one time use portal device that would relay him directly back to the portal he left from, and it would allow him to bring four extras.


    If he ever lost the ring, he''d be stranded and if someone else got their hands on the ring and came back it would mean that he lost all rights to call himself a candidate.


    The other thing the emperor told him was the secrets of the second accord as well as what conditions to look out for if he were to search for Amatesh spindles, it was his reward for completing the talent steps and the emperor gave him a saint cultivation technique.


    Lirian was supposed to choose his own, but the emperor said that the technique he chose for Lirian could help him restore his eyes, which is why he granted it to Lirian, with a set of perfect first accord techniques which were granted to all candidates before they left, because ultimately it was very unlikely that Lirian would pick up Amatesh spindles before he started cultivating and even after that it would be difficult for him to obtain any.


    And lastly he was given a set of clothes that were very normal, Lirian''s clothes had always been of the highest quality even as a baby, the fabrics were smooth on his skin and were practically weightless, yet they were extremely durable.


    The clothes that he was given could be called rags in comparison, that not even the poorest class in the empire would wear.


    Lirian figured that it was to make him stick out less, but with his silver hair and beauty, the odds of that being enough to dim him down was unlikely.


    He quickly strung the ring onto a thin rope and hung it on his neck and stripped down to put on his new outfit, a simple white tunic with a pair of brown pants, and simple leather shoes, and lastly even his blind fold needed to be changed to something of low quality.


    When he was finally done he took a breath and stepped towards the portal, but he suddenly felt a pair of hands wrap around him holding him firmly as if afraid to let go, he could get his mothers scent rushing into his nose as her lose hair fell all over his face.


    "You are mine!" she declared firmly, almost as if she was issuing a royal decree as she crushed him with her hug, "So you better come back home to me or I''ll never forgive you for leaving me," she said in a pained voice as fresh tears fell from her eyes.


    "I promise," Lirian muttered with firm conviction, he pulled himself away from his mother and dashed into the portal without looking back or hesitation.


    Taliyah watched with trembling shoulders as he vanished through the portal, she desired so much to be able to run through it with him, but ultimately she knew how foolish it was.


    It was just her fears taking hold of her, the fear that she''d lose yet another child.

 Chapter 242 - 008 – Lirian Alone

    Lirian felt utterly weightless all of a sudden, the trip through the portal felt instantaneous, but Lirian immediately worried when he left the portal.


    Lirian could feel himself being pulled by gravity, ''Seriously, that portal doesn''t have a fixed destination and it dropped me in mid-air,'' Lirian groaned internally.


    "System, check my distance from the¡­," Lirian started.


    Splash.


    "Arg, never mind," Lirian groaned painfully as his body slapped water, filling him a stringing sensation throughout his body.


    Lirian tumbled through the water and after a brief struggle of trying to tell up from down and left from right Lirian pushed his head above the water and started sucking in deep breaths of air.


    "Try dropping a blind man from the sky, they said, you can''t get any worse ideas than that," Lirian muttered sarcastically as he orientated himself.


    "On no, it can get worse, let''s drop a blind man from the sky and let him crash into a mass of water, where his unable to navigate at all," Lirian shouted at the sky and waved his fist.


    "If you are trying to kill me then perfect plan," Lirian continued ranting for a good half hour as he floated in the water aimlessly.


    Lirian scooped up some water and brought it to his mouth, but instead of drinking it he swished it around in his mouth for a brief second before swallowing.


    "Lucky me," he said with feigned enthusiasm, "It''s only river water," he said after tasting the water properly, if he was dropped in the middle of an ocean it might have proven problematic at best.


    "System which way to some sweet mother earth," Lirian said and he got an instant answer.


    [Swim to your left carry on for 300 yards,]


    Lirian sighed in relief and dove in to the water, moving very quickly.


    Lirian soon walked out of the river onto a rather rocky riverbank and in his hands were several fish that he plucked out of the water on his way.


    "Hello Mr. Fishes and Mrs. Fishes of course, my name is Lirian, you will all have the honour of being my¡­" Lirian suddenly paused and sighed.


    "Well I''m not to sure what the time is given that I just arrived and I''m blind, so you guys could be breakfast lunch or dinner," Lirian said to the fish.


    [Sun''s position indicates that it''s approaching evening,] the system informed Lirian automatically.


    "You guys will serve as my dinner," Lirian said to the fish as they flopped around in his arms trying to escape.


    "Oh, you guys are right, you are unworthy, but a mans got to eat and you guys are within eating reach," Lirian said and the fish suddenly went still.


    It a short few minutes Lirian found a sharp rock and started to prepare his meal, after getting the fish ready, Lirian found some tinder to make a fire.


    Soon a big fire was burning, and Lirian sat close to it warming up his body and drying of his clothes as the fish were roasting on skewers he made out of tree branches.


    Lirian took a bite and sighed, "You guys would have tasted so amazing if you were back home, or if the emperor let me have just a little spice when I was sent here," Lirian complained as he sunk his teeth into the crispy outer layer of the fish.


    "Every morning I would have a grand banquet, eating any delicacy I could desire, well except for that one time mom tried to cook for me, the village girl is still very alive inside her, but that village girl was no cook," Lirian said to the fish that were still roasting.


    "Then later in the day at the academy we''d all get down to eat together, I''d order something great, but it seemed like everyone else was always better at choosing good dishes, so I''d help myself to a little of everyone''s food," Lirian said with a chuckle.


    "It was just me and my pals," Lirian said but suddenly frowned, "Scratch that I don''t have any pals, I don''t need them, but maybe Cole qualifies, he was smart for a mortal he knew his place so he didn''t over push his boundaries instead he was friendly with everyone, while always planning for the day he''d get a chance to shine,"


    "Oh, there''s Mordred too I guess, he did risk his life to take down that drake with me, but never mention that tall freak Tobias to me, he is completely unworthy," Lirian said gnashing his teeth together.


    "Then there was Edith," he said, and his breathing slowed, he didn''t even take a bite of his food for a very long time after that, almost as if he were asleep.


    "Anya too," Lirian said shaking his head, "But she probably hates me now, because I''m a fool," Lirian said with a gloomy air.


    "Just moments ago I had so many people I could speak to, but now look at me, I''m alone again," Lirian said in a whisper.


    "Loneliness! It can do things to one''s mind," Lirian said with a knowing look.


    "For fourteen years I''ve always had someone by my side, but now it''s just like the past, my great break has come to an end, and I can see the future from here on out, it''s a slaughter an endless road of blood as I conquer your world, then Efrideet and by then I suppose I''ll have even greater enemies,"


    "But it all ends the same, you see, I''m the scariest monster of them all you know, everyone fears me and I can''t blame them, I''d fear me too, because when all is said and done, I''m just way to incredible, it''s a futile hope to beat me" Lirian said with a heavy air to his voice.


    "Hahaha," Lirian chuckled and the shadows mimicked his movement creeping up behind him slowly creeping closer, as the last of the light trickled away.


    When the last rays of light vanished, the shadows passed through the shadows made by the flickering flames, and two scythe like black blades came ripping down, one came for his neck the other for his heart.


    Lirian remained seated and just twisted his body slightly while tilting his neck and the two blades just narrowly brushed past him.


    As soon as the blades missed the creatures jumped back, seeing that their attack failed, but no new attack came, and neither did the creatures leave, they stood their frozen in place.


    "Oh, that reminds me," Lirian said as if he didn''t even receive an attack at all, "This time I''m heaven chosen," as Lirian spoke the two creatures fell over and began to throw up a disgusting smelling fluid.


    "If no one stood a chance before, now it''s just going to be a massacre," Lirian said as the fire''s light flickered through across his face and lit up his silver hair like a beacon.


    "As long as I don''t make the provocation or attack first, or make an enemy of a great organisation, they''ll be powerless to stop me, if they miss their first shot at killing me, then they shall face the heavens curse," Lirian said as he picked the bones clean of one of the fish and moved on to the next and the next.


    "Whether, man, beast, woman, child, emperor, immortal or god, the curse of the heavens care nothing for your great status, for the heaven''s curse is without discrimination," Lirian recited.


    Lirian patted his belly in satisfaction and climbed to his feet, he grabbed one of the skewers he used to roast the fish and walked on over to the creature in a leisurely pace.


    The creature was a mess unable to move and just barely able to make sounds of pain, but that was all Lirian needed as he smashed skewer after skewer into the body of the creature, making it release howls of agony.


    "That''s right keep screaming just like that, and let your pained howls keep my mind company," as Lirian spoke his body shuddered in ecstasy as if a heavy set of shackles had just been released from his body.


    Lirian would have happily gone to the other worlds, even if the other empires came for him he could always rely on the curse, the reason he insisted on Nebula-6 was not because of the image the steps showed him.


    No, it was what the emperor had told him, that even the empires could not monitor this world, since that was the case he could do exactly as he pleased and unleash his true self.


    Finally, Lirian smashed the skewer through the creature''s throat.


    [Killed Shadow Wraith first-grade +500 fate particles]


    [x2 for killing a creature of a grade higher than your own]


    Lirian heard the familiar tone and walked over to the other shadow wraith and did the same thing as he exuded a thick blood lust and tore into the creature and skewered it to death.


    [Killed Shadow Wraith first-grade +500 fate particles]


    [x2 for killing a creature of a grade higher than your own]


    "I did try to warn you that it was futile," Lirian said with a smile of pure euphoria as he walked back to the camp fire, he could hear the other creatures becoming crazed with the smell of blood that had just been spilt.


    "Of course, I could play things safe," Lirian whispered into the fire, "But what kind of god would I be if I do things like that," Lirian said as his blood lust began to poor out of his body and engulfed the entire region.


    "I did promise that I''d do my best to live a happy life," Lirian mused as he climbed to his feet with the skewers in hand and raced to the closest creature, this time he went on the attack.


    The night had only just begun.


    ---


    There''s a map of Nebula-6 in the comments, check it out.

 Chapter 243 - 009 – Toxin

    Creak.


    Creak.


    Crash.


    Winds that could shake the branches of a tree, rushed forth and lifted the loose soil and dust, under the pressure of a tree that had cracked, and the entire top half came toppling down splintering all over the forest.


    [Killed Carnivorous Mountain Bear, Peak first grade +1000 fate particles]


    [x2 fate particles for killing creature of a higher grade]


    Lirian breathed heavily as little droplets of sweat formed on his forehead.


    "Looks like this is my limit," Lirian muttered softly while regaining his breath.


    In front of him, the massive body of the carnivorous bear was pierced through by the massive trunk of the tree, it stopped making any noise as its blood sept out onto the bark of the tree, but it''s lifeless eye were still fixed on Lirian''s position.


    Behind Lirian the world looked pretty similar to the sight in front of him, it look like a trail of death that came to an end, from one creature to the next, each one was stronger than the last as they were skewered through from the belly and out their backs, by the trunks of trees that were still firmly rooted in the ground.


    Lirian walked up to the bear and patted its paw, it was the only part he could reached with it hanging from the tree, "Thanks for your home, it will become a place of legend, I promise," Lirian said to the lifeless beast with a smile and proceeded toward the bears dwelling.


    "This is the place where I will begin my cultivation," Lirian muttered softly as he escaped from the chilly night winds in to a roomy cave, that was empty with the exception of a few withered up skeletons.


    Lirian assumed that those had been the bears most recent meals.


    Lirian sat down and folded his legs, ''System find the concentration of this worlds energy,'' Lirian ordered.


    [Initiating¡­ consuming fate particles.]


    All worlds have an energy concentration, which most cultivators refer to as the breath of the world, all worlds start with only first grade energy concentration, and every time a cultivator makes a break through, they create a field around them which is known as evolution energy.


    Over hundreds of thousands of years, the evolution energy builds up, from the various cultivators that make break throughs and the world itself undergoes an evolution.


    Sometimes new continents appear as the world expands, there are new forms of creatures and life that becomes integrated into the world''s ecosystem.


    The most important part of it is the rise in the worlds energy, the worlds are practically a life, that has a symbiotic relationship with cultivators, cultivators use world breath to increase their cultivation and the world use''s cultivators evolution energy to cultivate.


    The worlds energy level determines the level of it''s creatures and plants as well as cultivators, so if a world was of the second grade, all cultivators would find it easy to achieve the second grade without using any supplements, from the third grade and above cultivation would increase in difficulty, with every stage not to mention grade.


    The level of the world would usually determine the level of strength of the world''s cultivators.


    [Consumed 32 million fate particles, Energy concentration determined to be third grade.]


    Lirian nodded his head, ''It''s not bad for a world in the mortal realm, it''s better than most of the worlds I was born to, if not for the existence of the great civilizations, this would be a pretty advanced world in the mortal realm,'' Lirian thought.


    ''Although I would have preferred if the world was fourth grade, laws should exist in this world but they are likely to be incomplete not to mention rare, and their quality will be on the lower end of the spectrum,'' Lirian ultimately sighed.


    [Warning.]


    {During analyses a neural toxin has been discovered hidden within the world energy, advising host against cultivation until neural toxin is fully analysed.]


    Lirian''s brows were pulled tight as he frowned, he didn''t doubt his system, so he knew that things weren''t looking to great, ''Begin an analysis of the neural toxin,'' Lirian immediately ordered the system.


    As he began to speculate on what the function of the neural toxin was, Lirian recalled two things the emperor had told him about the Nebula worlds.


    Supposedly any person with cultivation immediately died upon entry, Lirian doubted that it was the neural toxin as he observed the systems analyses, it was apparent that the toxin wasn''t lethal to anything fifth grade and above, but Lirian quickly came to understand why any and all candidates died.


    In truth all candidates were desperate to begin their cultivation, they had to endure ten years of watching their class mates cultivate and grow stronger while they remained as mortals, so the moment they were handed their techniques and landed all they wanted to do was cultivate.


    From what the emperor had told Lirian the longest that a person lasted was 14 days, Lirian had to assume that it was the neural toxin that did them in and the person who lasted for 14 days likely started cultivating late for some unknown reason or they had a very powerful body that allowed them to endure for a while.


    Those that got to come to the Nebula worlds were geniuses in the empire after all, so Lirian wouldn''t be surprised of that person had an emperor body.


    As the system continued the analyses Lirian rushed out of the cave and cut of flesh and extracted some bone marrow from the creatures he had killed, they did after all possess cultivation.


    This made Lirian certain that there was a way to cultivate on this world, world breath was an essential in cultivation unless someone relied on resources, and Lirian had killed so many mystic beasts in a single little region that he doubted that this place could provide so much cultivation resources.


    The system began an analysis on the mystic beasts'' samples and ultimately came to the conclusion that the neural toxin had no effect on none sentient beings.


    Basically, any and all existences that were capable of conscious thought would be killed by the toxin.


    ''Why the hell would the world place such a stupid restriction, it''s like the world doesn''t want to evolve,'' Lirian complained as he could not understand the decision of the worlds will, because ultimately only sentient existences could go beyond the worlds energy level.


    "Forget it," Lirian muttered, "System perform a read of the worlds fate string I want to get an idea of the worlds size, it''s continents, it''s biomes, the races that exist here, if there are any sentient races as well as their languages, and a basic read on the top level cultivators in this world," Lirian quickly ordered the system.


    Lirian knew that this was going to be a costly use of the system but he had to get this done, now that cultivation looked like it might be of the tables, at least until he found a way to separate the toxin from the energy.


    [Failure]


    [The worlds fate string is protected, host does not posses enough fate particles to override worlds defences]


    "What the fuck!" Lirian cried out in exasperation, "Which ever gods have done this I swear that I''m going to add your name my list," Lirian cursed in anger, he felt more blind than ever.


    As Lirian fell into contemplation he took a resolute breathe, "Fuck it I have a godly constitution, even my understanding of it is limited but I highly doubt that some fucking neural toxin can kill me, if that''s possible than it doesn''t deserve to be called a godly constitution," Lirian said in an irritable voice.


    Lirian took a seat and immediately, a spherical bubbles that was transparent began to form around him, it was the energy of the world that began to rush towards him and in seconds the entire cave around him looked like a surging tide of world energy.


    World energy was always transparent, but with so much gathering, while it was still clear it cut a stark difference with the world all around it as the area of concentration continued to expand in size until a good portion of the region looked like a sphere of concentrated matter.


    Lirian had several plans to get ready before he began his cultivation, but first he wanted to get a small taste of what the toxin felt like before he took in a great deal of it.


    [Advising host against such action] the system began to blare loudly in Lirian'' head, but Lirian ignored it and pulled in a small bit into his body to test the waters.


    Almost instantly he felt all the energy he had gathered slip from his control as he fell over and broke out into a fit of coughs.


    "Conduct a scan," Lirian wheezed out at the system as he felt like surging tides were rushing through his body trying to tear it apart.


    [Initiating¡­]


    [Lethality of the toxin has been neutralized by hosts godly constitution; however, host will be unable to cultivate for two weeks]


    Sensing that the danger had passed, Lirian slumped over on the ground completely unconscious.

 Chapter 244 - 010 - Mission

    Lirian opened his eyes and let out a small groan as he attempted to move.


    It was like fire was shooting through his veins, making every inch of his body hurt as he climbed to his feet.


    The taste of dried up blood lingered in his mouth along with another disgusting flavour that Lirian could only connect to the toxin.


    "Mother fucking toxin," Lirian muttered with a scowl as he spat and made his way to the bear that was still rooted firmly on the tree.


    "Looks like I lied, your abode won''t be the place that my journey begins," Lirian muttered as he ripped of one of its meaty legs, "I suppose that it''s too late to ask you if there are any settlements around here, huh," Lirian spoke to the corpse as he made quick work of skinning the bears leg.


    Lirian soon had the leg roasting over a fire releasing a delicious smell which came from the herbs and plants that Lirian had collected so far, it wasn''t much but it was enough for him to enjoy his meal.


    As Lirian indulged himself in the gamey meat of the bear his system suddenly beeped.


    [Mission Discovered: Find a settlement with other sentient life forms.]


    [Reward: +300 fate particles]


    Lirian was pleasantly surprised when he saw the quest, the quest didn''t surprise him to much, it was one of the functions of the system.


    The key ingredient in the systems creation was great diviners, but there were also other gods whose essences were used for its creation, specifically a god of knowledge and a god of victory.


    Those two gods'' essences along with the power of the great diviners created the quest system, which allowed the system to greatly aide Lirian''s journey, helping him get what he needed, while creating a path that would help his growth.


    The reason Lirian was surprised was that the system would never give him a quest that was unachievable, and seeing the low reward of fate particles Lirian knew that the closest settlement couldn''t be to far away, which gave him hope.


    Since there were people on this world, it meant that there had to be cultivators or at least that people developed their own means to deal with the mystic beasts, otherwise they''d be extinct.


    ---


    "Hey Molb, tell me if I''m seeing things, but it looks like something is shining up ahead," a man started to say with a doubtful expression as he pointed ahead inside the dark forest.


    "Hahaha, Cal, something must be wrong with your eyes," Molb chuckled as he followed Cals finger, but just a few steps forward and he could see it to, it appeared to be something silver that was shining.


    The two men both wore simple clothes with a layer of leather armour and they both had swords hanging on their waists.


    After sharing a look the two of them ventured forward and sucked in a breath of cold air as they saw what could only be described as a celestial beauty sleeping in a natural cove within a tree.


    As they approached with widened eyes and salivating jaws, the beauty suddenly moved and turned to face them, with a slight smile on her face that got their blood pumping wildly, they were so taken by the beauty that they failed to even notice the blind fold that was wrapped around the beauties eyes.


    "Little girl," the one called Molb called out, "What are doing in the forests all alone? You know it''s dangerous for a girl to be alone in such a dangerous place, do you have anyone around that I can take you to?" he asked coaxingly, a beastly light had already entered his eyes as he looked at the beauty, all he needed was confirmation that the girl was alone and he''d be able to pounce on her.


    The beauties head snapped in an unnatural movement and faced him as if filled with curiosity and opened her mouth, "Little girl, what are you doing in the forests all alone? You know it''s dangerous for a girl to be alone in such a dangerous place, do you have anyone around that I can take you to?"


    When the beauty spoke the man called Molb suddenly darted back in shock, not because his words were repeated, but the voice of the girls it was identical to his own, it was no simple imitation it sounded exactly like his own voice.


    Even Cal had retreated back a few steps, but than the beauty started to smile even more and despite the wariness the two felt, their hearts felt at ease as lustful desires filled their eyes once more.


    "Little girl you shouldn''t answer him," Cal said pointing to Molb and as he spoke the head of the beauty snapped in his direction as if finding him curious.


    "He''s a bad man, so you should just come with me and I''ll protect you," he said like a gentleman and offered his hand to the beauty.


    "Bullshit!" Molb roared in anger as he looked between Cal and the beauty and pulled out his sword pointing it at Cal.


    Cal quickly brough his hand to his sword and looked at Molb, "Don''t make me fight you over this Molb, I always let you get first pick, but this time give me a chance or I''ll make you regret this," Cal said coldly lifting his sword and pointing it at Molb.


    "Regret," Molb laughed coldly, "I get first choice because I always win, and the winner gets the reward," Molb said and swung his sword.


    Their swords created a crisp ringing sound in the air, but after a few strikes the two of them pulled back and looked at each-other in confusion as if they didn''t understand why they were fighting.


    "We''ve been friends since we were kids," Cal said while shaking his head.


    "Yeah how about we just share her," Molb said with a lecherous smile and turned back to the beauty.


    "F-fight¡­" the beauty muttered as they turned back to her, it was like the words were foreign to her tongue, "I¡­r-reward¡­winner," the beauty said and slowly lowered one of her sleeves to reveal her beautiful snow white hands.


    Just the sight drove the two mad with insatiable lust and they both darted forward, as they reached the hand they saw each-other and a look of unwillingness to share filled their eyes.


    Soon the two of them were hacking at each-other in an all-out fight to the death, their friendship since childhood discarded to their beastly desires.


    After a few minutes the two were panting loudly and filled with cuts but Cal had fallen into a serious disadvantage, and he soon found Molb''s sword buried in his heart.


    He looked strangely at Molb then he looked at the beauty, and in his last moments he felt a bit of clarity return, just enough for him to realise that there was something seriously wrong with that beauty.


    As soon as Molb delivered the finishing blow he didn''t even bother to remove his sword and ran straight to the beauty, as he opened up his pants to revealing his hardened penis that was already oozing white liquid.


    But just as he reached the beauty he didn''t even get a chance to blink as he felt his throat being crushed.


    He felt a sudden invasive force into his body and heard the beauty say something that he didn''t understand it sounded like a completely different language.


    ---


    "Fate string search," Lirian said and soon Lirian walked through the door in the mans mind and learned everything there was to know about him, unlike with Alice, Lirian was very gentle with his search this time he wanted the man to remain conscious for a while longer.


    "You...you promised---to reward me," Molb spluttered out, even in this situation the lust never left his body and he desperately wanted to have his way with the beauty, even the beauties rough grasp on his throat made him feel elated.


    "Your reward, was to help me," Lirian muttered softly, this time his words were a lot more fluent, though they did still sound foreign to his tongue.


    Lirian smiled coldly and walked to the dead one, the two of them were actually just some bandits that roamed these parts, Lirian picked up the sword from the dead ones hands and brought it to Molb''s penis.


    "AHhhhhhhh, Urrrgggg," Molb roared and screamed as Lirian placed the tip of the sword on the tip of his hardened penis and started to slowly push the sword forward, cutting his penis vertically and then while lost in the pain Molb could feel the sword rising through his body, until only the hilt could be seen.


    The last thing Molb could see was the cold smile of the beauty, and just as he was about to die the beauty said one last thing, "By the way I''m a man," he chuckled jovially and walked away.


    Lirian turned around and headed towards a little cave that was dug out by the two bandits, with another set of worries.


    Lirian knew the ways of all creatures, one of the universal rules he learnt was that all races desire beautiful things and Lirian knew of his own beauty, but he had underestimated its effect.


    Back in the empire, his clothes had all been spelled to reduce the effect he had on people, and even with that most people were still drawn in by his appearance.


    If not for most of the students restraining fear of the empress and their fear of him that he regularly planted in them, it was likely that they would have had a hard time resisting him, but here that restraining fear did not exist, which left him with a very big problem

 Chapter 245 - 011 – The Caravan

    Lirian soon found the cave made by the two bandits, it wasn''t anything special, but it was well hidden, Lirian was pretty sure that he had come past this area the night before and as he looked at the map in his head that the system was putting together he discovered that he was correct.


    Lirian removed the vines and branches that blocked the cave and stepped into it, it wasn''t very big, just large to hold maybe three people, and it didn''t hold much either, there were a few coin purse''s which held a total of 280 copper pieces and 4 silver pieces it was the fortune they had saved up over 9 years of robbing.


    This wasn''t their complete fortune, but it was all that they collected on this road, the two of them had several different dens built on the surrounding roads, but this was one of their more prosperous dens.


    Other than the coins there a few old swords and daggers and some leather straps, which was what Lirian had mainly come for, just a few days away from here was a village, it was from there that those two low life''s came from, and too everyone''s knowledge they were caravan guards.


    If Lirian walked in with their swords, it was possible that someone would recognise the swords, and Lirian had already determined that he needed to go there because in Molb''s memories there was a cultivator in the village.


    It was just one man who used to be an adventurer and while doing a job in these parts he somehow came to their village and ended up marrying the most beautiful girl in the village she used to be a simple barmaid that all the men liked, but that adventurer made her his own and settled down there.


    As Lirian strapped the weapons in place all over his body, he began to contemplate his plan of action.


    The first thing Lirian needed to do was change his look a little, his silver hair while beautiful was unfortunately a dead give away while he walked amongst humans, so he needed to dye his hair, to appear a little less remarkable.


    Lirian only needed it to work temporally, once he activated his Body of Nirvana esper technique, he''d be able to change his appearance slightly to look less famine and change his hair colour.


    But to start cultivating Lirian first needed a way to separate the toxin from the world breath, Lirian already had a few spells in mind, but due to his lack of a cultivation spells were of limits unless he collected specific materials that could enable the spell.


    But that would require time and resources that Lirian did not currently possess.


    Lirian suddenly had a flash of insight as he thought about how the bandits obtained the weapons he was holding.


    It would take about fifteen minutes for Lirian to reach the road from the cave and the road had carriages that frequently used it, the road led to a big town called Proge, so it did get plenty of visitors but these two bandits were weak to say the least so they only ever dared to challenge lone stragglers.


    For Lirian however, taking on large groups was no problem, he had to walk for two days before the split appeared in the road to take him to the village, and he was in dire need of some cosmetics.


    Since it was a road that went to an official town, it definitely had nobles, and where there are nobles, they undoubtedly have cosmetics, Lirian really hoped to find some hair dye and make-up to change his appearance a bit.


    With that in mind Lirian started to hope to find a few caravans or better nobles on his way, if it were nobles the odds of finding cosmetics would be much greater.


    ---


    The night had come over the world, calling all people to a stop, it was time for them to take a load off their backs and rest for the night.


    It was the same where anyone went even on the long road to Proge, it was no different, it was still the first hours after the sun went down and a big fire had been lit, with dozens of people gathering around it to eat and some even begun to dance.


    "Mal is your father not coming to join us," a woman dressed in a yellow corset asked a young adolescent boy curiously, while casting her gaze over to the largest of the tents.


    The man in question was a rather well-known merchant in these parts everyone simply called him Mr. Quibb, he had a knack for being a merchant and was usually pretty good company to keep, but his actions since two weeks ago when they left a village they were trading their good to, he had been acting rather suspicious.


    Take for instance the fact that he insisted on taking his cart into the tent every night for the past two weeks, he was acting like he was carrying a cart of gold not allowing it to slip out of his sight for a second.


    Had Mr Quibb acted normal no one would have become suspicious, but now even the guards were eyeing that cart, it''s always a bad sign when you arouse the interest of the people that are supposed to be protecting you, and that in turn made the rest of the caravan very nervous.


    Young Mal had come out for the first time with his father to learn of the ways of trading, but even he could tell that something wasn''t right with his father, "My father is wary of his troubles, please forgive him Miss Hela," Mal said apologetically to the lovely lady while blushing a little and grabbed a bowl of soup to take for his father.


    Mal could hear some of the man laughed at him for getting embarrassed as he made for his fathers'' tent, he couldn''t help it, woman always made him nervous and beautiful woman all the more.


    As Mal stepped inside he saw his father get up abruptly turning his head from the cart, and as Mal felt his fathers gaze he could tell that his father was getting worse.


    In the past few days it seemed like his father was suspicious of everyone, and now that same gaze was being directed at him, "Father is everything alright?" he asked cautiously and brought the bowl of hot soup to his father.


    Mr Quibb''s face softened slightly as he took the food and hurriedly ate it, the food seemed to help at least it looked like it did to Mal.


    As soon as Mr Quibb finished eating he looked to his son and sighed sadly but his gaze had returned to the cart.


    It was full of furs, almost a hundred furs, in total it would catch a good price, maybe thirty gold, of which ten would be profit, and enough to fund another two trips from Riverfall to Proge and back.


    "I made a mistake son, a very big one," Mr Quibb said "A while back I met some adventurers, they had some stuff, but they didn''t want to go through the trouble of carrying it around to sell it, so I offered them a deal,"


    "I thought that I could do what even a group of adventures were hesitant to do," he said wistfully, "And now all I can think about is the consequences of my failure, if I fail in selling the goods, we''ll lose the estate," Mr Quibb said in a hushed whisper.


    "Father!" Mal cried in shock, "Is someone threatening us, we can take it up to the lord, even its some adventurers they still have to obey the laws," he said to reassure his father.


    "No, no son it''s no black mail, I made the deal and used the title deed to the estate as my leverage for the goods," Mr Quibb explained in a whisper, but his eyes never left the cart.


    Mal suddenly looked to the cart wondering what could be so valuable in it, he sat in the cart most of the time, but there was nothing so valuable that it could come close to the estate, the estate was worth almost 400 gold, and his father was still working to pay it off.


    As not even half of it been paid for yet, to say that this a gamble was an understatement, his father wasn''t just wagering with the estate he was practically wagering with his life if things fell through, the lord would be sure to turn him not just his father but also him and his mother into slaves, to work of the debt.


    But try as he might he couldn''t find anything of such value on the cart, a ripping sound was suddenly heard and as Mal turned he saw that one of the guards was coming through the tent right behind him and he was caught by the guards grip.


    "Do tell us what''s in the cart, that''s so valuable or I''ll gut the boy," the head guard suddenly said as he stepped in through the slit, his presence made Mr Quibb completely despair because that was the one person who he could not fight against, because he was a cultivator.


    "Triston, we''ve worked together for years, please let the boy go, and I''ll triple the pay for your guards, and I''ll give you ten times your normal fee, I also promise not to report your break of contract to the guild," Mr Quibb was quick to realise the situation, so he instead of pointless threats, he threw out his best offer, hoping that it would make a difference.


    They were listening the entire time, and since it was worth enough to make him leverage his estate it was definitely worth enough for them to kill their employer and settle down somewhere without any worries for coin.


    "Sorry Mr Quibb but I got to do what''s best for me," the cultivator called Triston said and turned to one of the guards that entered with him, "The cart has a false bottom, pop it open," he ordered.

 Chapter 246 - 012 – A Monster New To The World

    One of the guards walked over to the cart and started off loading its contents, most of the furs weren''t all that big, the bigger the fur the greater the value.


    For the most part it was just rabbit or squirrel furs so if any one wanted to make anything out of them, they would have to cut and sew multiple furs togethers, making it look patchy, but with bigger furs there was a lot more that could be done so the price would climb by dozens of time.


    As the guard emptied everything he knocked onto the floor and immediately noticed that it was hollow.


    Just then a cold wind blew through the tent making the lamps flicker until they went out, the sudden darkness made all of them freeze not just the guards but also the cultivator Triston.


    "Sssh," Triston hushed them as they begun to make a noise and focused on his ears intently, and that''s when he noticed a problem, it was silent too silent.


    Just moments ago the other members of the caravan were eating and singing songs outside, but currently their was none of that, they could only make out that the fire was still raging outside.


    The silence was stifling, "On alert boys," Triston said drawing his sword and taking vigilant steps towards the tent entrance, as the other guards did the same, even the panicking Mr Quibb said nothing in the current situation, he too could tell that something was very wrong, but he wasn''t sure yet if it was a good or bad thing for him.


    But just as they reached the entrance Mr Quibb felt something, enter his body, he spluttered out some blood as he looked at Triston with surprise, "I don''t need someone who can betray me at any second standing behind me," Triston said with a apologetic smile as Mr Quibb fell over.


    "Father!" Mal started to scream and struggle his way out of the guard''s hands and rushed to his father, but as soon as he made it he knew that it was hopeless.


    Mal looked to Triston with hateful eyes, "You bastard, I''ll kill you!" he roared and tried to pounce at him, but a sudden kick to the jaw sent him flying to the side, his jaw was broken and he quickly fell unconscious from the pain.


    "That little shit almost took a chunk out of me," the guard that kicked Mal said and rubbed a part of his hand, under the darkness no one could see his wound, but they could still smell the iron from his blood.


    "Never mind him, let first find out what''s going on outside," Triston said softly and pushed the flaps open.


    He moment the group left the tent, they wished that they hadn''t, it was nothing short of a genocide, the tents were splattered with blood and the bodies of the members of the caravan were torn to shreds, some of them were torn in half while others were cut to pieces with their limbs and heads acting as decorations for the tents.


    The guards knew that after robbing Mr Quibb they would have to kill everyone, but even for them this was a little to brutal, and based on the fact that they heard no screams the slaughter must have just taken seconds, yet it was completely silent.


    It would require a very skilled group to do such a thing, and even Triston who was standing at their lead was panicking slightly.


    "Lets not get into a battle here," Triston suddenly called out, "We''ll leave, you people can take everything," he said in a show of good faith and raised his hands above his head and the two besides him followed suite.


    "Oh you''re finally done with your little mutiny, I thought you guys were going to take forever," a very strange voice echoed in their ears, as it spoke they could here the tone constantly changing as if a different person was saying each word.


    Then a figure seemed to appear from the shadows and strode up to them without a care in the world, at first glance they were struggling to tell the persons gender, but they could make out the persons small stature and incomparable beauty.


    But most importantly was the persons blindfold that covered their eyes, yet they still walked in such a leisurely manner, as if the world was theirs.


    The silver haired person suddenly waved their hand and two daggers popped up between his fingers, and before anyone could blink the two daggers were gone from his hand.


    Even Triston didn''t follow what was going on, but he heard grunts from his sides and when he turned to look at his subordinates, their throats were cut through and blood gushed from their throats, before long they fell to their knees and crumpled to the ground.


    "You," Triston said through gritted teeth and brought one his hands to the pummel of his sword.


    "Shut up, if I want you dead then you will be dead, you only answer what I ask and maybe I''ll let you live, but that depends on the quality of your answer," Triston suddenly stepped back in fear as he heard the voice, or rather voices.


    There were less voices than last time but each one sounded uniquely different, and all of them were coming from that one person.


    Added with the fact that the person was able to kill his subordinates without him even noticing he thought it impossible for his victory.


    "I''m new to this place you see," the silver haired person said as he twirled a dagger between his fingers, "And I''ve run into a little trouble when it comes to cultivation, as in I am unable to, but you have a cultivation, a weak one but a cultivation none the less, first grade second stage, which means that it is possible now tell me how it''s possible,"


    As the person spoke Triston could hear those voices all amalgamating in to one, but it was hard to make it out, it was like every time the person spoke they learned how to better form the words.


    A difficult expression appeared on Triston''s face as he looked at the figure in fear, it was quickly dawning on him that it was this person who was responsible for the massacre, and he truly began to fear what would happen if such a monster started cultivating when it was already so scary.


    "I-I-I can''t tell you," Triston finally said, and he it wasn''t simply that he was unwilling their was another reason.


    "Oh," the silver haired person said with an amused smile and lightly licked one of their small fangs, with a look of anticipation, "Tell me which is your favourite body part?" the person asked Triston.


    Triston however started to backtrack as he under stood the person intention and tried to turn and flee but the moment he turned around he felt a sharp piercing pain in his knee that caused him to fall over and as he looked down he saw that the dagger had slid under his knee cap and the silver haired person was walking to him slowly.


    "Wait please anything else, I''ll do anything you want me to," Triston started to plead.


    "There was only one purpose in keeping you alive," the person said and twisted the dagger.


    Creak, Crack.


    "!GAaahhhhh!" Triston howled as his entire kneecap was popped out of his leg and just dangled from a few strands of flesh.


    As the dagger was extracted both of them quickly noticed that the blade had shattered, "Bloody pig iron, it''s useless on cultivators," the person mumble absentmindedly.


    "Tell me what I want to know, and I''ll give you a quick death instead of a drawn out one," the person said while pointing another dagger at him.


    A resolute expression appeared in Triston''s eyes, "You want to know, fine," he said with a laugh, "First you have to¡­" he said and jumped forward, and as he spoke his entire body started to contort like it was going to explode, "Haha die you bastard," Triston roared as he felt the spell take effect.


    ---


    Lirian raised two fingers calmly and controlled the energy with energy control sending it, all of the exploding energy dispersed into nothing the only proof of the explosion was the raining bits of cultivators that fell.


    ''He was no mage and definitely no warlock, so that self-destruction was probably something that would trigger if some one tries revealing the method of cultivation,'' Lirian concluded.


    "So, the powers on this world keep the knowledge a secret," Lirian muttered softly and strolled into the tent where that cart was, he was feeling curious about what was in that cart.


    When Lirian opened that false bottom, he discovered that there was a spell in place, it was no seal or anything dangerous, it was just a simple spell to shrink the volume of any items inside it.


    As Lirian reached in he felt something soft and pulled it out, "A fur," Lirian muttered softly he could feel that it was very large and heavy, "That can''t be what all that was about," Lirian thought and had the systems do a quick scan, if he had to say what held the most value he''d say that it was the spell to reduce the volume of the matter inside it.


    But a few seconds later the system identified the truth.


    [Detected 11 First Grade Direwolf Furs]


    [Detected 26 Second Grade Direwolf Furs]


    [Detected 1 Third Grade Direwolf Furs]


    "It would seem that someone killed a Direwolf alpha and it''s pack," Lirian muttered with a smile, since his third life there were two creatures that he always went out of his way to kill, Direwolves and Hell-Hounds, the way they ripped him apart during his third life, left him with a deep seethed hatred for their kind.

 Chapter 247 - 013 – The Bright New World

    "Now these must be worth quite a lot," Lirian muttered as he pulled out another fur, it was the largest of the lot, maybe five or six times his size and it was much heavier than he was.


    Lirian examined the third-grade Direwolf fur, but he was quickly disappointed, while it was large it was cut up pretty badly and filled with holes, ''It must have been a tough fight for who ever killed this thing,'' Lirian guessed and turned his attention to the second grade furs.


    ''Those furs are actually perfect, whoever killed them did it quickly and effectively, cutting their throats and kept most of it intact, Lirian could already see these things selling for a high price, Lirian had no clue as to the value of things in this world.


    But these furs could be used to make decent sets of armour, so it had to be worth a fair amount, "Such a pity that I have no way of taking all of this with me," Lirian muttered and grabbed three fur, two second grade and the third grade one, even if it was cut up it still had its uses.


    After that Lirian started to search through the caravan, most of the people there were merchants that were traveling together for safety so there was a lot of goods, unfortunately, Lirian could only take so much.


    A short while later Lirian had a big bag strapped to his back, in total he only found 1 gold coin, 28 silvers and to many coppers for him to care about counting, most of the merchants money was turned into goods, so there wasn''t much Lirian could do about it, and unfortunately there were no cosmetic supplies on the carts.


    With all of that in mind Lirian felt like it was time to clear up the mess, he opened up his hand and a ball of silver energy formed, after exposing it to the fire that was still going, the silver energy turned into flame and Lirian shot it at the various tents and finally he went to the tent with the direwolf furs.


    He would have to concentrate the flames to destroy them, he couldn''t take all of it with him and he leaving something like that behind would only paint a target on his back if anyone was able to make a connection between the armour he was about to make and the direwolf fur.


    Better to just burn it all and wipe all traces that it ever existed, and from what he heard the only other ones that knew about the furs was a group of adventures, and the failure of this merchants trade was going to get them some estate, it could still be considered a win for them.


    Once the items were burning properly, Lirian strode to one of the openings cut by the guards and prepared to leave.


    However as he approached the opening he turned his head slightly, "Boy, I''ll spare you for now, but you had best spread the word of what happened here today," Lirian said with a smirk this time his voice became much smoother and almost perfect.


    "This language really is a twister on the tongue," Lirian said softly as the camp behind him started to burn like a beacon.


    ---


    Mal was still lying on the ground, he regained consciousness a little while ago, he got to see the fires burning away his father''s fortune.


    Just as he wanted to go and save the items on the cart he saw a figure beyond the flames, it was hard to make out but he saw the shining silver hair, which made his entire body freeze up.


    ''Orcs,'' he thought, ''This area was supposed to of limits to orcs,'' he thought in fear, silver hair was the trade mark of noble orc blood lines.


    Then that person spoke his voice was smooth and powerful, and his every word caused him to feel terror down to his bone, he was just a boy, other than the occasional bandits on the road, he had never experienced any dangers.


    When the silver-haired orc left, Mal staggered to his feet and placed a hand on his dislocated jaw, as he desperately ran to the tents exit, but once he left he saw an even more horrifying sight.


    The entire camp was scorching hot, as flames licked everything in sight, as he step forward he saw the corpse of a beautiful older woman, "M-m-miss Hila," he forced out her name through his broken jaw, as tears formed in his eyes.


    If not for the flames that were threatening to cook him alive he might have stayed for longer, but he eventually ran to the horse''s and left in a mad dash.


    ---


    Lirian made his back to the cave, and got to work on making his outfit with the furs, he obtained two sewing kits from the caravan and few things that could be used to treat the furs.


    Four days passed quickly before Lirian completed making up an outfit with all the furs, it was very bulky, which Lirian was happy about, it would help him hide his body better and draw less attention, all that remained was for him to get his hands on some cosmetics.


    Lirian stalked the road and two whole weeks had passed before he got everything he needed, by that point word of him had started to spread, no search parties had been released yet but based on how the merchants had doubled and tripled their guards, it was apparent that they heard of him and that they were afraid.


    It was only natural that people would be suspicious , for two weeks now no merchants had entered any of the towns going up or down, because Lirian had killed every last one of them without discrimination, and occasionally left a survivor to spread the tale.


    When Lirian finally got his hands on the cosmetics he dyed his hair black and constructed a skin mask, that would look just like his skin, but that changed his features slightly, to make his face appear more masculine, he''d grown tired of people confusing him for a girl and had he not been a well known figure on Xelia he didn''t doubt that many others would have mistaken him for one.


    Finally Lirian dawned his new set of gear, he extended his boots to make them guard more of his leg, using sections of the third grade fur and strapped them down with leather straps.


    He also used the third grade fur on his arms, but for his chest he was forced to use the second grade fur, all that the armour offered him any way was extra protection, not that Lirian felt like he needed it, most people would be lucky to touch the hem of his clothes let alone strike him.


    The main purpose of the gear was to cover his body.


    After his armour Lirian had picked up some much better swords and daggers, which he could tell were forged by proper blacksmiths that knew how to give a blade a proper edge, while maintaining the swords strength.


    The final touch was a simple wooden walking cane that Lirian managed to pick up, it was extremely simple in its design without even an engraving or a marking on it, which meant it couldn''t be traced at all.


    Lirian had been making due with branches that he shaped into walking sticks so far, which made the walking cane a welcome discovery.


    As Lirian prepared to leave, he took one final count of his coin, "In total he gather 5 gold pieces, 160 silver pieces, and his copper pieces could have used a bag of its own, which is why he chose to leave most of it behind in the cave.


    If he ever had a need of it he could return for it at a later date, and if he didn''t, some lucky person would become rich in copper.


    Lirian chuckled softly at how much he managed to gather over the coarse of two weeks, those bandits he killed had lived their lives in vain in comparison, but that was the difference in strength.


    Lirian began to make his way towards the village, it would take three days for him reach the village from the cave, and he couldn''t wait to start experiencing this world.


    He was about to experience the world like never before, in all his past lives the foot of the village was the limit of his range.


    Once people saw him, they''d start chucking stones his way, or it would start with the guards charging directly at him with their spears readied and their bows knocked.


    Lirian remembered how he would always watch from afar, with desperation and an unbelievable urge to go in and grab a drink at the local taverns or to speak with a merchant, to learn how trade worked, but he was forced by that curse to always to be an observer of the world.


    Lirian set his feet on the road and prepared himself for this bright new world, filled with countless possibilities, ''This time, there will be no weapons aimed at me,'' he thought hopefully and went forward.

 Chapter 248 - 014 – Willcolly

    It was a scary time in Willcolly, what made it even more scary was that it was supposed to be a happy time for them, but word had been spreading for a few days now that the road to Willcolly had become the hunting grounds of some powerful bandit group.


    Others claimed that it was an orc invasion, and the taverns were filled with men drinking and shouting that the orcs were trying to take back their old land.


    The word about the orcs were the most troubling, and they had seen a survivor no believed the boy at first, he seemed a little of his rockers, but as the weeks passed by no new merchants came up from Riverfall and very few were still coming down from Proge, most of them were making the village of Willcolly their final stop, before turning around.


    The outside of the village was ablaze with fire, it was night time and the moats were lit, it was naturally a far distance from the village walls, no one wanted the village burning down, but the fire provided a sense of light and security to the people.


    The moats were usually only supposed to be lit during the winter, that was the time that they had to deal with the beasts coming down from the mountains to hunt for food, but with all this talk about orcs on the move, they decided to lite the moats.


    It''s easier to kill what you can see, or so the saying goes.


    "Bosh, there''s something out there," a guard started saying, he was standing a little away from the others, who were busy drinking and playing dice, he was usually the same, but this talk about orcs had him on edge, better to face the bastards sober, that way he could at least stab a couple in the gut.


    Bosh was the guy in charge of the guards, well it was a village so they didn''t really have much a guard, just villages that rotated the duty and Bosh could be said to be experienced with a sword, he did guard caravans for a decade before he returned home to settle down.


    Bosh took a swing from a ceramic jar and looked around, before turning to Naz, "Naz lad, you''re to on edge, before you know it you''ll be hearing the crickets mating call as a war anthem," Bosh said and the others started to chuckle.


    Bosh sighed, but that was when everyone heard a loud thump from ahead, and they all jumped up, two of them grabbed their spears, Bosh grabbed his sword and Naz ran behind them as he nocked an arrow and held his bow at the ready.


    The gates were shut ahead of them, but they could all see through the various gaps, it might have been night-time, but the moats were burning bright making it easy to see the surroundings.


    That''s when they all saw a man, a very short man, he was wearing a cloak so they couldn''t see much, other than his legs.


    He wore boots that were covered in fur, and there were several daggers attached to his thighs and one short-sword and one long sword attached to his waist.


    With a glance they could tell that the man was an experienced adventurer, from the way his gear was attached to his body and the dangerous air around him, it was obvious that he was a dangerous character, but the guards held their ground without backing down.


    "Who goes there?" Bosh asked loudly his voice carried over clearly.


    "I''m just a wondering traveller, Lirian is my name, I''ve been traveling for a long time and I''m in need of a room for the night," Lirian said through the gates.


    "Lower your hood first," Bosh said grasping his sword firmly.


    Lirian gripped the hood and threw it back, revealing his messy black hair that almost reached his shoulders and his new face that held a lot of his old face, it just added a bit more of a masculine touch, making it impossible to mistake his gender.


    The guards all sighed in relief as they saw the black hair, they didn''t hold their weapons as firmly as before, but they kept their weapons ready, it never hurt to be extra cautious, and they did find Lirian odd after all he was wearing a blindfold.


    "How did a blind man make it here alone?" Bosh asked curiously.


    "You shouldn''t underestimate what a blind man can see," Lirian said mysteriously, not giving any real answer, "Might I enter, as much as I''d like to chat, I''d like even more to get some rest," Lirian said in a tired voice.


    "There has been trouble on the roads for weeks now, how did you make it here alone? And, how did you cross the moat?" Bosh asked ignoring Lirian''s request.


    Lirian sighed, he wasn''t expecting his actions to cause the people to be so afraid, in a way it was similar to how things used to be in the past, but at least he was able to converse with the guards rationally.


    "The moat might be a long jump, to most people, but it was easy for me to clear, I believe you all heard when I landed," Lirian said, the thump they heard was from his landing.


    "As for the roads, I did notice something strange, there were less merchants and caravans on the roads, and those that I came across, had many guards, has something happened on the roads recently that I''m unaware off?" Lirian asked with concern, he had to make it look like he was genuinely surprised.


    "I see," Bosh said lowering his sword, and he opened the gate to allow Lirian in.


    "My apologies friend," Bosh said as Lirian stepped in, "There has been word of a group of Orcs, raiding the caravans on the roads we haven''t had any one come to our village in almost a week, everyone''s a little on edge, fearing an attack" he explained to Lirian.


    "Orcs?" Lirian asked this time feeling genuinely surprised, so far he''d met humans, but he wasn''t to sure about what other races were on this world, and he didn''t look anything like an orc, even his stature was far to tiny to ever be considered a child orc let alone an adult.


    Bosh shook his head, "It''s just a rumour, but there were a few survivors of the attacks, none of them saw much, but they claim to have seen a figure with silver hair," Bosh explained.


    "Ah," Lirian nodded in realisation, it seemed that the orcs here had underwent some mutation to give them silver coloured hair, it wasn''t exactly a new discovery, all races tended to develop variations over time.


    "Are any of those survivors still here?" Lirian asked curiously.


    Bosh shook his head, "The merchants that were here at the time, took the survivors with them up to Proge, better to report the trouble and use the survivors as proof, to get the town to take the trouble seriously, that way they''ll send out a squad of cultivators to clear up the road," he explained.


    Lirian nodded and turned to the group of guards who were all listening attentively to his conversation with Bosh, "You lad," Lirian said pointing to the one called Naz, "You have sharp ears, you heard when I jumped," Lirian commented, Lirian had purposely made noise when he jumped and landed, while they all heard him land only that one heard him jump.


    "How''d you know?" the guards asked in surprise, they all realised that Naz''s reaction earlier was because he actually heard Lirian.


    "I told you that you shouldn''t underestimate what a blind man see''s, but more than that you should never underestimate what a blindman hears," Lirian said pointing to his ear.


    Then he turned to face Naz, "Lad show me to the nearest inn, I need some rest and hot food," Lirian said tapping his cane against the ground as if he was growing impatient.


    "Lad?" Naz questioned, "I doubt that you''re much older than me, honestly you might even be younger than me," he said to Lirian but still started to guide him in to the village.


    "Hahaha," Lirian chuckled, "I''m old enough to call even the oldest ancestor whose name you remember lad, let alone a brat like you," Lirian said in an amused tone, but a silence followed his statement, and all the guards looked at him in shock.


    "You''re a cultivator?" Naz suddenly asked, with a completely different look in his eyes.


    "Come now lad, no need to gawk, show me to the inn," Lirian didn''t give them a direct answer, even if he said yes it technically wouldn''t be a lie, as he used to a be cultivator, and even if they didn''t believe him with a simple snap of his fingers, he''d be able use energy control to completely wow them.


    To ordinary mortals, cultivators were legendary figures, the warriors that fought for their lands, and that kept their lands protected from invasions.


    After Naz came to believe that Lirian was a cultivator, he showed the most respect and courtesy that a commoner would know how to show as he escorted Lirian through the village.

 Chapter 249 - 015 – The Inn

    Lirian followed behind Naz, while gently tapped his cane against the ground as he walked, Lirian realised that for a village it was pretty wealthy because it''s main road was completely cobbled, and the village was pretty big, it took a good half hour to reach the best inn in the village.


    The inn was stationed on the main road , just across the street was little bakery and a little further up sat the residence of the village mayor.


    The smell of food and ale carried into the night air as well as the chattering of the people that were huddled within the inn, much of what Lirian had heard was similar to what the guard had told him, the primary topic of everything was the orcs.


    Lirian felt amused at their great fears, if they only knew that it was him, and that they just let the person they were all fearing into their village, he wondered how they''d react.


    When he reached the door, Lirian pulled out a couple coppers and dropped them into Naz''s hand, as he pushed the old door open.


    Ding.


    A little bell on top of the door rung as it opened and Lirian stepped inside the room, at first his presence didn''t catch to much attention, but as more and more people didn''t recognise him he caught more and more attention.


    For the past few days there wasn''t a single new face in town and even the merchants that came, were well known by the villages, and even with the mask Lirian was very memorable, from his face and the blindfold to his height to his gear, and the walking cane it all stood out.


    Naz was happily looking at his palm that was full of coin, a generous tip that Lirian provided, when he noticed the looks that were being cast at Lirian, most of them were curious but some of them were wary.


    He quickly rushed in and whispered a few words to anyone important in the town explaining the situation, the first person he told was naturally the inn keeper and as soon as Naz moved on to the next person, the inn keeper walked to Lirian.


    "Greetings guest from afar, welcome to my humble abode," the fat inn keeper said with a flourished bow to Lirian, he bowed so low that his large apron brushed the floor, and everyone looked on in surprise at the inn keepers'' actions.


    But as Naz moved around speaking softly, the story quickly reached everyone''s ears that they were in the presence of a cultivator, and they all started to look at Lirian with reverence in their eyes.


    The inn keeper, stood with a small distance between himself and Lirian to be respectful, "How may I be of service to you good traveller?" he asked with a big smile.


    Lirian grabbed a coin purse from his belt, that had 10 silvers and tossed it to the innkeeper, "I''ll be staying for a few days to rest up, prepare your best room for me, serve me 3 hot meals a day during my stay and prepare a hot bath for me every morning before the sun rises, and keep my mug topped up with your best ale at all times,"


    Lirian''s demands could have been said to be excessive but the innkeeper smiled pleasantly and showed Lirian to a table in the inn.


    Once Lirian was seated the inn keeper went into the kitchen and looked into the purse, he broke out into a wide smile as he saw the silver, even a single silver would have had him over the moon.


    In general, he charged 8 coppers for a normal room and 13 coppers for his best room, 3 coppers for a meal and 5 coppers for a hot bath and two mugs of ale were worthy a copper.


    So even if he gave his best treatment for a day it couldn''t be much more than 30 coppers a day, maybe 35 if the guest was a big drinker, and it took 100 coppers to make a silver.


    Yet he got ten silvers for just a few days, it was more than he made in a good season, let alone a month.


    ---


    Lirian took a seat in one of the corners of the room near the fireplace that was crackling loudly, the warmth of a fire always clear Lirian''s head, and as he sat down, there were several people that came up to him and offered their thanks, and many of them even prayed to him openly.


    It was due to that, that Lirian realised just how highly the people thought of cultivators, from their prayers Lirian could tell that they believed cultivators to be upright guardians of justice and goodness.


    Heroes who look after world, and more than once he heard some of the younger one''s directly praying to him to save them from the orc invasion, as for the adults they were a little more tactful and simple prayed that Willcolly be protected from harm.


    This was a first for Lirian, but he managed to hide his shocked well as he took in large mouthfuls of ale, and listened to the various prayers being sent his way, Lirian had heard a lot, maybe a little to much about the peoples lives at one point, these mortals started to get very detailed with their prayers.


    They were some girls that were praying for a prince to make them their wives, and there were others that began to openly state the names of the woman and man they wanted to wed, at which point Lirian started to think that there was something wrong with the people, because that was just the least ridiculous of their prayers.


    Lirian sighed as he thought of the potential cause of this, the people did basically deify cultivators, but it would be ridiculous for them to openly state such wishes with a crowd watching.


    Lirian realised that it was likely something to do with him, even with his clothing blocking their view of his body, it wasn''t spelled to completely conceal his bodies natural effect on the people, while they weren''t experiencing an insatiable lust their minds were being affected, the moment they opened up a little to him with their prayers all their hidden desires started gushing out.


    "Cough," Lirian cleared his throat loudly, "All of you return to your meals and stop disturbing me," Lirian said in a slightly cold tone.


    Everyone started looking around with alertness in their eyes, as they realised what they had been doing, and many of the people who were reaching marrying age were looking around with reddened faces, as they realised that they admitted to liking certain people or that they didn''t want to marry the person they were betroth to.


    The people soon backed away, not complained a bit even they knew that they had gone too far, and they couldn''t explain why.


    As the crowd dispersed, one of the barmaids came and carefully placed a bowl of hot soup in front of Lirian.


    It was vegetable soup, with bits of chicken inside it, Lirian could tell that his was different from everyone''s as he took a sniff, the others only had vegetables in theirs but Lirian had meat in his and there was a lot more vegetables inside it.


    However after digging in Lirian felt disappointed, while it was flavourful, when compared to the food he was used to eating, it was the equivalent of animal grub.


    As Lirian ate a small girl maybe five or six years old came up to him with shining eyes, and said in curious tone, "Mr," she called out sweetly, "Mommy and daddy are saying that Mr is strong, just like Mr. Cassy," she said.


    "But they won''t tell me who''s stronger, are you stronger or is Mr Cassy stronger?" she asked with curious eye, "I think Mr Cassy is stronger, he can pick me up with one hand and hold me up in the sky like a birdie," she said with a giggle.


    Lirian was glad to hear the name Mr Cassy it was for him that Lirian had decided to come all the way to this village, that was the name of the cultivator Lirian had discovered in the bandits memories, and from the look of thing he was pretty well known.


    After seeing the treatment, the people here gave to him, he imagined that was similar if not greater to Mr Cassy who lived amongst them.


    "Lizzy," the girls mother suddenly cried as if just noticing that her daughter had snuck away, "We told you not to trouble him," her mother scolded her.


    "Please forgive her for disturbing you, I''ll take whatever punishment you have in mind, please forgive my daughter," the girls mother cried falling to her knees while begging.


    "That''s alright," Lirian said to woman he was fairly amused by the little girl.


    "Lizzy," Lirian said turning to the girl, the girl seemed a little worried after seeing her mother''s reaction, but she nodded obediently when Lirian spoke.


    "Do you want to hear a secret Lizzy?" Lirian asked with a playful smirk.


    The little girl seemed to forget all of her earlier hesitation at the mention of a secret, as he eyes lit up and she nodded.


    Lirian pointed two fingers at her and silver energy began to build-up under the girls feet, and in just seconds the girls eyes opened wide as she realised that she was flying, the silver energy was lifting her up and brought her ear close to Lirian''s lips.


    "There is no one stronger than me in the whole wide world," Lirian whispered playfully into her ear, his whisper was intentionally loud so that everyone could hear.


    The adults smiled softly, due to the playfulness in Lirian''s tone they believed that he was lying and intentionally letting them know, as for Lizzy her entire face had gone red from excitement as she nodded her little head vigorously.


    The children and adults looked on in complete awe at the little girl who was floating in the air like a little fairy.


    They had never seen such a sight not even Mr Cassy could do such a thing; it was like they got to see the power of the deities for themselves.


    Lirian twirled his finger and Lizzy acme back to the ground, "Now run along to your mother," Lirian said as the girl stood still staring at him as if star struck.


    "Barmaid, show me to my room," Lirian said after taking another swing from his mug and emptying out the ale, before climbing to his feet.

 Chapter 250 - 016 – Mission Complete (R-18)

    Lirian followed the barmaid to his room, it was located on the third floor of the inn at the end of the corridor.


    When the barmaid opened the door there were three others already in the room, scurrying around, dusting the desk and puffing the pillows.


    They all turned when the door opened and looked at Lirian and the barmaid intently, "Triss," one of the women said to the barmaid, "Didn''t my husband tell you not to bring the Good Sir up until the room was ready!" she scolded the barmaid in an arrogant tone.


    "I told her to bring me to my room," Lirian said cutting across the woman he presumed was the wife of the innkeeper.


    "Oh," the innkeepers wife said lowered her head, "My apologies Good Sir, we are still preparing the room, it should take us only a few more minutes," she said apologetically.


    "There''s no need for that, you can all leave me now, and remember to have my hot bath ready before first light," Lirian said fluttering his hand as if chasing away something he found bothersome.


    They seemed to treat his words like law and quickly departed leaving him alone in the room.


    Lirian quickly scoured the room, he didn''t expect them to try anything funny, but it didn''t hurt to be cautious.


    When Lirian was finally done he went to the bed, which was just a wooden pellet with a layer of straw and several blankets stacked on it, the pillows however were proper feather pillows.


    As Lirian rested his head, he checked the system and found that his mission was complete.


    [Mission completed: Find a Settlement]


    [Reward: +300 fate particles]


    [x10 Heavens Chosen Boon]


    [New Mission: Discover the secret to cultivation on Nebula-6]


    [Reward: +500 fate particles]


    [Optional Reward: Knowledge on Nebula-6]


    Lirian looked at the new mission and pondered, 500 fate particles wasn''t really all that much, and the system allocated the particles based on the difficulty it believed a challenge would pose.


    It meant that the knowledge wasn''t as much of a secret as he believed it to be, there was just a degree of secrecy to it, but it wouldn''t be that difficult to learn.


    Lirian didn''t care much for the few fate particles anyway what interested him was the optional reward, he could give up the particles for knowledge which was almost always the wiser choice.


    The system had a special parameter to it that allowed it to constantly observe and pick up new information, things that were present but that Lirian might have missed or that he didn''t realise would be important.


    The systems ability to read the future would allow it to recognise anything that would be important ahead of time, these are things that Lirian would eventually learn but learning it ahead of time wouldn''t change much.


    Divining was a tricky situation, one should never know to much or they will break the flow of the world, but if one knew just the right things, they could prepare for it without changing the events leading up to it.


    The system was able to navigate the flow of fate while ensuring the survival of Lirian, while attempting not to break the flow of fate, which gave it a very burdensome job considering the things that Lirian would usually do, that almost always involved certain death as an outcome.


    Lirian was eager for the knowledge, but unfortunately he felt that he was very likely to fail this mission, after that last cultivator, Lirian had no intention of asking for the method, he was simply going to use a fate string search to get the intel.


    The moment he used fate particles to get something he''ll lose out on the reward, the fate particle reward was no different from what anyone would get if they were to get the intel through their own efforts, it was just that to the vast majority of people, they didn''t even know that fate particles existed let alone how to actively use it.


    To use fate particles to get the intel, was the same as cheating, or skipping the effort, so it negated the rewards.


    Lirian set his goals to get the intel out of the cultivator Cassy as soon as possible as he blew out the lamps that lit up the room, not that they did anything for him, and lay down on his bed.


    But then a sudden knock was heard on his door, and Lirian heard the door creaking as it opened, a woman came walking in barefoot, "Good Sir," she said in a nervous voice.


    Lirian recognised the voice, it belonged to the barmaid, "Traveling alone must have made you weary," she said lightly biting her lips.


    "If you''d like, I could keep your bed warm for the night or even for your entire stay," she said with ragged breath and Lirian could hear the sound of her night dress falling to the ground.


    Her completely naked body was made bare, and the nipples on her two perky breasts were pointing up as she walked close to the bed and gently placed her hands on Lirian''s thighs as if waiting for permission to continue.


    Lirian usually controlled his urges pretty well, when he was on Xelia, after all his actions did not only represent himself but also his mother, so he didn''t want to affect her by creating a series of scandals, but now he didn''t have such worries.


    Not to mention that he was in desperate need to relieve his mind, of the loneliness that he was struggling to become reacquainted with, so he reached out grabbing onto her firm tits, from the feel, Lirian could tell that the barmaid was a young woman.


    "Mmmmhhh," the barmaid moaned loudly at his touch and grabbed his hands tightly, pressing them tightly against her tits, as if asking Lirian to be more aggressive with her body.


    Seeing that she genuinely wanted this, Lirian started to take more liberties with her body, instead of squeezing her tits he chose to focus solely on her erect nipples, grabbing them between his fingers and squeezing them while lightly teasing them with gentle flicks from his tongue.


    "AAahhhhh," she cried aloud and her entire body started to quiver as streams of liquid began to roll down her naked thighs and she fell forward against Lirian.


    Lirian paused for a moment and pulled her up from the edge of the bed and laid her down on the bed.


    As he picked her up, she lurched forward and pressed her lips against Lirian''s while wrappiung her arms around his neck and soon she stuck her tongue into his mouthing, growing more and more passionate with every second.


    When she was finally on the bed she pulled one of Lirian''s hands from her breasts and brought it down to her body, every where Lirian''s hands touched she felt like cold water touched her skin, until she brought his hand to her slit.


    Lirian spread her pussy lips and gently rubbed her down there, feeling the extreme wetness, and just as he lightly slipped a finger in, the barmaid''s entire body spasmed.


    "Oooh my," she cried out pulling her legs together and pressing Lirian''s finger deeper into her slit with wild vigour.


    As she recovered from her second orgasm, she ran her hands on Lirian''s back only to realise that he was still wearing bulky clothing and armour, even the daggers were still tightly strapped to his legs.


    "I want to feel all of you," she whispered coquettishly and tried to find the straps that held the armour in place, but as she did that Lirian caught her hands and pulled back slightly.


    Lirian realised that he was thinking with his dick currently, and he forgot about the effect his body had on people, even men would lose their minds with lust let alone a woman that was horny to begin with, he feared that she might lose her mind and become madly obsessed with him if he showed her his body.


    Sensing the odd change the barmaid smiled tactfully, "It''s okay if you want to keep it on," she said with giggle, "We only need one thing to continue," she said panting heavily and reached for his crotch.


    Lirian thought back to how Edith had acted after they were first together, she was a candidate so she did have an above average mental fortitude but still she did seem a little obsessed, she had even whispered things in his ear, about keeping him in her room for an entire month if possible.


    All of a sudden a hundred memories of his time with Edith started to flash through his mind, and Lirian slapped away the hand of the barmaid, who was grabbing onto his crotch with an exaggerate look on her face as she felt what was hidden under those pants.


    "Is something wrong?" she asked wincing at the stinging pain from the slap on her hands, she thought that she might have hurt his thing while feeling it up.


    "Get out," Lirian breathed out coldly and shoved her of the bed.


    The barmaid shuddered on the ground, "Did I do something wro¡­" she started to ask but Lirian cut her off before she finished, "Get out!" he said this time he was much more forceful with his words.


    The barmaid snivelled pitifully and ran to get her night dress, before rushing out of the room.


    As Lirian laid back down, a cold slithery voice sounded in his head, cackling wildly, "We''ve always wanted to be able to have sex with woman who want to have sex with us, and now you''re suddenly rejecting a woman that offers herself to us on a golden platter," Lirian recognised the voice it belonged to number 12.


    It was the first time that any of his other selves had spoken since Edith died, and Lirian didn''t know if he should be happy or worried to hear one of their voices again.


    "She''s not Edith," Lirian whispered softly and let his mind go blank.

 Chapter 251 - 017 – Effects Of The Godly Constitution

    A great serpent hung high above the skies and purple lightning covered the skies of the world beneath it, as violent winds toppled the mountains and the oceans of the world were dried up, but like all storms the eye of the storm is where things were the calmest.


    "I''m the god Samsara, the god of rebirth,"


    "If I can if I can dig into my source power, I might be able to bring you back," Lirian shouted and took Edith''s arms into his own holding onto her weak hands desperately.


    "Lirian you can stop, the harder you try the more it''s going to hurt when you fail," Edith said sorrowfully, but Lirian only shook his head.


    "System use my fate particles, all of them if you have to, to dig into my bloodline powers," Lirian shouted.


    [Initiating¡­] the system buzzed.


    [The powers of Samsara are unknown] the system declared after a while.


    "Keep going," Lirian shouted over the raging winds, he was unwilling to give up.


    [The powers of Samsara are unknown] the system declared once more.


    "Again," Lirian roared desperately.


    [The powers of Samsara are unknown] the system declared, staying true to its earlier assessment.


    Lirian gritted his teeth in frustration as he thought desperately for a solution, "Use the foundation of the truth of grand reincarnation to draw upon the power of Samsara," Lirian ordered seeing one last glimmer of hope.


    ---


    Lirian lurched forward from the bed as droplets of cold sweat slid down his body, it was that dream again.


    It was haunting him for weeks now every time he closed his eyes to get some rest that dream would return.


    It acted as a blaring reminder of his failure, every time he tried to rest, it was just there waiting for him.


    Lirian climbed out of bed, and as he focused his hearing he could hear movement in the inn, the system gave Lirian an alert that it was just a half hour before first light, so Lirian assumed that it was the innkeeper who was up and preparing the bath he requested.


    He might be blind, but since they all believed he was a cultivator no one dared to doubt his ability to detect the time, Lirian learned during the previous night that the people seemed to see cultivators as all-knowing deities, so they dared not cheat him of anything at all.


    A short while later there was a knock on Lirian''s door and the innkeepers wife walked into his room holding a lamp, "Good Sir," she said politely, as she examined the room with a knowing smile, she was even a little bashful, everyone heard the noises in the night, even the neighbours were likely to have heard, and she''d be lying if she wasn''t intrigued.


    She had never heard a woman make so much noise, and she knew that the girls in the inn were all very experienced and rarely ever made much noise, whenever a cultivator passed through they would do their best to please them.


    One of her barmaids had done such a good job that she captured the heart of Mr Cassy, now she was married, and the envy of every woman in the village.


    As she looked around the room she was surprised to see that only Lirian was in the room, but she wisely chose not to say anything about what happened.


    "Your bath has been prepared," she said and immediately guided Lirian to the first floor and into another room.


    Inside the room a small tub was releasing waves of hot steam, as Lirian stepped in the innkeeper''s wife followed after him, "Does Sir require any help to wash the more difficult to reach parts?" she asked in a suggestive tone and smiled.


    "I wonder what your husband would think if he heard you say that?" Lirian rebuked her, wondering what the hell was up with all the woman here being so horny.


    But contrary to his expectations the woman didn''t seem taken aback at all, "I have three beautiful girls that work as barmaids for me, and I''ve seen the way my husband looks at them," she said in a slightly heated tone.


    "He says he doesn''t mean anything by it when I confront him about it, but I''ve gotten the scent of my girls from the sheets of my marital bed on more occasions than I can count, since he forsakes our vows why shouldn''t I?" she asked boldly, no longer even attempting to disguise her desires.


    "My husband is still asleep, and he sleeps like a log, if we are careful he won''t know a thing," she said voicing her deep desires.


    ''Fuck,'' Lirian cursed internally, ''I have got to get my cultivation, so that I can spell my clothes, I don''t know what pheromones I''m releasing but it needs to stop,'' Lirian thought.


    Lirian was starting to realise just how much, his spelled clothes and the title as candidate protected him during his time on Xelia.


    This situation was tempting even for Lirian, a married woman, trying to do it with him while her husband was just upstairs and could come down at any time.


    The risk taker inside of him was shouting to say yes to the offer, not that it was much of a risk anyway, but he remembered the reason he stopped himself last night.


    "You should leave," Lirian said turning away.


    The innkeepers wife''s eyes widen in shock, she doubted that any man would be able to resist such a tempting offer, he gets to do what ever he wants with her and take''s no responsibility, but she was being rejected.


    She stood there stunned for a moment and slowly nodded her head before leaving the room.


    As Lirian started to take off his clothes he could hear the cackling of a voice in his head, "Another wasted opportunity," he heard number 12 muttering in his head.


    Lirian sighed and climbed into the bath, the water was still boiling hot as Lirian lowered his entire body into the tub his skin quickly turned a shade of red.


    He too thought that it was wasteful, but he wasn''t ready yet.


    Like that Lirian leaned back in the tub and scrubbed off all the dirt that his body had accumulated over the past few weeks, everything was suddenly so different from before, just a few weeks ago, he could have a hot bath ten times a day if he wished, but now it was considered a luxury to have some hot water and food.


    As he was lost in thought the door suddenly opened which made Lirian jump up and rush to his clothes, but it was already too late.


    "Sir pardon my intrusion I forgot to leave a towel for you to dry your¡­" the innkeeper''s wife was saying, as she walked into the room with a towel.


    But as her eyes fell on Lirian, she lost control of her breathing and even the towel fell from her hands as she openly gapped at him with a look of pure reverence.


    "By the gods," she muttered as her entire face started to redden at a rapid speed, she audibly gulped down mouthfuls of saliva as she looked at Lirian with a transfixed gaze, she was just seconds away form pouncing on him like a beast.


    When a torrent of bone curdling killing intent swept over her entire being, allowing her to become a little clear headed, "Leave!" Lirian said coldly as emitted a controlled degree of killing intent.


    He could tell that she didn''t do it intentionally, so he didn''t outright release his killing intent, if he released it properly her mind was likely to break before she could think another thought.


    His killing intent did the trick to clear up her mind for a bit, sensing the danger she hurriedly fled from the room leaving Lirian all alone with a deep frown.


    Lirian was still unaware of the long term effects he would have on people, he just hoped that his killing intent was enough to make her steer clear of him, but as Lirian thought on it he realised that it was also an opportunity.


    The powers and effects of a godly constitution were just as much a mystery to him as his samsaric source power, and the only way to learn more about it was through research.


    So far he found that with just a few words he could get to life long friends to kill each other, they were bandits so Lirian didn''t put to much weight on that, then there was the ability that took place when a person opened up to him, they would spill their deepest desires.


    But now he had two more things he could learn.


    He could learn the long-term effects of what it would do to someone who saw his body in all its glory, and he would also be able to observe the actions of the barmaid who he touched very intimately and exchanged saliva with.


    In a way a village like this without any real powers to protect them was the perfect place for him to learn the basic effects of his body, without creating a big stir, it he was in some big town or city, word was bound to get around.


    But if the word were spread from some village it would hardly be taken seriously, and if things got out of hand, it would be no problem for Lirian to wipe out the village, no one was coming in or out of the village currently, which made it the ideal place to conduct some research without getting any unwanted attention.

 Chapter 252 - 018 – The Mayor Of Willcolly

    After the bath Lirian got his clothes back on and waited a short while for breakfast.


    The scent of freshly baked bread from the bakery across the street swept across the village, and soon the first residents started to leave their homes and prepared for their daily toil and labour.


    The inn that was usually only busy in the nights when everyone wanted a couple of drinks, was faced with a boom of early visitors.


    Word had started to spread about Lirian, a cultivator coming to the village when they were facing a crises, to them it was a sign of the gods helping them, so there were many visitors that came to Lirian and started to pray in his presence.


    Some of the more wealthy villages brought offerings of food, and within a short few hours Lirian had several sticks of hard bread, a couple vegetables and someone even offered him two eggs, which was basically a luxurious food item to the villages.


    Lirian didn''t want a repeat of the previous night but he also had a goal of trying to figure the effects of his godly constitution so he limited the number of people that could offer a prayer at a time, and only allowed them to make a single prayer.


    Between the many prayers Lirian chose a few people to offer his hand to help them up, to a few he showed them a glimpse of his skin, and to the rare few he did another thing.


    He put a layer of saliva on his fingers tip and drew runes on their forehead, all the runes he drew were in fact runes of power, things that could offer temporally increase a person''s luck or help a woman to better conceive.


    Lirian had just done it to put a bit of a show, and to see how the people would react to him using his saliva on them, but the one''s who Lirian wrote on with his saliva were looked at with envy and reverence.


    But the thing that blew Lirian away was that the runes were actually taking effect, and the system informed him that some fate particles had been transferred from him to the villagers, when he inscribed them with a rune.


    Lirian knew that there were fluids from creatures and cultivators that could be used as conduits or to support and create some spells or talismans, but it was usually reproductive fluids or blood, in some very rare cases a creatures tears had uses, but saliva was never a conduit of power.


    The more Lirian learnt of his godly constitution, the more concerned he became, it seemed like his body naturally produced treasures, and he''d have to be careful about the effects of all the things his body secretes.


    For all Lirian knew his shit might act as a miracle fertilizer for plant life, the thought really soured his mood, the last thing he wanted added to his divine name was producer of miracle manure.


    A short while later Lirian took a seat in the dinning room and started to happily eat some of the offerings that were given to him while a barmaid tended to his ale, making sure his mug was not empty for long.


    That barmaid called Triss was constantly looking at Lirian with a pinning look, but she kept her distance from him, while on the other hand Lirian noticed that the innkeepers wife kept glancing at him and she frequently grabbed his mug from the barmaids and brought it to him.


    "Curious," Lirian muttered softly at around noon, as it appeared that the one who saw his body was far more taken by him than the one who had him touch her body, there were still several factors to be considered, but Lirian was starting to come up with a general idea of the effects of his body.


    While Lirian was lost in thought a big burly man came up to him, "Good Sir please forgive me for not introducing myself sooner, I am the mayor of Willcolly, but you can call me by my name Cowen," the mayor said introducing himself.


    "Mighty I join you for a drink?" the mayor asked he''d been waiting for a while to come introduce himself, he planned to do it in the night when Lirian was drunk, but he heard from the innkeeper that Lirian was already on his twentieth mug by noon.


    The mayor figured that if he came any later, all he''d have was a knocked out drunk to speak to, but when he heard Lirian''s speak he realised that the rumours about adventures being able to drink entire kegs of ale was likely true, because Lirian seemed to be in a perfectly clear state of mind.


    "Just call me Lirian," Lirian said to the mayor he was getting tired of people calling him ''Good Sir,'' "I''m not overly fond of formalities, so lets get to the point, I believe that you want to hire me to protect your village against the orcs," Lirian said cutting directly to the point.


    From the mayors attitude it was obvious that he wasn''t like the majority of the villages who deified him, while he was still respectful he seemed more educated on the subject of cultivators, and for that matter so did the innkeeper his wife and the barmaids.


    It was likely that due to their establishment that they had a lot more contact with cultivators than other people did, and hence they had a better understanding of cultivators.


    There was that old saying ''If you want to understand someone live with them.''


    The mayor''s eyes widened in surprise and took a seat next to Lirian as he gestured for the mayor to join him.


    "You''re pretty sharp, most adventures are as dumb as a door nail and that''s before they down their first drink," the mayor laughed heartily and sipped on his drink.


    Lirian took a swing of his drink and continued, "I have heard from the people here that you have a cultivator who has taken up residence here, why would you need anymore protection than that?" Lirian asked, as he slowly probed into the mayor, there were things that he wanted to learn about this world.


    It would start to raise suspicion, if he directly asked questions that should be general knowledge so the best way was to go with leading questions.


    The mayor nodded, "Indeed Mr Cassy is a cultivator, but he only strengthened his body, but you," the mayor said shaking his head and looked at Lirian as if he found a treasure, "Everyone is speaking about how you made a little girl fly, and those blessings that you have given, it''s very rare to come across one of your kind, no one has seen a spell caster in these parts for generations," he said.


    "To have you here will reassure everyone, and I won''t have to light the moats every night to make everyone feel safe, Proge sends us enough of the black oil to last the winter every year, but if I use it now during harvest season, it will run out,"


    Lirian nodded softly as he digested the info, "It will be two months before anyone from Proge arrives to clean up the orcs, does that mean that you want to employ me for that duration?" Lirian asked, but he had absolutely no intention of staying here for more than a week, his top priority was to gather intel, as for how Lirian knew the time it would take for people to come from Proge Lirian had heard many people say something similar in the village.


    The mayor hesitated a bit but then nodded, "I''ll double the standard fee considering your ability, and you can come stay in my home and join my family for our meals," the mayor offered generously.


    Lirian chuckled inwardly at the mayors attempts to rope him in, the only thing left was for the mayor to offer his most beautiful daughter to him as a wife, then he''d become free labour to the village.


    ''The role of a leader is truly suited to a sly person,'' Lirian thought, in the academies political course, this was considered as ''Luring Tactics 101''.


    Lirian smiled while drinking, "Orcs are pretty dangerous," he said suggestively, but before the mayor could say anything more, he quickly added, "I''ll take your offer into consideration, but give me a few days to come to a decision," Lirian tactfully denied the mayor.


    "Now Cowen, I can tell that there is something else you want to ask me, so out with it, I told you I don''t like formalities, if you don''t tell me now I won''t consider your request at all," Lirian said simply.


    He noticed the mayors hesitation earlier, there was more to his request than some orc invasion, but he only wanted to bring it up after Lirian was more comfortable in his home and possibly infatuated with his daughter.


    Two months would have been enough time to form a tight relationship with Lirian, and by then a slightly more unreasonable request would be tolerable.

 Chapter 253 - 019 – Desolation

    "Let''s not play the game where you act like you don''t know what I''m talking about," Lirian said quickly, he knew that the mayor would deny the truth so he leaked a little of his killing intent in his words to pressure him.


    "You know a very dumb person would think you generous, but anyone with a little brains would find it very suspicious for someone like yourself to invite a complete stranger into your home," Lirian said coldly, "As if that stranger were family," Lirian added with a grin.


    The mayors eyes widened, earlier he was surprised but now he was completely shocked, his entire ploy to get Lirian to enter his home and get close to one of his daughters was seen through before he could even put any of his plans into motion.


    "It''s a desperate move, which makes me wonder, what''s got you so worried, and it''s not some group of bandit orcs, no, what ever you''re going to ask me is something that has had you worried for a while," Lirian said not giving the mayor any chance to breathe.


    The mayor looked around hesitantly, he knew there was no getting out of this now, he complained internally at his bad luck, the one time he needed a dumb and strong adventure to come around he ended up with a smart one.


    "Very well," the mayor nodded, "But this requires privacy," he said indicating for Lirian to follow him out of the inn, since the jig was up the mayor thought that it would serve him better to say the truth, he felt like his hope would not be realised but if he said nothing it was likely that Lirian would not even help with the potential orc problem.


    The mayor watched as Lirian grabbed his simple walking cane and started tapping it against the ground and followed after him while matching his pace, even his footsteps didn''t resembled someone who had just drank 20 mugs of ale.


    A few minutes later they walked down the main road of the village and into the house of the mayor, the mayor''s wife and his two daughters greeted Lirian with vigour when he entered, but they quickly excused themselves and went upstairs to the mayor''s study.


    As soon as they got in the mayor chased his wife and daughters away, before shutting the door and turning to Lirian and offering him a seat.


    "I apologise for the secrecy, but I can''t let anyone know about this or there will be a lot of panic in the village," the mayor said apologetically.


    "A few years ago you might have heard the rumours about the¡­" the mayor paused as if hesitant to speak any further, and he had lowered his tone as he said the words as if afraid the walls would hear him, "The Desolation!" he uttered in terror.


    "The desolation?" Lirian said in surprise, back in the empire there were hundreds of thousands of stories about the desolations, according to the stories all kinds of mutations of creatures would emerge from these places and bring chaos to entire worlds.


    There were a few hundred known desolations and the creatures from the desolations all held a strange type of power, not to mention that the creatures were far stronger than most cultivators, usually it would take teams of cultivators with a cultivation that was much higher than the creatures in order to kill them.


    Even second accord cultivators could not fight them on equal footing, it not for the creature''s lack of intelligence, they would likely be a the most powerful existences in the universe.


    Lirian was extremely shocked to hear the name desolation come up on this world, and even more so to hear it come out of the mouth of some backward village mayor, but he quickly reeled in his surprise, the naming was likely just a coincidence, but based on the mayors terrified tone it was something the people considered extremely terrifying.


    "What about the desolation?" Lirian asked plainly and the mayor looked at him in fright as if unable to process how Lirian was able to speak the word desolation without shuddering.


    "Just a few years ago when all those rumours started to spread about the great prophet Ivar prophesising its reopening," the mayor said with a cold shudder.


    "Go on," Lirian said nodding his head as all this was known to him, and already he could make out a key difference between the desolation here and the real desolation that existed in the universe, those places were always open, there was no such thing as a desolation that could open and close.


    The desolations were marked of as forbidden zones since the time of Quaria, after the guardians provoked the black dragon of despair and Arthur Pendragon had to act to take it down, no one dared to stick their nose into the desolations.


    The mayor nodded at Lirian''s beckoning and continued, "For the past few months, riders have been sent down from Proge and up from Riverfall, they''ve been speaking to the mayors of all the main villagers and asking us to spread the word to all villages nearby,"


    "They don''t know when it could be a few months or even a few years, they aren''t certain, but they are saying the same thing, the desolation will reopen and the black tide of infernals will come marching with it," the mayor said with a shudder.


    Lirian frowned deeply, at the mention of the infernals, in this language it had many meanings and to his understanding of what the mayors was saying, the word infernal was the same as saying abomination, which was one of the common names used for creatures born from a desolation in the empire.


    "So, if I''m guessing correctly you want me to stay here to protect your village, in the event of an infernal attacking your village?" Lirian asked, he did find it strange after all no one knew his real ability here so why would the mayor would put so much faith in him, a cultivator that he knew nothing about.


    The mayor''s eye''s widened in horror at the thought of an infernal reaching this place, if such a thing were to happen, then not even Mr Cassy would be able to do anything.


    "No, no," the mayor said hurriedly, "Even if the creatures make it here it won''t happen for many years," he explained.


    "But the runners from the major towns have informed us that half of the elites and all the reserve troops are being mobilised, and any sell sword with any skill will be paid handsomely to join the armies,"


    "The humans and orcs will create a joint battle front at the Tower Guard fortress in the south to fight back the infernals, if things are anything like the last time, then it could be centuries before the desolation is closed," the mayor said in a fearful voice.


    Then he turned to Lirian, "While all the soldiers are gone, the roads will become dangerous with bandits and eventually the villages will be targeted, before long some of the dark groups will start targeting the towns and cities, just like in the old days when the last desolation came," the mayor said with fearful eyes.


    "Good Sir, I''m just trying to keep my village safe from unwanted trouble, if I''m able to say that we have two cultivators protecting us, it is likely that no one would dare to even think about causing  any trouble," the mayor explained in a pleading tone.


    It had been so long since the last desolation, but the stories were still told and made people feel fear, the mayor himself had some journals from a distant ancestor who lived during the last desolation.


    His father would read to him some of the stories when he was a boy, those stories were enough to make him have nightmares through the night, but they were just the tip of the iceberg when he grew up he didn''t read many of the stories.


    But after the rumours about the great prophet Ivar''s prophecy, he like many others searched for all the old stories he could find, and in the process he found the journal that his father used to read to him.


    As it turned out those stories that made him wet the bed in fright, were the nicer stories, his ancestor used to be a powerful soldier, he attained the rank of adapt, and wrote his own personal accounts of every time he faced an infernal.


    There was once a time when his ancestor, witnessed an entire city with millions of people get turned into a wasteland over the course of a few hours as the black tide rushed through destroying the buildings with ease and swallowing living people whole.


    There was one infernal that devoured an entire mountain and all its inhabitants in the blink of an eye, if not for one of the heavenly emperors arriving to slay it, his ancestor would have died on that day.


    Just the thought of an infernal, filled him with so much dread, if such a creature arrived here what could anyone do, their only fortune would be that they wouldn''t even know how they died.

 Chapter 254 - 020 – Mission Failed

    Lirian laid back on the soft chair in the mayors study for a while as he processed what the mayor had said to him.


    "Sorry," Lirian eventually replied, "But I intend to go to the desolation, it sounds interesting," Lirian said with a smirk and got up to leave.


    Ever since the first time Lirian had heard of a desolation in the empire he wanted to visit one and learn more about them.


    But aside from the bedtime stories told about the desolations there wasn''t much, even when he hacked confidential servers he got nothing, and when he tried to use the system to learn about the desolations, the fate points required made him give up.


    Lirian had studied so many aspects of the 33 Neather Plains, during his many life times, but he never came across anything that resembled a desolation, so he assumed that it was some unique trait of the main plain.


    But the most important thing to Lirian was that it was something new, something that he never experienced before, and something that could be studied.


    For someone like Lirian who had always dedicated himself to finding new knowledge and research, the desolation was like an irresistible apple pie, made from heavenly ingredients.


    ''I hope that this worlds desolation is a real desolation,'' Lirian thought with a look of elation plastered on his face.


    If the mayor or any person on Nebula-6 knew the thoughts running through Lirian''s head they would completely lose their minds, even the heavenly emperors looked at the desolation with dread, yet Lirian was filled with excitement at the mere thought of it.


    The mayor didn''t know what to think when Lirian called the desolation interesting, he thought that Lirian was very smart, but that reply made him rethink his evaluation of Lirian.


    The mayor sighed with resignation as he looked at Lirian, he had another plan to entice Lirian but he hoped that he wouldn''t have to use it.


    "15 gold a year, plus food and accommodations," the mayor blurted out helplessly, 5 gold was a small fortune in this little village and that amount would severely drain the coffers of the mayor his annual taxes collected didn''t amount to more than 1000 gold.


    After the tribute he''d pay to the lord and the expenses of the village, he''d be lucky to have 50 gold in reserve every year and that was not including the expense brought about by the harvest festival every year and any other additional expenses that could come up, so he would just barely be able to afford it.


    It was also a very high rate that he was offering, when you include the free lodging and food, aside from some exceptionally talented adventures, making a 15 gold profit a year could be considered extremely good.


    The mayor had hoped that he could entice Lirian with his hospitality and one of his daughters, so that even if Lirian still demanded payment he''d ask for a small amount due to their connection, but since Lirian saw through that plan, he had to use the expensive method.


    But the mayors heart quickly sunk as he saw Lirian shaking his head in pity, "I can offer you 20 gold a year," the mayor reluctantly added but seeing no change in Lirian he made one last offer, "If I''m able to get everyone in the village to pool some resources together I might be able to raise it to 25 gold a year," he said through gritted teeth.


    The mayor knew that this would cause a lot of trouble and bring the dissatisfaction of the villagers, but he was doing this for their own good.


    "Sorry," Lirian said with a smile, "But you''ll have to try to trick the next cultivator that comes through your village," he chuckled and turned around.


    Lirian understood the thoughts of the mayor, and he could respect the mayor''s efforts to try and rope him in, but to put things frankly Lirian didn''t care about him or his village.


    As Lirian turned around he decided to do a quick fate string search on the mayor to find out if he missed anything, and Lirian''s eyes widened behind the blindfold because he discovered something he didn''t expect to find.


    Within the mayors memories he found what was necessary to become a cultivator, and it was actually very simple, hack it didn''t even take much effort.


    All Lirian needed was to gather 25 gold and get a letter of merit from any important individual within a village or town or city before bringing it to a lord of the area.


    The people of importance that he could get a letter of merit from was any blacksmith, herbalist, village mayor, guild branch leader or a noble.


    The letter was used as a type of guaranty, so if the cultivator violated any rules the person who gave them a letter of merit would be held accountable, so it was pretty difficult to get a letter of merit, because it was the same as using one''s life to vouch for the character of another.


    But Lirian did find it curious there was nothing about it being forbidden to share the knowledge, ''Is there something else that happens when a person goes to cultivate?'' Lirian wondered.


    Lirian stopped in his tracks and turned to the mayor, "I won''t be staying for that long, but I might be willing to stay to help you until the orc problem is resolved,"


    "But, I would first like to meet your local cultivator to hear what he has to say about the situation," Lirian said, the first step for him was to learn what oath the cultivators had to take.


    The oath didn''t frighten Lirian at all, he had his own tricks to severe almost any type of binding oath, but he wanted to know the process before hand, just in case there was anything he might overlook.


    A look of reluctance flashed across the mayors eyes but he quickly answered before Lirian called him out for acting suspicious, "Mr Cassy is out of town, he escorted one of the merchants out of town and he wanted to take a look at the orc''s, he should be back in 2 days,"


    Lirian nodded at the mayors reply, "I''ll be waiting then," he said and walked down the stairs.


    As Lirian walked away, the mayor looked at Lirian with a shine in his eyes, if he could keep Lirian here for 2 months, until the cultivators from Proge arrived he might just have the chance to get Lirian and one of his daughters together.


    [Mission: Failed]


    Lirian was expecting that the moment he found the info about how to cultivate in the mayors memories, while he still didn''t know the secret that would allow him to cultivate, he knew that it could be done at any residence of a lord.


    When Lirian made it down to the first floor of the house, the two daughters of the mayor quickly approached him with a lot of vigour.


    "Good sir, I''m Elle and this is my little sister Elsie," the elder of the two girls introduced themselves, Lirian knew that she was 15 years old from the mayors memories, just a year away from being of marrying age, and the little sister Elsie was just a year younger.


    Lirian learned that 16 years was the general age of marriage, Lirian learned that during the previous night, when he got to hear the many prayers and desires of the people from the village.


    The two girls had long blond hair and they were roughly the same height, with their similar looks it would be easy for anyone to confuse them as twins.


    The two girls rushed to Lirian''s sides with each one attaching themselves to one of his arms as if it was a natural procedure, seeing how natural their movements were Lirian knew that this was a well-used tactic of the two girls.


    "Father has said that you might be staying with us for a while," the younger of the two girls Elsie said in a soft voice as she lightly attached herself to Lirian''s one arm while the elder sister Ella mimicked her movements on Lirian''s other arm.


    ''The mayor and his wife have trained their daughters really well on how to get the attention of a man,'' Lirian thought, any man in the world would be hard pressed to say that they were unhappy with the treatment.


    Lirian would bet that if the mayor was down here his eyes would be gleaming, and he had no doubt that this was all part of the mayor''s plan to keep him here.


    "I''m afraid that I won''t be staying," Lirian said completely unperturbed by their advances, so far the girls were behaving themselves, so, he didn''t mind entertaining their advances and chose to enjoy the feeling of having two girls  wrapped around his arms.


    "Oh," Ella said with a disappointed pout, "I was really looking forward to your stay, father doesn''t allow us to go out much, he say''s that if we want to go out we need a strong man to accompany us," she added and squeezed Lirian''s hand while looking at him intently.


    "My apologies lovely girls, but I''ll be taking my leave," Lirian said and deliberately extracted his hands from their hold allowing them to see some of his skin.


    The girls stared at Lirian''s pure white hand like it was a priceless treasure, when Lirian reached the door he covered up his arm and took a step towards the door.


    But just as he was about to leave the two girls snapped out of their daze, but a strange light had entered their eyes, "Wait," the two girls cried out in unison and rushed to Lirian''s side once more.

 Chapter 255 - 021 – The Girls Hidden Desires

    "Is there some thing that you need?" Lirian asked with a slight smile as he turned back to the two girls who had come racing to him.


    "It''s only right that as our guest we escort you back to your room," the younger sister Elsie panted when she caught up with Lirian and attached herself onto his arm once more.


    She motioned for her elder sister to hurry up, and before long Lirian had both sisters attached to him once more, this time however they were not merely holding onto his arm tightly, they chose to press his arm against their bodies.


    Lirian could feel the softness of their blooming valleys, as they pressed up against his biceps, they weren''t very large but they weren''t tiny either, like two soft cushions enveloping his arms.


    "Would you allow us to be good hosts and bring you back to the inn?" the elder sister Ella asked with a pout as if he''d be bullying her if he didn''t allow her request.


    "How could I say no to two lovely ladies such as yourselves," Lirian complimented them, and internally gave them points for their little act, "It would be my honour to have two lovely girls such as yourselves to keep me company," he added with a charming smile.


    The girls faces both went beet red in their faces and visibly swooned over Lirian.


    Lirian felt their entire bodies tremble slightly when he complimented them, their bodies swayed slightly and Lirian had to wrap his hands around their waists to keep them from falling to their knees.


    "Oh good sir, surely you jest, it''s our honour to accompany a man such as yourself," Elsie said after she regained her sense and opened the front door.


    The group walked along the main road of the village, and they were quickly noticed by the villagers who were passing by.


    Seeing the extremely intimate actions the girls were making, earned the frowns of many people mainly the younger boys that had always admired the mayors daughters, but other than that many of the men cast knowing smiles at the girls.


    While several girls and woman cast gazes of envy in Lirian''s direction, how they wished to be in the position of the mayors two girls.


    After a while of casual chit chat, the two girls shared a glance with each other, a look of nervousness crossed their faces, but they couldn''t hold back the hidden desires buried deep in their hearts.


    "Good sir," Elsie said in a very soft voice with a great deal of nervousness, "T-t-t-there''s something, that my sister and I are most curious about," she said with a nervous smile and cast a pitiful look at her older sister as if begging her to say the next part.


    A wry smile crossed Ella''s lips and she''d be lying if she said she wasn''t nervous about saying the next part but as the older sister she had to take the lead.


    "Please call me Lirian," Lirian said, "And feel free to ask me any question you wish, I shall answer it to the best of my ability," Lirian said with a gentleman''s smile.


    The girls swooned at his every word and they were blown aback by his noble stature, even while walking the two of them his body emitted the airs of a noble and his smile so bright it could turn a troll in to stone, he was the embodiment of the impossible noble that existed only in their dreams.


    Ella worked up her courage but dared not say her words aloud, instead she brought her lips to Lirian''s ear and whispered words, that would make almost any man start to swoon.


    "Sir Lirian," she whispered softly as she pressed her chin on his shoulder and her soft breath tickled his ear, "We-we-we''ve heard some rumours about t-t-t-the nobles," she stammered with nervous breath.


    "That some of them are inclined to take m-m-m-multiple w-w-wives," she stammered out with a squirm as her knees went weak.


    ''These girls are well trained with their acts, but unfortunately they are only little girls with very little experience,'' Lirian thought feeling inwardly amused, but he hid his amusement with his composed front.


    The two girls had only heard some stories about it happening and in truth they found it hard to believe, in their little village everyone only ever had one partner for life, on the rare occasion that anyone had an affair and they found out, that person would be stoned and chased from the village.


    It made it quite hard for them to believe that someone could have more than one wife, however over the years of their training the girls came up with their own little acts to seduce men and it got them wondering about other things as well.


    They were only a year a part and they looked very similar, so what would happen if a man they were trying to impress took a fancy to the both of them.


    To the girls surprise they didn''t find the idea unpleasing, and they wondered if they would be able to find a noble that would take the both of them, it was a dream they dared not speak aloud to any, but upon taking a glance at Lirian, they felt like they had found the man that could fulfil their hidden desire.


    Ella felt overwhelmed by what she had said and looked to her younger sister with a pleading gaze, she was handing the reins to Elsie to finish what they wished to say.


    "Sir Lirian, if you were to wait for us to come of age, we''d be happy to become yours, if you''ll have us," Elsie surmised and lowered her head that was as red as a tomato as she clung onto his arm with tighter vigour than ever before.


    Lirian gave a soft chuckle as he heard the two girls inner desires, Lirian could feel the unparalleled envy of the young boys in the village as they saw the girls holding onto him tightly and whispering things in his ears that made the girls blush like someone lit their faces on fire.


    "Dear girls, while it is true that some nobles take multiple wives it is mainly due to politics, but even then it is rare," Lirian said in an amused tone and the girls faces instantly looked as if they had bitten into a sour fruit.


    "However," Lirian quickly added and the girls face became bright once more when their hope was restored, "Nobles especially older ones who grow bored of mundane things, like to collect beautiful things, and beautiful woman being one of their primary focuses,"


    "And as collectors they are always on the look out for things that stick out, for example identical twins or sisters with a great resemblance to each other, when they find such a thing they will pay a lot to make such girls into their toys,"


    The two girls hopeful face turned upside down as they gulped nervously, they knew what Lirian meant when he said toy and it sent shudders down their spine.


    "But other than that there are two other types of nobles, that would have an interest in girls such as yourself," Lirian continued.


    "You see, very often nobles are just dim-witted fools that inherited all that that have, they possess wealth and power but no brains on how to use it , and due to their idiotic entitlement they believe that they are the gods gift to every woman in the world and any woman should be honoured to hold their interest,"


    "These are the one''s who build harems of more woman than they can count, they take every beautiful girl they can find even when they are merely children, and with time their appetite only grows, and they try to take every beauty they see, the mothers of the woman they have taken, and the wives of other men,"


    "But you need not worry about such men, all of them end up with humiliating deaths, I myself once saw a woman take such a man and cut of his dick, before skewering him and roasting him on a spit like a pig for an entire kingdom to see,"


    "That was one of the better ends that such a man had met," Lirian said with a chuckle as the two girls shivered uncontrollably in his arms.


    "The third type however is that which you should fear most, as this last one applies to both noble woman and man,"


    "As I''ve said before beautiful identical twins and sisters that look alike are rare finds, things that many brothels desires to have, you see having something so rare is exceptionally good for business, it acts as lure to draw in many men,"


    "And the owners of such institutes almost always influential Lords and Ladies, brothels are a huge source of revenue but most importantly, when they have such treasures such as sisters like you,"


    "Even nobles will find it hard to resist such lovely meals, and when they succumb to temptation their acts of passion become a source of extortion that the owner of the establishment can use to sway their decisions,"


    Lirian chuckled softly as he heard the ragged breathing of the two girls on his arms, his words left them with a lingering sense of fear.


    It was just then that they arrived at the entrance of the inn the doors were wide open, and looking down from it was the innkeepers wife, her gaze was filled with scorn as she saw the two girls wrapped around Lirian''s arms.

 Chapter 256 - 022 – The Innkeepers Wife 1

    Lirian rested his hands on the two girls waists when they reached the inn.


    When they climbed the three wooden stairs and walked through the door the innkeeper''s wife was staring at the girls with a look of scorn as she swept the inns floor.


    "Ella, Elsie!" the innkeepers wife cried out as she looked at the two girls, "What do two young girls such as yourselves think you''re doing?" she snapped seeing how intimately the girls were clinging onto Lirian.


    "You girls had best keep distance between yourselves and a man you hardly know, or I''ll be telling your parents about this preposterous behaviour of yours,"


    "I have known you since you were born and spent many hours taking care of you, your mother and I have spent countless hours teaching you about how a good girl ought to behave," she scolded them in a very heated tone.


    Her voice carried across the street and was heard by many of the neighbours.


    The two girls remained firmly in Lirian''s arms as they looked at their aunt, never before had they gotten such a scolding and that to with an audience to boot.


    "Aunty Layla you''re making a scene," Ella said in a hushed tone as she tried to calm her aunt down, their aunt had always been warm and loving to them treating them like daughters of her own, after all she never had a daughter of her own, this was so uncharacteristic of the aunt that they knew and loved.


    "I sure do hope that I am making a scene, maybe that way you girls will remember what an embarrassment you are being by touching a man you don''t even know,"


    "Now, now," Lirian said with a playful smile, "These two lovely girls were merely ensuring that this blindman would make it back to your establishment unimpeded,"


    "Now that their task is fulfilled they''ll be taking their leave," Lirian said loudly and turned the girls around, when they got back to the door Lirian gave a slight pinch to the bums of the two girls, which made them squeal with delight.


    The girls almost forgot about the scolding they received, but as they turned back to give their aunt a glance they noticed a hateful look in her eyes, one they had never seen before, evidently their aunt saw Lirian pinching their bottoms.


    "You girls aught to leave," Lirian whispered in their ears, "And remember the things that I told you,"


    "The next time you put on such an act, you''ll be lucky if it''s a man as nice as me,"


    "You should count yourselves lucky that I''m still in mourning over my late lover, or I''d have already taken you little girls up to my room and devoured you whole," Lirian whispered into their ears and licked his lips.


    The girls appeared intrigued by his words, the fear that should have existed was no where to be seen and in it''s place a look or yearning filled the girls faces.


    It was as if their desires were so close to being fulfilled but now they had to leave, the two girls looked at Lirian with a longing gaze, but after getting the stink eye from their aunt they made a swift departure under the watchful eyes of the villages.


    Lirian turned on his heel and made for the stairs, but just as he set his foot on the first step, the innkeepers wife Layla spoke, "They are just little girls, you shouldn''t fill them with hopes and desires they can''t have, if you do anything with them, there will be very few men that will be willing to have them as a wife," she said as she came closer to Lirian while continuing to sweep the floors.


    Lirian grinned as he turned to Layla, "You''re all little girls to me, and in this whole wide world there are very few woman in existence who are older than me," Lirian said in an amused voice.


    "As for men," Lirian said and gave a light whistle, "There are few men who would be able to resist the charm of those two pure and seductive girls," he said with an appreciative tone.


    "Why go after children when you can have a woman like me?" she said in a hushed tone after checking that no one was around to hear her.


    But she only heard Lirian chuckle lightly, he didn''t even bother to say a word back to her as he climbed up the stairs and began to whistle a song.


    Layla was taken by the sound of the song, there was a beauty in it that smothered her sense, but it was also sad, but it soon disappeared as he got further and further away.


    When she regained her senses, she wrapped her hands around the broom sticks handle until her knuckles turned white, Layla felt frustration like never before, she had done her dues only to be cheated on by her husband.


    But now that she sought to repay betrayal with betrayal, she was being denied and her two little nieces were catching the attention of the man she had set her eyes upon.


    Something had to be done she had to get her way or no one else could, her eyes became firm with resolve as she started to think of ways to bed the mysterious man living in her inn.


    Lirian shut the big heavy door behind him as he leapt upon the bed to get some rest, it was still early but he had a few things on his mind.


    First he had to offer a congratulations to the mayor and his daughters, there act was exceptional, it was truly a pity for them that a man such as himself had come their way.


    During his fate string search Lirian had learned a bit more about the mayor, while both of his reasons for wanting Lirian to stay were true, there was one underlying reason that the mayor dared not say aloud.


    There was a little power struggle within this village that the mayor feared would come to pass, and with the unrest about to happen in the world, it was likely that the mayor''s position would be passed on to the cultivator Mr Cassy once such times arrived.


    The mayor''s position belonged to a long line of his ancestors for almost 7 generations, but in times of trouble people turn to the strong for leadership.


    In Willcolly everyone respected Mr Cassy, but he could never get the people to over rule Cowen as mayor, as they knew each-other for their entire lives, if strength was all that it took then the position would have belonged to Mr Cassy, but for a change of mayor, one required the will of the people.


    Only when the local lord recognised that someone had the will of the people could the seat of mayor be transferred.


    Mr Cassy had shown his desire to become mayor on several occasions, and when the rumours of the orc invasion happened he was the first to say that he would keep the people safe.


    After that he even publicly stated that he was the one who advised the mayor to lite the moats at night for the villagers safety, it was obvious that he was making a play to seize power, not to mention that for a cultivator he was very involved with the villagers.


    He even made sure to play with the children from time to time, Lirian could see Mr Cassy''s attempts at campaigning, when he looked into the mayor''s memories.


    Lirian came to understand the main reason the mayor was trying to rope him in, it wasn''t because of the orcs or the bandits that might attack the village.


    The mayor only had two daughters so if he wanted the title to pass down to his daughters, they needed to marry someone that was as strong if not stronger than Mr Cassy.


    Someone who could act as a beacon for his people and maintain his heritage, the mayor would much rather see a stranger who is married to his daughter take the seat of mayor, than for his family to lose what it established over generations.


    ''Even little villages like this aren''t beyond political struggles,'' Lirian thought with a sigh, as he looked at something else he found in the mayor''s study.


    On the mayor''s desk there was a map of the region which Lirian scanned and looked at with his mind.


    It was a very detailed map of the region, but it didn''t expand to far out.


    The map covered a portion of the main road between Proge and Riverfall, about a 100 miles in total, it highlighted three different villages that were about the same size as Willcolly on the main road.


    But aside from that it showed all the smaller villages that were further away from the main road, a lot of the villages were connected through smaller paths and it stretched out for miles on end.


    At the centre of everything Lirian located the estate of the local lord, on the map it was depicted as a small city.


    Lirian made a rough estimation and determined that along this 100 mile stretch of land, there was roughly a million people living in total, that was just from this piece of land and the lords estate.


    The last thing that Lirian discovered was that the journey between Proge and Riverfall was a 5-month journey.

 Chapter 257 - 023 – The Innkeepers Wife 2*

    Lirian spent the rest of the day in his room, the inn had seen an increase in people in the middle of the day which was extremely rare.


    For people like them they only ever ate when they woke up and finished their daily toil.


    At noon they would just drink water, and have a bit of bread to keep them selves going, the people had all come to pay their respects to Lirian no doubt.


    Lirian wasn''t really in the mood, so he sat alone in his room and plotted out his future course, the local lord''s estate was his current target destination.


    Immediately after he met with the local cultivator he planned to leave this village in his dust, the mayors'' problems were not his own, so he had no obligation to help out in the slightest.


    As Lirian sat in silence a knock on the door was heard, "Enter," Lirian quickly gave his permission and the barmaid Triss who had come to his bed the night before entered his room with a bowl of soup and sliced up bread.


    Triss looked at Lirian sitting on the bed with his head in the clouds, it was like while his body was there his mind was elsewhere.


    Triss felt slightly fearful as she looked at Lirian, she remembered the incomparable bliss he made her body feel the night before, but then there was that sudden flip in his mood like he would have killed her if she proceeded any further.


    "Good sir," she said softly, "My apologies if I did anything wrong last night," she said bowing her head in shame.


    "If you''d like I can return again tonight, to make up for my mistake," she said with a look of yearning, the fear was still present but her desires were overwhelming her body.


    "No need, there will be no repeat of what happened last night, and I''d appreciate it if none of the other girls in the inn come to bother me in the night," Lirian rejected her offer without hesitation.


    Triss gripped onto her patched skirt tightly, she felt indignant to the whole thing, but she feared what would happen if she overstepped her bounds.


    "May I know why?" she asked the question she most desperately wanted answered, because at first Lirian seemed to welcome her presence, but then he suddenly stopped and cast her away.


    "Because¡­" Lirian said with a look of contemplation, "You''re not her," he said with face full of grievance and voice filled with pain.


    Triss hurriedly set the food down on a desk and walked to the door with hurried steps, she had no need to ask any more, it was clear to her that Lirian''s heart was set on someone else.


    If there was a woman that could get the attention of a man such as him, then she doubted that she''d be able to compare.


    As she shut the door behind her she could hear him humming a song, it was a sad one with a tune that made her wish to weep.


    Lirian was lost in his thoughts for a long time before he returned to the present, when he went to eat his food it was already ice cold.


    It wasn''t long before Lirian heard some shouts around the village, from what Lirian could gather the villages were currently pulling back the bridge and pouring black oil in the moats.


    A short while later a layer of warmth filled the entire village as the moats were lit, giving light to the entire village.


    At this time Lirian could hear the crowds getting rowdy in the inn, and there were so many people today that they had to set up tables outside on the road.


    Lirian could hear the constant chattering of the crowds, and the heated arguments that they were having about the invading orcs, Lirian learned a few things from their conversations, he wasn''t sure how accurate what he learned was but from what he gathered, it seemed that this region of land had once belonged to the orcs.


    Many of them seemed to believe that this orc invasion, was an attempt of the orcs to reclaim their old lands.


    ''Is it possible that I just sparked an international crisis?'' Lirian wondered to himself, all this was just because he let a couple of survivors see his silver hair.


    ''I guess this is what it means to be heaven chosen even a simple action can have long lasting consequences that will affect the world,'' thought Lirian, and in truth he didn''t know just how accurate his thoughts were.


    Currently word about a group of orcs blocking the main road from Proge to Riverfall had spread throughout the eastern parts of Mithland but most importantly it had reached the ears of one of the orcs great cities Usrid and they would soon be convening a meeting of the chiefs to discuss the issue.


    As the night went on there were numerous people who asked if Lirian would be joining them, after all most of them decided to come to the inn in the hopes of meeting him.


    The innkeeper and his wife did their best to pacify the crowds as they grew drunk and more daring, some of them banged their mugs against the tables demanding that the man they came to see should come and meet them.


    It was at around this point that the innkeepers wife Layla said that she''d come up to check on Lirian and see if he was willing to join them.


    Lirian heard it all from his room window, and waited in silence for Layla to pay him a visit, it took her longer than he expected to arrive, and Lirian was beginning to wonder what was taking her so long when he heard the sound of what he believed was cloth being ripped apart.


    Lirian got up curiously and walked to the door, but just before he could pull in open the door suddenly opened, Lirian was forced to take a quick step back to avoid being hit by the door.


    Layla saw Lirian standing at the door and looked at him with a victorious smile, "Good sir, the guests tonight are wondering if you''d grace them with your presence," she said with a bright smile as she extended one of her long and slender legs into his room.


    "No not tonight," Lirian said, but he was frowning, something didn''t feel right, "Tell your guests that I''ll join them tomorrow, but that I wish to rest," Lirian added and prepared to show Layla out of his room.


    "That''s good," Layla said with a smile and suddenly shut the door behind her, as she pounced on to Lirian without a second thought.


    Even Lirian was completely taken by surprise at her actions, but what made him even more surprised was when she wrapped her naked legs around his waist and started to lick every inch of his face.


    Lirian grabbed her body to pry her of, but just as quickly as he did he realised another problem the woman was completely naked, and she was currently pressing her soaking wet slit against his crotch, and one of her hands was already at work opening up his pants.


    "Give it to me," she moaned excitedly as she managed to grabbed hold of his penis, she was already panting as she anticipated the moment the enormous thing entered her body it was just an inch away from entering her slit, when she felt a sudden pain in her tongue.


    Layla''s entire body shuddered in pain as she felt Lirian''s teeth dig into her tongue, the pain was so intense that she lost all strength in her body and fell of Lirian and onto the wooden floor with a thud.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" Lirian asked coldly, this time he pressed onto her with real killing intent.


    Layla had already expected such a reaction, but she was beyond the point of backing down, and she had come prepared, "Everyone knows that I''m up here," she said quickly to try dissuading Lirian from killing her.


    "And before I entered I tore up my clothes and threw them in the corridor, if I scream the word rape everyone will coming rushing here, then you''ll be the one with a problem," she said triumphantly while ogling at Lirian''s member that was currently sticking out of his pants.


    She was completely unable to hide the lust that had taken hold of her as she squished her thighs together, "Please just put it in me and I won''t say a thing," she begged Lirian desperately and spread the lips of her pussy as if to welcome Lirian''s thrust.


    Lirian crouched down in front of her and faced her with a cold smile across his face, "Go ahead and scream, and I''ll turn your entire village into a grave yard," Lirian said with a cold chuckle and walked to the door.


    "You know what I''ve changed my mind, I think I''ll go and join the festivities down stairs," he said and departed.


    ''I should count myself lucky I conducted my experiments about my body here, before I caught the attention of some cultivator that I can''t handle,'' Lirian thought with a sigh. ''I''ll have to be extra careful until I''m able to spell my clothes,'' Lirian concluded.


    The innkeepers wife was trembling in fear as she watched Lirian''s departing back, but a cold light flashed through her eye''s, "If I can''t have you, I''ll make sure that no else gets the chance to have you either," she whispered softly.

 Chapter 258 - 024 – Intel Gathering 1

    Lirian turned on his heel and went down the flight of stairs, leaving the innkeepers wife naked and on her knees.


    All of this was just an experiment to Lirian, so he was actually grateful for the innkeeper''s wife''s actions, all data is good data.


    From what Lirian had learned so far, his body had a type of charm effect on those around him, and after his tests he learned that which increased its effects as well as what reduced it.


    From what Lirian had seen of the barmaid Triss, her initial intentions were to try and win Lirian''s heart, and she intended to start by offering her body.


    She seemed to hold the belief that since a barmaid managed to captivate Mr Cassy, she would give it her best to captivate a cultivator of her own.


    She held a degree of desperation but not an overwhelming desperation to possess Lirian, which was why while she was forward, she didn''t seem obsessed with throwing herself at Lirian.


    Where''s the innkeeper''s wife, Layla, was extremely desperate, she probably wanted to break her vows to her husband for cheating on her for a long time, but she dared not act on such desires with someone from the village where it would ruin her life if word got out.


    Lirian was a prime candidate, as a wondering traveller he''d spend some time here and then disappear with the secret forever, and he had the looks to woo any woman which made him more tempting.


    ''Desperation or hidden desire is one of the factors,'' Lirian concluded as he also recalled the actions of the mayor''s daughters, ''Or a better description is how desperate one is to fulfil their desires.''


    When Lirian finished with his speculation he made his way down  to the dinning room, where well over a hundred people were busy chattering and making a loud din, as they consumed mug after mug of ale.


    The more sober ones soon noticed Lirian and rejoiced at his presence, Lirian had to admit that the special treatment the commoners gave cultivators was something he could get used to.


    But the ones that were the most enthusiastic about Lirian''s arrival was not the adults, no it was the children who had accompanied their parents to the inn.


    It was scary time''s in Willcolly even the children who didn''t understand what an orc invasion meant had noticed the change in their parents behaviour, especially now that their parents allowed them to leave the house after the sun went down.


    Usually they''d be tucked away under their sheets by this hour, but over the past few days their parents stayed extra close to them and brought them out to the inn.


    It was extra playing time for them, and they had all heard about how the new cultivator made one of their friends Lizzy fly the night before.


    "Mr, Mr," Lirian heard the children cry out as soon as he found a seat.


    "Can you make us fly, just like Lizzy," one the boys said eagerly as he wrapped his hands around Lirian''s leg.


    "She''s been telling everyone about it, we want to fly to," a small girl said with a pout, evidently she was jealous of the girl called Lizzy.


    Lirian sighed at the overly eager kids, this was the reason he left as soon as he made the girl Lizzy hover last night, he knew the other children would want a try, so he fled to his room.


    It was also why he didn''t want to come down tonight, he hoped that by tomorrow they would have forgotten what he had done, but he couldn''t change the past.


    "Ahem," Lirian cleared his throat lightly, making his irritation known to the adults, and soon several parents came running, saying a hundred apologies as they pried their children of Lirian''s legs, and pulled them away.


    But that wasn''t the end to Lirian''s annoyance because some of the children started to bawl and cry, throwing little temper tantrums about not getting their way.


    "Huh, I''d forgotten about how annoying children can be," Lirian mumbled, but a look of melancholy washed his face, as he thought back to his only daughter that ever loved him.


    Many of the parents started scolding their children and spanking their butts, to make them stop, but it had the opposite effect, causing many of them to leave before their children''s incessant crying annoyed Lirian to much.


    Lirian quickly took a seat on a creaking chair, and soon a mug of ale was placed on his table, it was one of the other barmaids this time, and Lirian could feel a look of desire in her eyes, but she was merely one of many, Lirian detected the gazes of many, man and woman alike.


    As the system did checks it identified the intense gazes to belong to all those that Lirian made any physical contact with or that he revealed a little of his skin to.


    Lirian was quickly pulled from his thoughts when the sounds of chairs screeching on the wooden floors echoed besides him and he found the mayor and his wife sitting across from him.


    Lirian was actually happy to have them there, with the two of them speaking to him, it was likely that no one else would disturb him for a while.


    "We meet again Good Sir," the mayors wife said, "My name is Ana forgive me for not introducing myself earlier, but it seemed that you had some pressing matter to discuss with my husband earlier," she said with an apologetic smile.


    "The next time you come to visit you must allow me to prepare you some food, I''ll make my famous shepherd''s pie," she said eagerly.


    The mayor chuckled lightly, "Please make arrangements to come soon, my wife''s shepherd''s pie is to die for, but she rarely ever makes it," he said patting his round belly, "And if you don''t want to take my word for it you can ask anyone in the village," he said with a hearty laugh.


    ''Huh,'' Lirian sighed inwardly, ''Even little village mayors aren''t beyond shamelessness,'' Lirian mused to himself, ''Well it is a basic requirement for anyone with influence,'' Lirian thought.


    "I guess that we''ll have to make arrangements one of these days," Lirian said with a slight nod of his head, he wasn''t completely against the idea, and he was missing the taste of a homecooked meal, the soup in the inn was just barely acceptable as human food for Lirian.


    The mayor and his wife both smiled, at the response, baby steps were what it took for all things, try to rush and you''ll end up running face first into a wall.


    "Before we do that, there are some things that I''d like to pick your brains about," Lirian said now that he had a better idea of the place, it would make it much easier for him to ask questions without raising any odd suspicions.


    The mayor and his wife nodded eagerly, the more time they got to spend speaking with Lirian, the better their chances were to leave a good impression, and it would also allow them to better know Lirian, who intrigued them a lot.


    "I''ve been out training in the wilderness for a long time you see, and I''ve just recently come out of training, in truth the only new news that I''ve received so far is about this problem with the orcs, attacking the main road to Proge," Lirian explained his current circumstances.


    "In truth I have an old friend in Proge who I was planning to visit," Lirian lied, "But the roads were eerily quite on my way, and the few merchants that I passed, were surrounded by guards, they refused to say anything to me so I decided to stop by the closest village in the hopes of getting some news," Lirian said in a saddened tone as if everything that was going on was pretty strange to him.


    In truth the mayor and his wife were the perfect candidate''s for Lirian to gather all the most accurate intel possible.


    He already knew that the mayor was a shrewd man, and all shrewd man have a good set of brains in their head, as for the mayors wife, she was the one who raised those two little girls to be seductresses so she would most likely be well informed about any and all of the juicy gossip in the village and hopefully a little bit of gossip about the region.


    Seeing the way those two girls acted, Lirian was certain that this woman raised her daughters to get the attention of any son the local lord had, or any other man who was bound to come into power, to do that she''d have to have to pay special attention to any gossip.


    Between the two, Lirian didn''t know who was better at what they did, but he had to hand it to them, they were a match made in heaven, and a rare find in a little village, such as this.

 Chapter 259 - 025 – Scheme

    The mayor nodded his head in understanding, he didn''t know how long Lirian had spent in his training, but he knew that ordinary adventures could easily go of the radar for a few months at a time, let alone a cultivator.


    According to Mr Cassy some cultivators could disappear for as long as a decade before remerging from their training, so he pondered on what to tell Lirian for a while as his wife made some idle chat with Lirian.


    "Have you heard of the news regarding Lord Kurt?" the mayor asked, deciding to speak about something local, it was something which he understood pretty well so it made it easy for him explain it with ease.


    "By lord Kurt, you mean the local lord of the region?" Lirian asked, as the name did appear on the map Lirian had scanned in the mayors study he was already a little familiar with it, back when he did the fate string search he just browsed through the mayors memories and watched what he found to be important, so he was still in the dark about this news concerning the local lord.


    The mayor nodded his head, "About two months before all this trouble with the orcs started word reached our ears that Lord Kurt was banished from the Riverfall court,"


    "Before that Lord Kurt was making huge strides in increasing his territories, there were even rumours about him gaining some influence in Port Cove, and from the looks of things he was trying to expand his reach to Atel,"


    "If the lord succeeded he would have been able to take complete control of the central region of the road between Proge and Riverfall,"


    "Supposedly Lord Kurt had some powerful backing in Riverfall that allowed him to make such large strides, but with his banishment he lost that backing and had to stop expanding his territories and now the other local lords are free to contest the lands he has taken,"


    "So far the contests have been peaceful, but there is word going about that lord Kurt is preparing an armed force, a month ago there was even a war time conscription passed around through many of the villages," the mayor explained the ongoing troubles of the region


    ''It seems that even without my recent interference this place was bound to have troubled times,'' Lirian thought as he contemplated over his course of action.


    ''If there is going to be a battle over territory, it might be a good chance for me to get in the good graces with this local lord and use my battle merits to get access to the method for cultivation,'' Lirian quickly came up with a plan, it wasn''t set in stone, but it was a feasible course of action.


    But first Lirian would bide his time and wait for the most opportune time to act, to leave the most impactful mark he could muster on the local lord.


    "Speaking of lord Kurt, there has been a fair deal of gossip regarding his daughter Lady Izlandi," the mayors wife chimed in.


    "Lady Izlandi had a marriage arrangement with a noble from House Kant in Proge, she was to marry into the main family, one of their younger sons Tanicks Kant, who was already an adapt at the age of 40, a real prodigy," Ana shared her knowledge on the subject with vigour.


    Lirian already learnt that in this world they gave names to each of the grades of cultivation, ''Novice'' was the term for a first grade cultivator and ''Adapt'' was the term for a second grade cultivator.


    "But after lord Kurt''s banishment from Riverfall, Tanicks Kant severed the marriage arrangement with Lady Izlandi,"


    "The poor girl," Ana said with a sigh, "As if it wasn''t already an insult to the girl to cancel the marriage, but Tanicks offered to take her in as a concubine,"


    "There are a lot of rumours going around that Lord Kant actually accepted the proposal, and in a few months'' time the girl will be taken away to keep the young Lords bed warm," she lamented with a sigh of pity that went out to the young lady of house Kurt.


    After that the three of them went on to speak about a couple of other things, Lirian tried to probe a little more into the desolation, but the mayor firmly shut down the topic, so far he hadn''t even told his wife about the news, and had no desire to let it be know until it became necessary.


    Other than that the husband and wife pair teamed up to subtly probe into Lirian''s origins, but unfortunately, even with their joined efforts, all their advances were easily seen through and deflected by Lirian.


    Several hours had passed since the trio begun speaking and by now the mayor and his wife had a new found appreciation for Lirian, it was pretty clear to them that he was extremely well versed in the way of politics, if not for the fact that his armour and clothing looked so cheap and shabby they would have believed that he was of noble birth.


    In fact they thought that he might be some child who was born very late into the family line, so instead of fighting with his siblings for power, he chose to wonder the world as a traveller.


    Their thoughts were naturally all things that Lirian had subtly planted in their minds, and it wasn''t a very uncommon situation, it was extremely common that some nobles ended up having to many children, the older children would usually be groomed for court and to act as bridges to other families through marriage.


    But when they had to many children it was impossible to get anything arranged for them, so they ended up being cast aside, to cut out their own path in life.


    Lirian intentionally wanted them to believe that he was just some discarded child, because while they had been busy talking the innkeepers wife Layla had come down in a new set of clothes.


    The change had gone unnoticed by almost everyone except her husband, and when he spoke to her, Lirian heard her say a rather interesting story to her husband.


    Ever since then the innkeeper was filled with seething fury as he looked on at Lirian, but he seemed to understand what would happen if he tried to attack Lirian, so he stayed his hand so far.


    By the time the trio finished speaking the inn was mostly empty with the exception of the few who had drunk to much and passed out in front of the crackling fire.


    "Thank you, for all that you''ve said, it seems that troubled times are upon us," Lirian said as he smashed one final mug of ale against the mayors and his wife''s mugs and downed it in one go.


    "I suppose that we''ll have to arrange that meal you spoke of for one of the days in the week," Lirian said feeling a little tipsy, he had had a lot to drink, he didn''t doubt that he finished an entire barrel of ale all on his own.


    As he pulled his feet up the stairs one after the other, the innkeeper and his wife quickly approached the mayor and his wife.


    Ana looked to her younger sister curiously, when her sister sat down she saw tear stains on her face, and looked at her worriedly, "Is something wrong Layla?" she asked and took a hold of her hand, she could feel her sister trembling at her touch and fresh tears started to pour down her face.


    Ana and Cowen both turned to the innkeeper in worry, they could see that he was seething with anger and it seemed like Layla was in no state to speak, "Jack what happened?" the mayor asked the innkeeper.


    "My wife," Jack said through gritted teeth, "Was raped by that bastard, when she went up to call him," he said pointing to the stairs where Lirian had just passed.


    They looked at Layla with horror filled eyes, and their hearts could be heard pumping rapidly, "Unbelievable," Ana hissed in anger as she looked to the stairs with glowering eyes.


    "To thank that we invited such a man into our home," the mayor said clenching his fist tightly he had no qualms with believing what Layla, why would he doubt his sister-in-law''s words in the slightest.


    All the good feelings he had to Lirian suddenly faded away, that kind of behaviour was absolutely disgusting, and he wouldn''t tolerate it in his village.


    Even if it meant he''d lose the seat as mayor, he''d rather die than harbour a rapist in his home, who knew how long it would take for such a man to touch his wife, or what if he tried to touch his two little girls, it was simply intolerable.


    Ana wrapped Layla in a tight hug and stroked her back, "Layla and Jack, both of you are coming to our home tonight, we can''t allow you to stay around a man like that," she said and her husband nodded seriously, if his wife didn''t suggest it he would have.


    Layla''s eyes flashed with insanity as her crocodile tears fell down her face, ''If I can''t have you, no one can,'' she thought.

 Chapter 260 - 026 – The Girls Decision

    It was early in the morning in Willcolly, Ana prepared breakfast along-side her daughters just like every other day but tension filled the house.


    At one point during the night it seemed that her husband would rush over to the inn to chase Lirian out of the village, but after her desperate cries and a lot of begging from her part, he finally relented.


    She wondered if her husband would start to resent her for thinking him not man enough to face Lirian, but in the face of a cultivator, she''d rather have a resentful husband over a dead one.


    The sounds of her pleas had awoken everyone in the house, including her daughters, but they didn''t tell their daughters anything, as it is they were struggling to process what had happened, it would be a savage blow to the minds of their daughters if they heard about what had happened to their aunt.


    Ana was also a bit worried about another thing, ever since her daughters returned from their little outing with Lirian the day before, the two of them seemed unable to talk about anything else.


    Due to the tension in the house the two girls moved around the kitchen preparing breakfast without making a sound, they might have been young but they were no fools, their aunt and uncle were currently rest in one of the rooms of their home.


    And from their mothers pleas to their father during the night, they were able to tell that something was very wrong and it was something to do with the handsome gentleman that stole their hearts the day before.


    They wisely chose to keep their mouths shut, they feared that they''d start to speak about Lirian if they spoke, and that seemed like a bad topic to bring up at the current time.


    Before long a pleasant breakfast was prepared, everyone gathered at the table to enjoy the meal together, but just as the two girls sat down their father asked them to leave the room.


    The two girls naturally obliged, when they left the room the girls father shut the door behind them but the two of them remained standing there and pressed their ears against the door to listen in on the conversation.


    It was a small room so naturally the sound travelled with ease into the girl''s ears.


    "Why did you do it?" the girl''s heard their uncle say to their aunt Layla, "If you shouted everyone would have heard and we''d have been able to come to help you," he said with clenched fists and looked at his wife with a look of betrayal.


    Jack had a lot of time to consider things over the night, because he couldn''t get a wink of sleep, and only question remained in his mind, ''Why didn''t she scream for help.''


    A cold fury washed over Layla, she had half a heart to drop her act and curse her husband for being a hypocrite, he was getting mad at her when he had his way with all three of the barmaids on multiple occasions.


    But she calmed her fury, she had to maintain her act.


    "H-H-H-He gagged my mouth the second I-I-I entered his room," she stammered out, "Then he pressed me down and ripped of all my clothes,"


    "H-h-h-h-he told me to move on my own, and if I tried to resist, he said that he''d come to our room in the night and tie up Jack and make him watch as he¡­," she trailed of and sobbed.


    Jacks eye''s contorted with rage, if he heard anymore he feared that he''d charge at Lirian in a blind rage, the consequences be damned.


    "I just can''t understand why a person would do such a thing," the mayor said clicking his tongue in disgust as his wife hugged onto her sister tightly, with tears pouring down her face.


    "He claimed that it was because I ruined the fun he planned to have with your daughters, when he brought them to the inn," Layla sobbed with even more vigour as she planted the final nail in the coffin.


    Just as she finished speaking a loud thud was heard at the door, the mayor rushed to open it and found his two daughters sitting there, his elder daughter Ella had a look of shock on her face, and the younger one Elsie seemed to be on the verge of passing out.


    "What do you two think you''re doing?" the mayor scolded his daughters.


    Ella gulped as cold sweat trickled down her face, she couldn''t believe what she had heard, there was no way she could believe it to be true, "It can''t be true," she uttered in horror and fled while pulling her little sister along with her.


    The mayor sighed as he watched his two little girls that had obviously developed a big crush on Lirian, flee into the gardens in the back yard.


    He walked back into the room and as he did jack immediately started to speak, "I say we gather everyone in the village and surround him, even if he is a cultivator, there are almost 2000 of us and one of him," he said in a fit of anger.


    "No we can''t do that," the mayor said with lingering fear, "He is a spell caster, who knows what tricks he has up his sleeve, even if we do kill him how many people will die in the process," the mayor said shaking his head.


    "We-we''ll just wait until Mr Cassy returns, he should be back by tomorrow at the latest," the mayor said resolutely, he knew that this was no different from giving Mr Cassy more influence in the village, but he had no other choice.


    "Until then we just have to act like everything is normal," the mayor said firmly.


    ---


    Ella and Elsie ran into the backyard and hugged each-other tightly while in the shade of a tree it was the only way they knew how to comfort each-other, little tears filled the corners of their eyes as they shook their heads in disbelief.


    "I don''t believe what aunt said," Elsie sobbed as she buried her head in her older sisters bosom and Ella nodded she to had a hard time accepting it.


    She remembered that Lirian turned them down, he didn''t seem to have any intentions other than teasing them a little, even when they boldly stated their desires Lirian had basically told them that it was stupid for them to say such things, and he even tried to scare them from trying to hard to get a nobles attention, else it end in disaster.


    And lastly were the words they felt to be the sincerest of all, when Lirian said that he wouldn''t do anything to them because he was in mourning over his dead lover.


    "I want to go and see him," Elsie said to her sister, "I want to know if it''s true," she said looking up into her older sisters eyes.


    Ella nodded her head but a sudden look of hesitation flashed through her eyes, "But what if he does the same thing to us," she asked with a slightly fearful voice, but hidden beneath that was a look of yearning as if she wanted something like that to happen.


    "I-I don''t mind if he does," Elsie said while looking her sister in the eye, there was a devote look in her eyes as if she was happy if such a thing were to happen.


    Ella smiled and climbed to her feet while pulling her little sister up, "Lets go," she said and made her way to the rear gate of the gardens, it was rarely ever used, and the inn was just a short distance away, so unless Lirian did something to them it was likely that no one would even notice that they left.


    "If he didn''t do anything to aunt, then we have to convince mom and dad that aunt is lying," Elsie said softly as they pushed the gate open.


    Ella however shook her head, "It will be no use, mom will believe aunt no matter what happens, and I''m sure they are trying to come up with a plan to kill sir Lirian," Ella said the cold truth to her sister.


    "We have to convince sir Lirian to leave, father will most likely wait for Mr Cassy to return before doing anything," Ella said as she quickly thought of a plan.


    "But what if aunt wasn''t lying?" Elsie asked in a fearful tone.


    "T-then sir Lirian will do to us, what he did to aunt, but if he does that we won''t tell him anything," Ella said resolutely.


    Elsie held onto her dependable older sisters hand as they ran to the inn, the two girls were used to sneaking around the village because their father wouldn''t let them go out, they spent a lot of time learning all the routes that would allow them to go around unseen.


    They obviously couldn''t go everywhere in the village without being noticed, but their aunts inn was just a short distance away, and they snuck in plenty of times to taste a little ale when no one was looking.


    In no time at all the girls snuck in through a window that always stayed open and climbed the stairs making their way to Lirian''s room.

 Chapter 261 - 027 – Stick Out Your Tongues

    [Ding]


    [Layla plots against you¡­]


    [Jack plots against you¡­]


    [Cowen plots against you¡­]


    The system alerted Lirian of what was currently happening, there was also a couple of fate points that were transferred from them to Lirian for their plot against him, but the amount was tiny.


    Cowen gave him the most which was a measly 20 fate particle, factor in the <heavens chosen> boon and that made a measly 200 in all.


    The transfer of fate particles was a bit of a tricky business, but Lirian did discover a couple of guidelines on how to navigate around them.


    When someone moves against him, depending on the difference in their life levels, a portion of fate particles would be transferred to him, and it worked both ways, if he plotted against someone his fate particles would flow into them.


    Unless someone became a diviner it was almost impossible for them to become aware of the fate particle exchange, the thing that made fate particles so desirable was its ability to increase a persons natural luck.


    In this way if a hundred different people were placed in an area and they were searching for a special herb, the person who had the most fate particles would be the likeliest to find it, that is unless there is a person who has less fate particles, but has a good understanding of the conditions required for the herb to grow.


    Fate particles were basically a luck factor to all people, but unless you had overwhelming luck it was unlikely that you''d always come out victorious.


    In the same way that a person with extreme luck might throw a dagger and hit a bullseye on their first try, but a person who is trained in throwing daggers is likely to always hit a bullseye.


    Real ability would almost always triumph over luck.


    Other than that Lirian knew that it was nor wise to challenge anyone with a lower life level than himself, by challenging someone weaker not only would his fate decrease and be transferred to that person, but even in victory he would gain nothing at all.


    However if someone of a lower level attempted to challenge him, he''d be free to harm that person however he pleased.


    Once your level goes above someone, there is only one way to continue earning fate particles of them, that is through any form of reverence they hold towards you, whether it be negative or positive feelings that the people hold.


    As long as you leave a lasting impress on a person that is so profound that it influences the way they live, you will earn fate points from them, the amount gained at a time would be small, but over time it would build up to an insane degree.


    The other way to quickly build up fate particles was to defeat people of a higher realm, which is a lot easier said than done, with Lirian of course being an exception to the rule.


    Just then a couple of soft knocks came from Lirian''s door, Lirian sat and waited for the door to open, but after almost a minute had passed all Lirian could hear from the other side was rampant breathing.


    ''Nervous are we,'' Lirian chuckled and pulled the door open.


    The two girls were standing there with no small amount of sweat trickling down their faces, as they looked at Lirian there was no small amount of fear and yearning their gazes.


    "It''s very brave of you girls to come here after all you''ve heard about me," Lirian said with a cold chuckle and grabbed the girls by their arms pulling them into his room and slamming the door shut behind him.


    The girls barely even realized what had happened, and when they finally snapped out of their daze, they realised that they were already trapped within Lirian''s room.


    "S-s-s-since you know what our aunt is saying about you, t-t-then it means it''s true, about what you did to her," the younger girl stammered out with a conflicted look on her face.


    "What do you think?" Lirian questioned them with a playful smile, he took small steps towards the girls and as he got closer he placed his hands on the two girl''s waists.


    The girls didn''t attempt to dodge his touch at all, in fact they seemed to welcome it, as Lirian placed his hand on their waist he felt the girl''s bodies shudder in delight.


    "Mmmmh," the girls lightly moaned in delight at the sensation.


    The girls moaned even louder as Lirian brought his hands up their body up from their waists up their slender body and around the slight curves created by their blossoming bosoms until his hands reached their chins.


    "You''re going to do the same thing to us that you did to our aunt," Ella said, but their was no fear at all in her voice in fact, Lirian could feel her lustful desires growing by the second in his presence.


    The two girls both placed one of their hands onto Lirian''s waist and joined their free hands together as they stepped closer to Lirian.


    "I promise I won''t be as rough as I was with your aunt," Lirian said pulling the girls mouths close to his.


    "Stick out your tongues," Lirian whispered to them and the girls obeyed without a second thought.


    The older and younger sister looked at Lirian with intent gazes as they stuck out their cute little tongues and offered it to Lirian.


    Lirian steadily opened his mouth and  brought the girls mouths closer and let the tip of their tongues touch, the girls seemed eyes rolled back slightly with euphoric delight, as their tongues entered his mouth and touched against his tongue.


    The girls prepared themselves for an erotic kiss, but that was when they suddenly felt a tight bite into their tongues, which made both of them wince in pain, and involuntarily take a step back.


    "Are you girls happy that I did to you what I did to your aunt," Lirian''s voice broke the stupor of the girls and they looked at him with eyes widened in surprise.


    "B-b-but you, you¡­aunt said that you.. that you raped her," Elsie murmured with a dumbfound face.


    "Hahaha," Lirian laughed heartily, "I suppose that your aunt left out the part where she begged me to fuck her, but I denied her request,"


    "I knew it," Elsie shouted happily and threw her arms around Lirian, hugging him with all the strength she had in her body, "I knew that you would never do such a thing," she said happily and buried her face contently in Lirian''s chest.


    "Sir Lirian you have to tell my father that this is all a misunderstanding," Ella beamed with a smile, but refrained from being overly intimate, she was letting her little sister enjoy herself, "My sister and I will testify that you did nothing to us when you had the opportunity to do whatever you want with us," she said.


    "You know just as well as I do that it won''t matter, your aunt has already convinced your parents, and as we speak, your father is most likely telling all the important people in the village about my crime," Lirian said knowingly.


    "Then leave the village," Elsie said as she looked up at Lirian with pleading eyes, "Father won''t try to do anything against you until Mr Cassy returns, it should be at least a day until Mr Cassy arrives,"


    "To flee would be the same as admitting to being guilty of a crime I did not commit," Lirian said to the girls stubbornly.


    "Sir Lirian you don''t understand, Mr Cassy is a pretty strong cultivator, and he won''t be alone, father will rally the entire village against you, maybe you can beat someone like Mr Cassy if it''s a one on one fight, but with the entire village attacking you¡­" Ella trailed of and sobbed slightly.


    She couldn''t explain it at all, she didn''t even know Lirian a day ago, yet the thought of losing him was driving her mind to insanity, in truth even the thought of parting with him made her want to ball out her eyes, but she believed that it was better than him dying.


    "Even if everyone in your village was a cultivator, it would make no difference at all, anyone who lays a false crime upon my head will be killed by me all the same," Lirian said resolutely.


    From his tone and confidence, the girls could tell that Lirian was not joking, he was really that confident in obtaining victory, if that was true then he was likely a very powerful cultivator maybe even an adapt.


    "Girls," Lirian said with a smile that could captivate the hearts of any creature in existence, "Whose life is more important to you, mine or your parents?" Lirian asked with a devilish smile.


    The girls felt a strange power wash over them when they heard Lirian''s words and they fell into a slight daze.


    This was Lirian''s doing, he was studying his strange charm ability for a while now and he finally felt like he knew enough about it to control it to a degree.


    Lirian wanted to see how far he could push the effects of his charm, he had managed to make the first two people he met fight to the death over him, but they were just bandits, that had almost no integrity at all.


    All of this was just one grand experiment to Lirian, so he cared very little about the way the people looked at him, all that mattered was the results.


    Lirian looked to the girls with batted breath, he wanted to her their answer, he wanted to see test the limits of his charm or perhaps there was no limitation to his charm.

 Chapter 262 - 028 – Spiritist

    Ella and Elsie looked at Lirian with dazed expressions, as they struggled with the question that had been posed to them.


    One corner of their minds shouted that their parent''s lives were the most important priority to them, but, another voice drowned out all their other thoughts.


    It was like Lirian''s life was their life, if he died then they''d lose a fundamental part of their existences, they couldn''t explain it but they found themselves incapable of imagining Lirian''s death.


    But despite that feeling the girls remained torn on their decision, the more they thought about it the more impossible it seemed.


    The girls started to cry a rivulet of tears, that streaked across their faces, "I-I-I-I, please don''t hurt our parents," Elsie sobbed loudly, and a second later her elder sister said something along similar lines.


    ''So there are limitations to my charm,'' Lirian thought with starry eyes, ''I only have a most basic control over the skill so far, it is a rather unique power, but its good that I''ve already found a limiting factor,'' Lirian noted the resistance that the girls had.


    ''I suppose this is the power that comes with having a close family, but I wonder how well my charm will work against nobles,'' Lirian wondered with a slight grin.


    Nobles were well known for almost always having infighting between siblings, for many it was due to their ambitions to stand over their elder siblings who were the natural heirs, but a lot of the time the siblings would compete in each other over who gains the biggest part of the inheritance and so on.


    Those fights were filled with pettiness and low blows of demeaning moral stature, Lirian thought that if he could master his charming ability he''d be able to make an entire nation collapse due to infighting, if he could get all the candidates for the throne to spin their blades at each-others neck.


    ''Well, I''ll have to plan that fun for some other time,'' Lirian thought to himself with delight and turned his attention back to the two girls who were currently crying.


    "You girls should leave before your parents notice that you''ve snuck out," Lirian said to the girls with a mischievous smile.


    "Also if you don''t want to get caught up in the trouble then hide somewhere when the trouble begins," Lirian said offering the girls a small amount of mercy.


    "Please don''t hurt our parents," Ella pleaded and grabbed onto Lirian''s hand.


    "I will show no mercy, to those that wrongfully accuse me of a crime," Lirian declared firmly and shooed them away.


    The girls reluctantly left, they wanted to say more to convince Lirian to leave the village, but they could tell that it was useless.


    Lirian remained in the inn patiently for the rest of the day, the barmaids didn''t seem to know about the events that happened, and they dutifully served him his meals for the day, it seemed that innkeeper and his wife were doing their best to make things seem like they were normal.


    But by dinner the jig was obviously up, word had spread to most of the villagers and the inn remained empty for dinner, and just as Lirian started to eat what he presumed would be his final meal in Willcolly the system gave him an alert.


    [A cultivator approaches.]


    Lirian grinned as he read the alert, ''Looks like I won''t have to wait till tomorrow after all,'' Lirian thought and continued to eat his meal at a leisurely pace.


    ---


    The moats were already lit for the night when Naz heard someone approaching , however the bridge was drawn back it was a strong and sturdy bridge but it was made from wood, so it was a bad idea to keep it dangling over the lit moats.


    "Who goes there?" Naz questioned and quickly nocked an arrow and drew his bow, this time the other guards didn''t doubt his hearing and readied their weapons.


    They heard a light thud suddenly and then they heard a smug voice that all of them recognised, "You''re free to use those against me if you''d like but I doubt it will make any difference," Cassy said to them and chuckled as he walked into their line of sight.


    "Mr Cassy," Bosh shouted with relief and put down his sword, the others also lowered their weapons and looked at Mr Cassy with reverential gazes.


    "Boy are we glad to see you," Bosh said with a look of tiredness in his eyes.


    Mr Cassy was a very large and muscular man with a height of (6''5")  and short blond hair, he was wearing his light leather armour, and his long sword was wrapped in a bundle of cloth on his back, the sword was his prized possession, that he took of the body of a cultivator he defeated in a fair battle.


    Such was the story that he told everyone in the village, when he wanted to brag about the blade.


    "Did something happen in the village while I was away?" Cassy asked with concern after seeing the guard''s reaction at seeing him.


    Bosh sighed and shook his head, "Unfortunately something bad happened," Bosh said while clenching his fists, "But it''s not my place to talk about it, the mayor asked for you to go to his home immediately when you return," Bosh explained.


    Cassy nodded his head in understanding and made his way to the mayor''s residence, when he entered the first thing he noticed was that the daughters of the mayors were screaming and shouting, while banging on a door.


    Their voices were hoarse, evidently they''d been shouting for some time, and Cassy could make out that they were saying something about someone being innocent.


    Without waiting any further Cassy knocked on the door pushed it open, he was immediately noticed by over a dozen people that were in the mayors house, they were all extremely excited to see him, he nodded to all of them politely and walked to the mayor.


    As soon as he reached the mayor there was a slight degree of awkwardness between them, he was after the mayor''s position, and the mayor knew it, but Cassy had a mission of his own, becoming mayor was the mission assigned to him, and he''d do whatever it took to fulfil the mission.


    He didn''t care about the position as mayor, but the rewards that he''d be given for successfully completing the mission was something that any cultivator would kill to possess.


    It was enough to make him happily put on a happy smile everyday and pretend he cared about the people of some backward village, and just to ensure their good faith of the villagers he married one of the girls that everyone in the village knew and admired.


    She was an orphan and had no dowry at all, so despite being a beauty none of the men were too eager to make her their wife.


    "Bosh told me that there was something you needed my help with," Cassy said loudly ensuring that everyone would hear the mayor asking him for a favour.


    Cowen grunted internally at Cassy''s attempts; it was never a good thing for the people who look up to you as a leader see you asking someone to do something that you were incapable of doing yourself.


    Cowen didn''t let his frustration show on his face as he quickly informed Cassy of the events that transpired in village.


    Cassy gave the perfect performance as he listened, showing just the right amount of horror and anger at the actions of Lirian, "I will personally see to the death of this scoundrel and I''ll hang his head from our village gates before the sun comes up," he declared loudly, his words were like a spark.


    Once he spoke the people in the house, rushed out going to the neighbours and informing them of the news, in no time at all the village that should have been going to sleep was booming with life.


    Once the house cleared out Cassy looked to the mayor, "How much do you know about him?" he asked in concern.


    "If that man is a noble we''ll be lucky if no retribution comes our way," he said seriously, only now when no others were in sight did he reveal his true colours.


    The mayor frowned but did his best to act like he didn''t mind, "He''s just some late child, his family didn''t have anything for him, so they cast him out and he became a wonderer," the mayor explained.


    "Have you ever fought against a spell caster before?" the mayor asked with concern, from his ancestor''s journals he knew that spell casters were tricky opponents.


    Cassy nodded his head, "I did but only once, the trick to fighting a spell caster is to give them very little time and to close the distance,"


    "If I can close the distance than a spell caster is no different from paper, and this man is blind, he might be able to walk like a normal person, but that trick of his will likely only work for him to move amongst ordinary people," he explained and untied the sword from his back.


    "Why are your daughters locked up in a room?" Cassy suddenly asked as he pulled his sword free from the cloth and held it firmly with one arm.


    "That''s another concerning matter about this man, he seems to have some ability to invade the minds of people, amongst those that had contact with him, there were over a hundred people in the village that started cry like the world had come to an end when they heard about his acts,"


    "My daughters are so taken by him that after meeting him just once they claim to love him with all their heart," the mayor said shaking his head, he dared not mention that amongst those 100 that cried there were men that had wives and children.


    Even the mayor was still struggling to process that event.


    At the mention of the mayors words, a shudder passed through Cassy''s entire being, the candle light flickered of the polished edge of his blade as he spoke, "That man is no mage, you''ve invited a spiritist into your home," Cassy said with a look of absolute seriousness.

 Chapter 263 - 029 – Mercy...

    "What''s a spiritist?" the mayor asked curiously.


    "The rarest type of cultivators," Cassy said, body cultivators such as himself were the most common, then there were the spell casters, not only did it cost 200 gold for someone to become a spell caster, but cost for the research and study that went into being a spell caster would make that 200 gold look like an anthill before a mountain.


    "Spiritist''s are exceedingly rare, truth be told I''ve only heard stories about them, but supposedly a rare type of spiritist has the power to influence people''s minds, and control them,"


    "Spiritist are weak at first, but once they learn how to use their powers they are dreadful opponents, who can rely on the masses to cause chaos,"


    "There are even rumours about her majesty the heavenly empress''s first commander being a spiritist that is capable of reading people''s minds,"


    "It''s possible that this man is a new spiritist and his using this village as a testing ground to learn how to use his power," Cassy stated sharing a look with the mayor.


    The both of them thought of something very scary at that moment, since spiritist''s were so rare, it was probably unlikely that he was actually a discarded child, it was a lot more likely that he was a prodigy of some big noble family, which filled the both of them with fear.


    But it was too late for them to back down now, half the village was already riled up, if either of them tried to reconciliate with a ''rapist'' it would severely affect their agenda''s.


    ---


    Lirian could hear the stomping of over a thousand people, even if someone was deaf they would have noticed the crowd because of the tremors that were passing through the crowd.


    But despite all of this Lirian sat in his room with a little grin splayed on his face and sipped some ale, as if waiting for an appointment.


    Lirian was waiting for the man of the hour, the cultivator of Willcolly, the man they all called Mr Cassy.


    [The cultivator is within range]


    [Proceed with a fate string search, Y/N?]


    The system inquired.


    "Yes," Lirian replied but almost immediately he was surprised, 200 000 fate particles were rapidly drained away.


    The amount was nothing when compared to Lirian''s reserves, but such a number made no sense, in general a first grade cultivator would hold about 10 000 fate particles at max, while a second grade cultivator would hold up to a 100 000 fate particles, yet Cassy had double of that.


    To have such large reserves at a low level was the sign of being someone with great influence, or someone holding onto great secrets, but if Cassy wasn''t someone with a low cultivation it meant that Lirian was in a lot of trouble.


    If Cassy was just a first grade cultivator Lirian would be able to defeat him with ease, but if he were a second grade cultivator in the early stages, it would definitely be a life or death battle for Lirian any higher and Lirian would undoubtedly be dead in a frontal confrontation.


    The system suddenly brought up a bunch of basic information and categorised all the memories of Cassy for Lirian to review whenever he pleased.


    ---


    Name: Cassy


    Alias: Agent No. R6S11 B16U1191


    Status: Pseudo First grade mortal/Novice mortal, fifth stage - Healthy


    Affiliations: Unity (An organisation that spans across the world of Nebula-6 that opposes the current power structure)


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    Body: 362 (elementary body cultivation technique)


    Mana: 100 (locked)


    Mind: 100 (locked)


    ---


    "So he has secrets," Lirian whistled in appreciation, he loved secrets, just like any person with a slightly scheming mind loves possessing the secrets of others.


    ''Wow that is some alias he has,'' Lirian thought, he had to little information on it currently, but he assumed that the agent number had more meaning behind it.


    Lirian looked through a little of Cassy''s memories and found that the group he was affiliated with was seen as a type of terror group, and Cassy was currently being tested by the group.


    They gave him the task of gaining control over Willcolly to prove his worth in exchange for certain cultivation resources and a thousand gold coins.


    Unfortunately it seemed that Cassy had no idea about their agenda in taking Willcolly.


    Just then Lirian heard shouts outside the inn, "Come out rapist!" the people shouted and banged the handles of their pitch forks and torches against the ground.


    "Come out rapist!"


    "Come out rapist!"


    "Come out rapist!"


    The people started to chant loudly, like it was a chorus, creating a booming sound in the night air, at that point Lirian heard the doors open and the barmaids came rushing out in confusion.


    They were kept in the dark, and once they opened the doors, the people grabbed the barmaids and pulled them aside.


    "Come out rapist or we''ll burn the place down," Lirian heard someone shout, he recognised this voice it was one of the guards Lirian met when he entered the village the one called Bosh.


    The people knew that he was a cultivator so they dared not rush into inn to try and drag Lirian out, so they went with the only other method they knew, to burn him out.


    Evidently the innkeeper and his wife still hadn''t arrived or they would have been shouting at the people for trying to burn down their business and home, and before long, Lirian could hear them splashing something against the walls of the inn.


    "Are they using the black oil?" Lirian wondered aloud without any concern, and seconds later he could smell the fume''s produced by the black oil confirming his guess.


    In no time at all the building was on fire, with a large mob of angry villagers shouting curse after curse at Lirian.


    ''These people''s shouts are ruining my time to investigate this guy,'' Lirian complained internally and continued to sip on his ale as he played a couple of Cassy''s memories in his head.


    Amongst those memories Lirian saw the conversation that just happened between Cassy and the mayor, ''A spiritist huh, I guess that''s what they call a person who cultivates their mind,'' Lirian realised.


    Cultivation of the mind was universally considered the most dangerous type of cultivation, because firstly it was a very difficult task to study the energy points of the mind, and a simple small mistake could easily turn a person into a vegetable.


    Also in most worlds that were ruled by the strongest fist, mental cultivators were often seen as weak and easily killed which made them very rare.


    It was the problem that came with ruling through power, they were incapable of appreciating the finer arts that could make their lives easier and more convenient.


    In the current six civilisations, psychic mind cultivators were integral parts of the system, every single one of them was treated like treasure, the appreciation of the finer arts all came down to how far a civilisation strayed from barbarism.


    Just then while Lirian was lost in thought a new voice shouted for him to come out, this voice carried power to it that all the others lacked, Lirian could sense the power of world energy lacing the voice.


    "So it''s finally time," Lirian chuckled and walked to the window, he could feel the blazing hot fires licking the walls of the inn and creating a wave of hot hair that ruffled through his hair.


    Lirian climbed through the window on the third floor and vaulted himself up onto the angled roof of the inn.


    "I heard someone calling for me!" Lirian shouted down at the crowd, as everyone looked up they saw Lirian standing on the roof in a carefree manner as he sipped on a mug of ale.


    Even Lirian''s shout had a playful ring to it which completely made the blood of the people rage, one villager flung his pitchfork with surprisingly good accuracy at Lirian in a fit of anger.


    "Now, now," Lirian said with a smirk and lightly flicked one of the flying pitchfork''s spokes, causing it to change trajectory, the pitch fork did a sharp 90 degree turn and suddenly accelerated, it smashed straight into someone''s head.


    The sound of a skull being cracked and ripped apart sounded, and just seconds later crazed howls of grief and anger washed over the crowd, the villagers quickly noticed the victim.


    It was the bakers eldest daughter, she was twenty years old and she was currently with child, everyone in the village knew her, but now she was dead in the blink of an eye, and the children she carried in her womb were gone to.


    She was only four months in, it was far too early for there to be any chance of saving the children.


    Only Lirian remained completely unaffected, without any concern at all, "Let''s not start throwing things around, or else someone might get hurt," Lirian said in a scolding tone before offering a hearty laugh.


    But just then Lirian heard something, a lingering voice resounding in his head, "mercy," it whispered softly.

 Chapter 264 - 030 – Identity Revealed

    Lirian''s tone only served to further infuriate the crowd and in the next second all kinds of farming tools came flying his way.


    The family of the girl who had died flung everything that they could his way as they rained down curses upon him.


    But at that moment Lirian was a little distracted, with the voice that sounded in his head, it was soft and gentle, and it seemed to plead with him desperately, yet it vanished so suddenly.


    When Lirian returned to his sense''s, he was faced with to many objects to count, and he had no time at all left to take control of the energy, in a desperate attempt, Lirian twisted his body suddenly and jumped spinning through the air with such grace that it would put an acrobat to shame.


    The objects whistled passed Lirian, coming so close to his body that it threatened to spit the fabric of his clothes.


    Those objects that got to close, Lirian allowed them to slap against the direwolf fur that he fashioned onto his armour, and aside from the impact the objects caused him no harm.


    When Lirian finally landed he did several quick flips to the side to get out of the area all the objects were being thrown at.


    Creak.


    The entire inn started to make creaking sounds and Lirian quickly balanced himself as he realised what was coming.


    Crash.


    One side of the inn caved in, under the intensity of the flames, burning splinters of lumber shot out at the crowd, causing them to retreat and temporarily forget about the death of the baker''s daughter.


    Lirian carefully placed his legs on the parts of the roof he felt would be the last to fall and addressed the crowd once more.


    "You called for me and now I''m here, would someone care to explain what this is all about?" Lirian asked as if he was clueless of the crimes they claimed he committed, his expression one of perfect innocence.


    "You still dare to ask," the innkeeper roared at the top of his lungs, and in his hands was a rather axe large axe.


    "You raped my wife, and threatened to sully our marital bed, if she did not comply with your wish''s," he cried out in righteous fury and the villagers roared at Lirian in anger chanting a song of death.


    "Bring out the blade,"


    "And smash it down,"


    "Take off the head,"


    "Off the man who sullied one,"


    As they chanted their song many people cast gazes of pity at the innkeepers wife who stood at the back of the crowd with most of the children, to the villagers it was important that the children witness this, so that they could understand the punishment for doing such a despicable act.


    Lirian listened to chant from his warm place on the inns roof, the fire had reached the top floors and Lirian could feel some flames dancing on his heels.


    "You have stated your accusation, but I proclaim my self innocent of such a crime," Lirian shouted, and took a form of delight in the growing anger of the villagers.


    "You speak of sullying your marital bed, but I have done no such thing, but according to your wife you have done such things on several occasions,"


    "She cursed and cried about your piggish desires to bring your three little barmaids into your bed,"


    "So firstly do not speak to me about sullying that which has already been sullied, by your own doing no less," Lirian said with a righteous look on his face as he raised a finger on his hand.


    "Liar," the people started to shout, but amongst them there were a few that looked at the barmaids and Layla to see if Lirian''s words held any truth.


    The mayor''s wife in particular took notice of this and to her surprise her sister and the three barmaids didn''t deny the words, in fact looks of fear could be seen on the barmaids face''s, and Layla showed no surprise at all to Lirian''s claims.


    Lirian paid no heed to the people''s shouts, "Listen up, I have to clear up my good name before I send you all to your early graves," Lirian declared.


    "Secondly," Lirian said raising a second finger, "While the thought of screwing another mans wife is truly inducing of euphoria, I attest that during this life, I''m guilty of no such crime,"


    "What happened was that a wife who grew tired of her husband cheating on her, begged me with all her might, to help her repay the favour to her cheating husband, but I denied her every request, even the night before, when she ripped of her dress and threatened to scream rape should I deny her request," Lirian roared loudly and drew his sword, pointing it at Layla whose face contorted in anger.


    "Now that I''ve finished proving my innocence I only have one thing to say, thank you all for bringing me my executioner," Lirian said with a smug smile as he pointed his blade at Cassy.


    "But I willing to bet that all of you will have not seen this next part coming, for you have not brought my executioner but rather your own," Lirian said aloud with a devilish smile.


    The villagers looked to each other in confusion, however no one looked more confused than Cassy who was quickly becoming the centre of everyone''s attention.


    "Cassy what is he saying?" a petite and beautiful girl asked who was standing directly behind him.


    She was none other than the former barmaid Anna who was married to the cultivator, a true beauty with looks even greater than the mayor''s daughter.


    But upon seeing the confused look on her husbands face she looked at Lirian and boldly asked, "What do you mean?"


    Lirian faced Cassy with a grin, "You sort us out, it was to us that you came, begging for power," Lirian said with a sadistic smile as he looked through Cassy''s memories and pulled on everything he thought would be useful.


    "We told you to come here for your test and now it''s time for you to prove to the organisation your resolve,"


    "Now wield the blade that we handed to you agent R6S11 B16U1191 and execute the people of this village," Lirian ordered Cassy with a light laugh as if he was taking pleasure in Cassy''s plight.


    Lirian knew from Cassy''s memories, that while he didn''t care much for the people of Willcolly it would be a lie to say that he didn''t grow fond of them especially his young and beautiful wife.


    Cassy had no doubts about Lirian being his superior, that code name was only know to him and his handler Sire, other than them the only one''s that could possibly know his code name were the superiors in the organisation.


    Also, Lirian knew the true origin of the long sword in his hand, a mythic graded weapon.


    "But the mission¡­" he started to say before being abruptly cut off.


    "Use your head you fool, the mission was merely a front,"


    "You know what our organisation represents, and we see potential in you, but if you want to be groomed you must first prove your worth,"


    "We have to know that you are not someone who will disregard our efforts in grooming you, after getting a couple attachments,"


    "We told you to become mayor, and to do that you had to become close to the people, it might be earlier than planned, but by now I can see that you hold some feelings to the people here,"


    "It''s time to sever those feelings, you can start off with that woman at your back, she will only serve as a weakness in your future," Lirian said as if he was watching a fun show and couldn''t wait to see how it played out.


    But that''s when a piercing pain shot through Lirian''s head again, this time it was ten times more intense than before, "mercy," that voice shouted in his head.


    It held that same softness and gentle feel to it, but its pleading was even more powerful than before.


    While Lirian was busy dealing with the pain that was scorching his head, chaos started to spread through the villagers as they put the pieces together and realised that Lirian and Cassy were connected in some way.


    Seeing the tight grip that Cassy had on his sword and the conflicted look in his eyes, made the people panic, and they quickly came to an understanding that if the two of them were in league with each-other, this was the worst place that any of them could possibly be.


    They ran and scattered in all directions, some people were squashed to the ground and trampled to death under the stampeding crowd.


    Anna looked at her husband with batted breath, "Dear, he was just making those things up right," she cried and took several steps back as she saw the crazed looked in her husband''s eyes.


    Cassy was gripping onto the sword with so much force that his entire body was shaking, "I''m sorry Anna," he said taking a step towards her.

 Chapter 265 - 031 – Mercy Is...

    Cassy was gripping onto the sword with so much force that his entire body was shaking, "I''m sorry Anna," he said taking a step towards her.


    Before Anna could take another step back she felt her feet lift of the ground an arm was wrapped tightly around her body and she was moving very quickly, when she opened her eyes again she found herself on the ground and besides her was the mayor and his wife.


    The four of them were standing on a side road together, "Take Anna and get out of the village," he said shoving his wife towards the mayor then he ran back the way he came from.


    He had made his decision the only reason he wanted to join Unity was so that he could get the power to prove to his family that they were wrong for disregarding him.


    But if it meant killing someone that he loved, he''d rather stay as some common villager without any power.


    When he returned he found that Lirian was still standing there on top of the burning building without moving an inch.


    Cassy noticed the look of pain on Lirian''s face and realised that something was wrong, which gave him an opportunity.


    Cassy rushed over to the burning building, and with a quick swipe of his mythic grade sword, he cut into the burning wood.


    Cassy jumped back as he heard the creaking sounds increase rapidly, the entire building started to collapse with Lirian standing at the top.


    Boom.


    A huge gust of wind swept in all direction, carrying burning splinters into the night sky, that resembled a swarm of fireflies.


    Despite this Cassy still looked on with a guarded stance, he slowly walked into the burning wreckage, he knew that something like this was nowhere close to enough to kill a strong cultivator.


    A three-storey fall would only hurt him a little and since he believed Lirian to be a superior in Unity, he doubted that he even had a fighting chance, but he had to do everything he could to buy time for his wife to escape.


    "So, you made your choice, huh," he heard Lirian say from behind him.


    He turned around to see Lirian standing in the wreckage and facing him with a scowl.


    "I have something to protect," Cassy said readying his sword and pointing it at Lirian, he didn''t rush in to attack, he knew it was a losing battle the only thing he could do now was stall for as much time as possible.


    "Shut up!" Lirian shouted.


    "Shut up, Shut up, SHUT UP!" Cassy heard Lirian roar while gripping onto the side of his head, with a crazed look.


    Cassy felt that Lirian was a little of his rockers earlier but now he was completely certain that Lirian was insane.


    He could tell that it wasn''t him Lirian was shouting at like a mad man.


    "It''s because of you that I missed the show," he heard Lirian mutter with gritted teeth.


    Seeing the strange state of Lirian, Cassy felt that it was probably his only chance to win in a battle so, instead of waiting he swirled  the sword around with a fancy manoeuvre and kept a good set of distance between himself and Lirian as he brought the blade to confront Lirian.


    Lirian''s body moved on instinct, but instead of grabbing his swords he grabbed onto two of the daggers holstered onto his thigh.


    With a slick movement he parried the blade with one dagger and closed the distance before planting a foot in Cassy''s gut.


    Cassy stumbled backwards and fell back, he looked at Lirian in disbelief, ''Wasn''t he supposed to be a spiritist or a mage?" he wondered.


    While the kick that he received wasn''t very strong it was certainly enough to knock the air out of him, what was worse that he was barely able to follow Lirian''s movements at all.


    He could hardly accept it after all he was already a fifth stage novice, to lose in a battle of strength was unbelievable.


    "That was a difference in technique not strength," he heard Lirian say as if reading his mind. "What the hell was that bullshit flourishing of your sword," he heard Lirian admonishing him.


    "I guess that''s all nobles are good for in this world, they learn how to wave their swords in fancy patterns that have absolutely no use," Lirian said with a scowl.


    Cassy wasn''t surprised that Lirian knew he was a former noble, it was only natural that Unity would do a background check into his past.


    Cassy climbed back to his feet, he could tell that he was being toyed with, but he was grateful the longer he was toyed with the more time he bought for his wife to escape, that was all that mattered.


    Cassy held his sword at the ready and faced Lirian with determination, he hated that smirk on Lirian''s face, the one that said I can see through everything you do, it''s all futile.


    It was just like that look his elder sister always looked at him with, she was the first born so she would naturally inherit everything while he was destined to be cast aside.


    It was a look of pity, a look that made him feel like he was worthless.


    That look got his veins burning and he felt like his body would explode at any moment, he swung his sword wildly at Lirian bringing it down in a vertical slice, he wanted to hack Lirian in half from the head down.


    Lirian didn''t dare to face the attack head on, his current opponent was a lot stronger than him, not to mention that he was a good foot and a half taller than Lirian.


    Facing that attack head on was asking for death, and Lirian wasn''t sure if the daggers would hold out against such a strike from a mythic grade weapon.


    But that said Lirian already achieved his goal, he riled up Cassy and got him to make an overly big move which created a big opening.


    As the sword came down Lirian took a quick step forward and done a simple spin on the ground, it allowed him to avoid the strike and close in on Cassy in one swift movement.


    He used the spin to propel one of the daggers forward, Lirian felt a bit of resistance when the blade reached Cassy skin, but it quickly broke through under the force Lirian instilled, and soon Lirian''s dagger was planted in Cassy''s elbow, and with another lithe movement, he planted the other dagger in on the other side of Cassy''s elbow.


    Cassy didn''t even get the time to think, one moment he slashed at Lirian and in the next second two daggers were planted in his elbow, before he could even let out a grunt he saw Lirian press that blade and give them a slight twist.


    Which resulted in his elbow dislocating and then being completely severed.


    Cassy felt like he was seeing stars as he watched his arm get severed, it was like he could only watch and do nothing about it, everything felt so surreal at the moment, he couldn''t even scream.


    His body went into complete shock and his remaining hand lost all it''s strength, the sword clattered to the ground but he barely heard it over the raging flames that encircled him.


    "You really are worthless," he heard Lirian whisper to him, but he felt like he was incapable of responding.


    He watched as Lirian picked up his sword and gave it a swing that was so beautiful and crisp, that for a second he forgot that Lirian was his enemy.


    The last thing he saw was the flickering flames flashing of the edge of his blade, as it swiped horizontally and passed through his neck.


    Lirian staggered suddenly, as Cassy''s head rolled onto the ground, and his blood became fuel for the fire.


    A message popped up on the system.


    [You killed a first grade cultivator +500 fate particles]


    [x2 fate particles for killing someone of a higher-grade]


    But Lirian didn''t have the mind to pay attention to the alert, because the voice was there again sounding like an explosion in his head, "mercy is¡­" it cried with a soft and gentle plea to its tone.


    Lirian gritted his teeth to get rid of the blaring siren in his head, but it barely helped at all.


    Lirian felt like his entire mind was swaying and a feeling of nausea overtook him, but he forced his feet to keep moving one foot in front of the other, just like he always did in the past.


    Lirian walked past the dead body of Cassy without a care he used the mythic grade sword like a walking cane to guide himself around the debris of the fallen inn.


    All the while silver energy began to pool all around his body.


    Lirian took deep breaths when he finally left the burning wreckage and then he let a wisp of the silver energy touch the raging flames.


    "Ignite," Lirian whispered while clutching onto his head.

 Chapter 266 - 032 – Mercy Is The…

    It looked like morning had come early in Willcolly, as a ball of flame loomed high above the village.


    The roosters began to crow in the late hours of the night as if experiencing first light, but their morning cries were cut short as the little sun in the sky released waves of flame that washed them away.


    The villagers fled in a panic, but their panic was the cause of their undoing, it made them slow and sluggish, and they often trampled on one another, by this point in the night a good portion of the deaths were caused by trampling instead of Lirian''s attacks.


    Bosh was currently leading a group of a few hundred to one side of the village, there were two bridge''s in total, he''d seen many of the villagers running to the main entrance, so he ran over to the rear entrance of the village.


    "Keep in line," he shouted at some of the children who were currently crying and causing their parents to stray, it was no easy task to guide a group this size through the narrow roads.


    A sudden flame came crashing down, before the group, creating a line of fire in the road, that extended to the thatched roofs of the other homes.


    The group came to an abrupt halt and tried to turn around only to find another barrier of flames blocking their path, cries of hopelessness rang out from the group as they realised that it was hopeless.


    They had run as far as they could, but the evil cultivator had caught up to them.


    They heard a slight hum over the crackling flames, and as they scanned the area before them, they saw a man walking through the flames.


    A sword they all recognised was held firmly in his hands, it was the long sword that so many of them had admired when they went to visit Mr Cassy''s home, the flames flickered of the blade that threatened to reap their lives.


    Holding it was the man they had worshipped for days, but now he was the embodiment of a demon in their gaze.


    Fresh blood dripped of the silver blade, it was no secret that it was the blood of so many innocents, they had heard the screams resounding across the village.


    Lirian approached on shaky feet, the voice in his head was growing ever louder, every time he slashed the blade several lives would come to an end he spared none at, some would condemn him for killing the children, but in his eyes weren''t they all just children.


    The one that seemed to condemn him the most was that persistent voice that clapped like thunder in his head, "mercy is the¡­" it pleaded over and over again.


    The part that drove Lirian most mad, was that the voice retained its gentle softness, like it''s words were no admonishment of his actions, but a rather a plea for his own sake.


    Lirian felt a spurt of weakness in his body as he approached the group his hand dropped and the swords scrapped the ground, while he clutched on to his head.


    Taking Lirian''s change as a sign of weakness the men in the group used all their courage to charge at Lirian, most of them had lost their weapons after throwing it at Lirian back at the inn so they attacked barehanded, hoping for some miracle to occur.


    But even in his confounded state, Lirian''s body operated on instinct, with just a simple swipe of the sword, the untrained villagers became corpses for everyone to see.


    "You monster," Bosh shouted as he fell on his rear, with his pants rapidly becoming a shade darker for all to see, but no one mocked or laughed at him, it was only natural when a monster stood just a foot away from him.


    "Yes," Lirian muttered, "A monster is what I am, it''s what the world has always dubbed me, so it is what I shall continue to be," he said with a pained look on his face as he thrust his sword forward and sunk it into Bosh''s heart.


    "Mercy is not the way a monster survives!" Lirian shouted as he wielded the sword and rained fire on the remaining villagers.


    "You''re dead, you''re gone, you left me all alone, so why are you trying to change me now when it make''s no difference at all," Lirian howled at the voice as he dismembered another villager.


    "This is who I am it''s who I always will be, stop trying to change me!" Lirian roared as he savagely brought the sword down on another villager, he hacked into the woman''s body like a savage beast, forsaking all the skill he had trained over eons and acting like a depraved animal.


    "mercy is the¡­" the voice whispered but Lirian roared once more.


    "SHUT UP!" he bellowed delivering a fist to his temple, causing a fracture to his skull, making his entire world spin as he stopped the voice from continuing.


    Lirian knew that he made a promise, but those final words of hers were in complete contrast to who he was, so much so that it was driving him mad.


    Lirian felt a genuine fear every time the voice spoke again, he couldn''t allow it to finish those words, those words he refused to acknowledge.


    What did she know anyway she was just child, Lirian comforted himself with that reasoning, but deep down he knew those words didn''t come from the her of the present, they were told to her by that version of herself from a future that would never come to pass.


    Lirian killed the final one, by now the village of Willcolly was home to more dead than the living all of it was done by him.


    But in comparison to the things he''d done in the past, this act that so many would title a slaughter, couldn''t even qualify as a drop of blood in the vast oceans of blood that he had formed.


    The voice seemed to have temporarily stopped, giving Lirian some much needed reprieve, it wasn''t long before he continued his slaughter.


    Lirian could sense that groups had finally made it to the bridges, but he quickly turned their quickly growing relief into despair, as he split the ball of flame in two and sent the burning flames to set the bridges alite.


    Now the only means for the villagers to cross the burning moats was to dig and pour sand over the burning oil, an unfortunate situation for them, because they already had very limited time to escape.


    Lirian took a leisurely stroll to the main bridge, the one that connected to the path that lead to the main road, and before long an area before the moat was covered in blood and the bodies were cast into the flaming oils deep within the moat.


    Lirian continued to stroll, taking the long route around the village, he could hear the shouts in the distance as the panicking villagers, dug into the ground with their bare hands, and used their hands as shovels to toss the loose earth into the moat.


    It was a slow process, and the fire was still burning bright they were no where close to creating a safe place to cross, and they dared not venture back to grab any tools, the village was already a land of flames.


    More and more of the survivors were gathering there, in total maybe three hundred in all were still alive, but instead of acting Lirian leapt across the burning moat, his jump was soft and smooth not a single sound was heard.


    Lirian sat down on the other side and calmly waited as hours started to pass, soon the bridge was formed and the people rejoiced but before they could set a foot on the soft bridge made from loose earth, they saw Lirian appear from the other side of the bridge.


    Terror and panic spread once more, and Lirian didn''t know the words to explain the intoxicating feeling that came with turning a person''s hope into despair let alone an entire group.


    For this group Lirian planned to take his time, this group was special, since the mayor, his wife and his daughters were here and so was the cheating innkeeper and his wife.


    "Do you see what you''ve done?" Lirian asked facing Layla.


    "You wanted to play judge jury and executioner and see where it has gotten you," Lirian said to the mayor and pointed to the village.


    "And all of this has happened because you couldn''t keep your hands to yourself and your wife," Lirian said with a chuckle as he faced the innkeeper, whose hands were wrapped tightly around his large axe.


    But despite the weapon in his hands the courage to use it remained a distance from his reach.


    "We might have wronged you but that is no excuse for what you have done," Ana the mayor''s wife shouted in a hoarse voice, all this time she had been crying unable to handle the reality.


    "No excuse," Lirian mused in amusement, "Had I not possessed power that you could not compare with, your entire village would have happily condemned me to a brutal death for a crime I did not commit," Lirian said facing Layla.


    "As far as I''m concerned all of you are as guilty as your sister," Lirian said to Ana and began his assault, he didn''t care if they believed him or not all that mattered was that they knew they brought it upon themselves.

 Chapter 267 - 033 – Mercy Is The Way…

    Lirian sliced through the crowd now that he said his piece.


    But he didn''t go in to kill all those responsible he let them watch, he wanted them to witness the extermination of their people, he wanted them to understand whose fault it was.


    And besides, there were two girls being held back by the mayor and his wife, who Lirian planned to give a way out, at least they tried to learn the truth it would be their reward, and he planned to grant them another reward as well.


    One that would change the way they looked at the world forever and set them upon a path that would make even the privileged youths of the empires envy them.


    (A/N: when I speak of the empire here, I''m referring to the empires of this world not the six great civilisations.)


    One that could easily get them killed, but on the of chance that they weathered the trials sent their way, it was possible that they would emerge in this world as its proud children, all of that would be up to fate.


    It was also possible that the girls would choose to die with their parents, a choice Lirian hoped they would not make, he did kind of like the two of them, but it would be their choice at the end of the day.


    In no time at all the villagers fled in a panic, they rushed back in all directions to try confusing Lirian but Lirian chased them down and slaughtered his way through them, the entire area from the village gate to the burning bridge became a sea of corpses, and standing still was a small group, of only 15 people.


    They seemed to realise that Lirian attacked those that ran first, when he was done Lirian turned back to face the small group of survivors then he spoke to Layla.


    "Why don''t you tell them all the truth," Lirian said, "It doesn''t make a difference anymore, you are all going to die anyway," he said focusing his charm on her.


    Layla''s entire body squirmed at the thought, and a crazed look entered her eyes as she looked at Lirian, even now her greatest desire was to have a taste of Lirian''s body, it was all part of her plan, she hoped that once he was killed they''d give her his body, to do with as she pleased, after all she did play victim to his crimes.


    But there was just a small amount of sanity that remained in her head, preventing her from confessing, but Lirian next words destroyed those restraints, "I''ll give you what you wish for if you confess," Lirian said to her.


    It was like he injected her with a vial of dopamine, and she dashed towards Lirian with a crazed look in her eyes, "Yes I lied," she confessed throwing her arms in the air with joy, she didn''t care that her actions got everyone killed all that mattered was that she would get what she so desperately desired.


    "I want you to fill me up," she shouted and ripped of parts of her clothes as she ran to Lirian.


    ''It''s almost like my charm has turned her in to a drug addict,'' Lirian thought.


    As Layla ran a sudden crunching sound was heard and everyone saw that she was knocked down by someone else, the person in question was a beautiful petite young woman, the former barmaid of her inn and the woman who was married to Mr Cassy.


    The moment she saw the sword in Lirian''s hands she knew that her husband was gone, and she was powerless to do anything about it, but hearing Layla''s carefree confession, that reminded her of a whore, she saw her chance to exact some revenge on the cause of her husbands death.


    And not even the mayor''s wife seemed to have any intention of saving her sister, everyone was looking at her with revulsion and they did nothing to stop Anna as she dragged Layla to the flaming moat.


    But suddenly the innkeeper rushed after them, as if he just realised that the woman being dragged to the moat was his wife.


    Lirian felt like he had enough of them, so, once the three of them converged at the edge of the moat, Lirian channelled a little of the worlds energy on his finger tips and released a wave that smacked the three over the edge and into the flames.


    Their screams lasted for a while before they went completely silent.


    Lirian had a couple new thoughts on his mind after experiencing Layla''s madness, in fact he felt a slight degree of trepidation towards his charm.


    ''System what will it take to seal of the effects of my charm,'' Lirian asked hoping that his system could come up with a possible solution.


    [After analyses it is determined to be impossible to completely seal of the powers of your godly constitution.]


    [However, three solutions have been found.]


    [1. Perform a fate sacrifice to lighten the effects of your charm.]


    [2. Spell your body and clothing to decrease your charms effect.]


    [3. Find the universal treasure ''The Shears of Destiny'', it might be possible to isolate and sever the charm effects of your godly constitution.]


    Lirian read through the options and ruled out the third option, universal treasures were rare and very hard to find, one would be created with every shattering a plain experienced, so basically only 15 existed in the current plain.


    While Lirian did discover multiple Shears of Destiny throughout the plains, it only happened after countless eons of searching, so it was of the tables currently.


    As for the second option he needed his cultivation for it to work, which left him with the first option, ''I can do that one when I''m done here,'' Lirian thought gratefully, he had conducted enough of his experiment to reach plenty of conclusions.


    "Now for the rest of you," Lirian said pointing the sword at the twelve survivors, of which only two had any hope of surviving.


    But just than Lirian heard movement at the village gate, the sound caught everyone''s attention, and as they looked at the gates they saw a child running out of the village.


    When the little girl saw Lirian she cried in delight, "Mr, Mr, Mr," she shouted and ran as fast as she could on her little feet.


    She slipped on the blood several time''s, but every time she climbed back up with determination, she even stumbled on the bodies that littered the ground, but she still got back up and ran to Lirian without even showing any fear of the corpses in her sight that no child should ever have to gaze upon.


    Lirian recognised the voice very vividly, it belonged to the little girl Lizzy he met on the first night he entered the village.


    "Mr please come and help, it''s my mommy, mommy won''t move," she sobbed as she reached Lirian and clung on his leg.


    "Lizzy run away from him," some of the survivors shouted in fear, they saw that Lirian had no mercy for anyone not even the children, they could already see her corpse falling to the ground.


    But the girl didn''t back down and firmly clung onto Lirian''s leg.


    Lirian found it interesting, to see someone asking him for help, it should have been obvious to anyone even a toddler that he was the cause of the disaster.


    Yet this little girl was actually asking him for help, asking him to save someone, it struck a nerve in Lirian.


    "What make''s you think that I''ll help your mommy?" Lirian asked the little girl and flashed the sword in front of her showing her the blade that was died red from the villager''s blood.


    Lizzy looked at Lirian as if confused, but then her eye''s shined brightly as if she understood, "I know what everyone''s screaming about Mr," she said recalling all the screams, where people shouted his name and called him a monster, but then another image flashed across her mind, one that made her giddy even now.


    "But it can''t be true Mr is a good guy," she said with a smile, "Mr made Lizzy fly," she said with a smile.


    Lirian could hardly believe the thoughts of the child, just because he made her fly for a few seconds, she thought that he was capable of no wrong.


    "How foolish," Lirian muttered and flashed the blade, "Once they called me ''The Demon of the End, how could I ever be a good guy," he released a crazed laugh, a laugh not even he quite understood.


    "Mercy is the way¡­" the voice suddenly boomed in his head as he swung the blade to chop of the little girl''s head.


    The abrupt pain caused him to miss his strike, but the pain was so intense this time that he fell to his knees as he grappled with his head, to stop the sentence from finishing.


    Lirian felt a sensation that he had long forgotten, and suddenly his mouth opened wide as he released a torrent of puke that messed the little girl.


    "Mr are you alright!" Lizzy cried in alarm, despite what Lirian had just done the little girl still showed no fear and rushed to support Lirian and hold him up, with her tiny little body.

 Chapter 268 - 034 – A Cultivators Guide To The First Accord

    Lirian gripped his head as the pain coursed through his body, "Very well," he whispered.


    "Only this once let there be mercy," he whispered softly, and the mind drumming pain vanished like it never existed in the first place.


    "Child," Lirian muttered to the little girl that was trying to help him, "Show me the way to your mother," he said climbing to his feet and raising the girl in his arms.


    Everything that just happened took the villagers by surprise, they were expecting to see a little dead girl but instead she was being helped up in the demons embrace.


    "The lot of you had best remain in place, if even one of you leaves this place without my dismissal, then my mercy will restrain me no more," Lirian left those words before walking back into the burning village with the little girl in his arms, happily pointing out the way.


    Lizzy lead Lirian through the place pretty quickly and they came across one of the main roads where they found Lizzy''s mother.


    One of her legs were broken and most of her body was covered in bruises, she was trampled by the crowds as they fled in a panic.


    Lizzy explain between sobs about how she fell down and her mother used her own body to protect her from the stamped.


    Lirian did a quick check on Lizzy''s mom and discovered that while battered and bruised with a broken leg, the main reason she passed out was due to inhaling to much smoke, with time she would actually recover just fine.


    Lizzy sobbed in relief when Lirian gave her the good news, and in less than a minute she fell asleep in his arms.


    A short while later Lirian returned to the rear gate of the village, and when he did he was actually surprised to find that no one had left, the twelve survivors were rooted firmly in place.


    "You lot should count yourselves lucky, no one else whose crossed me has ever got the chance to live and tell the tale," Lirian said coldly then pointed to the two girls who were standing behind their parents.


    "Ella and Elsie, come here I have a gift to present to the two of you," the girls shared a look with their parents before they reluctantly allowed the girls to approach, but they realised that it seemed like Lirian was going to spare them, but there was no saying that he would go back on his word if they tried to deny his order.


    They feared for their daughters, but it was clear that Lirian would be able to do as he pleased with them even if they opposed.


    The two girls walked hand in hand to comforting each-other, they''d be lying of they said they weren''t afraid of Lirian.


    They remembered what he said about killing anyone that dared to label him with a false crime and it was true that he stayed true to his word for the most part.


    They didn''t understand why he suddenly changed his mind but they were glad that their family was still whole, they didn''t know what they''d do if their parents were killed, especially since despite everything Lirian had done they were unable to deny the feelings in their hearts.


    When the girls drew close Lirian told them to stand still and close their eyes, the girls knew that this wasn''t the place, but a feeling of anticipation filled their entire beings as they followed Lirian''s order.


    ''System impart the knowledge into their minds,'' Lirian ordered.


    [Host after a mental scan it has been predicted that the girls minds are much to weak to handle the knowledge, it could cause a mental collapse]


    [Does host wish to proceed, Y/N?]


    Lirian frowned slightly at the result, ''Change of plans, link the knowledge to their fate strings, so that as they increase in life hierarchy the knowledge that us relevant will gradually be revealed until their minds can bare all of it,'' he ordered.


    [That will cost 50 million fate particles for each girl.]


    [Does host wish to proceed, Y/N?]


    ''Yes, and add in Lizzy as well,'' Lirian ordered the system.


    [Lizzy might be na?ve, but her mind has experienced an awakening, there is no need to link the knowledge to her fate string]


    Lirian read the last message with surprise, but it did actually make sense, despite all the gore and awful sights the girl saw she did managed to get through it without having her mind fall apart, she even managed to reason that he was the only one that would have been able to save her mother.


    For a six year old child it wasn''t bad.


    ''Proceed,'' Lirian ordered.


    Suddenly countless amounts of information flooded the sisters and the little girl sleeping in his arms, he had just given the three of them a perfect guide to the cultivation of the first accord.


    With this knowledge even the biggest dimwit in the world would be able to become a seventh-grade cultivator in 500 years, Lirian himself would need just 150 years if he was going to cultivate the first accord techniques.


    To cultivate people needed to open their energy points first, so Lirian created a series of different cultivation techniques from elementary to perfect.


    As well as a detailed guide on how to select their elementary techniques and advance it through the levels depending on the path they desired to follow as cultivators.


    Along with that were thousands of cultivation techniques which was just a small number of what Lirian accrued over the years and a botanical guide, to finding useful plants and herbs that would help them in their cultivation.


    It was a guide to first accord cultivation like no other, and Lirian couldn''t wait to see if it would result in anything world shaking or if the girls would end up getting themselves killed, so along with that he also planted a feed back loop on the girls fate strings.


    If they were to fall into any serious danger he''d learn of it immediately if they died he''d know exactly who ruined his experiment, and if he wanted to he''d even be able to spy on them when ever he felt like it, but that would come at the cost of fate particles.


    When he finished the girls collapsed in exhaustion, even with the limits Lirian placed on them it was a lot for their minds to bare.


    Then Lirian turned his focus onto the villagers, ''System place a mark on all of them,'' he ordered.


    The villagers all saw a ball of whiteish light form in Lirian''s palm, it was hard to describe what they were looking at, but suddenly 11 beams shot out, one striking each person including Lizzy''s mother.


    Lirian watched as an addition 11 million fate particles drained from his collection, "Listen to me closely, if you ever tell anyone the truth about what happened her today , those beams of light will activate and take your life," Lirian said, it was actually a lie, fate didn''t have any killing abilities.


    But what the marking would do was alert him and highlight their positions, which would allow him to not only find them, but he''d be able to make them relive this nightmare in another place.


    Lirian then turned to the mayor and his wife, he passed them their daughters as well as the little girl and her mother.


    "Now all of you get lost, I don''t ever want to see any of you ever again," Lirian said with a scowl and chased them away from their village.


    It wasn''t long before the survivors were long gone, and only Lirian remained behind in the burning village.


    Lirian picked up the mythic grade sword, and began to chant a short sutra, and soon the entire blade began to emit a white light before vanishing into thin air.


    "I offer the remnant souls of the innocent and the blade that reaped their lives as a fate sacrifice," Lirian chanted, he was performing the fate sacrifice to weaken the effect of his charm.


    The bodies of the dead all started to light up and turn into particles of light, even the blood disappeared from the ground, aside from the still spreading fire''s it looked like nothing happened in Willcolly at all.


    [It is not sufficient, system suggests that host use''s fate particles]


    Lirian grunted, he had just used quite a bit of fate particles, and by now every particle counted, so he wasn''t too eager to use up anymore, especially since the system was still uncertain as to how many fate particles were needed for the process.


    That''s when Lirian suddenly remembered something and went rushing back to the wreckage of the inn he was staying in.


    After a short while scavenging through the stuff he found his possessions, the bag was already burned to nothing and all the coin he stole had started to melt, but that wasn''t what he was looking for.


    He soon found four objects that were rolling in the floor, the presence of three of them immediately began to stir Lirian''s energy points, and the fourth although it only had any effect when held in Lirian''s hand was the most profound of the lot.


    They were the three perfect cultivation techniques and the elementary second accord saint cultivation technique the emperor passed on to Lirian.

 Chapter 269 - 035 – Fate Sacrifice

    Lirian held the three first accord cultivation techniques, they were certainly desirable objects even in the six civilisations, and especially here on some backward world, had Lirian had the opportunity to expose it to this world and let people know about it, it would have gained the attention of even the leaders of this world.


    That would have allowed the techniques to accrue fate due to it''s desirability, but he quickly offered up the three cultivation techniques one after the other, yet it still wasn''t enough, finally Lirian picked up the second accord technique.


    This he knew was worth at least a hundred perfect first accord techniques.


    In the six civilisation, having a second accord technique represented more than just power, it represented trust and confidence in someone, and these techniques were also valued very highly in the immortal realm, even an elementary technique was treasured by many powers in the immortal realm.


    If this thing couldn''t do the trick to weaken his charm ability, Lirian didn''t know what would.


    Soon the technique started to emit white light and faded into nothing along with all the corpse''s in the village.


    As all the object vanished Lirian was reminded of the time he performed his fate sacrifice when he fled from the black tribulation lightning of the heavens.


    He sacrificed priceless object after priceless object, each one was a remnant of a shattered plain, which he created through countless efforts, and all of that, gave him a fate rewrite that brough him to the highest pyramid of the Clovis empire.


    It was then that he appeared in the garden where he interrupted the date of the empress who became his adoptive mother and the emperor his foster father.


    Memories flashed through Lirian''s mind as he recalled those events and all the things that followed, his special journey to Xelia and finally his 14 years of living a peaceful life, then his abrupt departure that brough him here.


    It was then that the system gave him an alert that brought him out of his stupor.


    [Fate Sacrifice successful]


    [Host can control the degree of the weakening effect]


    [The fate Sacrifice has weakened the host''s charm by 80%]


    [If host always keeps the effect at 80% the fate sacrifice will fade in 432 galactic years]


    [Additionally, host should know that during the sacrifice of the remnant souls, a vague resonance was detected with hosts Samsaric source]


    [It is advised that host does research into remnant souls and true souls to find clues about hosts Samsaric powers]


    Lirian sighed in relief at the successful fate sacrifice, his natural charm was useful but he also found it a little scary, even if only one woman became extremely obsessed with him, he felt like it was one woman to many.


    He''d have to regulate it''s use, and lastly he was surprised by the systems findings, he felt nothing of the sort, but he had no reason to doubt the system, it''s analyses abilities could put gods to shame.


    With the success of the ritual, Lirian happily pulled of the tight leather armour he fashioned with direwolf fur and tossed it into the flames, he no longer needed it anymore.


    "What to do now?" Lirian wondered aloud as he thought about his future course of actions, but he was feeling a little tired, the warmth from the flames was making him sleepy and he had no desire to use his head to think.


    "Wait a second I''ve always wanted to try this," Lirian said feeling slightly excited and picked up several small pieces of debris.


    Lirian flicked one piece after the other into the air with random amounts of power, but when the pieces of debris fell down, they all landed in roughly the same area.


    "Wow I actually have it," Lirian said with a chuckle and walked in the direction the debris fell.


    What Lirian was testing was actually a special perk that some heaven chosen he met in the past had, when they lacked direction, they could play any game that relied on luck to determine their future course.


    For one such game a person had to take a map and mark out all the roots with a number, than they would roll a set of dice, if the same number came up multiple times in a row then if they took that path there was good chance that it would lead towards some encounter.


    Whether the encounter was good or bad, no one would ever know until they walked down that path.


    Another way of playing the game was to take a map and throw darts at it randomly until you hit the same place multiple times in a row.


    There were even some people who used this method to choose when they reached a crossroad or they had a difficult decision to make, instead of killing themselves with the decision they would allow their luck to determine their course of action.


    Lirian was merely playing a simplified game as he tossed the pieces of the debris in random directions yet they all somehow ended up landing in the same area.


    Lirian walked through the burning village, until the pieces of debris brought him to one of the other inns as he walked inside he soon found himself standing before a barrel of ale.


    Lirian furrowed his brow and popped open the barrel, half expecting that some special object or a person would be hiding inside the barrel, but reality proved him wrong all that was inside the barrel was ale.


    A strong fruity smell assaulted Lirian''s nose, and he couldn''t help but face the barrel with doubt in his eyes.


    So, he moved to the wall where the barrel sat and began tapping it to check if there was a hollow area behind it.


    But after a series of checks and a scan with the system for affirmation, Lirian was forced to admit that there was no hidden object or area behind the wall, which made him turn back to the barrel of ale with complete confusion.


    Lirian picked up a couple of knives from the kitchen and swung his wrist, letting the knives fly at random, but the knives didn''t all land on one barrel, instead they scattered and each one landed on a different barrel.


    "Oh, you cannot be serious!" Lirian said in befuddlement, he was getting an idea of what his direction was indicating he should do, and he didn''t know if he should laugh or cry.


    Just for good measure Lirian retrieved all the knives and repeated the process, while some of the knives hit different barrels, they all hit a barrel without exception.


    Lirian did a quick count and found that their were eight barrels of ale in the inn, and it appeared that the first time he ever tried to depend of the heavens direction, the heavens wanted him to get drunk, and that was no metaphor, it was a undeniable truth.


    His direction was directing him to the ale so that he could drink all of it, of that he had no doubt.


    "You disappoint me," Lirian declared to the heavens, and took a quick step outside of the inn.


    "Well I can''t finish all that ale if this place catches fire," Lirian mused and silver energy began to pool all around his body, he let it gather for a good five minutes, before he shouted "Ignite."


    The silver energy quickly turned into a gigantic ball of red flames but under Lirian''s control the ball the quickly began to shrink in size, from red the flames turned yellow, and then it turned to blue as the flames compressed further and further until it was the size of a ball that anyone could carry in their hands.


    The tiny ball loomed over the village, and under the extreme heat that it released all the other flames quickly faded away, and little torrents could be seen in the air.


    Torrents of flame travelled from all over the village and were rapidly absorbed into the tiny ball of blue flame that rapidly shrunk becoming a tiny white-hot flame that looked like it could be carried away by a light breeze.


    "Fooo," Lirian let out a breath of air, all this concentration was taking a toll on him and maintaining the flame in the air was quickly depleting all his stamina.


    Lirian sighed in relief when the final flame went out and with a flick the little ball of white flame soared out of the village and far across the moats.


    Lirian turned back to the inn and after taking a few steps, he felt the ground underneath his feet rumble, in the distance a loud explosion thundered, and the surrounding mountains caught flame.


    "Wow, due to my reliance on energy control during this life, I''ve really become super amazing at using it," Lirian muttered, in the past he only ever used energy control for trivial matters, so he never saw it''s full potential being used.


    Lirian turned his attention to the barrels ale, and before long he became good acquaintances with all the barrels, he drunk every flavour he could, and over the course of three days he finally emptied out all the barrels.


    But just when he thought his task was over he turned to some little rocks to offer him guidance once more, and it guided him to a burned down house but inside it he found another barrel of ale that was completely untouched.


    "Am I supposed to finish all the remaining ale in the village," Lirian wondered aloud, and after a brief inner struggle to abandon this course of action Lirian went on a hunt to find all the remaining ale in the village.


    To Lirian''s horror, somehow 40 barrels of ale survived the burning flames leaving him with a task, that would make even dwarves shy away.

 Chapter 270 - 036 – Ghost Town 1

    A squad of fifty walked along the road, most of them wore pieces of light armour or chainmail and a light set of blue robes were draped across their gear, it was the colours of the house they served.


    On their shoulders an emblem of a circular shield was stitched onto their clothes, they bore the coat of arms of House Kurt.


    Every person held a weapon in hand as they marched in a neat formation with a large cart at the centre of the formation.


    The cart was pulled by four enormous horse''s each one was almost twice the size of a cow, and on the cart the horse''s pulled, a thick steel cage sat.


    "We''ve been searching for a week now, and there isn''t a single trace of one bloody orc hair, let alone some silver haired noble orc," Corten complained, he was the lieutenant sitting in the rear of the formation, and just a little behind him was the captain of the squad.


    The captain was dressed a little differently from the rest, whereas they had bulky pieces of armour she wore a simple blue robe and sat on her horse, not minding the conversations of her squad, her focus was set on the road as if searching through the dirt for clues.


    "We have found the remains of a few burnt up caravans and their people," one of the soldiers offered, he knew what the lieutenant could be like when he got cranky, so he tried to alleviate his crankiness with the progress of the mission so far.


    "Hump," Corten snorted coldly, "The only thing we learned from all those sites, is that who ever is responsible for this stole all the coin and torched everything else,"


    "Tell me what kind of orc noble would feel the need to rob some merchants of the little coin they carry on them?!" Colten yelled at the soldier, like he was a complete fool.


    "This entire mission is just one colossal waste of time," Colten huffed loudly as he pulled up a dagger and started to shave his nails.


    "Captain how about we rest at the next village and turn back, even if there are any orcs and I doubt that are, there is absolutely no trail to follow, aside from the few burnt caravans we have found nothing else," Colten said with a slightly more respectful tone then when he berated the soldier.


    "You make a good point," the captain said with a slight scowl on her face, she knew that her lieutenant was highly valued by lord Kurt but he had an attitude problem he was always acting like he was the superior and he was lazy to boot.


    "Everyone you heard your lieutenant we don''t have any trail or leads to follow, I agree that if we keep moving around without any aim we won''t be effective" she said to the group.


    Colten beamed happily, he was getting sick and tired of traveling on the road, he just wanted to get back to the Kurt estate and find a good brothel in the red-light district to blow of some steam.


    At that moment the captain added, "We''ll station ourselves outside the nearest village, and we''ll be camping there until we find a lead,"


    A series of grunts echoed, clearly most of the squad, didn''t like their captains decision, but no one dared to speak against it, they wouldn''t dare to argue with an adapt.


    Well all with the exception of the lieutenant who was angered by the idea, "Captain, this is just a waste of time, the delusions of some survivors, they were probably so traumatised that they couldn''t even remember what happened clearly," he argued.


    "Are you questioning my orders?" the captain asked with a cold smile on her face, she was hoping for an opportunity to give her lieutenant a beating.


    A scowl quickly formed on Colten''s face but he didn''t dare to do anything else, while there was hope for him to become an adapt one day it wasn''t going to be anytime soon.


    "No I''m not," he said reluctantly.


    "Good, I didn''t think you had to balls to do so anyway," the captain said coldly, which earned a round of chuckles from the entire squad, it wasn''t every day that they got to see one of the lords golden boys put in their place.


    "We have a mission to fulfil, if I hear another word about leaving before our task is completed, I''ll personally escort each of you to the guillotine when we return to the estate," she said and returned her focus to the road.


    They were assigned a task by their liege to investigate the rumours about an orc noble that was attacking the caravans, as the one''s in control over this part of the road, it was House Kurt''s duty to launch an investigation and try to get rid of the menace, before Proge got involved.


    There was no doubt that the nobles of Proge would be more than happy to rub it in Lord Kurt''s face, if they had to take care of a problem that was occurring in his territory.


    The members of the squad all glanced at Colten with heated gazes it was all his fault that the captain was now in a foul mood, and now they were going to spend who knew how long, stationed outside a village.


    Sleeping on the hard ground, and even if they went to the village inns it wasn''t like the beds in some village could compare to the beds they had back home.


    Silence took over the squad as they continued with their march, they were already getting close to a village, if they sped up a little it was possible that they would be able go in and enjoy a couple of drinks before they went to sleep.


    It was then that one of the scouts came back, everyone gave him room as he walked to the back and spoke to the captain.


    "There''s something you should see," he told the captain, it wasn''t exactly urgent, but it was certainly unexpected, something may or may not be related to the currents trouble.


    The captain quickly gave an order for the squad to take a quick break as she followed the scout of the road, and after a short climb through the wilderness, the captain saw what the scout had mentioned.


    There was an entire area that was charred completely black, like a land of death suddenly appeared in the middle of the forest.


    "I went in and examined the outskirts," the scout explained, "From the looks of it there was a very intense fire that broke out, from what I can tell the fire went out over a week ago," the scout gave all his finding so far.


    The captain knitted her eyebrows, "We''ll have to have that entire area investigated to find the cause, I doubt that this is a coincidence, it''s unlikely that this was natural," the captain said with concern.


    It was harvest season, it was far too early for farmers to lite the fields and also no accidental fire would have been able to cause so much destruction.


    "The village of Willcolly is pretty close," the captain said, "We''ll camp there for the night, find out what the villagers know, then we''ll go in to investigate the area."


    A short while later the captain gave the squad a rundown of what was found, which came as a relief to the group, they no longer had to fear being stuck in some village for an extended period of time.


    The sun was rapidly creeping down the horizon and when they finally made it to the village the sun had all but vanished from their sight, but they were certain that that they were close, however when the first person realised that they reached the village a frown formed on his face, the sight was not at all what they expected to see.


    The village that should have had a few lamps lit here and there was completely dark, no sound could be heard coming from the inns where most people would gather in the night, and not the slightest trace of movement could be detected.


    It was like they were looking at a ghost town that had been completely abandoned, and without the light they couldn''t even see the real appearance of the wrecked village.


    One of the soldiers walked up to the bridge, but after taking a single step the floor of the bridge started to crack and break.


    "The bridge is a complete wreck," he shouted to the group as he ran back, the cracking sounds from the bridge continued to sound and before long the bridge came crashing down, and the smell of charred wood wafted into all of their noses.


    "Ready your weapons," the captain whispered to the group, she was getting a bad feeling as she approached the moat and lifted her hand, soon she unleashed a little spell that fill the moat with sand to act as a crossing.


    Then a ball of flame appeared in her hand as she led the way with her squad following carefully behind.


    Soon the flame in her hand illuminated the gates to the village, they were wide open and as the group wondered inside they found that that the village was a complete wreck.


    Buildings had crumbled to the ground and from the look of things, it seemed like people had fled through the village in a mad rush.


    Barrels were strewn about on the roads, and farming tools were scattered all over the ground, the entire thing sent chills down their spines.


    Even for them, the trained warriors of House Kurt this was a first.

 Chapter 271 - 037 – Ghost Town 2

    "Could the orcs have attacked this village?" a soldier asked while increasing the grip on his sword.


    The squad quickly formed a tight circle around the captain, since she was a spell caster they would protect her while she prepared the appropriate spells to deal with the situation.


    The captain scanned the area closely and formed several more flames and scattered them all over the place, to avoid giving away their location.


    "Are you blind and stupid?" Colten rebuked the soldier who spoke.


    "There are no bodies, and there isn''t a single drop of blood on the ground," he said in a condescending tone.


    "Maybe they saw a group of orcs approaching so they fled the village, then the orcs torched the village," another soldier posed.


    His words weren''t immediately shot down, and soon the squad took it to be the most likely possibility and they increased their grip on their weapons while looking around with ever increasing vigilance.


    "I just can''t understand how a group of orcs managed to reach this part of the territory without being noticed," Colten finally said, his words meant that he didn''t deny the soldiers theory.


    Also his words were something that had been on everyone''s mind, the soldiers, the members of House Kurt, the advisors and their lord himself, none of them could offer an explanation.


    The main place that this region had contact with orcs was through Port Cove, it was a trading hub that humans and orcs used to exchange goods and every couple of years the ships from Adyr would dock at the port.


    For the orcs to be here they would have had to dock at Port Cove, then cut across the territories of House Kurt, not to mention go past the estate of House Kurt before reaching the main road and moving to this village.


    A map of the region.


    That was also the easiest method for any group of orcs to reach this area, any other method of approach was extremely unlikely, and even this method was also borderline impossible.


    Which is why House Kurt was currently suspicious of House Hauton, they were the likeliest candidate to have been able to sneak orcs into the region, then sending them to stir chaos on the part of the road that House Kurt was in charge of.


    With Lord Kurt''s recent banishment from Riverfall, the local lords of the region were all set on making things difficult for House Kurt, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity for any enemies.


    While House Kurt was focused on some wild goose chase with some orcs they would be free to steal territories belonging to House Kurt.


    "Colten take five men and do a sweep of the perimeter, if this was the doing of orcs it''s possible that this is more than a ghost town but rather a trap for us," the captain whispered her orders.


    Colten grumbled about getting the shitty job and grabbed a torch that he found lying on the ground, after lighting it he selected a small group, to go out and scan the perimeters of the village.


    The captain continued to make her way through the village, she sent her soldiers to search through the buildings that still remained.


    A few houses collapsed when the doors were pushed open, but after several scans of the area there was only one thing that was found to be common throughout all the homes.


    It didn''t surprise her the first time a soldier told her that nothing was taken from the homes not clothes or the food provisions they stocked up, the soldiers even came back with coin purse''s that were filled with the life savings of some families.


    Sometimes when people panic it''s possible that they would throw all things to the air and flee, for their lives, but it kept happening over and over again.


    Even the soldiers were starting to feel concerned, what could possibly make an entire village with over two thousand people, to flee without even taking the most basic of things from their homes.


    After ordering a search of the burnt down houses, the sound of the soldiers shoving and breaking parts of the houses made a loud din in the village, but before long, the soldiers were able to find things that survived the fires.


    Their search only increased the oddness of the situation, because not a single house had any of its possessions taken.


    The more they thought about it the more unnerved they became, something passed through here that was so scary, that it made all the people flee, neglecting all their earthly possession, yet, their was not a single corpse or even a drop of blood anywhere to be seen.


    It made absolutely no sense at all, and by now the soldiers would have by far preferred walking into a village that was littered by corpse''s, at least then they''d have an explanation.


    Boom. Bang. Crash.


    The sudden sound of objects crashing resounded loudly throughout the dead still quite of the village.


    Several of the soldiers jumped at the unexpected sound, and they could still hear the sounds it was growing softer, but it sounded like something hard bouncing up and down.


    They all turned to their captain for direction, with fearful looks on their faces, they were all trained soldiers, but this was something they never experienced before, this entire village was completely unsettling.


    The captains brow was knitted tight with concern, "Get into a tight formation, keep your spears up and archers keep your bows nocked at all times," she whispered her orders to them seriously.


    They started to move in the direction they heard the heard the sound coming from, they proceeded at a turtle''s pace with taught nerves.


    When they drew closer they could hear what sounded like wood being dragged around, "Halt," the captain ordered as they approached a corner.


    "Look carefully at the lay out, I''ll be extinguishing the flames, we don''t want to completely give ourselves away," she said.


    The soldiers nodded and did as told, a few minutes later they walked with extra slowness and did all they could to move as quietly as possible, and behind them they could see their captain moving her hands to prepare a spell.


    Having an adapt spell caster at their back filled them with confidence and allowed them to continue, but when they thought they had a chance at sneaking up on their enemy, they heard someone speak.


    "Oh my blessed name, why in the world are you people making so much noise, it''s like a game of clink and clank with you people," they heard someone start to complain in a disgruntled tone.


    "Who goes there?" an archer shouted and let loose an arrow.


    It was just a warning shot but everyone could feel the panic set in.


    "The dark makes you so skittish," the man said with a crazed laugh, "Imagine if the darkness accompanied you everywhere you go,"


    The captain of the group could tell that they were already discovered so she wasted no time and unleashed a series of spells, the ground started to rumble and flames lit up the area.


    When the ground finally stopped shaking the soldiers turned to see a blindfolded man with shoulder length black hair caught in a trap of earth.


    The earth formed a pillory around the man locking his two hands and his head, while the ground around his feet sunk for a few seconds before the ground hardened.


    "Locking me up just like that," Lirian mused with a light and delirious chuckle, in his hand was a large mug of ale and despite the awkward position of his hands and head, he jerked the mug slightly and sent the ale splashing into his mouth.


    "Did all of you come to help me finish drinking my friends?" he asked and unsuccessfully attempted to point at the barrels.


    "I''ve¡­ been waiting for yyyyyou to-to-to come for me for soooooo long now," he slurred but his finger accurately pointed at the captain of the squad.


    The soldiers were looking at him with confusion they could now see a bunch of empty barrels scattered all over the ground, which explained the loud sound from the look of things they''d wager that the drunk man in front of them stacked the barrels and toppled them over.


    The soldiers went completely red in shame as they recalled how terrified they got by the sound, what would the lord say if he ever found out, that they were scared out of their wits by tumbling barrels.


    The captain frowned as she looked at Lirian, other than his good looks she couldn''t find anything special about him at all.


    "Who are you?" she asked.


    "J-j-j-j-just a wondering traveller, Lirian is mmmmyy almighty name," Lirian introduced himself with a flare of his hands, then he splashed more ale into his mouth.


    The captain frowned in annoyance at his disrespectful attitude so she indicated for one of the soldiers to take the mug of ale away.


    A soldier quickly approached, but his steps suddenly came to a halt as he collapsed to the ground, as everyone looked on they realised that he was unconscious.

 Chapter 272 - 038 – The Drunk In Willcolly

    The captain narrowed her eyes, as her squad looked at Lirian with high alert.


    She could tell that her soldier was only unconscious, but she couldn''t understand why!


    She didn''t see Lirian do anything out of the ordinary, and there was certainly nothing special that she could feel about Lirian, which caused her frown to deepen.


    "You!" she pointed to one of her soldiers, "Approach him, but do so with caution if you detect anything strange back away," she ordered.


    Everyone cast gazes of pity at the unfortunate soldier who looked at Lirian with terror.


    Felling the gazes of pity he cast a gloomy look to his fellow comrades, ''If you guys really felt sorry for me, then one of you would take my place,'' he inwardly cursed at his squad members as he walked forward slowly.


    He carefully approached the point where the last soldier fell unconscious and took a shaky step forward, but almost immediately he back tracked with the agility of a cat.


    "What happened?" the captain asked with an ever-growing frown, she hadn''t detected anything again, yet it seemed that her soldiers did, which was making her mood turn foul.


    The soldier felt sweat trickle down his back as he detected the displeasure of his captain, he thought that the captain was displeased with him, so he glanced between the captain and Lirian with a look of uncertainty.


    Should he approach again or should he just explain, soon enough his mind was made up, he rather face the guillotine than approach Lirian again.


    He looked to his captain with eyes filled with resolve, "Captain what I''m about to say I swear is no lie,"


    "But I''d rather take a bath in a sewer than approach that man ever again,"


    "For his stench is so bad, it could kill an orc in its tracks," the soldier cried out, he recalled that moment when he approached the stench threatened to overwhelm his every sense, if he took another breath he suspected that he would have died.


    He chanced a glance of pity at the poor soldier who lay on the ground, in his eyes even if the soldier survived, he be left with a trauma no man could recover from, just the thought of the stench was making him shudder in fright.


    The captain''s eyes twitched in their sockets, and her lungs threatened to burst from the anger she felt, she was actually doubting her own abilities, because of a man''s stench.


    "Cheers!" Lirian shouted and splashed more ale into his mouth, "For you have survived what even an orc cannot," Lirian laughed happily and jeered.


    The soldier face went red in anger, as the other soldiers all laughed on at their comrade''s expanse, only the captain''s face showed no humour.


    She quickly scanned through the barrels behind Lirian and looked at him with a raised brow, ''He couldn''t have drunk all of that by himself, he''d be dead,'' she thought to herself.


    Just then Lirian felt his mug run dry, "Hey www-wwwould one of you be a dd-ddear and fill this up for me?" Lirian asked the soldiers while holding the mug high, or at least as high as the earthen pillory allowed him to extend his hand.


    "I can''t leave untilllll I fffffinish drinking allllllll my friends," Lirian whispered.


    The soldiers glanced between the barrels and Lirian with strange gazes, "You saying you drank all of those," a soldier asked sceptically while keeping her distance.


    "Just, me, myself and I," Lirian said proudly and smiled happily.


    "Would anyone like to j-j-j-join me? I onlyyyy have three¡­ friends left to finish," Lirian offered.


    "Then I¡­ can leave, who''d l-l-like to help this blindman?" Lirian asked and offered them his mug once more.


    The captain''s eyes glinted as she realised something, this was the second time Lirian mentioned that he couldn''t leave until he finished all the barrels of ale.


    "Are you being punished by your superior who devastated this village? Why can''t you leave until you finish all the ale? What happened here?" she asked in a sever tone, she was thinking that he was some human trained by the orcs to act as a spy, and he was being punished for some mistake he made.


    Lirian faced the captain with a smug smile and offered her his mug, his intention clear he wouldn''t answer if she didn''t give him his ale.


    A cold smile appeared on her face and she slowly closed her palms, immediately the earth pillory started to tighten around Lirian and he started to sink into the earth, a short while later all that remained above ground was his head and two hands that were locked by the pillory that was digging into his skin.


    However the captain''s frown only deepened the further Lirian sunk, forget about screaming or begging for mercy, he didn''t even show the slightest trace of panic as he was buried alive.


    ''Either he is really brave or he must be so drunk, that he can''t even realise his life is in danger,'' she reasoned with her self but then she saw that taunting smile, which was aimed directly at her and despite the awkward angle Lirian was still holding the mug out to her.


    The captain bit back a curse and pointed to the soldier who had spoken to Lirian, "You fill his mug," she said in an irritated voice.


    "But¡­" the soldier started to complain, she saw one comrade feint and another who claimed that a bath in a sewer was more appealing.


    "Hold your breath and block your nose!" the captain shouted in annoyance.


    A short while later, Lirian happily splashed more ale into his mouth as the soldier fell to her hands and knees, while involuntarily gagging.


    "Now answer my questions," the captain said coldly.


    Lirian chuckled between gulps and raised a finger on his free hand, "Firstly, this god take''s orders from no one, not even the heavens are my superior," Lirian declared loudly. but everyone took it as the ramblings of a very drunk mad man.


    "Secondly," Lirian said raising another finger and brought it as close to his lips as possible, "Sssh, you have to promise to keep it a secret," he said with a twinkling smile.


    The captains entire face started to twitch, she could tell he wanted her to promise to keep it a secret, even his first answer was complete dog crap in her opinion.


    After a long while of gritting her teeth, she decided to entertain his childish antics, this was the only living person she found that could know about what happened, she could always resort to torture, but that was a last resort thing, and she''d rather do it with the lord present.


    "I promise to keep it a secret," she spat out.


    "You pppromise on your honour as a captain?" Lirian asked innocently, causing her to open her eyes wide, he was so drunk that she didn''t expect him to realise that she was a captain, evidently she had underestimated him.


    "On my honour as a captain of House Kurt," she said seriously, and looked at Lirian in a new light.


    Lirian motioned with his hand for her to come closer, she still looked sceptical but she walked closer to Lirian while holding her breath and brought her ear close to Lirian''s mouth.


    "It was the heavens," Lirian whispered, "The heavens¡­ told me to drink¡­ all this ale¡­ to wait for you," Lirian whispered in a serious tone, "Captain Reyna of House Kurt."


    Captain Reyna''s eyes shrunk as she looked at Lirian in surprise, she didn''t introduce herself to him and none of the soldiers called her anything other than captain.


    She looked at the blindfold sceptically, thinking that maybe Lirian was someone who had seen her from afar and recognised her, after all she would have remembered meeting such a handsome man.


    She was a private person and rarely ever spoke unless necessary when in the public, there was no way that anyone who didn''t know her personally or wasn''t part of her squad would recognise her from her voice alone.


    She reached out and pulled of the blindfold, and she was completely mesmerized by the sight of those silver eyes, that seemed to glow with the light of the stars, it took her a while to finally realise that she was distracted from her original task.


    She pulled back her wondering thoughts and dragged a ball of flame around in front of Lirian''s eyes, after a few seconds she realised that there was no pupil response to the intense light, it appeared that Lirian really was blind.


    "How do you know who I am?" she asked seriously.


    "I told you¡­ hic¡­ the heavens told me," Lirian said with a mad laugh as he got the hiccups, "The heavens want you¡­ to take me with you," Lirian said with a grin.


    A cold shudder passed through Captain Reyna''s body, there was something about Lirian that was drawing her in, but more than that there was a feeling of utter terror that she couldn''t explain.


    It was like every fibre in her being was shouting danger, screaming at her to get away from the man in front of her, that bringing him back to the estate of House Kurt would bring about its ruin.


    Her every sense was telling her that the one responsible for turning this village into an abandoned wreck was right before her eyes, it was like he was a beautiful monster, that could peer into the depths of her soul.

 Chapter 273 - 039 – Chained

    Name: Reyna Kurt


    Status: Pseudo Second Grade/Adept ¨C sixth stage


    Affiliations: House Kurt


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    Body: 700 (locked)


    Mana: 2632 (elementary energy cultivation technique)


    Mind: 700 (locked)


    ---


    No matter how long she looked at Lirian, that feeling of trepidation remained, wrapping itself all around her very being.


    She brought her hand to Lirian''s face and did several probes into his body to check if he had any cultivation at all, but there was nothing at all not even a slight trace of energy.


    Yet she still couldn''t shake the feeling that he was the cause of this disaster, the little bits of her logic that was working, was screaming danger and begging her to kill him then and there, but she couldn''t bring herself to issue the command.


    She was feeling a little overwhelmed and decided to retreat, besides she needed to take a breath, she had been holding her breath and speaking for a while, and the stench from dozens of barrels of ale was making her eyes water.


    Reyna finally felt like her mind cleared up a little when she got a good distance away from Lirian, the soldiers could clearly see that she was slightly shaken but they didn''t voice their thoughts, for fear of earning their captain''s anger.


    "My last question, you still haven''t answered it, what happened here?" she asked.


    "kekekeke," Lirian gave a heart jeering laugh, "I happened of courseeeee," he said with a crooked smile.


    "Youuuu had to¡­ be here to understand," Lirian said, "You should have¡­hic¡­ seen how I cut all of them down, and rained fire upon their homes,"


    "Heads rolled, and limbs flew, but nothing¡­ hic¡­ beat the blood that fell like rain, in the end¡­ hic¡­ this god turned them all turned into particles of white light," Lirian explained with a crazed laugh.


    The soldiers let of hysterical laughs at what Lirian said, there wasn''t even a single dead body or a drop of blood anywhere naturally they thought that he was just rambling like a mad man, meanwhile cold shudders passed through Reyna''s body, unexplainably she believed his every word, but her common sense was saying that it was impossible.


    Reyna swiped her hands through the air and Lirian was suddenly ejected from the ground, "Chain him up and lock him in the cage, toss him in a watering trough to get rid of the stench if you have too," Reyna ordered as she turned around.


    Her mind was feeling far to clouded for some reason, there was just something about Lirian''s presence in this ghost town that turned her mind into a swirling mess of chaos, she had no idea if she should take anything he said seriously or not.


    A light smirk crossed Lirian''s face as he was released from the earth and the pillory that restrained him was released.


    Blood ran down his skin from where the pillory dug into his skin, but he didn''t mind, by the look of things he was going to get what he wanted.


    After reading through Cassy''s memories and Reyna''s Lirian learned some very interesting things about the noble''s structure and how they kept control of the cultivators.


    The viewpoints of Reyna a legitimate noble and Cassy a noble who had lost all his backing for being born as the seventh child and had to come up with his own means to become a cultivator was quite enlightening to say the least.


    Due to the toxin in the worlds breath, the general populace was incapable of cultivating, however the nobles had a means to counter the toxin.


    In all the important nobles territories they had special rooms, built with top quality materials and thousands of layered enchantments that allowed the toxin to be filtered from worlds energy.


    Even as a spell caster Reyna didn''t know the spells required to create the room or the necessary materials.


    With the creation of these rooms the nobles found an opportunity to not only control and monitor the general populace of cultivators but it was also turned into an enormous money making scheme for the nobles.


    The first obstacle to all cultivation was the need to attain 25 gold coins to obtain an elementary grade body cultivation technique or 200 gold coins to get an elementary grade spell caster cultivation techniques.


    As for spiritist techniques Lirian found no price tag for them, but he did learn that they could only be found in the main cities and the capital, and that those with access to spiritist cultivation techniques were only major nobles and the royal family.


    Gathering 25 gold was a life long goal that most people were unable to achieve if they lived ordinary lives, which inspired hundreds of thousands of people every year to become adventures, seeking out opportunities and riches.


    Not only did it motivate people to train and become stronger, but the requirement of a letter of merit from an important individual also kept them on their best behaviour.


    Most adventures would end up dying or becoming some soldier in the nobles army''s when they gave up on the chance to collect 25 gold coins, which served the interests of the nobles.


    And those few that managed to become a cultivator every year would be caught in the grand trap of the nobles.


    Because ultimately every cultivator would have to return to the nobles in order to cultivate and they had to pay a fee of 30 coppers for a single days use of a room.


    The time required to cultivate only grew with every level, so ultimately it would cost all cultivators thousands in gold just to build up a decent cultivation.


    Meanwhile the nobles could freely use the rooms as they pleased, and should they ever discover a cultivator that caught their interest, they could rope them in or get rid of them with ease.


    The common cultivators were basically slaves to the nobles without even realising it, it was a perfect system for noble supremacy.


    But the interesting thing that Lirian found in Reyna''s memories was that there was no actual restriction on releasing that information, in fact it was pretty common knowledge to adventures.


    Had Lirian not seen Cassy''s memories he would have been completely confused, because he remembered that caravan guard who was a cultivator exploding when he tried to speak about the method of cultivation.


    As it turned out that caravan guard was likely someone associated with Unity in some way, in Cassy''s memories after being abandoned by his family Cassy tried his luck at being an adventurer, but it was proving difficult for him to grow stronger.


    That was when he sought out Unity a terror group that aimed to destabilise the system of the nobles.


    Cassy only met one person from Unity his handler Sire, when he expressed his interest in joining Unity, she knocked him unconscious and dumped him in a cultivation chamber.


    He didn''t have any idea where he was taken but he accepted the cultivation technique and dutifully cultivated for two years before they released him and assigned him the task of taking Willcolly.


    But before he left she presented him with an oath disc that prevented him from leaking any intel, and should he speak he would explode and become minced meat.


    He was also granted a letter of merit from some blacksmith and a certification of him being a genuine cultivator.


    From what Lirian saw this terror group Unity was no small matter, they had to have power over at least one local lord to forge a cultivators certification.


    But Lirian highly doubted that they had only one, from the looks of things the reason they wanted Cassy to take over the village was to establish someone with a little authority over the area and someone who could create legitimate letters of merit.


    This group called Unity definitely had big goals and a firm footing in the region, they were either trying to take over the region or fill the region with spies, either way they caught Lirian''s attention in a big way.


    But before Lirian made any contact with them he needed to establish his cultivation and the place he needed to get into was one of those rooms in the Kurt estate.


    Lirian figured that if he went caravan raiding again it would be easy for him to gather the necessary gold coins, but obtaining a letter of merit was going to be a troublesome task, in the sense that it would take to much time.


    These soldier from House Kurt arrived at the most opportune time, he needed to get in and get close to those cultivation chambers, if he could just analyse those rooms, he was certain to be able to find a way to replicate the rooms effects and use it to his advantage.


    Lirian remained lost in thought as the soldiers brough the watering troughs used for the animals to drink water and splashed him, to wash away the horrendous smell he was emitting, when that was done they locked his hands in chains and dragged him to the huge steel cage they were dragging along.


    As the steel gate of the cage clamped shut Lirian heard the system ring in his head.


    [Ding]


    [Threat detected on your fate string, Level: Extremely Fatal]

 Chapter 274 - 040 – House Kurt*

    "Open the gate," a guard shouted from the top of the keep walls.


    Several guards got to work, they entered a room and grabbed onto the mechanism spokes and with great effort they started to rotate the massive mechanism, another pair of guards grabbed onto the wheel on the wall as started turning it with great effort.


    The steel gates of the keep made a grating sound as they were lifted at a slow and steady pace, ten minutes passed before the gates were fully raised, and a large group came galloping in from the outer region of the estate.


    "Welcoming home the eldest son of Lord Kurt and the heir to the house Stanley Kurt!" a barker shouted to announce the return of the family heir, from the doors of the keep.


    A large carriage decorated in an azure blue paint and that had the round shield of House Kurt painted largely on all four sides made its way towards the door before coming to a stop.


    The door slowly opened and a man with wild unkempt black hair stepped out of the carriage with an air of confidence and arrogance around him.


    The doors to the keep were opened wide and as he stepped in the first thing Stanley noticed was a man with extremely similar features to his own, only he looked younger.


    "Elder brother, you''ve arrived earlier than expected," Cornick Kurt said as he walked down an isle of stairs to greet his brother.


    Stanley smiled seeing his little brother and wrapped him up in a big brotherly hug, "You''ve grown a good head taller since we last met," he said messing up his little brothers already unkempt hair.


    "Whose fault is that," Cornick complained, "You haven''t been home in 3 years, and father refuses to let me leave the keep," he said like a spoiled child.


    "You know the rule''s become an adapt first," Stanley chided his brother and snapped his fingers at the servants to start bringing his stuff in and to escort the members of his entourage to a suitable place.


    "Where is father? Why hasn''t he come to greet me?" Stanley asked as his gaze wondered around the entry hall.


    "Like I said you''re earlier than expected, father is in a meeting with grandfather and first-uncle," Cornick explained as he led his elder brother up the isle of stairs and towards the upper floors of the keep.


    Stanley nodded in understanding with a serious expression, "I rushed back from Proge as soon as father told me that he accepted Tanicks offering to take Izlandi as a concubine," he explained.


    "How has sis been taking it?" he asked looking at Cornick whose face was going a little dark at the mention of their sister, he knew that Cornick and Izlandi did not get along at all, well he didn''t get along with her all that much either.


    She was a very stuck up and conceited girl, who thought herself the most beautiful in the world, but Stanley put up with it, because he had nothing to fear from her, the position as heir had long been cemented by him, so she was no threat.


    "She''s been more of a bitch than usual, and that''s saying a lot," Cornick grunted, he hated his elder sister, because she was a filthy mix breed, her mother was a 1/8th elf and since she was born with talent she was declared as an official member of the family.


    Placing her above himself, he simply couldn''t stand it, "I''m sure you''ll understand once you see her at dinner, if she even comes," Cornick said in a disgruntled tone.


    Stanley looked at his little brother with amusement, "Try not to cause any trouble if she comes, it''s my first day home, I don''t want it to start off with a huge family argument, I imagine that father is tired of everyone screaming and shouting at him all day by now,"


    Cornick narrowed his eyes; he was evidently displeased that his elder brother seemed to be protecting their half-sister.


    "Don''t give me that look, I promise that you''ll get to watch something very amusing if you behave yourself," Stanley said with a glint in his eye.


    "Tell me how father has been since his banishment from Riverfall?" Stanley asked clenching his fists tightly, he was well aware of his father''s ambition to unify the entire road from Proge to Riverfall under a single banner.


    He was busy working to earn the favour of the important nobles in Proge, while his father was handling Riverfall, his father''s recent banishment definitely made the past 70 years of planning take a severe hit.


    Cornick shook his head at Stanley''s question, "Father has been¡­" Cornick began with a strange look in his eyes, "¡­oddly calm, from the way he''s acting you''d think nothing happened and he refuses to tell anyone the reason for his banishment, not even grandfather and first uncle," he explained.


    Stanley frowned, as he wondered just what exactly his father could have done, the news was surprisingly well sealed off, even in Proge other than the word being spread, that his father was banished from Riverfall no one knew even the slightest bit of gossip.


    Not even the chattiest nobles had anything to share no gossip, nor any rumours, it seemed that he underestimated his father''s ability to seal of the news.


    Part of the reason he rushed home with such haste was to learn the truth from his father, but it seemed that his father wasn''t willing to share the details, not even with his grandfather and uncle.


    The three of them had all transcended the limits of adapts, their father and grandfather had attained the realm of knight while their uncle became a mage.


    "Father arranged for us to have dinner tonight, since we only expecting you to reach home at that time," Cornick said as they reached his brothers room.


    "I take it that you''ll want to bathe and get a little rest before then," Cornick said as he pushed open the door and a large tub was in the middle of the room, filled with steaming hot and foamy water.


    "You want me to call any of the servants to come service you?" Cornick asked his brother with a grin.


    Stanley smiled but shook his head, "Do me a favour and go call my three escorts," he said as he stripped of his clothes.


    "Take a good look at them little brother, they are the finest Proge has to offer, if you behave yourself at dinner, I''ll let you play with one of them," Stanley chuckled as he got completely naked and stepped into the tub.


    "You promise that there will be something to amuse me if I behave," Cornick asked trying to sound calm, but the slight quiver in his voice gave away his excitement at getting the chance to have his way with an escort from Proge.


    It was said that Proge''s finest escorts wore jewellery and dressed in clothes that even minor nobles would struggle to afford.


    Each and everyone of them was capable of making a man feel things they didn''t believe to be possible, there were countless nobles that offered to make them concubines, and some minor nobles that proposed marriage after spending a single night with them.


    "Of course little brother, why would I lie to you?" Stanley said in an amused tone, he could see his brother already getting heat up.


    "Now I''m warning you no touching them until I give you permission," Stanley said sternly, he didn''t mind letting his brother playing with them from time to time, but they were his to play with first.


    Cornick gave an exaggerated nod and went walking away at a brisk pace, but it could be seen that it was taking all his will power to keep his calm composure.


    A short while later the door to Stanley''s room opened once more, and three woman who stood at the peak of beauty came walking in dressed in light and elegant dresses that amplified their heavenly peaks.


    They wore elegant necklaces that fell into the valley all man love, and long white gloves stretched all the way up their elbows.


    They might have been escorts, but they were the pinnacle of class, each of them had been gifted to him, by some of the more influential nobles he formed good connections with.


    "Master," they all said together and walked to the edge of the tub, "Which of us would you like to taste first?" they asked and dropped their clothes all at once with elegant smiles.


    Stanley smiled wildly as he looked at the six cheery tipped peaks, and the fair snow white bodies of the woman.


    "How about I devour all three of you at once," Stanley said licking his lips.


    The three woman smiled knowingly and climbed into the large tub with grace, as soon as they entered they felt their masters hands wondering to the crevice between their legs.


    Before long the three women were all moaning in pleasure, especially the one who was in the centre with her entire crevice stuffed to the brim.

 Chapter 275 - 041 – House Kurt 2

    The three woman lay completely bare on Stanley''s body after hours of love making they were still going strong.


    They had long since left the tub and guttural moans of pleasure, echoed across the room and down the hall.


    Two of the women were busy reviving Stanley Jr as the third intimately sucked on his tongue when a sudden knock rang out on his door.


    "The Lord request''s, young master to attend dinner in 30 minutes," a servant said through the door and left briskly.


    Stanley secretly sighed in relief as the escorts peeled themselves away from him, even for an adapt like him these three women were a little too much for him, they seemed intent to drain him dry.


    "I want you three to clean yourselves up there is something I need you to do later on," Stanley said before getting himself ready.


    A short while later Stanley was dressed in a fresh set of clothes and sprayed a little musk scented cologne onto his clothes, before setting out to the dining hall located on the fifth floor of the keep.


    Two guards were stationed at the doors and when Stanley arrived they pushed the large doors open and allowed him to enter.


    When he entered a familiar long wooden table came onto view, only the top half was set up with numerous dishes of delicious food, and at the head of the table he saw his father sitting calmly with his eyes closed, almost as if he was asleep.


    "Father," Stanley said offering a bow in greeting before walking down the right side of the table and taking a seat at his fathers right hand when he looked across the table he saw his little brother already seated at his father''s left hand.


    "Will grandfather and first uncle be joining us?" Stanley asked, he was just testing the waters to see his father''s mood before pushing for the answers he really wanted.


    "Welcome home son," Lord Kurt said in his deep and stoic voice, "I thought that for your return just you, your brother and sister should attend, besides there are some things we need to take care of with regards to your sister, and my brother has a soft spot for her so it''s best that he isn''t here," he explained while still keeping his eyes closed.


    A light smirk appeared on Cornick''s face, he''d been pushing his father to do something for a while now, and from what his father was saying it seemed that his father was going to act on his suggestion at last.


    "It seems like Izlandi doesn''t intend to come," Stanley mused softly as a servant came forward to pour him a drink.


    "It would appear so," Lord Kurt said with a frown and tapped a set of documents that were under his palm.


    As if he had a moment of insight Lord Kurt snapped his fingers and several servants came rushing to his side, "Take this to my daughter," he said placing the documents in one of the servant''s hands.


    Stanley motion one of the servants towards him and told them to do something for him.


    Before long two servants left the room from the side entrance''s, servants weren''t allowed to use the main doors unless they were following behind their masters.


    "Tsk, tsk," Cornick clicked his tongue, "She is such an attention seeker," he cursed no one needed him to say who they all knew that he was speaking of Izlandi.


    "In truth she deserves to become some bed warming whore, it will teach her how to have some respect ," Cornick said, "Insult or not to our house, I personally am very grateful to Tanicks for offering to take her as a concubine,"


    "This way I''ll never have to hear her bitchy voice again," Cornick said with a satisfied smirk.


    But all of a sudden a resounding smack landed on his face and Cornick found himself lying flat on the ground.


    Cornick looked around in a daze as he brought his hand to his stinging face, then his eye''s landed on his father who was looking at him with a stiflingly calm gaze, "A son of mine dares to feel gratitude to someone who has shamed this entire family?" Lord Kurt question but his tone was extremely calm, frighteningly so.


    The servants retreated several steps back, in fear as they felt the waves of energy rippling of their lord, even Cornick cowered in fear against the ground like a grovelling dog, he bowed on his knees and begged for forgiveness.


    "Father," Stanley said, "Please forgive him you know how he gets when it come to Izlandi, he didn''t mean what he said," Stanley said looking at Cornick intently.


    Cornick met his eyes, and nodded his head, "Please forgive me I didn''t mean what I said!" Cornick said bowing his head on the ground.


    "You pamper your little brother too much," Lord Kurt said closing his eyes once more, evidently he decided to drop the matter.


    Stanley merely shrugged his shoulders as saying, ''I''m guilty of the charge,'' but said nothing else on the topic as his brother climbed back to his seat and rubbed his swollen face.


    "Father please forgive me for asking this but since you do realise what a disgrace this is to our family, why did you accept the proposal from Tanicks?" Stanley voiced his question with a tinge of curiosity, while carefully watching his father for any change to his face.


    "Because it was necessary," Lord Kurt said plainly, but it seemed that he had no plans to elaborate any further.


    "But¡­" Stanley started to say, but he was abruptly cut short by his father.


    "Rest assured son that all those who chose to trample on the dignity of our family during our lowest times will be paid ten-fold in kind, of that much I can guaranty," Lord Kurt said with an edge to his voice.


    Stanley chose not to say anymore, clearly his father was putting an end to that topic of discussion.


    The two continued to converse in short stints, mostly Stanley spoke about the alliances he secured in Proge, and he did direct a fair share of blame for some of his recent failures to his father.


    His father''s loss of standing also impacted him, if not for the many alliances that he had worked on for years, it was very likely that he would have never left Proge alive, the expansion of house Kurt''s territories, had brought him no small number of enemies.


    He was hoping to guilt trip his father into giving him an explanation for all the trouble his father caused him, but his father remained unmoved.


    That was when the doors to the hall were suddenly opened again, and Stanley saw his beautiful younger sister storming into the hall, glaring at everyone like they were her most hated enemy.


    She was a very slim and slender girl, with small curves and a tear drop shaped face that made appear extremely elegant even as she glared angrily, she still looked cute.


    She had light green eyes and slightly pointed ears, the evidence of her 1/16th elven bloodline, however she didn''t inherit the long golden hair that was characteristic of most elves instead she had jet black hair that flowed to the middle of her back.


    When compared to any other person in the family she looked completely different, no one would even be able to tell that they were siblings if they stood side by side.


    Stanley watched in amusement as Izlandi stormed in with the pile of documents his father had sent to her just a few minutes ago.


    "What the fuck is the meaning of this?" she roared at her father and tossed the pile of documents at him in anger.


    The pile of documents landed directly on her fathers'' plate, it sent the food flying and the goblet to the side spilt its contents all over the table, soaking half the documents in the process.


    A small frown formed on Lord Kurt''s face, it took no short time for him to prepare all those documents, that had just been ruined.


    "As if you haven''t already ruined my entire life, because of whatever bullshit disgraceful acts you committed in Riverfall,"


    "Now, not only do you want to take away everything that I''ve ever built, but you also want to hand it over to that filthy repulsive toad," she spat while pointing at the repulsive beast that other people referred to as her younger brother.


    She couldn''t even stand the idea of people saying that Cornick was her brother, with how disgusting he looked, hell she could hardly accept who her father was on most days.


    The men of House Kurt all had a repulsive toad like look to them, with their saggy butt chins, and small roundish faces, and small stub like noses, she could hardly accept that part of her genes came from this family.


    But most of all she hated that lustful and repulsive brother of hers, he would always eye her like a creep and lick his lips while staring at her body, she found him to be the definition of repulsive.


    And now learning that her father planned to give away everything that was rightfully hers to that repulsive person, it felt like she was being defiled.

 Chapter 276 - 042 – House Kurt 3

    "A concubine is not allowed to own any properties or posses any influence," Lord Kurt explained after taking a breath to calm his annoyance.


    "Therefor all your properties will be passed onto your brother, you have three months to make the necessary arrangements for the transfer," he said giving Izlandi a sharp look.


    "Unacceptable!" Izlandi shrieked while clenching her fists, "I built up 11 establishments from the ground up, I lay down all the ground work and made them prosper, they belong to me and I will transfer them to a person of my choosing,"


    "You built those with the financial support of the family," Cornick snickered in his seat, as he rubbed his still swollen cheek, "Now that you will become some mans personal whore, everything will be returned to the family," he said while struggling not to laugh aloud.


    The smile on his toad like face stretched from ear to ear, evidently he was unable to hide his glee at her plight, he''d been pushing his father to transfer all of Izlandi''s establishments to him.


    She had been making so much through her businesses that the families treasurer was raving about the increased revenues every time he got the chance, he set his eyes on her businesses for years now, trying to find a way take a hold of them or run them out of business.


    But as much as he hated to admit it Izlandi was a talented businesswoman, she completely controlled the markets she moved into, while keeping amicable relationships with the merchant''s guild branch.


    Now that he was finally going to get one of his long cherished dreams come true Cornick was gleeful.


    Izlandi snapped her head in his direction with a look of outrage, "Did I say you can speak to me you repulsive beast," she spat in disgust, and quickly turned away from him.


    That look in her eyes was as if she was looking at a pile of shit, like the mere sight of him was a stain to her eyes.


    "I''ll sooner torch my businesses to the ground before it lands in that beasts'' claws," she spat hatefully at her father.


    "Whether you like it or not, Izlandi you must transfer your businesses," Lord Kurt said in a cold tone.


    "I will not be handing anything to that depraved beast," she said with growing fury, "He''ll run my every establishment to the ground starting with my Male Escort Service''s,"


    "Knowing him, he''ll be so jealous once he looks at the least attractive of the lot, that he''ll likely drag them to the guillotine for the crime of looking better than him," she said with disgust.


    "It wouldn''t be the first time he did such a thing," she declared in her fit of anger, it was a well-kept secret in the estate.


    It happened just a year back Izlandi recalled, Cornick had gone out drinking and a woman he was trying to impress chose another man to spend her night with.


    So, in the middle of the night Cornick dragged the two from bed, his deeds to the woman went without saying, when he was finally done he killed her and flayed the man alive.


    He''d done it as secretly as possible, but the screams were heard by some of the servants, if not for her quick silencing of the servants it would have become a large scandal and affected the reputation of the family.


    The few others that knew were all important members of the family that knew better than to blab.


    Cornick glared at her in anger, both his father and brother didn''t know of the affair since neither of them were home.


    Lord Kurt glared at Cornick angrily, "Is this true?" he asked in a dangerously calm voice.


    "Of course not," Cornick said through gritted teeth, "Izlandi is just making things up, she''s just being a bitch like usual, since she doesn''t want to give her stuff to me," he stammered out fearfully, he knew that to his father nothing was more important than the reputation of the family.


    For the sake of the family his father had personally used the guillotine to execute several of his family members, Cornick had always heard stories about an elder brother that he used to have, supposedly he slept with another noble''s wife.


    It caused a huge scandal and Lord Kurt personally cut of his head to condemn him for his crimes.


    He didn''t doubt his fathers ability to do the same to him, he looked to his elder brother for support, but he found that Stanley was looking at him with a slight frown.


    Evidentially his brother didn''t believe him and it was likely that his father didn''t believe him either.


    "We''ll discuss this later," Lord Kurt said coldly, which caused Cornick to shudder, he could tell that his father wouldn''t let this matter go.


    Lord Kurt turned back to Izlandi, she didn''t even look pleased about revealing that info, he could see it in her eyes, she regarded his son as nothing but filth, even a victory over him meant nothing at all to her.


    "I''ll have the documents redrawn," he stated, "Next time you will sign them without throwing a tantrum or your departure with Tanicks will be a very unpleasant one," he said in a threatening tone.


    "Unpleasant!" Izlandi shouted, "I was to be his wife, and now if I''m lucky all I''ll be is his glorified whore!"


    "Who knows how long before he parades me before some noble he wants to curry favour with and offers me up as a gift for the night!" she spat through gritted teeth and stormed her way out of the room.


    It was a very common occurrence amongst nobles, she knew that very well, that was the fate of a concubine in noble society, just glorified whores, who would have more in common with the ladies in a brothel than other nobles.


    That was to be her fate as a concubine.


    When she left Stanley whispered a word to his brother to follow him, but to keep his distance, but as Stanley got up to leave, his father called Cornick away to have a ''private conversation''.


    Stanley had no need to ask what it would be about, he knew that he spoiled his little brother, but there were limits, he wouldn''t stand up for his brother when he did something that could cause severe damage to the families reputation.


    With that in mind he chased after his sister, "Izlandi wait," he called out when she came into sight.


    She glanced back at him with a furious glare, but she still stood in place and waited for him.


    Stanley looked at her in amusement, he could see that look of disgust in her eyes, as she looked at him coldly with her head held high and her nose pointed up, she was truly the definition of a haughty lady.


    If not for the fact that he was her superior, he knew that she wouldn''t even care to listen to his words.


    "There''s something I want to show you, and speak to you about," he said with an amused smile and directed her down a hall.


    Izlandi frowned at the unwelcome interruption but she followed along, she never did get along with her brothers, but she knew that Stanley had nothing to worry about from her, so it was unlikely that he''d try to do anything to harm her.


    "Your fears about what might happen to you are well founded," Stanley said sympathetically, "But lucky for you I happen to have a method, that could help you solve your predicament," Stanley said with a smirk.


    Izlandi narrowed her eyes, she''d long been thinking of a solution to her problems, but almost all of them would be considered treason and turn her into a fugitive.


    "Interested are we?" Stanley mused with a smile as they drew close to a door in the long corridor.


    "Lucky for you, during my stay in Proge I got to know Tanicks pretty well, during my stay with House Kant went I just arrived in Proge, back then our relationship was pretty close,"


    "Until father managed to push for a political marriage between you and Tanicks," Stanley explained with a sigh.


    "House Kant already had plans to marry Tanicks to some great family, due to the cultivation talent he revealed, but father managed to get something on them and used his backing to force your marriage into the Kant family," Stanley continued.


    "Tanick''s suggestion to make you a concubine, was no mere insult, but rather a threat from the entire Kant family to create a blood feud against our family if we didn''t comply," Stanley said.


    "Are you planning to bore me to sleep with things I already know?" Izlandi said in an irritated voice.


    Stanley sighed as he reached the door and pushed it open, "Like I said earlier, I''m pretty familiar with Tanick''s, I kept a close eye on him ever since he was set to marry you, and I learned a few things about him,"


    "Things that will be useful to you, and I brought along a few people that will be able to teach you what you need to do," he said pushing the door wide open to reveal a lovely room, with a burning hearth and three woman who were sitting there dressed up in elegant clothes.

 Chapter 277 - 042 – House Kurt 4

    The three woman''s gazes were fixed on Izlandi, she could feel a sexual nature to their stares, but oddly it wasn''t the repulsive kind, it was more like they were assessing her body.


    "What is the meaning of this?" she hissed furiously at Stanley as the three mature beauties continued to scan her body without any restraint.


    Stanley walk in with a smile, he ignored Izlandi''s question as he grabbed one of the women and planted a deep and long kiss on her lips.


    Izlandi did her best not to gag at the sight, she found it a wonder that the woman did throw up at Stanley''s touch, Stanley resembled a toad just as much as Cornick did.


    She turned on her heel and prepared to leave, with a look of disgust on her face.


    "Wait," Stanley said and rushed forward faster than she could follow to shut the door.


    Izlandi''s looked around with a trace of panic in her eyes, she felt like she had misjudged, she always knew that Cornick was pig, he had tried to have his way with her when they were younger, if not for her uncle intervening, it was likely that he would have had his way with her.


    But she never took Stanley to be the same, or at least she believed that he cared about his reputation enough to never do such a thing.


    "No need to look so scared sister," Stanley chuckled, "Your chastity is valuable, to House Kant," he said with a twisted smile, as if that was the only thing stopping him from pinning her down.


    "As I was saying earlier I know Tanicks extremely well, something that you''ll find interesting is that despite the high pedestal he is put on, he keeps to himself most of the time,"


    "And there has never been a single report showing that he visits any brothels, also while he has had many pursuers he has never been with any of them,"


    "Basically Tanicks is a virgin, and extremely inexperienced with woman, since most of his time is spent in training," Stanley said.


    "So, what? this doesn''t help me in at all," Izlandi said with a frown.


    "Hahahaha," three crisp and beautiful laughs rang throughout the room, it wasn''t Stanley but rather the three woman who were eyeing her the entire time.


    "My dear girl," one of the beauties dressed in a red and elegant dress said, "That will make all the difference in the world,"


    "Little sister, I''m sure that you have heard many a tale about Proge''s finest escorts, each and every one of them have skills that have made great men weep at their feet,"


    "Many a noble has offered to take them as concubine''s for their beauty alone, but after a night in their embrace, men have declared their undying love and declared that they would make them their wives,"


    "Take Jasmine for instance," Stanley said pointing to woman in a red dress, "A noble paid for her presence every single day for an entire year, he drained the coffers of his family until they were dry and went into debt, all so that no other man could lay a finger on her body,"


    Jasmine smiled proudly at the achievement, even in Proge it was rare to be able to find such a rich man who was also a fool, she was one of the rare few who achieved such a feat, it got her patron to shower her with gifts, but nowhere close to as many as the man who had been paying for her.


    Stanley then introduced the lady in a purple dress, Lavender and the last one who wore white, Lily, "Each of them had more proposals than they care to count from noble men and even several woman,"


    "They are some of Proge''s finest," Stanley declared, "You might be destined to become a concubine, but if you can learn to tame Tanicks in bed, not only will he never dare to pass you around, but you could even turn him into your own obedient pet,"


    "I''ve brought the three of them with me, to teach you what you''ll need to do, but of course the choice will be yours," Stanley said with an amused grin, as if his sisters choice was an amazing show for him to watch.


    "You''re sick," Izlandi spat coldly and turned to leave, this time Stanley didn''t get in her way.


    "His not lying you know," Lily said with a knowing smile and the other two women nodded along, "I''m sure that a fine lady such as yourself is able tell the value of my clothes and jewellery," she said pointing to the lovely white dress that lifted her ample breast and wrapped around her neck.


    "This is nothing compared to what I''ve collected in just a few years, with all that I''ve gotten from the men I''ve tamed, I can assure you that the value of my possessions far surpass the annual taxes collected by any minor noble," she said with a sly smile


    "If I should wish it I could buy my freedom and live a life in luxury until my final days,"


    "You''re a very beautiful woman, I can''t say that I''ve ever seen a woman who could make me feel jealous until I saw you," she said in a flirtatious voice.


    "If you were to learn from us, you could forget Tanicks Kant and move your eyes to even bigger fish," Lily said licking her lips in an enticing manner.


    Izlandi looked at the woman with disgust, she could hardly believe that some common whore was actually trying to make her become a whore as well.


    She raised her head high enough that her nose pointed into the air, as she strode out of the room.


    "Hahaha," Stanley''s laughter followed behind her, "My offer still stands if you change your mind," Stanley called after her as she left.


    Izlandi made her way through the keep, with a sense of disbelief at the conversation she just had, she had spent her entire life ensuring her purity for the day of her marriage, so naturally she was inexperienced as a woman.


    There was no way, that she would do something so demeaning as to move her body like a whore for a man.


    Izlandi didn''t have any problem with the idea of whore''s, she knew that they were a large point of interest in any place of influence.


    Izlandi herself owned two brothels that were thriving, she also opened a male brothel that offered services to woman as an experiment.


    The her surprise it was a booming success, all it took was a 300 gold start up and in two years she already made a profit of five times her initial investment, it was an entire area that had been previously left open.


    A source of revenue that was previous left untapped, she heard that in the larger towns and cities, such brothels existed, so she was uncertain if it would work in her families territory but it turned out to be a gold mine.


    If there was anything she took away from her conversation with her brother and his escort it was that she had saved her purity for no reason.


    She could have had her pick of any man she desired over the years, but she wanted her first time to be with the man she would marry, so that it would be an intimate relationship that she shared only with him.


    But all of that had been a great waste of her self-control , she was now on the path to being a disgraceful concubine, and it seemed impossible for her veer of that course.


    The reality weighed down on her small shoulders as tears fell from her eyes, but she quickly wiped them away, she couldn''t allow anyone to see her pain.


    She was many things and weak was not one of those things, ''Three months, that''s all the time I have to come up with a plan,'' she thought with determination in her eyes.


    As she entered her room she saw a man sitting in her room and sipping on a cup of tea, just like when she left "Uncle," she said with a slight smile on her face, he was the only in the family that she didn''t find to be completely repulsive.


    With a glance one would be able to tell that he was a very wise man, he was rather thin with a long beard that was mostly white, and he wore a pair of spectacles, he was a real mage.


    "Did my brother reveal anything about why he was banished?" he asked as Izlandi took a seat opposite him.


    She shook her head, "I mentioned what that little beast did just like you told me to, but other than get angry father had no other reaction, it seems that father''s banishment had nothing to do with some immoral act he performed,"


    Her uncle closed his eyes as if tired, "I suppose that this is good news," he said rubbing the bridges of his nose.


    "Uncle is there anyway at all for me to get out of this arrangement?" she asked with a pleading gaze.


    Her uncle sighed softly, "I''m sorry dear child, but as things stand we have too many enemies gathering on our borders,"


    "If we anger the Kant family on top of that, I fear that it will be the end of House Kurt," he said in an apologetic tone.

 Chapter 278 - 043 – Extremely Fatal

    Light flickered of the dagger as is it soared through the air.


    Putchi.


    The sound of the dagger splitting flesh echoed, as fresh blood splattered.


    "Still not going to speak?" Colten asked with a vicious smirk, and as he spoke several more daggers went hurtling through the air all burying themselves in Lirian''s body.


    Most of the squad members weren''t participating in this, and tried to avert their eyes, but the sound was far to ear catching.


    As they looked back they could see Lirian dangling from the chains, with dozens of daggers jutting out from his body, making him resemble some steel tipped porcupine.


    His entire body was drenched in blood as he dangled from his feet.


    "Jejejeje," Lirian cackled weakly, "I''ll remember this," he said softly as another dagger planted itself in his gut.


    "Haa," Colten barked, "You think that you''re in any position to threaten me," he said with a mad light in his eyes.


    He was growing sick and tired of this.


    Everyday he''d think up new methods to get some info out of Lirian but all he got was ridiculing laughter from Lirian and that same threat everyday, ''I''ll remember this.''


    "Pull the chains!" he ordered gnashing his teeth in anger.


    The soldiers looked at Lirian with vicious smirks as they climbed onto the cart and started to unwrap the chains from the bars.


    KLINK. CLANK.


    The chains rattled loudly as they smacked against the steel bars of the cage, the cage was very large and it was strong enough to hold a peek adapt.


    They had brought it to capture the orcs and to torture some answers out of them, but so far all they got was Lirian the madman from Willcolly and he had proven to be useless so far.


    The soldiers finally got the chains free and started to pull.


    Lirian took a calming breath as he felt his body being pulled in four directions, he was hanging upside down so his feet were pulled apart into a split against the roof of the cage, until it felt like his legs were going to pop out of his pelvis.


    The tension on his legs suddenly came to a halt and they started to pull the chains attached to his arms, Lirian felt the bones in his arms violently trembling under the pressure.


    Then they stopped and repeated the process on his legs, every 30 seconds they rotated between stretching his hands and legs.


    Only after a full hour had passed did they finally stop, but throughout the entire time they didn''t hear a single scream.


    The best they got was an ear grating laugh from Lirian, almost as if he was mocking their attempts.


    "Tell us what you know about Willcolly, and the forest fire," Colten demanded, "Unless you want more of this," Colten said raising his hand to signal the soldiers holding onto the chains.


    Lirian had given them answers, only they were all ridiculous answers, it was infuriatingly obvious to them that he was teasing them.


    Lirian was insistent on his story about killing everyone in Willcolly and turning their bodies into white light.


    When Colten asked him about the forest fire''s that they spent a week investigating, he had an answer for them as well, one even more ridiculous, ''This god picked-up all the flames in Willcolly and tossed them into the winds, the winds carried them to the forest and created a great fire.''


    On top of Lirian''s madness, he seemed to have a god complex about himself, and could turn any topic into something about him.


    One of the evenings when they were camping, some of the soldiers spoke about the caravan attacks, and Lirian interjected claiming that all of it was his doing.


    That he was the one who slaughtered them and robbed them of all their coin before torching everything.


    It was apparent to them that Lirian was going out of his way to mock their attempts at the investigation.


    "Your mamma''s spankings hurt me more than this," Lirian mocked with a mouthful of blood.


    Colten smiled coldly and issued a signal to the men holding the chains, the squad members who were looking from afar all averted their eyes and some of them even put their hands over their ears.


    The four pulling the chains wrapped it firmly around their hands and jumped of the cart with all their strength.


    For a second Lirian felt weightless, when the pressure suddenly tore through his entire body, pulling it firmly in four directions.


    The tension tore through his body and made his shoulder shoot straight out of their sockets completely dislocating them, he could feel his muscles tearing under the pressure.


    If not for the tempering he forced his mother to do his body, Lirian was fairly certain that he would have lost an arm, but that was nothing compared to what happened to his legs.


    The chains were wrapped all around his shins and ankles, when his legs were pulled several sickening crunches were heard clearly, even by those who blocked their ears.


    The first thing to snap was his ankles, and the bone in his left leg snapped, it was a clean break which made it all the louder.


    "Urgh," Lirian let out a slight grunt of pain for the first time, but before the soldiers could gloat he laughed weakly, "Jejeje, I told you that your mamma spanks harder," he said in a weak whisper as the soldiers released the chains, causing Lirian to fall flat on the bottom of the cage.


    The soldiers were looking at Lirian in horror, they couldn''t believe that he could still laugh despite his broken body, by now they felt certain that he knew nothing, he was just some lunatic who lacked the ability to feel any pain.


    It was the only explanation they could come up with.


    Reyna watched Lirian with a half-distracted look.


    Reyna felt like she had made a mistake in her judgement, the man before her was completely mad, he could make anything about himself, and he had a god complex about himself to boot.


    It was once she realised this that Reyna allowed Colten to start torturing Lirian for answers, but weeks of it had proven futile.


    Lirian had been on the verge of death several time''s already, but he never said a word, which left Reyna with only one thought, that her instincts were wrong.


    She blamed it on that freaky ghost town, that entire place had gotten under her skin, and filled her head with strange thoughts.


    Her journey had been fruitless, and she was bringing home a useless prisoner.


    She watched as Colten gritted his teeth and climbed into the cage; he was so angry that none of his methods were working that he started to beat Lirian who already looked to be on the verge of death.


    They spent a week scouring the burned forest, but they learned nothing, they only confirmed that it was not a natural fire.


    Then they spent another two weeks visiting some of the other nearby villages only to find nothing at all.


    Lirian was their only lead but he was proving to be completely useless, seeing that Colten could kill him at any moment, Reyna hastily went to stop him.


    Colten glared at Reyna coldly when she grabbed his arm to stop him from twisting one of the daggers that were buried in Lirian''s gut, but he wisely didn''t argue.


    "I''m giving you one last chance," she said to Lirian, "Say something useful or I''ll have you killed right now,"


    Lirian smiled lightly with blood coating his teeth, "You look like a toad," he chuckled.


    Reyna''s eyes hardened, she knew that there were all kinds of insults slung around about her family looking like toads she even met a pompous ass from house Hauton who asked her if one of her ancestors fucked a toad.


    It was a bit of a soft spot for House Kurt, "Kill him!" she ordered Colten taking a step back, there was really no value in bringing him back.


    Lirian waited calmly as Colten crouched down in front of him with a gloating smile.


    Lirian smiled inwardly and released the restraints on his charm directing it completely on Colten for just a second, before hurriedly shutting it off.


    Colten suddenly stopped glaring at Lirian, and looked at him as if he was seeing him for the first time, and brought his hands under Lirian chin to carefully examine his face.


    ''Please work,'' Lirian silently prayed, the reason that Lirian was no longer trying to spook Reyna and convince her he was special was because when he was put in the cage, the system gave him a sudden alert.


    [Threat detected on your fate string, Level: Extremely Fatal]


    [Cost 50 000 fate particles to perform a complete scan]


    Lirian naturally did the scan, after all he had just given himself to them without giving them a fight, then the system gave him a sudden alert about an extremely fatal reading.


    It was naturally not anything good for Lirian.


    When he performed the scan, the system gave him a mission.


    [¡­]

 Chapter 279 - 044 – Tribal Meeting 1

    [New Mission: Survive]


    [Synopsis: Enter the keep of House Kurt and find a cultivation chamber, however you cannot allow the members of House Kurt to interrogate you, or you will not escape alive.]


    [Rewards: Knowledge about Nebula ¨C 6]


    [Failure: Certain Death]


    When Lirian read the details of the mission, he knew that he had to change his tactics, he had to find a way to enter the keep without being interrogated, which seemed slightly impossible, since that is exactly why Reyna was bringing him to House Kurt.


    He deliberately made her think that he might be some orc spy, so over the past few weeks he played the fool, and as is so happened he knew that the truth would sound extremely far fetched to anyone that didn''t know him which is why he told them the truth.


    To make them think he was making things up.


    It was too late for Lirian to run away once they chained him up, but he didn''t want to run away because he needed to get into that cultivation chamber.


    Which left him with a tricky situation, he needed to let them bring him to House Kurt, but he also needed to ensure that they wouldn''t bring him in for an interrogation.


    Now that they felt like he was useless, he hoped that by using his charm on Colten it would make Colten slightly reluctant to kill him, maybe he''d rather keep Lirian around and turn him into some servant to humiliate.


    That was optimistic thinking on Lirian''s part, but it was what he hoped for, it would make it much easier for him to enter the keep as a servant.


    "What are you waiting for? Just kill him," Reyna said turning back with a slightly irritated tone.


    Colten looked at Lirian''s face closely, with a slightly confused expression, he was almost certain that he sensed something for minute.


    ''It must have just been in my head,'' he thought, but for some reason when he looked at Lirian he felt slightly reluctant to kill him.


    "I just noticed that if cleaned up he''d look pretty good," Colten said with a thoughtful expression in reply to Reyna.


    "So what? Just kill him and get it done with," Reyna said in annoyance.


    "What if we sell him as a slave captain?" Colten asked, "I''m sure that we can get a decent price for him," Colten said with an enlightened smile.


    "Oh, shit," Lirian muttered, "This is so not what I was going for," he complained internally.


    Reyna looked at Colten with a cold smile, "Do you see his condition after what you put him through, no one would be willing to buy him,"


    "It will be two weeks before we return, more than enough time to sort out all his minor injuries," Colten said, then he quickly added loudly, "I''m sure that the entire squad will be able to feast for a few days with the money we''ll make,"


    Reyna frown at his use of the squad to force her decision, but as she looked around she quickly noticed that the idea of earning some extra coin made everyone excited, and they were all nodding in approval of Colten''s idea.


    "We''ll brand him as a bandit, the story will be that he tried to rob some people from a village and we caught him in the act," Colten said immediately coming up with a story to justify turning Lirian into a slave.


    Most people who became slaves were mainly people who committed crimes, or that fell into such server debt that they became incapable of paying it back.


    Any noble had the authority to convict a criminal of a crime and turn them into a slave, which is why if Colten wanted his plan to work he''d need to get approval from Reyna first.


    Reyna still felt a slight sense of unease from Lirian, which is why she wanted to kill him and be done with it, but she felt that if she killed him now she would lose the favour of her squad.


    "Bring me one of the branding irons," she ordered a random soldier, and everyone cheered happily at her change of heart, who wouldn''t be happy to get a little extra money.


    ''Fuck me!'' Lirian complained internally as a blazing red-hot branding iron was pressed against his forearm, making his skin burn and bubble.


    When the brand was pulled away a large ''¦Â'' for bandit was glowing on Lirian''s arm, and he could smell his cooked flesh.


    ''How am I going to sneak into a keep and enter a cultivation chamber with a brand on my arm?'' Lirian wondered as the difficulty of his mission just went up.


    A short while later Lirian was the recipient of some really good treatment as the entire squad, got to work fixing him up.


    They stitched up all his injuries, fixed up his dislocated shoulders and created a cast for his legs, the treatment was the complete opposite of before.


    They even started to feed him proper food, doing everything they could to make it easier for Lirian to heal, they all looked at him with shining eyes as if he was one huge cash cow and the better he was doing, the more coin they would get.


    ---


    As Lirian moved towards the Keep of House Kurt, his past actions were currently stirring up waves through more than just the region.


    On the coast of the Orc territories known as Vraga, was one of the main cities of the orc race, called Usrid.


    The tides rolled in gently against the port that stretched out into the ocean for several miles, thousands of ships moved about along the coast of the great city that went on for miles on end.


    The city filled out the landscape in every direction one turned, in rose up and down with the hills, with the occasional buildings that towered above the rest.


    As one grew closer to the core of the city, every building extended high-up, scraping the sky, even now in the depths of the night, small green stones illuminated the cobbled roads, and the windows of the homes radiated light.


    In one of the highest buildings a green flame circled around a room with several pillars that extended up for dozens of feet.


    Inside the room, six large red skinned orcs with long silver hair were seated neatly in large black granite chairs, each of the orcs present were three times the size of a human, with muscles large enough to put tree trunks to shame.


    Behind their seats, large banners were hanging down from the ceiling, each of those banners could be seen flying throughout the core region of the city because they belonged to the core powers of Usrid.


    And in this room sat the 5 clan chiefs and the Kell who ruled over the 5 clans and all of Usrid.


    An orc Kell was the equivalent of the humans heavenly emperors on Nebula-6, and the clan chiefs were the equal of a Noble Lord from one of the great houses.


    The orc clan chiefs were busy discussing the news that came from east Mithland.


    "The nerve of these humans," Clan chief of the Burgtol tribe Nazlow said smacking a hand against the armrest of his chair, "To dare fabricate lies about an orc invasion," he said clutching the armrest with his massive red hand.


    "I hear that there is some infighting going on amongst those petty noble lords of the region," Xolag Clan chief of the Basher tribe said with a slight smile while sitting straight in his seat.


    The orc nobles all grunted as they looked at his ugly mug smiling so smugly, "Speak if you know anything?" Nazlow barked.


    Xolag raised his brow, obviously relishing in the annoyance of his fellow Clan chiefs, "As some of you might have heard one of the local lords of the east Mithland region was recently banished from Riverfall, it was just a few months ago,"


    "And he happens to possess a lot of territory," Xolag said.


    "Do you mean that child Rupid Kurt?" Mor the Clan chief of the Berserk tribe asked, he was much more familiar with the happenings of east Mithland, his clan over saw a lot of the trade that went on in Port Cove, which was the main trading hub between humans and orcs in this part if the world.


    A look of recognition flashed through the clan chief''s eyes, while they didn''t like humans, it didn''t mean that they were foolish enough to ignore any humans with potential.


    They had all heard of Rupid Kurt due to his massively successful attempts at unifying the region between Proge and Riverfall.


    It was the goal of many people, but the chances of success were low, due to the region being home to many minor and normal nobles.


    Rupid Kurt had managed to take over many of those nobles territories without suffering from the backlash of the nobles in the great towns, which was an almost impossible task, since even the high nobles had investments with the minor nobles.


    His success was seen as the workings of a genius and even the orcs had to put him on their radars.

 Chapter 280 - 045 – Tribal Meeting 2

    The Clan chiefs all nodded in recognition of Rupid Kurt.


    Xolag smiled and continued, "As you can all guess, his success made him an enemy of many, and due to his growing power, the powers of the great towns allowed some of the other growing houses to expand their power,"


    "The house''s that grew the most are House Hauton and House Brock, and now that Rupid Kurt has been outcasted they plan to make a big move to take his territories,"


    "But unfortunately they lack the power to compete with House Kurt," Xolag explained the situation with a smile.


    "If you ask me all this talk about an orc noble appearing in House Kurt''s territories is merely a ruse to distract House Kurt from their movements,"


    "Once their attack on House Kurt is completed this nonsense about an orc noble running a mock will disappear, there is absolutely nothing for us to concern ourselves about," he said with a smug smile as if stating that all of them were fools for taking this so seriously.


    But some of the orc chiefs shook their heads, they felt like Xolag was underestimating the humans.


    The green flames flickered of the black granite seats of the orcs as they looked around in contemplation.


    They knew the humans well, even if this entire thing was just a rumour spread by the humans, it wouldn''t be surprising if once the humans achieved their goals, they tried to pin the blame for the upheaval on them.


    It wouldn''t be impossible for them to possess some noble orc that they turned into a slave, they''d make that orc act as the evidence of an orc invasion, before executing it before the masses as the perpetrator of the upheaval.


    Then the humans would try to use the seize-fire agreement between the humans and orcs as a means to demand an astronomical compensation fee, for an invasion attempt and for civil unrest.


    It would merely be one of the human''s fancy ways of extorting them.


    Similar thoughts ran through the head of the orc chiefs.


    "I say that we use the preparations for the desolation as a means to absolve ourselves of this mess," Nazlow put his idea forward, "The humans won''t have a choice but to give up on demanding anything from us, until the desolation is resolved, and it could be decades before the desolation is brought to an end," Nazlow said with a cunning smile.


    The humans were indeed masters of deception, but he studied their ways enough to use their own tactics against them.


    However his suggestion was meet with scepticism, orcs were after all a hot blooded race, they didn''t like shying away from fights even if they knew it was for the best, orcs like Nazlow who knew restraint were a rare breed.


    It was then that one of the orc chiefs smashed his fist against the arm rest, it was Clan chief Borug of  the Boar tribe who always dawned his massive black armour and helm that slotted perfectly over his head and his two massive tusks.


    "I say we let the humans send their envoys, and at that time we smash them to pieces, and send their remains back to the humans, to act as a reminder that we are not some push overs," he bellowed out with a mighty roar.


    The other clan chiefs let out loud howls of agreement at the idea as they smashed their fists against their chests with their blood pumping wildly.


    Nazlow frowned as he looked around the room, aside from the Kell and Chieftess Gimora of the Redskull tribe, the other three seemed to be in agreement, including Xolag.


    The Kell would only speak once they completed their discussions, after listening to all the chiefs, he would make the final decision, so far only one of the Clan chiefs had yet to say anything, with that in mind he turned to look at Chieftess Gimora with a troubled expression.


    Seeing that Gimora wasn''t shouting in agreement was the most disturbing thing to him, she was without a doubt the most hot blooded of all the Clan chiefs, the fact that she was just watching with an amused smiled only served to fill him with concern.


    ''I have to put an end to this before she says anything,'' he thought.


    "We need to keep our focus on preparing for the desolation, we don''t have time to start some squabble with the humans, or have you forgotten that we need to work together with the humans at Tower Guard fortress, if we want any chance of stopping the first wave," Nazlow grunted and smashed his fist against the armrest.


    Borug grunted at him with disdain and opened his mouth saying the ''c'' word, a word that know orc, not even the most passive of orcs could take without going blind with rage,


    "Coward," Borug spat at him in ridicule, "Since when have we the noble orcs become afraid of the humans?" he roared opening his mouth wide and aiming his tusks at Nazlow in a stance of a challenge.


    The orc chiefs all looked on with wide eyes, as they turned to look at Nazlow, they saw that he had long since left his seat and threw a solid hook at Borug.


    The orc chiefs eyes lit up with joy as they watched the exchange, it just wasn''t a meeting of chiefs until a fight broke out.


    Under Nazlow''s powerful steps the entire reinforced skyscraper sway violently, then his fist caught Borug square in the jaw.


    Borug''s massive body was lifted of his feet as he shot through the air smashing through his black granite seat, turning it into a heap of rubble.


    The entire reinforced building shuddered under the impact.


    Borug rolled over on the ground and crawled back to his feet, he dusted off bits of dust that got on his armour, and flashed Nazlow a bloody grin, "At least you still know how to use your fists," he barked and a layer of red aura manifested all over his body.


    Borug charged with the force of a mountain, his every step cracked the ground beneath his feet and made the air tremble as he charged at Nazlow.


    The other chiefs watched with racing blood as Nazlow emitted an identical red aura, as he braced himself to take on Borug''s charge head on, say what you will about Nazlow being a smart orc, but he was also an excellent fighter.


    As Borug closed the gap and their aura''s touched, sparks were shot out that threatened to make the air split all around them.


    But suddenly a new overwhelming power erupted enshrouding the entire room and forced the two battling orcs to the ground.


    "Are you to still hatchlings that need me to whip your asses?" the person at centre of the pressure, loudly berated the two, it was none other than the Kell who oversaw the meeting in silence.


    "How many times do you need reminding that if you want to fight you take it a hundred miles out of the city?" he said giving the two a solid thwack on the back of their heads.


    They shudder from the humiliation of being thwacked like they were unruly children at this age but they did understand why the Kell was so angry, the last time the chiefs had a little scuffle, they had to relocate the core region of the city, because they levelled the entire area, and caused tremors throughout the entire city.


    "We beg the forgiveness of master Kell," the two said struggling to their knees and bowing to the Kell.


    Kell Grimlock shook his head in disappointment at the two, as he made his way back to his seat, he still maintained his pressure and looked at each of the chiefs with a disappointed gaze.


    Were they not the one''s that were supposed to break of the fight before any damage happened yet they watched on with excitement, silently cheering both side on.


    The chiefs shudder under the pressure and lowered their heads in shame when they met the Kell''s eyes.


    Xolag and Mor both shifted their heads away from the gaze of their Kell, but Gimora was different she looked directly back with a smile on her face.


    Kell Grimlock looked at her with widened eyes, she wasn''t being suppress by his life hierarchy suppression, "Have you¡­" he started to ask with a joyous tone.


    The change in the Kell''s voice didn''t go unnoticed by the clan chiefs who all turned with difficulty to look at Gimora with surprise etched across their face''s.


    However, she slowly shook her head, "Not yet," she answered, but behind her eyes they could see a flame blazing brightly filled with confidence and determination as she clenched her fist.


    "I just need one final push," she said solemnly and smiled.


    The chiefs all looked at Gimora''s smile with dazed looks in their eyes, female orcs weren''t born with tusks so their smiles could reach their entire face.


    As far as orc beauties went Gimora was unfortunately not at the top, yet her over flowing vigour and status made her the centre of every orc male''s attention including and not limited to the chiefs of the four Clans.


    Not to mention that seeing her smile was a rare thing, which showed just how confident she was in her ability to take the next step and become a Kell.


    "I remember the days when east Mithland was called North Vraga!" she said slowly climbing out of her seat.


    "I want those days to return!" she declared.

 Chapter 281 - 046 - The City Walls

    The carriage wheel cut tracks into the mud roads as the down pour continued.


    It had been raining for several days now, making the squads return to the little town of house Kurt slow down.


    It was at around noon that the city walls came into view, thick walls of stone that rose 40 feet into the sky, it was said that 400 years ago Lord Rupid Kurt hired the dwarves of ''The Hillcove Hills'' to build the outer walls and the great gates, that were operated with great mechanism''s, requiring several people to work strenuously to open the gates.


    Outside the city their seemed to be a small rundown city, but Lirian knew that this area was actually the open marketplace, where many farmers from the nearby village would come to sell their extra produce.


    The peddlers would usually hang around in these parts and haggle with buyers and sellers, throughout the day.


    But currently the area was completely packed with people in every direction, despite the endless downpour that made the world feel miserable.


    The arrival of the squad of fifty, was instantly noticed by the crowds and the people all gathered around, when they saw the uniforms of the soldiers they all bowed respectfully and put some distance between themselves and the group.


    But their eyes kept darting to the cart that was being pulled by four massive horse''s, they looked on with curious gazes, but they couldn''t learn anything as the gigantic steel cage was covered up by a tarp.


    Lirian could hear the soldiers chatter about the packed open market, "Never seen this place so full in my entire life," a soldier was saying in a glum voice.


    The excitement that they were feeling at finally returning home was no where to be seen, "With all this crap about invading orcs no one wants to stay in their villagers and wait for death, so they are coming here to seek out sanctuary,"


    The soldier scanned his surroundings confirming his thoughts as he saw entire families standing together holding each-others hands as the rain completely soaked them.


    "If this keeps up we might end up with a plague running through the inner city," Reyna said as she heard several people coughing within some of the tents that were pitched outside the walls.


    As the group got closer the gates a sentry who was busy performing his duty of patrolling the walls, when he noticed them approaching, at first he wanted to curse out, there were to many people trying to push their way into the city in the past week.


    But when the group grew closer he was finally able to make out what they were wearing when his gaze landed on captain Reyna he froze in terror at what he had almost done.


    ---


    When the squad reached the gates, they could vaguely get the smell of blood in the air and as they looked at the ground they could see what looked like blood and mud mixed together in a puddle.


    "All of you commoners stay back unless you want a repeat of yesterdays events," a loud shout rang out from the top of the walls as the soldiers looked up they saw the head guard glaring outwards at the masses.


    The soldiers could guess what happened, some one must have entered the city and at the time the commoners must have tried to push their way through.


    The city had its limits, as things stood it was already filled to capacity and they couldn''t afford to take in anymore, unless it was someone with an important status they had no chance of entering and staying alive.


    A few minutes later the huge steel plated gates started to rise up at a turtle''s pace, and after a full ten minutes the group started to move into the inner city.


    The inner city spread out far and wide, every road was properly cobbled and almost all the homes were built of sturdy wood and as one went deeper in the buildings were built from stone.


    The inner city was home to several hundred thousand people, yet a city of this size was considered tiny in this world it didn''t even qualify to be called a city.


    Once the group entered the city the gates started to lower, on the outside many people were eying the entrance with looks of desperation but ultimately they didn''t make a move, the previous events had left a mark on their minds.


    No one wanted to lose their lives trying to get into the city, after all the entire reason they came to house Kurt was to have a chance of survival.


    The squad moved into the city without saying much to the guards, asides from confirming that all of them returned the guards didn''t ask anything, they could tell that the group was impatient already.


    They didn''t even bother to check inside the cage, since it was covered they believed that captain Reyna would have her own reasons, who were they to question the intentions of one of the 42 Adapts of House Kurt.


    Even amongst the other Adepts she was highly respected, not only was she a spell caster, but her father was the Lord''s brother and a real mage.


    A short while after they escaped the eyes of the guards and pulled to halt in a back alley , due to the rain there were very few people moving around, once they found an empty area they opened up the cage and carried Lirian out dumping him on the alley floor.


    While captain Reyna was telling the few members of the squad that were going to take Lirian to one of the black market auction houses where to find the place, Lirian was dumped in a puddle as the water washed over him.


    "I grew up in a place like this," Lirian muttered softly while facing the sky, no one heard what he said, but he was merely speaking to himself.


    Of course he wasn''t speaking about his current life he was actually speaking of his very first life, the life in which he starved to death as a two year old child.


    From what Lirian had been able to piece together about those memories, his mother was homeless, and she lived in the alleys, picking up what ever filth she could find in order to survive.


    And she died giving birth to him.


    He grew up in those same filthy alleys, eating whatever dirt and filth came his way, even to this day Lirian had no idea how he survived at first, he was completely unintelligent, he didn''t know a single word during that entire life.


    All he did was scavenge through filth for food all day and the rest of the time he slept, he didn''t even eat enough to be able to take a dump or pee.


    At the time there was a single man who had discovered him, every time he saw Lirian he would kick him around like a toy, when he was done he would throw the left over filth from his food at Lirian and laugh as he watched him hungrily put what ever was thrown at him into his mouth.


    But during one winter the man stopped coming, Lirian had no idea why but during that winter Lirian remembered dying, he didn''t know if it was the cold or the hunger that had killed him, but that was the first time he remembered dying.


    And for Lirian''s first few lives the memory of that man that used to use him as a venting tool, was the warmest memories he had, in fact there was one very warm memory he remembered vividly when the man peed on his face, and Lirian desperately drank it with wonder.


    It was the first thing he ever tasted that was warm.


    In one his lives when Lirian learned about the concept of burial''s he built a shrine to honour that man.


    It wasn''t until much later after watching people and trying to understand them, that Lirian understood that what he had perceived as kindness was in fact just a disgusting man venting his frustrations on him.


    It was one of the greatest humiliations Lirian had ever experienced, he could still picture that man laughing wildly as he happily drank pee.


    Just the memory alone was enough to get Lirian''s blood boiling as he sat there in a puddle of water unable to move.


    While most of his wounds were healed, his legs were still broken, just an ordinary walk would prove impossible for him.


    A short while later captain Reyna left after casting one last glance at Lirian, then four members from the squad quickly approached him, one of them slung him over their shoulder and began to walk through the dark ally''s.


    Lirian briefly considered killing the lot of them, only one of them was a cultivator but he was extremely weak, so Lirian felt like it was possible even with his broken legs, but he quickly shrugged of the idea.


    If he killed them he would undoubtedly become the first suspect of Reyna.


    If that were to happen posters with his face would rapidly spread around the city, in the end of the day even if he could escape these soldiers, and he didn''t think that he''d be capable of getting very far with his broken legs.


    Beside the main point of coming here was to find a way into a cultivation room, he couldn''t flee when he was so close.

 Chapter 282 - 047 - Elmguardian

    "As far as appearances go, I have to say that he is one of a kind, I can definitely see a collector buying him for a good price?" a man from the black market auction house was saying as he rubbed his small goatee with thoughtful strokes.


    "That said with how the market is looking right now, and the current affairs of House Kurt it could be months before he is sold," the auction house buyer was saying as he looked at Lirian with intrigued eyes.


    "Also since he is blind he will be pretty useless as a slave, and his broken legs will need some time heal because of that I doubt that Lady Izlandi''s male escort service''s would be willing to buy him, would you tell me how much you''re looking to get out of him?" he asked the four soldiers.


    The soldiers had to admit the buyer had a point, with Lirian''s disability and looks there were only two options for people that would buy him, the first were collectors who want anything they find to be pleasing to their eyes, and Lirian most certainly was.


    The other option was for him to become a male escort to please woman, the soldiers regretted breaking his legs to much, because that was a very important part if he was to become an escort.


    It would be his duty to provide woman with pleasure and bliss, something that he''d need all three of his legs to be working properly in order to perform well.


    Lirian sighed internally, wondering how things came to this, his only hope was to sit in the cages and have no one take an interest in him until his legs healed, he definitely didn''t want to land in the hands of some rich collector, and he prayed with his might that he did not end up being bought to become some male whore.


    If that were to happen then he would have no choice but to kill his buyer, he was no ones toy to be played with.


    "5 gold," one of the soldiers said eagerly, even if that amount was split equally between the entire squad everyone would get a few silvers the conversion rate was 50 silvers to a gold.


    The auction house buyer stroked his beard with a difficult expression, "I can push for him to be put up for tomorrow''s auction, there should be a lot of collectors here for that auction," he said with a look of hesitation.


    The soldiers could see that something was up with the bearded man, "Is there something important about tomorrows auction?" they asked.


    The bearded man looked at them with a slightly surprised expression, "Have you been away from the city for some time?" he asked curiously, them not knowing about how important tomorrows auction was, was a shock for him so he could only think of one possibility they weren''t in the city when the news spread.


    "We''ve just returned after a month-long mission," one of the soldiers answered.


    "Ah," the man nodded his hand in understanding, "Tomorrows auction is very special, we have obtained something exceptionally rare, so we aren''t putting just anything on display," he said rubbing his hands together with a sly smile.


    The soldiers understood what he wanted immediately, he wanted a cut of the profits, and with many collectors being present it was very likely that Lirian would go for a good price.


    The soldiers smiled slyly their expressions matching the bearded man, before long they were discussing terms.


    After a while of back and forth''s, they finally came to a deal, the bearded man would take a 10% cut after the auction fees were deducted, and if no one bought Lirian they would sell Lirian to the auction house at 2 gold.


    The bearded man could naturally tell Lirian''s value at a glance, to a true collector, it wouldn''t be impossible to get up to 40 gold which was a lot for a single slave, even in the great cities and the capital, a slave of such value was rare.


    When the discussions were done the soldiers handed the papers that certified Lirian as a legal slave over to the bearded man, and left with happy smiles as if they had struck gold.


    ---


    It wasn''t long before Lirian was brought down into a cellar and locked up in another cage.


    Lirian breathed out as he shifted his attention around, he could hear the rattling of chains coming from other cage''s in the room, there was a girl silently crying in a cage nearby, and in the cage right next to him he could feel two sharp eyes fixed on him.


    "It''s rude to stare," Lirian said flashing the person a grin, as he leaned against the bars of his cell with his legs extending out, just moving his legs around hurt, so he sat as still as possible.


    Lirian waited for a reply but the person in the other cage said nothing and continued to stare at him.


    "You have a name?" Lirian asked, but still he received no reply, Lirian continued to ask questions to fill the silence, but the person in the other cage seemed to have no desire to answer.


    "Well aren''t you a chatty one," Lirian laughed, "From now on I''ll call you Chatty and the little cry baby over there will be Sobby," Lirian said shrugging his shoulders.


    "Hey, Sobby would you mind toning it down a notch, I can''t hear Chatty''s response over all the noise you''re making," Lirian said to the girl who was sobbing away.


    The sobs suddenly went silent and Lirian could feel the girls gazes land on him scanning him, "Oh how far I''ve fallen," the girl cried out in dramatically, her way of speaking reminded Lirian of nobles, so he ventured to guess that she was some noble girl, " Even a filthy bandit dares to talk to me!" she said dramatically.


    ''Bandit!'' Lirian thought with surprise, then he ran his hand across the brand ''¦Â'' on his arm in realisation, the brand that marked him as a bandit.


    "You are talking about this?" Lirian asked pointing to his arm, "How does it look?" Lirian asked in a snarky tone and flashed his brand at the noble girl.


    "Is this how my days are to be now?" the girl questioned with her head facing the ceiling of the cellar, her question posed towards deities unknown, "Will my days be spent speaking with the filth of society, murderers, rapist and bandits?" she questioned with heartfelt sobs.


    ''By my sacred name, this girl is killing me,'' Lirian thought rolling his eyes in exasperation.


    "What do you think of it Chatty?" Lirian asked turning his brand to Chatty.


    Chatty, "¡­"


    A short silence followed, but Lirian knew that Chatty heard him clearly, this entire time Chatty had been focusing on his every word.


    "I hear you, and I agree it is a stylish choice on my part," Lirian said, pretending that Chatty was speaking to him.


    "You know if you like it so much I can hook you up, I know these guys, they are super keen to give people brands, even if it''s the wrong one," Lirian laughed.


    "Wrong?" Chatty finally asked curiously.


    "So, he does speak," Lirian said flashing Chatty a smile, "But then I knew that, otherwise I wouldn''t be calling you Chatty," Lirian quickly added.


    "What do you mean by the wrong?" Chatty asked his gaze was sharp as was his voice.


    Lirian noticed that Chatty''s accent was different, from the people he met so far, and he wasn''t the only one to notice.


    "You''re an Elmguardian!" Sobby blurted out in a surprised tone as she tried to get a closer look at the man in the cage, but unfortunately he was to close to the corner where no light reached.


    The man didn''t say anything and merely continued looking at Lirian, waiting for his answer.


    "The brand should look more like this" Lirian said and used a finger to slowly draw an ''?'' rune on his hand.


    The rune Lirian had drawn was a rune placed only on murderers, and anyone marked with such a brand would be lined up at the hanging post.


    A mischievous smirk was drawn across his face as the two looked at him with wide eyes, "I''m blind you see," Lirian explained, "So they wouldn''t believe me when I told them I murdered thousands in a single night," he explained and slowly licked his lips.


    "Oh, dear mother and father, I''m in a cell with a madman," the girl cried out melodramatically, and the man''s eyes flashed with annoyance as if Lirian had just wasted his time.


    "Oh, how far I have fallen, how far I''ve fallen.." the girl continued to cry pitifully.


    "On the contrary, noble girl," Lirian said after the girl repeated her words for the umpteenth time, "You''re at the highest point of your entire life," Lirian said shaking his head in pity for the girl.


    The girl stopped her sobs once more and looked at Lirian with questioning eyes.


    "A long time ago there once was an immortal who wished to know what was the highest point a person could reach¡­" Lirian started to tell her the story about an immortal whose work he once studied a very long time ago.

 Chapter 283 - 048 – The Highest Point

    The immortal asked a man common man, ''What will be the highest point of your life?''


    The man answered, ''The day that I own a home of my own, and don''t have to worry about making coin,''


    ''So, you wish have a noble tittle?'' the immortal asked.


    When the immortal was done he went to ask a noble, "What would be highest point of your life?"


    The noble answered, "The day that I stand as king and by subjects rejoice at my magnificence,"


    The immortal went on to find a king and ask him the same question, to which the king answered, "On the day that I vanquish all other kings and stand as an almighty emperor of the entire world,"


    On that day the immortal left the world in search of a world such an emperor who reigned supreme over an entire world.


    After decades of searching, the immortal found such an emperor and asked him the same question, to which the emperor answered, "I have conquered all the lands, and oceans of my world, now I set my gaze upon the stars in the distant skies,"


    And so the immortals journey continued he searched through the starry nights for eons for a conqueror of stars when at last he did, the conqueror of stars said, "On the day that every star in the sky is under my rule, and the countless worlds cry out my name in reverence,"


    And so the immortal waited for countless eons, that conqueror of the stars eventually died of old age, and a hundred new conquerors of stars were born to the stream of time, before the day came that a person was named chancellor of the universe, and every star in existence fell under their rule.


    On that day the immortal found the chancellor of the stars and posed his question that he had asked so many countless others, the chancellor of the stars answered, "The highest point of my life will be the day on which I become a god that all worship and fear, it will be the day that no one can take what is rightfully mine,"


    The immortal sighed in disappointment, for even the answer of one who ruled over all had yet to experience the highest point of their life.


    "So, do you know what the immortal did next?" Lirian asked.


    Sobby and Chatty were both listening intently despite their earlier attitude''s to Lirian, they were taken by the story and involuntarily they both asked, "What?" in an enthusiastic tone.


    Lirian grinned at their change in attitude''s and continued the story.


    The immortal went to a hidden place in the starry sky and cast a spell on himself, that sealed him away so that time could not touch his body.


    After countless eons had passed the immortal returned to the world, and he learned that the chancellor of stars he had met, was nothing more than a distant memory, remembered only by himself.


    In that time thousands of chancellors of the stars were born, and faded into nothing, but there was one good thing that he learned, gods existed in the current world.


    And so, the immortal set on a grand journey to meet the god, who was known as the greatest of all gods.


    When he finally gained an audience with the good, he asked the god with batted breath, to learn the answer he had sought for so very long, "What was the highest point of your life?" he asked the god, filled with countless expectations.


    To which the god answered, "The highest point of my life will be on the day that all gods grovel at my feet and declare me ''God of all gods''.


    The immortal felt despair at that moment, the gods answer he expected to be profound beyond compare was no different from a common mans, the god sort more than he already had to make up for his childish insecurities.


    "Is that it?" Sobby cried out grabbing on to the bars of her cage, "Is that the moral of the story, that no matter what we do we will never be satisfied with all that we have?" she asked in disappointment at the end of the story, she was looking forward to the answer.


    "That is indeed a moral of the story, all sentient races no matter how highly they think of themselves are fundamentally the same," Lirian said knowingly and the eyes of his two listeners widened in surprise.


    "But that isn''t the end of the story," Lirian quickly added, "As I said to you noble girl, you are currently at the highest point of your life, I wouldn''t know that without knowing the end of the story," Lirian said and continued once more.


    The immortal was filled with despair, the answer he had sought out for so many countless eons was impossible to find.


    It drove him to the edge of madness, and for countless years more the immortal sought out every person of every profession he could think of, doctors, merchants, politicians, soldiers, generals, philanthropists and all the other things he could think of.


    But the answer eluded him, eventually the day came when the immortal felt he was drawing close to the end of his life, yet still he had no answer to show for all his efforts.


    And he settled down in a little city to live out the remainder of his days, it was there that unexpectedly he found the answer he had always sought.


    On a fateful night the immortal got drunk in the local tavern, it wouldn''t be the first time that such a thing happened, but on that day he got into a brawl in his drunken stupor.


    As it turned out the man he attacked was noble, so he got thrown into a cell, and it was there that he found the answer he had always sought, in all that time he had never thought to ask a prisoner the question he always carried.


    But the immortal knew that his life was drawing to its close, on one of the days he spent in prison a man entered, with the brand of a murderer, in just a day he was set to be executed, and so the immortal asked, "What is the highest point of your life?" he asked out of habit not expecting any reply, yet to his wonder, the man gave an answer he never heard before.


    ''That''s tricky,'' the man answered thoughtfully, ''I suppose that my highest point was a long time ago but it could also be tomorrow as well, or perhaps my entire journey since that day has been my highest point and tomorrow will be the day it comes to an end''


    The immortal looked with widened eyes and practically begged the man while grovelling at his feet for the answer, ''Tell me!'' the immortal cried.


    The man happily complied and explained his story.


    When he was young, his family had deemed as a talentless trash of society and cast him out with nothing but the clothes on his back.


    While alone he worked hard to make his way up in the world, and with great effort he climbed the ladders of the world and married into a great family.


    The immortal looked at him sceptically and asked, ''If you married into such a great family, what are you doing in a prison cell?'' he asked.


    To which the man pointed to the brand of a murderer on his arm and whispered, ''I killed my wife,'' he said it with such joy that the immortal became confused.


    ''Did she cheat on you with another man?'' the immortal asked.


    The man shook his head, ''She was the best wife a man could ask for,'' he said in ecstatically, ''But she was a duchess you see, since I killed her the king will have to execute me,''


    ''What does this have to do with the king?'' the immortal asked, he was still unable to see full picture.


    ''The king is my father,'' the man whispered, ''He cast me out when I was a child, yesterday I killed the woman he sought to get rid of throughout his reign, and tomorrow I''ll rub it in his face, and let him know who the real trash is before taking him with me to my grave,'' he said revealing a spell circle that was engraved into his chest.


    With it if anyone killed him they would die with him.


    The immortal looked at the murderer as if he was his saviour and wept at his feet as if the man was a deity he revered.


    He finally found his answer.


    The highest point of the man''s life was on the day he was cast out, on the day he had nothing left to lose, when there was no room left for him to fall.


    It was the day on which the man experienced a great change and dedicated his everything to achieve his goal, all that the man done was to make his way into the presence of his father the king, and achieving revenge on the man who labelled him as a disgrace.


    "The highest point of a person life comes long before they achieve their goals, a person''s highest point is the day on which they find their ambitions and dedicate themselves to it," Lirian said bringing the story to it''s close.

 Chapter 284 - 049 – Escape

    "Do you understand now?" Lirian asked Sobby and Chatty.


    "You currently have nothing left to lose, which makes this the highest point of your lives," Lirian said to the two of them, "What do you plan on doing now that you have nothing left to lose?" Lirian asked the two.


    The eyes of the man in the other cage were lit up until Lirian questioned them, he looked at the steel chains binding his hands and the thick bars of his cell hopelessly, "There isn''t anything we can do as we are?" he sighed out despondently.


    On the other hand the noble lifted her nose proudly, "Speak for yourself," she said, "I still have somethings left to lose!" she said with a haughty attitude.


    Lirian chuckled coldly, "Like what? Your chastity?" Lirian asked in a chastising tone.


    "You''re locked behind steel bars and your hands are bound by chains, you''re as good as sold to the highest bidder, and you know as well as I do that your precious chastity won''t last long after you''re taken away," Lirian admonished her.


    Sobby gulped nervously, "I''m really smart, back home I used to handle all my father''s taxes, if I tell them about my skills, they might give me important duties to take off," she said holding her head high.


    Lirian laughed and nodded his head, "You''re right, they''ll give you responsibilities, but you should know that a lot of men have fantasies about screwing a woman who is hard at work, if you work really hard your new master will have even more fun with you,"


    Sobby''s eyes widened in terror and she turned to look at the man in the other cage, it was dark and hard to see him but Sobby could vaguely make out that the man was nodding his head.


    "If you''d like I could help you get out of here and since the two of you are novice spellcaster''s it might just be possible for you to make a successful escape," Lirian said with a grin.


    The two both got up in shock and looked at Lirian, neither of them mentioned that they were cultivators so they couldn''t understand how Lirian knew, even more so they had no clue about how Lirian knew that they were spell casters.


    "You two are truly trash I must say," Lirian mocked the two, "To be spell casters yet to be unable to perform a basic energy manipulation to open the locks of your cages and cuffs," Lirian ridiculed the two.


    "But like I said I have a way to help you escape," Lirian said.


    Chatty and Sobby both looked at Lirian with uncertainty when they saw him wave his hand and in the next second the sound of metal hitting metal rang out from Sobby''s cage.


    Sobby looked down and saw a set of keys on the floor of her cage, "How do you have this?" she cried in surprise and picked up the keys.


    "I swiped it off the guard after he locked me up," Lirian said with a shrug of his shoulders as if it was no big deal.


    "I''d advise that you use it quickly, before the guard realises that his keys are missing," Lirian advised as Sobby who was still looking at the keys in shock.


    In the next moments Sobby removed her shackles and opened her cage as quietly as possible before rushing to the other man''s cage.


    She opened the gate and handed him the keys to undo his own cuffs.


    When Chatty stepped out of his cage, Sobby openly gapped at him with a look of complete disbelief, "You''re an elf," she muttered, "An actual pure blood male elf," she said with complete disbelief etched across her face as she looked at his long pointy ears.


    "How did you even get here? I thought that males weren''t allowed to leave Elmguard," she muttered in a daze.


    The elf gritted his teeth and walked past Sobby without answering her question, he didn''t look to have any desire to answer either.


    He approached Lirian''s cage and went to open it when Lirian suddenly stopped him, "What do you think you''re doing little elf?" Lirian asked.


    Chatty raised a brow at Lirian for calling him little and Lirian could feel the scorn, it was like the elf was saying he was to short to be calling other people little.


    "We''ll escape together, once we are out we''ll go our separate ways," Chatty said.


    "Well aren''t you sweet, I''m pretty sure that I can go pretty far on my broken legs," Lirian replied sarcastically.


    Chatty looked at Lirian''s legs with concern, "If not for you I wouldn''t be able to escape, I''ll take you with me," he said with conviction.


    Lirian sighed, "As much as I appreciate the sentiment Chatty, if I wanted to leave I''d have said so,"


    "You don''t want to escape," Sobby said finally coming out from her trance, "Why are you helping us escape then,"


    "That''s because I have plans of my own Sobby," Lirian answered mysteriously.


    "Like what?" Sobby snapped back while folding her arms under her breast, "And stop calling me Sobby," she said in an irritated voice, "My name is Amelia," she added.


    "Nothing that you need to know Sobby," Lirian said in an amused tone.


    Amelia clenched her fists, she was just trying to repay the favour for helping her escape, yet al she got was Lirian being snarky.


    "My name is Ithlan by the way," Chatty introduced himself, "Why help us escape, only for you to stay behind?" he questioned Lirian.


    Lirian chuckled, "Oh my dear Chatty, that''s for me to know and you to¡­" Lirian trailed of but not before flashing Ithlan a mischievous smile.


    "Now come closer so I can give you a method to successfully escape, because with your current mediocre skills, you''ll get caught before you leave the building and even if you manage to make it out, you''ll likely get captured in no time at all," Lirian said and reached out his hands to the heads of the two.


    The two of them looked at Lirian sceptically, but ultimately followed Lirian''s wishes, without Lirian''s help they''d still be stuck inside their cages.


    When Lirian placed his hand on their heads he transferred a simple spell for them to avoid being detected, so long as they didn''t get to close to someone with a high perception, it would be difficult for anyone to detect them.


    Other than that, he also gave them a couple of spells that they could use to slightly alter their appearance.


    In the middle of doing so Lirian had an amusing idea and brought up his guide to first accord cultivation.


    After a brief amount of consideration Lirian decided to place it in their minds as well, but he decided that if their minds couldn''t handle it he would not waste his fate particles by attaching it to their fate strings like he did with Ella and Elsie.


    After a few moments the process completed successfully on the two, Lirian was actually surprised that the noble girl could handle it, she did seem to be rather weak willed to him, but apparently he was wrong about her.


    Ithlan and Amelia both took a step back in shock, they processed the info in their heads with utter disbelief and kept looking at Lirian like he was some sort of ghost or spectre.


    "Just who exactly are you, or rather what are you?" they asked with frightened expressions, the knowledge that they had in their heads, they knew that it was no ordinary knowledge, this was the kind of stuff that even the heavenly emperors would wage wars to obtain, yet this seemingly ordinary man gave it to them, without a second thought.


    "I already told you didn''t I," Lirian said in an amused tone and rewrote the ''?'' rune on his hand for the two of them to see.


    Their eyes opened wide in fright as they stepped away from Lirian, this time neither of them thought Lirian was crazy or making things up, with the knowledge he just gave them, they''d be ready to accept it if he told them he was a god.


    "Now run along," Lirian said with a wide grin, "And remember you have reached you highest point, from here on out, you can only climb higher, and I expect you to climb high in this world, because if you don''t make good use of my gift, I''ll personally hunt you down and rip you apart," Lirian laughed aloud as the two retreated.


    "Foooh," Lirian let out a breath, "Hopefully that will buy me some time," Lirian muttered softly.


    He wasn''t hopeful at all about the two escaping, but Lirian just needed them to disappear for a day or two.


    With help of the system, Lirian was able to learn that the elf was the real treasure that the bearded man who brought him in spoke about.


    Without the elf, it was likely that they would have to cancel the auction, after all he was the main attraction.


    If the auction house still held the auction, their reputation would take a severe hit, even if they cancelled, their auctions reputation would take a hit, and make it less likely for any collectors to return if he was put forward in any future auctions.


    Lirian sat back in his cage and hoped that what he did was enough.

 Chapter 285 - 050 – Guests

    "How did they do it?" Julian the head curator of the auction house asked Lirian while panicking.


    Lirian shrugged his shoulders, "How would I know?" he asked back, "I was brought here and locked up in my cage, then the guard went to insult those two who were in their cages," Lirian added in a small lie about the guard.


    "A short while later they opened their cages and left, they didn''t even offer to help me escape," Lirian explained in a saddened tone.


    But inwardly Lirian was laughing aloud at the success of his plan, now he just hoped that the two would not be found for another day.


    A short while later the guard who brought Lirian to his cage was dragged into the room and tied to a chair, where they found that his keys were missing.


    A long interrogation session ensued, by the end of which the guard who brought Lirian in was nothing more than a bloodied corpse.


    Lirian sighed after the musical sound of someone being slowly tortured to death came to an end, from beginning to end the guard claimed to be innocent, and died saying the same thing, he had no idea how his keys went missing.


    But most importantly, he didn''t say a word to the other captives, yet everyone had it in their heads that he spoke to them when he came down to lock Lirian in his cage.


    All the while Lirian smiled merrily at the plight of the guard.


    Julian kicked the chair with the dead man flying in a fit of anger, and barked orders at his men to scour every inch of the city for the elf.


    That was a treasure that he was extremely lucky to come across, and he would not have put the elf up for auction, if he had the confidence to take him to one of the big cities.


    If he had the ability to smuggle the elf into Proge without being caught, he could have sold the elf for tens of thousands of gold, even important nobles would offer him the highest titles they possibly could to obtain an elven male.


    They were just that rare and valuable.


    Julian paced up and down through the collections of the auction house, an entire day passed, and he still had no idea where the two escaped to.


    The girl was the last surviving member of a minor noble family, so she was naturally a valuable captive, but now all he had was some captive, who was not only blind, but his legs were also broken.


    The time for the auction was quickly approaching, and Julian was struggling with admitting his defeat, when his personal butler came rushing to his side.


    "Sir our first guest has arrived," the butler panted out loud.


    Julian widened his eyes in surprise, ''It can''t be time already,'' he thought and pulled out a silver pocket watch from one of his coat pockets, when he snapped it open he looked at the needles only to find that it was merely three hours afternoon.


    The auction wouldn''t start until late in the evening, "Send them away, the auction isn''t for a good few hours," he told the butler.


    But the butler lightly shook his head, "Sir we can''t do that, it''s madam Selner who has arrived, and there were a few others on their way in as I came to inform you,"


    Julian''s breathing went rampant at any other time he would have been delighted to entertain such guests, even if he had to dedicate an entire day to them, but now he realised that it was to late to back away from the auction.


    His main piece was gone, and he''d be lucky if none of his important guests attempts to kill him at the end of the day for wasting their time.


    But worst of all was that after today his reputation would plummet.


    Julian turned to the butler, and said, "Get all our valuable possession''s ready for a quick get away, and also kill all the guards who were on duty, we''ll report to our superiors that someone broke in, killed all the guards, and stole the elf, and the girl,"


    As Julian spoke he neatened up his coat and put on a confident smile, as he left to greet the incoming guests.


    Julian held up an umbrella as he reached the carriage of madam Selner and knocked on her door.


    The door soon opened and a beautiful woman with dark ivory skin stepped out in a puffy dress, she gave a polite nod of her head as she climbed down the steps of her carriage and stepped under the shelter of Julian''s umbrella.


    "Lady Izlandi sincerely apologises for being unable to attend your grand auction good sir Julian, she is currently in a critical point of her cultivation and cannot leave he cultivation chamber," madam Selner said apologetically, she was lady Izlandi''s right hand, and handled most of the management of Lady Izlandi''s establishments.


    "As a token of apology Lady Izlandi has asked me to give you these items as a gift for granting her this opportunity," madam Selner said clapping her hands and several servants came out of the carriage carrying multiple large coffers.


    The fanciest coffer was brought before Julian and he was briefly shown the contents, he saw dozens of jewellery pieces and ornaments, that were worth their weight in gold.


    Julian took a calming breath to calm his nervousness and put on a humble smile, "Madam Selner as much as I appreciate such gifts, I do not think it right for me to accept such exquisite pieces," he said perfectly hiding his nervousness.


    Madam Selner smiled at his response, "Lady Izlandi insisted that you accept these gifts, I have instructions to toss them in the streets if you don''t accept them,"


    With that Julian was unable to reject the items any further and smiled happily as he accepted them.


    "I see that you have other guests to tend to so I shall not take any more of your time, I look forward to your marvellous auction tonight," madam Selner said giving him a wink as she raised a light blue umbrella of her own and walked away with the servants carrying the other coffers.


    Madam Selner was guided to a room where the servants brought in the remaining coffers all of which were filled with gold.


    ''My Lady I will succeed in obtaining the elf, no matter the cost,'' madam Selner swore internally, it was under Lady Izlandi''s instructions that she came to the auction, apparently her Lady had a plan to use the elf.


    Julian continued to go out greeting guest after guest, all of the early arrivals were nobles, his auction might have been for the black market, but his main clients had always been the nobles, he had a special understanding with House Kurt.


    He paid them a set fee after every auction and they didn''t bother him about the sales he made and he also provided them with a few additional services, it was a win-win for both sides.


    As time passed by Julian received gift after gift from the nobles that arrived, none of them could compare to the gifts he received from Lady Izlandi, but when pilled up, he was certain that he collected well over a thousand golds worth of items.


    A short while later he saw a light blue carriage with the circular shield painted on all four side''s, he immediately recognised it was from House Kurt, and rushed to greet his new guests while sweating internally at how large his auction was.


    To have the distinguished guests of House Kurt attend an auction was every auction house''s dream, but this was only making Julian all the more nervous.


    When Julian reached the carriage he gave a reverential bow as Stanley Kurt walked out accompanied, by three of the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.


    Julian could hardly stop his eyes from wondering all over the three beauties luscious bodies, Julian had never met Stanley before, but he naturally knew who Stanley was.


    "Lord Stanley it is my pleasure to act as a host to one such as yourself, I''ll arrange for a private room that you can share with your three beautiful ladies," Julian said while trying to avert his eyes from the stunning beauties.


    "hahaha," Stanley laughed heartily, glad that the women were drawing the envy of every man around him, "That will be most appreciated," he said while intimately wrapping his arms around the waists of Jasmine and Lavender.


    "Will Lord Cornick be joining you?" Julian asked curiously after all he did send a personal invite to Lord Cornick.


    Stanley sighed and shook his head, "My brother has received some severe injuries, he''ll be in recovery for some time," Stanley said with a slight shudder as he recalled his brother''s injuries.


    "Training injuries?" Julian asked with concern, after all Cornick had been a good customer.


    "Sure, lets go with that," Stanley said with a distant look in his eyes, before giving Julian another valuable gift and heading off into the entertainment area.

 Chapter 286 - 051 – Auction 1

    [Ding]


    [Half of hosts fate particles have been consumed]


    [Two secrets of hosts Samsaric powers have been found after using knowledge of ''Grand Reincarnation'']


    [Samsara''s Curse] ¨C the curse of Samsara can be placed on the true soul of a person.


    -          the cursed soul will be damned to never experience peace and live a life of unbridled torment.


    -          the curse can be placed on a soul for multiple incarnations, the price will increase exponentially for every incarnation cursed.


    -          1 life = 10 ^1 fate particles


    -          2 lives = 10^2 fate particles


    -          3 lives = 10^3 fate particles


    [Samsara''s Blessing] ¨C a blessing place upon a true soul that will grant fortune to the soul after reincarnation.


    -          the blessings intensity is dependent on the number of fate particles used.


    -          the more fate particles used the higher chance of the soul awakening their past life memories.


    Lirian watched as his dream played out once more, he was oddly aware of his dream this time, he remembered those moments so clearly.


    He had a decision to make, keep pushing to find out if he had the ability to bring the dead back to life, or use the remaining fate particles he possessed to grant Edith a blessing.


    The lightning still flashed in skies of the world, and the great apparition of the serpent hung high above the sky like an onlooker, releasing its divine pressure.


    They continued to exchange words, until Edith''s consciousness started to fade, it was then that Lirian made his decision and started to place his blessing on her soul, that way no matter what world she was born to, she would live the life she deserved to have.


    It was then that she whispered her final words into his ear, "The other me, the one who was a god, she wanted me to tell you something,"


    "Mercy is the way of tr¡­"


    ---


    Lirian woke up suddenly to a loud screeching sound, as he panted and moved around in confusion.


    Lirian quickly realised that his cage was moving, he was being pulled on some trolly or cart.


    "What''s going on where are you taking me?" Lirian asked the person pulling him.


    "You sure do sleep like the dead," the person pulling the trolley commented, "The auction is starting, soon you''ll be sold to the highest bidder," the man said in a dry tone.


    "The auction is still going on, does this mean that they caught the elf?" Lirian asked in frustration, thinking that after all he had done the elf was still caught.


    "Nope the elf is still missing and so is the girl, now shut up and stay quite until it''s time for you to be sold," the man grunted in annoyance.


    A while later Lirian was taken into another room, he could tell that it was very large and spacious, and just beyond the room was a stage.


    He could hear the clatter of people moving around, and a little chatter like they were all waiting for something.


    It was then that Lirian realised that the auction was about to begin, but time was moving by quickly and even after a half hour the auction did not begin.


    The people in the audience were starting to get testy about the prolonged delay and shouts were echoing throughout the chamber.


    Behind the scenes Lirian could feel the panic of the staff members and the other curators, they were rushing about looking for Julian who was supposed to be the auctioneer, but he was no where to be found.


    Then the other curators started discussing who should go out instead, they were having a heated argument about who should go out, because no one wanted to be the one to tell the audience that they didn''t have the star of the show.


    In the end they chose a random girl whose only skill was that she was literate, she was completely clueless as they pushed her onto the stage with nothing but a pile of documents about the items that were listed.


    The hall was dimly lit with luminous stones, just enough for the girl to be able to make out the people and see if they were raising their paddles.


    While the entire stage was lit up by bright blue luminous orbs that made everything completely clear to the audience.


    They watched as a cute blonde girl with neck length hair made her way across the stage with nervous footsteps.


    "Greetings and w-w-w-welcome treasured patrons," the girl stammered nervously.


    "I w-w-w-would like t-t-to apologise for the d-d-delay, the head curator is not feeling well,"


    "I-I-I''ll be serving as the auctioneer for today, if y-y-y-you don''t mind," she stammered out nervously while doing a full 90-degree bow to the audience.


    "I''d take a cute girl like you over a boring old man any day," a random person from the audience shouted and several people shouted in agreement.


    "Can you just get the auction started!" someone shouted impatiently.


    "Er, er thank you," the girl hurriedly said and walked to a stand where she could set her pile of papers down and she went straight into reading them.


    "Our first item of the night is a necklace called the Sapphire Pearl, it is of a braided steel design with three inlaid ruby''s and a diamond encrusting,"


    "It was made by a famed jeweller from Proge, Henrich Col, and used to belong to the late Countess Meritine Sooel," as she read out the contents of the page, a trolley was pushed onto stage and a beautiful necklace, that was made from black steel was revealed to the crowd.


    And on it were three sapphire blue ruby''s, the largest ruby sat in the centre while the smaller ones sat symmetrically on either side.


    The girl panicked a little as she scoured the page for the value of the item, after locating it on the other side of the page she discovered that it was to be auctioned at a starting value of 5 gold with, it''s maximum potential being 12 gold.


    The girls eyes widened at the figure, in all he life she hadn''t seen so much money combined, yet this one item was worth more than she had in her entire life.


    "The starting bid is 5 gold with increasing increments of 10 silver," she read from the page.


    "5 gold," she called out and almost instantly she saw people raising their paddles.


    She gapped in disbelief that they were willing to pay so much for something that had absolutely no use.


    "Hurry up and raise the price," someone shouted from the audience when the girl didn''t speak for a while.


    "S-s-sorry," she squeaked out and started to raise the price.


    "5, 10," she called out and several peddles were raised into the air, most of the people bidding were noble woman and a few men were also bidding, they probably thought that it would be a good gift to their wives or daughters.


    "5, 20," she called and the peddles kept raising.


    The increments steadily rose up and by the time the value reached 9 gold 30 silvers only three peddles kept raising up.


    "Sold for 10 gold 40 silver," she cried out eventually.


    As time went on more and more items were sold as the girl read the info of the pages, there were all kinds of things from art pieces to sculptures and even a couple weapons.


    The hours ticked by slowly and with every passing minute items were sold and some items were completely ignored, as the list on the brochure whittled the crowd grew excited, because they all knew what the last item of the auction was supposed to be, and the time was drawing close.


    Everyone eagerly awaited the appearance of a pure blood male elf.


    The region of Elmguard belonged to the elven race, and everyone knew of the elves outlandish beauty, every female elf was the epitome of beauty as the saying went.


    For countless years people had only ever seen female elves, from their queen to their leaders to their soldiers, every last one was a female.


    At first people believed that the men were so beautiful that they just blended in with the women of the race, but that belief was quickly disproven during the warring eras when countless elven warriors were killed yet not a single male corpse was found.


    It was not after an invasion of one of their main cities that the truth about the elves were revealed.


    The elves had a type of bloodline curse, that made it so that an elven male has to have 99 999 female children before they are capable of having a male child.


    Because of this every male elf had an enormous harem with more woman then they could remember, the day a male elf is born great celebrations are thrown throughout the elven cities.


    And those males are raised with their every need taken care of, while they were served foods that help make them fertile at earlier stages in their life.


    From the day a male elf becomes a man, he spends his every waking hour impregnating woman after woman.


    Due to how important the live of male elves were the elves prevent their males from having any contact with the outside world, and kept a tight leash on their movements, which is why a male elf appearing here was such a big deal.


    If a noble with enough power were to possess a male elf, they would have a way to control the elves.

 Chapter 287 - 052 – Auction 2

    The items soon dwindled down and the moment everyone was waiting for was quickly approaching, the girl picked up the next page and started to read aloud.


    "N-next up we have the last member of a minor noble family," the girl read loudly.


    "Lady Amelia Solick," she announced and waited for the cage to be brought forward.


    "Solick¡­" Stanley muttered softly in his private booth where he was accompanied by his three escorts.


    "Is something the matter?" Jasmine asked as she held onto his arm with it logged enticingly in her bosom.


    "Solick was the name of one of the House''s that my father trampled over to expand his territory," Stanley explained, "If she is the last member of the family, she holds legal rights to the area we took, I''ll have to buy her and take care of her," he said with a shrug of his shoulders.


    This one of the main reasons that House Kurt allowed the existence of the black market, due to their rapid expansion in territory, they lost track of a lot of nobles who escaped, as long as those noble''s existed the legitimacy of House Kurt''s rule would be questionable.


    Any legal auction house would be allowed to sell slaves, but when it came to nobles, there were strict rules prohibiting the auctions house''s from selling them, hence the need for the black market.


    On the black market such nobles were sold all the time for high figures, which is why the black market was always on the lookout for such nobles.


    By keeping the black-market close House Kurt was able to locate a lot of their loose ends and cut them off before they became a problem.


    "The opening bid will be 100 gold," the auctioneer called out, while completely unaware of the trouble brewing in the back as the members of the auction house panicked, they had given her the full list and forgot to remove the two missing items on the list.


    The crowd went a little wild and instead of waiting for the auctioneer to start raising the price they started shouting out how much they were willing pay.


    "150 gold"


    "300 gold"


    "320 gold"


    "380 gold"


    The number kept rapidly increasing, the complete properties of a minor noble family could easily reach up to 3000 gold, if anyone possessed the last member of the family the properties would be as good as theirs once they married a member of their family to the rightful owner of the land.


    But it also came with it''s fair share of risk, in this case earning themselves the wrath of House Kurt, which is why the value of Amelia started so low.


    "2000 gold," Stanley said loudly from his booth, raising the price to a point that no one else would be willing to go, everyone looked up at him and had to give up on pushing any higher, they knew that since he was determined to have the girl no one could stop him.


    For most of them the purchase of Amelia was just a way to make a lot of money, no matter how much they paid for her, they would have been able to sell her for a profit to House Kurt.


    Just as the auctioneer was about to shout sold, someone approached her from behind and whispered into her ear.


    The cute auctioneer gulped nervously as she heard what the person told her.


    "L-l-l-lord S-s-stanley," she said nervously glancing at Stanley''s booth, "T-there was a s-slight mix up, and Lady Amelia is still being brought out of the storage area," she gulped nervously as she said the lie she was told to say.


    Stanley revealed a look of displeasure, but eventually waved his hand, "Just send her to my room, I''ll collect her when we are done here," he said with a frown.


    The girl sighed in relief that Lord Stanley didn''t cause a scene, and shifted back to the last two pages.


    The person told her to skip to the last item, but as she read through it she felt her mind go blank, she was an expert by no means, but even she knew that the last item was useless, and from what she could tell the only reason the next person was being sold was because of how beautiful the person was.


    The girl put on a face of feigned confidence as she started to read out the introductions.


    "Next up we have a beauty like no other, who was caught and branded for banditry," she read, and several men whistled from the crowd.


    "I love myself a dangerous woman!" someone shouted and laughed gleefully.


    The girl had grown used to the perverted men in the crowd, and smiled in amusement, she couldn''t wait to see their faces when they realised that they were actually talking about a man.


    "This slave is said to have a very tough body but is unfortunately blind and currently has both legs broken," as she spoke the people who were initially excited frowned, they couldn''t believe that they were being sold defective goods.


    ''That was a perfect introduction,'' Lirian thought to himself as his cage was moved, ''With an introduction like that no one will be willing to buy me, right?'' Lirian thought hopefully as he was revealed to the crowd.


    For a few minutes there was a dead still silence in the room as they looked at Lirian for the first time, it was at that moment that their definition of beauty had been completely redefined.


    He was truly a beauty like no other, even his facial features were so unique, it didn''t match with aesthetic of the people they had met, and this room was filled nobles who had met all kinds of people, from different parts of the world and of different races.


    His appearance was the type that any person would call unique, even the auctioneer was staring blankly at Lirian for several minutes before she returned to her sense''s.


    ''Oh, fuck me,'' Lirian complained internally as he felt the hungry gazes of many people in the audience.


    "Oh my!" Lily swooned openly as she looked at Lirian despite being wrapped firmly in one of Stanley''s arms, "What I wouldn''t give to have a taste of a man like that," she said extending her long tongue and licking her lips.


    "Don''t you think that he is to pretty to be a man?" Jasmine questioned, but she kept her gaze fixed firmly on Lirian''s body, her eyes undressing him and looking directly at his crotch as if trying to make sure that she was looking at a man.


    "No woman could get my motor running so easily," Lavender said while groping her own breasts.


    Stanley frowned as the women were openly praising the slave, "So what if he''s good looking, I bet that he couldn''t satisfy any of you girls in bed," he said with a sour expression.


    "Just spending a night with a man so good looking would be a dream come true," Lily said involuntarily while panting like a bitch in heat.


    "Are you saying that I''m not good looking?" Stanley asked in a dangerously calm voice.


    The three escort all opened their eyes wide as they felt cold chills run through their body, "Of course Lord Stanley is handsome, Lord Stanley is almost as handsome as the man in the cage," they all said with sincere smiles.


    Some of the people close by heard the conversation and inwardly wondered how those three women said such a thing with straight faces.


    While no one would say it out loud, they all knew that the members of House Kurt were inherently ugly, the insults about their ancestor being born from a human and toad frolicking existed for good reason.


    To say that Stanley was handsome, was like saying the colour black is as bright as the sun, it was just ridiculous.


    Stanley smiled with a gloating look as the three women praised him incessantly, "Since you like him so much, I''ll buy him for you," he said to them with a smirk.


    The three escorts eye''s opened wide with clear excitement, "That will be amazing!" they said simultaneously and turned back to look at Lirian with hungry looks in their eyes.


    "But," Stanley added, "You''ll only get him for a night each, once you''re done you''ll have to get rid of him," he added a condition.


    The three escorts were no fools, they knew all about a mans pride, while their master was willing to give them a gift, he wouldn''t allow the gift to take them away from him.


    They looked at Lirian with pity in their eyes, they truly thought that it would be a pity for such a good-looking man to die, but that wasn''t their concern, as long as they had their fun all was well.


    They nodded in acceptance of the condition and allowed the auction to proceed.


    "The opening bid will start of at 5 gold with an increment of 10 silver," the auctioneer said declaring the start of the auction.

 Chapter 288 - 053 – Auction 3

    In all but a second of the auctioneer stating the opening bid almost every person in the room raised a paddle, even the people who weren''t collectors were showing their interest in Lirian.


    ''Even without my charm fully active, my beauty is a curse,'' Lirian thought sadly, ''Maybe I should just shout out that the elf is gone missing, or that there never was an elf in the first place, and that the black market lured them here to assassinate everyone present,'' Lirian thought.


    [Host is advised against such action, prediction scans show that such an action will lead to the certain death of host.]


    The system gave Lirian it''s prediction as soon as he had the thought, which left Lirian with no choice but to accept being sold, ''I suppose that messing with people I don''t understand yet is of the tables for now,'' Lirian thought as the price started to rise rapidly.


    When Lirian stopped to listen, his value had already doubled from 5 gold to 10 and the increments were raised to 20 silver and yet it showed no sign of slowing down.


    When the bid reached 25 gold the increment changed to 1 gold with every bid it was then that the first few people stopped raising their paddle''s.


    "We have reached 50 gold will anyone go higher?" the auctioneer asked with a look of wonder in her eye, for a common person to reach such a value was simply unheard of, even for collectors, 50 gold was the cut of line even for a unique item because ultimately while unique in appearance Lirian had no special use or purpose.


    "Going once,"


    "Going twice,"


    "Going¡­" but before she could finish two people called out at the same time.


    "51 gold," everyone turned to look in the direction of the two bidders who suddenly stepped in.


    They turned to see Stanley Kurt raising his paddle as well as madam Selner who also occupied her own private booth.


    It was then that another battle begun to take place.


    "53 gold," Stanley said quickly increasing his bid.


    "55 gold," madam Selner said, calmly increasing her bid.


    "57!"


    "59!"


    "61!"


    "¡­"


    "75!"


    The bid continued to raise, and both madam Selner and Stanley kept increasing it without a care in the world.


    "May I know why Lord Stanley is so insistent on having this man?" madam Selner asked politely, as if this was just idle chit chat as she continued to raise the bid.


    Stanley lightly smiled, "He''ll make a good gift to spoil my lovely girls," Stanley said as he casually increased his bid.


    "I''ve heard a great deal about the respectable madam Selner, I''ve heard that my sister depends on you very much for the management of her business," he said in acknowledgment of her.


    "Lady Izlandi is a brilliant woman, it is my life''s fortunate to be of use to such a woman," madam Selner said proudly.


    "Indeed she is," Stanley agreed readily, "Would madam Selner tell me why this man is worth so much to you?"


    A wry smile appeared on madam Selner''s lips, "How could I refuse to answer the respectable Lord Stanley," she said with a hint of flattery in her voice.


    "You know how to flatter madam Selner, you definitely couldn''t have learned that from my sister," he said in amusement.


    Madam Selner showed no anger at the slight provocation, she knew that Izlandi treated her family members very coldly, ever since her younger brother tried to defile her at a young age.


    "Lord Stanley is very popular with the ladies," Madam Selner said with a small grin as she looked at the beautiful escorts, it sounded like a complement but anyone could see the underlying insult.


    "As one so popular with woman I''m sure that Lord Stanley is aware that most women prefer to keep their affairs secret," she said in an amused tone as if she felt like Stanley didn''t know about that.


    "Of course," Stanley added while doing his best not to go red in the face, he knew painfully well that without showing off his status and wealth he couldn''t get a woman, let alone get one to have an affair.


    Madam Selner nodded with a light smile, "What Lord Stanley may not know is that a lot of the women who come to the male brothel request that the men are blind folded,"


    "That slave would be the prized possession of Lady Izlandi''s establishment, not only is he the most attractive man I''ve seen in my life, he is also blind which is a major added bonus, he is the perfect candidate to act as a male escort," she said with a bright smile as she looked at Lirian.


    "Do you really think a blind man will be able to hit a woman in the right places?" Stanley asked with a derisive laugh.


    "Of course, I''ve had first hand experience of a blind man''s prowess, I will always regret not making him mine," Madam Selner said with a cheeky laugh, "The only problem with this man is his legs, once those are healed up, he''ll become the talk of the city," she gave her evaluation of Lirian.


    Their conversation was heard clearly by everyone, as they continued to converse and increase the bid, Lirian felt killing intent being directed at him.


    ''She''s the one taking jabs at you, why the hell do you suddenly want to kill me?'' Lirian wanted to yell at Stanley.


    Evidently Madam Selner''s words had gotten under his skin, and he was starting to regret being so generous with the three ladies, how was he to know that blind people were good in bed.


    "Madam Selner I''m sure that you have come prepared to buy that elf, but will you still be able to afford it if you waste what you have for this slave, 200 gold!" he loudly said pushing the price up by a large margin.


    He wanted to keep pushing the value up, so that it would cost madam Selner a fortune to pick up Lirian, it was his way of getting back at her for insulting him.


    The others looked at him like he was crazy, as it was none of them would pay more that 50 gold for Lirian since to them he was just a unique person.


    For madam Selner it made sense, since she would receive an outstanding return on her investment over time, but for Lord Stanley it was no different from splurging wastefully, just so that his woman could have a fun time with another man, it was utterly ridiculous.


    If he wanted to become a cuckhold so badly, there were many men in the audience that would happily sleep with his women.


    Lirian gritted his teeth in frustration at how helpless he was, he couldn''t see anything, and his current choices were work in a brothel, or spending a few nights of passion with whores before being killed by an adapt.


    ''I need the brothel to take me,'' Lirian thought as he remembered that the woman said something about getting his legs healed before making him work. ''That would afford him at least a month, at which time he''d have to find a way to escape,''


    With that in mind, Lirian increased the power of his charm, and attempted to direct it to madam Selner, but Lirian still lacked that level of control the charm was a unique skill the likes of which Lirian had never used before, which made it''s control very difficult.


    In the process of trying to influence madam Selner, the wave of charm splashed all of the room, and many of the people who had earlier chosen to give up at the 50 gold mark, started to raise their peddles.


    "210!"


    "220!"


    "240!"


    "¡­"


    "300!"


    The audience rapidly raised the price, for a minute before recovering from their stupor, everyone looked around with confusion as if not understanding what they had just done.


    "Lord Stanley, I have come fully prepared to win the elf," she said as she softly tapped against a case in her hand, only she new that inside the case was the title deeds to all of Lady Izlandi''s establishments.


    "400!" Madam Selner said and looked at Stanley with a wry smile.


    As sole heir to House Kurt, Lord Stanley had full access to 50% of the family''s main coffers, Lady Izlandi knew that extremely well which is why she was prepared to use everything she had to obtain the elf.


    With the elf, Izlandi had a chance at buying her freedom, so she was prepared to sacrifice everything for the chance of obtaining it.


    "600!" Stanley shouted.


    "Lord Stanley has already spent a considerable amount, on your last purchase," madam Selner added, "If you waste anymore you may not be able to beat me in the next bid," madam Selner said with a smile and waited for the very last second before increasing her bid.


    "610!" she called out and looked at Stanley.


    Stanley locked eyes with her, he didn''t want Lirian, all he wanted was  push the price up to make things difficult for madam Selner for insulting him, but if she let the bid slip it would take a small chunk out of his wealth, and from that look in her eye he could tell that she had something up her sleeve to obtain the elf.


    "Very well, I''ll let you have him," Stanley said and stopped increasing the bid.


    "That''s very gracious of Lord Stanley, I promise that once the slave has recovered I''ll let the three beauties be the first to take him for a ride," she said with a wide smile, that made Stanley''s expression sink.

 Chapter 289 - 054 – What A Bunch Of Dumbasses

    "Sold for 610 gold," the auctioneer loudly declared.


    Madam Selner smiled at Stanley and said, "Their first time with my new escort will be on the house, Lady''s Pleasure looks forward to their visit," she said with a happy smile.


    The three escorts pretended to be oblivious to Stanley''s anger and happily thanked madam Selner for the opportunity.


    [Ding]


    [Threat averted; host can feel free to speak your mind]


    As the system alerted him Lirian could hear Stanley speaking to Madam Selner, "The elf will be mine no matter what you do, I''ve come here to obtain the elf at my father''s command," he said with a smug smile.


    It was madam Selner''s turn to frown, if Stanley had the direct order of Lord Rupid Kurt, then he''d have full access to the estate''s coffers as well as the reserve coffers, with that being the case she''d never be able to beat him.


    It was then that they all heard a ridiculing laugh, and as they followed the voice everyone''s gaze fell on Lirian who was sitting comfortably with his legs spread out in the cage as he laughed at the lot of them.


    "What a bunch of dumbasses," Lirian mocked them with a happy smile.


    "What did you say?" Stanley asked in a threatening tone as he turned around, for some reason he felt like Lirian''s words were being directed at him specifically.


    "yawn," Lirian covered his mouth to stifle a yawn, he faced Stanley and put on a confused look, "I would have thought that one such as yourself would have heard and understood me clearly,"


    "But I guess since you''re a dumbass it makes sense," Lirian said with a look of sincere understanding.


    "You''re looking to die boy," Stanley said coldly.


    "No, no, unlike you I''m very smart," Lirian said with a light smile, "I wanted to call all of you dumbasses for a long time now but I waited until I was sold," Lirian said with a refreshing smile.


    "Please feel free to correct me if I''m wrong, but as of a couple seconds ago I was officially bought by that respectable lady," Lirian said pointing to Madam Selner.


    "And she serve''s Lady Izlandi, who is the daughter of the Lord of house Kurt, which makes me the private property of Lady Izlandi worth 610 gold coins,"


    "And if I understood your conversation correctly then you are Lady Izlandi''s brother, which makes any attack on me an attack on your sister,"


    "And if people start saying that you attacked your sister¡­" Lirian paused for dramatic effect as he let the knowledge sink in and let Stanley think of the consequences his reputation would face for attacking his sister whether directly or indirectly.


    "Hence why I have aptly named you dumbass of dumbasses," Lirian added with a mocking bow to Stanley, as Stanley looked at him as if he had been god smacked.


    In fact it wasn''t just Stanley who was looking at him with stunned silence, everyone was openly gapping at him in disbelief, not only was he a mere slave speaking to a lord disrespectfully, he was using the law and political implications to back himself up.


    "You little shit!" Stanley roared and leapt forward delivering a heavy kick to the cage.


    Lirian grabbed onto the bars as the entire cage bent inwards and went tumbling across the stage and crashed against a wall.


    "tsk, tsk, tsk," Lirian clicked his tongue, "A dumbasses solution to all problems is to use their fists, and you even managed to royally fuck that up," Lirian commented from inside the cage and Stanley was completely stunned when he saw Lirian completely fine.


    "The correct solution for a servant insulting you is to take it up with the servants master, then the master will deliver a suitable punishment to their property," Lirian said in a matter of fact tone.


    "To think that even a lord doesn''t know the law, your father must be so disappointed," Lirian said shaking his head like he was disappointed.


    "You really don''t know what is good for you," Stanley said through gritted teeth and a thin layer of yellow light started to surround his body.


    ''Battle aura!'' Lirian noted as he felt the energy ripples, that was the main ability of all body cultivators, but it took time to master, most people would only start to use it in the late stages of the second grade, but from the energy Lirian could feel, Stanley was only at the fifth stage, which meant that he had some talent as a body cultivator.


    Just before Stanley charged at Lirian madam Selner appeared in front of Lirian''s cage, "What he said is correct Lord Stanley, if you have a problem with his conduct then you may take it up with his master," she said firmly and just as quickly as she finished speaking she turned to Lirian inside the cage.


    A powerful punch went flying towards Lirian, Lirian felt it coming almost as soon as madam Selner arrived, he could have easily dodged the punch, but he allowed it to land squarely against his gut.


    Madam Selner had the power of a seventh stage novice, and Lirian could tell that she held back in the punch to avoid killing him after all she had just paid a large amount for him, what would be the point of killing him.


    "In the future you will learn to speak only when spoken to," Madam Selner said coldly.


    Lirian didn''t bother responding as he rubbed his aching body, Lirian might have developed techniques and used skill to battle against stronger opponents, but his body wasn''t at the level where he could freely take hits from such people.


    "Lord Stanley I apologise for this servant''s behaviour, I will be certain to have him properly trained and disciplined," she said bowing respectfully.


    "Brat!" Stanley yelled, "I will make your life a living hell for what you did today," he snarled coldly.


    Stanley then turned to the auctioneer, "Bring out the elf, I''ve waited long enough," he said in an irritated tone.


    "Um, uh, y-y-yesss," the auctioneer stuttered, and gulped nervously.


    The moment Stanley turned away she ran back onto the stage and went running into the side where the items were usually brought in from.


    "What''s going on?" a noble asked in confusion when he noticed that the girl was missing.


    One by one more and more people noticed and found it odd, the auctioneer was never supposed to leave the room.


    They waited for a couple minutes but even then the auctioneer didn''t return.


    "What going on behind there?" some of the nobles started shouting angrily, but no matter how much they shouted no one came forward.


    A noble quickly climbed onto the stage and went running into the back, only to come running back a moment later, "It''s empty," he muttered.


    "The entire place is empty there isn''t a single person or item inside," he muttered like he was still having a hard time grasping what was happening.


    "What?" half the people started to shout in surprise.


    All the items they had bidden for were all supposed to be in the back for them to pick up, when they brought the money.


    It was then that they heard Lirian chuckling on the side while still inside his bent out of shape cage.


    "What do you know?" Madam Selner asked.


    "hahaha," Lirian chuckled, "I know that all of you are dumbasses," he repeated once again, earning him many scowls.


    "The head curator isn''t sick," Lirian said with an amused grin, "He took all the gifts you presented him when you arrived and ran away, long before the auction even started,"


    "As for the nonsense about an elf, that was just one big lie to get you all to dish out extravagant gifts," Lirian laughed wildly as he lied, after understanding a bit more about why male elves were so valuable, he felt a little sorry for the elf and decided to try covering his tracks as a small favour.


    It wasn''t like it would cost him anything, so he didn''t mind doing it.


    "From the moment the auction started they''ve been carefully clearing out everything and none of you even noticed a thing,"


    "And I mean did none of you find it odd that a girl who evidently never hosted an auction in her life, was handling what could have been the most important auction to ever be held in this place,"


    "And yet you all frown when I call you dumbasses," Lirian laughed so hard that his entire body was shaking and this time no one could say anything.


    As much as they hated to admit it all of them had been played for fools.


    Lirian secretly praised the people that ran the auction, since they knew that just by wasting the nobles time they would end on their bad side they committed by going all the way in offending them thoroughly.


    Not only did they use the auction to buy time for them to pack up, but they took all the items they auctioned back, and they didn''t even leave a note of apology.


    Lirian especially admired the girl who hosted the auction not only did she do a great job despite being clueless but the moment she realised she was in trouble, she ran away without any hesitation.


    But most of all Lirian was proud of himself, he was the one who made all this possible, by letting two very important prisoners escape, but unfortunately his main goal was averted, and he somehow ended up as the only thing sold.

 Chapter 290 - 055 – Godly Essences 1

    "What is your name?" madam Selner asked Lirian.


    "Lirian is my name," Lirian answered.


    Currently he was no longer inside the auction house, after learning the truth everyone went on a hunt for the members of the auction, leaving only Lirian madam Selner in the auction.


    Madam Selner dragged him away without hesitation and in the end she didn''t even pay a cent for Lirian.


    However there was one problem she was facing and that was along with all the items of the auction was Lirian''s papers that stated his crimes and record.


    Without it Lirian was basically regarded as a run away slave, if she wanted his documents she needed to track his past and find out who branded him, as well as who is owner was.


    After leaving the auction house Lirian was brought through the city and in to a rather large building, that extended up 5 storeys, currently Lirian was in a room on the top floor and being interrogated.


    "Where are you from?" she asked next.


    Lirian was about to give a simple lie about him being someone from a small village in the middle of nowhere, when he had a lovely idea.


    He faced madam Selner with a twinkling smile, "I''m from the god realm," he answered.


    "Where?" madam Selner blurted out, she was uncertain if she heard right, and if she was hearing right then she felt like Lirian wasn''t taking her seriously at all.


    "I''m not a fan of repeating myself," Lirian said in bored tone, "So listen carefully this time¡­ THE. GOD. REALM." Lirian said overstating his every word as if he was speaking to an illiterate idiot.


    Madam Selner clenched her fists tightly and pulled out the whip that was hanging on her waist.


    "You will learn to speak to me with respect," she said and snapped the whip.


    It moved through the bars with accuracy and moved towards Lirian with frightening speed.


    Lirian chuckled coldly as the sound of the whip echoed in his ears, and tilted to the side, the whip snapped against the steel floor of the cage narrowly missing Lirian.


    "You dare to avoid the whip of your master!" she yelled at Lirian furiously and snapped the whip again, this time she poured in a lot of strength.


    Lirian laugh and dodged the whip again, but this time as soon as the whip hit the floor he caught it and pulled on it slightly, until it was stiff.


    "Let''s get one thing straight," Lirian said facing madam Selner with a cold smile and unleashed his killing intent.


    Madam Selner felt her world become completely red, and just for a second she thought she saw a world made up from countless corpses, the lands and the hills were completely composed of the dead.


    Great rivers stretched across the land, only the rivers were the colour of blood.


    Cold sweat dripped down her back as she looked in the skies and saw clouds made up of red and black mist, the clouds looked like tormented souls as they endlessly twisted as if they were experiencing incomparable agony, the winds howled like the cries of the damned.


    Madam Selner experienced all of that in a mere second, when she blinked again the vision was gone, she wanted to believe that it was all in her head, but that feeling of death still permeated her entire body.


    She looked at Lirian with shaking eyes, with only one thought in her mind, that place was the lowest hell a place for the damned, and that Lirian was the sovereign of death.


    Lirian grinned at her through the bars, but now that smile resembled a monster in her eyes, she shook violently, and seemed to be on the edge of losing her mind.


    "I am not your slave," Lirian said coldly, "I''ll let it slide that you attacked me in the auction, but if you ever think that you have the power to command me or punish me,"


    "Well, let''s just say that you don''t want to know the consequences of earning my wrath," Lirian flashed her a toothy grin, that filled her with fear.


    "Now be a good girl and arrange a meeting with your master for me, tell her that I have a solution to all her problems,"


    Madam Selner stumbled out of the room a short while later, cold sweat soaked her entire body, as her heart raced erratically, all she could remember was fear.


    A primal fear that ran so deep, that she felt the instinctual need do all that Lirian commanded, if she didn''t she felt like she would become the prey he feasted on.


    She was the rat he was the owl, in his presence there was no defying the rules of nature, she obeyed his will without even thinking and sent a message to her master, requesting her presence.


    Meanwhile Lirian breathed out a soft sigh, filled with elation, he was extremely desperate to start up his cultivation, and after he performed a fate string search on madam Selner he knew why she was so desperate to obtain the elf.


    All of it was Lady Izlandi''s plan, a plan she put together to obtain her freedom.


    After learning the truth Lirian saw a golden opportunity to begin his cultivation as soon as possible, all that he needed was to trick her into letting him enter a cultivation chamber.


    After that he would need three uninterrupted days to complete his esper activation.


    Lirian couldn''t contain his excitement and turned to the system.


    "Does my ''Eight Truths'' perfect esper technique have a sufficient resonance with my Samsaric intermediate esper technique?" he asked.


    This was one of the most important things Lirian needed to know, in truth his ability to hold three esper techniques was an extraordinary breach in the rules of the world.


    Even gods only possessed a single esper technique, and as they improved the level, they would wash away the older version and use the improved one.


    Lirian desperately needed ''Eight Truths'', while it offered very little offensive power for an esper technique, it would grant him heaven defying abilities, that he learned from studying the words of heaven.


    Lirian''s Samsaric powers were intrinsically linked to his godly constitution, so he also could not afford to discard it, the consequences would be catastrophic, which is why Lirian wanted to merge the two together.


    Since they were both techniques that primarily focused on the mind and soul, they were the only techniques that could be fused.


    [The resonance is sufficient, however due to the level of your Samsara esper technique the level will be brought down to an advanced technique]


    Lirian sighed at the result, pushing his ''Eight Truths'' to perfection had taken him multiple life times, but then he also knew that both techniques were heaven defying in their own rights, "Begin the merge," Lirian ordered.


    [Initiating, the process will cost 2 quadrillion fate particles]


    [Proceed Y/N?]


    Lirian quickly selected yes and allowed the system to begin the process.


    In total Lirian had developed, 10 perfect esper techniques, two focused on the mind one focused on energy and the rest were focused on the body.


    Surprisingly energy was the one Lirian had found the hardest to develop to the point of perfection, his energy focused esper technique, was known as Asura''s Void, but he lacked enough source energy to create the key ingredient, a void gods core, which could only be found in the void or synthesised from sufficient source energy.


    Without it there were instabilities that Lirian would experience in his mind, and as he was he already had enough mental problems, so he went for the previous version of Asura''s Void.


    Void Walker, was an advanced esper technique, that Lirian would activate in with that train of thought he had the system bring up a list of the gods essences inside his body.


    When Lirian came back to life in his original body it was because his father had gathered the essence''s of over 5000 gods to create a special core in his body, that enabled his return.


    Lirian wasn''t going to directly use their essence''s because that would turn him into a subservient apostle of those gods, but he intended to extract the gods natures from their essences and use their natures as ingredients.


    [Godly Essences]


    1.      Kalatis (The god of dragons, will grant you an extremely powerful body and the instincts of a predator.)


    2.        Gabriel (The god of angels, will grant you an extremely agile body and a perfect affinity with holy magic.)


    3.      Odin (The god of knowledge, your learning speed will increase tremendously, and your understanding of the world will stand above all others.)


    4.      Zeus (The god of the skies, your affinity for wind and lightening spells will be second to only Zeus.)


    5.      Lucifer (The god of fallen angels, will grant you an extremely agile body with a perfect affinity for darkness type spells and a powerful charm ability.)


    6.      ¡­


    Lirian shuddered when he read the effects of god Lucifer''s essence, as it is his charm caused him trouble, he wouldn''t know how to handle having another gods charm in the mix.


    ''Good thing I''m only extracting the nature of the power from the gods and not using their pure essence,'' Lirian thought as he scrolled through the list.


    It wasn''t long before he found the ideal choice, a god called Baylord, the void overlord, his extracted nature would act as the perfect ingredient to set up ''Void Walker''.

 Chapter 291 - 056 – Godly Essences 2

    [Godly Essences]


    ¡­


    92. Baylord (The void overlord, will grant you a weak affinity with the void)


    Lirian''s mouth hung open when he read what the void overlords essence would grant him, even a weak affinity with the void was ground breaking, since beings of plains do not belong in the void.


    Another term for the void was also chaos, and a person of a plain was essentially a being of order, for a being of order to possess affinity with chaos simply from inheriting some power from a god was unthinkable, it showed just how adapt the void overlords power was, Lirian had little doubt that he was a god who pushed his esper technique to the perfect level.


    "Perform a nature extraction," Lirian ordered.


    Unlike activation of the gods essence, an extraction was a difficult task, the system could perform it but it did come with a great cost, 1 quadrillion fate particles was quickly drained away as the extraction process began.


    With the Void Walker preparations completed, Lirian turned to his esper techniques once more, he had 7 seven perfect esper techniques that focused on the body, however there was only one for him to pick.


    ''The Body of Nirvana'' it was the technique that made his heaven defying ability to activate three esper techniques possible.


    The best part was that it''s activation requirement was extremely simply, all that he''d need was something that held the law of rebirth, which was actually very common.


    An umbilical cord would work as the key ingredient for activation, he could also use a snake''s husk that it left behind after shedding it''s skin or a caterpillars cocoon.


    There were hundreds of things in nature that could be used, but there was one requirement, for Lirian to reach the first grade, he needed an item of the first grade that held the law of rebirth, which was pretty easy in the lower ranks, but as a person advanced to the higher realms it became harder and harder to obtain.


    But Lirian lightly smiled and sent a silent word of thanks to his father for gathering all these godly essences as he continued to scroll through the list.


    1205. Kalarix (The fire phoenix, will grant you the power to heal all things in the world with the power of flames.)


    Lirian knew well that fire was the element of life, and it nurtured the power of rebirth, add it to a phoenix and you have a miracle cure that can save all life and right beneath it was the essence of the ice phoenix that was similar in nature.


    Just as Lirian was about to select it another godly essence suddenly caught his eye.


    1208. Akasha (The god of snakes, will grant you immunity to all poisons and the powers of a snake charmer)


    Lirian took a shaky breath as he read that it could grant him immunity to all poisons, he was almost tempted to accept the gods essence into his body and become it''s apostle, if he did he wouldn''t need to worry about the toxin in the air.


    But after a moment he sighed and selected the Fire Phoenixes'' essence to extract, as Akasha was a snake, Lirian knew that the extracted nature would be able to work for his ''Body of Nirvana'' but the technique was created after an intense study of phoenixes'' which is why a phoenixes'' extracted nature would work much better.


    Lirian watched as another 1 quadrillion fate particles was used up, with that the main preparations were completed all that he required now was to get inside a cultivation chamber.


    ---


    A week quickly passed by in the estate of House Kurt.


    It was early morning and light streaked in through the windows illuminating the entire room in fresh light, the light crept through the room as the sun steadily rose up.


    The light sparkled of the clean and shining oak wardrobe, a round table on the side of the room was littered with documents in a neat piles and a beautiful vase of flowers released a refreshing scent in the room, the four-poster bed was made and looked as if it hadn''t been slept in for days.


    The light finally reached a huge steel door at the back of the room that was sealed tightly, however just then the door started to make a noise.


    There were over a dozen clicks that sounded like locks being opened, and the door started to open slowly, as the door opened a small storm built up in side the room as air rushed towards the door.


    A short while later Izlandi walked out in light blue robes that were drenched in her sweat, she took several shaky steps towards her bed while panting heavily.


    Izlandi collapsed against the bed in her exhaustion, she didn''t seem to care that her robes were filthy and smelled of her weeks accumulated sweat all she wanted was to get some rest after her intense cultivation session.


    As she fell across the bed Izlandi felt her entire body shake like she was having a fit, she didn''t understand what was happening to her body, but she was so exhausted that she passed out despite the strange occurrence happening in her body.


    Izlandi blinked weakly several hours later, "What time is it?" she wondered aloud as she pushed herself up with her aching hands.


    She glanced at the large clock in the corner of her room and found that it was a little afternoon, "Food," she groaned and rubbed her aching stomach.


    Izlandi wasn''t sure how long she had been in the cultivation chamber, but she felt like she hadn''t eaten in months, she staggered to her feet and stumbled across the room, heading towards the door, when she caught a scent in her room.


    She turned around like a hound while sniffing the air and as she looked at her desk she saw a tray with bread and a juicy looking steak, without giving it a second thought she threw herself at the food and started to gulp it down like a starved animal.


    In what felt like no time at all the food slipped down her throat, "Not enough," Izlandi muttered and banged her fists against the table like a spoiled child.


    But just then another smell entered her nose and after taking another sniff, she hurriedly brought her hands to cover her face, "What died?" she cried loudly, but as her hands reached her face she made a loud gagging noise.


    Izlandi pulled her hands away and looked at them with wide eyes, "This can''t seriously be me?" she wondered and took another light sniff, this time her food threatened to climb out of her stomach.


    She hurriedly climbed to feet, she was able to stand properly now that she had some food in her body, she prepared to pull of her robes when her door suddenly opened and she saw several maids come in and bowed to her respectfully.


    "You''re finally awake my Lady," the head maid said happily.


    But at that moment Izlandi felt her entire face go crimson, from embarrassment as the maids grew closer the smiles on their faces quickly disappeared, and they all held very rigid smiles on their faces.


    They formed a fixed line a good ten feet away from her and even the head maid who was extremely ecstatic earlier kept her distance.


    Izlandi had no need to ask why, the smell made her want to die herself, at this point she could only marvel at how all of them were able to hold back the desire to throw up, and she could tell that they wanted to, from the green colour that as quickly filling their faces.


    Izlandi tightened her small fist and cried out in a tiny voice, "Get a bath ready for me immediately," she said trying her hardest not to shake from sheer embarrassment, this was even more humiliating than the first time she bled.


    Some of the maids hurriedly rushed out of the room, to prepare her bath.


    "You go and get me more food," she said pointing a shaky finger to the next maid, then she pointed to the head maid, "And you help me get out of these clothes," she cried out.


    The head maid internally cried out at her fate and took a deep breath before approaching Lady Izlandi, the two quickly ripped the clothes of her body and on the inside they found a layer of black filth that was all over her clothes and body.


    Her entire outfit had been completely ruined including her undergarments.


    A short while later Izlandi was standing completely bare in her room, she would have covered herself with drapes, but she feared that she would have to burn the drapes afterwards.


    Before long the maids brought in a large tub filled with hot water a thick layer of foam on top, there was also a heavy scent of perfume coming from the water.


    Ordinarily Izlandi would have been insulted if her maids did such a thing, she had no need of anything to make her look beautiful or smell lovely, but just this once she allowed it.


    She hurriedly hopped into the tub and started to scrub herself, "Catch me up with all the changes that occurred while I was cultivating," she said to the head maid.

 Chapter 292 - 057 – He Wants To Meet You

    Izlandi scrubbed her fair skin, she scrubbed her body with determination, it was as if she hoped to get rid of every last bit of the filth, and wanted the perfume to seep deep into every pore of her skin to remove all the smell from the black filth.


    ''I''ll have to ask uncle about this,'' she thought, her face was still beet red from the embarrassment of how badly she smelt, ''Hopefully it''s not some disease,'' she thought with worry and dread at the thought of having such filth leave her body ever again.


    As she continued to bathe, her head maid informed her of the events that transpired, the black market auction being the key topic.


    Izlandi listened with expectation, she expected to hear that Selner successfully obtained the elf for her, but her expression quickly changed as she heard the head maid speak about the fiasco that went down.


    She silently bit on her lower lip to hide her frustration at the change of events, the elf was her final hope, when it appeared in her time of need, she felt like it was destiny answering her prayers.


    With the elf in her possession all she wound need to do is offer it to some great noble family or even the royal family and she could ask them to adopt her into their family or for them to give her a special position with some authority.


    "Has there been any progress in finding Julian?" she asked the head maid.


    The head maid shook her head, "Many of the other members were caught and many of the items were recovered, however Julian had a large head start, he fled the city and hasn''t been seen since, there are currently several parties out searching for him,"


    "That said Madam Selner has requesting to meet with Lady every day since the auction, she seems to need to speak with Lady urgently, shall I send her a message to summon her today?" the head maid asked respectfully.


    Izlandi tilted her head in contemplation, Selner was like her right hand and she was very capable of managing anything she was given to do, so it was unlikely that she would come to her without good reason.


    "No need, I''ll go down to the city and meet with Selner personally," Izlandi said, as she spoke the maids she sent to get her food returned with a tray of steaming dishes and a goblet of spiced wine.


    Izlandi let the maids start scrubbing her body as she happily ate and took small sips of her wine, an hour later she was dressed in a lovely light blue dress and her long black hair was pulled into an elegant plait and fell to the middle of her back.


    An hour later Izlandi stepped out of her carriage on the main road the roads were still wet from all the rain apparently the storm had only come to an end the day before, and now with the bright sunlight the city was more lively than ever.


    As Izlandi walked she felt lighter than ever before and oddly refreshed, the strange feeling was almost enough for her to forget about her embarrassing morning.


    She walked up to a five-storey building and casually pushed it open, she walked into a warm and cosy reception room, filled with bright flowers and lovely scents that washed away the smell of sex that was dominant in most brothels.


    Apparently the woman that came here to have affairs, wanted the entry to look respectable and welcoming, as if that would make their depraved acts more classy.


    Izlandi rolled her eyes at the thought, sometimes she preferred the simplicity of men who didn''t care about such stupid things, all they cared about was the good time, it made them less like hypocrites to her.


    The good part about this cosy reception room was that it allowed her to inflate the prices of her establishment, yet her business still had a rapid increase in customers, the number of woman that wanted to indulge in affairs was surprisingly high.


    A receptionist quickly came to greet and escorted her up to Selner''s office, along the way, Izlandi could hear the sounds of several extremely satisfied customers, who were yelling at the top of their lungs, making all kinds of depraved sounds.


    In such a place sounds like that were to be expected, Izlandi continued to move with a plain expression even as she heard a women yelling about how her husband was nothing in comparison to her current adulterous partner, it was an all to common phrase used here.


    Soon Izlandi arrived at Selner''s office and pushed the door open, when she saw Selner at first she thought that she was looking at a different person.


    Her eyes were drooping as if she hadn''t slept in weeks, and she looked unusually thin as if she wasn''t eating, and her dark skin that usually had a glowing look to it seemed to have lost all its vitality.


    Izlandi waited patiently for Selner to greet her, but Selner barely seemed to register her presence and rocked back and forth in her chair.


    "Did something happen to you?" Izlandi asked and slowly approached Selner with caution she didn''t seem to be in her right mind, so she was afraid of startling her.


    As Izlandi grew closer, Selner suddenly opened her eyes wide, "MMMMy Lady," she stammered as if only realising that Izlandi was in front of her.


    "My lady f-f-forgive me, b-but he w-wants to meet you, he s-says he can h-help m-my lady" Selner stammered out with her body shaking like a leaf.


    Izlandi caught her hands and looked at her seriously, "Who wants to meet me?" she asked with concern, her eyes instantly started darting around with alertness.


    Izlandi felt a slight sense of panic as she wondered who could possibly scare Selner into such a state, Selner was after all one of the most level-headed people she had ever known.


    "H-h-he does," Selner stammered with her mouth trembling in terror, as she slowly raised her hand and pointed a shaky finger at the door in the back of her office.


    Izlandi got up and slowly approached the door.


    "NO!" Selner shouted hysterically, "My lady please don''t go! H-h-h-he''s a m-m-monster!" shudders coursed through Selner''s entire body, as she used all her courage to tell her Lady not to enter, once she finished her entire body fell limply to the ground.


    Izlandi ran back to her with concern, and heaved a sigh of relief as she found that Selner had merely feinted from over exertion.


    Izlandi''s hands formed into two small fists as she glanced at the door with a resolute look in her eyes, oddly enough she wasn''t afraid, rather she felt an ill-boding sense of anticipation.


    With the way her body was feeling since the morning, she felt oddly brave as if she could face the entire world, she hadn''t felt like that since her first break through in cultivation.


    Izlandi gripped onto the sides of her dress and slowly approached the door, she took a deep breath to calm her racing heart and begun to push open the door.


    ---


    The 8th day of the 9th month, year 142 080 S.M.


    That was the day that I opened the door.


    I don''t know how to describe those moments, was it fear, excitement or anticipation.


    Perhaps it was all three, and then a little extra.


    I remember that day so clearly, it was the day that the world started to change for me.


    It was the day I spoke to a demon who belonged to the deepest parts of hell.


    He was the embodiment of a true demon, within days of knowing him I would open up about my every fear and my every desire, and he offered me a solution to my every trouble.


    It was a solution that only a demon without any care for human life could offer, and an offer that I gladly accepted with time to think.


    It was such a daring idea, an idea that I had so many times as I sought a way out of my predicament, but that I lacked the ability to act upon.


    But he did, he knew exactly what I had to do, and he offered me the solution.


    It was a solution that would spell the doom of my family, but I didn''t care.


    My father had made his stance clear, he was going to have me become a concubine when I deserved more.


    If there was anything my father thought me it was how to be heartless.


    He was heartless to me so he can''t blame me for being the same to him.


    And heartless was exactly what I intended to be, the family that I was born to, had a history of 2000 years.


    The noble tittle was granted to my family after the last desolation.


    And now 2000 years later I would put a pin in my families 2000 years of history, with the help of a monster that came into my possession by chance and changed my entire world.


    He reached out and offered me his hand, and I...I gladly letched on his hand with my own.


    -          the journal of Izlandi Kurt

 Chapter 293 - 058 – Tell Me What I Need To Do

    The door to the room creaked open slowly, Izlandi held the handle with a firm grip and gradually stepped into the room with batted breath.


    Her eyes darted to the furthest corners of the room with alertness, she quickly scanned every inch of the room, and in the end the only thing she found was the cage sitting in the centre of the room.


    As she looked into the cage she could hardly believe her eyes as her gaze fell upon Lirian, ''Is he the monster Selner spoke of?'' she wondered while gapping at Lirian.


    A soft and beautiful smile involuntarily crept onto her face, it was completely beyond her control and she could feel her heart rapidly accelerating, ''Maybe Selner meant that he''s monstrously beautiful,'' she reasoned with herself and cupped her own face to hide her growing redness.


    She couldn''t explain it but from the moment her eyes landed on Lirian, she felt like it was impossible to tear her gaze away.


    "You must be Izlandi," Lirian''s voice travelled with a smooth and calming tone, added to the charm that he was focusing on Izlandi, it was like an explosion of feelings wormed there way into Izlandi.


    The moment she entered the room, she was cornered prey.


    "I-I-I am," she stammered and internally she was screaming, ''He''s talking to me, by the heavenly empress he''s talking to me,'' she thought like a little girl who was getting the attention of a man she longed for.


    But then the intense feeling started to calm down a little and she regained a bit of her rationality, enough for her to be able to think properly once again.


    "Are you the one that wanted to speak with me?" she asked trying to keep a cold and firm expression, but with a simple glance at Lirian she felt her body getting excited again.


    It took all her strength to keep herself calm in Lirian''s presence, she had a strange urge she never experienced in her life to throw herself at Lirian.


    But a bit of rationality filled her head, she had never been intimate with a man, after all she never found a single man who was appealing, after all she inherited the blood of elves, who were known for their prejudice against all things that weren''t beautiful.


    It was said that elven woman would rather kill themselves than engage in simple conversations with a person they didn''t find attractive, it was a bit of an exaggeration, but it wasn''t far from the truth.


    However, elves also had a fatal weakness if they found something beautiful, they would devote themselves to it, practically becoming it''s slave.


    Izlandi quickly rationalised with herself that her thoughts came from her elven blood that desired to have the most beautiful things in the world, with that thought she was just barely able to calm herself.


    "Yes I understand that you are a facing a predicament, and you desire to change your fate," Lirian said felling slightly impressed that the girl was starting to calm down.


    Lirian also started to lessen the amount of charm he was placing on Izlandi, he didn''t want her to become obsessed, while that might prove useful to convince her to take him into a cultivation chamber, if she became obsessed he didn''t know if she would be able to spend three days apart from him, and he desperately needed three uninterrupted days to complete his esper transformation.


    "And you think that you can help me," she said sceptically raising a brow as she took a step closer, "A crippled slave who is blind?" she asked in incredulously, without the charm acting against her she felt a lot more clear headed, enough to notice details that she previously missed.


    "hahaha," Lirian chuckled humorously, "All that you said is true, but then you could say that if I wasn''t all those things I wouldn''t be meeting you now," Lirian added with a wry smile.


    Izlandi knitted her brows as she tried to focus, "What are you trying to say?" she asked.


    "I''m simply saying that fate works in mysterious ways," Lirian said in an enlightened tone, "You need a way to change your fate, and fate has brought me to you to answer your prayers,"


    "Little child it''s not a matter of whether I can help you or not, I most certainly can," Lirian said and slowly pulled himself up on the bars of the cage until he was face to face with Izlandi.


    "The only question is whether or not, you have what it takes, I can offer you the chance at a new life, a life in which you will gain the freedom you desire, but all things come at a cost," a small smile crept across Lirian''s face.


    Izlandi looked at Lirian''s smile, and was finally able to see part of the reason why Selner called him a monster, she could see the playfulness in that smile, a smile that took joy at her plight and she could vaguely sense that it meant to corrupt her.


    A part of her sense told her to leave and never return, but another part was filled with exhilaration at the thought of having her wish granted, in any case it wouldn''t hurt to find out if the man was just a crazy person or if he had any merit to his words.


    "What is the price for granting me what I want?" she asked.


    She saw the smile on Lirian''s face widen, "The price isn''t anything tangible, if you were wondering, which is why I will ask you are you sure that you want to know?"


    Izlandi frowned, ''Not tangible!?'' she thought, ''How am I supposed to pay him if it isn''t anything tangible, does it mean that he wants my soul,'' she thought giving Lirian a thoughtful look.


    At the back of her mind a voice said, ''I wouldn''t mind giving my soul to something so pretty,'' it said while swooning happily.


    Izlandi quickly supressed the voice she was certain came from her elven blood and asked serious, "What do you want, I''ll give you anything if you can stop Tanicks from taking me as a concubine!" she said resolutely.


    Lirian giggled softly, "You poor girl I already told you that the cost is nothing tangible, besides there is nothing that you possess that I could possibly desire,"


    "The price that you will have to pay is one that will cost you deeply, it is a price that will follow you forever, no matter where you go, no matter what you do,"


    "You must have the conviction to do everything it takes to obtain your cherished desires no matter how depraved or cruel your actions are, tell me are you capable of doing that?" Lirian asked with a delighted smile, if she said yes then he''d have the perfect chance to make her open the doors to a cultivation chamber for him.


    Lirian simply didn''t want her to know what his goal was, the moment someone knows what you are after it was like giving them a way to control you.


    "Tell me what I need to do!" Izlandi said without any hesitation, she made up her mind if there was a way for her to escape being disgraced as a concubine she would take it with open arms even if she had to sell her soul to the devil.


    A wide smile split Lirian''s face that instantly sent cold shivers down Izlandi''s back, he was the embodiment of a devil, he had an appearance that drew her in and he whispered words that she wanted to hear, it was like as long as she followed his words everything would be fine.


    Izlandi struggled desperately to calm her mind and shove those thoughts away, as she waited for Lirian to speak.


    "First," Lirian said raising a finger, "Bring me a pen and some paper,"


    Izlandi hurriedly went back into the office and grabbed some blank pages from the desk and grabbed a quill and a jar of ink, as she was about to return she remembered Selner and her strange condition.


    She returned to Lirian while holding the items close to her small chest, "What did you do to Selner?" she ask warily.


    "You mean your little servant, you should just kill her, her mind has been broken, from here on out her condition will only get worse, honestly it will be a mercy if you kill her sooner rather than later," Lirian said and snatched the items for her hands, without her even realising it.


    "What do you mean her mind is broken?" Izlandi asked with worry, "Is there anyway to heal her?" she asked.


    Lirian sighed, "Her mind was too weak to withstand my presence when I released it," Lirian said shrugging his shoulders.


    "If you want her to recover, you''ll have to keep her drugged on narcotics to calm her, and obtain a spiritist cultivation technique for her to use to strengthen her mind, which she will struggle to learn and utilise while under the influence of narcotics," Lirian said.


    Izlandi''s elegant face sunk as she heard Lirian''s solution, spiritist techniques were impossible to obtain, even if she sold all her family''s possessions it would still be impossible for her to get her hands on one.


    When she looked down again, she looked at Lirian in surprise as she saw him drawing what looked like a plant in extreme detail.

 Chapter 294 - 059 – Cultivation Boosts

    Izlandi looked at the items in Lirian''s hands then looked back at her hands in surprise, ''How did he do that?'' she wondered, she didn''t even realise when Lirian swiped the stuff from her hands.


    But she quickly put her thoughts at the back of her head when she saw Lirian drawing an extremely detailed picture of a plant, and right next to it, he started to write a series of details about the plant in an elegant cursive style.


    Feeling surprised that a blind man could draw so well and write accurately Izlandi reached down and pulled the blindfold of Lirian.


    The moment she saw his eyes the elven blood in her threatened to lose all control, "So dreamy," she involuntarily mumbled as her face went to an even deeper shade of red.


    Lirian scoffed while shaking his head, ''Yeah, that''s what they all say,'' he thought internally and concentrated on continuing with his task.


    ''Why did I say that out loud!?'' Izlandi chided herself and forcefully tore her eyes away from Lirian and looked at the things he was drawing.


    "You weren''t always blind were you?" she asked, just looking at the drawing was enough for her to know that she was right.


    The drawing was done so effortlessly and quickly yet it looked like it could come to life from the paper at any moment, it was something only the greatest of artists could accomplish, and the words written were so graceful and elegant that they could be sold as calligraphy.


    "Obviously!" Lirian replied obnoxiously while shaking his head at her question.


    "Who are you really?" Izlandi asked with concern, such skills could only be developed over years with great effort, and it was unlikely that some commoner could develop to such a level without being discovered and having a great reputation.


    It made her wary about Lirian''s background, especially when she saw the brand of a bandit on his skin, if he was an important or respected individual it could spell trouble for anyone involved in turning him into a slave.


    Lirian ignored her question and continued to draw several more plants and gave them detailed descriptions, and finally he wrote a list of tools that he''d need and handed it to Izlandi.


    "Bring me these items and I''ll tell you the plan to obtain your freedom," Lirian said.


    Izlandi reached out to take the pages from Lirian, but she quickly caught Lirian''s hand and used her energy to try probing him.


    In the next instant she took a step back and looked at Lirian coldly, "You have no cultivation," she said coldly, feeling like she''d been played for a fool.


    She wanted to see how great the distance between their powers were, based on how powerful he was, she felt like she would be able to determine which part of Mithland he came from.


    Lirian looked really young so she felt that if she could get a sense of his cultivation she''d be able to place what kind of place he belonged to, in the capital it was said that all nobles at the age of 25 were adepts, if they failed they would be cast out of their families, but after probing Lirian she found that his cells lacked any of the changes brought about by cultivation.


    Izlandi glared at Lirian furiously, with a feint amount of killing intent, feeling like a complete fool who was almost taken advantage of.


    ---


    Name: Izlandi Kurt


    Status: Pseudo First Grade/Novice - Tenth Stage - First Accord Cultivator (Total Boost 12%)


    Affiliations: House Kurt


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    Body: 330 (Basic Body Cultivation Technique) ¨C (12% Boost)


    Mana: 700 (Elementary Mana Cultivation technique)


    Mind: 100 (Locked)


    Intrinsic Energy Quality: 1 I.E.Q


    Energy Level: 377,44 energy points


    ---


    ''So, she cultivates her body and her mana, with favour to her mana, based on the nasty smell she is trying to hide with all that perfume it seems that she reached the peak of the first grade for her mana,'' Lirian thought as he read her info.


    The main effect of higher quality cultivation techniques was the boost that they could offer to one''s power.


    [First Accord Boosts]


    -          Elementary = 0%


    -          Basic = 12%


    -          Intermediate = 24 %


    -          Advanced = 36%


    -          Perfect = 60%


    [Second Accord Boosts]


    -          Elementary = 150%


    -          Basic = 200%


    -          Intermediate = 250%


    -          Advanced = 300%


    -          Perfect = 400%


    As for third accord boosts they were simply ground-breaking, but the main effect third accord esper techniques wasn''t in the incredible power boost they granted but rather the unique perks that gods would tailor to themselves.


    If a first accord cultivator used a perfect technique on each of their centres of power they could obtain a maximum boost of 180%.


    Even if a first accord cultivator used multiple techniques on a single centre of power, for example if a person had four body cultivation techniques, one perfect, two advanced and one at the intermediate level.


    The total boosts would be added up and divided by the number of cultivation techniques used, so in this case it would be (60+36+36+24)/ 4 = 39% boost.


    It was because of this that it wasn''t to common for people to cultivate techniques of different levels, also for every additional technique one would have to cultivate for twice as long to reach a breakthrough.


    Lirian focused on Izlandi with an amused smile, "Are you sure about what you learned?" he asked with a tranquil look that took Izlandi aback.


    She couldn''t understand how he seemed be so uncaring, without the slightest trace of concern, at current she was at a complete advantage over him, yet she was the one feeling overwhelmed.


    She cautiously stopped releasing her killing intent and looked to Lirian with questioning eyes waiting for him to offer an explanation.


    "Your¡­ killing intent is¡­ quite¡­ cute," Lirian remarked with an amiable smile, "But it''s a good thing that you retracted it or I would have shown you what real killing intent is,"


    "But you wouldn''t want that after all, you just need to look at your little servant to understand what experiencing my killing intent can do after experiencing it for just a second," Lirian said which caused Izlandi''s eyes to widen, she didn''t know if it was a bluff or not.


    "I''d rather not damage your mind so for now I''ll show you something else that will convince you of how wrong you are about me,"


    With a thought silver energy began to gather all around Lirian like a swirling pool of light, and Izlandi watched in disbelief as the plaster on the walls started to wither away, even the metal bars of the cage was showing traces of corrosion.


    Based on the relaxed look on Lirian''s face she knew that this was just the tip off the iceberg, if he so wished he could destroy the entire cage when ever he felt like it, and possibly bring even the building down.


    Izlandi took a calming breath and looked at Lirian with curiosity, she wanted to know how he tricked her detection ability, but she doubted that he''d give her an answer, if anything this discovery made her more certain than ever that he was extraordinary.


    She stopped having anymore thoughts about confronting Lirian and looked at the amazing drawings of plants and read the description of them but soon she realised a problem.


    "Why are there no names?" she asked Lirian.


    "Consider it a test," Lirian lied through his teeth, in truth he hadn''t met anyone with any knowledge on herbology since he arrived here, aside from the few common plants he learned from peoples memories he knew nothing about the names for plants and herbs.


    "Find me all those ingredients, if there are any that you can''t find then try finding some substitutes with similar effects to what I described," Lirian said.


    "Are you going to use this for alchemy?" she asked as she looked at the list of tools Lirian requested, which included cauldron''s, a herb grinding bowl, glass vials and several other items, all of which were rather pricy, and only nobles could afford.


    In fact as a mage she possessed all the items listed and used them in her attempts to learn alchemy, but so far she had terrible luck even with her uncles guidance.


    "Evidently," Lirian said in snarky tone, because she was just mentioning the obvious.


    "No more questions!" Lirian said, he was about to chase her out when he remembered something and quickly wrote a couple things on a list and handed it to Izlandi.


    Izlandi read through the contents and realised that it was a simple recipe made from some common ingredients, "What is this for?" she asked.


    "Put three drops of it in your bath water for three days and that awful smell of your bodies impurities will go away," Lirian said lightly waving a hand in front of his nose.


    The words ''awful smell'' made Izlandi stop in her tracks and her entire petite body trembled, as she recalled the events that transpired when she woke up.


    "Impurities?" she asked in a soft voice, thinking about the black filth that came out of her body.


    Lirian faced her with an incredulous look, "Correct me if I''m wrong but recently your body released a disgusting smelling black liquid?" Lirian asked, wondering how the girl didn''t know about impurities.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened, "How did you know that, do you know what that was?" she asked.


    Lirian furrowed his brow, "How many adapt or higher spell casters are there in your family?" he asked thinking about the only reason she wouldn''t know about impurities.


    In general body cultivators would constantly release all the impurities in their bodies as they cultivated, the amounts would barely be noticeable, because it happens over a long time.


    But for people who ignore their bodies cultivation, the impurities will gather up and are released all at once when their other centres of power reach the peak of the grade.


    "For adept and higher, it''s just my uncle and his daughter," she said it was no secret to the public, so she had no qualms with telling Lirian.


    Lirian nodded his head in understanding, the reason she knew so little was because there was a lack of spell casters to tell her about what would happen as she grew stronger.


    Lirian simply told her what the cause of the impurities leaving her body, and then chased her away.

 Chapter 295 - 060 – Izlandi’s Decision 1

    Izlandi took her time to gather the materials, and even done a little research on them to learn their effects.


    But so far they all seemed simple, with simple uses, even the rarest of the lot wasn''t all that rare it just took her servants a few stops to find it.


    In that time she also found out from her uncle that what Lirian said about the impurities was true.


    But the best part was her uncle''s expression when he learned that she released the impurities, after all she had only started using the mage cultivation technique 1 and a half years ago.


    It was the reason that her uncle hadn''t told her about the impurities yet, he knew how she''d react to learning about something filthy and disgusting coming out of her body, so he chose not to tell her as to prevent her from slacking off in her training.


    On one morning Izlandi found herself in the infirmary, there were several white beds lined up with thin linens acting as partitions between the beds.


    The infirmary was only used when the soldiers had an accident in training, it was rare that anything else ever happened that required medical attention, but currently there was one patient, sound asleep in the infirmary.


    Izlandi sat beside Selner who she had brought in after her meeting with Lirian, after all these days the best the doctors could do was use narcotics to keep her calm and asleep.


    It was all exactly like Lirian had said, no matter what anyone did, her condition still deteriorated, and no one could find an explanation.


    The only person Selner could say a few coherent words to was Izlandi and the rest of the time she would scream and have fits, showing no response to anyone else.


    The more she thought about it the more she felt like Lirian had to be a demon out of hell, after all he said that it was just his killing intent alone that put her into such a condition.


    As she sat and watched over Selner she heard movement behind her and quickly snapped her head around, only to find her cousin Reyna, her first uncle''s daughter, approaching her.


    "Reyna," she said simply as the extremely round faced woman, that had those key traces of toad that was signature to the members of House Kurt, looked at her with a deadpan cold expression.


    Reyna always looked like that to Izlandi, but she found it odd that her cousin was coming to her of her own accord, Reyna had never liked her, it was the same for most of the family members of House Kurt.


    She was the odd one out, a girl who was bless with elegance and beauty while the toadish looks made everyone as ugly as mud in comparison.


    It was like a toad gave birth to a swan, which singled her as the odd one out in the family, due to that she was always singled out, not that Izlandi cared she hated looking at their ugly face''s face all the time and Reyna liked her less than most because her father gave Izlandi a lot of attention as she grew up.


    "I suppose that congratulations are in order, my father told me that you''ve reached the peak of the novice realm," Reyna said, but her tone was just as cold as ever.


    "If not for your pitiful future, the entire city would be celebrating your god given talent," she said in her cold tone, but Izlandi could hear the slight mocking in her tone.


    When Reyna reached the peak of the novice realm, the entire city celebrated for a week, it was impossible to walk down a single street without wetting your lips in ale, or so the ballads went, Izlandi wasn''t even born at the time so she didn''t know what it really was like.


    "Is there something you wish to speak with me about?" Izlandi asked putting on an even colder front, no one could beat her in that aspect she spent years developing that skill to help deal with the piggish members of her family that would ogle her body all the time.


    "Actually, there is, and it has to do with this one?" Reyna said pointing at Selner.


    She looked at Reyna curiously wondering what business she could possibly have with Selner.


    "When I returned from my mission to investigate the problems on the road, I picked up a bandit, and he was put up in an auction," Reyna said, "I''m sure you heard all about the fiasco at the black market auction and how all the items were taken by the staff of the auction all accept for one,"


    The pieces clicked into place in Reyna''s head as she realised what that one item was, a slave that Selner bought, the same slave she had met in the back room of Selner''s office.


    The image of Lirian quickly filled her head, "Your slave, is that the item?" Izlandi asked playing dumb after all she was currently contemplating gaining the help of that person, she didn''t want Reyna to know that she already knew about Lirian in case Reyna wanted to take him back.


    Izlandi understood that because of what happened no payments had been made, so technically Lirian didn''t belong to her and if what Reyna was saying was true then technically Lirian was still her possession.


    "Yes," Reyna answered nodding her head, "And your little pet took my slave, however I received no payment,"


    "I will look into it, when I find your slave I will pay you the amount, how much did your slave go for?" Izlandi asked.


    "610 gold," Reyna said her forever cold face showed a hint of happiness as she looked at Izlandi''s blank face.


    ''610 gold?!'' Izlandi thought blinking her eyes rapidly wither face going blank, ''Did I hear that right?'' she wondered thinking that maybe those impurities messed up her hearing, "Could you repeat that?" she asked while wrapping her hand around the armrest of her chair to steady herself.


    "610 gold," Reyna replied so quickly it was as if she had anticipated Izlandi''s reaction, she too was god smacked when she heard the amount Lirian went for.


    ''Just what the hell were you thinking Selner,'' Izlandi thought while looking at her sleeping confidant with widened eyes, ''He''s worth a lot more,'' a voice said in her head, ''He''s so dreamy,'' the voice chimed happily.


    Izlandi rubbed her temples, "I''ll see to it that everything is arranged," she said to Reyna, who smiled smugly.


    "If I may ask, how did you come across that slave?" she asked Reyna curiously, there was something not right about the situation but she just couldn''t place her finger on what it was.


    Reyna was about to turn and leave when she heard Izlandi''s question, she frowned slightly at being question, but it was understandable that Izlandi would be curious about a slave that was sold for such a ridiculous amount.


    "On my return back, my squad encountered some bandits, we killed all of them, but someone noticed that there was a good looking man in the group, we had already hurt him badly, but they wanted to see if he would sell since his looks were outstanding, so I branded him and had my men put him on auction," Reyna quickly gave her the cover story she came up with the rest of her squad.


    Izlandi blinked in confusion, ''But he''s so strong, unless Reyna acted against him herself I don''t think they could have beat him, and that to I''m not completely sure if Reyna would be able to harm him,'' she fell into deep thought.


    She realised that this is what bothered her the most, she had no idea about how strong Lirian was she only knew that there was something about him that scared her, ''Could he have let them capture him on purpose, if so then what are his real intentions?'' she wondered.


    "I see," Izlandi said while deep in thought.


    Reyna took that as an opportunity to leave but as she reached the door she glanced as Selner, "Do you know what caused her to mind collapse?" she asked Izlandi, but in the back of her mind she was wondering if she made a mistake in letting Lirian go.


    She still remembered that feeling of foreboding she received when she met Lirian, like she was looking at a monster capable of doing anything, ''Could he have caused Selner''s mind collapse?'' she wondered with a thumping heart.


    Izlandi tightly knitted her brows as she wondered if Reyna knew something more but eventually she sighed, "No idea," she lied.


    An hour later Izlandi made her way into her cultivation chamber and quickly went to the area with all her alchemy equipment.


    ''This is it,'' she thought, ''If I go through with this I''ll be able to change my fate, but what will the price I pay come to,'' she wondered as she remembered Lirian''s vague words, about the price being intangible.


    She walked up to a leather pouch and started to wrap it up, inside it was all the ingredients Lirian asked for, before long she had several large boxes packed full of her alchemy tools.

 Chapter 296 - 061 – Izlandi’s Decision 2

    Izlandi returned to the brothel a short while after her conversation with Reyna, she hopped out of the carriage, and went in as several servants started to offload all the alchemy tools from the carriage.


    She lifted her dress and went up the stairs with quick steps, she soon found herself in front of the door that led to Lirian.


    She took a breath and pushed the door open, and as soon as she entered she saw Lirian he was completely still inside his cage, but as soon as she entered she saw a smile creep up on his face.


    "Did you gather the ingredients?" Lirian asked.


    "What are your intentions for coming here?" Izlandi asked in reply, completely ignoring his question.


    "I just spoke with Reyna, she told me that she branded you herself," Izlandi quickly added, "Why did you let her capture you?" she asked only to see Lirian smile grow larger.


    "What makes you so certain that I could have beaten her or escaped from her?" Lirian asked her.


    Izlandi paused as she contemplated an answer, but no matter how much she thought of it, she could only come to one answer, "It''s just a gut feeling," she said honestly, in truth she had absolutely no idea how great Lirian''s cultivation was, she only knew that when faced with him, she felt even more afraid than she was of her father, grandfather and uncle combined.


    Lirian laughed gleefully, it was a laugh filled with giddiness, "You have a good gut," Lirian commented, "For being smart enough to believe that gut feeling I''ll tell the truth about where Reyna really found me," Lirian said and proceeded to explain everything.


    Lirian didn''t leave out a detail, and he didn''t simply start with when Reyna found him, he started his story from the moment he began attacking the caravans, the events that took him to Willcolly, he even told her about how he slaughtered all of the residents of Willcolly.


    And finally he spoke of his meeting with Reyna and how she took him captive, and after days of fruitless interrogation deemed him to be useless, which resulted in him being sold as a slave.


    "You''re saying that there are no orcs, and all this upheaval was caused by you?" Izlandi asked with widened eyes, and her tone was extremely sceptical.


    "Take a close look at my hair," Lirian said and pointed to his head.


    Izlandi looked close at his black hair and followed it all the way to the root, at the bottom she could see that all the hairs looked very white with a slight shine to it.


    As she looked closely her heart started to race as she vaguely made out the silver hue, "But that''s¡­ how¡­" she stumbled on her words, as she recalled the news speaking about an orc with silver hair, and she remembered Reyna''s report about what happened to Willcolly and the massive forest fire that occurred.


    Lirian had explained it all to her without holding back.


    "But why?" Izlandi finally asked, "Why are you doing this, why are you telling me all of this?" she asked, but instead of fear there was something else in her voice, it was hope, for the first time she felt like Lirian might truly be able to help her escape her fate.


    "I am merely following the will of the heavens," Lirian said in reply, "The heavens made me wait for Reyna, and Reyna brought me to you,"


    "And now I will offer you my help, I will offer you a method to escape your fate, that is truly all there is to it whether you want to believe me or not," Lirian said simply, his words were a mixture of truth and white lies.


    It was only due to him following his heavens chosen boon that he ended up staying in Willcolly until Reyna arrived with her squad.


    Izlandi raised her brows, she was unable to tell if anything he said was true or not, but she doubted that he''d offer up any answers if she continued.


    "Are going to go running back to your family and tell them that you have me in your clutches, who knows maybe your daddy will be impressed, and choose not to sell you to¡­ what was his name again," Lirian snapped his fingers and playfully and said, "Tanicks, if what I''ve overheard in the last few days is correct then you have a month and a week until the deal is closed," Lirian said in a teasing tone.


    Just the thought of what was to come put Izlandi in a fowl mood, there was no way that she would allow herself to become someone''s concubine she''d rather die.


    "It''s not to late you know," Lirian said with a devilish smile, "If you want to you can walk away, declare me as the evil monster and be proclaimed as a hero, that is of course only possible if anyone believes you when you say that a blind cripple like myself is capable of such things,"


    "If you take that part and the people believe you, I think that you know better than I do that you will still be sold by your father, where you will live a comfortable but albeit miserable life,"


    "Or you can hand me those ingredients in your dress, and I''ll offer you a different life, one that you could have never imagined possible," Lirian said enticingly.


    Izlandi didn''t know how Lirian knew where the ingredients were, but she was already used to his mysterious ways.


    Izlandi felt like once she handed those ingredients over everything would be set in stone, it was a choice that she had to make for herself, but the more she thought about it the more she realised that there was no choice at all.


    One part would have offered her a life she would not be able to bare while the other, offered her the unknown, but at least in the unknown she would get a second chance.


    With that her decision was made, she reached into her dress and pulled out the rolled-up leather pouch and passed it to Lirian.


    Lirian took it and quickly rolled it open, there were dozens of pouches filled with different plants, and Lirian pulled each one to his nose, taking a quick sniff of each ingredient, and confirming that they were the correct ingredients.


    "Great, now all that I need is an airtight room with as little airflow as possible," Lirian said to Izlandi.


    Izlandi eyed him with amusement, "This is a brothel," she said in an amused tone, "When I had it designed, I remember telling the masons that I want to capture the smell of sex inside this establishment," she said sarcastically.


    Brothels were designed to have as much airflow as possible, if the smell of sex accumulates to much it would become off putting to a lot of people.


    "What I''m making can''t be exposed to oxygen once it reaches it''s final phase, the more oxidation it experiences the weaker the products effect will be," Lirian snapped back, not caring for her snarky words.


    "Tell me what are you going to make exactly?" she asked curiously.


    "You''ll know when I''m done," Lirian said firmly.


    Izlandi sighed softly, "Very well there is one room on the top floor that''s pretty isolated, it''s not completely airtight but it should work," she said.


    "Very well, but you''ll get an inferior product," Lirian said expressionlessly, but internally he was sighing in relief, ''Good she has taken the bait it won''t be long now before I get her to take me into a cultivation chamber,'' from what he understood the cultivation chambers were airtight rooms, that blocked out all thing that entered it.


    However it likely had a spell formation that filtered out the neural toxin in the breath of the world, and allowed just what was essential to permeate into the room.


    Izlandi went down and order her servants to bring up all the alchemy tools, when everything was done she returned to Lirian and looked at him with an amused smile.


    "The room is prepared," she said and looked at Lirian with a slightly teasing smile, "I wonder, how will you ever get there?" she asked dramatically.


    "Shall you crawl on your hands, or will you somehow grow wings and fly," she said taking pleasure in her one chance to be snarky with Lirian, "Oh, wait perhaps you''ll burn a hole through the wall with that glare you''re giving me," she giggled cutely, "But wait that won''t work, if you do that then there will be to much airflow," she sighed helplessly.


    Lirian''s face constantly contorted, with all sorts of emotions as he listened to the girl tease him, anger was one of the emotions, but most of all was shame, shame that he needed to be carried and the girl seemed intent on making him ask her to carry him.


    "Hump," Lirian snorted expressionlessly, "I wish you good fortune as a concubine," he said turning his head away from her.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened and she rushed to Lirian''s side without a second word, "I''ll take you there immediately," she said apologetically and reached down to pick up Lirian but as she did she hesitated slightly.


    "What''s the matter?" Lirian asked, "If I wanted to kill you do you really think that I''d need you to come so close?" he asked with a cold laugh.


    Izlandi sighed that wasn''t the reason she hesitated to touch him, in fact the thought of Lirian harming her didn''t even cross her mind, but she was glad for his misunderstanding.


    She steeled and bent down to pick Lirian up in a princess carry, her eyes widened in surprise when she felt how light he was, and it was also the first time that she truly took notice of how small he was, for a man he was tiny, shorter than her by at least 2 inches.


    With that she wordlessly took him to perform some alchemy.

 Chapter 297 - 062 – Alchemy

    Izlandi sat Lirian down on a chair with wheels on it, to make it easier for him to move around, and stood by his side as she readied herself to get busy.


    "What are you doing?" Lirian asked with a frown when he noticed Izlandi standing by his side.


    "It''s not like you can do this all by yourself!" she said incredulously, "You can''t see, how are you going to know when the flames are just the right colour, or if a mixture is the right colour, or if the concentration is just right, it''s not like you can see the colour indicators to tell how acidic or basic a solution becomes," she said pointing out several important things that required ones sight.


    "Hump," Lirian snorted, "I don''t need your help now get lost," he said with an air of arrogance.


    "Fine," Izlandi snapped, feeling slightly insulted that Lirian refused her assistance, "But I''m watching from the side, and don''t blame me for laughing at you when you mess this up," she said while clenching her small fists and she took some elegant steps to the side and sat on a chair against the wall.


    Lirian shrugged his shoulder not caring if she saw the whole process, even if she did it wasn''t like she''d be able to do what he could, even if she had an identic memory it would take her life times of practice before she would be able to replicate what he was about to do.


    Lirian swivelled around on his chair and rolled around while clicking his tongue in a rhythm, and before long he picked up a set of knives and a few grinding bowls and got to work.


    Izlandi watched from the side as Lirian did the boring parts of alchemy, the preparation, it was usually a long and boring task, but she followed Lirian''s every movement as he expertly cut up and ground up ingredients, in just a few minutes the first part of the preparations was complete.


    It was then that she saw Lirian move to her gas burner, of all her alchemical tools, that one was by far the most expensive.


    The gas tank itself was an enormous investment, enough to burn a hole in even her pocket, but the worst part was the gas that went into it, she had to place special orders with the merchants guild every few months, to get a full tank.


    As she looked at it starting to burn she couldn''t help but start to count the amount of gold that was being burned for every minute the flame remained burning.


    She had tried to use flame spells instead of gas, but it took to much concentration to maintain a spell while working with delicate ingredients that could spoil in an instant if the flame went out of control.


    But to her delight and surprise, Lirian formed a ball of silver energy and brought it to the flame, in the next instant the ball of silver energy turned into a ball of flame which Lirian maintained with complete ease.


    Lirian started to release wisps of flame onto several of the ingredients, in no time at all the ingredients started to dry up, but at the same time they started to emit a potent smell.


    Once the smell reached Lirian''s nose he smiled in satisfaction and grabbed several small metal tubes he requested, as well as the cauldrons.


    Izlandi was watching curiously wondering what Lirian was going to do with the tubes, when the intensity of the flame started to rapidly swell, and the air in the room became noticeably thinner with every second.


    Izlandi looked at Lirian and her eyes widen in horror as she saw what Lirian started to do, he focused his flame directly on a specific spot of the cauldron, and in just seconds that part of the cauldron became so hot that it started to glow and melt.


    "What are you doing?" she shouted in horror as Lirian started to push one of the hollow metal pipes into the newly melted hole, the cauldron started to cool down visibly and the melted metal solidified around the tube.


    "Just improving this crappy set up you have," Lirian said with droplets of sweat on his face, evidently pushing the flames to such a high temperature that it could melt a cauldron took its toll on him.


    "Improving it!?" Izlandi cried out sceptically, "You just destroyed a cauldron worth ten gold," she cried out furiously, but to her horror Lirian didn''t stop there, he proceeded to do the same thing to six of her precious cauldrons, joining them by a set of pipes, placed at odd angles.


    Izlandi felt like she would lose her mind but she gritted her teeth and continued to watch, hoping that there was a method to his madness.


    When Lirian was finally done he set up a couple of filters on the ends of the pipes, he filled the cauldrons with water and started to throw in certain ingredients into each of the cauldrons.


    Once more Lirian brought up the glowing ball of fire and split it into six thick tendrils of flame that spiralled around the cauldrons.


    "He''s control is even better than uncles," Izlandi muttered to herself in surprise, she had already expected Lirian''s control to be great, but this was just out of this world.


    Each of the flames were moving to Lirian''s flow, and what was even more unbelievable was the varying temperatures that she could feel coming from each of the flames.


    Before long the water in the cauldrons was boiling hot and bubbling, while releasing the combined smells of the ingredients that were placed into them.


    When that happened Lirian grabbed another hallowed pipe and connected it to a pipe that was elevated the highest from all the other pipes.


    As the two pipes melted together with Lirian''s flames, Izlandi noticed a purple gas that was released in the process.


    Feeling curious she got up and gradually peeked into the cauldrons, aside from the thick steam, she could make out small amounts of gas that was passing through the filters on the pipes and traveling through each cauldron until it all came together at the point where Lirian placed the final tube.


    Then Lirian took one more cauldron and placed it at the exit of the last tube, and after watching it for a long time she realised that a single drop of a purple liquid was created after ten minutes.


    Izlandi looked on in amazement, it was alchemy like she had never seen before or even heard of, her uncle, done most of his alchemy practice in Blindwatch, one of the great cities, filled with countless cultivators and great teachers, yet he never spoke about alchemy being done in such a manner.


    Izlandi stepped back to her seat as she started to feel extremely lightheaded, she started to feel like she would run out of air at any moment.


    Izlandi didn''t even realise it when she eventually fell unconscious, she decided not to leave the room because she remembered what Lirian said about the air ruining the potency of the product.


    When Izlandi woke up she noticed that the room was cool again, she looked to the cauldrons and saw that they were no longer emitting any steam, and in the centre she could see Lirian taking in deep breaths, with his hair and clothes shimmering with fresh sweat.


    "Come here," she heard Lirian say just seconds after she blinked her eye''s open.


    ''How did he know I woke up?'' she wondered in surprise, and slowly climbed to her feet.


    When she reached Lirian she could see traces of exhaustion all over his face, and on the table next to him she saw two tiny gleaming purple capsules, with a clear coating on them.


    The capsule was an extremely light purple when compared to the dark purple drops of liquid she saw earlier, she was certain that the liquid went through another batch of refinement to reach it''s current colour.


    "Give me your hand," Lirian said in a hoarse voice.


    Izlandi hesitated slightly to offer her hand, but she didn''t dare to say to say no, as she noticed how weak he looked and simply offered him her hand.


    The moment she felt his soft skin against her hand, she involuntarily let out a soft moan, a sound that she never recalled making in her entire life.


    ''This dreamy hunk of meat is holding my hand!'' the elven blood in her started to rejoice, making it almost impossible for her to concentrate.


    But then something happened that made her entire body tremble, she felt the mana in her body start to move on it''s own, she widen her eyes in terror and started to try taking back control.


    "Stop fighting it," she heard Lirian furiously hiss, it was then that she realised that it was Lirian''s doing he was taking control of her own mana, and she was powerless against it, she felt like she was completely at his mercy as he moved her mana around.


    Izlandi stopped fighting it and watched what Lirian was doing, if she felt a threat to her life she was prepared to yank her arm at any moment.


    She soon noticed two strange circles forming above her hand and looked at them curiously, wondering what use the two circles had.

 Chapter 298 - 063 – Feast

    Izlandi looked at the magic circles that were forming, she couldn''t understand what the circles could do, she watched the lines run through the circle with complex symbols that were far too profound for her to begin understanding them.


    After a full minute, she could feel that a portion of her mana had disappeared as the spell circle was completed.


    Then the two circles started to shrink until they were no larger than the tip of a needle and settled down onto the two purple capsules.


    Izlandi watched in wonder when she felt a strange sensation on her hand, when she looked at the centre of her palm she saw a circle appear for just a second before it faded away.


    But oddly she knew that if she channelled a bit of mana onto that spot the circle would reappear, she immediately followed that feeling and the circle reappeared.


    Izlandi''s eyes darted to the two capsules as she felt a connection with them.


    "Are you finally going to tell me what you concocted?" she asked in a snarky tone.


    "Poison," Lirian answered, "Drop one of these into a barrel of ale, and give it to a group of a hundred novices and I guaranty that no one will live for more than two hours," Lirian said with a smug smile.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened, bringing her to full alertness as she eyed the pills sceptically, she checked all the ingredients Lirian had asked for and done a detailed search into most of their properties, not one of them had a toxic nature in the slightest.


    "You don''t believe me huh?" Lirian question with a weak smile, he was completely drained from the process of concocting the poison.


    "That''s fine I made two you can use the first one as a tester on some random individual or individuals, as for the second one," Lirian said with a sly smile, "I''m sure that you have your own uses for it," Lirian said meaningfully.


    "Is this it?" Izlandi questioned, "Is this your solution to my problems, you want me to poison everyone, even if I could, it wouldn''t take long for someone to point the blame in my direction," she said heatedly, it seemed this entire thing was a waste of time.


    Lirian chuckled slyly and pointed to her hand, "You''ll find that this circle is very special," Lirian said, "All that you need to do is drop the capsule into a barrel of a bottle of wine, and activate the circle, it will attach itself to the container so that it can''t slip out, then you can do the second activation at any point in time, which will release the poison,"


    "With that even if someone becomes suspicious of you they will have no way of proving it, but more than that, you could also pin the blame on someone else," Lirian explained.


    Izlandi''s eyes sparkled as she learned about the effects of the magic circles, "How potent is the poison?" she asked while looking at the capsules.


    "If diluted it can kill any novice, even an adept will suffer from it, however if you give an adept a full dose there is 50% that they will die," Lirian said.


    "If you want it anymore potent than that, we''ll need a room that is perfectly airtight, a cultivation chamber would be ideal," Lirian added in, feeling anticipation for the day she requests a more potent batch of the poison.


    Izlandi remembered what Lirian had told her about oxygen ruining the potency of the product, as she hurriedly picked up the capsules.


    As she stared at it in her hand, she felt a twinge of complex emotions come over her, she felt like she finally understood what Lirian meant by the price for her freedom, wasn''t something tangible or anything that she could give personally offer him.


    "If I go down this road, does it mean that I¡­" she paused as her hand lightly shook, ", that I''ll have to.. to¡­" however before she could finish speaking Lirian interrupted her.


    "Why don''t you just use what I gave you first, if you decide that you don''t want to continue any further the choice is yours," Lirian said in a soothing tone.


    "Now, you should probably return," Lirian quickly added, "You haven''t been home in two days, and one of your servants came to inform you that your uncle is throwing you a small celebration feast for your recent achievement,"


    "Two days?" Izlandi cried out in surprise her small mouth opened wide for just a second before she realised what she was doing.


    "Yes," Lirian answered with a shrug of his shoulders, "You''ve been asleep since just six hours in, at one point I thought you were going to die, or suffer brain damage from insufficient oxygen reaching your brain," Lirian quipped with a small chuckle.


    Izlandi didn''t know if Lirian was being serious or not about the part where she almost died, but it did explain her blazing headache that she received when she woke up.


    ''How could I have slept for two days?'' she wondered as she rushed out.


    "One more thing," she heard Lirian call out behind her, "Once the poison is released, it will lose all effect within two hours,"


    As she got to her carriage she noticed that the sun was already going down, and with a few questions to her servants, she found out that 2 days had truly passed while she was unconscious.


    When she returned to the keep, several of her maids came to her filled with worry, she wasn''t one to stay out for a single day let alone two, so they were all worried for her safety.


    Once they all confirmed that she was perfectly fine they started to prepare her outfit, for the feast that was going to happen.


    She was going in a completely black dress that was extremely elegant, but that covered most of her body and revealed very little of her body shape, she liked the more revealing dresses, but when surrounded by the members of her family it always made her feel uncomfortable when they openly ogled her body.


    Finally her maids brought her a pair silky white gloves, "Would everyone excuse me for a moment," she said politely chasing the maids out of her room.


    She stood transfixed before the mirror on her dresser where she could see the top half of her body, and proceeded to open a draw, inside were the two capsules Lirian had given to her.


    She picked one capsule and looked at it intently, ''This will be a good chance to test the poison,'' she thought while taking a deep breath.


    She could see the capsule rattling in her shaking hand, ''But this could kill people,'' she thought with guilt, ''The people attending the feast are all important members of the family,'' she thought with a slight degree of anxiety.


    ''But if I don''t do this, then I''ll simply be sold off by father,'' she thought with fear in her eyes.


    Izlandi found herself grippling with her thoughts for a long time, in the end she took one of the capsules and slipped it into her glove, ''I''ll just see how things go,'' she thought with uncertainty, as her mind was a mess.


    After that she made her way to the dinning hall, the door were wide open and all the chandeliers were lit up with luminous stones that brightened up the entire room.


    There was an open area in the centre of the room where everyone would dance, and to one side several bards were playing soft music.


    There were several long tables that stretched across the room filled with food and drinks for everyone to enjoy, all the guests had arrived and were walking around making small conversation when they took notice of Izlandi.


    The guests all quieted down and made room for her to walk to the main table, after all the feast was all about her.


    Izlandi walked with a fixed expression on her face, not letting anyone see through her emotions, she could feel the heated gazes of the men on her, as well as the looks of envy that came from the women, but she didn''t let any of that bother her as she quickly approached the main table.


    She glanced into the corner of the room where there was a man sitting with his eyes closed, at a glance he didn''t look very old, but he was actually the oldest man in the room, being well over a thousand years old.


    He was her grandfather as well the previous head of the family before he passed the title on to her father, but everyone simply called him ancestor.


    Izlandi gave a respectful bow to her grandfather, after a few seconds she raised her head without getting any reply from her grandfather, but it was nothing out of the ordinary, the only ones that her grandfather ever spoke to was her father and uncle, other than that he only spoke to important guests.


    Izlandi looked at the head seat with a trace of anger flashing through her eyes, when she saw that it was empty, that was where her father was supposed to be, but it seemed that he chose to ignore her achievement, as if it wasn''t bad enough that he was selling her to appease House Kant, but now he didn''t even show up for her celebration.


    While maintaining a calm outward expression, she rubbed the capsule that was hidden in her glove.

 Chapter 299 - 064 – Slap

    Izlandi managed to calm her anger a little when she scanned the rest of the main table, Stanley was naturally sitting on the right side of the main seat, but besides him the next seat was empty.


    A small smirk crept onto the corner of her lips, that seat was Cornick''s, the repulsive beast that everyone said was her brother, after her revelation about Cornick''s deeds, her father was utterly enraged.


    Lord Kurt gave him such a beating that almost every bone in his body was broken, he was currently locked up in his room with a full body cast, and the doctors said that it could be half a year before he is able to walk again.


    Finally, Izlandi''s gaze landed on her uncle who was on the left side of the head seat, he was proudly wearing his mage robes that were made with the colours of House Kurt, and he was looking at her with a proud gaze.


    "Uncle," she greeted him with a simple curtsy.


    "Come up here dear girl," her uncle said and pointed for her to take the seat beside him.


    When she finally got to her seat, her uncle picked up a goblet of wine and raised it, "Today is a day of celebration, today we celebrate my dear nieces'' remarkable achievement of reaching the peak of novice spell casters,"


    "That in itself is a remarkable accomplishment, but what is even more remarkable is that it has only taken her a year and a half,"


    "Even during my time in Blindwatch, a great city with countless talents I never encountered such talent, it is the kind off talent that is found only once in generations,"


    "May you find good fortune in your road to becoming a mage and perhaps reaching even greater heights," he said with a proud smile and raised his goblet.


    "To Lady Izlandi''s future," he said and took a sip as many people repeated those words and took a sip of their wine.


    "To Lady Izlandi," as the nobles started to cheer, Izlandi could hear the ridicule in their cheers, most were just empty cheers, but from many there were snorts and mocking laugh.


    Everyone knew that her future as a cultivator would likely be over once she was taken as a concubine.


    Most of them didn''t even care to hide their thoughts, as they openly started to discuss her future, most notable was a group of adepts who were just a few feet away from the table.


    Izlandi could clearly hear Reyna sniggering as she spoke her mind, "¡­Lord Tanicks will surely be happy to provide her with cultivation resources once he''s done playing with her," she said to the sniggering group of adepts.


    Izlandi clenched her tiny fists as her entire body trembled with anger, the feast was being thrown for her honour yet people were openly insulting her, and not even her uncle would reprimand the adepts, House Kurt only had 42 adepts and currently the future was looking scary for House Kurt.


    Publicly reprimanding the adepts was not a wise idea especially in the current times.


    Izlandi sat down while trying to stop her hands from shaking, she looked to her uncle, he was looking at Reyna with a disappointed gaze when she caught his eye.


    "Why is my father not here?" she asked, unable to hide the anger that was leaking into her voice.


    Her uncle sighed softly while shaking his head, "He said that something important came up at the last minute," a trace of anger was evident in his voice, as his brother didn''t even bother to explain what could have possibly been so important.


    Lord Kurt not attending a celebration to his daughter, was certainly the greatest insult of all, Izlandi''s uncle looked at her apologetically, his only intention was to let her have a rare good day, but he found himself causing her only more trouble.


    The music started to play louder and some of the nobles started to step up to the dance floor, several nobles came up to Izlandi to ask her for a dance, but she coldly turned down everyone that came to her.


    "Would you honour your elder brother with your first dance?" Izlandi turned to see Stanley standing by her side and offering her his hand.


    She frowned as she saw Stanley standing there, playing at being big brother, her first instinct was to say no, but if she refused him, she could already hear the insults that people would start throwing around about her being rude.


    After giving it some thought she got up and took his hand as they walked onto the dance floor.


    She held his hand with one arm and placed the other on his shoulder while he placed his free hand on her thin waist and led the dance.


    It took all her mental fortitude to stop herself from flinching away from his touch.


    They danced for a short while before Izlandi asked, "What do you want?" she asked in a whisper.


    To which Stanley smiled lightly, "You say that you don''t like it when people call us siblings, yet you know me so well," he commented with a light laugh.


    "I know that you only come to speak to me when you have something to tell me that is either perverse or when you think that I''ll do something that will amuse your disgusting mind," she hissed.


    Stanley merely chuckled, "You know me so well little sister," he said giving her his most charming smile.


    Izlandi struggled not to gag from disgust, as she watched his fat toad-like lips creep up to his eyes.


    "That little pet of yours in the infirmary, I believe her name is Selner, she recently bought a slave¡­" Stanley said and proceeded to tell Izlandi about the events of the auction, particularly how her new slave disrespected him and all the nobles at the auction.


    "You can see how he has shown utter disrespect to myself and all the nobles that were present on that night, for a mere slave to address a noble without being given permission was insulting enough, yet he still went on to insult everyone there," Stanley said in a heated tone.


    "The only reason I didn''t kill him then was because he became your possession, but a punishment is required, and a public one at that, all the nobles that were present have agreed to put their anger behind them, if you have him dragged through every street of the city to be pelted with stones by the commoners,"


    "When last I checked, the punishment of a slave is up to their master to decide," Izlandi said coldly, "You can go and tell every last one of those nobles that I don''t give a damn about their anger, it''s not like there''s anything else I have to lose!" she spat through gritted teeth feeling more infuriated than ever before.


    Stanley looked at her with a blank expression, never did he expect to get such a heated response from Izlandi.


    Izlandi pulled her hand free and walked of the dance floor, while filled with more anger than she knew how to bare.


    She looked around the room and eventually spotted who she was looking for, she walked up to a group of adepts and came in front of Reyna.


    "Your going to take this like a good bitch or I''ll let your father know where you really picked up that slave," Izlandi whispered into her ear.


    Reyna blinked in surprise when she heard Izlandi threaten her, then suddenly she felt a scorching pain on her face and toppled to the ground.


    Bam.


    A crisp and loud slap rang inside the room, as everyone turned to the source of the commotion even the bards stopped playing their instruments to see what was happening.


    In the next moment everyone saw Reyna, who was the most respected of all the adapts for being a spell caster, fall on her bottom with a big red hand print on her face.


    Infront of her was the small sized and adorable Izlandi, looking at her with a cold glare, everyone was looking at Izlandi in disbelief, but the person who was the most dumbfounded of all was none other than Reyna.


    Izlandi cast one last glare at her before walking away without caring about what anyone had to say, before leaving she walked to the bowl of punch that she saw a lot of the people were enjoying and poured scoped up a drink for herself.


    At the same time, she came to a decision and slipped the purple capsule out of her glove and into the punch.


    Then she unceremoniously left her own celebration feast.


    As she walked through the long corridors the only thing she could think about was how good it felt to vent some of her growing frustration.


    Once she calmed down a little she thought of something that kind of terrified her.


    ''Lirian, was all of this his doing, did he rile up Stanley and all those other nobles, just so that they would target me,'' she wondered as she thought about what Stanley told her.


    ''Is he doing all of this to push me into a corner, so that I follow his desired plan or is he doing this to make me act quicker,'' as she thought about that she pulled of her glove and looked at the circle on her palm.


    The circle was shining brightly, and all she needed to do was push a little mana into it and the poison would be released.


    ''I''ll wait a half hour, before releasing it,'' she decided, to ensure that no one could suspect her of poisoning it.

 Chapter 300 - 065 – Crusader

    While the feast had just begun a special meeting was occurring in the bell tower, the highest tower, of the keep.


    Lord Rupid Kurt walked up the spiralling stairs of the highest tower, on the pointed roof a flagpole extended up with a great blue banner that held the shield emblem of House Kurt which glistened beneath the light of the full moon.


    At the highest floor a large bell hung, it was only to be rung when House Kurt was in a state of crises, the banner swayed slightly under the wind currents of the night.


    Just before he stepped through the open entrance, he caught sight of the city that spread out, at the centre of the city stood his keep, and immediately around it was a 50 foot tall wall that acted as a barrier between the inner city and the keep.


    As his gaze stretched through the city, he could see the light posts that held luminous stones lighting up the corners of all the important streets, lastly was the city walls which he hired the dwarves to build after he became the Lord of House Kurt.


    Lord Kurt turned his attention back to the top of the bell tower and stopped at the entrance and took a deep breath when he saw the twisting shadows that occupied the room.


    "Lord Crusader," he greeted and bowed with a face full of reverence as he faced a man who was cloaked in the shadows.


    In the world of humans the title of Crusader belonged to very few, in all Mithland there could not have been more than a few thousand who reached the realm of Crusader.


    The realm of Crusader, was seen as the most difficult realm to achieve, even more so than becoming a heavenly emperor/empress, all those who achieved the realm of Crusader were practically guaranteed to reach the next realm given that that they had enough time.


    "How are the plans coming along Rupid?" the man in the shadows asked.


    "It is all as you have predicted Lord Crusader," Rupid replied respectfully, "With my banishment from Riverfall, House Brock and House Hauton have been doing everything they can to unify their regions and pressure my House,"


    "It won''t be long before they move against me, I imagine that the campaign will take 2 to 3 years," Rupid answered.


    "I do hope that I can rely on the troops of Unity to handle the more discreet tasks," Rupid said firmly.


    The man in the shadows walked forward and revealed himself to Rupid with a crooked smile splayed across his lips, and his bald head vaguely shone under the moon light.


    "I''ve told you that you don''t need to worry about that Rupid," he said, "Unifying the region with a legal lord is exactly what Unity needs, it is also why we chose to reach out to you in the first place,"


    "You will have our full support from the shadows, so long as no one learns of our involvement with each-other, the region will be yours and you will secretly open the cultivation chambers to anyone who is sent by unity," the crusader explained calmly, it was all things that they had agreed to previously.


    Rupid nodded, he hoped that things worked out as planned, but in the world of nobles and politics last second betrayals were far to common, he wouldn''t be surprised if House Brock and House Hauton were also candidate''s groomed by Unity.


    If that was the case then Unity would likely choose the House they determined to be the easiest to control as the leader of the region.


    "Is there a reason for this surprise visit?" Rupid finally asked, he received the summons very abruptly, but he couldn''t afford to keep a crusader waiting.


    The crusader nodded his head and looked Rupid in the eye, "I''ve come to tell you to be careful Rupid, there have been some dark omens, omens that might relate to you and your entire family," he said gravely.


    Rupid''s eyes widened in surprise, "Omens?" he asked, "Do you mean that an oracle or prophet has done a divining about my family?" he asked with worry.


    The prophecy words of prophets and the dreams had by oracles, were things treated like divine words of god to the people of Nebula ¨C 6, if not for the prophetic powers of the oracles and prophets all the races would have seized to exist during the past desolations.


    Therefor any prophecies made were taken with complete seriousness, even by the greatest powers in the world.


    "Not exactly," the Crusader said shaking his head, "Something strange is happening, something that never happened even during the last desolation,"


    "It''s not just one or two oracles, its all of them and even the prophets have been sputtering verses while falling into trances,"


    "Here," the Crusader said pulling out several pieces of folded parchment and handed it over to Rupid, "Read them, this is what my agents have sent me so far," he said.


    Rupid opened up the first note and read through it, however it was only a single line, with the names of several prophets beneath it.


    -The desolation draws close, and death follows in it''s wake¡­-


    -Prophet Kenith, Aaron, Elisha¡­


    Rupid read the list of over a dozen prophets names there were many familiar names and Rupid guessed that they were all the prophets who said those same lines, before looking back to the crusader, "This is to be expected," he said with a confused look.


    The desolations opening was known to all the nobles, and the words of the prophecy suited what was to come, in the old records, death was a word used in every second line, the deaths were beyond compare, no one had the heart to count the numbers that died.


    "Read through everything first," the Crusader said.


    Rupid opened the next wondering what this had to do with his family.


    ''The black flood will emerge with a mighty force and a great battle will ensue between the forces of the five powers and the infernals of the desolation,''


    ''A war that will last for years, but that the five powers shall have the power to vanquish,''


    ''however in the final moments when the end is in sight, the world shall crack open and splinter the lands and ocean,''


    -          A description of the dreams shared by the oracles of Umir, Suril, Ulshwen and Silver Port.


    Rupid read the names of the four cities, each of them were the capitals of their respected regions, if a dream was being shared by oracles across the world it went without saying that it was an omen.


    He quickly unfolded the next piece of parchment and read it aloud.


    -The forgotten god walks amongst man


    -Tribulation is his gift unto man,


    -The forgotten god walks in their clothes and speaks their tongue


    -On the lost god''s body hangs the city of the damned


    -A city that carries the fallen''s spoils.


    -On the cities highest mast lies a shield and its king.


    -          A compilation of verses, said by the prophets.


    Rupid read the last line, and instantly his eyes darted to the flag that lapped around in the wind.


    "This¡­" he said looking at the Crusader with fear, "This has to be some joke, the nobles of Riverfall and Proge must have paid them to add this line, they are just trying to scare me," he muttered incoherently.


    "These have been gathered by some of Unity''s best spies, and they witness the prophecies being given in the flesh," the crusader said calmly.


    "But there is no need for you to worry, there are over a hundred noble houses with a shield on it''s emblem, House Kingfisher also has an emblem with a shield and the founder of the House on it,"


    "If I had to place my bets, it would be that House Kingfisher is the one in the prophecy, also those verses aren''t in the correct order, each person said only a single line, there was no continuity in the verses, we just arranged it in an order that seemed to make the most sense," the crusader said to put him at ease.


    "If I thought this was about you, I''d be cutting all my ties with you, but it never hurts to take caution, we''ve invested far to much into this plan Rupid, if it falls through there is nothing I can do to help you," he said with a shrug.


    "About this prophecy" Rupid started, he was no longer feeling as worried, but he couldn''t make all of it vanish.


    "Don''t worry about it to much, the white tower has opened their portals to the four powers to recall their witches and wizards, the high sovereign has assigned them the task of solving the prophecy with the great prophet Ivar,"


    "I''ll return in a few months to let you know the results," the crusader offered generously, he needed to put Rupid at ease, things were reaching a critical point and it wouldn''t help if the key player was panicking.


    Rupid nodded reluctantly, now that the Lord Crusader was leaving, he felt more worried than before despite his Lords attempts to help.


    "One last thing," Rupid said before the Lord could leave, "My daughter, is there anyway that you can help me stop her from being taken away?" he asked.


    The shadows started to wrap around the Lord Crusader, "Unity can''t allow itself to be exposed, House Kant is a high noble family, there is no way for me to dip my feet in their water without being exposed," when he finished speaking his voice vanished and so did his body, becoming one with the shadows.


    Lord Kurt sighed, with his daughters recently revealed talent as a spellcaster cultivator, he was starting to regret his decision to give her away so easily.


    He sat for hours at the top of the tower, when he finally returned, he found that the keep was in chaos.

 Chapter 301 - 066 – What Am I Doing?

    Izlandi was curled up into a small ball on her bed, her plaited hair  fell onto her shoulder and she still wore her black dress that she wore for the feast, her green eyes were opened wide since she could hardly sleep as she pictured what was going to happen at any moment.


    She could see clearly, thanks to the slivers of moon light that passed through the curtain, she looked at her palm that was shining as her mana surged into it, "Any second now," she smiled with anticipation.


    Time passed by slowly, but it wasn''t long before she heard the first shouts and screams, ringing within the corridors.


    Izlandi''s smile crept up further on her face as she heard more shouts, she curled her two tiny fists to her chest and felt her racing heart.


    THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.


    ''Is this what it feels like to experience exhilaration?'' she wondered with her green eyes sparkling in the moonlight.


    Izlandi stretched her fair slender legs over her bedside and climbed to her feet, her dress fell over her legs as she took soft step to one side of her room and put on an expression of terror.


    She could hear the footsteps rapidly approaching her room, so she had to play the role of being the scared princess.


    The doors to her room were pushed open, the first person she saw was her uncle, "Uncle!" she called out, "I heard shouting, is there an enemy attack?" she asked while trembling.


    The trembles were not feigned, however they had nothing to do with fear, she was so excited as she thought of how she was the one to cause all this chaos.


    "Something was poisoned at the feast," he said seriously as he rushed to her side to check her condition, "Are you alright, do you feel anything wrong with your body?" he asked looking her in the eye with concern.


    Izlandi quickly shook her head, "I''m fine," she said after a brief pause, "Did anyone die?" she asked with growing anticipation.


    Her uncle sighed and slowly nodded his head, "Over 50 Novices have already been confirmed dead, and over a dozen adepts are in critical condition, we have no idea if anyone who left was poisoned or who the poisoner is," he said gravely.


    He put one of his thin withered arms on her shoulder and started to guide her out of the room, "Lets get you to the infirmary for a check-up just in case," he said gently.


    Izlandi nodded while acted like a frightened child, but internally she was thrilled, ''It''s just like he said, lethal to novices, and enough to put an adept out of commission,'' she thought and followed behind her uncle.


    The walk to the infirmary took her past the dining hall, she took a curious peek into the hall, and saw a shocking sight, the floors were covered in blood and white froth that was slowly turning pink as it mixed with the blood.


    There were several bodies strewn about on the floors, that look like a mess, there was blood seeping out from almost every inch of their bodies, like they died to a million needles piercing through their bodies from the inside.


    Around the bodies there were several people weeping bitterly, mainly family members and some friends.


    As she looked at the bodies, a new thought occurred to Izlandi, one that she could hardly believe she missed, the novices were the elite forces of House Kurt, with a little over 700 novices as their elite forces.


    In this one night she already confirmed that she killed over 5% of the forces and put at least a dozen of the 42 adepts into critical condition.


    A short while later Izlandi was inside the infirmary, where she saw every bed occupied for the first time in her life, the entire room looked like a disaster, the floor was covered in blood and froth and the white curtains were all stained with blood.


    Anyone who was a novice was already dead, and the adepts were writhing in pain as they rolled about on their bed with blisters forming all over their bodies, that constantly leaked pus and blood, and every couple of seconds someone vomited mouthfuls of blood.


    ''He is truly extraordinary to be able to do this to Adepts with just ordinary ingredients?'' she thought with the utmost joy as she noticed Reyna lying down in one of the beds with her face covered in blood and sweat.


    As the others were being checked on by the doctors Izlandi''s had a check-up done by her uncle, after a few minutes he confirmed that nothing was wrong with her, and left to go investigate the food and drinks to learn what had poison in it.


    While the infirmary was in chaos, another sharp scream rang out through the infirmary, everyone turned to see that it was Selner, her entire body was twitching like she was having a seizure, and her howls caught the attention of even the adepts who were rolling around in pain.


    "DON''T¡­ DON''T, GO IN THERE, HE''S A-A-A-A MONSTER," she shrieked at the top of lungs, "LADY IZLANDI¡­PLEASE¡­H-H-H-HE''LL KILL YOU!" her cries rang out in everyone''s ears before she fell down unconscious once more with her body twitching.


    Everyone settled down thinking that it was a wild a hallucination that Selner was having, all except one.


    As the nurses ran to help Selner, Reyna''s eyes darted between Selner and Izlandi, when she heard the word monster being shouted, the only image that came to her mind was Lirian.


    ''Was this that mans doing, is he really the one who pushed her mind to this state¡­'' Reyna wondered but she soon felt a new load of blood and bile coming up her throat, when she looked back up Izlandi was gone.


    ---


    When morning came the keep was bustling with activity, it had been a busy night for everyone and not a single person got any rest.


    Izlandi could hear many people talking about who poisoned the people of House Kurt, she was happy to learn that she wasn''t even a topic of discussion.


    Most people were saying things along the lines of assassins from House Brock or Hauton, came in and poisoned the food or that they bribed a servant to do the poisoning.


    Which spelled trouble for the servants but nothing for Izlandi, while everyone was busy trying to do damage control and establish how they were going to investigate the matter, Izlandi slipped away and left the keep, her destination was none other than Lirian.


    When she got to the brothel she rushed up the stairs and ran to the room that Lirian was in, oddly she found herself extremely excited as she pushed the door open.


    She saw Lirian sitting in the chair she gave him to use, but she noticed that he was fast asleep as she stepped closer.


    She inched closer and closer without being able to take her eyes of his face, she found herself smiling as she noticed how cute he looked, as he took small breathes every couple of second.


    Most of all, that devilish smile was no longer present on his face, he looked so peaceful and cute that her heart was fluttering with every second, it seemed odd to her, he appeared so harmless while asleep.


    When she was right in front of him she lifted her dress a little revealing a bit of her fair legs and bent down bringing her face close to his, she still remembered looking at his eyes that first time, in truth it was constantly popping up in her dreams.


    Those eyes that seemed to oddly contain everything in them yet lost it''s light, she slowly raised her small hand to touch his face, but as she brought her hand up something caught her eye.


    When she looked at Lirian''s ear she noticed a piece of his skin hanging, she quickly changed her target and caught the piece of skin, but as she touched it she realised that it wasn''t skin at all.


    She started to carefully pull on the skin with steady hands and in just a few seconds the skin mask that Lirian had put on to look more masculine, started to get undone, she didn''t know if it was because it was old or something else, but the mask practically slid of Lirian''s face once she pulled on it.


    When it came of she looked at the mask with wide eyes, ''Oh crap he''s going to kill me,'' she thought as the mask sat in her hand, then she turned to look at Lirian and her eyes widened even further.


    "O"


    ''Is he actually a she?'' she thought feeling disbelief at how adorable Lirian looked, her eyes involuntarily drifted down.


    "His/Her chest is pretty flat, but it''s not exactly unheard of," she muttered and touched one of her own breasts that were a lot more on the smaller side of life.


    "I guess there is only one way to confirm," she thought with a sparkle in her eye and slowly extended her hand to Lirian''s waist, she involuntarily licked her lips as her hand inched closer.


    ''What am I doing?'' she cried internally but found herself unable to resist her desire, but suddenly another hand latched firmly onto her hers, locking it in an iron grip.


    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" she heard Lirian whisper in a cold voice.

 Chapter 302 - 067 – Entering The Cultivation Chamber

    "What the hell do you think you''re doing?" Lirian asked in a cold voice.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened with shock as she looked Lirian in the face, she felt a shooting pain through her arm where Lirian was grabbing her, and in just a few seconds she lost all her feeling in the arm.


    "I-I-I, y-your mask slipped off," she squealed in embarrassment and offered the mask back to Lirian.


    Lirian frowned and touched his face, ''It''s that dream again, it''s affecting even my instincts, what would have happened if it was an enemy just now getting so close?'' he wondered with worry and released Izlandi''s arm.


    Izlandi felt her arm fall limply against her body, the feeling was completely gone, "M-my arm, what did you do to it?" she asked with worry as she tapped it and felt nothing at all.


    "I hit a pressure point, you''ll get your feeling back in an hour," Lirian said coldly, "Now explain yourself, my mask was on my face, which is not where your hand was," Lirian said.


    Izlandi looked at Lirian nervously, "I-I-I¡­ it''s just that¡­ you, I mean your face, are you a g¡­" but before she could finish speaking Lirian cut her off.


    "Don''t. You Dare. Call. Me. The ''G'' Word!" he uttered through gritted teeth, as his entire face went red with anger and shame.


    Izlandi took a small step back, and shut her mouth while vigorously nodding her head, she felt like she had almost triggered an extremely life-threatening trap.


    ''I guess that was an answer in of itself, he is a man,'' she thought with her eyes flickering to his crotch.


    "I used the capsule last night!" she blurted out with excitement, it was also her attempt to prevent any further awkwardness, then she quickly started to narrate the events.


    Lirian nodded, "That was bold of you to use it on so many people," Lirian said while rubbing his chin as he was lost in thought.


    "If you can make a more potent version of the poison, could it kill a knight?" Izlandi asked, with that question her choice was clearly made, it was her telling Lirian that she was prepared to do what ever it takes to obtain her freedom.


    Lirian turned to her with surprise, it was rare that a person would be so undisturbed after taking their first life, let alone, the numbers that she killed on her first assassination.


    ''Don''t tell me that she is one of those psychopaths,'' Lirian thought with a sigh, it did happen occasionally, after a person takes their first life they get addicted to the thrill of causing death.


    To have the power to determine the life and death of many, was easily one of the most addictive feelings in the world.


    "It won''t be able to kill a knight," Lirian said, "But it will weaken one to the point that even a novice will be able to harm the knight," Lirian lied, unfortunately the ingredients had a limit in their ability, and Lirian would bet that unless it was a god, no one else would have been able to come close to bringing out the effects of the ingredients to such a degree.


    Someone of the third grade could not be brought down so easily, at best the poison would cause a person of the third grade some pain.


    But that didn''t matter, all that Lirian wanted was to get into that cultivation chamber and he didn''t care if he had to lie.


    Besides this girl seemed to be trouble, with her strange personality, Lirian wondered how long it would be before she tried to kill him or sell him out for power, it would be better if she died trying to kill her father.


    After that Lirian planned to kill everyone in House Kurt, he wanted to make sure that there was going to be no trail of him ever being here, for that to work, he needed to get rid of Reyna and her squad, he especially needed to repay Colten for torturing him.


    Then he needed to track down the people of the auction house to get rid of all off them, a slave that almost sold for 610 gold, was bound to raise some discussions if word spread.


    "There is going to be a funeral procession for all the novices who tragically died," Izlandi said rolling her eyes, "I''m currently on the outs with all the nobles, so it won''t raise many questions if I don''t attend and sneak you in at the time," she said with a happy smile.


    Lirian nodded with a smile, ''Finally!'' he shouted in his head gleefully, ''Things are finally going the way I need them to,'' he thought.


    "Now to think of a way to sneak you in?" Izlandi said thoughtfully as she rested her chin in her palm.


    "Oh, that''s easy," Lirian replied, "I''m quite small in size, get all your alchemy items packed and hide me in one of the chests, no one will search them if it''s you bringing it in," Lirian said.


    "This isn''t your first time sneaking into an important place is it?" Izlandi asked with a curious smile.


    Lirian chuckled wryly, he was genuinely feeling happy for the first time in a long while, "Not my first, and I doubt its going to be my last," he laughed.


    Izlandi stood transfixed in her spot as she looked at Lirian with a mesmerised gaze, she felt like it was the first time she saw him show an emotion so genuinely, she had no clue why this made him so happy, ''Maybe he is just like me?'' she thought while feeling lost in his smile.


    "If that''s the case, then there is no need to wait, I can get you into a cultivation chamber before noon today," she said with a smile.


    Lirian raised his brow in surprise, "Can you arrange a room that no one will be able to disturb me in on such short notice?"


    "You can just use my chamber, no one uses it except for me," Izlandi smiled proudly, "I guess you''ll get to be the first exception," she said and licked her lips.


    ---


    An hour later Lirian was stuffed inside a chest it was a little uncomfortable due to his legs, but other than that it was surprisingly cosy.


    "Be careful with that one it has fragile content," Lirian heard Izlandi say as the chest he was in was being lifted.


    ''I''m fragile content,'' Lirian sighed in acceptance as the chest was lifted and carried down five flights of stairs and finally loaded in the carriage.


    All Lirian could hear was the sound of the horse''s hooves, that were pulling the carriage, on the way to the keep.


    A half hour passed when the carriage came to a stop, and the great gates that lead into the keep were slowly raised.


    Lirian breathed out in anticipation as the carriage moved past the great gate and came to a final stop at the keep''s entrance.


    Izlandi climbed out of the carriage first and instructed the servants to carry the boxes, she kept a careful eye on the box that contained Lirian, she walked a pep behind the servants as they carried the alchemy tools into her room and through the doors of her cultivation chamber.


    Where they were neatly arranged.


    [Mission: Survive]


    [You have made it into the cultivation chambers of House Kurt without being killed]


    [Completed]


    [Reward: Knowledge on Nebula-6]


    Lirian listened to the systems alert as he entered the cultivation chamber and quickly accepted the reward.


    [Nebula-6 is broken down into five main regions, with 6 powers that govern the land]


    [There are 12 sentient races that currently reside on Nebula-6]


    [Mithland is one of the main regions and is primarily ruled by the humans]


    [Vraga is Mithland''s neighbour, and the ruling race of Vraga is the orcs]


    [Elmguard stands on the opposite end of the world from Mithland and is home to the elven race]


    [Lytryn is a far more diverse region, that is home to many of the other races, with its primary power being the Lycan race]


    [The last region is the desolation, the largest region of all, however it is home to the infernals that are usually locked behind a barrier, making it very difficult to pass through, ''The Bastion Mountains'' and ''Tower Guard act as the main defences when the barrier is removed]


    [Unity is a hidden power of Nebula-6 that has spread its reach throughout the four regions, they are regarded as a terrorist group by the other powers and are also seen as symbols of terror to the vast majority of the people of the world.]


    [The White Tower is a power that occupies a lone continent at the top of the world, they are recognised as the most powerful group in the world, due to their unique cultivation methods, The White Tower is however a passivist group that strives to maintain the order and balance of power in the world.]


    Lirian read through the basic knowledge of the powers that made up Nebula-6, as he waited for Izlandi to signal that it was safe for him to show himself.

 Chapter 303 - 068 – Symbol Of Balance

    "Let''s run through the plan one last time," Lirian said, it was a day later, and all the necessary ingredients were brought into the cultivation chamber.


    "I need to make a clean get away," Izlandi said, "Everyone needs to think that I''m dead, it''s the only way to ensure that no one comes searching for me,"


    "But you plan on killing your father first, and in order to do that you need to poison him first which is going to be problematic since everyone is currently so on guard against a poisoning," Lirian said.


    "That is why I''m going to poison him at a time when he can''t refuse a toast, when house Kant comes to take me away in a month," Izlandi said with a smile.


    "I''ll buy the wine myself and offer it to my father," she said with a devious smirk.


    "But that is where two problems arise," Lirian added, "The first being that everyone in the city will be celebrating this event, when you kill your father everyone will know that you''re a traitor and the one responsible for his death,"


    "He betrayed me first," Izlandi said bobbing her head happily, "But it''s a problem easily solved, if everyone¡­dies," Izlandi said with a racing heart.


    "A solution made possible by your cumulated wealth, you will buy out every barrel of ale and drink in the city, and place my poison capsule''s inside, then you will distribute it to the people, when you are given away you will call for a toast across the city, at which time the poisoned will be consumed by everyone," Lirian said.


    "However that is where the second problem lies," Izlandi added, "Such actions will be seen as out of character for me since I''ve always shown my detest towards my situation," she said gritting her teeth slightly.


    "Which is why you''ll be using the next month to show that you''ve had a change of heart, you''ll put on the act of your life time to convince everyone that you are happy about becoming the concubine of Tanicks, and on the day you are to be taken away, you will also get rid of House Kant''s delegation which will include Tanicks," Lirian concluded and handed Izlandi a note.


    It was something that she requested, something that she would use to put another nail in the coffin of House Kurt.


    Izlandi got up and walked to the door, "Remember do not enter the room for the next ten days, it will take sometime to prepare so much of the poison," Lirian said.


    Once Izlandi shut the door, Lirian could hear the door get sucked in until it was completely sealed without any flow of air, and then the rooms spell formation started to activate.


    [Ding]


    [The toxin is no longer present in the world''s energy]


    ''Oh I can''t wait to be able to study the spell formations of this room for myself,'' Lirian thought in anticipation and started to rip of the casts that were on his legs.


    Lirian sat on the floor with his legs in a lotus position, while it hurt, he knew that this was nothing compared to the pain he was about to put his body through.


    Then he picked up a knife and cut a small line into his forearm, blood quickly started to flow down his hand, but Lirian didn''t care for that, he spread the wound open and reached in to pull out his earing.


    After he killed the first bandits he found, Lirian realised the value of gold in this world, and decided to hide the earing inside his body, it was a good thing that he did or the earing would have been long gone, as for the ring that was on the leather cord around his neck.


    It looked so old and crappy that no one bothered to remove it from his body, Lirian wondered how much they would kick themselves if they learned that they missed a portal that could take them to a galactic society.


    As he thought of that, Lirian placed the two items neatly to his side, if they remained on him they wouldn''t survive the process.


    ''It''s go time,'' Lirian thought with a grin and entered into his throne world.


    Lirian opened his eyes on the silver throne, and glanced around at the throne world, the seats that held all his past selves were perfectly normal with their occupants fast asleep, they had all been like this ever since Edith''s death.


    Only one was awake number 12.


    "So, it''s finally time," Number 12 said opening his two snake like eyes to look at Lirian.


    "Yes," Lirian replied and walked past him and directly to the soul vault.


    "How far do you think you''ll be able to go without breaking," Number 12 hissed in a lazy manner as he watched Lirian''s back.


    Lirian stopped in his tracks and turned back to look at number 12, "I''ve already lived enough to learn from my mistakes, I won''t be repeating them, not this time, never again," Lirian said firmly.


    "HAHAHA!" a wild laugh slithered out of number 12''s mouth, "For someone who is me, it''s quite funny to see how foolish you are being,"


    "We both know that those dreams you''re having and that voice that keeps coming to you, they aren''t real," Number 12 hissed in amusement and climbed of his seat and took simple steps towards Lirian.


    Even his movements resembled that of a snake, when he reached Lirian he hooked two of his fingers and pressed it against Lirian''s temple, "It''s all just here in your head,"


    "That voice is nothing but a delusion that you''ve dreamt, in your hopes at redemption, to try to prove that it was the curse that made us into monsters,"


    "You claim to be one of us, so why don''t you accept it now,"


    "We... were always¡­ monsters! It is simply what we are¡­ we lack what is required to make us noble," Number 12 hissed coldly.


    "We do not possess compassion, and we most certainly do not possess MERCY!" he let out a sharp hiss in Lirian''s face, "We are merely monsters and that is all there is to our existence," Number 12 said and walked back to his seat.


    "Yes we are monsters, but I''ll do everything I can to make us into more," Lirian said clenching his fist tightly.


    "Hahaha," Number 12 started to laugh a jeering laugh that would make a persons bones ache, "You will only fail, and when you fail in your ''noble'' task, do yourself a favour and pass on the throne," Number 12 said and shut his eyes before falling back into a deep sleep.


    Lirian grunted and opened the soul vault, he reached out with his hand and three finger sized crystals floated into Lirian palm.


    Lirian looked at the three source energy''s, first there was genesis the source of all matter, then there was cosmic the source of all energy and finally there was celestial the source of order and logic.


    The three energies that made up all things under the heavens.


    "Fragment," Lirian order and the three energies each broke into three equal pieces.


    "Assemble," Lirian ordered and the three energies formed into three pieces once more, this time they each consisted of an equal amount of each of the three energies.


    Lirian smiled and shut his eyes, returning from the throne world, the three source energies also materialised in front of him and hovered in the air, it was as if they were completely separated from the gravity of the world.


    Lirian took a calming breath and brought his hands together, "System take it from here," Lirian order as he readied his body for what was about to come.


    [Initiating, preparing the symbol of balance]


    Once the system finished telling Lirian what it was about to do the three crystalized source energies drifted around Lirian''s body and formed an equilateral triangle with Lirian being fixed at the centre.


    When the energies fell into place, sparks started to release from the crystal, the sparks started to rapidly stretch out and twist around Lirian forming curved lines.


    If one were to look closely they would have noticed a series of symbols were etched into the sparks and as the lines solidified the symbols became more clear, a few minutes passed before the source energies stopped releasing the sparks, but with just a glance it could be noticed that the energy sources shrunk in size.


    The symbol of balance was a Keltic knot (Image in paragraph comment).


    The symbol was glowing in a bright white light, and symbols gave off a divine radiance and were filled with profound meaning, about the nature of balance.


    [Proceeding to next step, Host prepare yourself for the triple fate split]


    Lirian took a deep breath with nervous sweet trickling down his body, this next part was one that could easily kill him if even the slightest mistake occurred.


    "Begin," Lirian ordered, and suddenly he felt a tight piercing pain, coursing through every fibre of his being.


    The pain didn''t come from the flesh rather it came from his fate string, currently the system was creating three splits on his fate string.


    The rules of the heavens were absolute, all being were only allowed to possess one esper technique, and Lirian''s attempts to hold more than one esper technique was a violation of that rule.


    Even his ''Body of Nirvana'' would allow him to hold multiple esper techniques, it couldn''t do anything to prevent tribulation that the heavens would unleash on him.


    Therefor Lirian had to find a way to break the rules while ensuring, that the heavens wouldn''t unleash a tribulation.


    Lirian split his fate string three times, one for each technique he was going to use, the splits would make it appear as if he was three different existences and save him from a tribulation.


    Lirian was certain that if he triggered a tribulation currently he would die immediately, after all esper techniques were the methods of gods, there was no way that a tribulation triggered by an esper technique could be handled by a mere mortal.


    As the system got started, Lirian recalled that time when Efrideet managed to sever his fate string, if he made even the slightest mistake he''d go through the same process all over again.

 Chapter 304 - 069 – First Grade Cultivator

    "Urgh," Lirian grunted while struggling with all his might to not scream and shout.


    The pain of having his fate string cut was, the most brutal torture he ever put himself through.


    Blood dripped from his hands, as his fingers had long since plunged through his palm, and were already grating against the bone, yet he didn''t feel the pain even the slightest.


    Crack. Crack. Crack.


    His teeth also started to shatter under pressure he was pulling on his jaws and blood started to seep out of his gum and pour down his face.


    But Lirian endured it with his mind numbing will power, and after a full hour of torture his fate string was split, a small thread was connected to his body while the other three splits ran to the three corners of the symbol.


    Lirian panted deeply when the process was completed, only the second step was completed and he was already feeling exhausted, his entire body had gone deathly pale, but he couldn''t allow himself to take a break or leave the circle.


    "I''m getting to old for this shit," Lirian muttered softly, "Proceed with the next part," Lirian ordered the system, he sighed happily knowing that the next part wouldn''t do anything to him.


    [Proceeding with Amatesh Shard creation]


    The energy sources started to release arcs of energy once more and they each produced a small crystal the size of a ball that could fit in a your palm, the crystal had a mystic purple colour, fairly similar to its counterpart the Amatesh Spindles which were used to draw second accord waylines.


    Lirian''s natural Samsaric waylines only allowed up to intermediate esper techniques, it was necessary to improve his waylines.


    Once the Amatesh Shards were complete, Lirian''s fate string started to wrap around the source energies and they started to change form and soon three figures that resembled Lirian appeared, only they were extremely small, small enough to look like little fairies.


    The three mini Lirian''s sat completely still without making a move as the Amatesh shards hung over their head.


    [Host please place the extracted natures inside the Amatesh Shards]


    Lirian focused on the extracted natures of the gods essence and picked out the fire phoenixes nature of rebirth, thanks to it being something of a second god grade, Lirian would have no need to find materials that held rebirth laws until he was ready to tackle the third god grade.


    "Thanks dad," he silently muttered, without his father he would have never had any of these godly essences.


    [Adding ''The Body of Nirvana'' perfect esper cultivation manual]


    The nature quickly entered the Amatesh Shard, in just seconds the shard started to lose its form and resembled a liquid as it landed on the first mini Lirian and sunk into its body, causing it to rapidly undergo a change, the mini Lirian''s hair started to resembled red flames, and actual flames also started to rise out of its body.


    Lirian quickly did the same with the second mini Lirian, pushing the natures he extracted from the Void Overlord into the Amatesh Shard.


    [Adding ''Void Walker'' advanced esper cultivation technique]


    When the Amatesh Shard merged with second mini Lirian, it started to emit a blueish mist that resembled the void.


    Lirian turned to the last one unlike the others this one had a very special activation that only he could perform, ''Eight Truths'' was born from the knowledge of the words of heaven, and knowing the words of heaven was the only way to use it.


    The merge of his Samsaric esper technique and ''Eight Truths'' would happen once the process was completed.


    [Adding ''Eight Truths'' perfect esper cultivation technique]


    Lirian focused on his knowledge of the words of heaven and allowed it to flow into the final Amatesh Shard, when it sunk into the final mini Lirian no change occurred this time, only a slightly white and sacred glow surrounded its body.


    When Lirian finished, the symbol immediately started to light up on the ground and the lines started to stretch and wrap around the three mini Lirian''s.


    In just a few seconds the three mini Lirians started to liquify and merge with the symbol, the colours of blue, red and white started to flow through the symbol and the lines gradually started to wrap around Lirian''s body.


    On the three sides of the symbol a small splint of the source energies remained, each one was no larger than a drop of water.


    But Lirian had no time to focus on that as the lines started to tightly wrap around his body and press into his flesh.


    The red and blue energies started to flow through his body rapidly however the white energy came to a sudden halt.


    [Merging process of ''Eight Truths'' and ''Samsara''s Breath'', would host like to proceed, Y/N?]


    Lirian hurried accepted and the process happened rapidly, he felt his silver Samsaric energy and White Eight Truths energy merge smoothly, it was almost as if they were always meant to be one.


    [New Esper Cultivation Technique has been made, automatically naming it]


    [''The Nine Truths of Samsara'' has been formed as an advanced esper technique]


    Lirian felt an explosion of power course through his body as the three energies started to move through every fibre of his being merging his centres of power.


    Hours passed by as Lirian controlled the spread of the changes he couldn''t allow it to happen to fast or it would overwhelm his body, so he steadily allowed the energy to perform changes to his body.


    An entire day passed by before the surging energies calmed down and matrix of the Keltic knot took form on his chest, only this time Lirian felt a sudden change that arose from his godly constitution.


    The power his godly constitution started to mix it''s energy into the knot and soon the lines took on the form of a serpent.


    [Will host activate ''Body of Nirvana, Y/N?]


    "Yes," Lirian immediately selected without hesitation.


    One of the pieces of sources energy floated up to Lirian and press itself against his chest.


    [Activating Third accord perfect esper Technique]


    [Third Accord Boosts]


    -          Elementary = 1000%


    -          Basic = 1250%


    -          Intermediate = 1500%


    -          Advanced = 1750%


    -          Perfected = 2250%


    Lirian looked at his new status screen as the power value of his Body of Nirvana rapidly started to climb.


    ---


    Name: Lirian/Samsara (The god of rebirth)


    Status: Mortal of the Third Accord (2250% Boost) (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    ESPER: 33 (2250%)


    Breath of Nirvana: 99 (Body of Nirvana Perfect esper cultivation Technique ¨C 2250% Boost)


    Breath of the Void: 0


    Breath of Samsaric Truth:0


    Intrinsic Energy Quality: 1


    Energy Level: 387,75/775,5 (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    ---


    With the merging of his centres of power all of his earlier stats were completely washed away, now his centres of power were essentially one.


    Any increase in cultivation would affect his mind, body and energy.


    Having only esper energy in his body made his progression pretty similar to a cultivator who cultivated multiple, body, mind or energy techniques.


    In order to achieve a realm break through all the techniques had to reach the energy threshold hold first which would also increase the time he required to reach a new realm by three times.


    [Mortal Grade Energy Rank Thresholds]


    -          First grade = 100 (stage increment every 60 energy points)


    -          Second Grade = 700 (stage increment every 350 energy points)


    -          Third Grade = 4 200 (stage increment every 1680 energy points)


    -          Fourth Grade = 21 000 (stage increment every 6300 energy points)


    -          Fifth Grade = 84 000 (stage increment every 16 800 energy points)


    -          Sixth Grade = 252 000 (stage increment every 25 200 energy points)


    -          Seventh Grade = 504 000


    Every realm had 10 stages, and the increment was the power required to achieve every realm, currently Lirian pushed his Nirvana body to 99 energy points, due to the unique nature of his godly constitution he would be able to push his energy above the threshold, but it wouldn''t trigger his life hierarchy ascension into a higher realm.


    After stopping the energy from accumulating on his ''Body of Nirvana'' Lirian started cultivating the ''Void Walker'' technique and when that was done he used his new technique and excitedly started to move the energy in the patterns of ''The Nine Truth''s of Samsara''.


    The new technique took Lirian a short time to adjust to before the pure source energies started to flow though his body a few hours later he looked at his status again.


    ---


    Name: Lirian/Samsara (The god of rebirth)


    Status: Mortal of the Third Accord (1916,66% Boost) (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    ESPER: 99 (1916,66%)


    Breath of Nirvana: 99 (Body of Nirvana Perfect esper cultivation technique ¨C 2250% Boost)


    Breath of the Void: 99 (Void Walker Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750% Boost)


    Breath of Samsaric Truth: 99 (Nine Truths of Samsara Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750%)


    Intrinsic Energy Quality: 1


    Energy Level: 998/1996 (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    ---


    The overall boost was lowered when the three boosts were added and divided, but that was expected by Lirian.


    He could feel the energy in his body still lingering from the source energies.


    "Ignite!" he shouted using the energy to push the techniques one after the other into the first grade.

 Chapter 305 - 070 – Abilities 1

    The source energy inside Lirian''s body flowed through his energy points like surging tides, at the same time a field formed around Lirian which rapidly sucked in every ounce of energy in the room and pulled it into Lirian''s body.


    Lirian could feel his body changing rapidly as his ''Body of Nirvana'' broke through the limits, red flames quickly started to materialize all over his body, the flames burnt out all the moisture from his body making it resemble a dead husk and cracks started to rapidly spread throughout his dried up body.


    Lirian took a deep breath as he knew what was about to come next, so he quickly started to circulate his ''Void Walker'' technique and finally ''Nine Truths of Samsara''.


    Lirian let out a laboured breath, as even his lungs started to crack and his entire body started to crumble into dust, but he sighed in relief as he just managed to push his two other techniques to the first grade.


    The energy built up in Lirian''s body, and as all his techniques broke through the energy in his body erupted, the cracks on his body glowed with different colours of his energies.


    Boom.


    Suddenly Lirian''s entire body blew up creating a kaleidoscope of colours as his ashes scattered throughout the entire room.


    The ashes spread around the entire room and everything went completely still for several minutes, before a layer of flame enveloped the ashes.


    The flames were a mix of blue, red and silver, which resulted in a colour resembling a metallic purple.


    The metallic purple flames started to grow rapidly, and before long they formed thick streams of flame that converged on a single point.


    The ball of flame started to grow with every passing second, until in was over 10 feet in diameter, before the flames started to shrink down and take on the form of a person.


    Lirian could feel his fate strings twisting and slowly reforming into one whole, the process was much easier on him than splitting it, and before long he could feel his existence fully merge back together with his fate string.


    Lirian hovered in the air with a wide smile etched onto his face that looked even more beautiful than before if it was possible.


    But his face had gained a slightly more masculine look to it, it was enough that people wouldn''t question his gender anymore, but most importantly was Lirian''s new height.


    ''I''m no longer (4''8"),'' Lirian laughed happily, ''I put on 5 whole inches,'' Lirian celebrated while pumping his fists, it by no means made him tall, heck he knew that he was still below average by a large margin, but at least he wouldn''t look like a complete child anymore.


    Lirian clenched his fist tightly as he felt the pure and unbridled power of espers breath permeating every fibre of his being, simply by tightening his fists Lirian could feel the power crackling throughout his body.


    ''I''ve never had the chance to activate a esper technique at the first grade, let alone three,'' Lirian thought with amazement, in truth is wasn''t until his last life that he successfully came up with the method of activating three techniques without incurring the wrath of the heavens.


    While the ''Body of Nirvana'' had the ability to allow him to use multiple esper techniques it still broke the rules, hence the requirement of Lirian to split his fate string, then to start up the esper technique on each individual split then merge it all together and to kill himself before undergoing Nirvana.


    Lirian finally turned to look at his stats, he was eager to see all the abilities he opened, he was especially looking forward to see which truth ability he got.


    ''Eight Truths,'' would slowly open up over time as he reach new realms, it always worked, where 3 truths would open in the mortal realm, 3 in the immortal realm and 2 in the god realm, now that changed to the ''Nine Truths of Samsara'' which would undoubtedly change the process.


    As he thought of the truths Lirian felt eager to learn the new truth, but he decided to be more practical in his thoughts, currently the best truth for him to possess would be ''The Truth to Power''.


    The power of ''Eight Truths,'' was far to world breaking, hence the heavens had to place restrictions upon it, the fact that Lirian couldn''t choose which truth he obtained and had to leave it to luck was the restriction.


    He crossed his fingers and looked through his new stats.


    ---


    Name: Lirian/Samsara (The god of rebirth)


    Status: First Grade/First Stage Mortal of the Third Accord (2548,16% Boost), (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    ESPER: 112 (+420) (1916,66% Boost)


    Breath of Nirvana: 112 (Body of Nirvana Perfect esper cultivation technique ¨C 2250% Boost)


    Breath of the Void: 112 (Void Walker Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750% Boost)


    Breath of Samsaric Truth: 112 (Nine Truths of Samsara Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750%)


    Intrinsic Energy Quality: First grade = 4 I.E.Q


    Energy Level: 28 176/56 352 (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    [Level of Threats detected on your fate string is currently low]


    Fate Achievements:


    - Heavens Bane (I)¨C You have survived the onslaught of heavens wrath; you are now immune to 5% of all heavenly tribulation damage.


    - Born a God ¨C You are the first born god in all of creation, your bodies limits are not restricted by the constraints of cultivation.


    - First in Existence ¨C you are the first born god as result due to your unique existence the heaven places it''s boon upon you, you will gain insights into the laws of the world faster any other being in creation. (2x learning speed)


    - Heavens Chosen ¨C the current heaven has a task for you that aligns with your future, the path will be yours to choose, until the task is completed the heavens greatest boon shall be placed upon you. (10x all fate particles collected.)


    - Without Equal ¨C you have a natural gift to comprehend and understand the world in all its layers, there has never been another with such insight. (10x learning speed)


    - Source Knowledge ¨C you have grasped the knowledge of genesis, cosmic and celestial, all energy centre''s benefit from these knowledge''s (2,30x cultivation speed, as you grow stronger so will your cultivation speed)


    - Unique Esper ¨C You are the first to hold more than one esper technique in your body, the heavens approve of your ingenuity and grant you a boon. (Boost to overall cultivation after accord Boosts are counted in, +11% Boost for every esper technique)


    Systems Fate Particles: 320 000


    Hosts Fate Particles: 138 000


    [Godly Essences]


    [¡­]


    ABILITIES:


    First Accord Abilities:


    -          First Accord Enhancement ¨C all your natural senses are enhanced, the degree of the enhancement will increase as your power grows. (Passive)


    Body Cultivator:


    -          Tough Body ¨C your body is tougher than a mortals, granting you greater endurance. (Passive)


    -          Aura ¨C the power to stimulate your cells and manifest your bodies energy. (Active)


    Mana Cultivator:


    -          Elemental Spell Caster ¨C you have the power to replicate the properties of the elements with your mana through the usage of spells. (Active)


    -          Ruins ¨C you can use ruins to enchant items, as well as to create unique spells. (Active)


    Mind Cultivator:


    -          Psychic Link ¨C use the mind to form links with people through which you communicate, with further enhancement you will gain the ability to share more than just words. (Active)


    -          Accelerated Thoughts ¨C your mind works faster than ever before, your ability to learn and process information is greatly enhanced. (Passive)


    -          Telekinesis ¨C control the dormant fields of the universe to move objects without touching them. (Active)


    -          Control ¨C the ability to lock down an area and influence all things in the area including laws. (Active)


    Second Accord Abilities:


    -          Immortal candidate ¨C two of your energy centres have merged making you a candidate to become an immortal, you are granted an additional +2 cultivation stages worth of energy.


    Warlock Abilities:


    -          Lawless Casting ¨C You are capable of replicating the effects of laws in your spells. (Active)


    -          Law Merging ¨C you can merge laws to your ''Warlocks Heart'', all your energy will carry the effects of the laws without you needing to pay additional energy to replicate the effects of laws.


    -          Superior Mind ¨C your ability to learn and understand the mysteries of the heavens is greatly enhanced. (Passive)


    Saint Abilities:


    -          Regeneration ¨C your body will heal at a rapid pace when injured, the only limit is the loss of a limb which cannot be regrown with just the ability. (Passive)


    -          Law Merging ¨C merge the laws directly with your cells, this ability grants you the ability to use the laws with every simple motion of your body.


    -          Battle Radiance ¨C the ability to enhance all your senses and your bodies strength by 500%. (Active)


    Pugilist Abilities:


    -          Indominable Body ¨C Your body is extremely powerful and can withstand the berserk powers of elemental energies. (Passive)


    -          Elemental Harnesser ¨C elemental energies can hold laws within, harness the powers of the elements to utilise their laws, your body can hold up to three elemental energies.


    -          Elemental Berserker ¨C push the elemental energies in your body over the limit, to create of field of death, when active elemental energies gain a 500% increase in power. (Active)


    Lirian looked through his complete status for the first time in a long while, and the first thing that caught his eye was the heaven''s suppression he was under.


    That did not take Lirian by surprise at all, he was currently in the mortal realm, and the mortal realm was meant for first accord cultivators, so the heavens had to try creating balance hence the suppression.


    Second accord cultivators also faced a 20% suppression, but the suppression didn''t bother Lirian to much, as long as he got ''Truth to Power'' the suppression would have no affect on him, and that was just one of the effects of ''Truth to Power''.


    His new fate achievement, Unique Esper, made Lirian rejoice, he had received the same boon in his last life, but he couldn''t be too certain that he would receive it in this plain.


    After all the plain was extremely old, most of the gods were in the second god grade with several who stood at the limits of the realm, Lirian couldn''t rule out the possibility that another god had fulfilled the fate achievement before him.


    But seeing that no one had approached his great discover and learned how to hold multiple Esper techniques while staying within the heaven''s fairness, put a smile on Lirian''s face.


    ''Even in this world where the gods are older than I, and had much more time to experiment, it appears that my knowledge still reigns supreme,'' Lirian thought, he couldn''t help but feel proud of his great accomplishments.


    After reading through all his first and second accord abilities Lirian started to focus on his main abilities the ones unique to his esper techniques.

 Chapter 306 - 071 – Abilities 2

    Third Accord Perks:


    -          God candidate ¨C the complete merging of the three centres of power, makes you an ideal candidate to become a god, +5 stages of cultivation energy.


    -          Levitation ¨C you are granted the ability to levitate by the heavens authority, you cannot levitate above a height, that will result in injury or death should you fall.


    Breath of Nirvana:


    -          Nirvana ¨C undergo Nirvana to re-forge your body, your body has currently been remoulded to hold three esper techniques.


    -          9 Elements ¨C your body can harness up to 9 elemental energies.


    -          Elementalized body ¨C you can elementalize your body by taking on the properties of the elements.


    -          Undying Body ¨C your body is capable of regenerating from any and all wounds, with the sole exception of the destruction of your centres of power.


    -          Flames of Nirvana ¨C you can use the flames of Nirvana on your self or any other, to rapidly heal any wound or ailment.


    Breath of the Void:


    -          Conduit ¨C you have the ability to channel, absorb, or deflect all forms of energy, the effect of the perk depends on the difference between you and the level of the energy.


    -          Unconscious Cultivator ¨C you will naturally cultivate at all times, at a third of your natural cultivation speed, your energy will also be constantly restored even as you consume energy.


    -          Voids Encroach ¨C you can lace all your energy with the corrosive properties of the void.


    -          Void Walker ¨C grants you the ability to etherealise your body, making it possible for you to live within the void.


    -          Harnesser of the Void ¨C you are capable of harnessing the energies of the void, and using them to increase your cultivation.


    Breath of Samsaric Truth:


    -          Unbreakable Mind ¨C your mind cannot be breached by anyone that does not cultivate an advanced esper technique, with a focus on the mind, mind control cannot be used on you, and all forms of soul searches are ineffective against you.


    -          Samsara''s Vision ¨C you have the eye of a god capable of viewing the fate of all things (Sealed) (The mental strain is beyond your current ability to handle, continue as a first grader for 70 years or reach the third grade to use your eyes again)


    [Samsara''s Curse] ¨C the curse of Samsara can be placed on the true soul of a person.


    -          the cursed soul will be damned to never experience peace and live a life of unbridled torment.


    -          the curse can be placed on a soul for multiple incarnations, the price will increase exponentially for every incarnation cursed.


    -          1 life = 10 ^1 fate particles


    -          2 lives = 10^2 fate particles


    -          3 lives = 10^3 fate particles


    [Samsara''s Blessing] ¨C a blessing place upon a true soul that will grant fortune to the soul after reincarnation.


    -          the blessings intensity is dependent on the number of fate particles used.


    -          the more fate particles used the higher chance of the soul awakening their past life memories.


    [Truth of Realms and Veils] ¨C a truth derived from your understanding of the heavenly word.


    -          Grants you the power to pass through the realm veil that separates the mortal, immortal and god realm, you can also pass through the multiple universe''s of the plain.


    -          With this ability even as a god you will be able to freely enter the other realms.


    -          No barriers formed from energy will be able to restrict you.


    -          You can temporarily draw upon the rules of the other realms to break free of the realm suppression, can be used for 1 hour every day, increase your life level to extend the time


    Lirian happily looked through his abilities, the three abilities that stuck out the most, was his [Undying Body], [Unconscious Cultivator] and [Unbreakable Mind], those three abilities were to die for, with the three of them Lirian could practically guaranty that no matter what he would be almost impossible to kill, he would constantly grow stronger at all times, and his mind could never be breached.


    He was also happy to see that his Samsaric abilities all mixed in with his ''Eight Truths'' perfectly, the one thing that he was hoping for did not come and that was ''Truth to Power'', unfortunately due to the heaven defying capacities of the truths it was impossible for him to select which truth he wanted.


    But he was extremely happy with the result ''Truth of Realms and Veils'' was actually the first truth he ever discovered, and it was thanks to it that he was able to survive the pursuit of gods and immortals during his growing phases.


    With it he could escape to the lower realms at any time when they were all bound by the restrictions, if he had a gold coin for every time this truth came in useful, well he''d have mountains of gold.


    Because while escaping the pursuit of greater beings was a common occurrence for Lirian the true usefulness came in it''s ability to negate all forms of energy barriers, after all if even the heavens greatest barriers that not even gods could bypass, was useless before this truth then what could possibly stop the ''Truth of Realms and Veils''.


    Finally Lirian started to read the last of his abilities.


    Abilities:


    Godly Constitution: - your godly constitution is still in its slumber, most of the powers of the godly constitution are still unknown.


    -          Limitless ¨C you have the ability to exceed the energy limits of your life level.


    -          Gods Charm ¨C you have an innate charm that cannot be resisted by lesser beings (Suppressed 80%, time until suppression wears off 314 galactic years)


    -          Gods Pride ¨C the pride that comes with your constitution makes it impossible for you to lower yourself under the pressure of others life hierarchy, you are immune to all life hierarchy pressure below the god grade.


    Skills:


    -          Energy Control (i)¨C you are able to bend the purest form of energy in your surroundings.


    -          Energy Control (ii) ¨C you can use energy control to replicate any form of energy you make the energy come into direct contact with


    -          Combat Mastery (i) ¨C you can use the forms.


    -          ¡­


    -          Combat Mastery(vi) ¨C you can use the forms, form combination, free striking, tension forms, form creation and form merging.


    -          Alchemy master ¨C you are a master of alchemy.


    -          Ruin Smiting master ¨C you are a master of item creation and enchantments.


    -          Fate Forging Master ¨C you are a master of fate forging items.


    -          Intrinsic Energy Mastery ¨C you have an in dept understanding of the intrinsic quality of energy, you are able to manipulate your energy to act like higher or lower grade energy, so long as you have sufficient energy.


    -          ¡­


    The list of skills went on for a very long while, as the system started to state every skill he ever learned and mastered, it was naturally a very very long list, given Lirian''s true age.


    Lirian looked at his gods charm, and was surprised by how much time was cut, initially it was over 400 now it was suddenly slightly over 300 years before the suppression wore off.


    Lirian could only come up with one solution and that was his charms power increased when his life level increased.


    Finally Lirian looked at the two remaining pieces of source energy, for a brief moment he considered saving it but in the end it was far too little, when he attempted to become an Immortal in the future, he was going to need a considerable amount energy in the future, but those two pieces would hardly help, so he used them to push his cultivation up.


    The only thing in the world that could increase cultivation at a rapid pace was source energies, all other energies had to be steadily added into the body.


    A short while later Lirian looked at his status one last time.


    ---


    Name: Lirian/Samsara (The god of rebirth)


    Status: First Grade/Fourth Stage Mortal of the Third Accord (2548,16% Boost), (50% Heavenly Suppression)


    Affiliations: Prince candidate of the Clovis Empire


    Current realm: The Mortal Realm


    ESPER: 336 (+420) (1916,66% Boost)


    Breath of Nirvana: 336 (Body of Nirvana Perfect esper cultivation technique ¨C 2250% Boost)


    Breath of the Void: 336 (Void Walker Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750% Boost)


    Breath of Samsaric Truth: 336 (Nine Truths of Samsara Advanced esper cultivation technique ¨C 1750%)


    Intrinsic Energy Quality: First grade = 4 I.E.Q


    Energy Level: 40 040/80 080(50% Heavenly Suppression)


    ---


    Lirian sighed with satisfaction and cast a glance at the Intrinsic Energy Quality.


    It was basically the quality that was given to energy based on ones life level.


    Intrinsic Energy Quality:


    First Accord I.E.Q.:


    -          First grade ¨C 1 I.E.Q


    -          Second grade ¨C 2 I.E.Q


    -          Third grade ¨C 6 I.E.Q


    -          Fourth grade ¨C 24 I.E.Q


    -          Fifth grade ¨C 120 I.E.Q


    -          Sixth grade ¨C 720 I.E.Q


    -          Seventh grade ¨C 5040 I.E.Q


    Second Accord I.E.Q.:


    -          First grade ¨C 2 I.E.Q


    -          Second grade ¨C 4 I.E.Q


    -          Third grade ¨C 12 I.E.Q


    -          Fourth grade ¨C 48 I.E.Q


    -          Fifth grade ¨C 240 I.E.Q


    -          Sixth grade ¨C 1440 I.E.Q


    -          Seventh grade ¨C 10080 I.E.Q


    Third Accord I.E.Q.:


    -          First grade ¨C 4 I.E.Q


    -          Second grade ¨C 8 I.E.Q


    -          Third grade ¨C 24 I.E.Q


    -          Fourth grade ¨C 96 I.E.Q


    -          Fifth grade ¨C 480 I.E.Q


    -          Sixth grade ¨C 2880 I.E.Q


    -          Seventh grade ¨C 20 160 I.E.Q


    Essentially a first graders energy wasn''t all that much different from an ordinary person, but as a person increased their life level, their energy would increase in Intrinsic quality.


    So basically if Lirian were to compare his energy against someone of the seventh grade while factoring his boosts in, it would go something like this.


    (336 + 420)¡Á(2548,16%)¡Á(4 I.E.Q) = 80 080 energy points


    (80 080¡Â5040 I.E.Q) = 15,88 energy points.


    Lirian''s current complete power could be equated to 15,88 units of a seventh graders energy and that was without the seventh graders boosts added, and a seventh grader held 504 000 energy units, which made Lirian current power pale in comparison.


    Lirian knew in the current place his most powerful enemies were the three third graders, whose energy could stand anywhere between 4 200 ¨C 21 000 so he decided to compare his energy.


    (80 080 ¡Â 6 I.E.Q) = 13 347 energy points.


    In term of energy Lirian could compare himself to a middle stage, first accord, third grade cultivator, which filled him with complete ease for any trouble that may arise during his stay.


    When Lirian was done with his plans he turned to the field of evolution energy he generated with his evolution.


    The evolution energy was something that the world would take for itself, and because of how exceptionally pure the evolution energy was, given that it was made by him a third accord cultivator, he was willing to bet that the will of the world would desperately want it.


    A grin formed on Lirian''s face as he came up with a plan of his own to use this to his advantage.


    He looked at his ''Heaven Chosen'' boon and muttered, "Let''s see if you''ll come in useful," he whispered and started to activate his ''Conduit'' ability to absorb the evolution energy, he had plans to fulfil and that evolution energy would be useful to realise them.

 Chapter 307 - 072 – World Line Quest 1

    Lirian activated his ''Conduit'' ability and immediately, felt the pure power of the evolution energy entering his body.


    "Now it''s your time to shine," Lirian muttered to his [Heaven Chosen] boon, the moment he started to absorb the evolution energy he felt a powerful presence descend upon him, and his mind was soon pulled from his body.


    Lirian felt a mental connection form with the will of the world, Lirian blinked and opened his eyes, in this mental space he was able to make out a grand construct made up of countless energy particles.


    The energy particles spiralled around in a countless number of patterns, and Lirian knew that this was in fact the will of the world, and it was emitting an intense anger towards Lirian.


    The evolution energy that a cultivator created during their life hierarchy ascensions was something that belong to the world.


    Cultivators and the will of the world had a mutually beneficial relationship with one another, cultivators used the breath of the world to cultivate, and the world used the evolution energy for itself.


    What Lirian had just done was not only a breach of the heavenly law, but it was technically impossible, no one could harness or utilize evolution energy besides the heavens itself, yet Lirian was able absorb and utilize all forms of energy with his ''Conduit'' ability, which earned him the anger of the will of the world.


    Lirian nodded happily when he found himself in this place, for such an act any other being would have been crushed by the world, however he was [Heaven Chosen] and the will of the world was kind of like a sub-program of the will of the heavens, it was impossible for it to go against the heavens.


    Hence the worlds decision to pull Lirian here, and have a meeting with him.


    A deafening pressure descended on Lirian''s entire being as he stood before the will of the world, but he stood with complete confidence not minding the pressure of the world.


    "You''re angry," Lirian laughed heartily, "I get it, but it was mainly my source energies that were responsible for my ascension and you know that, a very small portion of world energy was consumed by me, so technically I don''t owe you my evolution energy," Lirian argued logically.


    It was the way the will of the world worked, only logic would work against it, after all it held no emotions, and its anger was basically it''s programmed response to someone taking something it saw as rightfully belonging to it.


    [¡­]


    Lirian listened to the response of the will of the world, it seemed to know that Lirian was correct, yet it didn''t want to give up on the esper evolution energy, to the world the esper evolution energy was like a once in a life time delicacy.


    "Then how about we strike a deal," Lirian proposed to the world with anticipation, he wondered if it would work, to be able to bargain with a world was impossible unless you had the power to obliterate it, but even then it was rare to be able to get anything good out of the world.


    Lirian noticed that the world was taking its time to respond, so he quickly added, "I can destroy my evolution energy as well, and all my future evolution energies," he threatened, knowing how the world valued his evolution energy he knew that it would make a big difference.


    [¡­]


    Lirian smiled in satisfaction as the world started to bargain with him, a lot of time passed as Lirian made a deal with the will of the world.


    In that time unbeknownst to the people of Nebula ¨C 6, a deal was struck that would change the course of their world forever.


    When the deal was completed the will of the world released Lirian and allowed him to return to his body, with both sides coming to a deal.


    At that moment the system gave Lirian a new alert.


    [You have met the requirements, and triggered the World Line Quest of Liberation]


    [Would you like to expand/collapse the quest details]


    Lirian quickly expanded and looked at the brief details of what the world requested of him.


    [World Line Quest: Liberate the world of Nebula ¨C 6]


    [Synopsys: The world of Nebula-6 has an extremely low number of cultivators, and the world is unsatisfied with this status-quo, you have been requested to spread the Dao of cultivation.]


    [Missions]


    -          You are to create and spread cultivation techniques to the masses of Nebula ¨C 6.


    -          Find a method that will allow the masses of the world to practice cultivation without succumbing to the Neural Toxin in the breath of the world.


    -          Spread the method to the masses


    -          Discover the source of the Neural Toxin.


    -          Attempt to get rid of the Neural Toxin.


    -          ???(Special Mission) (Not required to be fulfilled)


    [Rewards]


    -          The will of the world shall grant you any three wishes, so long as the wishes do violate the rules of the heavens and go against the natural order.


    -          + 1 quadrillion fate particles


    -          Knowledge about Nebula ¨C 6


    [Requirements]


    -          Complete any two of the above missions for one of your wishes to get each wish.


    -          More than 60% of the world''s population must become cultivators.


    -          The method to allow the masses to cultivate must be something that is affordable to the masses.


    [Failure Conditions]


    -          You have been given a 100-year period to complete the task, fail to do so and you are to offer your body to the world.


    -          You have been granted your first grade evolution energy, however all future evolution energies are to be offered to the world, failure to do so will earn you the worlds ire.


    Lirian read through the information, it was a good summary of his discussions with the will of the world.


    The most interesting part to Lirian was that the neural toxin in the breath of the world was not placed there by the will of the world.


    Put simply it meant that someone else placed the toxin in the worlds energy, Lirian furrowed his brow as one thought ended up coming to him.


    Nebula ¨C 6 was one of the 42 worlds that all prince/princess candidates of the great Civilizations who passed the first two test of the ''Unbeatable Challenge'' could come to for their trial.


    It said that these 42 worlds were worlds that the gods wanted anyone who could reach the third stage of the ''Unbeatable challenge'' to visit, which left one very troublesome thought in Lirian''s head.


    That the toxin was in fact something that the gods placed within Nebula ¨C 6, Lirian had absolutely no idea what the purpose of it was, but if there was one thing he knew all to well about gods, it was that when they begun grand experiments on a large scale, they hated when external factors interfered and skewered the results.


    If that was the case then he felt like he might have just signed onto a mission that would bode extremely badly for his future, he may just end up offending a god or gods in the plural to complete the mission requirements.


    And he didn''t have much of a choice in that either, the world of Nebula ¨C 6 had a 12 month year, whereas the galactic society Lirian came from had a 19 month galactic year.


    In total he had 85 years and 14 months to complete his trial, but when converted to  Nebula ¨C 6''s years that worked out to 136 years and 9 months of which 3 months had already passed since his arrival in this world.


    The agreement that Lirian had with the world, stated that he had 100 years to fulfil his task or his life would be offered to the world, so unless he was prepared to give up his trial and return to the Clovis empire he''d have to find a way to make it work.


    ''Let''s just hope that the gods don''t get to mad when I mess up their experiment down here'' Lirian thought with a sigh and stretched his legs, walking on his own two legs again was oddly satisfying for Lirian.


    For the past month he had grown extremely used to having his legs broken but thanks to his nirvana all his injuries were gone including that brand Reyna put on his skin.


    Lirian walked across the room towards the ring that held the teleporter and his earing that signified his status as a prince candidate of the Clovis Empire.


    But instead of picking it up normally Lirian simply thought about moving it and under his telekinesis it hovered towards his body, using just his telekinesis he placed the ring back around his neck and the earing was attached to his right ear.


    With his current power Lirian knew that anyone who was desperate enough to try robbing him for the earring would be meet a very quick death.


    Just then another message popped on his system.


    [Congratulation on achieving the first grade +10 000 fate particles]


    The fate particles rapidly multiplied by 10 thanks to the [Heavens Chosen] boon, bringing his fate particles to 238 000.


    His system was also extremely low on fate particles after all it''s work to activate the three esper techniques.


    Then another message popped up.


    [You have achieved first grade, requirements have been met, you have triggered the World Line Quest of ''The Candidates Trial'']

 Chapter 308 - 073 – World Line Quest 2

    [World Line Quest: The Candidates Trial]


    [Synopsys: Your are currently under the third phase of the ''Unbeatable Challenge'', a trial as old as the Seven Great Civilisation, and a trial that no one is known to have ever passed, as a prince candidate you have certain matters to fulfil to pass your trial]


    [Mission]


    1.      Create a detailed report about the world of Nebula ¨C 6.


    -          Gather maps detailing the worlds terrain.


    -          Identify all existing sentient races on the planet.


    -          Create a bestiary detailing the various animals and creatures of the world.


    -          Create a botanical compendium detailing the various forms of plant life.


    -          Create a list of all valuable resources contained on the world.


    -          Identify the various powers of the world and list their sizes, overall strength and the amount of territory they possess.


    -          Report any strange or inexplicable phenomena that occurs on the world.


    2.      Choose your path of action.


    -          Destroyer ¨C use the skill and teachings that you learned in the empire to bring about the destruction of the world''s powers.


    -          Conqueror ¨C use the skills and teachings that you learned in the empire to build a power of your own and take control over the world.


    -          Glory ¨C use the skills and teachings that you learned in the empire to integrate yourself with the powers of the world, any of the following positions will qualify you to pass:


    -          ''Head'' of one of the worlds top three merchant houses,


    -          ''Head'' of one of the world''s top three intelligence agencies,


    -          any major ''Advisor'' position in the world''s greatest powers,


    -          ''Great Commander'' of the armies of any of the world''s greatest powers,


    -          ''Commander'' of the greatest independent armed forces in the world.


    -          ¡­


    [Rewards]


    -          + 1 quadrillion fate particles


    -          Rewards from the Clovis Empire


    -          Knowledge of Nebula ¨C 6


    -          ???


    [Failure Conditions]


    -          Revealing your identity as a prince candidate


    -          If someone gets a hold of your return portal and uses it.


    -          Losing your prince candidate earring


    -          Dying


    -          Failure to complete [2. Choose your Path]


    Lirian read through the list it was all information that he had been given before he was sent to Nebula ¨C 6, but it seemed that his system felt like it was only appropriate to implement the quest now that he had the power to not get crushed by any random enemy.


    The first part was pretty textbook for anyone exploring a new world, you gather as much data about the world and send it back to your superiors, it was a typical scouting mission and something to prepare candidates for their future.


    Once they became princes/princess, they would either join other exploration groups or create their own exploration group and take over worlds that did not belong to the empire.


    For that to work they needed to have a breakdown of information to know whether or not a world was worth an invasion, and from there they needed to know the powers that made up the world, to create the best possible plan to integrate the new world into the empire.


    The first part of the quest basically tested a candidate''s information gathering skills, an essential in any capable officer, as for the second part it was the true challenge, but the academies courses did amply prepare the candidates for such positions.


    That however did not make it easy to fulfil those conditions, unlike Lirian other candidates had 200 years to complete their tasks, but it didn''t make it much easier after all they still had only 200 years to achieve these things when any other existing power in the world had countless years to build up their foundations and secure their power.


    The options of destroyer and conqueror were basically impossible for anyone to achieve, the worlds they went to were filled with cultivators, and it was very likely for seventh grade cultivators to exist on those worlds, reaching the third grade in 200 years is an expected for any candidate, and reaching fourth grade in such a short time would be consider an amazing achievement, that was the type of talent required to be listed as an emperor/empress candidate.


    But going above that was impossible in 200 years, hence competing against a seventh grader as a fourth grader was just asking for death, therefor the first two options were unachievable unless someone landed in an especially weak world, or if they were unbelievably talented at manipulating people.


    It was said that Empress Cadsuan Clovis, managed to manipulate all the great powers of the world into bloody conflicts, she utilised the three perfect cultivation techniques that the empire gave to all their candidates upon their departure, as a source for their battles.


    The techniques that the empire gave to the candidates were amazing even amongst first accord techniques, since the three techniques synergised extremely well, which made the techniques act like a perfect set.


    The desirability of the techniques was immense, and she successfully used them to stir the entire world into a frenzy, while keeping herself out of the main battles, eventually the conflict enveloped the entire world.


    When the war came to its end the entire world was in ruin with barely any people surviving, Empress Cadsuan was powerless in the battles, yet she managed to stay far away from the centre of the conflict and in the end she killed the last of the seventh graders who were all knocking on deaths door at the end.


    Finally, she declared herself as ruler of the entire world, achieving both the achievements of destroyer and conqueror, she was the first in history to achieve both and only two others throughout all the empires ever had the same achievement.


    The positions listed under ''Glory'' were easier than the other two but that didn''t make them any easier, each and every one of those positions were extremely desirable to every person with even the slightest of ambition.


    Getting those positions required someone to prove that they were capable, trustworthy, talented, and that was before one considered all the back stabbing and other shady dealings that went on in the background.


    There is always someone else aiming for the same position you want, and there are many who would resort to all forms of depraved and vicious acts to get the position.


    For candidates obtaining and keeping those positions without dying was the real mission, and it was to obtain those positions that most candidates ended up dying.


    It might have seemed cruel, but the empire had no need for pampered leaders who were unable to fend for themselves, if they died they were simply unworthy to represent the empire as princes and princesses


    Once Lirian finished reading through the quest details he asked the system, "How long has it been since I started my cultivation?"


    [6 day 2 hours] the system quickly answered.


    Lirian nodded his head ''I have just about four days to get all those capsules ready,'' he thought with a smirk, now that he had his power he would just need a day at most to get it all ready.


    ''But before I get started with that there is something else that I need to do,'' Lirian thought and energy started to gather in his eyes and activated a spell.


    [Gods Gaze] ¨C a spell that allows one to see through the flows of energy that make up the world, all forms of energy can be seen through and identified.


    As soon as Lirian thought of the ability it instantly started to work, he couldn''t use his eyes to see normally, but with this he was at least able to see the energy that made up the world.


    If a cultivator stood in front of him, so long as he used this spell he would be able to see what grade they reached and he would be able to vaguely see the stage of their cultivation.


    But most important of all with it he could observe all forms of spells and formations, and identify their weaknesses.


    Lirian looked at the energy that was oddly stable, usually energy flow rampantly throughout the world, every little move made a person or even a light breeze would make the energy flow differently.


    But in the enclose cultivation chamber the worlds energy was completely calm, it didn''t even have a simple swirl to it, the energy appeared in a black and white manner, where ever there was concentrated energy the world was extremely white, and where ever the energy was lacking there was a degree of darkness.


    Lirian could use this spell for an indefinite period of time, even if he didn''t have the ''Unconscious Cultivator'' ability, it used very little energy and was extremely useful.


    Lirian started to observe the walls of the cultivation chamber, he remembered that mission that he was required to complete to find a way for the masses to cultivate, the first thing he needed to do was observe the cultivation chambers spell.


    As Lirian took a deep look at the wall, his breath caught in his throat, and he stepped forward with a look of marvel across his face, he ran his hands against the spell lines, that could be seen only by him, and touched them with a hint of wonder in his eyes.


    ''This¡­ there is absolutely no way, that this is the work of a mortal,'' Lirian thought, ''The interweaving spell lines are impossible to replicate with a mortals skill level, even most immortals will have a hard time of performing this spell so smoothly,'' Lirian thought.


    If Lirian had any doubts before, they were all gone, the toxin was most certainly the works of the gods, as were the cultivation chambers, it would take eons for someone to develop the skill to spell the room in the way it was spelled, it had to be the work of a real god and a master of spells at that.


    But oddly Lirian found it surprisingly simple to understand, it was made to look complicated, but it was actually extremely simple, it was almost as if it was meant to be seen, only people lacked the ability to see it.


    Lirian was growing more and more engrossed in the spell, but suddenly Lirian heard a loud sound coming from the door.


    He snapped his head around as the energy started to move in the room, and when the door opened he saw a green figure walk into the room.


    Green that was the colour of energy that an adept would emit, Lirian immediately knew that it couldn''t be Izlandi, after all she was simply a peak novice, if she entered she would have been yellow.

 Chapter 309 - 074 – Learning To Pleasure (R – 18)

    Six days earlier.


    Izlandi walked out of the cultivation chamber and sealed it as she was instructed by Lirian.


    ''I have ten days until the poison is ready, but before then I have a couple of things to do,'' Izlandi thought while clenching the note that Lirian handed to her before she left.


    They had spent hours coming up with a feasible plan, and while it was possible to pull of Izlandi had a few concerns to ponder over as she paced back and forth around her room.


    ''I have to do it even if it is humiliating,'' she thought with conviction, that was the heart of her problem, she needed to convince everyone that she was suddenly happy about her fate as a concubine, and while she had a plan it was still humiliating.


    Izlandi pulled opened a draw on her dresser, and slipped the note inside it, placing it right besides her second poisonous capsule, those would both be used on another day.


    ''Now for step 1,'' she thought tightly clenching her nervous fists as she left her room and went looking for Stanley.


    ---


    Knock. Knock. Knock


    An hour later Izlandi found herself knocking on Stanley''s door, from the sounds that were running through the corridor, she had no need to guess what was going on inside the room.


    "¡­Lavender go and get it¡­ you''re the only one with any clothes on¡­" Izlandi could hear Stanley say while panting loudly.


    A fit of giggles ensued, Izlandi had no clue what the three women found so funny about those words, but just a second later she found out.


    As the door opened she saw the mature beauty standing proudly in a purple dress that covered every inch of her body except in two very important place''s.


    A slit was cut across the chest area on her dress, which fully exposed her firm and perky breasts, with her erect nipples pointing up.


    And the area between her legs was fully exposed, she was cleanly shaven, leaving nothing at all to the imagination.


    "Lady Izlandi," Lavender greeted with surprise, "You should have let us know that you were coming," she hurriedly said as she covered up her body parts with just a slight trace of embarrassment.


    ''So, they do know the meaning of shame,'' Izlandi thought with amazement, based on her previous interactions with the women she felt like they had long forgotten about that word.


    Izlandi took a breath and forced a smile on her face as she walked passed lavender and into the room, only to find Stanley still going at it like an animal, with the fiery red head, Jasmine, when they noticed Izlandi they both stopped their movements.


    Stanley looked up with a trace of surprise etched across his face, it wasn''t that he didn''t hear Lavender say Izlandi''s name, it was simply that he never imagined that Izlandi would still enter after hearing what was going on.


    Izlandi struggled to maintain a straight face as she saw Jasmines two long legs wrapped around Stanley''s waist as he pounded into her body, all she felt was disgust at the sight of such a beautiful woman and ugly man being together.


    "There is something that I would like to speak to you about," she forced the words out with a straight face while looking away, she didn''t think she''d be able to stop herself from throwing up if she kept looking.


    Stanley pulled himself off Jasmine, who let out a sorrowful moan when she lost her connection with him, and looked up at Izlandi with an amused smile.


    He didn''t care that his time with the girls was interrupted, he still had plenty of time to pick up where he left off later.


    "Girls, would you give us the room," Stanley said as he grabbed a robe and wrapped it around his body.


    Jasmine started to crawl of the bed and right besides her was Lily, who was waiting on the side for her turn.


    "There''s no need for them to leave, this actually concerns them as well," Izlandi said.


    Stanley glanced around in confusion and looked at her with a raised brow.


    "When you returned home, you made me an offer do you remember it?" Izlandi asked clutching at the bottom of her dress to stop her hands from trembling, ''This is all for the plan to work,'' she thought to calm herself.


    A wide smile was soon splayed across Stanley''s face as he remembered their conversation from that night, but he quickly hid his joy behind a confused expression, "I can''t remember all that well," he said with his lips slightly twitching at the side as he tried to stop his smile from appearing.


    "I''m so sorry sis, but a lot of things have happened since then, could you remind me what it is that I offered you?" he asked with feigned innocence.


    Izlandi''s lips trembled with anger, she could tell that he was doing this purposely to get some sick twisted joy out of her saying the words aloud.


    The fabric of her skirt started to make slight tearing sounds as she clenched onto it with all the strength in her small body, "I want¡­ your escorts¡­ to teach¡­ me how to pleasure¡­ Tanicks," she breathed out with a vicious glare at Stanley.


    Stanley''s eyes widened with exaggeration, "Oh that, I do remember saying something about that," he said thoughtfully, "But is that anyway to look at your older brother when asking for a favour?" he mused while putting on a hurt expression.


    Izlandi felt like her lungs were going to explode from anger, he was doing this purposely just to mess with her, ''If I can get through this I''ll obtain my freedom,'' she reminded herself before she exploded.


    "Will you please let them teach me?" she asked doing her best to act pitiful, it was the only move she had left.


    The sudden change in her attitude took Stanley completely by surprise, never in his life had he ever heard of his sister making such an expression let alone seeing her make such an expression before his very eyes.


    The most he had ever seen was a strained smile, that she would force on her face when dealing with important people.


    His little sister was always a beauty he just never realised that she could also be cute, "How could I possibly say no to my adorable little sister," he said with a wide smile and wrapped an arm around her shoulders and brought her to his escorts before he let go.


    Izlandi ended up speaking with the escorts for a few minutes before they arranged to have ''lessons'' everyday at certain times, the escorts seemed extremely ecstatic about their new project as they inspected Izlandi and in just a few minutes they had already given her a few tips.


    When Izlandi finally left, Stanley returned to the escorts side while sipping on a goblet filled with spiced wine.


    "My Lord," Jasmine said wrapping an arm around him, "Do you know what made your sister have a change of heart?" she asked curiously, she remembered that look of disgust Izlandi had given to all three of them when they suggested teaching her the first time.


    "No idea," he replied with a thoughtful look, "Something is up with her," he said taking a seat on a couch in his room.


    "Maybe she just thought a lot about what I told her last time," Lily said, "And realised that it was her best option, I mean how else is she going to enjoy her life if she can''t tame Lord Tanicks," she added while dangling one of her bare legs in front of Stanley in an enticing manner.


    Stanley paid little attention to her enticement as he shook her head, "Do you know that I''ve never received more than a forced smile from her in my entire life, from the time she was a baby,"


    "If I tried to pick her up when she was a baby she would cry and throw a massive fit, since she was a baby I have never so much as touched her hand," he said with a furrowed brow.


    "Yet, when I put my arm on her she didn''t fight it or show that usual disgust she always shows towards me," he said thoughtfully.


    "Something is up with my sister and I need the three of you to help me figure out what it is," he said to the girls.


    "Why don''t you just ask her yourself?" Lavender asked, as she dropped to her knees in front of him.


    "hahaha," Stanley chuckled as if he heard a humorous joke, "That girl would never tell me a thing if she doesn''t want me know she''ll never tell me,"


    "But the three of you will be spending plenty of time with her, and you''ll be talking to her about some pretty intimate details of her life, use this chance to learn what she is up to," he ordered, the girls were escorts, while sex was what they excelled at, gossip was there forte.


    Put anyone of them into the courts of Proge and they''d be the centre of attention with all the juicy stories they had.


    "Your wish is my command," Lavender whispered as she licked her lips and pressed her mouth onto his crotch.


    The night was still young.

 Chapter 310 - 075 – Izlandi’s Trauma

    Izlandi returned to her room and let out a sigh


    This plan required her to convince everyone that she accepted her fate of becoming a concubine, and the news had to travel fast.


    She was certain that Stanley would blab on about her visit to whoever he met, it was simply in his nature to toy with her for his own amusement, and sharing the story about how his beautiful sister, asked for lessons from whores, would be a story that he''d find himself incapable of keeping to himself.


    With that, the news of her excepting her fate would spread, but that was just the beginning of the plan.


    It truly took all her willpower to go through with the first part, she still remembered that moment when Stanley touched her vividly.


    She almost blackout when his filthy hand, which had just been on another woman, caressed her shoulder.


    The feeling was like a million spiders crawling all over her body and sent cold shivers throughout every fibre of her being, she still marveled at herself for not having a fit at that moment.


    ''Maybe it''s because I''ve killed people, maybe that''s why I wasn''t as afraid as I used to be, and maybe if I kill more people the fear will all go away, maybe I''ll reach a point where I can kill anyone that tries to take advantage of me, then I won''t have to fear anyone,'' she thought with a wild light filling her two green eyes.


    Izlandi walked up to her dresser and pulled the drawer open, her eyes instantly landed on the capsule and she placed it in her palm, ''Tomorrow, I''ll get rid of that little beast!'' she thought and gently caressed the poisonous capsule in her palm like it was a treasure.


    ---


    That night Izlandi dreamt of a day from a long time ago.


    It was just a week before her thirteenth birthday.


    At the time she was just a typical princess-type girl, everyone adored her for her beauty, but no one dared come too close for fear of earning the Lord''s wrath.


    She had everything she could have asked for, she cared little for cultivation because she knew that one day she would be married to an important noble who would treat her like a princess or so she was always told.


    It was on that day that she learned a valuable lesson as she returned to her room from her sewing lesson.


    As she walked through the corridors of the keep she was planning to return to her room, but when she reached her room she found Cornick sitting and waiting at her door with his disgusting smile spreading across his face.


    "What do you want Cornick?" she asked in a haughty tone, even back then she didn''t like her younger brother much, he was just a year younger than her, and he always tried to do things to get her attention.


    "I found where father is hiding your birthday present," he said with a smug smile knowing that her birthday was just a week away.


    Izlandi''s eye widened with excitement when she thought about what her birthday present might be, ''Hopefully it''s something pretty,'' she thought, she was tempted to ask him where it was, but she felt like it would be better not to spoil the surprise.


    She shook her head, "I think I''ll wait for father to give it to me," she said proudly.


    "Are you sure?" Cornick asked with a crooked smile, "It''s super big and fun, it''s got to be the most beautiful thing I''ve ever seen," he said in an exaggerated manner, yet it worked all the same.


    When Izlandi heard that it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen, she couldn''t deny the voice in her head, and happily followed after him as he guided her through the keep to an area that very few people ever visited.


    When Cornick came to a stop at an empty courtyard, she looked around for the gift but there was nothing to be seen, "Where is it Cornick?" she asked innocently with her eyes still scanning the area for the gift.


    Then suddenly she felt a knock on her chest, and before she realized it she was lying on the ground barely able to breathe, her eyes widened as she saw Cornick reaching out with his hands.


    Back then she was not a cultivator, she was just an ordinary girl and she was powerless underneath him as he ripped of her clothes and pressed himself on her body.


    ---


    The next day Izlandi woke with a start, the images of the dream still vividly playing in her head, she got lucky on that day her uncle overheard her screams and managed to save her at the last moment.


    But it was also the day that she changed, she no longer wanted to be powerless and began her journey as a cultivator.


    Ever since then she hated that little beast, because the event wasn''t seen by anyone other than her uncle, her father didn''t even give him a punishment since everyone believed that he was as talented as Stanley at the time.


    In fact, shortly after that, her father bought Cornick his first whore, for him to vent his lust on.


    As Izlandi climbed out of bed she remembered it was the day that the memorial was to be held for all those who died at the feast.


    In total 60 novices died, there were several others that were found to have died the day after the poisoning, it was those who left the party a little early, the total deaths of novices amounted to almost 10% of House Kurt''s elite forces.


    Izlandi got out of bed when her maids entered in the morning, serving her breakfast that was completely cold, but it couldn''t be helped.


    After the poisoning, every dish and drink was carefully examined and no one could find a single trace of any poison, so all the food since then was given to the servants to taste first, and if nothing happened to them after an hour the food was declared safe to eat.


    Izlandi opened her palm and focused on creating the ruins for fire, a couple of seconds later the ruins created a ball of flame in her hand and she held it under the silver plate to warm up her food.


    She sighed as she thought of the day when Lirian made the poison capsules, his mastery over flames was godlike in her eyes, she had never seen anyone use flames so flexibly, what she struggled even harder to understand was that Lirian didn''t even use ruins to perform his spells.


    They were done instantly, whereas she had to concentrate for several seconds just to create a simple ball of flames.


    Just before Izlandi could pick up the first bite of her food, the head maid picked up a piece of each item and ate them one after the other.


    "A secondary poison test!?" Izlandi asked with annoyance.


    "It''s the Lords orders," the head maid answered.


    Izlandi sighed as she plucked at her food without caring to wait, after all, she knew better than everyone that her food was not poisoned since she was the one who did the poisoning.


    When she was finished eating the head maid walked into her closet and pulled out all her black dresses, "My lady which one would you like to wear to the memorial?" her head maid asked after sorting through them and selecting the three most beautiful ones.


    "Bring out one of my corsets first," Izlandi said taking the head maid by surprise, she wasn''t a big fan of corsets since they were so tight and made it hard to breathe, but last night the escort''s first piece of advice was for her to wear corsets as much as possible.


    The first rule of seduction is to make the person you''re seducing feel extremely aroused in your presence, and a corset helped a lot in that area.


    The corset helped women develop an hourglass figure by thinning the waist and extenuating the other curves of a woman.


    Izlandi always shied away from such things, while she did find them stuffy that was not the reason she avoided them, it was because she knew that it would only bring her the attention of the men in her family and she couldn''t stand their disgusting gazes.


    Soon she found herself standing before a large mirror, and holding firmly onto a rail as her head maid pulled on the strings of the corset to make it wrap tightly around her body.


    She found herself continuously looking at her chest area as the corset was being tightened, she was extremely aware of her small chest, it was actually very typical of elven woman or any woman with even a trace of elven blood.


    While the elven race was known for their elegant beauty, unfortunately when it came to curvy bodies they sincerely lacked.


    As she looked at the area of the corset her dress was supposed to fill out a sudden thought struck her, ''I wonder if he likes women with bigger boobs,'' an image of Lirian flashed across her mind.


    Her face instantly flushed slightly, ''That''s so stupid,'' she thought to herself, ''His blind I doubt that he cares about breast size.''

 Chapter 311 - 076 – The Death Of Cornick Kurt 1

    Izlandi thought that she would be bored as she sat listening to the speeches being said about the dead, it was a memorial, after all, there wasn''t much to look forward to.


    But she found the entire process oddly exhilarating, every time another name was called out, and someone came up to give a speech about all the great achievements of the dead, only one thought entered her head.


    ''It was me, I''m the one who brought about that person''s death, the reason they are all going up there to speak of the dead is because of me,'' Izlandi''s eyes glowed with vigor, and trembles coursed through her body.


    She couldn''t stop herself from shaking, the exhilaration of knowing that she was the cause of all this despair was euphoric.


    "Child are you alright," Izlandi was pulled from her euphoria when she felt a hand on her shoulder, she almost jolted at the touch, but as she turned around she saw that it was just her uncle shaking her with a look of concern.


    Izlandi looked at her uncle with a blank expression, for a second there she felt a strange feeling well up in her heart as she looked at her uncle, he was the only person that showed any real concern for her and treated her like family.


    "It''s nothing¡­er¡­ I''m just not feeling all that well," she said shaking her head, "It must be the corset," she said averting her gaze, "It''s making it hard to breathe, I think that I''ll retire to my room to get some rest," she said and hurriedly turned away.


    When she returned inside the keep, Izlandi found the keep to be oddly silent since she poisoned everyone at the feast, the keep had been extremely busy and filled with movement all day long.


    Currently, the corridors were completely empty and Izlandi could hear the echo of her every step, as it rang out against the walls of the corridor.


    There were barely any guards present either, the only ones that still remained were the ones who had to guard important areas in the keep, as for the servants they were all made to attend the memorial.


    Izlandi quickly picked a direction and started to walk with silent steps, until she reached a room with two guards standing at the entrance.


    ''Of course, father left guards here,'' she thought with annoyance and turned around to enter one of the servant''s corridors.


    Those corridors were a lot narrower and harder to navigate with dozens of twists and turns every couple feet, but Izlandi had spent countless hours as a child exploring those corridors, she knew them like the back of her hand.


    She quickly found the other entrance, and right outside was another two guards, only those two were sitting at a small table and playing a game of dice without paying any attention to the door.


    She cast a spell to hide her presence that Lirian had thought her and crept past the guards, she opened the door silently and slipped in unnoticed through a small gap.


    She walked into a large room, and on the walls, the first thing noticeable was a series of stuffed heads, all of which belonged to mighty and vicious creatures.


    Izlandi looked at the wall with disdain, Cornick collected those heads, and spun many a tale about his brave battles fought against the creatures, however, most of them were lies, of all the creature''s heads, she''d be surprised if more than two were the results of his own efforts.


    The only thing Cornick excelled at was stealing, and those heads were all ''bought'' from skilled hunters for a ''fair price''.


    He simply turned the tales of the hunters into adventures of his own and told the stories to every person of importance he could find.


    As Izlandi walked into the room she soon approached the bed, on it she saw Cornick lying fast asleep wrapped in a full-body cast, there were even some strings attached to some of his limbs to hold them in place and stop him from causing any more harm to his body.


    A small smile crept across Izlandi''s face as she thought of the suffering he was currently experiencing; his condition was the result of her telling her father about what he had done to the woman who rejected him for another man at the local tavern.


    When he was younger he got away with what he had done to her because no one besides her uncle caught him, but mainly because everyone thought that he would become a talented cultivator.


    But now, he just barely qualified to be called average as a cultivator, so for doing something that would affect the reputation of the family he was given a vicious beating by their father until almost every bone in his body was broken.


    Izlandi stepped closer to the bed and reached out one of her slender arms until it was just an inch away from Cornick''s throat, "It would be so easy to kill you right now," she whispered, she could feel her heart racing with every second that passed.


    The thought of killing him lit a fire in her body that she was struggling to contain, for so long her deepest desire was to rip him apart and dangle his bloody and naked corpse from the city walls for everyone to see.


    But she never dared to act on those desires, for fear of being found out, but now she felt an incomparable desire to wring his throat, she wanted him to wake up and look her in the eye as he struggled against her grip with an expression of unwillingness, as she choked the life out of him.


    But she took a deep breath to calm her desires, she couldn''t afford to kill him now, if she accidentally slipped up when she left the room and the guards saw her she would be instantly caught.


    Besides everyone saw her leave the memorial early, if Cornick died while only she was in the keep, people would have suspicions, after all, no one wanted him dead more than her.


    She had plenty of reasons to want to kill him, and the fact that he tried to rape her when they were younger was just one of them, only her uncle, father, grandfather and Stanley knew of the incident.


    But what everyone already knew was that all her businesses and properties were going to be transferred to Cornick when she was taken away by House Kant, that was more than enough for them to believe that she would want him dead.


    "Just you wait little beast, tonight I will give you a most painful death," she whispered softly with a wide smile blooming on her beautiful face, in all her life Izlandi never recalled smiling so widely as she did at that moment.


    Then she stealthily snuck past the guards who were so engrossed in their game of dice that they didn''t notice her again.


    ---


    The night came quickly and Izlandi rushed to her dresser and pulled the poison capsule out along with the note Lirian wrote.


    She walked out of her room and started to pace around the corridor that led to the kitchen, she was waiting patiently for Cornick''s maid to come out with her trolley of food.


    It didn''t take long before she heard the sound of a trolley''s wheels squeaking in the corridor, she quickly hid in one of the side corridors and waited for the trolley to pass her.


    When the trolley passed the corridor she was hiding in, Izlandi walked out and gracefully followed behind the trolley for a few corridors before she shouted at the maid ahead of her.


    "You stupid servant, is this the place to leave your filth!" she spat in an arrogant tone.


    The maid instantly went still and turned around to see Izlandi standing there and pointing at a cloth that was lying on the ground, "My apologies my lady, that is not mine," she said as she did not recognize the cloth.


    "Are you lying to me after littering the corridors of the keep?" Izlandi spat in anger, she knew that the cloth didn''t belong to the maid, since she was the one who put it there.


    The maid hurriedly shook her pretty head, "No, I would never lie to my lady," she said bowing deeply and begging for forgiveness.


    "Hurry up and pick up this filth," Izlandi spat and started to walk forward.


    "I will get to it at once," the maid squeaked out with shaking eyes, as she saw Izlandi coming closer to her, she went running towards the cloth like her life depended on it.


    Izlandi stopped by the trolley, there were merely two jugs on a tray, one was filled with wine and the other was water that had a food pellet dissolved in it.


    Due to Cornick''s condition, he couldn''t eat solid foods hence he could only consume liquids.


    She slid the capsule into the wine jar and pushed the note underneath the tray, before slipping away without paying any attention to the maid.


    As she walked away she pulled off her glove and opened her hand, her mana was already activating the circle and with just a thought, the capsule was released.


    Izlandi let out a light laugh as she returned to her room.

 Chapter 312 - 077 – The Death Of Cornick Kurt 2

    Shouts passed through the corridors of the keep and before long the doors of every important member of the family were pushed open.


    Izlandi woke with a start, she had been having a rather lovely dream when the doors were pushed open, and she saw a familiar image of her uncle coming in to check on her.


    "Did something happen?" Izlandi asked while stifling a large yawn.


    "Come with me?" her uncle said seriously, and soon she was dragged along with her uncle while dressed in her night clothes.


    Despite the seriousness of the situation she dragged her legs as she followed after her uncle, she already knew what the news was, so she couldn''t bring herself to feign being scared, especially with how happy she was feeling.


    Fear was probably the last emotion she could feign right now.


    Before long she was inside Cornick''s room, it was filled with people who were forming a circle around the scene, but no one dared to approach.


    Aside from her father and Stanley who were already standing at the side of the bed, looking at Cornick with saddened eyes.


    As Izlandi''s gaze fell on Cornick''s corpse she struggled to keep a straight face, all she wanted to do was smile but she had to play at being surprised, as she looked at his bloodied corpse.


    His body was riddled with large bloody holes that made it look like something clawed its way out of his body, but that was just the effect of the poison.


    There was blood and mangled flesh splattered all over the room even the ceiling was not spared from the filth, Izlandi couldn''t help but sigh in admiration of Lirian for being able to create such a vicious poison, it gave Cornick a death he well deserved.


    Her only regret was not being able to be there to witness his screams personally.


    On the floor besides Cornick''s she saw the maid from the night before, evidently, the maid tasted the wine first before giving it to Cornick, her body was just bloodied and foam covered her mouth and the floor where she landed, so Izlandi guessed that it was because she only had a small sip of the wine while Cornick had a lot of it.


    She stepped into the bloodied zone and she made her way to the tray that had the food and wine jugs sitting on it, as she popped the lids open she saw that the one with the food pellet was hardly touched, while the jug of wine was almost emptied out.


    ''How typical,'' she mused happily, she knew that Cornick would choose wine over food, it was to be expected of a pig.


    Her uncle followed behind her with a morbid expression and looked into the jars, "Do you think that the wine was poisoned?" she asked chirpily, the happiness she was exuding, was impossible for anyone to miss.


    Her uncle glanced at the maid and Cornick then back at the wine, "Possibly," he answered, "And child even if you hated him try to act like you''re grieving," he whispered in her ear.


    "Why should I act like I''m sad?" she asked loudly so that everyone could hear, "I''m happy that he''s dead, he was nothing but a useless and disgusting pig, and frankly I''m extremely glad that he died such a miserable death, or have you forgotten what he tried to do to me when we were children," she snapped angrily.


    She realised that she wouldn''t be able to hide her joy so she decided to change things up a bit, people were bound to think of her as a possible suspect, but now they might not think so, since she so openly admitted to wanting him dead at the crime scene.


    It wasn''t like anyone could prove that it was her anyway.


    "You''re glad that my son is dead?" she heard her father suddenly speak in a very calm and firm tone, yet she felt waves of pressure landing on her.


    As intimidating as her father was, she still managed to stand firmly and raise her head, "He was a swine and a disgrace, isn''t that why you put him such a state in the first place," she spat at her father and pointed at the cast that was still wrapped around Cornick''s body.


    "The only thing I''m sad about today, is that I wasn''t there to see him die myself," her eyes were burning with conviction when she said those words.


    In the next moment Izlandi felt like all her senses were suddenly mangled, she couldn''t tell up from down or left from right, hell she couldn''t even see where she was going.


    She could only feel the weightlessness of her body and a spiraling pain that ran through her body like jolts of electricity running laps around every strand of her flesh.


    Izlandi rolled over on the ground feeling like she had just tasted death, her small and elegant face had swollen to three times its size, and she could barely move her body.


    When her eyes stopped spinning she found that she was on the opposite end of the room, and she was fairly certain that the room was shaking.


    As she looked at her father she could see that he was saying something as he walked closer to her but her ears were ringing and she couldn''t make out a word he was saying.


    As her father was stepping towards her, she instinctively curled up into a ball on the floor, as she was filled with fear.


    But just as she thought that her father was going to hit her again, she saw her uncle put a hand on her father''s shoulder and shake his head.


    She didn''t know what happened after that because she fell unconscious.


    ---


    "You''re too soft on her, she needs to learn a lesson," Rupid was saying to his brother, Conner.


    Conner shook his head, "There are too many people here brother," he tried to reason with Rupid, "Besides if you cause too much damage to her who knows what House Kant will do," he added.


    He knew that affection wouldn''t stop his brother from doing something to Izlandi, so he went with the only thing that would work, his brother cared more about the fate of House Kurt than anything, so that was the only way to calm him.


    Rupid thought for a second before remembering how unreasonable nobles could be especially if they had the power to push you around, which House Kant could certainly do to his family.


    If they found so much as a scratch on her body, he wouldn''t put it past them to make some unreasonable demands for additional compensation, it was just the way nobles were.


    "Take her to the infirmary and get her healed," he said in a firm tone to a group of people who were gathered around her unconscious body.


    Rupid took a deep breath and looked around the room for any clues left behind by the killer, but that''s when he noticed that the room had turned into an even bigger mess, all he did was give her one slap and the entire room had turned upside down, but that was when something caught his eye.


    The trolley had fallen over, and a note fluttered to the ground, "What is that?" he asked pointing at the note.


    Conner looked to the place his brother was pointing and reached out to pick up the note, as he read the contents of the note a dark expression filled his face along with a great deal of anger.


    Rupid took the note and read it for himself.


    ---


    -          The fun and games at House Kurt have only just begun.


    This was just my practice run to get the games started


    Who shall I pick as my next target?


    It''s so hard to decide with so many lovely, no wait scratch that, ugly options¡­ forgive me I forgot that your ancestors used to fuck toads.


    But who will I ever choose, maybe I''ll go for someone important next time, how about adept Reyna?


    Better lock your doors and place your guards at all entrances, because things are about to get bloody.


    P.S. House Kurt is filled with so many traitors.


    - wishing you all a most wonderful time, yours sincerely¡­ Hahaha¡­ as if you have the right to know.


    ---


    Even Lord Rupid''s face turned to a shade of grey as he read the contents of the note, he crumpled the note in his fist and flung it with all his strength.


    Stanley jumped forward and grabbed the note before unfolding it and reading it for himself.


    When he was done he looked up between his father and uncle, "This has got to be some joke, whoever this is, they are just trying to mess with us, to make us jump at each-others throats," he said with anger.


    "Yes boy, we obviously know that," his uncle said, "But whoever this person is they have proved that they have the ability to sneak into the keep unnoticed and administer a traceless poison," he said with worry, he was especially worried when he saw his daughters name on the note.


    He looked at the note again and this time he noticed something else, a detail he had previously missed.


    He picked it out of Stanley''s hand and brought it in front of his brother, "Brother look at the penmanship," he said pointing at the extremely elegant strokes, "Whoever wrote this has to be someone important, or someone belonging to an important house," he said with an edgy voice.


    A heavy mood was cast over the trio, as they felt like the situation had taken a turn for the worst.


    Unbeknownst to them, Izlandi came up with the part of the plan for Lirian to write that note in such an elegant hand, precisely because she wanted to create such an effect.

 Chapter 313 - 078 – Note

    A tense air had come over House Kurt in the days that that followed, or so Stanley could see, he knew what his father and uncle had said after reading that note.


    They said not to act on the contents of the note, yet whenever he saw them looking at the less important family members, he could see that look of suspicion creeping through their eyes.


    Stanley knew that whether they intended to or not, the note had gotten to them, hell it had even gotten to him, and the minor nobles and family members whom they were regularly meeting, were not oblivious to their scrutinising gaze.


    It served only to create more tension between House Kurt and its members, while they understood that their leaders were concerned, due to an assassination occurring within the keep walls, it did little to stop them from feeling offended for being suspected of such a crime.


    Which in turn led them to be more difficult with their leaders, which in turn made the leaders only more suspicious and push harder.


    What made matters even harder, was that Cornick had done plenty of things in the past to piss off many of the important people in the family, but most importantly was the minor nobles.


    Cornick''s lustful behaviour was no secret, and he used his higher position to push around the weaker forces in his father''s absence, while he never laid a finger on the daughters and wives of the minor nobles, he had never shown the decency to avert his gaze, and on several occasions, he was very vocal about his intentions, should any of them step out of line.


    In short the number of people that could have desired Cornick''s death was far too long, and with every person they interrogated they risked offending more of their allies, and worst of all was the fact that all their enemies were key suspects.


    House Brock and House Hauton could very well have been to blame, but in order for them to get all the way in they would have had to have someone helping them from House Kurt or one of its allies that could easily enter and exit the keep.


    It didn''t take long for them to give up on the thought of interrogating all their allies, under the current conditions infighting would only worsen the state of House Kurt, and they needed all their allies if they hoped to win the oncoming battle with the other two noble House''s.


    Stanley''s uncle was one step ahead and came up with a different approach.


    The key to the different approach lay in the note, he realised that only very influential people would hone their penmanship to such a degree, it clearly couldn''t belong to anyone in the city, which meant that if it wasn''t any of their allies who left the note, it had to be someone with connections to some of the bigger powers.


    A much smaller list was soon formed, of their members that had connections with influential nobles, as well as anyone with enough wealth to pay a high noble family to write the note for them.


    But there was one big issue when Stanley looked at the list with his father and uncle, every name on the list belonged to the most important members and allies of House Kurt.


    "If we act on this, we risk damaging our alliances with all of our most important allies," Stanley started to say.


    "But if we don''t act, we risk keeping traitors with us, we could have afforded to have some spies looking at us before, but since the poisoning, we lost too many assets,"


    "If we don''t act, then we will only end up getting stabbed in the back when it matters the most," his uncle added with a heavy look in his eyes.


    Stanley and his uncle both turned to look at Lord Rupid to hear his final decision, but he was still looking at the list with uncertainty, and they couldn''t blame him.


    They were currently stuck between a rock and a hard place, no matter what they chose to do, it meant trouble for them.


    Eventually, Lord Rupid closed his eyes, as he struggled to keep his usual calm, "This matter requires careful thought," he said shaking his head letting a trace of uncertainty show on his face, "For now go and prepare to place Cornick within the tombs of our ancestors, we''ll continue discussing this when his burial is done," he said while clenching his fist tightly.


    Stanley and his uncle shared a glance, Stanley had never seen his father looking so defeated, his father was usually extremely good with these things and extremely decisive in his actions, it was how he brought House Kurt so far, yet he currently seemed to be second guessing his choices and avoiding the main issue.


    Stanley nodded at his father''s words, he had no desire to point out his father''s lack of decisiveness, he could already see that his father was angry due to their current predicament, and he already saw what happened to anyone who earned his fury.


    Both his brother and sister had been subjected to his fathers'' anger since his return, and while Stanley was confident in his strength, he wasn''t confident enough to face his father''s anger.


    ''There has to be something more to this,'' Stanley thought, ''First they killed dozens of assets, then they went on to kill Cornick,'' Stanley pondered deeply on the matter.


    ''The first attack felt impersonal it was like they just wanted to cause random damage, but Cornick''s death seemed personal, they even left a note,'' he thought with confusion, it seemed like the attacks had been done by two separate people.


    Stanley pulled on his hair in frustration as his thoughts made less and less sense, ''Maybe I should change approach, the note mentioned Reyna, maybe the killer is someone who she offended in the past and they plan on using this opportunity to take her out,'' he thought.


    But Stanley soon ran his hands through his hair once more, feeling like his conclusion made no sense, ''If they wanted to kill Reyna, why announce it, unless they want to steer us off, logically if they went after Cornick first then the following targets should be me or Izlandi, Reyna is important to the family but not as important as the rest of us,'' he thought, but once more his thoughts only increased his confusion.


    "Urgh," Stanley grunted in frustration, ''I think its best If I speak to Reyna first, just in case there is something she knows,'' he decided after a long time spent in thought.


    ---


    A short while later Stanley entered the infirmary, the entrance was packed with dozens of guards, after reading the contents of the note his father tightened up the security around Reyna and every important member of the family.


    But after passing the guards and entering the infirmary he found that the place was almost completely empty, only two beds were still occupied, in the first, he saw Selner fast asleep, and in the second bed he saw Reyna.


    All the other adepts had already recovered, they were all body cultivators so they recovered a lot faster than Reyna who was a spell caster.


    He was slightly surprised to see that Izlandi wasn''t in one of the beds, but it didn''t bother him too much, she only received a single slap so other than some swelling in her face she should have been fine.


    "You just missed her, your sister left less than an hour ago," Reyna said from her bed as she glanced at him.


    "I didn''t come to see her," Stanley replied and walked towards her, she looked much better than before, if not for her slightly pale skin he would have thought her perfectly fine.


    "Actually, I wanted to speak to you about something," he said taking a seat next to her bed.


    Reyna''s brows rose in surprise but then a thought occurred to her, "Is this about that note my father picked up after Cornick''s death?" she asked seriously.


    Stanley nodded, he wasn''t surprised that she knew about the note, her father told her immediately after they had their meeting and placed the guards at the infirmaries entrance for her safety.


    "Is there anyone that you offended, harmed, or whose bad side you''ve gotten yourself on during the past few decades?" he asked seriously.


    "You sound just like my father," Reyna commented plainly, "He already asked me everything that you''re going to ask," she said while shaking her head.


    Stanley frowned with a heavy look in his eyes, "Is there really not a single person that you can think of at all who would be willing to do anything to kill you?" he asked once more, he had a strange intuitive feeling that Reyna''s name was on that note for more than just a scare tactic, it somehow felt personal.


    Reyna sighed but she decided to think about it seriously, this was something that concerned her entire family, if she had a way to figure out who the killer was then she had to give it her all.


    She took a deep breath and started to recall all the people she might have offended in the past 200 years of her life.

 Chapter 314 - 079 – Tainted Memories

    Reyna had a lot of enemies she made over the years, and she could think of more than a few people who would want to kill her.


    She slowly listed out every name she could recall, she had done something similar with a father, but this time she recalled a few names that she missed last time.


    Just as she finished listing the names her eyes landed on Selner and she recalled what Selner shouted that night when all the poisoned adepts were in the infirmary.


    She remembered Selner shouting about a monster, and suddenly another image popped up in her head, an image of a black-haired man she met in Willcolly, ''I''ll remember this,'' she recalled the words he always muttered as they tortured him.


    Suddenly her mind went back to that first meeting that they had in Willcolly, in that village that was void of any life, and there he was sitting in the centre of the abandoned place, drinking all the abandoned ale to his heart''s content.


    He stood there uncaring of the strange circumstances, even when she bound him with her spells and dropped him through the ground until only his head and hands remained, he never showed even the slightest panic of worry.


    At the time she simply attested it to his drunken state, but as she thought on it she realised that he was far too calm, even after her squad said that she was an adapt he didn''t even show the slightest reaction.


    In fact, he knew exactly who she was, she remembered clearly when he whispered her name right next to her ear, the memory sent shivers down her spine because it was like her entire body remembered what she felt.


    Dread and trepidation, it was like she was looking at a monster¡­ a demon¡­ an infernal in the shape of a man, a creature that could bring everything to ruin.


    ''By The Heavenly Empress,'' she thought with pure horror in her shaking eyes, ''What was I thinking, how could I have sold such a creature, I should have killed him then,'' she thought with a shaky breath.


    She couldn''t understand how she accepted the idea of selling him, ''Did he influence my mind¡­ but no that''s not possible I checked his body he held no cultivation¡­ unless¡­'' Reyna''s eyes widened to epic proportions as she thought of the crazy possibility that Lirian had a way to hide his cultivation.


    It sounded crazy in her mind, but there seemed to be no other explanation she could find, what she didn''t know was that her mind was in fact truly affected, in part it was Lirian''s charm but mostly it was the effect of the, <Heavens Chosen> boon creating a miracle with Lirian''s charm.


    It made her forget her initial terror and influenced not just her actions but also the members of her squad, and in truth, not even Lirian knew that was what happened.


    "Reyna!" Stanley practically shouted, she had gone unresponsive for a while now, and even as he shook her body she barely seemed to register his actions.


    Reyna suddenly snapped back to reality, "What''s wrong did you remember something?" Stanley started to ask when he noticed that she snapped out of her daze.


    Reyna opened her mouth to speak, but she suddenly hesitated, she realised that if she said anything it would be no different from her admitting to her lies, in her report from what she found when she reached Willcolly she didn''t include Lirian in the report.


    She only mentioned him as a bandit that she caught and branded as a slave, if she admitted to her lie, she would surely be met by the fury of the Lord and even her father, after all since Lirian was found in Willcolly he should have been brought directly to the leaders of the family to be interrogated.


    "No, it''s nothing," Reyna eventually sighed while shaking her head, but as she caught Stanley''s eye she could tell that he didn''t seem convinced, evidently her strange behaviour made him think that she was hiding things.


    "Reyna remember that this is something that has affected the entire family, and it''s only going to get worse," Stanley reminded her of the seriousness of the situation, he was certain that she was hiding something after witnessing her strange reaction.


    But he knew that he couldn''t push for answers, especially if she was ashamed about something that she had done.


    "If you did something that you''re not proud of, I can plead leniency for you," Stanley offered her a way out, a way to resolve any problems her actions brought to the family.


    Reyna eventually sighed and shook her head, even if he pleaded leniency for her, it would still bring her under ridicule and she wouldn''t be able to bear the disappointment of her father.


    Stanley sighed, he was certain that she was hiding something after seeing that hesitation in her eyes but he didn''t know how to get it out of her, "If you remember anything else come and find me, hopefully, it won''t be too late by then," he said casting her a deep look as he got up and walked out of the infirmary.


    ''It can''t really be that man, can it?'' Reyna thought, but that was when she remembered something from the night she was poisoned, ''Izlandi she threatened to reveal the truth about Willcolly, could it have been one of my squad members that told her the truth or was it him?" she wondered.


    Her eyes fell back on Selner and suddenly she got a bad feeling in her stomach, ''Did he meet Izlandi after Selner bought him, could she be the traitor mentioned in that note?'' she thought with fear running through every fibre of her being.


    Reyna recalled drinking the punch at the feast, it was the same punch that Izlandi had drunk after slapping her, she remembered it vividly, everyone who was there probably remembered it, Izlandi was at the centre of attention after she hit her.


    ''But no that can''t be, there were plenty of others who drank the punch after Izlandi left, not all of them were poisoned,'' she realised and shook her head, so far the only thing she could confirm was that it wasn''t Izlandi who poisoned everyone.


    "Wait," she called out to Stanley who was already at the infirmary doors, "That slave in the black-market auction, find him," she said to Stanley, she didn''t want to reveal too much without proof.


    Stanley paused and a frown formed on his face, he doubted that he could forget that rude and disrespectful slave, "What does he have to do with this?" he asked with confusion.


    Reyna hesitated a bit but she quickly came up with something, "He was my slave, I''m the one who branded him," she answered.


    Stanley''s eyes widened in surprise, "Where the hell did you pick up such an unruly slave?" he asked with anger in his voice, he couldn''t forget how that slave insulted him.


    "He was just a bandit," Reyna lied, she was still unwilling to reveal the truth, "But there was something strange about him, I can''t explain it, but after seeing him I''m sure that you know what I mean," she said.


    Stanley didn''t want to admit it, but he had to agree with Reyna, there was something strange about that slave, it was the way he spoke, the way he acted, the way he carried himself with absolute confidence and arrogance, none of it resembled a slave.


    Stanley couldn''t even think of a noble who emitted such a commanding presence, but all that did was make him even angrier, ''How could a mere slave have such a powerful disposition?'' the simple thought of that arrogant slave was enough to get his blood boiling.


    "He kept threatening my squad as we returned to the city, but we simply laughed at his words, but no matter what we did to him he kept his confidence as he threatened us, it''s hard to describe, but at the time I didn''t take him seriously, but now his words haunt my mind," she said shaking her head, it was like she was still trying to understand it herself.


    "Are you trying to tell me that my brother''s death is the work of some insignificant slave?" Stanley asked in a heated tone, his words made it clear that he thought nothing of Lirian.


    Reyna sighed and shook her head, "I don''t know, I only remember what I felt, I can''t explain it but that man he was a monster, I should have killed him when I found him, but I can''t understand why I didn''t, if there is anyone who wants me dead, it is almost certainly that monster" Reyna said expressing her truthful thoughts.


    She wanted to voice her thoughts about the possibility of Izlandi working with Lirian, but she hurriedly shut down that thought, since she couldn''t prove it, it would be foolish of her to say anything, it would only cause her problems if she was proven wrong.

 Chapter 315 - 080 – The Man In The Chamber

    The next day Reyna left the infirmary.


    She wasn''t completely healed, but she had a few things that she had to take care of, she needed to learn the whereabouts of Lirian.


    With that in mind, her first action was to head to Izlandi''s businesses in the inner city, she went through each establishment, carefully inspecting the entire property.


    After entering the business none of Izlandi''s workers dared to voice any complaint about her inspections, she was an Adept, after all, no one would dare to get in her way.


    She found nothing in the first few establishments, but once she reached Izlandi''s Male Escort Services, the receptionist, made her aware that Lirian had been brought directly thereafter the auction.


    Reyna soon reached the room where Lirian had been held, after Selner brought him in, but she soon found that the room only held an empty cage.


    "What happened to the slave?" she asked and turned to the receptionist with a questioning gaze.


    The receptionist audibly gulped under Reyna''s cold, "I-I-I don''t know," the reception stammered out in a panic.


    "There are no records of him being moved," the receptionist hurriedly added, as Reyna started to glare at her coldly.


    "Then tell me who has been up here since the slave was brought in?" Reyna continued to question the receptionist.


    "No one is allowed on the fifth floor besides Lady Izlandi and Madam Selner," the receptionist answered hurriedly.


    Reyna frowned, and started to inspect the room, ''Did he escape or did Izlandi allow him out of the cage?'' she wondered and started to inspect the cage.


    That''s when she noticed something strange, there was a layer of dust on the floor, only she realised that the dust was metallic, she took a closer look at the cage and that was when she realised that it looked like the entire thing had been lightly corroded.


    Once she noticed that, she also realised that the entire room was in a similar condition, the walls and ceiling looked like they had also experienced a similar degree of corrosion.


    The corrosion was caused by Lirian when he showed Izlandi his power, but Reyna had no clue about what happened, so she could only come up with her own theories.


    ''Could he really have a way to hide his cultivation?'' she pondered deeply, as she inspected the room.


    The more she looked at the corrosion, the more certain she became that it was the work of energy, not even she knew a spell to cause such an effect, so she was certain that it wasn''t Izlandi''s doing, which left only one other option.


    Worry lines grew across her face as she started to inspect the lock of the cage, it wasn''t forced open, but she knew a few spells that could help her open a lock, so she couldn''t put it past Lirian to have the ability to open the lock by himself.


    Which only left her with more uncertainty, it was impossible for her to tell if Lirian escaped by himself or if someone opened the gate for him.


    Reyna turned back to the sweating receptionist, "Tell me everything that has happened in this brothel since that slave was brought in?" she questioned the receptionist harshly.


    It didn''t take long for the scared receptionist to spill everything that she learned, she learned the names of a large number of the woman who came to the brothel to have affairs, she was surprised to find that some of them were nobles from House Kurt, and there was even a man from the family who was a regular at the brothel.


    But other than that she learned about the amount of time Izlandi spent in the brothel, but the thing that made her raise a brow was when she learnt that Izlandi brought her alchemy tools in at one point and then spent a few days in the brothel.


    She also learnt that Izlandi took all the tools back to the keep about a week ago, suspicion filled Reyna''s eyes as she thought about the details.


    When she matched it with the time of events, things started to click together in her head, ''The day she finished with her alchemy session was the day that the poisoning happened,'' she thought.


    ''But Izlandi lacks talent in alchemy, I don''t see how she could have brewed such a nasty poison, unless she had the assistance of a master,'' Reyna concluded but she didn''t like what her thoughts were telling her.


    She felt that if she was thinking clearly, then she had grossly underestimated Lirian, she couldn''t help but regret not killing him when she had the chance.


    "If my speculation is correct then I''ll need proof before presenting this to the lord," she reasoned and hurriedly left.


    Time was of the essence, she knew that it wouldn''t be long before word reached Izlandi about her investigations.


    Once Izlandi found out about her actions, it was only natural that she would raise her guard against Reyna, hence Reyna decided to move fast in her attempt to search for answers.


    ---


    When Reyna returned to the keep she kept moving through the corridors and occasionally passed Izlandi''s chambers, there were over a dozen guards standing at the entrance the entire time.


    However, after a few hours of performing rounds, she saw the doors to the room slowly open.


    Reyna quickly backtracked and hid in a side corridor, she snuck a peek and saw Izlandi walking in a beautiful red dress that revealed a lot of her fair slender legs.


    Reyna''s face grew a little green as she saw Izlandi walking with elegant steps as she held her head high with that arrogant and condescending look on her face, that said she thought she was better than everyone else in the world because of how beautiful she was.


    Most noticeable was the corset that Izlandi was wearing, which showed off her extremely slim waist, Reyna could only rejoice at the fact that the top of the corset was filled with nothing but air, due to her extremely undeveloped chest.


    Reyna remained hidden, as the guards moved into formation around Izlandi and started to cross the corridors, Reyna didn''t know where she was heading but now was the time for her to act.


    Once Izlandi was out of sight she rushed forward and pushed the doors open, the room was glowing with the afternoon light, as Reyna started to search through the room for some form of evidence of Izlandi''s crimes.


    She hurriedly searched through the bed pedestals, the dresser, and the closet, but after a while, she came up with nothing.


    Reyna was starting to stress a little, she felt like she had been searching for hours, but there was nothing to be found, it was then that she noticed a peculiarity that she had previously missed.


    Reyna noticed that the door to the cultivation chamber was sealed off, it was strange, the only reason for the cultivation chamber to be sealed was if someone was cultivating inside it, but she had just watched Izlandi leave, hence there was no reason for the chamber to be sealed.


    Reyna walked to the massive door, wondering what lay behind, ''Is it him? Did Izlandi really go so far as to sneak him into her cultivation chamber?'' she wondered hardly believing her guess.


    Reyna pressed her hand against the door and activated the spell circle to open the door, a moment later a series of clicking sounds ensued, and the sound of air being sucked filled the room.


    The massive door started to swing back and reveal the contents of the chambers, but words completely failed Reyna as she looked at the naked silver-haired man who was hovering in the chamber.

 Chapter 316 - 081 – I’m From The God Realm

    Lirian focused his [Gods Gaze] on the green figure in his vision, as he inspected it closely he pinpointed the source of the green energy, it came from the figures dantian, hence Lirian immediately knew that it was a mage, or spellcaster as they called them on Nebula-6.


    With a little effort, he was able to narrow down the figure''s cultivation stage to the middle stages of an adept, with just that little information he was able to tell exactly who the intruder was.


    A small smile crept up onto his face, "I was planning on paying you a visit once I was done here, but it looks like a few unexpected developments must have occurred," Lirian said in a light manner as if the sudden disruption didn''t concern him.


    Reyna looked at Lirian with widened eyes, she was struggling to believe what she was looking at, she was getting the same vibe of Lirian that she remembered, but he looked so different, he looked older, taller, stronger, and much more mature.


    But that smile was the thing that confirmed it for her, there was no way that any other person in the world could wear such a light smile, that reeked of danger.


    "You¡­ you are¡­Lirian?" she asked in half disbelief.


    "Oh," Lirian mused with a wry smile, "Did you not recognise me?" he laughed gleefully.


    If anyone else were to see his reactions they would think that Reyna was a long-lost friend of his, not an enemy who he vowed to himself to kill.


    "I''m mildly insulted," Lirian laughed, "I always thought that I had an unforgettable face," Lirian added with a flash of anger creeping into his voice.


    Reyna''s heart jolted and unease crept into her body, when she felt the sudden outburst of anger, she quickly shifted into a battle-ready stance with mana building up on her fingers, if Lirian made so much as a move she was ready to start drawing runes.


    But suddenly the tension that she had been subjected to vanished, the anger on Lirian''s face also seemed to disappear, it was like it had never been there, to begin with.


    "Hahaha," Lirian chuckled softly, "I suppose that I can''t completely blame you, after all, I have undergone some changes," Lirian said as he rubbed his nose proudly.


    Reyna continued to look at Lirian with undisguised shock, "Your legs¡­ and your body¡­" she stammered, "Just what exactly are you?" she cried out.


    She was still caught on his body, she remembered all the wounds that her squad inflicted on Lirian, he should have been riddled with stitches and scars, but the hardest of all to accept was that his legs were perfectly fine, no they looked even healthier than before.


    She had witnessed his legs being broken for herself, both his ankles were bent in odd angles, by all means, he should have been unable to walk for at least a quarter of a year, but he looked perfectly healthy, she even vaguely noticed that his slave brand was gone.


    She was so surprised by his condition that she hardly noticed how amazing his body looked.


    "Me, I''m just a god," Lirian said with a shrug of his shoulders, "I did tell you before, but you didn''t believe me," Lirian added and ran his hands through his long silver hair.


    The nirvana had completely healed his body, of all its ailments, and even the dye that was in his air was completely burned away, putting his hair back, into its natural state.


    Reyna''s eyes opened so wide that they threatened to fall out of their sockets as she took notice of Lirian''s long silver hair and matched it to the stories about the caravan robbing''s.


    "You were telling the truth," she finally whimpered out, as she recalled all the things Lirian said that only resulted in mockery from her squad.


    He claimed to be the one behind the caravan robberies, he claimed to have killed the inhabitants of Willcolly, and turned them into white particles of light, and he had an even crazier explanation for the strange fire that engulfed the forests near Willcolly, but now she had no choice but to believe that he was speaking the truth.


    Her entire mind fell into a mess as she looked at Lirian seriously, "Who exactly are you? Where do you come from? Are you a member of the royal family?" she asked a series of questions that sprung up in her mind.


    Lirian laughed loudly at her questions and raised his head proudly, "I am Lirian, although my father has named me Samsara," Lirian answered her first question proudly.


    "As for your second question that''s tricky, if I answer I''ll fail my mission¡­" Lirian suddenly stopped mid-sentence and looked thoughtfully with a look of surprise on his face.


    "I just remembered, I''m from the god realm," Lirian said with a wide smile, but his answer only baffled Reyna who wasn''t even aware that an immortal realm and god realm existed beyond the mortal realm.


    Reyna didn''t get to give his answer much thought because when it came to the final answer, she felt that same intense anger from earlier engulfing Lirian.


    "Don''t ever say that I hail from a bunch of backward country bumpkins that are bound by the constraints of a single world," Lirian said in a cold and arrogant manner.


    Lirian didn''t hold such thoughts about the great empires that ruled the mortal realm, they were a highly advanced society, that was well aware of the enormity of the universe, and despite their immense power, they accepted how small they were when compared to the greater universe.


    But Lirian held no such delusions about the ignorant country bumpkins of this world, even their royals were most likely a bunch of proud imbeciles whose egos were so great that if a seventh-grade cultivator were to climb it and jump down to their actual I.Q''s, it would spell an instant death for said seventh grade cultivator.


    That would be the fate of a seventh grade cultivator, and seventh grade cultivators had the ability to fly.


    Lirian''s thoughts were based on eons of history that he witnessed, as well as his own life experiences.


    "Now remember my next words, I am the son of Adolin Morningstar, the third greatest god to have ever existed," Lirian said raising his head even higher if it was possible.


    When he finished he felt a questioning gaze coming from Reyna, half of it seemed to be saying that he was crazy and the other half seemed to be wondering who the other two gods were.


    Lirian didn''t mind the skepticism and explained, "The second greatest god, would naturally have to be my birth mother, my father admitted it himself when I was reborn and besides, she gave birth to me so she had to be the second greatest god,"


    "As for the greatest, I think it''s pretty self-explanatory, you''re looking at him!" Lirian declared with enough arrogance to cover the skies.


    Reyna half wanted to laugh at his declaration she found it hard to take him seriously when he spoke so arrogantly while naked, but once Lirian finished, she felt the tension shoot to new hights, as her body tensed up, due to Lirian''s battle intent that was smothering her senses.


    "Now that we''ve got the introductions out of the way," Lirian said with excitement filling his voice, "It''s time for you to entertain me for a bit, I haven''t had a good fight in ages," Lirian laughed loudly.


    "Now-Run-For-Me!" Lirian said with a smile that stretched across his face and aimed one of his empty palms at Reyna.

 Chapter 317 - 082 – Serpent

    Lirian extended his hand, and power flowed through his entire body, a euphoric smile stretched across Lirian''s face as he activated [Telekinesis], he took control over the dormant fields of the world and compressed the energy into his palm.


    "Now-Run-For-Me!" Lirian shouted ecstatically and released the compressed energy.


    Reyna didn''t even get time to react as an unseen energy wave slammed into her, she was flung back through the cultivation chamber door, but her flight didn''t stop there.


    She soared through the room and the energy ripple generated by the energy wave tore through the room, destroying and ripping everything in their path.


    In just a second everything in the room was completely destroyed and turned upside down, the dresser and bed splintered into pieces and the windows exploded outwards under the intense pressure brought about by the energy wave.


    Lirian hovered into the room as he heard Reyna smash into a wall and sighed as he used his [Gods Gaze] to look at the energy surging through his arms.


    ''Seriously I didn''t even alter my intrinsic energy quality, or lift my heavenly suppression and she is already down,'' Lirian thought with irritation.


    ''I guess that after being in the empire for so long my standards for puny mortals is way too high,'' Lirian thought, as he realised that so far he only met pseudo cultivators, pseudo cultivators were those cultivators that focused on one or two centres of power instead of all three.


    Those that focused only on one centre of power would only have access to a third of their true power, and those that focused on two centre''s of power would only have access to two-thirds of their true power, while someone who focused on all three would be able to unleash their full power.


    But the most important part was the versatility that came with activating all three centres of powers, it was something that the people in this House Kurt truly lacked, Lirian hoped that there were people in the world that focused on all three, otherwise things were going to be far too easy for him.


    As he floated into the room Lirian became aware of his naked state as the drafts hit his little brother, so he quickly went to the bed and pulled the sheets, and started to wrap them around his body.


    A moment later he heard the sound of footsteps drawing closer to the room, there weren''t many and as Lirian used his [Gods Gaze] to peer through the walls he sighed in disappointment, the people coming had a colour between white and pale yellow, they were just ordinary soldiers, who failed as cultivators.


    The doors were pushed open, and Lirian lazily waved a palm, another wave of energy burst out of his hand and the soldiers went flying out of the room and smashed the walls on the opposite end of the corridor so hard that they instantly became meat pulp.


    From the beginning to end the soldiers didn''t get to make much more than a surprised gasp, "I guess I have made a lot of noise, hopefully, someone strong will come soon," Lirian muttered hopefully as he completed tying the sheets around his body into a decent toga.


    Lirian focused on Reyna , and realised that she was finally coming to, ''Maybe I should give her more time to run this time,'' Lirian thought and landed on the ground, as much as he enjoyed hovering around, he wanted to stretch his new body a little.


    Just as he placed his legs on the ground, a sudden burning sensation assaulted his body, Lirian frowned as he wondered what was going on, it was like a fire was starting to spread throughout the inside of his body.


    Beads of sweat started forming on his body, and suddenly Lirian let out a pained cry as the burning feeling enveloped his lungs, he heaved heavily but every breath seemed to only put him into a worse condition.


    Cough, Cough, Cough.


    Lirian heaved heavy coughs that rocked his entire body, and brought him to his knees, ''What the hell is happening to me?'' Lirian cursed as blood started to splutter from his mouth.


    "System," he called out while taking a sharp breath.


    [Host has consumed the neural toxin from the breath of the world]


    [Host is recommended to immediately block all energy points to prevent <Unconscious Cultivator> from taking effect]


    "Fuck," Lirian cursed as he realised that his [Unconscious Cultivator] was responsible for his current predicament, the ability caused his body to collect and cultivate energy at all times, even if he was in the middle of a battle it wouldn''t stop.


    Lirian could feel every vein in his body popping out of his skin and pulsing as the toxin coursed through his body.


    Blood started to drip from all his orifices, ''How could I have been so stupid?'' he cursed himself internally as he started to block his energy points.


    [Host has already consumed a lethal dose]


    The system suddenly alerted him, as he unloaded a mouthful of blood, ''What?'' Lirian shouted internally as he felt the world suddenly going dark.


    [System will prepare to return to soul vault, wishing host better luck in hosts next life]


    Lirian''s face shrunk in horror, ''No fucking way, this is not possible, how the fuck can I die from something like this,'' he cursed internally as the toxin continued to burn into his body.


    Lirian couldn''t help but feel like he lost, the system was unmatched with its analytical abilities, if it could find no solution, then Lirian felt like it was hopeless, he had no doubt in its abilities since he personally created it.


    ''How can I die this way? it''s ridiculous,'' he thought, as he started to lose all the feeling in his body.


    ''Am I really going to have to use, one of my ethereal revival embryos to save myself because of my own stupidity,'' he wondered with depression.


    But that was when Lirian realised something, he created the system, so he knew it''s in and out''s better than anyone, there was only one thing that it couldn''t do, that was to use its analytical functions to determine the actions of things it couldn''t understand.


    As things stood one such thing came to mind, Lirian knew of just one thing that the system was still failing to understand, his godly constitution.


    Lirian pressed his hand against the Celtic knot on his chest that carried the design of a serpent after his constitution altered it, "Come on, if there was ever a time to show your might it''s right now," Lirian stammered to his body.


    His thoughts weren''t empty either, back on the expedition when he used the words of heaven, he was supposed to face a very dangerous tribulation for breaking the rules of the plain.


    Yet when the punishment came his serpent apparition devoured the entire thing, although it did seem to suffer a lot of damage, but the point was that it was able to consume a tribulation before it returned to his body, so it had to be able to deal with some poison.


    In fact, it was only because of his constitution that he survived the first time he tried to cultivate.


    Lirian pushed his energy towards the serpent on his chest and it started to move, along his body, everywhere it passed Lirian felt a slight bit of relief, but as soon as it moved the pain returned.


    Lirian spat out mouthful after mouthful of blood as he felt the toxins burning through his body, ''I wish that I had 15 trillion fate particles to become an apostle of that snake god Akasha,'' Lirian lamented.


    He was in such a bad situation that he was even considering becoming an apostle, but that''s when he noticed a change in the serpent that was running through his body, it stopped moving according to his direction and instead it charged directly at the special core in his body that contained the godly essences.


    Lirian''s mouth widened with surprise as he noticed what the serpent was doing, he couldn''t help but feel astonished by its actions.

 Chapter 318 - 083 – Devour

    Lirian watched in bewilderment as the serpent darted into the core of godly essences, it swept over all the essences as if searching for one in particular.


    The essences all looked like greyed-out particles, with barely any vibrance to them, due to their dormant states, but they were all the essences of gods, so even in their dormant states, they all radiated unique sensations that couldn''t be replicated by anyone.


    Eventually, Lirian noticed that the serpent stopped, its gaze landed on a single godly essence in the distance, Lirian was able to tell that it was the essence of the snake god Akasha.


    ''It can''t be seriously planning to take on a piece of godly essence,'' Lirian thought in surprise, the essence might have been dormant, but it still belonged to a god, in comparison his first grade body was nothing, it wasn''t even comparable to a spec of dust.


    Lirian had to use up quadrillions of fate particles just to extract the god''s natures, without making their essences go berserk.


    As Lirian''s mind was filled with doubts the serpent shot forward and wrapped its body around the grey godly essence of the snake god, the lines that made up the serpent started to glow as it started to assimilate the godly essence.


    ''Holy crap,'' Lirian cursed internally, but he was powerless to stop it, as things stood it was taking all his strength to stop the toxin from killing him, he could only hope that his godly constitution could win over a piece of godly essence.


    After a few seconds of assimilation the snake god''s essence seemed to awake slightly, and it started to take the form of a snake almost ten times the size of Lirian''s serpent.


    Roar.


    The snake let out a mighty roar and glanced down at the tiny snake that dared to try assimilating, it looked down at the tiny snake like it was an insignificant being, and let out a sharp hiss, it was as if it was saying ''Piss off before I sneeze and turn you into pulp.''


    But Lirian''s serpent remained rooted to the spot as it stared at the much larger snake, with an equally arrogant disposition.


    ROAR.


    A loud and guttural roar reverberated from its body and resonated throughout the entire core, Lirian could feel waves of pressure being emitted by the serpent that suppressed everything with its unbridled pride and arrogance that didn''t even deem the heavens as worthy.


    Lirian watched in amazement as the great snake, formed from the snake god''s essence, dropped its body and bowed to his serpent.


    Then his serpent lay down flat and spread its mouth, and the most surprising sight of all happened, the snake god''s essence started to slitter into its mouth.


    It slid into the serpent''s body and soon the serpent started to elongate, and it grew in size as the snake god''s essence willingly allowed itself to be assimilated.


    A moment later the serpent returned to his chest and returned to the form of the Celtic knot, as it settled Lirian felt his entire body suddenly undergoing some changes.


    It felt like his bones were becoming slightly more flexible, and his skin started to toughen, but the biggest change was from his jaw, it was like his mouth was being modified so that it could open wider, and his canines elongated a little and became much sharper.


    But the most notable change was that his body no longer felt like acid was inside it, it just felt like a mild flame was slowly cooking him from the inside, compared to before it was like a dream come true.


    The system was rapidly giving him alerts about all the changes that happened, but he didn''t pay it any attention, his mind was still replaying the events that just transpired.


    The powers of his godly constitution, was far beyond his wildest imagination, he had done extensive research into special constitutions, and the godly constitution while he had never seen one before, he came up with all form of theories to find a measurement of its ability, but this went far beyond anything he ever imagined.


    And it had to be known that his constitution was still in its slumbering state, and its full power would not be unleashed until he became a god, yet it seemed to have the power to devour the power of other gods and improve itself.


    Lirian felt complete disbelief, but he was certain that it had to come with its own set of limitations, and he''d have to work hard to find out everything there was to know about it, but for now, he had to turn his attention back to the room.


    Lirian pulled himself up, his new clothes that he fashioned out of the bedsheet was covered in his blood, and his body was pale as it slowly started to recover.


    Lirian heard more hurried steps approaching the room, and this time there were over a dozen adepts in the group and most importantly, just a little behind them, there were three figures who emanated an orange glow, that was the power of a third grade cultivator.


    Based on the places where their energy was focused, Lirian made out that 2 of them were body cultivators, as their spines had the most concentration of energy which made the two of them knights, and the last one had his energy focused on his dantian which made him a mage.


    ''It seems that the big guns are on their way over here, but it''s such a pity that all of them are only pseudo cultivators,'' Lirian thought with a sigh, killing the lot of them would just take him a little time.


    As Lirian got up, he realised, that even though he was alright now, his body wasn''t exactly in great condition, even with his healing abilities and his [Flames of Nirvana], it would take him a few hours to restore himself to his peak.


    Lirian ignited the [Flames of Nirvana] for a slight amount of healing, he couldn''t even afford to move his body around all that much in his current condition.


    As the red flames spread around his body and healed him, Lirian started to stroll around the wreckage in the room.


    He moved to the dresser and started to move through it''s contents with curiosity, he needed something other than bed sheets, but the clothes were, unfortunately, all girls clothes, consisting of dresses, bathrobes, and nightgowns.


    Lirian pulled them up curiously and used a spell [Detection Barrier] it gave him a very good idea of everything within 20 feet of him, and allowed him to vaguely tell what the clothes looked like.


    As Lirian moved through the broken drawer he came across a special draw that forced him to let out a grin, ''Underwear,'' he mused as he went through the contents, and before long he was laughing idiotically as he inspected the panties and bras that filled the drawer.


    After a while Lirian dropped a bra, he lost interest after a while as he realised that all the bras were very small, ''Poor girl she''s an A32, and that''s me being generous,'' Lirian thought while feeling pity for Izlandi.


    ''Oh well, break time is over,'' Lirian mused and walked over to Reyna who was lying flat on the floor, she seemed to be conscious, but for some reason, she wasn''t moving.


    He could feel her eyes glaring at him with hatred, yet her body wasn''t moving at all, she didn''t even seem able to speak.


    Lirian crouched down in front of her and after a quick inspection he let out a pitiful sigh, "This is what happens when you idiots advance your rank without bringing your other centres forward, you might be an adapt, but your body is like freaking paper," Lirian scoffed at her.


    The reason she wasn''t moving, or speaking was because her spine snapped during the impact, for all intents and purposes she was now a vegetable.


    Lirian could smell the tears that were leaving Reyna''s eyes, as she was forced to remain there locked inside her own body, unable to do a thing.


    "Now, now, this isn''t the time for tears," Lirian laughed, "You can cry after you see how hopeless the situation is for your family, but don''t worry, I won''t kill anyone important today, today I''m just going to have some fun before the slaughter," Lirian laughed and lifted her body with telekinesis and placed her in a corner of the room.


    Now that she was a vegetable he felt like it would be more torturous for her to live, rather than to kill her, she knew the truth about Izlandi''s betrayal but now she would never be able to tell anyone.

 Chapter 319 - 084 – Attack In House Kurt 1

    Lirian got tired of waiting, due to his enhanced senses, his hearing had reached new heights, the footsteps from the soldiers that he heard earlier, were from a far and after reaching the corridor, they came to a halt.


    Lirian imagined that the sight of their former comrades who were decorating the corridors walls in their new forms of meat pulp and metal from their flattened armour left them afraid, so they waited for reinforcements to arrive.


    Lirian sighed and extended his legs, he casually strode out of the room and found a small platoon of no more than thirty guards looking at him.


    "Remain where you are or we''ll attack," a brave guard shouted at Lirian, as he spoke the platoon readied their weapons, some of them carried swords and some of them held spears.


    Lirian merely smiled at them and continued to walk forward, when a spear came rushing his way, Lirian lazily moved his head in an angle and the spear harmlessly whistled past his face with barely even a gap between his skin and the blade.


    The narrow miss filled the other soldiers with confidence, but little did they know that Lirian allowed the spear to pass him so narrowly.


    Several more spears came soaring his way, but with just the simplest of movements Lirian was able to evade all their attacks and before the guards could do anything else Lirian was right in front of them.


    The guards had found it hard to see Lirian clearly as he walked through the corridor, but now that they could see him clearly, they noted his silver hair, and his clothes that were fashioned out of  a bed sheet, most notably was the blood that soaked the sheets.


    "We are the guards of House Kurt if you attack us there will be consequences that you cannot fathom," the same guard who spoke earlier shouted in Lirian''s face.


    Lirian frowned when he heard the guards words, "Let me show you something that you cannot fathom," Lirian hissed and his hand shot out like a viper.


    Lirian clamped the guards mouth with his hand and lifted him into the air effortlessly, a layer of energy sept out of Lirian''s hand and coated the guards body.


    "Now let''s play a little  game of whack-a-mole,"  Lirian laughed and flipped the struggling guard through the air and caught him by the legs before slamming him against one of the other guards.


    Before the stupefied gazes of the other guards the guard who was hit splattered into mush on the ground, while the guard in Lirian''s hand was perfectly fine under the barrier Lirian placed around him, then Lirian started to swing the guard around like a wild beast.


    In just seconds the platoon was reduced to half its original size as Lirian went on a vicious rampage, pummelling them into ground up meat.


    With every swing of his hand the guard in his grasp acted like a hammer of certain death, no one survived a single hit and before long the remnants of the group were scuttling around in a panic.


    "We¡­ have back up coming," Lirian''s latest victim threatened him.


    "Yeah I know," Lirian replied with a shrug, and pointed down the corridor, "A dozen adepts are on their way and your house leaders are a little further behind," Lirian said.


    "What''s your point?" he asked the guard.


    The guard blinked in surprise, at Lirian''s nonchalant attitude, he was even more stunned that Lirian seemed to know exactly where the reinforcements were coming from and their numbers.


    "You shouldn''t waste your time attacking us, if you hope to escape," the guard quickly reasoned but his words caused him to see a dark turn in Lirian''s attitude.


    "Do you think that this god is afraid of your pathetic leaders!" Lirian roared in anger, as he lost control of his emotions for a second, and he ended up turning his newly obtained human shaped hammer into splatter.


    Lirian lifted the guard who was in front of him by the leg and bashed him against the ground, with the first impact he heard the man''s skull crack.


    But that wasn''t enough to appease Lirian''s anger, he kept slamming the man against the ground until the top half of his body was an unrecognizable piece of gory flesh until the entire space around him was covered in blood and mashed up organs.


    When Lirian finished the group of adepts arrived and they were surrounded by dozens of novices, "Finally some people that I can play with," Lirian roared with laughter.


    His figure was a scary sight with his baggy clothes that were dyed red and covered in human guts, it was extremely terrifying and disgusting to look at, but the scariest part was the look of joy that spread onto Lirian''s face.


    Even the dumbest in the group was able to tell that reasoning with the crazed monster before them was impossible.


    They didn''t even get the chance to think before Lirian charged at them.


    Lirian moved with lithe steps across the ground, as he moved a novice suddenly moved into his path to cut off his advance.


    "Out of my way ant," Lirian scoffed in anger and made a swatting motion, all that it took was his casual strike to pound the novice to the ground.


    Creak, Crack.


    The sound of bones cracking echoed in the corridor, and the pained howls of the novice cut into everyone''s ears like a blade.


    He didn''t die instantly like the ordinary guards, but everyone saw that Lirian only delivered a casual strike.


    The eyes of the novices and adapts became extremely serious as they gazed at Lirian, even the adapts who were still trying to assess Lirian''s strength, couldn''t help but take him seriously after seeing the power of his blow.


    While they could do a similar thing to any novice, none of them were able to do it so casually they felt like his power was close to the peak of the adapt stage.


    They didn''t get much time to continue assessing Lirian, because Lirian took the novices surprise as an opportunity to push through them and arrive before the adapts.


    "Now lets see if any of you can act as my punching bag," Lirian whispered, but they all heard his words if he announced his thoughts, anger filled their minds as they understood that Lirian was taking them lightly.


    "We''ll show you who''s a punching bag!" an adapt scoffed with anger filling her voice.


    "Adapts surround him and novices, stay outside the circle, look for opportunities to throw your weapons at him," she quickly ordered and charged at Lirian.


    Lirian laughed, despite her first statement, it was evident that she was taking him very seriously, his little taunt had successfully riled her up, but at least it didn''t make her go completely stupid.


    Lirian moved forward and threw out a simple punch to match the woman''s punch, when their fist''s collided, the air surged around their fist''s and created a small wave of air that made the hair of everyone present flutter around.


    Lirian was standing firmly with an unimpressed look on his face, while the woman''s eyes shrunk in horror, she used her full momentum to launch that attack, and she saw that Lirian only reacted at the last second, yet he wasn''t even pushed back an inch.


    "If that''s all that you''ve got, then the lot of you might as well come at me together," Lirian stated in a bored tone and extended his hand to make a provocative gesture to the other adepts.


    After looking at their energy, Lirian already knew that all of them were body cultivators, and the woman in front of him was the strongest, with her energy being slightly above the middle stages.

 Chapter 320 - 085 – Lirian’s Unexpected Concern

    The adapts moved forward and formed a tight circle around Lirian to reduce the area he could move in, and only three came forward.


    One came face to face with him and the other two stood slightly behind him in his blind spots, to form a triangle.


    It wouldn''t make any sense for them to crowd him with attacks, not only would such an approach be ineffective, odds were that they would only get in each-others way.


    ''Pity for them that my [Detection Barrier] gives me a near eagle-like vision of my surroundings,'' Lirian laughed internally but then even if he didn''t use the barrier they wouldn''t be able to escape his senses.


    Lirian moved promptly as a sword came at him with a horizontal slash, but just as he tilted his body, two more sword slashes came in cutting off his escape.


    Lirian laughed and kicked himself off the ground, as the three swords locked in around him, he slipped over them with the blades just barely missing his body.


    Lirian spun in the air, and pressed his hand down where two of the blade''s overlapped, he pivoted his body on his arm, and brought one of his legs forward with a sweeping kick.


    Lirian''s leg moved like a whip and with a snapping sound, it smashed directly into the head of the adapt.


    The force of the blow knocked the adapt off his feet and sent him hurtling across the corridor, he crashed into the wall and his helm made a loud clinking sound as it crumpled in against his head.


    Lirian promptly rolled to the ground, but just as he came to a halt three spears shot out from the novices, all of them took aim of his landing spot.


    Lirian waved his hand and a burst of telekinetic force knock the three spears of course.


    "When grown-ups are having fun the children should stay out of it," Lirian shouted and took a long and sharp breath, everyone could hear the sharpness of the suction, and in the next second all went silent as a blazing torrent of flames erupted from Lirian''s mouth.


    Scarlet flames shot out from Lirian''s mouth and he performed a slight spin on his heels, the fire spread in a circle and washed over all the novices in the surroundings, yet the flames completely ignored the adepts.


    Shouts and screams, filled with pain ensued, the novices rolled on the ground and swatted at the flames that clung to their bodies and armour, but they were unable to dampen the flames in the slightest.


    Those flames were no ordinary flames, they were infused with [Voids Corrosion], the power of the void was the product of chaos, while beings that belonged to the plain were beings of order.


    So the [Voids Corrosion] would cling onto all things that represented order, to return it to chaos, as the flames ate away at the novices Lirian extended his hands and activated his [Conduit] skill, the newly created chaos energy rapidly flew into Lirian''s body and restored his energy.


    Under the current conditions, Lirian couldn''t rely on his [Unconscious Cultivator] to constantly restore his energy so he had to rely on his [Voids Corrosion] and [Conduit] abilities to restore his energy.


    Unlike other beings of order Lirian''s ''Void Walker'' esper technique granted him a body that could accept void energy, he could even cultivate with it.


    "Now then where were we?" Lirian asked the adepts who were looking at the hell around them with stunned eyes.


    "You cultivate two centres of power?!" the leader of the adapts half asked and half stated with shock.


    "Oh," Lirian turned to her with surprise on his face, "You know of cultivators that cultivate multiple centres of power?" he asked feeling slightly intrigued, that they knew about cultivating multiple centres of power, yet they didn''t do it.


    The woman nodded in acceptance, Lirian''s question gave her the answer she was looking for, "Don''t use killing blows against him," she ordered the adapts.


    "He has to be from one of the great houses or the royal family, to be walking that dead-end path," she said fiercely.


    "Dead end path?" Lirian asked while tilting his head in surprise.


    The woman scoffed, "Everyone knows that it''s just a waste of resources to cultivate multiple centres of power, at most you''ll become an adapt, but you''ll die of old age before stepping into the next realm,"


    "Only the great families and royal family have the resources to waste, for anyone delusional enough to take that path," she scoffed, "So which one are you from?" she asked.


    Lirian stood with a blank look for what felt like a long time, after listening to the adapt, ''These people¡­ these people¡­'' Lirian stammered in his head in disbelief.


    The adapts were watching him carefully for any sudden moves, they all tensed up when they saw Lirian''s entire body move but in the next instant, all they heard was a loud and booming laugh.


    They watched in disbelief as laughter racked every inch of Lirian''s body, he was shaking so hard that his legs couldn''t even support his body, he fell to the ground while surrounded by enemies and rolled around on the ground as he suffered to suck in air as he laughed uncontrollably.


    "Never¡­ in all my¡­ lives¡­ have I met such¡­ stupid people," Lirian gasped for breath between every word, "No¡­ with such stupidity¡­ I''m insulting all people¡­ by calling you people," Lirian choked on his words as he struggled to contain his laughter.


    He had seen dumb before, he witnessed people, who believed that the other paths of cultivation were demonic arts that destroyed the balance of the world.


    If they were unable to understand the other paths, they labelled them as unnatural and sacrilege against the heavens, but this was just a new and more evolved form of the word dumb.


    In all his lives never before had he seen people so stupid, that they would call the true path of cultivation, the only path that would allow one to reach the peak of the mortal realm as a dead end.


    ''No wonder the will of the world had to add it to my quest, for me to educate the people of the world about the dao of cultivation,'' Lirian thought and he felt a wave of sympathy for the will of the world.


    "Not everyone is as stupid as you are, right?" Lirian asked with genuine concern, and the adapts found it hard to describe the wave of pure concern that they felt emanating from Lirian.


    They wanted to feel angry at his words, but his sincere concern touched them in ways they couldn''t explain and washed away any form of anger they held towards him.


    Lirian did feel genuinely concerned, it the true path of cultivation was known to the people of the world, yet they believed as the woman in front of him believed, then this world would be useless to hone himself.


    If all the people in this world only focused on a single centre of power, they would not be able to achieve the fifth grade without dying, and they would be a complete mess if they managed to reach the fourth grade.


    The imbalance in their centres of power would completely ruin their other centres of power, for instance, if a body cultivator managed to reach the fifth grade without cultivating their mind, they would lose their ability to form conscious thoughts, they would be like a brainless beast.


    Their dantian would also burst under the power of their body, and they would not be able to store energy inside their bodies anymore, once they used up the left-over energy in their bodies they would die from exhaustion.


    Hack even a third grade body cultivator in the late stages, would start to find in hard to think properly and fourth grade body cultivators would start to lose all their awareness, they could be treated like mindless puppets that follow only orders.


    The only way to avoid such a fate was to cultivate the other centres of power and maintain the equilibrium.


    A wave of anguish filled Lirian''s mind as he thought of the possibility that he might not find truly worthy opponents on this world.


    Feeling the blank stares of the cultivators, Lirian felt a surge of anger, "Those who are so stupid, to label the true path of cultivation as a dead end deserve only death!" he shouted and charged at the adapts in a blind rage.

 Chapter 321 - 086 – Attack In House Kurt 2

    Lirian felt genuinely concerned for his future and stopped holding back to properly vent out his anger, if the world had no one that could surpass the fourth rank then this world was going to be useless for his growth.


    With a thought, a layer of energy started to pour out from every inch of his body to form a thin cloak of energy that held a metallic purple colour.


    Lirian activated his [Aura] ability, it might have been a first accord technique for warriors, but with his esper breath it held a level of power that no first accord cultivator could match, and in general, most body cultivators would only be able to activate [Aura] in the later stages of the second-grade.


    But to Lirian using these techniques was second nature to him, as he charged with power coursing through his body he threw out a powerful fist.


    A massive burst of wind exploded outward with Lirian at the centre, the force was so powerful that some of the novices who survived were swept off their feet by the impact.


    A cloud of dust hung in the air, and when the dust cleared up, they were surprised to see that no one had died.


    But their expressions were filled with relief as they saw the figure that stood there, he was a tall man with an ugly face and long black hair that fell to his shoulders.


    Everyone could see that he caught Lirian''s fist squarely in his palm, and to their relief, he didn''t appear to be pressured by the strike.


    The entire floor however was filled with cracks that spread around Lirian and their Lord, the figure of their lord filled them with confidence especially when they looked at the stark contrast between Lirian and Lord Rupid Kurt.


    Despite his recent growth, Lirian was still pretty short, and his size was tiny, in fact, the recent change that came to his body after he devoured the snake god''s essence made Lirian''s body even slimmer than it already was.


    When compared to the 7 foot tall and muscular Lord, one wouldn''t be able to help themselves from thinking that Lirian was on the losing end.


    Lord Kurt looked at Lirian coldly, and without exchanging so much as a single word, a dense yellow aura extended from his body and wrapped around him tightly and he delivered a powerful kick at Lirian.


    Lirian pulled his fist free from Rupid Kurt''s palm, and used both his arms to block the blow, as the kick landed, Lirian felt waves of pressure run through his body as he was launched backwards with breakneck speed.


    When Lirian finally crashed against a wall, he felt waves of pressure run through his bones, but his newly modified bones, that seemed to be more flexible, handled the pressure extremely well.


    Lirian could feel his blood pumping as he jump back to his feet, a smirk spread across his face, "I was starting to think that your house was filled with weaklings," Lirian laughed happily, even as he spoke Rupid was already closing the distance to launch another strike.


    This time Lirian stepped in with a quick step, and aim a punch at Rupid''s gut, but like before his attack was easily blocked by Rupid''s palm.


    "You''re gonna have to do better than that boy," Rupid grunted coldly at Lirian, the only thought on his mind was to crush Lirian, he didn''t have the details but he could guess that Lirian was the cause of all his problems.


    Rupid lifted his leg and prepared to deliver another kick to Lirian.


    "Don''t tell me that you''re a one-trick pony," Lirian said in a ridiculing tone and twisted his arm free from Rupid''s grasp.


    Lirian twisted his entire body up into the air, and narrowly dodged the kick, "Let me tell you, if your attack worked against me once, it''s never going to work against me again," Lirian laughed.


    Rupid''s eyes widened as he looked at Lirian, currently, Lirian was facing him while hanging upside down in the air, it was like gravity had lost all effect on him as he laughed, then Rupid noticed a strange diagram that appeared behind Lirian''s foot.


    But he didn''t get to look at it for long because in the next moment it erupted in flames that exploded outwards.


    Lirian''s leg was already moving in a kicking motion, when the flames erupted like a thruster, his leg moved down with breakneck speed, and he landed a powerful kick on Rupid''s shoulder.


    Rupid felt like a mountain crashed onto his shoulder, the force knocked his massive figure down onto one knee, and the corridor floor experienced another massive impact, that sent new cracks running through the ground.


    Rupid felt his world spin for a second, before he looked up and saw that Lirian went spinning backwards through the air.


    Lirian felt the recoil in his leg after landing the strike, and since he was using levitate, he couldn''t channel the excess energy into the ground, instead, it acted on his body and sent him hurtling in the opposite direction.


    Lirian soon regain control of his body and landed a good distance away from Rupid, who was still on his knee, Lirian could imagine that he was currently seeing stars after taking such a solid hit.


    "There is always a way to make up for strength if you use your imagination," Lirian said knowingly, "But if you want to have another go at it, I promise I won''t use a trick to make up for the difference in power," Lirian laughed lightly.


    As he spoke Lirian started to use his [Intrinsic Energy Mastery] skill, currently, he was using his normal energy that had an I.E.Q of 4, while Rupid who was a knight had an I.E.Q of 6.


    Lirian activated his skill and changed his I.E.Q to 6, the change in energy simply increased the rate at which Lirian consumed energy the change from 4 to 6 increased his energy consumption by 50%.


    [Intrinsic Energy Mastery] was a skill that very few people would ever be able to use, amongst cultivators in general, Lirian would estimate that not 1 in a 100 trillion genius cultivators would be able to increase their Intrinsic Energy Quality by a single level.


    The reason why he could do it was mainly credited to his status as a reincarnator, it was almost impossible for someone to fathom the change that energy experienced, as the grade of the energy increased.


    But Lirian already knew what it felt like because, of the levels, he reached as a cultivator during his past lives, which was what allowed him to easily imitate the energy of higher levels.


    However there was one major change that he couldn''t do, and that was to imitate immortal energy with mortal energy, due to his esper techniques, when he reaches the seventh grade it might be possible, but he wouldn''t be able to make a large amount.


    The same rule applied to any other being who reincarnated, Lirian knew for a fact that all the eternals were capable of using, [Intrinsic Energy Mastery], and so to were those damaged souls that kept their memories after reincarnation.


    The final constraint, when it came to the skill was a person''s body, if their body was unable to handle the higher concentration of energy they would kill themselves, Lirian could push his energy to around 670 fifth grade energy particles with his current reserves, but then that amount of energy would be required in its entirety to cast a single spell without it falling apart.


    At those levels, it takes a great deal of focus to hold a spell together, without having a sufficiently powerful mind more energy would be used to hold the spell together instead of being used to make the spell more powerful.


    At his current level, Lirian wouldn''t push his energy quality over 40 or it would have a bad effect on his body.


    As he increased his I.E.Q.. Lirian noticed that Rupid Kurt was already charging directly at him.

 Chapter 322 - 087 – All Energy And No Substance

    When Rupid crashed against Lirian, everyone including Rupid expected Lirian to get knocked flying again, but to their surprise, Lirian caught Rupid''s fist with ease.


    A smile crept onto Lirian''s face, as Rupid''s face was coloured in surprise by the sudden change in Lirian''s strength, most notably he realised that Lirian had caught his fist in the exact manner that he caught Lirian''s earlier fist.


    He thought it was just in his head, but in the next instant, Lirian raised his leg delivered a brutal kick that sent him skidding across the floor for almost a dozen yards.


    Lirian chuckled softly, the blow didn''t cause any damage to Rupid but Lirian wasn''t going for that, he was just enjoying himself as he toyed around with Rupid''s mind.


    Lirian could imagine the thoughts going through Rupid''s head at the moment, he was mostly thinking that Lirian was only playing around with him earlier and let his first attack land.


    And in truth Lirian was only playing around so far, he used his [Gods Gaze] to focus on Rupid''s energy and what he found left him saddened.


    Rupid was a knight, he only cultivated his body and currently his body had just reached the late stages of his grade, unfortunately, with his [God''s Gaze] he was unable to perfectly determine the stage of cultivation a person reached.


    As he looked at Rupid''s other centres of power he was forced to sigh, both his mind and dantian were in their sealed state.


    Lirian did a quick calculation to estimate Rupid''s energy, he added the three energy centre''s together the late stages was at around the seventh stage so after adding it up he divided it by three, that''s when he remembered that Izlandi had cultivated her body a little, and she used a basic technique, which definitely came from her family.


    The technique would grant Rupid a 12% boost and finally, he multiplied it by Rupid''s I.E.Q of six because of his grade.


    In the end it looked something like this, ([{15 960 + 4 200 + 4 200} ¡Â 3] + 12%) ¡Á 6 = 54 566.


    Lirian held 40040 energy points due to his suppressed state and was merely at the fourth stage of the first grade, it was all thanks to the immense boosts brought about by his esper cultivation techniques.


    Rupid''s current energy was above Lirian''s by a little over 14 000 units, of course if Lirian were to release his heavenly suppression his energy would double, but currently, his energy was being consumed 50% faster due to his elevated I.E.Q, but Lirian could still win in the current conditions, however, he wasn''t planning on ending everything already.


    He had a vested interest in Izlandi''s plan, and he wanted her to succeed so that he could do what he desired to do, for that plan to work he couldn''t completely destroy House Kurt just yet.


    For now, Lirian was content with getting into his opponent''s heads and playing around with their minds.


    Rupid climbed to his feet and rushed at Lirian once more, this time he was fully on guard as he started to unleash fist after fist, which was filled with his aura.


    Lirian smirked and moved around, with simple steps he weaved between the flurry of fists with so much as losing his breath, to the adepts and novices watching the entire thing looked like a spectacle.


    Lirian''s every step appeared to be filled with unbridled grace, it looked more like he was dancing an intricate dance, every blow thrown by their lord was avoided with such ease, that they began to wonder if the silver-haired man could read their lord''s mind.


    Even as their lord switched his stances and used different attacks with different sequences, the movements of Lirian remained the same.


    Every blow thrown by Rupid released gales of pressure, onto the surroundings, and with every blow, the anger on his face started to increase.


    "How-are-you-even-doing-this!?" Rupid roared and brought both his hands together and raised them above his head.


    Lirian felt the energy in Rupid''s body concentrate into his hands, he was about to bring his hands down like a hammer to unleash an extremely destructive strike.


    Lirian sighed softly, "Let''s not destroy the entire floor as yet," Lirian said, in Rupid''s current position his entire body was completely exposed, for Lirian to attack however he pleased.


    The reason Lirian could so freely and easily dodge Rupid was not just his skill, but also his [Accelerated Thoughts] it was a skill that belonged to mind cultivators, yet its uses in battle were extraordinary.


    The [Accelerated Thoughts] ability allowed his perception to increase by a large amount, it allowed him to think and process things at an unbelievable pace.


    With the ability the world seemed to slow down and grant him much more time to observe and study his surroundings, while its main purpose was to aid the mind in learning and understanding things at a much faster speed, its application in battle was not to be looked down upon.


    Once more it proved that the centres of power were meant to work together, someone who only cultivated the mind would have their thoughts accelerated, but they would lack a body that could keep up with their mind.


    However cultivating both would allow the body to act in accordance with its accelerated mind, and the application of an accelerated mind for a mage, was immense, mages took time to cast spells, and the more powerful the spell the longer they would take to cast a spell.


    With [Accelerated Thoughts] spell casting time would be reduced by a significant time, it was just a single ability yet its application was groundbreaking.


    Lirian analysed Rupid in his hammering stance, the accumulation of his energy seemed to take forever to Lirian.


    Lirian pulled his arm back and built up some tension in his muscles before throwing a powerful jab directly at Rupid''s gut.


    The force of the strike took Rupid by surprise, he was aware of the opening his move provided to his opponent, but since their strength was on a similar level he believed that he could tank a few blows before releasing his strike.


    Yet as the blow landed he felt waves of energy rip through his body that not even his aura could absorb, his stance completely broke and his eye threatened to pop out of their sockets as he was smashed off his feet and went soaring through the corridor like he was shot out of a sling.


    Several seconds passed before the crash was heard, "Is that it?" Lirian asked, "I noticed some traces of forms in your attacks, but that was it, you might know a few forms but you haven''t even reached the stage of combining your forms together," Lirian complained.


    The man in front of him was at least 500 years old from what he could tell, yet he was still stuck on using forms, Lirian found it impossible to hide his disappointment at the discovery, this was a basic class back in the academy of Xelia.


    Anyone who was in the fifth year in the academy would get to learn dozens of forms, yet the level of his opponent''s skill was at the same level as cultivators who had just started their journey in the empire.


    When Lirian used ''free striking'' his opponent was helpless under the assault, to call it a travesty was an understatement.


    Lirian couldn''t help but sigh, his opponent had tons of energy, yet at the end of the day, he was all energy and no substance at all.

 Chapter 323 - 088 – Surrounded 1

    Rupid slowly climbed back to his feet, blood leaked out of his mouth as he pushed himself up with great effort, as he looked up at Lirian his eyes went red with anger.


    A blind rage was threatening to take away all his senses as he looked at Lirian''s arrogant smirk that never left his face throughout the fight.


    Rupid changed his stance, he placed his hands on the ground and placed his legs on the floor, as if he was about to charge at Lirian.


    Lirian saw the energy moving around Rupid, he looked like an athlete who was about to begin a race, but his aura was concentrating in front of his body, like a battering ram.


    ''He''s using a skill,'' Lirian realised, from the way the energy was building up, ''Does this guy really want to destroy the entire floor, or is he just that stupid?'' Lirian wondered with genuine concern, from what he learned about the nobles of this house, the odds of their Lord being an idiot didn''t seem like a stretch.


    Lirian was about to prepare a spell to counter the strike, but just then a massive ball of flame that covered almost the entire corridor entered Lirian''s sense.


    ''Do all the members of this family have no brain cells!'' Lirian cursed as the massive ball of flame closed the distance, ''It''s like they want to destroy their home,'' Lirian thought with a sigh and quickly turned his attention to the spell of flame.


    ''It has third grade power, but it''s just like Rupid it lacks substance,'' Lirian thought as he analysed the spell, he didn''t have to think twice to know who the caster was.


    It was Izlandi''s uncle, Conner Kurt, who cast the spell.


    "Shatter," Lirian whispered and raised his hand, a spell circle took shape in his hand and shot into the centre of the fireball, and almost instantly the entire spell fell apart turning into nothing more than energy.


    Lirian quickly activated his [Conduit] ability and started to absorb the energy, in his current situation he needed all the energy he could gather.


    The energy rapidly entered his body in thin streams, "Thanks for the grub," Lirian said as his energy increased a little.


    Just as he finished taking the energy in he snapped his attention back to Rupid who was charging through the cloud of smoke, "Don''t think that I forgot about you," Lirian scoffed when Rupid was just a few feet away from him.


    Lirian jumped and spun his body in the air, he planned to deliver a devastating blow to Rupid, but just then he sensed another presence enter his range, and it was the strongest of the cultivators present.


    ''This must be the ancestor of the family,'' Lirian concluded as he recalled everything Izlandi had told him, ''He is at the very peak of his level,'' Lirian noted as he looked at the concentration of energy in his new opponent''s spine.


    The ancestor of the family came charging in with a flying kick, and his aim was spot on, he seemed to anticipate Lirian''s action.


    Lirian quickly activated [Levitation] and a spell circle opened up in his palm, it quickly exploded into flames and sent him flying out of the path of the ancestor''s strike.


    Lirian landed softly on the ground, but in the next second two loud explosions caused the entire keep to tremble and shake.


    It was the resultant of both Rupid and the ancestor missing, their control was so pathetic that they couldn''t even defuse their power from their attacks, and they ended up crashing into the structure.


    Lirian stood calmly on the shaking floor, he could feel that the floor beneath his feet had lost all its integrity, one more heavy impact and everything would cave in.


    As he waited the trembling gradually stopped and the smoke cleared to reveal the new ''open plan'' of the keep, several walls were broken down, creating a connection between several rooms and the corridor.


    The three family leaders all returned to their feet and approached Lirian, in a triangle and behind them, numerous soldiers started to fill up the space, Lirian estimated that there were at least 200 novices and almost all the adapts of House Kurt were now present.


    They formed a wide circle behind their leaders and all of them were glaring at Lirian with proud smirks, in their minds Lirian was completely surrounded by the full force of House Kurt, there was no way they could see him walking out of the encirclement alive.


    When Rupid saw the dire situation Lirian was in he managed to come back to his senses, there was no longer a need for him to mindlessly charge in especially with his father and brother also present.


    When the soldiers stopped moving and silence filled the area all eyes were on Lirian, but what they saw didn''t match their expectations.


    They expected to see him panic or to beg for forgiveness yet he looked completely relaxed without the slightest bit of worry.


    As the light swept across Lirian''s figure, they could barely make out his bloody red outfit through the metallic purple aura his body radiated, it was a majestic sight to behold, and even if he was an enemy they had to admit that he made a striking image as his aura created a contrasting effect with his long silver hair.


    On his right ear, they could see the golden earing, which was symbolic of Lirian''s status as a prince candidate of the Clovis Empire, flickering within the light, it added a stylish look to his figure.


    But the strangest part of it all was Lirian''s eyes that were shut, from the beginning of the fight he kept his eyes closed, they couldn''t understand why, but a trace of fear crept through the bodies as they thought of what it could mean.


    If he wasn''t fighting with his eyes open the entire time, didn''t that mean that he wasn''t taking the fight seriously?


    Unfortunately for them, they didn''t know the truth, if they did, it might have eased their minds.


    Lirian stood in the centre of everyone''s attention as he used his god''s eyes to scan the crowd, the spell allowed him to see through objects so naturally, his eyelids posed as no hindrance to the spell.


    As he looked over the crowd he spotted a particular novice who he immediately identified to be Izlandi.


    The reason was because she cultivated two of her centres of power, while she did give up on cultivating her body because after 6 years of cultivation she only managed to reach the third stage, the power still lingered in her body.


    However, if she pushed her level to the next grade using her mana, her body''s power would be sealed, and she''d lose the cultivation boost that the basic technique brought her.


    Due to her cultivation of two centres of power, not only did her dantian and spine glow brightly, but the colour of her energy was a brighter yellow than ordinary novices.


    Izlandi was currently struggling to hide her panic, as she looked at Lirian, he looked like a whole new person to her and she couldn''t explain how he changed so much, but she was certain that it was him from the aura he exuded.


    She was struggling to keep herself composed out of fear, she had no clue what led to Lirian leaving the chamber it was far too earlier, so she couldn''t help but think that he betrayed her or that her secret of harbouring him was exposed.


    That was when a voice popped up in her mind, which almost made her jump out of her skin, ''Yoh, just relax and play along,'' the voice said and she immediately recognised the voice, it was Lirian.

 Chapter 324 - 089 – Surrounded 2

    Izlandi''s eyes widened as the voice sounded in her head, she glanced around with surprise as she realised that no one else heard the voice, yet it sounded so loud in her head.


    Her eyes landed on Lirian, it didn''t look like he was doing anything but she was certain that it was his voice she, ''Is that really him?'' she couldn''t help but wonder.


    ''Yup of course it''s me who else could be so amazing,'' she heard Lirian say in her head in his condescending tone.


    ''Oh my, can he hear what I''m thinking?'' she wondered.


    ''Yup I sure can, but you have to make your thoughts clear otherwise they end up turning into undecipherable nonsense,'' Lirian replied.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened in understanding, ''What is going on?'' she snapped immediately, ''Why did you leave the chamber? What about the poison? What about the plan?'' she asked in rapid succession.


    She saw Lirian sigh and rub his neck as she plastered his mind with questions, ''Long story short, your cousin Reyna entered the cultivation chamber,'' he said in a lazy tone.


    ''I don''t have the time to explain everything right now,'' Lirian complained, ''Is there any place that we can meet in the city?'' he asked casually.


    Izlandi felt like her little heart was about to give out, with how casually Lirian was speaking, ''Meet in the city, are you crazy?'' she whelped, ''How are you even going to get out of this alive?'' she cried out in indignation, with her small fists balling up.


    ''I''m can do anything I want to, I''m simply incredible,'' Lirian answered nonchalantly as if it was no big deal, ''I hate to break it you but your family is full of weaklings,'' Lirian gave his honest thoughts on the matter, and it nearly caused Izlandi to faint from shock.


    She knew that he was powerful, but she never imagined that he had the power to rival the full power of her house, it was unbelievable to her that one person could hold such immense power.


    Izlandi''s eyes darted to her uncle''s back and she sent another message to Lirian, ''Don''t kill my uncle,'' she pleaded.


    Lirian raised a brow at her sudden request, ''The plan was to kill your entire family, no one can know that you''re alive!'' Lirian replied coldly.


    Izlandi shuddered as she felt a trace of Lirian''s anger enter her mind, ''Please,'' she pleaded, ''He-he  is the only person who treats me like family,'' she added.


    ''This is foolish,'' Lirian replied, ''You told me yourself that your uncle values the house more than anything, even if he is good to you, what do you think he''ll do once he learns of your actions?'' Lirian asked in annoyance.


    No reply came, ''Forget it I don''t plan to kill anyone today anyway,'' Lirian eventually sighed, ''Now is there anywhere we can meet after this is over?'' he asked again.


    ''The Red Boar, it''s an inn in the inner city, it''s pricey but we''ll have our privacy,'' she eventually answered.


    ''Very well two days from now at noon meet me there,'' Lirian answered, ''For now just play along with whatever happens, I''ll make sure there is no room for anyone to believe that we are associated with each other,''.


    ''Did you succeed in killing your brother and delivering the note?'' Lirian quickly asked.


    ''Yes,'' Izlandi answered without holding back.


    ''Good,'' Lirian said with a devilish smirk and cut off the connection.


    "Who hired you to attack my house?" Lord Rupid Kurt asked to break the silence, now that he was clear headed and confident in his victory he was in no rush to attack, he needed answers first.


    "I thought that I made it pretty clear in my note," Lirian laughed, "House Kurt is filled with so many traitors," Lirian chuckled loudly, as he quoted the words of the note.


    Only the main members of the house knew about the contents of the note, so Lirian being able to quote it was all the proof that they needed.


    "You bastard!" Rupid roared as the anger returned to his body with a vengeance, "You killed my son, and now you dare to accuse my people of being traitors," he shouted with spittle flying from his mouth.


    The calm and always collected lord was nowhere to be seen as his anger intensified.


    "So you didn''t believe me, huh?" Lirian mused, "I supposed that it works out in my best interest, if you don''t believe me your traitors will just keep giving me more intel," Lirian laughed.


    "Take today for instance, a little birdie informed me about your daughter''s lessons with your son''s little whores," Lirian said, as he said those brazen words, Izlandi''s entire figure trembled, she couldn''t believe that he would mention what she was doing so openly.


    Even Stanley wasn''t speaking about it so openly, so far the word was traveling amongst the nobles, but no one dared to speak about it publicly, as Izlandi felt like she was going to feint from shame Lirian continued.


    "So, I went to her room, I wanted to take her for a ride and see how well her lessons were paying off, after all, I have heard many a tale about the swan born to a house full of toads, and hearing that she was about to learn the way of a whore got me raring to go," Lirian gave a lasciviously laugh and licked his lips.


    As he licked his lips, Lirian noticed another change to his body, his tongue had become a lot longer and flat, it was close to a snake''s tongue with the only difference being that his tongue wasn''t forked.


    Angry shouts sounded from the audience and Lirian heard the knuckles, of the three family leaders, creaking in anger, as they struggled to restrain themselves from attacking Lirian.


    Lirian flashed them an amused smile and continued "But then as I hid in her cultivation chamber adept Reyna came in and spotted me while I was naked and waiting for your daughter,"


    "You can''t imagine how disappointed I was when that disgusting toad came in instead of the beauty I was expecting," Lirian sighed and shook his head, like he suffered an awful grievance.


    Conner Kurt''s eyes widened, "My daughter what did you do to her?!" a powerful shout left his old throat, it was rare that he ever raised his voice or got angry, but his voice carried an immense power when he did.


    It was hard to believe the old looking leader of the family could release such a powerful shout, even when placed next to his father Conner looked like he was older, it was because unlike the others he didn''t cultivate his body which made him look older than the body cultivators.


    "Do you really have the liberty to worry about your daughter, when you''re facing me?" Lirian asked in a condescending tone.


    Conner''s eyes lit up with anger, and the energy in his body started to flow out of his body, his hands started to move and runes started to materialise where ever he traced on the air..


    "You''re still using runes to form spells," Lirian cursed in a derisive manner and waved his hand, as he waved his hand every rune that Conner formed crumbled, and his spell fell apart.


    Conner''s eyes widened in shock, but he didn''t give up, he was about to start drawing more runes, when someone else interrupted him.


    "Uncle wait," Stanley shouted his eyes were wildly trembling wildly as he looked at Lirian, from the moment he saw Lirian he thought he recognised him, and after observing him for so long he had to believe the crazy thoughts that were running through his head.


    "You''re that slave from the auction, aren''t you?" he asked with a look of disbelief.

 Chapter 325 - 090 – Acting

    Stanley''s question took everyone by surprise, by now the events of the fiasco at the black-market auction were known even by the general public.


    In the iterations of the story, many people couldn''t help but laugh at how the entire noble community had been made into fools by the auction house.


    One of the key characters in the story was none other than Lirian, who was spoken of as the slave who showed no respect to even the nobles.


    One of the key moments of the story was when the slave called the heir of House Kurt, Stanley, ''Dumbass of all Dumbasses,'' while that part of the story was spread in hushed tones, it was a well-known part of the story.


    As the members of House Kurt looked at Lirian closely, they became confused, because aside from being small in size, nothing else matched the descriptions.


    ''It''s time for you to start acting,'' Lirian sent a message to Izlandi, along with a few things that she would need to do.


    Stanley stared at Lirian in silence as he waited for confirmation of his guess.


    "Have you gone blind?" Izlandi remarked in a haughty tone, as she tried to hide her embarrassment from what Lirian said earlier.


    "The slave has black hair, and also his legs are supposed to be broken, forget about blindness, I wonder if you''ve gone stupid as well, given how much time you spend frolicking in your room, I suppose it does make sense that you''ve burned all your brain cells," she said in a mirthless tone.


    Her words echoed the thoughts of everyone present, however, none of them would have dared to insult Stanley in such a manner, yet they could understand why she was being so blunt.


    The only reason that the story, about Izlandi taking lessons from his escorts, spread was undoubtedly because of Stanley, who couldn''t stop himself from sharing the story about Izlandi''s special lessons.


    Stanley frowned at Izlandi, "If I recall correctly, your little servant bought the slave for you," he said with a hint of displeasure.


    Izlandi was about to answer when Lirian cut in, "I am the ''slave''," he said with emphasis on the last word, which showed his displeasure at being called a slave.


    "I''m impressed that you could recognise me, ''Prince of Dumbasses''," Lirian mocked him, "Tell me what gave me away?" he asked with a light laugh.


    Stanley''s eyes burned with anger as Lirian insulted him, "The way you speak," Stanley spat out through gritted teeth, "That arrogance in your voice, it''s impossible for anyone else to copy,"


    "When you were just a lowly filthy slave you were incapable of showing respect to your superiors, and even now when you''re about to die, you are still so full of arrogance," Stanley spat while baring his teeth at Lirian vicious.


    Lirian chuckled coldly, "You think that you''re my superior?" Lirian asked his voice was perfectly calm, yet it sent waves through the hearts of the members of house Kurt.


    "I am arrogant," Lirian said with his perfectly calm voice, "But I have every right to be, I mean look around, I''m just a novice cultivator in the fourth stage, yet your entire house has come together to face me,"


    "Not even your leaders have what it takes to land a blow on me, if I haven''t earned the right to be arrogant than tell me who in the world has the right?" Lirian voice was radiating power, and pride that could compare to none.


    His declaration sent shock waves through everyone present, but they quickly shook their heads, there was no way that they would believe his words.


    "Humph," Stanley snorted, "You sure do know how to boast," he scoffed in anger, but the angriest people in the room were none other than the leaders of the house.


    Lirian''s statement was a brazen insult to their many years spent cultivating, there was no way that they would ever believe that a novice would be able to match their power, no not just a novice, even an adapt would be unable to match their power, let alone their combined powers.


    "It''s not boasting if it''s the truth," Lirian laughed coldly, "But then a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins such as yourselves wouldn''t understand the shallowest depths of my power," Lirian insulted the entire house with his simple statement.


    The people of house Kurt went red with fury at Lirian''s brazen insult, they were nobles, after all, not even the ''Heavenly Empress'' herself would call a minor noble a country bumkin let alone a noble.


    To do say so, would be no different from the ''Heavenly Empress'' saying that the people she anointed noble titles were illiterate fools.


    It was the same as insulting herself, and for Lirian to say such words it meant that not only was Lirian insulting house Kurt he was insulting the ''Heavenly Empress'' who bestowed their family with its title.


    Without waiting for a reply, he turned to Izlandi, "I suppose that technically I''m supposed to be your slave," Lirian said in an amused tone, as he acted like it was his first-time meeting Izlandi.


    "Maybe I shouldn''t have left your brothel in such a rush," Lirian said licking his lips in a lascivious manner, "Who knows maybe I would have had a lot of fun with you by now," Lirian said and released a disgusting laugh.


    Izlandi took a step backwards, and her body started to tremble, at first she was planning to act along, but then she felt Lirian''s desires scanning every inch of her body, and she wasn''t sure if he was just acting or if he was being serious.


    "Why don''t you show me the result of all those lessons," Lirian teased, "If you do a good job, I might go ahead and kill that Tanicks Kant for you," Lirian said in a teasing tone.


    "I''ve heard that you don''t want to become his concubine, so why don''t you come to me, I can make all your problems go away, I can kill your entire family if you like and no one would ever know that you survived, you''d be free," Lirian said in his most enticing voice doing his best to keep his charm from working since he didn''t want her to accept.


    However unexpectedly Izlandi started to raise her hand, Lirian noticed the movement and panicked slightly, ''What the hell are you doing!?'' he roared into her mind.


    Izlandi''s eyes snapped back to reality as Lirian''s voice boomed in her head, she pulled her hand down and looked at Lirian in surprise, for a second there she felt like she lost all her reasoning and only wanted to follow him.


    As her senses snapped back to reality, she pulled her hand back and took several steps back, with a trace of lingering fear in her eyes that was apparent to everyone watching.


    The fear wasn''t completely feigned, Izlandi couldn''t understand why she lost control like that, but at the same time she also sighed in relief.


    Lirian''s shout in her mind proved, that everything, including that beastly desire she felt from him was all a part of the act.


    When Izlandi pulled away Lirian secretly sighed in relief, only 20% of his charm was in effect, but it had definitely become stronger with his life ascension, and it almost ruined his plans.


    "Too bad," Lirian continued the act and laughed as Izlandi backed away from him.


    He turned back to Rupid Kurt who was seething with anger, "It would have been fun to see the look on Tanicks Kant''s face when he learnt that someone else already played with his toy," Lirian laughed.


    "Well then let''s get back to it," Lirian said and reinforced his aura as he got ready to continue the battle.


    "You still haven''t answered me, who hired you to attack my House?" Rupid spat angrily.


    Lirian sighed, "Tell you what if you piss ants can beat me, I''ll answer any question that you have for me," Lirian declared.


    "But then with how weak you are that is never going to happen," Lirian mocked them and waited for their assault to begin.

 Chapter 326 - 091 – Attack In House Kurt (END)

    Lirian soon found himself under the assault of the three leaders of house Kurt, if Lirian was being generous he would call their skills pathetic, but the one thing he had to admit was that the three worked extremely well together.


    Lirian found himself dodging blow after blow with rapid succession, dodging Rupid was easy, and if Lirian was facing the ancestor of house Kurt alone, he would have found it to be a work out, but as the two attacked him together he found that their attacks were coming a little too close for comfort.


    Every time he managed to break their assault, a dozen spells would come racing at him and force him to focus on them, but they came in useful for him to keep his energy from draining.


    As he consumed the latest spell, the ancestor of House Kurt suddenly launched another strike that took Lirian by surprise, because as the ancestor attacked Lirian noticed the forms wash away from his body, and he entered the state of ''free striking''.


    "Ha!" Lirian roared and braced himself for the strike, until now the flow of attacks was standard to forms, which made the flow of attacks predictable.


    Unlike Rupid the Ancestor was able to combine his forms to make his attacks less predictable, but it still lacked the unpredictability of ''free striking''.


    But all of that was about to end, Lirian had to assume that it was because he was constantly fighting using ''free striking'' that the ancestor was able to understand something and make his break through in his skill.


    Lirian skidded across the floor for a dozen yards before coming to a halt, "It''s very late for your rank, but I suppose better late than never,'' Lirian laughed when he finally stopped sliding.


    The ancestor looked at Lirian with a deep gaze, he was surprised by how quick Lirian was to realise his change, he had actually felt like he could break through, just a short while after the fight begun, but he was holding it back to deliver a fatal blow to Lirian.


    He noticed the peculiarity in Lirian''s movements every time Lirian shattered a spell, for a few moments Lirian''s guard would almost completely fall, the ancestor didn''t know why it happened but he saw it as an opportunity to take Lirian by surprise, yet he didn''t even surprise Lirian for more than a second.


    Little did he know that the opening was actually caused by Lirian absorbing the energy from the spells.


    In the end it seemed that Lirian instantly recognised his change when he revealed it and it only filled Lirian with more battle intent.


    "I suppose that I owe you my thanks for helping me see the path," the ancestor spoke with a hint of sincerity in his tone.


    His voice was deep and carried a lot of power, and it was a first for almost everyone in house Kurt to hear his voice, the ancestor rarely ever spoke, it was said that he only ever spoke to his two sons.


    Yet now he was speaking to a hated enemy who had killed one of the heirs to the house with sincerity.


    "As thanks, I''ll make you death swift and painless," the ancestor said humbly.


    Lirian laughed loudly, "Wow, you made a breakthrough in your skills and now you think that you can beat me," he laughed dismissively at the ancestor''s declaration.


    "The only reason you were able to dominate this battle was because your skill stood above mine, but now that I have reached the same level, you can''t win, you know as well as I do that your energy can''t match my own," the ancestor rumbled on.


    "Wow, you sure are a chatter box once you start talking," Lirian chuckled.


    He briefly considered raising his skill level to using tension forms, but then he knew that it would just make his opponents despair at the disparity in skill, he wanted his opponents to believe that they had a chance until the next battle.


    He also refused to use his saint ability [Battle Radiance] while it would increase his power by 500%, it would also increase his energy consumption by 500%, for now he already achieved his evaluation of the battle powers of House Kurt, it was time for him to retreat.


    "Let''s settle this the next time we meet," Lirian announced, and took everyone by surprise.


    "You don''t seriously think you leave?" Conner Kurt asked in an incredulous tone, "If you can escape our encirclement then we don''t deserve to call ourselves a noble family," he said with firm conviction.


    "Oh man," Lirian sighed, "I guess that you guys won''t deserve to call yourselves a noble family anymore  after today," he said and then quickly added, "Also I don''t think I can leave, I know I can," he sighed softly and brought his hands together.


    Lirian started to levitate, and he slowly opened his palms, to reveal a wildly oscillating sphere of energy, "Don''t believe my words if you don''t want to, but you''ll have to believe it when it happens,"


    As he spoke Lirian pulled his hands apart and three more spheres appeared, the three leaders looked at the spheres with wide eyes, they could feel the power radiated by those spheres, and could tell without a doubt that the spell cost Lirian more than half his reserves of energy.


    The leaders locked eyes with each-other, they all came to the decision that they had to dodge the attacks first and attack Lirian after they evaded, they were certain that after launching the spell, Lirian would be drained.


    "Now you get to choose," Lirian said, "The future of your house or me," he laughed and instantly three of the four spheres shot out, but they weren''t aimed at the leaders, instead they were aimed at key figures of house Kurt.


    The first one shot directly at Stanley, and without hesitation, Rupid dashed forward to intercept the attack, he was certain that with his strength even if he took a direct hit he would only receive a severe injury.


    The second sphere shot at Izlandi, Lirian didn''t hesitate to use her as a hostage even if they were allies, her uncle readily rushed to her aid and created magical barriers to protect her.


    Finally the third sphere was a lot stronger than the other two and it was aimed directly at the largest gathering of adepts, who numbered 7, if the sphere struck, then House Kurt would lose 7 of their adepts.


    It was a no brainer for the ancestor to defend the key members of his house.


    Lirian laughed as the three leaders moved according to his prediction, "Wrong choice!" Lirian shouted and the final sphere in his armed glowed with even more power than the previous three combined.


    The world seemed to move in slow motion to the leaders as Lirian threw the sphere directly at the ground.


    The ancestor and Rupid released grunts of pain as the spheres smashed into them, and Connor desperately poured his energy into a barrier he created to stop the sphere of oscillating energy from shredding though Izlandi.


    They were powerless to do anything about the final sphere, they looked at the trajectory in confusion as the sphere raced towards the corridor floor.


    ''Did he lose his aim,'' they wondered, until the sphere crashed and released a deafening explosion.


    The cracked floor started to crumble and collapse and the cracks continued to spread without seizing, the three leaders felt the ground starting to collapse all around them, and they glanced at their family members with worry as member after member plummeted down with the collapsing floor.


    Lirian levitated in the air and watched as the entire force of House Kurt plummeted through the collapsing floor.

 Chapter 327 - 092 – Escape

    Lirian continued to levitate as the ground gave way, loud crashes ensued and pain screams sounded from the weaker soldiers, the fall wasn''t enough to kill a novice, but it still caused a great amount of harm to them.


    "Hey I''ll make you a deal, if you can survive my assaults until House Kant arrives to take away your daughter, I''ll leave your family alone," Lirian laughed brazenly at Lord Rupid.


    Lirian then formed two spell circles in his palms and they turned into two streams of fire that provided him with thrust.


    The ability [Levitation] only allowed Lirian to hover in the air, it provided very little in terms of maneuverability, thus the need for him to use spells to redirect himself and move around quickly while he used [Levitation].


    Lirian rushed back through the corridors and landed when he reached Izlandi''s room, he rushed into the cultivation chamber and grabbed the sack that was filled with all the ingredients for the poison.


    As he was about to rush back he came to a sudden halt, and sifted through the wrecked room, until he found a small chest that was filled with coins, earlier when he scoured through the room for clothes he found the chest.


    "I''ll be borrowing this," Lirian muttered with a shrug and swiped the entire chest away, it could fit in his hands so it wouldn''t weigh him down in the slightest.


    Then he proceeded to jump out of one of the shattered windows and flew over the walls that separated the keep from the inner city.


    Just before jumping out of the window he flashed a wide smirk at Reyna who was still in a corner of the room, she was looking at Lirian with a deep seethed hatred, yet she was powerless to do anything to him.


    ---


    Lirian quickly landed after escaping the keep, a person flying through the sky would draw far too much attention, and currently, that was the last thing he wanted.


    His body still needed to recover from the poisoning, and his energy was extremely low, that battle did deplete almost all his energy, but the good news for him was that he successfully hid his trump cards while gathering a ton of data about his opponents.


    All in all, Lirian was extremely satisfied with his current power, Lirian dropped down into an empty alley and strode across the cobbled ground.


    The Kurt family was fairly wealthy so every single street and backstreet in the city was all cobbled.


    As Lirian walked through the alley, several unsultry smells entered his nose, the smell of rotting food and human waste filled the entire alley that he walked through.


    Ordinarily, Lirian would not mind, but currently, he was barefoot and he had to constantly avoid walking into the filth.


    Lirian walked up to a door in the alley and pushed it open, to find a small little room with a single bed and a few items lining the walls.


    On the bed, a couple was currently in the throes of passion when their door was abruptly pushed open by Lirian.


    The couple jumped up while pulling the sheets to cover their bodies, and they looked at Lirian with wide eyes.


    "Who the hell do you think you are? Get the hell out my home," the man started to shout at Lirian, currently, he was lost to his instincts, and he couldn''t think clearly enough to feel afraid.


    "Oh, don''t mind me," Lirian commented, "Go back to playing with your lover," Lirian said with a light shrug of his shoulders and continued on his way through the little room.


    The couple were completely taken aback by Lirian''s response, "Get out!" the man shouted, "Or I''ll be calling the guards after I run you through with my sword."


    Lirian heard the man pulling a sword from its sheath and sighed, he immediately released the restraints on his charm and focused it onto the couple.


    "Go back to do your activities and don''t mind me," Lirian whispered.


    The couple''s eyes instantly became clouded as they looked at Lirian and they felt an incredible desire to do whatever he desired.


    The man put his sword away and went back to his lover, where they continued to fulfill their carnal desires, only it seemed more like they were trying to put on an entertaining show for Lirian.


    Lirian paid no attention to the couple and grabbed some of the man''s clothes.


    Lirian hurriedly stripped Izlandi''s bedsheets from his body and slipped on his newly acquired clothes, the clothes were too big for Lirian, but he strapped it down with a belt and then went for the man''s shoes.


    Yet they were far too large, Lirian turned to the woman''s boots and found that they were a good fit, so he happily placed it on his feet.


    "Now that''s a lot better," he muttered and stretched his body.


    He turned back to the couple who were still going at it in a very slow and enticing manner, it was almost as if they were inviting him into their bed, but the sight was wasted on Lirian, even with his detection barrier, the most he could see were their outlines.


    As for his [Gods gaze] all it did was show him their energy, it looked like to balls of white constantly knocking against each-other, there was absolutely nothing erotic about the sight.


    Lirian pulled a couple of silver coins out of the chest and dropped it on the floor, it was probably worth far more than the clothes he took, but then he didn''t care all that much about the money since it wasn''t even his, to begin with.


    "Now then, you two can''t tell anyone that you met me or what happened here tonight, otherwise you will disappoint me very much," Lirian said using the power of his charm.


    The couple looked at Lirian with wide eyes full of terror, "Never!" they shouted at the same time.


    "We''ll never do anything to disappoint master," the two said with emotional voices, it was as if disappointing Lirian was a crime they would sooner die than commit.


    "Good," Lirian said and started to walk towards the door.


    "Master," the man and woman both called out when they saw Lirian going to the entrance.


    Lirian found it amusing that all it took was a few words with his charm to make the couple address him as master, "What?" Lirian asked turning around to face them.


    "Won''t you join us?" the woman asked spreading her legs, and her husband placed his fingers on her slit and spread it apart to give Lirian easy access.


    "No thanks, maybe next time," Lirian replied with a shrug and pushed the door open without any intention to ever return.


    The couple sighed in disappointment as Lirian left, and returned to performing their activities, hoping that they would get to see their new master again.


    Lirian strolled back into the alley and thought of what had just happened, ''This ''Gods Charm'' is incredible,'' he thought as he imagined all the crimes he''d be able to get away with if he used it effectively.


    After all, all it took was a few sentences from him and ordinary mortals would offer him their everything, as his life level increased, it would reach a point where no one would be able to refuse him.


    As he thought of the ability, he suddenly remembered that he had some new abilities to check out, with a thought the system opened up and revealed everything that he put on hold due to his battle.


    [Ding]


    [New Fate Achievement]

 Chapter 328 - 093 – Fate Particles

    [Ding]


    [New Fate Achievement]


    -          Bane of House Kurt ¨C you have single handedly attacked House Kurt and its leaders, your action have left an impactful mark of fear on its people, you will earn +1 000 fate particles everyday for as long as House Kurt exists.


    (A/N: from now on I''m factoring the heavens boon [¡Á10 fate particles], directly into the number of particles earned, this also includes the current ''Worldline Quests'', it will no longer be done as a separate calculation)


    Lirian read his new fate achievement with satisfaction, although he felt like it was a pity that his plans involved destroying House Kurt, ''Oh well, it should last for 24 days, so that''s an easy 24 000 fate particles for myself,'' he thought with a shrug.


    Next up Lirian looked at the fate particle he earned from killing and defeating members of house Kurt.


    For the ordinary soldiers, he gained absolutely nothing at all, they were beneath his life level so it would never so much as offer him an ounce of a fate particle.


    In fact he lost a fair amount for killing that first wave of soldiers that didn''t even make a move against him, before he turned them into mush on the walls.


    In total he killed twelve guards in that first wave, for attacking someone below his grade he lost 1000 fate particles for every kill, which amounted to (-12 000 fate particles).


    However had they moved to attack him first, he wouldn''t have lost a single fate particle, it was why he allowed the second group of guards to throw their weapons at him, before attacking them.


    The there were 23 novices who died to his attacks none of them were at the peak of their level so each of them afforded him 5000 fate particles for a total of (+115 000 fate particles)


    If he didn''t have his boon he would have only earned 500 fate particles for every kill.


    The fights against all the adepts were inconclusive, with the exception of Reyna, whom Lirian easily defeated, for defeating her he earned (+1 000 000) fate particles, if she was a peak adept that number would have doubled.


    As for the battle against the three leaders, it ended in a tie, which amounted to no gains for him.


    In total his battle gained him an addition 1 103 000 fate particles, Lirian looked at his new fate particle total.


    Systems Fate Particles: 320 00


    Hosts Fate Particles: 1 242 000


    He quickly transferred particles to the system to make the two balance out.


    Systems Fate Particles: 781 000


    Hosts Fate Particles: 781 000


    The system needed fate particles to be able keep a constant monitor of threats on Lirian''s life, and as long as it had an equal amount or more fate particles than the threats possessed against Lirian, it would be able to detect it and warn Lirian.


    In general an adapt would hold as little as 100 000 fate particles, and with all the secrets that they learned and carried, that number would gradually increase.


    And a knight who was from the next grade, would hold as little as 10 million fate particles, the fate particle were always constantly exchanged between people during their daily lives.


    Even in simple discussions, small amounts of fate particles were constantly exchanged, for example, if a person won a debate they would earn themselves a few fate particles.


    If the victory of that debate, made people''s minds shift to favour the thoughts of the winner it would earn them even more fate particles, and degree of the shift in persons thoughts would grant the winner even more particles.


    For instance if a person started of with a neutral stance and started to lean towards the debate winners argument they would transfer some fate particles, but if someone who was against the debate winners idea at the beginning shifted it would grant the debate winner a lot of particles.


    And finally, if people started to act upon the logic and argument of the winner, they would constantly feed that person fate particles, for as long as their argument or logic was the reason behind the action.


    The more widespread the idea becomes the more fate particles are sent to that person, unfortunately most people were unable to access fate abilities, but that didn''t mean that collecting fate particles was useless for them.


    As people gained more fate particles, their luck would increase, and could in turn grant them greater influence, it could help them discover breakthroughs at rapid speeds, hence allowing them to reach even greater heights, it was an endless cycle.


    When people had a great amount of fate particles, that exceeded those around them by monstrous amounts, a phenomenon would occur, a phenomena that would make it seem as if the entire world was bending to their desires.


    And heaven chosen such as Lirian had a similar effect on the world at all times, only that while granting him their favour the heavens would never allow him to get what he wanted without experiencing a trial first.


    Lirian shifted past his fate particles and looked at the new lines that appeared under his godly constitution.


    Godly Constitution: - your godly constitution is still in its slumber, most of the powers of the godly constitution are still unknown.


    -          Limitless


    -          Gods Charm


    -          Gods Pride


    -          Devour - your body has the innate ability to devour powers that it finds beneficial to your body and adds it to your arsenal (activation method unknown)


    -          Poison resistance ¨C your body has developed a powerful resistance that can be applied to all forms of poison. (must consume the poison to begin development of resistance, you are also immune to all first-grade poisons)


    -          Snake Charmer ¨C you are able to communicate with snakes and gain their cooperation if you ask for it.


    Lirian read through the three new additions to his godly constitution, the devour ability did explain what his body was able to do, but it was still peculiar.


    He felt his entire body undergo a change in a few short seconds when his body devoured the snake gods essence.


    It was unbelievable that his body was able to undergo such a change in such a short time, usually to perform a gene mutation you had to undergo decades of trials and experiments to make sure that the mutagen would work without causing any bad side effects.


    It was a lengthy process, yet his body had done it instantaneously with no crippling side effects that Lirian could feel, Lirian couldn''t help but find it incredible.


    There was one other thing that Lirian noticed and that was that the main power he would have received from becoming an apostle of Akasha would have granted him Immunity to all poisons, yet he only got Poison Resistance.


    He had to attest it to the fact that the godly essence of Akasha was in its dormant state when it was consumed.


    But the good thing was that the resistance would grow stronger every time he reached a breakthrough.


    ''I wonder if I can make my body devour another godly essence,'' Lirian thought and started to channel his energy into the diagram on his chest, but the snake remained still after several attempts.


    ''Maybe it will only wake up if I''m on the verge of dying without anyway out,'' Lirian reasoned, he was in such a situation when the serpent started to act, it seemed that it was something else for him to study.


    He knew that his body was in it''s slumbering state, and odds were that his bodies full powers would only fully awaken once he became a god, there was a good chance that he would never be able to use the devour ability again until he became a god, but that didn''t mean he wasn''t going to try to activate it.

 Chapter 329 - 094 – Healing

    When Lirian finished looking through the changes he turned his attention to another important alert, one that he saw last time he took in the toxin.


    [Hosts energy points have received severe damage from the toxin, host won''t be able to cultivate for 13 days and 6 hours 42 minutes]


    ''The amount of time has decreased by 12 hours from last time, it must be because of my resistance,'' Lirian concluded, a few hours had already passed since he was poisoned, last time he had to wait 14 days before he was able to cultivate again.


    ''Lets see if I can speed this up,'' Lirian activated his [Flames of Nirvana] and focused them on his energy points.


    The flames started to work rapidly, in five short minutes Lirian was able to wash of a five hours of his recovery, but that''s when another problem came up his energy reserves were hitting dangerously low, he only had a few hundred energy remaining.


    Currently he had about as much energy as a true novice cultivator was supposed to have, he chuckled at the irony as he stopped the [Flames of Nirvana] from healing him.


    ''How do people restore their energy in this place without succumbing to the poison?'' he wondered and accessed some of the memories he looked into since arriving on this world.


    After scanning through the memories he found his answer, it was actually very simple they ate, the most informative memories he had were Izlandi''s, since she was a noble she could always return to her chamber to restore her energy.


    But she knew of how the general populace restored their energy, in short the only means that they had to restore their energy was to eat, which worked out to be much more feasible than renting a cultivation chamber.


    However that solution was no good for Lirian, the general populace of cultivators were all novices, and they were novices who only focused on a single centre of power.


    The maximum energy one of them could hold was around 330, whereas Lirian''s needs were infinitely higher he needed to consume 80 080 units of energy, and only half of it would be available to him unless he released his heavenly suppression.


    His energy requirements were in a league of their own, higher grade cultivators depended on their power to hunt powerful creatures to provide sustenance.


    Lirian waved his hand and shot out a bunch of flames that started to burn all the waste and filth in the alley, the flames hungrily devoured everything in sight, and since his energy carried [Voids Encroach] all the consumed filth turned into void energy.


    Lirian hurriedly activated [Conduit] and started to absorbed the void energy, once the flames went out Lirian checked his energy and found that it increased by about 10% of his expenditure, it wasn''t much but it was a start.


    And so Lirian embarked on a grand quest, through the back alleys of the city, he was performing his labours like a good citizen and he asked for no thanks of reward.


    ---


    When morning came, the residents of the city woke up to a smell they had long forgotten, fresh air.


    They took in long appreciative breaths, and when they left through the front doors of their homes, they were greeted by a wonderous sight, yet it was also somewhat foreign.


    The city looked like it had been reborn, the cobbles stones that made up the roads, looked brand new, all dirt, sooth, and crap that stained the roads over the years was cleaned away.


    The roads were a sparkling white and resembled a marble city, like those spoken of in stories and legends.


    A few curious citizens bent down to inspect the ground and before long they started to shout praises as they realised that not only were the road clean, but they were so clean that they could show you your own reflection.


    More shouts of praise echoed in every corner of the city, even the nobles were drawn out by the strange development, and they were met by an onslaught of questions by the citizens, who wanted to know how the current miracle was made possible.


    But answers they had none, the minor nobles all turned their attention to house Kurt for an explanation about the miracle that occurred.


    The people from the merchants guild were standing in front of a long que of nobles to enter the keep of House Kurt for an audience.


    They came with several carriages decorated with their flag and emblems every single carriage was filled with coffers of gold, with only one goal, they wanted to buy the secret to clean up the city, they knew how much this would sell for in the major cities even the capital.


    If they were able bring this secret back to the merchants guild, they would easily be able get a position amongst the directors the merchants guild, it was far too good of an opportunity for them to waste.


    The head of the merchant guilds branch, never felt happier about his position in such a remote part of the world, and he didn''t care how much he had to spend to get the secret, 10 000 gold, 50 000 gold, 100 000 gold, why would he care about such a price.


    The line grew longer and longer, yet for some reason the gates of the keep remained shut, and no messenger came out of the keep.


    ''Is this some ploy of House Kurt to gain an even larger audience,'' the merchant guild leader wondered as he twisted his moustache.


    ''I never knew that they knew how to be so theatrical,'' he thought with a wide smile, he didn''t mind waiting, he''d wait for weeks if he had to, and he was sure of his ability to buy the product, no matter what curve ball House Kurt threw his way.


    ---


    While the city was a buzz with excitement at the great clean up that took place, the cause of all the clean up was leaning against a wall with his legs spread out lazily on the ground as he patted his belly in satisfaction.


    The night was a busy one for Lirian, as he roamed the streets of the city, when he found rotting food he shot a wave of flames, and boom he gained some energy, he found some dirt, and boom it was turned into void energy and consumed by Lirian.


    He found biodegradable waste and in the next second it was flaming pile of void energy, whether it be manure, human waste or the dirt that was ingrained into the cobblestone.


    If it could burn, Lirian didn''t allow it to remain, and he was desperate to restore his energy, and after one full night of efforts he managed to push his energy to the 60 000 mark.


    Lirian was still completely unaware of the commotion he stirred as he hid in a desolate alley that hadn''t seen living occupants in what Lirian presumed to be many, many years.


    Lirian activated the [Flames of Nirvana] and started to rapidly to heal is body, in under an hour his energy points returned to normal.


    Lirian immediately started to cultivate, he knew what the result would be, but he wanted to test something out.


    A short while later that familiar burning feeling entered his body, but it was a lot more bearable than before, and Lirian managed to cultivate for about 3 minutes before things became dangerous.


    Lirian didn''t worry to much about his condition as he looked at the systems analyses and his eyes lit up when he read the message.


    [Hosts energy points have received severe damage from the toxin, host won''t be able to cultivate for 12 days and 11 hours 59 minutes]

 Chapter 330 - 095 – Gaining Immunity

    [Hosts energy points have received severe damage from the toxin, host won''t be able to cultivate for 12 days and 11 hours 59 minutes]


    As Lirian read the alert, he knew that his resistance was starting to counter the toxin, with time he would become immune to the toxin if he let it heal naturally.


    But he had his Flames of Nirvana which could rapidly heal his condition, the only problem was the insane amount of energy the Flames of Nirvana required to work.


    He started the healing process again and within an hour he was fully healed again, Lirian immediately got back to it.


    This time he managed to cultivate for 15 minutes before he had to stop, and when he read the message again the time shortened once more.


    [Hosts energy points have received severe damage from the toxin, host won''t be able to cultivate for 10 days and 11 hours 59 minutes]


    Lirian breathed out in relief, as he saw the trending pattern, his recovery speed was increasing at an exponential rate, at his next recovery would take 6 and a half days and after that, he would likely gain immunity to the toxin.


    But that''s when he noticed something else, his energy was dipping extremely low once again, he didn''t have enough energy to perform another rapid recovery.


    Lirian cleaned up the entire city and all it afforded him was a little over 60 000 energy, it wasn''t something that he would be able to repeat again.


    And it would be useless to burn things that weren''t flammable, that would just cost him more energy and he wouldn''t get as much in return.


    Lirian could always start burning down the homes of the people, but he didn''t want to do that, it wasn''t that he didn''t to but rather that it would cause his fate particles to plummet, he''d be reduced to having just the basic 1000 fate particles, that all novices had.


    Also, there was a slight fear in his mind, a fear that he didn''t want to admit, but one that he''d been holding ever since his slaughter in Willcolly, Edith''s voice kept drumming into his mind every single time he killed an innocent, and he didn''t want to experience that weakness in his body again.


    ''I can leave the city and start burning down the forests,'' Lirian thought, it was a feasible idea, but it had one drawback, it would give away his position in an instant.


    Lirian thought about it and decided to go with that plan, he''d fly a good distance away from the city and start burning up the forests.


    But he was going to do it after the meet up with Izlandi, he didn''t know how long it would take him to restore his energy, so he decided to meet her before leaving.


    Lirian stashed the sack of ingredients in the abandoned alley, as well as the chest of coins that he ''borrowed'' from Izlandi.


    Lirian only took a few coins from the chest before setting off, before he entered the streets he cast a simple illusion spell on his hair to change it to a light shade of brown.


    House Kurt was most likely looking for him, and his hair really stuck out way too much, it was like a glowing beacon that would draw everyone''s attention to him even if they weren''t looking for him.


    As he roamed the busy streets and found that everyone was spiritedly discussing the miraculous clean up of the city, he almost choked when he heard someone mention that the merchant guild branch was prepared to sell all their assets to House Kurt in exchange for the cleaning secret.


    ''So everyone thinks that House Kurt is responsible for the great clean up of the city,'' Lirian laughed, ''I wonder if I could sell the secret?'' Lirian laughed in jest.


    Even if he told the merchant guild how it''s done, it was impossible for anyone to replicate the effect of the [Voids Corrosion], the ability broke down everything it touched into void energy, whatever was left over after the corrosion was left in its purest state.


    As he roamed through the streets he heard another conversation that caught his interest, Lirian slowed down and followed behind a group of three men who were discussing the strange actions of House Kurt.


    "Don''t you think that something strange is going on in the keep?" the man to the right was saying to his friends.


    "Danny you always think that something strange is happening in the keep?" the man in the centre replied with a sigh of exasperation, and the man on the left chuckled softly as he nodded in agreement with the man in the centre''s answer.


    "Well I''m right about it this time," Danny said proudly.


    "Come on just think about it, first there was a mass poisoning that kill 60 of the revered novices," Danny said with a trace of grievance at the loss.


    "Then the Lords son was assassinated, and then yesterday, everyone heard that loud rumbling sound coming from the keep, and you know that it was real because the entire city experience tremors afterwards,"


    "But the announcers didn''t inform anyone about the cause of the tremors, I hear that even the minor nobles don''t know what''s going on,"


    "Since then no one has been in or out of the keep, but for some reason, they went out of their way to clean up the entire city during the night without informing anyone," Danny shook his head.


    "I''m telling you, something strange is going on in that keep and it''s not anything good, I have a feeling in my gut," Danny whispered and cast a wary gaze at the keep.


    Lirian heard all he needed to hear and trailed away as the man named Danny continued to try to convince his friends about his gut feeling.


    ''No one has been allowed in or out of the keep since the battle,'' Lirian realised after hearing the man speak.


    ''We''ll just have to see if that changes by tomorrow,'' Lirian thought and continued to move through the streets.


    The smell of food from the vendors on the street corners reach Lirian''s nose and his stomach started to rumble incessantly, with his evolution he no longer required food to survive, but his body still reacted to the smell.


    His stomach rumbled loudly, it had been almost a week since he ate any food, and at least a month since he had anything decent.


    As the smell of the food entered his nose, Lirian found himself missing the morning banquets that he had grown used to enjoying every morning.


    Lirian sighed as he looked into the sky with his [Gods Gaze], he could see the glowing balls of energy called suns in the distance despite the fact that it was early in the morning.


    Yet as he looked at them, he couldn''t help but feel slightly lost, his home was somewhere in that mix, yet he had no idea where exactly it was.


    He pressed a finger against the ring on his neck, to remind himself that all it would take was a thought and he would be able to return.


    Lirian pushed down the melancholic memories and walked over to one of the food vendors, "A dozen meat buns,'' he said and pulled out a couple of coppers.


    He had heard the woman shout ''A dozen meat buns of 5 coppers''


    The lady managing the cart looked at Lirian with a smile, "No need for you to pay dear, it''s on the house," she answered warmly and wrapped a dozen meat buns for Lirian.


    Lirian was taken aback, but it took him a second to realise that it was his charm, his new enhanced charm, despite being suppressed was strong enough to affect the minds of ordinary mortals, without Lirian giving it any thought.


    Lirian accepted the food without complaint and walked away, as the woman continued to watch his back with a warm gaze.


    The woman couldn''t understand why she gave away so much food for free but for some reason, she felt like it was the right thing to do.

 Chapter 331 - 096 – Gathering At The Red Boar

    Lirian bit into the steaming meat bun with gusto, but almost instantly his face fell, ''This has got to be rat meat!'' he yelped internally.


    ''It''s no wonder that lady was selling a dozen for 5 coppers,'' he said while taking another bite, although he was a lot less enthusiastic.


    ''What can I do, a man''s got to eat,'' Lirian sighed and continued to pop the steaming rat buns into his mouth, as he judged the taste he came to a conclusion, ''I''ve eaten worse,'' he thought and continued to walk through the busy streets.


    As Lirian made his way through the bustling streets he continued to pay attention to the topics of discussion, and he was surprised to find that he wasn''t mentioned in anything.


    Lirian soon learnt that when those commoners said that House Kurt had sealed itself off, he wasn''t kidding at all.


    The keep released no intel on Lirian, hell there wasn''t even a poster with his face on it on the bulletin boards, ''Did I really scare them so much?'' Lirian wondered with a crooked smirk etched across his face.


    ''But this could pose as a problem to my meeting with Izlandi, if she doesn''t make it for the meeting, I''ll just go and teach them another lesson,'' he shrugged, ''For now I need to make my preparations for this city and find the Red Boar,'' Lirian thought and set off.


    A few minutes passed before Lirian rounded a corner and found several beggars, lining the walls of a street, a copper slid into his hand, and he flicked it at the first beggar.


    A man wearing an old flour sack filled with holes as clothes eagerly caught the coin and looked at Lirian.


    "Guide me to a place called the Red Boar and I''ll give you another two of those," Lirian said to the beggar.


    "Make it three more and you have a deal, good sir," the beggar said trying to bargain for more.


    "Two more!" Lirian said with a cold edge to his voice, "Or I''ll just move on to the next person," Lirian pointed behind him, there were several other beggars who were lining the walls and they were staring at Lirian hungry for his coin.


    All it would take was a word, and they''d happily come running to Lirian.


    The beggar sighed in defeat but put on a big smile, that revealed his yellow teeth, "As you wish good sir, but you can''t blame this man for trying, money isn''t easy to come by these days," he said climbing up to his bare feet and led the way for Lirian.


    "The Red Boar is a very pricey place, the only people who frequent the place are nobles, might I know why sir would like to go there?" the beggar asked inquisitively, a beggar he was but stupid he was not.


    One look at Lirian''s clothes was all the beggar needed to be able to tell that it was beyond Lirian''s price range.


    "You may not, just shut up and lead the way," Lirian said to the inquisitive beggar.


    The beggar nodded and led the way in silence, it took several minutes before they came to a stop, "Good sir this is your stop," the beggar announced with flare to his words and an exaggerated gesture of grandeur.


    Two coppers appeared between Lirian''s fingers and just as he was about to hand it to the beggar, the beggar stopped him, "No need for you to pay this humble servant good sir, it was this servants pleasure to be of service to you," the beggar said with humility and walked away, without so much as taking a second glance at the coin in Lirian''s hand.


    ''This charm is really useful at saving me money,'' Lirian laughed at the greedy beggar that refused to take his payment.


    Lirian didn''t actually need the beggar to point out the building for him, because inside he could see dozens of energy signatures.


    There were at least 50 novices and a few adapts inside the place, Lirian presumed that all of them were people from minor noble families, since the keep was still currently shut off.


    From what Lirian could tell the nobles inside seemed to be having a meeting, at the top floor, there were 8 adapts in the room forming a circle, and behind each of them, there were a few novices, standing in attendance.


    Lirian looked around, to see if there was anyone around, after a few minutes he found that the area was pretty empty, due to the high class of this part of time very few people came to these parts besides nobles.


    Lirian activated levitate and rose up to the top floor of the building, behind the building Lirian discovered that there was a large open garden, with a few water fountains and gazebos in the open areas.


    Down in the gardens, Lirian could make out several women who were stretching their long legs in the shade of the gazebos as they happily sipped on tea and ate freshly baked biscuits and cakes.


    ''Oh man I have got to get myself some of that food,'' Lirian thought sucking in his leaking saliva and licked his lips as he settled down on the roof of the building and cast a few spells to keep his presence concealed.


    ''I''ll go grab the food after I''m done listening in on this meeting,'' Lirian thought with self-restraint as he pressed his ear against the walls of the top floor and activated a spell to enhance the sound.


    After a few minutes, Lirian learned roughly about who the parties involved in the meeting were, to Lirian''s understanding they were the strongest of the minor noble allies that House Kurt had gathered over the years.


    Lirian looked through the memories that he stole from Izlandi and slowly matched the names used in the conversation to the names Izlandi knew and before long he had a rough idea of all the participants.


    Lirian laughed as he listened in on the conversation, it appeared that House Kurt''s were prospects wasn''t looking too good.


    Lirian followed the movement of a man named Grant Ventrano, his House name was quite the mouthful, as he spiritedly spoke about the disappointing failure that was House Kurt.


    "Grant would you please get to the point, you''ve been speaking for hours on end already, and I''ve been bored since the first minute," Lady Liberia Marshall complained as she covered her mouth with a fan to hide her long yawn.


    "What I''m saying is that all of us entered into this alliance, under the presumption that our lands would expand after the region was unified, but currently not only have my lands grown smaller, I''m constantly fighting a defensive battle against House Hauton''s troops,"


    "I was promised 20 additional novices to hold the lines, but after the poisoning at Izlandi''s feast, I haven''t so much as received a single soldier, I just received a report today that I lost two troops of infantry and another piece of my land was taken," said Lord Ventrano.


    "Would you please get to your point!" Lady Liberia complained fervently for the umpteenth time since the meeting began and fanned her face.


    Lord Ventrano curled his fists into tight balls, at Lady Liberia''s constant interruptions and lack of patience, "My point is that I entered into this alliance for¡­" but Lord Ventrano found himself interrupted once more.


    "Pffft," Lord Thoman Maxim laughed so hard that his drink sprayed out of his mouth and splattered all over the other''s present at the table, much to their displeasure.


    Lord Maxim didn''t appear very apologetic as he rubbed the spilled wine with a serviette and looked at Lord Ventrano with an amused smirk, "Pardon my interruption but my memory is slightly different from yours, I don''t remember you entering the alliance,"


    "You were forced to enter and in an extremely humiliating manner I might add," said Lord Maxim.

 Chapter 332 - 097 – Gathering At The Red Boar 1

    Lord Grant glared at Lord Thoman, who merely smiled happily without a trace of fear, "Don''t say that I''m lying, I was there," Thoman stated with a wide spread smirk.


    "You lost to Lord Stanley shortly after he became an adept, and he promised not to mention your humiliating defeat so long as you entered the alliance," Thoman revealed the events with a hearty laugh.


    The other lords and ladies all snickered at the revelation, as Grant glared at Thoman hatefully, Thoman merely shrugged, "Lord Stanley promised not to mention anything, I made no such promise," said Thoman.


    Unlike House Ventrano House Maxim was one of House Kurt''s first allies, Lord Thoman grew up with Rupid Kurt as a close friend, so he happily gave his allegiance to his friend when he brought up his plan to unify the region.


    As the others were busy sniggering at Lord Grant for his defeat against a newly advanced adept, a loud snapping sound snapped everyone back to attention.


    They all turned to see Lady Liberia, who slammed her fan against the table causing the entire table to splinter in half, "For the last time make your damn point or I''m leaving," she snapped in annoyance, "And I don''t want to hear another interruption," she added with a quick glare to the others.


    Grant breathed out softly before continuing, "My point is that as Thoman has so graciously pointed out," he spat out with a glare at Thoman, "I didn''t want to be a part of this alliance for the simple reason that my territories are centred directly between House Kant and House Hauton,"


    "I didn''t want to get in between their battles, but I was forced to, and I know that most of you only joined because you were presented with terrible repercussions if you refused to join," he said and several of the leaders present raised their brows to express their agreement.


    "That said part of the agreement that I came to with House Kurt was that they would use their troops to take on the brunt of the attack and provide me with constant reinforcements once House Hauton started to move against me, and I would act as back up for their battles"


    "And currently they are failing to live up to their end of the bargain, my men are fighting the battle they are supposed to be fighting, evidently they are incapable of keeping true to their word, thus they are unworthy of our allegiance," he said with righteous anger.


    The several leaders all exchanged glances, as they finally understood what Lord Grant was getting at, most of them quickly calmed themselves and maintained their neutral front, Lady Liberia however gave him a deep look but she said nothing on the topic.


    "Utterly Ridiculous!" Thoman spat in anger, this time there was no playfulness to his tone, "House Kurt just lost 60 of their novices and several of their adapts were severely wounded,"


    "It''s only natural that they need some time to recuperate before they can continue to provide aid," Thoman said in anger and looked to the other nobles to support him, yet none of them came forward.


    "Only natural!" Grant scoffed in anger, "This is a war they started to satisfy their greed, and currently my men who I have spent countless resources to groom are dying on the battlefield when this is not even their battle to be fought," he said pounding his fist against the table.


    "You know as well as I do that House Kurt easily has the manpower and resources available to aid me, but they are using the poisoning and Cornick''s assassination as an excuse to hold back their forces and weaken my forces," he said in a cold tone.


    "I presume that I wasn''t the only one on the receiving end of an interrogation, that made me out to be an accomplice in Cornick''s assassination?" he posed a simple question to the group.


    The nobles all grunted as they bobbed their head, none of them were too happy about being accused of treason by their own ally.


    "It''s only natural that we were interrogated?" Thoman interjected, "Who else were they too suspect, and based on the current trend of this discussion I can see why they would have such suspicions!" Thoman knocked his goblet over in anger causing the wine to spill over and onto the floor.


    Tension filled the room as the implications of Thoman''s statement settled on their minds.


    The nobles looked between Grant and Thoman with conflicted thoughts, but if they had to choose a side, it would be Grant, none of them were happy about being treated as criminals by the people they swore their allegiance to.


    "You sure do know how to make a bold statement without any proof," Grant scoffed coldly, "It''s no wonder Rupid favours you so much, everyone needs a good dog to wag its tail for their master," he added with a derisive smirk to rile up Thoman.


    Thoman got up so fast that the entire table shook and caved in along the crack that Liberia had earlier placed in the table.


    "If you''re looking for the second thrashing of your life, I''ll happily give it to you!" Thoman roared at him.


    Outside Lirian covered his ears as the shouts could easily be heard even without his spells.


    Lirian regained his focus and when he checked back in Grant was standing up as well with just a few inches between himself and Thoman.


    "Uhm," someone cleared their throat loudly and everyone turned to see Lady Liberia, who cleared her throat to get everyone''s attention.


    "If you boys are going to fight, I hope you don''t mind me joining in," as she spoke she drew a second fan from her robes and opened it up, with a playful smile on her lips.


    The lords instantly hesitated as they glanced at her and those two fans, it was said that those fans could cut through a steel forged sword with ease, not to mention that the woman holding those fans was a peak adapt.


    "Well?" Liberia asked pointing the fans between the two of them, "If you''re not going to fight then sit back down," she said coldly.


    The two lords glared at each other before sitting back down while casting begrudging looks at Liberia.


    The other nobles seemed a little disappointed that no fight was going to take place, but they held their tongues, as they returned to their seats.


    "Grant if I''m to interpret what you''re saying, am I to take it that you wish for us to dissolve our alliance with House Kurt?" she asked.


    Grant didn''t hesitate to nod and look each of the other leaders in the eye, he could see some acceptance in their eyes, but at the same time, he could see hesitation.


    "What!?" Thoman shouted and returned to his feet, "Have you gone mad?" he shouted at both Liberia and Grant with his spittle flying across the room.


    "Shut. Up!" Liberia snapped coldly at him and looked around the room, "I say we put it to a vote," she suggested, "We already know House Ventrano''s and House Maxim''s vote," she said pointing at Grant and Thoman respectively.


    The other leaders glanced at each-other the hesitation in their eyes was evident but eventually, the first house voted.


    "House Vius chooses to abstain from voting," said Lord Riga and shot a sympathetic look at Lord Grant.

 Chapter 333 - 098 – Gathering At The Red Boar 2

    "House Octavius chooses to abstain from voting," said Lord Asher.


    "House Pompei chooses to abstain from voting," said Lady Sami.


    "House Scara chooses to abstain from voting," said Lord Haiden.


    "House Corius chooses to abstain from voting," said Lord Hugh.


    The five house leaders all abstained from voting on the subject, but they did look at Grant with slight guilt and sympathy after abstaining.


    Grant looked away from them and to the final person Lady Liberia Marshall, she was the one who proposed the vote in the first place, the fact that the others all abstained still gave him a chance to win if she voted for his proposal.


    "I''m sorry Grant," she said sadly, "I vote against your proposal," she said with a heavy sigh.


    Grant looked down with defeat, he couldn''t break his part of the alliance without the others doing the same.


    If they all cut ties with House Kurt''s united alliance, it would throw the entirety of House Kurt into disorder, House Kurt would be too busy trying to defend themselves from their real enemies to teach the minor nobles a lesson.


    House Ventrano always had the option of abandoning House Kurt by themselves, but if they did that they would have to join House Hauton to handle House Kurt''s retaliation, which would place them in the exact same situation that they were currently in.


    Only they would be on the opposing side, and it was likely that due to House Ventrano''s opposition against House Hauton so far, that they would face harsh conditions even if they switched sides.


    However, all that Lord Grant wanted was to stay out of the conflict, yet he was unfortunately forced into the centre of it, the other nobles all understood his circumstances which is why they sympathised with him.


    "Ha," Lord Thoman gloated over Lord Grant''s failure, "Why don''t you rebel by yourself and see how it goes," he laughed derisively and got up to leave, the novices that came in with him all followed behind him.


    One by one the other leaders all left with their entourage until only Lord Grant and Lady Liberia remained in the room with their followers.


    "What''s the matter are you disappointed?" she asked in a slightly teasing tone.


    "Out of all the minor nobles, you were the most opposed to joining the alliance," Grant said while looking her in the eyes, "What changed?" he asked.


    Lady Liberia sighed, "It''s like you said when House Kurt was recruiting us for this alliance they ''suggested'' what the alternative was, unlike the others I didn''t listen," she said with a strained smile.


    Lord Grant''s eyes widened, "What did they do?" he asked.


    Lady Liberia looked at him hesitantly, for a second before coming to a decision, "Please leave me alone with Lord Grant," she said and motioned for her entourage to leave the room.


    Lord Grant shared a look with his entourage before he sent them off, when just the two of them remained he looked at Lady Liberia seriously and waited for her to explain.


    "I''m sure that you remember the story from fives years ago when my daughter was abducted by ''bandits''," she said suggestively, and Lord Grant''s eyes widened in surprise.


    "What? But you only joined the alliance three years ago," he quickly realised the flaw in her story, in fact when the abduction happened many nobles believed that it was House Kurt''s doing to force an alliance, but when House Marshall paid the ransom, Lady Liberia''s daughter was safely returned and the nobles dropped the thought.


    "An ingenious plan don''t you think," Liberia lamented, she knew exactly what Grant was thinking, "It was that wizened old dog Conner, he proposed the plan,"


    "He proposed I give a statement that my daughter was returned safely to me, and I had to say that for her own safety she would be kept within the walls of my family keep at all times,"


    "All the while House Kurt kept my daughter locked away in their dungeons, Conner proposed that after two years when there was no room left to connect the events to House Kurt I would officially join, and in return, I would get visiting rights to see my daughter,"


    A chilling air radiated from Liberia, it sent chills down Grant''s spine, and for a second he felt like she might just attack him in her anger.


    But in the next second Liberia turned back to him and blinked in surprise, "Why did I tell you that?" she asked in shock, "I''m not supposed to tell anyone," she said with a voice full of disbelief.


    Liberia''s eyes shrunk to the size of a pinpoint as she leapt across the room, Grant barely had any time to react before he found himself pressed to the ground and a metal fan was pressed against his throat.


    Liberia was breathing heavily as she looked at Grant with uncertainty in her eyes, "You can''t let anyone know about this," she said in a grave tone, and the fan slid a little against Grant''s throat causing a red line to slowly form and flow down his neck.


    "If they find out that anyone knows, they''ll kill her," she said while panting heavily, she wanted to kill Grant to silence him on the matter, but that wasn''t an option currently she had to take care of him in secret.


    "I promise to keep your secret," Grant replied fervently as he audibly gulped, he struggled not to gulp too hard because he could feel the fan dig deep whenever his throat moved.


    "I don''t think that it''s him blabbing that you have to worry about," but just then another voice was heard in the room.


    Grant and Liberia glanced at each other with wide eyes, they were supposed to be the only two people in the room, yet now they both heard a third voice, and most importantly it was one that was completely foreign to them.


    They both turned their heads in the same direction and found that the window to the room was open, and outside they saw a man hovering in the air with his eyes closed.


    Lirian released the illusion spell that made his hair appear brown before he came down from the roof, so the two minor nobles saw him in all his glory.


    Lirian floated through the window and lightly landed on the floor as the two gapped at him in shock.


    "Where were we?" Lirian asked with a pondering look.


    "Oh that''s right," Lirian said clicking his fingers, "I was saying that you don''t have to worry about that one talking," he said with a cunning smile.


    "Your real concern should be me," he said as he strolled through the room and took a seat on a nice and comfortable chair.


    Lirian sighed in contentment, it had been months since he was able to sit on something so soft and comfortable.


    His moment of comfort however was destined to be short-lived because, within less than a second, Liberia appeared in front of him, and both of her fans came swinging down with her pure killing intent.


    On some level she felt grateful for the stranger''s sudden appearance it gave her exactly what she needed, now all she had to do was kill the silver haired freak, then she would be free to kill Grant and blame his death on the silver haired man.


    "Awesome, mystic grade weapons!" Lirian laughed happily and threw a quick jab at her before she could land her attack.


    Liberia''s instincts shouted at her to move when the jab came, and without hesitation, she followed her instincts and leapt in the opposite direction.


    When she landed she gave Lirian a deep look, she could hardly believe that a simple jab could have enough power to make her senses scream.


    As she looked at Lirian she noticed something odd, in his hands were two fans, that were identical to her own.


    That''s when she realised that her hands were feeling surprisingly light.

 Chapter 334 - 099 – I’ll Be Borrowing These Toys

    Lady Liberia looked at Lirian with unveiled shock, as she repeatedly looked at her empty hands and back to Lirian''s hands, which currently held her two fans.


    Those fans were powerful weapons passed down through her family for generations, but due to the weapons being fans, rarely anyone had ever made much use of them.


    She was the first in five generations who had been able to use them properly, she had been bestowed the weapon long before she became the family leader, it was a sign of confidence from her previous family leader.


    The fans were proof of the previous family leader''s confidence in her.


    Yet currently those weapons were being held in the hands of a complete stranger, Lady Liberia scanned Lirian looking for anything that could help her identify who he was and where he came from.


    But after a while she felt disappointed, she noticed that his clothes were worn out and old, there was no noble who would dress so poorly.


    But strangely when she looked at his face she saw the gold earring dangling from a thin chord of gold, with just a brief look she was able to tell the workmanship put into its creation was incredible.


    Lastly, as she looked at Lirian his eyes were closed, yet for some reason, she could feel his gaze locked tightly onto her body, but she had no idea what the silver-haired intruder was thinking, all she felt was a sense of amusement in his gaze as if she was an insignificant bug in his eyes and her actions were nothing more than a play to him.


    The feeling of being underestimated drove her mad with anger, and as she continued to stare at the man he casually played around with the fans, flaunting them at her.


    Being underestimated was enough to drive her mad, but to have the possessions of her family flaunted in front of her almost made her lose all her reason.


    Just as she was about to make a move, she saw Lord Grant rush in to attack, but in the next second she watched in disbelief as Lirian casually flicked the fans open, and with a casual wave of the fan a horrifying amount of air rush out.


    Grant didn''t even know what hit him as he was flung through the air and went sprawling across the floor.


    Lady Liberia quickly shelved her hasty thoughts of attacking and looked at Lirian intently, "Who are you?" she asked.


    "Oh, you''re not going to fight?" Lirian asked in disappointment, he didn''t care much to answer her question.


    "You cultivate your body and your mana," she continued not deigning to answer Lirian either, from their first exchange she was able to tell that his strength was monstrous, it was far greater than her own, and after he attacked Grant she understood that he was using wind magic, yet she didn''t even see him draw a ruin.


    It was enough to send ripples of shock through her mind and give her a slight idea about the type of monster she was facing.


    "Which great family do you hail from?" she asked with certainty of her guess, she knew that only the great families had the resources accessible to cultivate multiple centres of power.


    And anyone who cultivated multiple centres of power was undoubtedly an important figure, or at least a descendent of an important figure, the only problem was she couldn''t place where Lirian came from.


    He didn''t have any facial features that indicated where he possibly came from, and his hair was a colour that she had never even heard of, not even orc nobles had such pure silver hair.


    She felt like his hair ought to be his most disfiguring feature, yet she had never so much as heard a word about any noble with such a unique feature, and most of all, was Lirian''s face, his looks were completely foreign yet they were incredibly divine.


    His fair and smooth skin was the kind that every woman desired to have, and his beauty was one she could hardly even fathom, in not for the seriousness of the situation she felt like he was the type of man she''d ask to escort her into court, or who she would try to court to have some fun.


    Lirian sighed at her questions internally, these idiots all kept assuming that he was from one of the big families in the world, ''At least it proves that there are people who have cultivated multiple centres of power, hopefully, some of them didn''t give up,'' Lirian thought hopefully.


    Lirian flipped the fans through his finger with nimble movements, after he absorbed the snake god''s essence he felt like his bones had gained greater flexibility to them, and he was currently testing it out.


    ''This is going to be amazing for my sleight of hand,'' Lirian thought with glee as he confirmed the increased flexibility of his body, with a quick movement the fans shut themselves, and vanished from sight.


    Lady Liberia had been watching Lirian''s actions closely, but she had absolutely no clue where the fans disappeared to, it was like one second they were there and in the next, they were completely gone.


    Her heart felt like it was in shambles when the treasures of her family vanished from sight, she wanted to ask for him to return them, but she doubted that he''d return them.


    Feeling Lady Liberia''s heated gaze, Lirian lightly chuckled, "I''ll be borrowing these two little toys of yours, you don''t mind do you?" Lirian asked with a mocking smile and flashed the two fans in front of her once more.


    Lady Liberia''s gaze went cold as she looked at the fans in Lirian''s hand, she wanted to object but she doubted that her possession would be returned, "No, not at all," she gritted out through clenched teeth, her eyes were seething with anger.


    "Good," Lirian said with a pleasant smile that almost managed to wash away all of Lady Liberia''s anger, "Now to answer your questions, who I am? And where I come from?"


    "You don''t need to worry about that, it doesn''t concern you, and most importantly you don''t have the qualifications to know?" Lirian said in a voice full of conceit and arrogance.


    In Lady Liberia''s eye''s his attitude was a perfect fit with the members of the great families she had seen, even a minor noble such as herself couldn''t get so much as an ounce of respect out of such people.


    "However," Lirian said turning around, "Currently I''ve started playing a little game with those idiots," Lirian said and pointed at the keep in the distance.


    "A game?!" Lady Liberia asked in shock as looked at where Lirian was pointing, ''He can''t seriously mean House Kurt, can he?'' she thought with surprise.


    "Yes, just a little game to quell my boredom," Lirian said, "But after our first major round yesterday, they''ve chosen to turtle up in their keep and shut down all contact with the city," Lirian said as if he was seriously peeved.


    But his words were currently sending waves of shock through not only Lady Liberia, but also Lord Grant who was pretending to be unconscious, after Lirian''s strike he knew that he had no chance against him, and decided to wait for an opportunity to escape.


    The nobles had all been wondering what was going on inside House Kurt due to them closing off the keep without so much as a warning.


    They were all filled with questions, about the tremor that made the entire city shake the previous day, but most of all they were wondering what was behind House Kurt''s sudden desire to clean up the entire city in the middle of the night.


    And now all of a sudden a stranger that none of them had ever heard of seemed to have the answers they were all searching for.

 Chapter 335 - 100 – Plan

    "What happened inside the keep?" Lady Liberia asked as she slowly regained her composition.


    Lirian smiled in amusement but didn''t speak just yet, ''So they really didn''t say anything, they must be too embarrassed to tell anyone about what happened,'' Lirian chuckled internally.


    "If you ever see those idiots again, you should ask them?" Lirian laughed and took a seat, he was happy to find that the seats were incredibly comfortable, ''This must be why nobles enjoy coming here so much,'' he thought.


    Lady Liberia frowned at Lirian''s response, the words sounded like a threat yet she felt no malice in Lirian''s words.


    Lirian turned back to face her before she could say anything in response, "Now I have a deal to offer the two of you, I can help both of you with your problems, and in exc¡­"


    "Why? Why would you want to help us?" Lady Liberia cut in with doubt in her eyes, and glanced at Grant, she thought that he was unconscious but the silver-haired man had just addressed him as well.


    Lirian frowned after being interrupted, "Honestly I couldn''t care less about helping you," Lirian replied, "It just so happens that helping you, happens to be the same way of helping myself,"


    "Like I said House Kurt and I are playing a game, but after one loss they''ve decided to tuck their heads inside their shells it''s like they are declaring defeat already," Lirian said in an irritated tone.


    "But that isn''t how a game with me works, there is no surrender, you keep playing until one side is spent,"


    "Since that''s what they are doing I need to send them a message, they have to continue playing to amuse me or I''ll destroy them in every manner of the word," Lirian chuckled coldly.


    Lady Liberia felt a cold shiver run down her spine as she heard Lirian''s chuckle, she felt like she was speaking to a mad man, to him all of this was just a game.


    When he spoke about destroying House Kurt she felt the killing intent that lingered in his words, he was planning to destroy House Kurt in the literal sense, he wanted to kill every member.


    And all of it was simply for his amusement, it was like the man had a god complex about himself, but she didn''t dare point it out, she was afraid that anything she said to displease him could just as easily lead to her House facing him as an enemy, and despite not knowing anything about him she felt overwhelmed with fear at the simple thought of making Lirian her enemy.


    "Now then as I was saying, I can help you get your daughter back and," Lirian pointed at Grant, "In turn, I can help you get what you want," Lirian said.


    Grant felt that Lirian was speaking to him, but he chose to keep still and feign his unconscious state.


    Noticing the man''s reaction Lirian opened his hand and fire started to dance on the tip of his fingers, "Keep pretending and I''ll cook you alive," Lirian said coldly and let a little of his killing intent leak.


    Lord Grant felt his instincts suddenly explode, his hair stood on end and his every instinct told him that he would die in a second, he jumped to his feet and turned to look at Lirian intently.


    "If you can really help get my House out of this mess I''ll do anything you ask of me," Lord Grant said solemnly he acted as if nothing had just happened as he spoke.


    Lord Grant could tell that it would be pointless to act in front of Lirian, he could tell from that one attack of Lirian''s that if Lirian wanted him to be dead, he would have stopped breathing before he touched the ground.


    Lord Grant already knew that his House was in a bad situation, no matter which way he played things his House was going to suffer severely, he had no idea if Lirian could deliver what he offered, but he felt that he had to hear Lirian out first.


    Lady Liberia frowned at the change, she knew that Lord Grant was desperate, so she could understand why he so readily accepted, but the felt like there was something fishy going on.


    "What are you playing at?" she asked Lirian with suspicion creeping into her voice.


    "It''s simple really," Lirian replied with a smirk that made Lady Liberia feel uncomfortable, "I''ll go into the keep and grab your daughter," Lirian explained.


    "Once I return her to you, you will announce your intention to leave the alliance, and you will convince the others to leave the alliance along with you," Lirian explained.


    "No!" Lady Liberia said coldly, "I don''t know what sick games you have planned for House Kurt, but my daughter is not a pawn to be used for your games," she said coldly with a her battle intent riling up, even if she didn''t stand a chance against Lirian she wouldn''t allow him to use her daughter in his games.


    A mirthless laugh escaped Lirian''s mouth, "You foolish woman your daughter is already a pawn to be played with,"


    "And besides I wasn''t asking for your permission, if you don''t help it''s all the same to me, I''ll simply start spreading the word about your daughter being in House Kurt''s hands,"


    "It will cause a lot of damage to House Kurt''s reputation and you''ll never see your daughter again," Lirian said coldly.


    Liberia felt her blood run cold when she heard Lirian''s plans, and to the sighed Lord Grant nodded in understanding, in truth the moment Liberia told him her secret, he was already planning how to best use it to force her into helping him.


    He still didn''t know why she had so foolishly told him her secret, but he was desperate enough to use it against her if it meant protecting his House.


    "You¡­ you monster!" Liberia spat at Lirian coldly with a look of horror drawn across her face.


    Lirian shot her an amused grin, "You''re not the first to call me a monster," Lirian laughed lightly, Liberian was completely shocked by the strange change, just a second ago Lirian looked so cold and cruel, but suddenly he seemed light-hearted.


    It was like his entire fa?ade was just an illusion, "Besides its just good tactics to use everything at your disposal, anyone who says any different is nothing more than a self-righteous hypocrite, who would do the same if they could get away with doing the deed without anyone finding out," Lirian said with that coldness returning to his voice.


    "So, what''s your decision?" Lirian asked playfully, "You go with my plan and you''ll get to see your daughter again, but if you make me use my other method then you''ll never see her again," Lirian explained.


    Lady Liberia looked like she was ready to attack Lirian again with all she had, but she exhaled deeply with a heavy heart, "How sure are you that you can do this?" she asked through clenched teeth.


    It was the same as last time when House Kurt took her daughter from her, she was powerless back then and she felt the same once again.


    In the end, she was fated to have her daughter constantly used against her, it left her with a burning hole of grief in her heart, she was the strongest of the minor nobles, yet against her true enemies, all her power was meaningless.

 Chapter 336 - 101 – Plan 2

    Lirian''s lips spread into a devilish grin as he faced Lady Liberia.


    "I said that you''d get to see your daughter again if you go with my plan," Lirian said, "It''s as simple as that," he said nonchalantly.


    His nonchalant attitude however did not impress Lady Liberia, he was just like those snot nosed nobles she met during her stay in the major cities.


    Those nobles all thought the world of themselves, and looked down on everyone else, they thought that due to their status and upbringing no one could compare to them, they even looked down on people with a greater cultivation than themselves, simply because of their status.


    Listening to Lirian she felt that he was exactly the same, because of his status he didn''t even place House Kurt in his eyes.


    She wouldn''t have cared ordinarily, but currently, the man before her was playing with her daughter''s life.


    "I''ll do my part and the two of you will do yours, once the two of you leave, and convince the other leaders of the alliance to leave the alliance, all the other less prominent powers will also start to depart," Lirian said without caring for the thoughts of Lady Liberia.


    "But first I need something from the two of you, you can call it a down payment for the favour I''m going to provide for the two of you," said Lirian.


    Lady Liberia started to frown, as things stood her family''s artefacts were already in Lirian''s hands, there wasn''t anything that she could offer that held more value.


    "Each of you will provide me with 500 food pills," Lirian said in a serious tone, but his request was only met with stunned silence.


    Lady Liberia and Lord Grant both blinked not sure if what they heard was correct, it wasn''t because the request was outrageous but rather because of how simple it was.


    Food pills were one of the easiest things to make in alchemy, even a novice could easily make them, and they weren''t worth much.


    500 food pills wouldn''t be sold for more than a couple dozen silver coins, for people of their status that was merely pocket change.


    Lirian could feel their confusion at his request so he chuckled lightly and explained, "I used up quite a bit of energy when I played with House Kurt yesterday, and I can''t access one of their cultivation chambers to restore my energy,"


    Lirian was planning on going into the forests to burn the trees and restore his energy reserves, but now he found a much easier and faster way to restore his energy.


    The food pills were frequently used by adventures, in Izlandi''s memories he found that it would take one and a half pills to restore a peak novice''s energy, a peak novice who only cultivated a single centre of power would only have about 300 units of energy.


    With that Lirian was able to easily calculate the amount of energy each pill would provide him.


    Each pill would provide roughly 200 units of energy, so even if Lirian was completely drained of energy all that he would require to restore his energy was 400 pills, the rest was just for back-up, while ''unconscious cultivator'' could gather energy while he fought it wouldn''t be as fast.


    If he ate the pills and used ''unconscious cultivator'' to absorb them, he would be able to restore his energy rapidly even in the middle of a battle.


    "I hope that the two of you can bring me the pills quickly, if the gates to the keep don''t open by tomorrow, I''ll enact my plan," said Lirian.


    Lord Grant seemed willing to comply and surprisingly so did Lady Liberia, a strange smile crept on her face when she thought of Lirian''s request.


    ''He really is nothing more than a snot nosed brat,'' she thought viciously, she was feeling so worried about Lirian yet now he was offering her the perfect opportunity to silence him.


    All she had to do now was use a powerful poison to coat some of the food pills and he''d be dead in just a few seconds, once she was done with him then she could move on to silencing Lord Grant.


    Lord Grant, however, noticed her strange smile, and he understood exactly what she was thinking, he quickly turned to Lirian and spoke in a respectful voice, "My lord please allow me to provide all your food pills," he said flashing a look of suspicion at Lady Liberia.


    Lord Grant was happy to help Lirian, due to his current circumstances he was happy to help anyone that had a chance to save his family.


    Even if Lirian died in his attempt to free Lady Liberia''s daughter, he felt fairly certain that Lirian was someone important, from the way that Lirian spoke and the power he wielded.


    If House Kurt ended up killing someone so important, he was sure that it would bring a great deal of trouble to House Kurt.


    Either way it would be extremely beneficial for him to leave the alliance, without bringing any trouble to his House.


    "There''s no need for that," said Lirian with an air of confidence around him, "If either of you betrays me, or tries to pull anything on me, it won''t end well for you," Lirian said in a cold voice.


    Lady Liberia felt the coldness pierce into her bones, and she couldn''t stop herself from trembling slightly, it felt like every thought of hers was completely seen through by Lirian.


    Her heart started to race and her mouth suddenly went dry, she looked at Lirian with shaking eyes, while trying not to show her fear, but it seemed impossible to hide anything before Lirian, it was like all her thoughts were on display and easily seen through.


    "That said, if either of you don''t believe me feel free to do whatever you want to get in my way," as he spoke a cruel smile stretched across his lips.


    "After all, it will be so much more fun if someone tries to betray me," Lirian said and slowly climbed out from his seat and walked up to the window.


    "Seriously I don''t mind if you try to pull something, but just remember that if you do I''ll have to start playing one of my games with your Houses," Lirian smiled at them lightly and he slowly started to levitate as he reached the window.


    "Bring the food pills here tomorrow," Lirian said as he flew through the window without waiting for a response from the two, "I can''t wait to see what choice the two of you make," his last words to them lingered in the room even after he was gone.


    Lady Liberia and Lord Grant looked to each other for a brief second but neither of them said a thing, they were both lost in thought about what they should do.


    Before long the two also left the room while still maintaining their silence, that meeting with Lirian was a strange experience for the both of them.


    Never before had either of them had such a strange encounter in their lives, even as the sun went down and the two returned to their homes they couldn''t rid themselves of the image in their minds of the silver-haired man.

 Chapter 337 - 102 – Assailant

    It was late in the night and Lord Grant was currently at his desk, to his right was a stack of parchment each one filled with bad news about the battlefront on his lands.


    Every last one spoke of a piece of land that was taken, or of another death that occurred on the frontlines, so far House Ventrano lost a quarter of its novices, and as for normal soldiers, the numbers were about to reach five digits.


    Worst of all it seemed that House Hauton noticed the lack of reinforcements from House Kurt so currently, they were making a big push into House Ventrano''s territories.


    At the rate that things were going, even if House Ventrano survived, it would take decades before they could recover their numbers, and worst of all most of their territories would be lost.


    But currently, he shelved the heavy thoughts on his mind as he spread out a new blank sheet of parchment, he hoped that Lirian''s plan would work out, but still, he needed more, he needed assurance that his House could survive, no matter the means.


    He learnt all about Lady Liberia''s plight and he was certain that sooner or later she would come to silence him, so he needed to secure the information, so that even if he were to die his House would be able to use it, such was his duty as a family leader.


    Just as he dipped his quill in his freshly ground ink and prepared to write the first words on the parchment his ears perked up as he heard something move in his study.


    He glanced around the room and noticed that a window was open, and the evening drafts were causing the curtains to flap.


    He got up and walked to the window to pull it down with a soft sigh, as he looked out into the street he could see quite a bit under the light of the street lamps that were placed at the corners of every street.


    The road was empty without a trace of any movement, ''I''m too jumpy after what I learned,'' he reasoned to himself, but just then as he looked through the mirror he saw a flash of light in the window''s reflection.


    Lord Grant jumped with a startle and turned around with speed he didn''t know he possessed, yet when he turned around there was nothing to be seen other than the crackling fire in the hearth.


    Lord Grant felt his heart racing as he scanned every inch of the room, but after a short while, he confirmed that he was alone in the room.


    Lord Grant returned to his desk with haste, as he took a seat a small box on the edge of the desk caught his eye, it wasn''t anything important, it simply held 500 food pills, for some reason the flash of light reminded him of the silver-haired man.


    But he quickly shook his head to get rid of the thought, all he''d been thinking about all day was the silver-haired man, he even sent his ambassadors to the merchants guild to purchase any information about a silver-haired noble, he would have to wait a few days to get his intel, but for now, the man was wrapped in mystery.


    Once he knew about the silver-haired man''s identity, he''d be able to better use the man to his own ends.


    When he returned from his thoughts, he was going to grab his quill, but he was surprised to see that the quill was already in his hand and as he looked at the parchment, there was writing on it, he recognised the writing it was his own, but he didn''t remember writing anything.


    As he read he was surprised, there were a few words but they seemed to reflect his thoughts perfectly.


    ---


    Silver hair¡­


    Identity¡­


    Use him¡­


    ---


    "Gah," Lord Grant suddenly felt a wrenching pain from his back, slowly enveloping his entire body, he let out a pained cry, but barely any sound left his throat, only blood splattered out of his mouth.


    Lord Grant heard the sound of footsteps as his assailant walked around his chair, and revealed their identity.


    "You!" Lord Grant spluttered out with blood and spittle fly from his mouth, he could feel the blood filling his lungs and threatening to drown him, but he couldn''t hide his surprise at the sudden change of events.


    Lord Grunt couldn''t help but wonder ''Why?'' his mouth moved, but the sound failed to escape his lips.


    "Hush now," his assailant whispered, and grabbed onto his hand that was still holding the quill, and before his very eyes, he could see new words being written onto the parchment.


    Only he couldn''t understand how the words were written in a perfect replica of his own hand, only the writing seemed rushed almost as if he was scared and in a hurry, which he most certainly was but it wasn''t him who was writing it was his assailant.


    He read the words with his dying breath, but he noticed that his assailant didn''t finish the sentence, and before his assailant finished writing his assailant pulled up the sheet of parchment and squashed it into a ball, and tossed it under the desk.


    "You did your part, now rest," the assailant whispered and in the next moment Lord Grant saw a flash of silver, it was the last thing he ever saw.


    Lord Grant remained in his chair as blood spilled out of the back of the chair from two wide holes that pierced into his lungs, and blood poured down his slit throat dying his clothes red.


    Before his corpse, the assailant moved to the edge of the desk and took an item before rushing out the window.


    The only thing that continued to move was the crackling flames that continued to dance endlessly, without a care of all that happened before it.


    ---


    Lirian walked through the shadows of the Red Boar in the middle of the night, no sound came from his steps, as he silently crept through the empty corridors.


    Lirian crept into a room near the kitchen, it was a very small room with barely any space, but inside the room was a simple pellet on which a waiter was fast asleep.


    Lirian walked up to the man and slapped him awake, the man woke with a start, and looked at Lirian with fright, just as he was about to start screaming, he felt a sudden calmness wash over his entire body, and he looked at Lirian''s figure with reverence and worship.


    Lirian smiled as his charm took effect, the waiter was just an ordinary mortal, he didn''t have much money but he knew how to play the lute, so the owner of the Red Boar allowed him to sleep and eat for free so long as he played whenever a noble requested a song.


    "Now then be quiet and don''t scream or make any noise, otherwise I''ll be very disappointed," Lirian said with a gentle smile.


    The waiter shook his head as if horrified at the prospect, "If I disappoint master I ought to die," he said with sincere conviction as he stared at Lirian with worship in his eyes.


    "Good," Lirian said with a smile, "Because this is going to hurt quite a bit," as he spoke Lirian broke off a piece of the pellet and put it in the man''s mouth, "Bite on this," Lirian whispered and the man obeyed without hesitation.

 Chapter 338 - 103 – Fate Copy

    Lirian placed his hands on the two sides of the man''s face as he bit down on the piece of wood.


    As he did this Lirian started to look for the man''s fate string, ''Urgh, how I wish my eyes were working, it would make this so much easier,'' Lirian complained internally as he tried to find the man''s fate string.


    It took a few minutes for Lirian to find it and as he observed it, his fate string slowly started to produce a couple of strange sounds as it began to resonate with the waiter''s fate string.


    And before long the resonance was identical, if a diviner, great diviner or even a fate spinner were to look at the two fate strings, they wouldn''t be able to discern the two from each other.


    As this happened the waiter noticed that his new master was radiating a silver light that lit up his dark room, and behind the closed eyes of his master, he could see silver light pouring out in streams.


    His master looked divine, like a god, and met with all the expectations he felt of his master from the moment he gazed upon his master''s holy figure.


    When Lirian reached this point, he was able to see and understand everything the waiter thought and felt, but he didn''t care much for it, he had just finished with the easy part.


    "Now bite down on that hard and don''t make a sound," Lirian said to the waiter with a grave tone, and the waiter nodded and obeyed.


    Lirian removed his hands from the waiter''s face and white light started to surround his hands, it was fate particles that were currently surrounding his hands.


    With a quick movement, Lirian''s hands landed on his fate string, and an unbelievable pain started to spread throughout every inch of his body.


    It was like a million needles poked into every cell of his body and started to release flesh-eating acid, a fate string was never meant to be touched.


    When someone tried to touch another person''s fate string, it would appear to be the strongest and most indestructible item in existence, yet if someone touched their own fate string it would become the most delicate item in existence.


    One misstep and you could sever your own fate string and that was considered a good outcome, there were a lot worse outcomes, for instance, if someone released the tension that their body naturally exuded on their fate string, they could easily unravel their entire existence.


    It would be like they never existed to begin with, and the consequences of such a mistake could not be fathomed, it would cause damage to reality if the person was very old or if they had a great influence on the course of history.


    Lirian controlled his fate string and slowly brought it to the waiter''s fate string and created a loop with his fate string going around the waiters, and in the next moment, he moved with delicate precision and pulled the loop closed around the waiter''s fate string.


    At that moment the waiter let out a loud gasp, despite all his efforts to remain quiet he was incapable of resisting the searing pain, it was like his life was being strangled out of him, and he was being forced to drink liquid fire.


    The waiter started to thrash and twist his body around, but almost instantly he felt an intense pressure push down on him and seal of his movements, despite all the pain he felt he couldn''t even let out a sound.


    The pain felt like it lasted for an eternity, yet only a few seconds passed before the pain disappeared and when the waiter looked at Lirian again, he was shocked to see that he was looking at a perfect replica of himself.


    Lirian heaved out a heavy breath, as sweat poured out of his body, he slowly opened his eyes, and for the first time in a while, he was able to see again.


    But he wasn''t using his own eyes he was using the waiters, his name was Bell, as Lirian looked at the real Bell, he dropped to knees and kowtowed at Lirian''s feet.


    "Master I have failed you," Bell said with shame, "Allow be me to atone by taking my own life," he said and picked up the piece of wood that was in his mouth.


    He swung it straight at his throat without hesitation, much to Lirian''s horror.


    Lirian promptly moved with his new body and caught Bell''s hand, before he could kill himself.


    "You can kill yourself in your own time, but for as long as I am using your form you are strictly forbidden from trying to kill yourself," Lirian ordered.


    Lirian used a specialised technique, that was very difficult to perform, he was able to become another person entirely, it was a technique that could be used by anyone with an affinity for fate, but it was a very difficult technique to use.


    The most important factor, was to make sure that the person you become put up no resistance, ordinarily it was an almost impossible task to perform as the only people who were likely to put up no resistance, were people who were loyal and devoted to you.


    Which kind of went against the purpose of becoming someone else, since the main uses of such a skill was to infiltrate your enemy''s ranks or to gather intel.


    But Lirian had found a way around it with his charm abilities, which made commoners revere him like their lord and savior, due to his charm Lirian could become anyone with ease.


    The most impressive part about the skill was that, every last one of the person''s skills and abilities and memories would be made available to the caster, and they could retain it after returning to their normal form.


    For instance, the waiter was good at playing the lute if Lirian didn''t already know how to play the lute, he would have just gained all the muscle memory and skill that the waiter acquired for himself over the years.


    Sure while used on mortals, the skill wouldn''t give Lirian much besides his targets memories, but if he were to hone his charm and use the two skills on a god one day, in a little more than a few minutes, he would gain access to all the knowledge power and understanding of a god.


    By all means, Lirian had now become the waiter named Bell, he knew and understood everything about Bell, but all good things came with a drawback.


    If Bell were to die while Lirian had his fate string tied around Bells, he would die as well, because for as long as he kept his fate string tied around Bell''s fate string they were for all intents and purposes the same person.


    And the other draw back was that if he maintained the connection with Bell for too long his fate string would start to leak his own memories into Bell.


    While Lirian didn''t care too much about others gaining his memories, he knew just how dangerous his memories were, on one occasion his mother caught a glimpse of a battle he had against thousands of immortals.


    All she saw was a glimpse of the laws and it almost shattered her mind and left her incapable of even walking straight.


    And his mother was the empress with her saint powers in the immortal grade while only her mana remained as a seventh-grade mortal.


    She was someone who stood at the pique of the mortal realm, yet she couldn''t handle a few seconds, if the ordinary waiter, were to glimpse such powers he''d be deader than dead and so would Lirian for as long as they remained connected.

 Chapter 339 - 104 – Black And White

    The best part of all about becoming someone else through this method was that it cost no fate particles at all, it all depended on skill and ability, even a diviner like Efrideet would be completely incapable of doing what Lirian had just done.


    It was a skill that only the best of the best amongst great diviners would be able to perform, while anyone with an affinity to fate was free to attempt it, the requirement of control was far too great for anyone who hadn''t achieved mastery of fate.


    Bell continued to stare at Lirian, or himself, with that same look of reverence and worship, in fact, it seemed to have elevated after Lirian took on his form, it was like Lirian taking his form was his greatest honor.


    "I understand master," Bell said respectfully, "Once master no longer needs my body I will fulfill my oath and take my life for disappointing master," he said without batting an eye.


    "Good," Lirian said with a smirk, "You will stay here and never leave the room, unless I allow it," Lirian said, to which Bell happily nodded.


    ''This charm is almost like an ability to compel others,'' Lirian thought but he knew that it wasn''t, the way in which it worked, was different from compulsion.


    Compulsion was almost like an absolute, if someone was compelled to do something they would find it impossible to disobey or go against their order.


    But the way the charm worked was it influenced the mind of the target into recognising Lirian as the being capable of fulfilling and granting their every desire, it was akin to making them believe that Lirian was a god.


    It wasn''t that they couldn''t defy Lirian, but it was rather that they didn''t want to defy Lirian, because defiance to Lirian was the same as defying god or defying their deepest and greatest desires.


    When faced with Lirian''s charm all they sought to do was please him.


    The more Lirian studied his charm the more he was coming to understand its true effects, and after his experiments in Willcolly, he learned that prolonged exposure to his charm could cause some serious obsession in his targets.


    Once he was certain that he had Bell fully under his influence Lirian sealed his charm once more and let the remaining 20% continue to work on Bell.


    Once that was done Lirian used his new eyes to look at his new body, he had short brown hair and black eyes, with a good build, he was also fairly good-looking.


    As Lirian thought of that he looked through his memories and let out a soft sigh as he looked at Bell, ''I was looking to be low profile with this identity, but if any of the lords ever learn about this guy''s secrets they won''t hesitate to try and kill me,'' Lirian thought with a sigh.


    As it turned out the waiter/bard of the Red Boar was often requested by some of the noble ladies to play the lute for them in private, and as it so happened Bell happened to play a lot more than just the lute on those occasions.


    Bell was a young man in his earlies twenties, by the units of time Nebula-6 used Lirian was roughly the same age as Bell, and by the mindset of Bell, Lirian discovered that the reason he learned to play the lute was because he wished to one day play in the great halls of every city.


    And most importantly he sought to impress the noble woman who had husbands and children.


    Lirian sighed as he understood the kind of man Bell was, he was the type that wished to sleep with every woman and turn every man with power into cuckolds, all things considered, Lirian like the danger that Bell was willing to face for his dreams.


    As things stood he had already slept with the wives of many men that could easily kill him with a simple slap.


    Surprisingly Lirian found that he had a rather firm will to fulfill his wish, even if he died in the process, ''It''s a pity for him that he got snared by my charm,'' Lirian thought although he was slightly surprised because he learnt quite a lot about how to court women and get them to invite you into their bed.


    Lirian had long forgotten about the last time he actively attempted to court a woman, which happened so many trillions of years ago that he struggled to recall it.


    Many of the methods that Bell knew were actually very cheesy, if Lirian ever used such methods in high society, he felt like it was more likely that he would get laughed at or outright shot down, yet in this undeveloped world, it worked surprisingly well.


    But there were a few good tricks that Lirian had to admit were pretty slick, that said Lirian had no need to make use of such techniques, between his looks and his charm, even in its suppressed state, it naturally drew the attention of others towards him and made them gravitate towards him.


    ''Well this guy isn''t as low profile as I wanted him to be, but I''m not going through the process of becoming someone else again,'' Lirian thought, he could take plenty of pain, but the process was not one he hoped to perform very often.


    Lirian moved around and slowly got used to his new body, he was a lot taller now that he became Bell, and his arms were also a little longer than he was used to.


    It took a few hours of practice to wash away all the clumsiness and get accustomed to his new physique, by the time Lirian was done the first rays of sunlight started to drift in through the cracks at the edges of the wooden window.


    Lirian eagerly pushed the windows open, he was eager to watch a sunrise for the first time in months, but after a few minutes of staring intensely as the sun rose from the horizon, Lirian left with disappointment.


    It wasn''t quite what he hoped it would be, the colors of the world looked a million times duller when compared to what his real eyes could see, and it felt more like he was looking at the world through a screen.


    Lirian sighed in disappointment, he had really gotten his hopes up to have his eyes in use once again, but that''s when something suddenly struck him.


    After he was reborn in this life, his vision had actually remained the same from his last life as Talon, it was just as powerful and he could see with just as much detail, even after he fell and became a mortal.


    He never experienced the usual cloudiness that came to him every time he dropped from being a god to a mortal, ''I guess that I really took my eyes for granted,'' Lirian sighed as he turned away from the sunrise.


    For a comparison the eyes of Bell when compared to his own was the difference between having a black and white image and a color image that was developed and had its colors intensified by a professional studio, there was simply no comparison.


    Lirian turned back and pick up Bell''s uniform, the Red Boar was easily the classiest restaurant and resort for nobles in the city, so naturally, the clothes of all its workers were high class as well.


    Lirian picked up a black suit that resembled a butler''s outfit and quickly put it on, he was going to wait to see if Izlandi showed up today, if she didn''t appear then he was going to enact his plan against House Kurt.


    Lirian wore his identity as Bell and emerged from the room as he prepared to test out how effective his fate copying techniques was, it was the first time that he would ever get to truly use it, in the past even if he could use it, which he couldn''t because of its strict requirements, his curse would still remain, and make it impossible for him to blend in with people.

 Chapter 340 - 105 – Working In The Red Boar

    When Lirian left the room, the Red Boar was already bustling with activity, Lirian could hear the sound of axes working hard in the garden.


    When Lirian walked to the doors the entire garden of the Red Boar was covered in a thin layer of mist and inside the mist, Lirian could see four men busy placing pieces of wood on old tree stumps that were extremely wide.


    A short while later they got to work raising their axes and cutting the wood into finer pieces that would burn nicely in the kitchen.


    "You''re late Bell," an elderly man called out and looked at Lirian with a trace of annoyance, as Lirian went through his memories as Bell and identified who the man was.


    The man speaking to him was called ''Old Buch'' by everyone he was in his later years, and he fit the stereotypical look of a butler perfectly, he had a shining bald head with a light beard comprised of only white hairs, and with just a single look one could tell that he was a strong man, at least by the definition of mortals.


    With a single glance Lirian could make out the man''s solid build, that was tucked away beneath the classy suit that all Red Boar employees wore.


    "Sorry Old Buch, I overslept a little," Lirian replied acting in accordance with Bell''s personality, as he sheepishly scratched the back of his head.


    "Just get to work and be quick about it," Old Buch snorted, but he didn''t cause any trouble for Lirian, in fact, he seemed surprisingly calm, which struck the surrounding workers as odd.


    Old Buch was usually like an angry ox during working hours, he didn''t allow anyone to slack off and if someone was even a second late they would consider themselves lucky if their workload only doubled.


    Lirian also noticed the change in Old Buch''s attitude, it was different from Bell''s memories, but he quickly chalked it up to his charm and grabbed a pile of wood and went to a tree stump to start chopping away.


    Bell might have been a waiter, who was also pretty good with a lute, but he also had to help out with all the preparations of the Red Boar.


    Lirian walked through the mist with his pile of wood and settled in a spot where the mist was particularly thick, he didn''t want to draw attention to himself as he cut the wood, within fifteen minutes a large pile of wood was already cut up neatly.


    When Lirian finished up he sat down in the mist closed his eyes to start meditating, after 45 minutes passed, Lirian heard Old Buch shouting for everyone to bring their chopped wood and move on to their other tasks.


    Lirian brought all his fire wood forward and dropped them into a pile for Old Buch to see, Old Buch was surprised to see that Bell had had actually managed to finish up so quickly, he was pretty late, and usually, Bell had a hard time getting his work done in the allocated time, let alone now when he was late.


    Old Buch looked at Lirian''s pile to make sure that he wasn''t pulling a fast one on him, but once more he was surprised by what he saw, every piece of wood was cut perfectly, every piece looked identical to the last.


    "Can I get to work?" Lirian asked shortly after Old Buch stopped him to check his firewood.


    Old Buch stared at Lirian blankly for a second before nodding his head vigorously, "Good work son," Old Buch praised Lirian loudly, once more bringing attention to Lirian, from the other tired wood choppers.


    As Lirian returned to the inn, he felt an arm wrap around his neck from behind and sighed inwardly as one of the wood choppers pulled him in close, "Did you slip something into Old Buch''s drink this morning?" the man asked with genuine curiosity as he grabbed Lirian like they were close friends.


    The man in question was, Tommy, another one of the waiters, and he was actually pretty close with Bell from what Lirian could recall.


    Lirian shrugged and answer Tommy, "I guess that Old Buch was just in a good mood, I guess it''s my lucky day," he said as they walked up to the kitchen.


    "Oh, come on, there''s no need to hide the truth from me, did you teach him one of your pick-up tricks?" Tommy snickered and tapped Lirian''s arm.


    Lirian chuckled, "Come on Tommy, with a body as old as his, I doubt that his facilities are working anymore, there would be no point in me teaching him anything," said Lirian in a casual and carefree manner.


    Tommy laughed aloud and continued to thump on Lirian''s arm, from Tommy''s point of view Lirian was the same Bell that he always knew, he couldn''t even tell that Lirian was an imposter.


    After a while Lirian got annoyed by Tommy''s constant thumping of his arm and walked into the kitchen, it was currently occupied by the cook and the waitresses.


    The waitresses were dressed in maid outfits as they peeled off the skins of the various vegetables, and got to work chopping and prepping the food, and at the main table, the cook was busy slamming bread dough against the table.


    Lirian was about to start helping out in the kitchen when the owner came in searching for him.


    "What you need boss man?" Lirian asked as the boss approached him.


    The boss sighed at Lirian''s casual attitude, but by now he had grown used to the way Bell addressed him.


    "Lady Stella Maxim has requested you to play her some calming music as she eats her breakfast," the boss quickly explained.


    Lirian quickly joined the dots, he knew who Lady Stella Maxim was, she was the wife of Lord Thoman Maxim.


    Lord Thoman was one of the leaders of the alliance of the minor nobles, he was also in favor of House Kurt, because of his friendship with Lord Rupid.


    Lady Stella was his 6th wife and she was the youngest, when the two stood next to each other, it wouldn''t be a stretch to say that they looked like a grandfather and granddaughter.


    ''The pour old bloke,'' Lirian mused, ''Not only is he a loyal dog for House Kurt, but his youngest and most beautiful wife has already turned him into a cuckold,'' Lirian laughed internally, after all, it was Bell himself who spent a few adulterous hours with her every time she visited the Red Boar.


    It was then that a thought occurred to Lirian, ''Oh crap, this woman is going to want me to have sex with me,'' he realised, ''I need to find a way out of this,'' Lirian thought, he was starting to regret taking on this form.


    "Bell," the boss said bringing back Lirian''s attention, "Lady Stella has a few other ladies with her, so I need you to listen in to what they are talking about and report everything back to me," the boss said seriously.


    Lirian shot the boss a look, wondering why the man would make such a request, and Lirian wondered if the boss was some big pervert, but in the next second the boss cleared up his confusion.


    "Last night someone assassinated Lord Grant Ventrano, find out whatever you can and report back to me if, it''s anything useful you''ll earn yourself a handsome penny for your troubles," the boss explained to Lirian.


    Lirian''s eyes widened in understanding, as he heard the boss of the Red Boar, a place like the Red Boar was practically a second home to nobles, if there was any information being exchanged this was the place it would happen.


    And the boss could earn a lot from being in the know.

 Chapter 341 - 106 – Dao Of All Sound

    One of the main reasons that Lirian decided to become a worker in the Red Boar was because he knew that it was the best place to learn about the affairs of the nobles.


    The news that Lady Stella would not be alone came as a wave of relief to Lirian, if there were others in the room with them then surely there wouldn''t be any chance for adulterous behaviour.


    "On it, boss man," Lirian replied and returned to his room where he picked up Bell''s lute, it was a good piece with 15 strings, as Lirian picked it up he played each of the chords and quickly tuned the lute.


    Lirian popped a few bits of food that he managed to ''borrow'' from the kitchen into his mouth, as he climbed to the third floor of the building.


    The third floor had dozens of private rooms and Lirian quickly walked to the room he was being requested to play in.


    When Lirian arrived the room was occupied by three women, he met Lady Stella''s gaze, she offered a simple smile, but deep down there was a lustful hunger that Lirian could clearly see.


    Lirian recognised the other two ladies, both of them were around the same age as Stella, but neither of them were married, that said one of them, Lady Selma Corius, did have a fianc¨¦, and Bell did not hesitate to put his moves on the lady.


    Bell had a taste of her fresh gardens just days after her engagement was made public, he didn''t waste the opportunity to turn her future husband into a premarital cuckold.


    As for the last, she was Lady Anthea Marshal, she was Lady Liberia''s niece and the most likely candidate to become the leader of House Marshal in the future.


    That said she had no husband or fianc¨¦, and for that reason, Bell had no interest in her, Bell''s desires were simple, he wished to give the wives of noble men pleasure that they could never receive from their husbands.


    At the same time, it was a means of self-preservation for Bell, if he got the ladies pregnant they could play it off as if they bore their husband''s children, in which case he would be turning them into true cuckolds in every sense of the word.


    They would raise his children for free as if they were their own, while he could continue traveling the world and keep wooing the hearts of the unsatisfied woman.


    It was the proverbial win-win situation that all men like Bell desired to have.


    Lirian couldn''t stop himself from admiring the risk-taker, if so much as a single one of the men he cuckolded were to learn the truth, a swift death would await him.


    Other than a feint sense of admiration Lirian was also wondering what was wrong with the nobles of this world, it seemed like all their wives were insatiable sluts, which made him wonder what the men were doing wrong.


    The list that Lirian formed was rather long and varied, and the most prominent idea that Lirian had was that all the nobles in this region shared some common ancestry with House Kurt and therefore looked as ugly as toads, which prompted their wives to be extremely unsatisfied and seek out pleasure from better-looking men.


    Lirian gave a good-natured smile to the ladies and took a seat in the corner of the room and began playing a simple yet calming melody on the lute.


    The sound of music washed over the room like a gentle breeze as it brushed against the ears of the woman, the three ladies quieted down as the sound of the music brought them a feeling of tranquil calm.


    It was like standing on the rocky shores of the ocean and watching the lapping tides rushing back and forth without seizing its endless movement.


    The music brought the ladies into a state of utmost tranquillity, that they had never known in their entire lives, minutes passed in absolute silence as the music washed over their body and soul, and without even realising it the song came to its end.


    The three ladies all blinked at each other when the song came to its end, their eyes were filled with wonder as they turned to look at Lirian.


    "What song was that?" Lady Anthea asked breaking the silence, and as she spoke she winced slightly she felt like she committed a crime by speaking in the same room where such a magnificent song was played.


    But she had to know the name of the song, she considered herself a lady of culture, she had studied songs that existed long before the founding of Mithland and the other nations.


    Songs that were so old that even the ''Heavenly Empress'' herself would title them as ancient, ''The Way of the Leaf'' and ''Hollow Mountains'' were so old that they predated even Mitalas himself, the god who was born in the dark ages.


    Mitalas who brought order to the world and separated the lands into regions that each race could call home.


    Yet despite all her studies into music not once had she ever heard such a song, it felt as if the notes of the song licked her body and smothered her soul, as she listened to the song her heart pumped according to the rhythm of the song, and she felt like she had stood before the oceans in the flesh.


    It was a song so profound and beautiful yet she had never heard the song before in her life, she wanted to feel annoyed for not knowing such a song but the calmness instilled by the song washed away all the negativity in her mind.


    "Tranquillity Upon the Seas," Lirian answered honestly, it was a simple song that Bell was rather fond of playing, so Lirian played it.


    However, his honest answer was met with a look of shock by Lady Anthea, ''Tranquillity Upon the Seas'' was a very simple and easy song, it was one of the songs that children could easily learn to play.


    "If you don''t want to tell me that''s fine but don''t try to lie to me," Lady Anthea said, she wanted to snort in derision but the calmness that filled her body stopped her.


    Lirian smiled lightly, he could understand why she didn''t believe him, Lirian had once achieved the dao of all sound, while it would take time for his body to reach that level again, it was impossible for him to completely forget what he had learned.


    Also after Lirian became blind he was forced to rely on his ears, the main reason that he could move so freely despite being blind was due to his dao of all sound, his reliance on sound forced him to continuously pursue the dao of all sound.


    In turn, the dao of all sound honed his understanding of sounds, to pursue a dao was different from learning a skill, a skill was something that could be actively used, which meant that you could also stop using it.


    But a dao would become a part of a person, and it would be reflected in their every action, it was the same as achieving sword mastery, a person starts with sword forms, and with time they progress towards mastery.


    Once a swordsman achieves mastery their every action reflects the sword, they would achieve ''a'' dao of the sword.


    In the same way, Lirian''s understanding of the dao of all sounds was being reflected in his playing of the lute, in his hands, a simple melody became a profound melody.

 Chapter 342 - 107 – The Death Of Lord Ventrano

    Lirian smiled not minding the skepticism of the ladies, "Listen closely to the chords," Lirian whispered softly, but his words carried into the ears of the ladies with ease.


    Lirian slowly started to play the song again this time the ladies listened intently and at the beginning, they couldn''t hide their shock as they listened to the opening chords, it was exactly as it was written in ''Tranquillity Upon the Seas''.


    But before long the ladies lost all their focus on paying attention to the notes and they were once more washed away by the majestic sound of the notes, and they found themselves walking along the sandy shores of the ocean, their bare feet dancing in the soft and ever-changing sands.


    They even felt the slight heat coming from the sand licking the bottom of their feet, then the water rushed over their fair feet to cool it, and just as they felt like they entered heaven the song came to its end.


    Leaving them in silence, the ladies sat around for minutes on end as the melody rested upon their minds, and they only broke the silence to request the song once more.


    Lirian played the song over a dozen times before the ladies finally calmed down from the high that the song brought them.


    "I never knew that you were such an amazing bard," Lady Stella said with a look of reverence in her eyes as she looked at Lirian.


    Lirian was glad to see the look in her eyes because currently, she had lost all the burning lust that filled her gaze earlier, this time there was only admiration in her eyes as she complimented Lirian.


    "I am an artist fair lady," Lirian said with a flourished bow to Lady Stella, "An artist will have days in which the muses sing in their ears, and upon such days we find ourselves with the ability to play like never before,"


    "But it all depends on our heart and soul, today I find myself with the talents of a muse, but should my heart and soul change, I shall hear the voices of the muses no more," Lirian said giving a gripping and emotional speech to the ladies.


    His words were filled with passion but also heartfelt pain as if the fear of never hearing the muse''s voices was his greatest fear, Lirian continued his performance in the exact same way that Bell would have acted.


    The entire routine was one that Bell himself had come up with, on those few occasions that he managed to play like he was possessed by a muse, but he found himself incapable of playing in the same way again.


    As he continued with the performance Lirian remembered something else about the routine and felt like slapping himself on the head for not recalling it sooner, while the routine was initially birthed from Bell''s demons and fears of never hearing the voices of the muses.


    Bell also learned that it was an incredible way to earn the sympathies of women, all women loved a man who showed his emotions, and the pains of an artist were enough to grip the hearts of many a lady.


    As Lirian realised this he started to play, ''Tranquillity Upon the Seas'' once more, and stopped the routine, he had spent a lot of time washing away all the lustful desires of the ladies.


    When Lirian finished the song for the umpteenth time the ladies smiled happily in a joyful mood, much to Lirian''s relief.


    "Bell," Lady Selma said with a touch of familiarity in her tone, "You must come to House Corius the next time we host a party, you will be the life of the party," she said with giddy giggles.


    Lady Stella''s eye''s widened as she thought of something, "I have the perfect event for you to attend, in a few weeks Lady Izlandi will be taken by House Kant to Proge, there will be an entire reception feast and banquet," she said with excitement.


    "Yes," said Lady Anthea nodding her head vigorously, "Even if your performance is only half as good as it was today, it will make the entire city go crazy, I''m sure that even the Crusader Kings of Riverfall and Proge would be delighted to have you play in their halls," she said with excitement.


    "Your words are too kind, I''m afraid that a bard such as myself is unworthy of such praise," Lirian said shaking his head.


    "I would only bring shame upon myself in the great halls of House Kurt, and besides I hear that the homes of nobles are no longer safe in these trying times,"


    "I am merely a bard, what would I do if I were to wet my throat on a goblet of wine filled with liquid death, or worse what if I am as good as you fair ladies claim and someone were to grow jealous of my talents and slit my throat to quell their envy?" Lirian asked shaking his head.


    A dark look crept upon the faces of the three ladies as they heard what Lirian had to say.


    They couldn''t deny that there was truth to his words, first, there was the poisoning in the keep, then Cornick''s assassination, and most recently from the night just before there was Lord Grant Ventrano, he was found dead in his study, his throat was slit and his lungs were punctured with two large holes the size of a babies fist.


    "It''s a shame about what happened to Lord Ventrano," Lady Selma said in a somber tone.


    "Lord Ventrano?!" Lirian asked with feigned surprise, "Did something happen to him?" he asked with horror and concern, the three ladies were surprised that he was having such a strong reaction to the death of Lord Ventrano.


    "Did you know him?" Lady Stella Maxim asked curiously, her husband despised Lord Ventrano so it was ingrained into her bones to dislike Lord Ventrano and anyone who favored him.


    Lirian however shook his head, "I wouldn''t say that I know him, but two months back he gave me the largest tip I ever received, it was a coin in gold, the first I ever owned, the first I ever held in my own two hands," Lirian said it was the truth, for Bell at least.


    "What happened how did he die?" Lirian asked curiously.


    The three ladies shook their heads and Anthea described the scene of Lord Ventrano''s death.


    "Does anyone know who killed him?" Lirian asked, and he noticed a change in expression both Lady Anthea Marshall and Lady Stella Maxim.


    "No one is sure exactly," Lady Selma said as she glanced at the two, "But the houses are pointing at House Maxim, House Marshall, and House Kurt."


    "All of it is just a bunch of lies," Anthea and Stella spat out at the same time.


    Selma continued to explain, "Everyone knows that Lord Ventrano and Lord Maxim never saw eye to eye, and yesterday they almost got into a fight, because of that many people think that Lord Maxim killed him,"


    "Ridiculous," Stella spat with her mood suddenly turning foul, "My husband never left the manor after he returned home, he fell asleep in my embrace, there is no way that he could have committed the murder," she said.


    However, to the others her words sounded just like a revised alibi, and who would believe her after all she was Lord Maxim''s wife, even if she was not loyal and had affairs, she''d be foolish to speak against her husband.


    The alibi was likely something that she or her husband came up with when they heard the news about Lord Ventrano''s death.

 Chapter 343 - 108 – Grand Plan

    "If everyone thinks that it was Lord Maxim, why do they suspect House Marshall and House Kurt?" Lirian asked to which the three women shared a look, one filled with hesitation, but Lirian quickly started to release the restraints of his charms and slowly their hesitation went away.


    Only Lady Anthea seemed to still be slightly hesitant, Lirian figured that it was because she was an adept while the other two were merely peak novices, but with a little time, his charm worked its magic.


    Selma decided to continue the story since the other two''s families were prime suspects, "Yesterday the leaders of the minor noble''s alliance had a meeting, and some people said that at one point only Lady Liberia and Lord Grant remained,"


    "Someone said that they heard the two get into a scuffle," Selma explained, "But that isn''t the end because after Lord Grant was found dead, someone found a piece of parchment that he wrote on,"


    "My father was the first from all the House''s to arrive on the scene and he arrived just as the note was found," Selma said and Lirian listened intently to her next words.


    "The note had some writing about someone with silver hair, but that wasn''t the important part, there was something written on the bottom of the note, and my father told me that it seemed to be written in a rush,"


    "What my father believes, is that lord Ventrano wrote those words in his last moments and tossed the note under his desk so that his killer wouldn''t notice," Selma said in a hushed whisper as if she was afraid the walls were listening.


    "What was written?" Lirian asked eagerly.


    "It''s Liberia, her daughter is¡­" Selma trailed off and didn''t say anything more.


    "What''s the rest?" Lirian asked with eyes full of anticipation.


    "That was it," Selma replied, "He didn''t write anything else, those were his last words, so everyone is suspicious of House Marshall, they think that maybe Lady Liberia killed him or it was her daughter, who has been training in secret for the past five years,"


    At that point Anthea was wringing her wrists in anger, she wanted to say something against it but she couldn''t and there was a number of reasons why, the most prominent of them being that the previous day when Lady Liberia returned to the manor, she called Anthea and discussed a plan with her to eliminate Lord Grant because he learned the truth about Lady Liberia''s daughter.


    Only the upper echelons of House Marshall knew the truth about Lady Liberia''s daughter being in House Kurt''s custody, she wanted to say that it was impossible for it to be Lady Liberia''s daughter since she was currently a captive held by House Kurt.


    "Worst of all was Lord Ventrano''s wounds, they were the size of a babies fist, no ordinary weapon could create such a large wound, but the fans used by Lady Liberia could," Selma continued, and from the sound of things, she seemed to be convinced that it was Lady Liberia who killed Lord Ventrano.


    "Everyone has asked Lady Liberia to make a statement and to bring her daughter forward but Lady Liberia simply said that her daughter is still at her family estate, and she hinted that the most likely culprit is House Kurt, because of the meeting that Lord Ventrano held yesterday," Selma said.


    Lirian stopped her as if he was confused, "Did Lord Ventrano say something wrong during the meeting?" Lirian asked with surprise while internally he knew exactly what happened at the meeting.


    Selma froze as if she had misspoken and glanced at the other two ladies, the contents of the meeting were supposed to be kept confidential no matter what, but she had just let something slip.


    Lirian worked his charm once more and before long Stella answered the question, "The coward wanted to dissolve the alliance, Lord Ventrano was nothing more than an ungrateful swine, after the grace that House Kurt showed him he dared to suggest such a thing, quite frankly I think that his death is justified after what he did," Stella spat hatefully.


    To Lirian she sounded like she was completely ignorant of the matters of house Ventrano, it was likely that she was simply rehashing things that her husband said and she believed everything her husband told her.


    Selma continued, "Due to the three-way finger-pointing, no one knows what to believe, and at the same time everyone is trying to find out who this silver-haired mystery person is, that Lord Ventrano wrote off," she finished with a sigh.


    "Sounds far too complicated for me to understand," Lirian said while shrugging his shoulders, "It''s better to just be a bard and play music to the flow of things," Lirian said with a light laugh.


    The ladies all chuckled lightly in response, even for those who were raised in political backgrounds this was a bit much so they could imagine Lirian''s inability to understand.


    At Lirian''s mention of him being a bard, Anthea''s eyes lit up once again and she pushed the dark times of the city behind her, "Would you please consider playing at Lady Izlandi''s farewell feast?" she asked with pleading eyes.


    "Stella''s husband is close to Lord Rupid so I''m sure she can arrange for you to play even if it''s on short notice, and we''ll be sure to have all your drinks tested before you drink them," Antea continued and looked to the other ladies for support.


    She really loved the piece Lirian played and she wanted everyone to hear it no matter what, and she was happy to see that her friends agreed with wild enthusiasm.


    Lirian feigned reluctance for a little longer before agreeing to their request, after that he excused himself saying that he had to get back to work.


    When Lirian left a wide devilish grin stretched across his face, that could send cold shivers down the devil''s spine.


    He walked up to a window and looked at the wall that surround the keep, he placed his hands inside his pocket and pulled out a handful of food pills which he threw into his mouth and happily much down on as his energy reserves restored themselves.


    He laughed coldly at the three women who were inside the room, they might have been raised in political background, but back in the Clovis empire, their political skills could barely reach the first-year level in the academy.


    When Lirian factored in his trillions of years of observing people, their worlds, and their cultures, when he added in the knowledge provided by the Clovis empire, which was surprisingly useful, it made a deadly combo.


    Lirian never got to experiment with his knowledge in the past, his curse was a major factor that prevented him from actively joining political scenes, and he relished his newfound freedom to play around with the nobles.


    Lirian glanced at the keep as he continued to restore his energy with the food pills, "Don''t blame me for doing this," Lirian whispered as he looked at the keep, "It''s your fault for hiding behind your walls," Lirian chuckled coldly.


    It was naturally Lirian who set up everything and put it in place, from the moment he met with Liberia and Grant they were already pawns in his grasp to be played with.


    The reason that he killed Grant was because he wanted to spark the anger of the other nobles, there were naturally many who would believe that it was House Kurt, due to Lord Maxim''s friendship with Lord Rupid it wouldn''t take anyone by surprise if Lord Maxim was able to enter the keep and tell Lord Rupid about the events at the meeting.


    If the other nobles believed that House Kurt killed Grant for his suggestion, it would severely anger the nobles, if a lord could be killed for voicing his dissatisfaction then it was no different from them being slaves to House Kurt.


    It could also be looked at as a message from House Kurt saying that, if you oppose them then death is what will await you, which would make the nobles afraid, but at the same time it would make them dissatisfied with House Kurt.


    Of course, there was a lot more to the plan than just that, how could a plan hatched by Lirian be anything short of grand.

 Chapter 344 - 109 – Meeting At Noon

    The question that most people would wonder is why did Lirian make it seem like Lady Liberia was responsible for the death when he wanted to bring damage to House Kurt.


    The answer was simple, it was to create an element of chaos amongst the nobles.


    If the nobles believed that it was House Kurt, there wasn''t much that they could do aside from feeling frustrated.


    House Kurt was the dominant power, even if the minor nobles believed whole heartedly that it was House Kurt who killed Lord Grant, no one would be able to do anything.


    The minor nobles were bound to feel too afraid to act up, for fear of Lord Ventrano''s death repeating itself, only this time it would be them and not Lord Ventrano to die.


    It was for that reason that Lirian introduced an element of chaos.


    When Lirian entered Lord Grant''s study in the night he let Lord Grant see his reflection in the window for a second to get Lord Grant to think about him.


    When that happened Lirian used a fate technique to make Lord Grant act on his impulses, which made him write what he was thinking about which was Lirian himself.


    The fate technique that could affect a person''s impulse, was the same trick that Efrideet had used on Alastor in the academy, to make Alastor attempt to kill Lirian.


    It cost Lirian 300 000 fate particles to use the technique but after killing Lord Grant, it more than made up for the consumed fate particles as he earned an additional one million fate particles.


    It was like the saying went it takes money to make money and the same applied to fate particles.


    Lirian didn''t care if anyone learned about him, and besides Lord Grant didn''t reveal anything that would mess up with his plans, in fact, what he wrote would only be beneficial to Lirian.


    The only people that knew about him so far, was House Kurt and Lady Liberia, if either of them attempted to pin the blame on the unknown silver-haired mystery man, it would only come off as an excuse.


    Before Lord Grant died Lirian scribbled the words about Lady Liberia, to draw Lady Liberia into the centre of the mess,


    Unlike House Kurt, her House was not as powerful, it allowed the other nobles to turn their frustration onto her, and most importantly it brought her daughter to the spotlight.


    Under the current circumstances, not only would House Marshall be under severe scrutiny, but the truth of Lady Liberia''s daughter being held by House Kurt could be revealed.


    Lirian had effectively isolated House Marshall and made it so that the only one Lady Liberia could rely on was him.


    And best of all with all the nobles picking sides and pointing their fingers at each other, Lirian effectively created chaos within the ranks of the nobles, no matter what this was a serious blow to House Kurt''s alliance.


    Lirian smiled in satisfaction, as he made his way through Bell''s daily schedule, Lirian handled the orders of a few customers and played a couple of songs at a few clients'' requests, before long noon arrived.


    Lirian waited patiently, he was supposed to meet with Izlandi at noon, but so far he hadn''t heard any word about the keep opening its gates.


    An hour passed, and there was still no sign of Izlandi, which made Lirian sigh, ''It looks like I''ll have to act tonight,'' Lirian thought and popped another food pill into his mouth, as it digested he found that his energy was fully restored.


    Lirian was about to take a break and complete his immunization against the toxin when he spotted Lady Liberia, Lirian took his first proper look at her as she walked into the Red Boar.


    Lady Liberia was a little over a hundred years of age, but as an adept who could live for 500 ¨C 800 years, she was still young and retained her youthful appearance.


    She wore a simple white dress but as she looked around Lirian couldn''t help but notice that she wore a gloomy expression.


    Lirian noticed that the other nobles were distancing themselves from her and given her status as the strongest House amongst the minor nobles, it showed the severity of her current situation.


    Lirian quickly went forward to escort her to a room, he took her order and a few minutes later he brought her, her food.


    Lady Liberia barely paid any attention to the waiter, she recognised Bell, he was growing quite popular amongst the noble ladies, but she didn''t have the mind to pay him any heed.


    In truth she didn''t even want to leave her manor, she wanted to shut herself off from the outside for a few weeks and return once things cooled off.


    In truth it wasn''t like she had no allies, of the eight leaders of the alliance, there were three who were unquestionably on her side, but they were simply keeping their distance to see how things played out before any of them acted.


    The only reason that Lady Liberia came to the Red Boar, was because she had to meet with the silver-haired man, whom she suspected was Grant''s true assailant after all the wounds left in his back could have only been made by her fans.


    And currently, they were in the silver-haired man''s possession, she felt like a complete fool for how she had been thoroughly fooled, she started to wonder if everything he said was lies.


    From her perspective, Grant was the silver-haired man''s best bet in ruining the alliance, and Grant seemed more than happy to help him, yet he was betrayed and murdered just hours after he agreed to help.


    She didn''t feel safe at all, but she didn''t dare to betray the silver-haired man now, for fear of the repercussions that would fall upon her and her House.


    Liberia was so distracted that she didn''t even notice that she wasn''t alone, the thing that brought her out of her thoughts was the sound of someone crunching on food.


    As she looked across the table she saw her waiter happily helping himself to the food she ordered.


    "What do you think you''re doing?!" she yelled at her waiter as he continued to devour a freshly baked pastry that had a light layer of strawberry jam.


    "Sorry, I''m just really bad at choosing my own food, honestly it feels like everyone is better at choosing food than me," Lirian sighed and took a sip of the steaming hot tea he just poured for himself.


    "Also, it feels like it''s been forever, since I''ve had such a free range of food to help myself to," Lirian added as he happily put another delicacy into his mouth, much to the dismay of Lady Liberia.


    "This behavior is preposterous," Lady Liberia said through gritted teeth, "I will be taking this up with the owner young man," she scolded him with anger and got up to leave.


    She found herself in disbelief, that even a lowly servant would dare to disrespect her in such a way, she had half a mind to smack him until not even his mother would be able to recognise his face.


    Just as she got up however a teasing voice sounded from behind her, one that she clearly recognised, and that made her hairs stand like needles.


    "It''s only been a day and yet you can''t recognise me," Lirian teased returning his voice to what it normally sounded like, he made sure to make it sound like he was hurt by her inability to tell that it was him.

 Chapter 345 - 110 – Poisoned Tea?

    "It''s only been a day and yet you can''t recognise me," Lirian teased returning his voice to what it normally sounded like, he made sure to make it sound like he was hurt by her inability to tell that it was him.


    Lady Liberia''s body shuddered as Lirian''s voice rung out in her ears and she turned around with alertness, only to see the figure of Bell, who was still happily eating her food it was like he didn''t even hear the voice.


    Her eyes darted around the room as she looked for that familiar silver colour, yet despite pushing her senses to their maximum, she couldn''t see or hear anything other than her thumping heart and the sound of food being consumed.


    For a second she thought that it was just in her head and decided to turn around and go to the owner of the inn to complain about the disrespectful and audacious waiter.


    "I''m over here," she heard the voice say once again, this time she spun so quickly, it created a draft in the room.


    When she turned around she found that the waiter was looking at her with an amused smirk, and as their eyes met she felt that same intense vulnerability she felt when she spoke to the silver-haired man.


    "You," she said with her entire body trembling like the wind.


    "Me," Lirian confirmed using his real voice, an amused smile was splayed across his face as he looked at Lady Liberia.


    "How is this possible?" she asked with her back involuntarily pressing against the door, she didn''t know when was the last time she felt so afraid, or if she ever felt so afraid in her life.


    "You''re rightfully afraid, I suppose," Lirian laughed lightly at her strong reaction, "Yesterday I was a silver-haired man, today I''m a waiter who is well known, I handled your food, and stood by your side for so long that I could have killed and butchered your body a hundred times over,"


    "So who is to say who I might become tomorrow," Lirian posed with an amused smirk, "You know I just met your niece and heir today, Anthea, she''d make a lovely target for tomorrow, I can''t say that I''ve never wondered what it would be like to possess a woman''s body," Lirian teased and pressed his hands against his chest as he gestured about having large breasts.


    Lady Liberia''s expression went dark as she heard what Lirian was suggesting, she wanted to believe that it was just an empty threat, but she didn''t dare to test Lirian, she couldn''t even understand how such an ability could exist.


    To have the power to become someone else, that was a scary idea, it would turn someone into the ultimate assassin, if she knew that the ability gave Lirian all the memories and skills of someone she would probably have a heart attack.


    Lady Liberia felt like she''d never be able to sleep in piece again, she''d be looking at her servants and family members as if they were assassins in disguise at all times.


    Just the thought of Lirian''s ability was enough to drive her to the edge of insanity.


    Lirian laughed lightly at the paranoia that was sinking into Lady Liberia, "Come now, I don''t intend to kill you if you behave yourself," Lirian said and gestured for her to take the seat opposite him.


    Lady Liberia was hesitant but after some time she calmed her nerves and calmly took her seat as Lirian poured two cups of steaming tea.


    "I''m sure that Grant thought the same, but look at him now," she replied but didn''t dare to take a sip of the tea.


    "Grant''s death had a very powerful effect as I''m sure you can attest," Lirian smiled without even caring to deny his hand in Lord Grant''s death, "That said I don''t know why you are so taken aback by it, his death is something that you wanted as well," Lirian added.


    Lirian blew on the steam in his cup and took another small sip as he enjoyed the flavour of the tea, "I simply acted faster, to get the result that I wanted to achieve," Lirian explained with a smirk he knew with absolute certainty that Lady Liberia wanted to kill Lord Grant after she revealed the truth about her daughter.


    That desire also extended to Lirian, but she didn''t know how she could go about killing him.


    "I killed him because his death had its uses, and currently your death will have no positive effect on my plans, so truthfully your death would be a hindrance to my plans," Lirian explained and at the same time, he outright admitted to his crime.


    "Now drink," Lirian said and offered her the tea once more, "You should know that not many have had the privilege to drink tea that I brewed myself, even my mother has to request me to make it for her," Lirian said with a warm smile, yet it seemed like a threat to Liberia.


    She was paying attention to every word Lirian said, and she particularly noted that he said her death would only be a ''hindrance'', nothing more, it was then that she understood that she was speaking to a true demon, a devil, a monster.


    The man before was someone who didn''t care at all about the lives of others, even those who were useful to him were merely treated as useful pawns and nothing more.


    She no longer saw a snot-nosed noble, who thought himself to be everyone''s better because of his status, she was looking at a merciless general, who would commit every foul deed in the book if it meant his victory.


    Her hands shook slightly as she reached for her cup, she didn''t want to drink but she sensed that the alternative would not be anything pretty.


    As she pulled the cup to her lips she found herself incapable of keeping her hands steady, as her hand shook ripples spread through the surface of her tea, like rampant waves that showed her fear.


    It didn''t help that Lirian was staring at her cup with an intensity that made it hard for her to believe that there wasn''t anything inside.


    As she placed it to her lips and took a small sip a musical laugh brushed across her ears, and she looked at Lirian with shock and disbelief, she wondered how such a lovely sound could be made by such a monster.


    "Relax, I didn''t do anything to the tea," Lirian chuckled softly, he found her fear intoxicating to watch.


    Lady Liberia placed the cup down with relief washing through her body, she was so tense that she didn''t even taste the tea, she simply gulped it down, and hoped that it would kill her.


    As she felt nothing wrong with her body she picked up the cup and took another sip, and she was delighted by the flavour, she never knew that chamomile tea could be so refreshing.


    "Now that we''ve got that out of the way, I need you to keep doing as you''ve done so far, keep your fingers pointed at House Kurt, but steer as much blame as you can to House Maxim," Lirian started to explain the next part of the plan in detail.

 Chapter 346 - 111 – The Loss Of A Daughter

    Lady Liberia listened closely to Lirian''s instructions, for several minutes, and despite her fear she felt that she had to praise Lirian internally, his foresight and tactics were leagues ahead of anyone that she knew, she found it impossible to understand how a single person could possibly know so much.


    Before long she found herself amazed by the entirety of Lirian''s plan, but at the same time she wondered how much of it was true, she felt that it was foolish of Lirian to disclose his entire plan to her.


    It was then she realised that she was being tested, if she gave away any of the details of the plan it was likely that it wouldn''t affect Lirian, but at the same time, it would show that she betrayed his trust, at that point, there was no need for her imagine what would await her.


    She already saw what became of Lord Grant and he didn''t even do anything to offend Lirian, she shuddered at the thought of what might happen to someone who truly got on his bad side.


    "Here," she heard Lirian say once he finished explaining the plan and she saw her two fans being returned, "They have served their purpose already," Lirian said he didn''t care that they were mystic grade weapons, they were only slightly useful for him anyway, with his current power he needed something of exotic quality or higher, otherwise the weapons would end up breaking when exposed to his power.


    Lady Liberia snatched the fans without hesitation, she didn''t want to give Lirian a chance to renege on his word, and she didn''t show any gratefulness for having it returned, it was hers, to begin with and Lirian stole it.


    "When will you bring back my daughter?"  she asked Lirian seriously, and she even surprised herself, because she found herself whole heartedly believing he could do it.


    Lady Liberia didn''t know when this change occurred, but it did startle her, unknowingly she had come to trust in Lirian''s ability.


    "That will happen tomorrow," Lirian said, "You do your part with the other nobles, and when I give you the signal leave the city, and return to your estates," Lirian said.


    "You still haven''t even told me what the signal will be," Lady Liberia sighed.


    Lirian chuckled lightly, "Don''t worry about that, you''ll know what the signal is when you see it," Lirian said mysteriously and Lady Liberia couldn''t help but wince, she felt like whatever it was going to be it wouldn''t be too pretty for House Kurt.


    Once Lirian finished discussing the plan, she pulled out a fat pouch from her dress and passed it to Lirian, "This is the food pills you requested," she said as Lirian reached out to take the pouch.


    "I do hope that everything in here is okay," Lirian said with a serious undertone and popped one of the pills into his mouth like it was candy.


    Lady Liberia calmed her breathing, "Of course, I wouldn''t dare to do such a thing," she said hiding the nervousness she felt, the day before she had seriously contemplated poisoning Lirian, but after the events of Lord Grant''s death, she felt too afraid to do such a thing.


    "I should hope so," Lirian said as he continued to pop more pills into his mouth, "You know at a time like this I''m reminded of a story, one that happened a very long time ago,"


    "It''s a story about a father and his daughter," Lirian said calmly.


    Lady Liberia felt a slight change in Lirian''s tone he sounded calm, but she noted a bit of melancholy in his voice.


    "Once upon a time, there was a man who had a daughter,"


    "A daughter like no other, you see the man was akin to a god and so he fashioned his daughter with his own two hands,"


    "And so, she was special like no other,"


    "She had a soul as pure as the first snow of winter,"


    "And her eyes, they shone with the radiance of the stars,"


    "To her father, the girl was akin to an angel, and the world was unworthy of her presence, so he loved her with all his heart,"


    Lady Liberia felt powerful emotions smother her every sense as Lirian spoke his story, and as Lirian described the daughter, she could see the image of a delicate and beautiful child whose beauty and purity was beyond compare.


    She watched as Lirian reached out his hand as if the child was before his eyes and stoked the air as if he was stroking her long velvety hair.


    "His daughter became his entire world, and he did everything in his power to keep her happy,"


    "But all good things are destined to one day come to an end,"


    "You see the child''s mother was treacherous and cruel,"


    "One day she snuck her own daughter away and sold her to her father''s most hated enemies,"


    Lirian turned to look at Liberia with a cold demeanor, and Liberia could feel all the emotions that burned in his mind.


    "Needless to say, when the father found his beloved daughter''s body again, the light that her eyes radiated had gone out, she was nothing more than a broken mutilated corpse,"


    The tension that Lirian''s voice carried was enough to make Lady Liberia find it hard to breathe, and she felt the threat that lingered in his words.


    "We wouldn''t want history to repeat itself now would we?" Lirian posed.


    Lady Liberia shook her head, moving it from right to left, if she used any more strength she feared that her head would start to spin in circles, "Of course not," she uttered.


    "I''m glad that we cleared that up," Lirian said and gestured for her to leave.


    Lady Liberia didn''t wait for him to repeat his dismissal, she didn''t want to spend another second in his presence.


    Lirian stood by the window in the room with his ''Gods Gaze'' wandering the sky, his eyes appeared a little wet, but they quickly returned to normal, "I miss you, my little light," he whispered softly.


    Lirian shook his head, that was all in the past, a past better forgotten.


    Lirian walked out of the room and continued to act like Bell, throughout the remainder of the day, in that time Lirian heard a couple of interesting things from the mouths of the nobles.


    Whenever someone complained that their food was missing or that they didn''t empty their goblet of wine, Lirian played the simple song, ''Tranquillity Upon the Seas'' and like magic, it would erase their anger and all their doubts.


    They would become happy customers and they happily gave Lirian some pretty hefty tips after listening to the songs, in the end of the day Lirian calculated that he earned almost 5 gold from wealthy patrons.


    Lirian also found that the song worked extremely well to lower and erase a lady''s libido, he went in with them expecting one thing and by the time he finished playing them a single song the thoughts were erased from their minds, it was magical.


    When evening finally came and the last of the clients left Lirian enjoyed a hefty meal in the kitchen, as he told the boss all the intel he gathered.


    The boss was so happy with Lirian''s finding that he outright handed Lirian a gold coin for his info, which would have been a lot to Lirian earlier, but after a single day of playing the lute for the wealthy patrons of the Red Boar, he was sitting rich.


    In a city like this 6 gold could last a common family for an entire year.


    When the inn was all clean and tidy, Lirian snuck out under the cover of the night, it was time for him to create some trouble.

 Chapter 347 - 112 – Immunization

    It was dark out and a thick fog covered the city.


    Lirian walked through the swirling fog, in which all visibility was lost, a person wouldn''t even be able to see two feet ahead of themselves, but to Lirian sight was never a necessary requirement.


    Lirian sat down for a moment and released his transformation, his body quickly started to shorten, and his hair changed from light brown to silver in seconds.


    Lastly his eye became silver again, but Lirian quickly shut them as his blindness returned, but he was no stranger to the darkness, and he welcomed it like a friend.


    Lirian quickly changed into a black robe, as Bell''s clothes were too big for him, but thankfully the Red Boar had a closet filled with old clothes that Lirian could make use of.


    Before setting out Lirian took a moment to sit down and golden flames started to lick his body, Lirian let out a pleasurable moan as the ''Flames of Nirvana'' steadily started to heal his energy points for what he hoped would be the final time.


    The flames looked like a golden halo around Lirian''s body and acted as a beacon in the mists, the mist fled upwards as the heat of the golden flames spread into the surroundings


    A half-hour passed before a message popped up on the system.


    [Host has gained Immunization to the Toxin in the breath of the world]


    Lirian smiled when he read the message, and promptly removed the blocks on his energy points, immediately he felt his pores open up and the energy started to seep into his body as ''Unconscious Cultivator'' took effect.


    There was a slight burning sensation at first, but after a few minutes the feeling left and all Lirian felt was the joyous feeling of energy entering his body and slowly being cultivated.


    The cultivation process was bound to be slow, especially since Lirian was an esper, in prospects of time, if Lirian solely relied on the natural breath of the world, it would take him sixteen times longer than a genius cultivator.


    Lirian did have his fate achievement that would considerably improve his cultivation speed.


    -          Source Knowledge ¨C you have grasped the knowledge of genesis, cosmic and celestial, all energy centres benefit from these knowledge''s (2,35x cultivation speed, as you grow stronger so will your cultivation speed)


    With every stage breakthrough Lirian''s cultivation speed would increase by, 0,05, and with every grade breakthrough it would increase by 1.


    Other than that Lirian had other means to accelerate his cultivation, there were a few techniques he could use when he sat down and cultivated without the use of ''Unconscious Cultivator'' but none of them could compare to the boon brought by ''Source Knowledge''.


    But the best methods would require him to find special herbs and ingredients, that would be beneficial in accelerating his body''s ability to cultivate energy.


    But at the same time, those methods did worry Lirian, with his godly constitution he would become immune to many of those ingredients very quickly which would mean that all ingredients would have limited usage.


    Lirian didn''t expect his cultivation to increase anytime soon so he climbed to his feet and activated [Gods Gaze], the energy of the world became clear to Lirian as he scanned the city.


    Lirian could use ''Levitate'' to hover around but he wanted to give his body a little stretch before he got busy, Lirian walked to a tall building and gave the walls a few taps.


    Before long the vibrations gave Lirian a good idea of the structure of the building, he placed his hands on the walls and moved his fingers into the littles crevices between the bricks.


    Lirian shifted his weight into his hands used them to start climbing up the wall, Lirian started off slowly and soon his body grew used to the activity.


    Within minutes Lirian was shifting his weight from his legs to his hands and back, as he kicked and pushed of walls and ledges, and grappled on random bricks and fixtures that provided a good grappling point.


    Lirian continued with his parkour for a few minutes before he found himself standing on the edge of the roof of a 6-storey building.


    Lirian felt that it was a pity that the buildings were so short and that there were so few tall buildings in the city.


    Parkour was an enjoyable activity but only if you had a large enough area to freely traverse.


    As Lirian stood there he scanned the city and all over he could see the various street lamps, the luminous stones appeared as a very bright white under Lirian''s vision.


    But that wasn''t what he was looking for as he looked around he saw several burning torches, most of them were located near the gates of the city.


    The city had two main gates on the outer walls the northern gate and the western gate, Lirian assumed that the live flames were being used by the guards to disperse the thick fog that settled over the city.


    Lirian snapped his fingers, and the sound rung crisply through the air a moment later Lirian jumped from the ledge of the building, after a few seconds of having nothing under his feet, Lirian landed lightly on the ledge of the neighbouring building.


    A smile spread across Lirian''s face as he started to run across the ledge while constantly clicking his fingers, as the sound travelled back to his ears he leapt from ledge to ledge, and when he started to feel bored of the simple jumps he started to do flips and spins in the air as he enjoyed the freedom.


    Every movement forced Lirian to push his senses to their maximum, and before long Lirian found himself leaping across the rooftops of short buildings, it was then that Lirian realised that he just reached the western gate.


    Lirian stopped and glanced around, it took him a few minutes to discover that there were over fifty guards busy patrolling the streets, while another dozen were stationed at the western gates and along the city wall.


    As Lirian looked at the city walls he found that there was a layer of runes imbued with power drawn in the fabric of the wall, ''I''ll have to get a better look at those,'' Lirian thought with a pondering gaze as he looked at the runes.


    "But first I have to do some clean-up duty," Lirian muttered softly and pulled out a kitchen knife that he ''borrowed'' from the Red Boar.


    Lirian watched the guards move and followed the routes they all took as they did their patrols, once he memorised all their routes he hopped down from the ledge of a single storey building and crept up behind a guard who was completely unaware of the fate that was about to befall him.


    With a quick swipe of the knife, the guard went still as blood spilt down his throat and splashed all over his light armour, before the guard fell to the ground Lirian caught him and softly set him against a wall.


    Lirian heard a ding from the system, he had no need to read the message to understand that he just lost 1 000 fate particles, and it was just the beginning of what he was going to lose.

 Chapter 348 - 113 – Assailant In The Mist

    Lirian placed the dead guard on the ground gently, and quickly picked up his torch, the torches acted as beacons in the night.


    They weren''t simply used to clear the fog, but they also acted as means for the guards on the walls to be able to ensure that they were moving and performing their rounds.


    If the guards noticed that the torch wasn''t moving they would send someone to check on the guard, at that point the dead guard would be discovered, and the guards would sound the warning bells.


    The city had three bell towers, one was located near the western gate and one by the northern gate, and the bells could be rung if any trouble was spotted approaching the city, as for the third bell it was located on top of the highest tower of the keep.


    Lirian followed the route that the soldier he killed took, he knew that after he took a turn around the corner he''d bump into another guard, so he used ''telekinesis'' to control the torch and move it forward through the mist.


    The guard walked in the dead of night, whistling a rhythmic tune, to stave away the sleepiness he felt, he saw the familiar torchlight approaching him, and sighed happily, knowing that he wasn''t alone in his night-time labours.


    "Evening," the guard politely greeted, just making a casual greeting it was customary to do so whenever the guards crossed each other, and it helped them to keep alert and on their toes.


    However, when the guard was greeted with only silence he frowned slightly and turned to look at the guard who so rudely walked past him.


    But when he turned around he was greeted with the sight of a torch bobbing up and down in the mist.


    The guard set his torch down against a wall and rubbed his eyes, "I must be hallucinating, this must be why dad always said, ''Don''t go to the red-light district until you finish your shift for the day''," the guard muttered to himself.


    "Those ladies sure do know how to drain a man," he complained softly and gave his face a few slaps, to wake himself from his stupor, but even after all of that, the torch continued to bob up and down all by its lonesome self.


    The guard looked at the torch strangely, as the strange reality started to kick in he prepared to run to his superiors and report the strange sighting, but then he heard what sounded like a knife slicing through flesh, it was so close and so loud, he wondered if someone was cutting something right in front of him.


    Then suddenly everything went dark, those were his final thoughts, the guard swiftly fell to his knees with blood pouring out of his slit throat.


    Lirian quickly caught the guard before he slammed against the ground and made a loud noise and placed him gently against the ground, before picking up the dead guard''s torch and moving it with telekinesis.


    Lirian split his focus on the two torches and made them continue to move at their steady pace, as he moved around using the mist as his cloak.


    Lirian repeated the cycle, every time a torch approached another guard they would appear confused at the oddly bobbing torch and as they became lost in their thoughts, Lirian used the cover of the mist to silently approach without being discovered and slit the throats of the unaware guards.


    As Lirian continued to kill the guards, he started to feel like his mind was being stretched, when he killed thirty of the guards, he had to split his focus on the thirty torches to keep them moving and avoid suspicion.


    But he started to find himself exiting the range of his control, Lirian knew that was bound to happen so once the strain started to build up, with a thought Lirian used ''Intrinsic Energy Mastery'' and pushed the quality of the energy from 4 to 6.


    Lirian instantly felt the stronger energy wash over his mind and reduce the strain significantly, his energy consumption increased by 50% but with his ''Unconscious Cultivator'' finally in use the increased consumption didn''t even phase his reserves.


    He was gaining back more energy than he was consuming every second.


    Before long Lirian assassinated every guard the only ones remaining were the guards on the walls the one''s station by the gate and lastly the one in the bell tower.


    Lirian knew that he had to be quick for the next few kills, he needed to rapidly kill the guards on the wall and the guard in the bell tower, both the guards on the wall and the guard in the tower would notice within seconds if either was killed, and they would raise the alarm.


    Lirian hopped along the rooftops, jumping from ledge to ledge, and scrambled over the roofs before he found himself with a decent vantage point.


    When Lirian finally stopped he turned around and found that all the guards were in his sights, but he had to start off with the guard in the bell tower and he had to be very careful about it.


    Lirian started to compress telekinetic force in the palm of his hand, it quickly became a projectile of condensed energy and all Lirian needed to do was fling it, but he had to carefully study the guard''s movements and attack at the right moment.


    If Lirian made a mistake with the angle, there was a good chance that he could end up smashing the bell with his attack.


    Or worse he could end up blowing up the entire bell tower, which would gather far too much attention, Lirian didn''t want to draw too much attention, at least not until he finished with this part of the plan.


    Lirian waited and carefully tried to figure out the best opportunity to strike all the while he had to maintain his focus on the torches that were still moving around under his control.


    "Now," Lirian shouted in his mind when he found the perfect opportunity, with the perfect trajectory.


    Lirian released the compressed projectile of telekinetic energy, it shot forward with a mind-numbing speed, moving at ten times the speed of sound.


    Putchi.


    The guard was caught completely unaware, Lirian doubted he even knew he died, as the energy smashed him into a puffy cloud of red mist.


    The projectile shattered the guard''s body into tiny indiscernible bits, not even his armour remained intact, if any of it was still whole, it was pulled by the forward momentum of the blast, and soared out over the city walls, and landed miles in the distance where no one would ever discover it.


    When the torch that the bell tower guard held went out, the guards on the walls were quick to notice, but Lirian was already prepared, the guards on the wall were far easier prey.


    Lirian watched as the guard''s energy signatures started to move rapidly, all of them ran in the same direction and within seconds the guards on both sides of the walls lined up perfectly.


    Lirian released his control on the torches, there was no point in moving them about anymore, immediately he was washed with relief as the strain was removed from his mind, and he was clear to attack the guards who were running rampant on the walls.

 Chapter 349 - 114 – Blood In The Walls

    With his mind free of strain Lirian quickly built up telekinetic energy on his fingertips, Lirian calmed his breathing and took aim.


    Then he started to flick his fingers, his fingers shot the energy with rapid succession like a gatling gun and turned all the guards who were running along the walls into bloody puffs of smoke.


    Telekinesis was probably one the most powerful abilities in existence, in Lirian''s mind, most people were merely incapable of using their imagination to bring out its powers to their fullest.


    Most people saw it as an influencer skill, that could allow them to move things around, they treated it more like a useful tool, but in truth, it was so much more.


    Telekinesis was the ability to take control over the dormant fields of the world and bend it to your will, it was a power that was useful to even gods, and by mastering its application one could become a force to be reckoned with, all that someone needed to do was be creative with it and they would find an entire world of possibilities.


    Lirian flashed through the air with rapid speed once the wall guards were all taken care of, and he flashed into the midst of the guards who were stationed at the gate.


    The guards were speaking loudly, some of them were panicking slightly as they saw what happened to the guards on the wall, and suddenly they saw Lirian appear in their midst, like a spectre of death.


    His approach was so silent that for a second they doubted their senses, but that was all it took for the first two to die.


    Just a moment of doubt and they were dead, some of the guards fell to their knees with legs that felt like jelly, try as they might they couldn''t bring their legs to move, but they weren''t the first to die.


    The silver-haired assailant seemed to have no intention to kill those who had already lost hope at least not yet, instead of the fallen guards, watched as their fleeing comrades were cut down one after the other.


    They looked like they were running, yet their legs were moving so incredibly slow, it was like they were being pressed down by a mountain and they couldn''t remember how to breathe.


    One by one the guards fell, yet it happened so quickly that all seemed to occur in an instance.


    Then the reaper turned onto those who were frozen in fear, with puddles of piss drenching their clothes and armour.


    However right at that moment when the guards thought themselves to be gone, a strange sensation passed through their minds, suddenly the reaper no longer looked like a reaper.


    Rather he looked like a beautiful deity, who was most magnificent and most glorious, all the fear seeped out of the fearful guards, and they chose to embrace death if that is what the deity before them so wished.


    "Go and open the gates," said Lirian and the guards who were previously trembling on the ground got up with renewed vigour.


    The opening of the gates was a strenuous job, it required several guards to turn the main mechanism, and two guards were required to work the second mechanism on the wall, and they would have to keep moving for ten minutes straight before the gates were properly opened.


    There weren''t enough guards to open the gate after Lirian killed so many but that didn''t stop the remaining guards from trying.


    "First clear away all these dead bodies," Lirian said, and the guards obeyed, they picked up the bodies of their dead comrades whom they had known for years, but they felt no grief at their loss.


    They felt only envy that the sacred deity before their eyes, felt that their comrades were worthy of his blade and they were not.


    In minutes the bodies were cleared from the street and the blood was washed away, and the guards went to fulfil their original task.


    They put all their heart into turning the mechanism, but they were met with little success, however, the sound of the gate opening did awaken the residents in their homes.


    The creaking steel and the grinding gears were enough to awaken those in the surrounding area, and as they heard the noise in the dead of the night they got up to investigate the source of the noise.


    The people came out dressed in simple clothes, some of the poorer residents wore the same clothes that they wore in the day, but all the same, they stepped out into the foggy streets and approached the gate, some were curious, while others were complaining about the disturbance.


    But when their eyes fell on Lirian''s figure, they all went quiet, Lirian was currently pushing his charm to his limit as the resident grew closer, "Go and help to open the gate," Lirian said, his words were like a divine decree in their ears.


    The men, women and children alike all rushed forward with vigour, without a care of the late hour, and they helped to open the gate.


    As they got busy Lirian moved towards the walls and started to inspect them with curiosity, earlier he noticed that there were spell runes imbued into the walls and he wanted to check what the runes did for the wall.


    Lirian remembered hearing that the walls were built when Lord Rupid had first taken control of House Kurt, and he hired dwarven masons from ''The Hillcove Hills'' to construct the walls.


    As Lirian looked at the ruins he found that the ruins were designed to increase the stability of the structure and to reinforce the durability, with the ruins etched into the wall, it would last at least ten times longer than it ordinarily would, that said the runes were overly intricate.


    Lirian assumed that the dwarves were either very wasteful in their work, or they were simply trying to make things look more complicated than they really were, to stop anyone from copying and deciphering their techniques.


    As Lirian analysed the runes he found that it was most likely the latter, in truth even if he were to replicate the technique it wouldn''t come out as strong as if the dwarves performed it.


    Before Lirian''s ''Gods Gaze'' all the secrets of the technique were easily seen, inside the runes, Lirian found that it was laced with dwarven blood, which was the secret to their durable creations.


    They infused their blood with their mana and used it to create the runes.


    Dwarves in general were born with an affinity towards earth, so when they used their own special techniques to infuse their blood with mana, it carried some of that affinity, it was almost like infusing laws into the structure to strengthen it.


    It took Lirian barely even a minute to decipher the power of the walls, and once he was done, he noticed that the gate had only opened a quarter of the way.


    Lirian paid the people no mind and pressed a hand against the wall, "I suppose that I will have to thank Rupid for the gift," Lirian said with a light laugh.


    As he spoke a series of spells circles started to flash out of Lirians hand and sunk into the surface of the wall.


    The wall shone brightly for a moment as the spell circles entered them, but just as quickly the glow vanished, and Lirian turned away while heaving heavy breaths.


    Lirian pulled a handful of food pills from his pockets and stuffed them in his mouth to rapidly restore his energy, when his body detected the pills, ''Unconscious Cultivator'' took effect and turned them into energy in seconds.


    Lirian breathed out softly and walked away from the wall, unseen by the eyes of the masses, a trail of energy was released by Lirian''s body that was promptly absorbed by the ground everywhere he stepped.

 Chapter 350 - 115 – God Of Cultivation

    When Lirian returned to the gate it was fully open, and in the process, it made a fair amount of noise.


    Lirian suspected that it wouldn''t be long before people came running to investigate, once they learned of what happened a wave of reinforcements would emerge, given the size of the city Lirian guessed that he had an hour and a half before the trouble grew out of hand.


    The people all gathered around Lirian to report their success in their task, to which Lirian gave them some simple compliments which had them all reeling with joy.


    "Now then I need all of you to do something for me," said Lirian.


    "We''ll do anything master requests," the crowd shouted with great vigour.


    "Good," Lirian smiled gently, "Go beyond the city gates and bring the refugees into the city, invite them into your homes offer them food and drink, and spread them throughout the city," Lirian said with an expression he hoped made him look like a caring and loving god.


    Lirian remembered that there were refugees stationed outside the city when he arrived, the people were seeking sanctuary due to the battles that were taking place, and also in part because of Lirian himself.


    Many of them believed that there were orcs planning on invading their villages and homes due to the rumours that spread after Lirian allowed a few survivors from his attacks to run free.


    There were several tens of thousands of refugees when Lirian had first arrived in the city, and the city had no more space to accommodate any more people.


    The city couldn''t afford any more mouths to feed, and there were many people who were currently extremely sick in the encampment that surrounded the city.


    Currently, there were almost a quarter of a million refugees, in the encampment, and bringing them into the city would create more than just chaos, it would result in pandemonium.


    The people followed Lirians order with fanatical zeal, and rushed to obey, the first wave of people wasn''t all that large it was only about fifty in all, but that was just the beginning.


    Once the refugees saw that the gates were open, and people were entering without being killed, they were bound to come rushing in as well.


    Before long the first group returned, pulling entire families with them and reassuring them that everything was going to be okay.


    Within minutes Lirian found himself surrounded by hundreds of people, and the people showed no sign of stopping.


    Yet when their eyes fell upon Lirian, they felt the effects of Lirian''s charm they all watched Lirian in silence with pure devotion and worship in their eyes.


    "Thank you," the people started to weep and cry, releasing all their pent-up emotions, they thought that they were destined to live lives of poverty, while starving every single day, and hoping for scraps.


    Yet now they were being given a chance to live in a proper city, with a roof over their heads, and with food abundant.


    It was nothing short of a miracle, and they knew that it was all given to them by the silver-haired man who stood silently, with a crowd all around him.


    Yet so divine was his presence, that as much as the people worshipped him, they kept a perfect circle around him than none dared venture beyond, it wasn''t out of fear that they didn''t venture forward, but rather they believed themselves unworthy to stand any closer.


    "How shall we address you great one?" a man asked while lowering himself to his knees.


    Lirian waited for a while as more and more people crowded around him, he heard various requests from the people all asking how they may address him, and an idea cropped up in his mind, one that would help in both his ''Worldline Quests''.


    Lirian faced the fanatical crowds who were growing zealous under the influence of his charm, "You may speak of me as the God of Cultivation," Lirian said and his name was met with frantic cheers from the crowd.


    "I have come to guide and teach you, my children of the ways of cultivation," Lirian said and the crowds went even more frantic, they were just ordinary people, who were destined to never know what true power was and now a god was saying he would teach them.


    With a thought white light formed around Lirian''s head, and the white light started to rain down on the growing crowd.


    Lirian fragmented pieces of ''A Cultivators Guide To the First Accord of Cultivation'' and let the fragments settle in the minds of the crowd, it was his way of offering them proof of his divine being.


    "However," Lirian continued and the rowdy crowd instantly fell silent like obedient children, "Before I can guide you myself, I must first rid the world of those who have blasphemed against the sacred traditions of cultivation," Lirian said and pointed at the keep that lay within the centre of the city.


    The people forgot themselves as anger filled their hearts, they were already angry with the nobles for turning a blind eye, as they starved outside the city, now they heard from their ''God of Cultivation'' that the nobles were also blasphemous.


    Their anger was stroked, and the people marched forward with a single goal to rip down their blasphemous leaders.


    Lirian smiled and in the next moment he vanished from sight, he noticed that there were already soldiers on the move and approaching, he couldn''t allow them to ruin what he had just spent some time creating.


    Lirian dashed through the city, he put the knife that he was using away, as the blade was starting to go blunt after all his assassinations, and picked up a sword from one of the guards he had earlier killed.


    The soldiers that were approaching were quickly dealt with by Lirian, they didn''t even get the opportunity to swing their weapons before their heads were rolling on the ground.


    Lirian didn''t want his horde to be disheartened too soon after they began their march, after all, they were merely ordinary people, even if their numbers were a hundred times greater than House Kurt''s, it would be useless in the end.


    Lirian killed all the ordinary soldiers that came his way, and after some time he saw the first traces of the novices.


    As much as Lirian wanted to kill them, to make up for all the fate particles he had been forced to squander, he decided against it, for now, if he crippled house Kurt''s elites forces, it was likely that the main family would flee, with their tail between their legs.


    Lirian fell back and hid in the shadows, as he did he readopted Bells form and used his eyes to watch what was happening.


    The refugees were leaving a path of destruction in their wake as they scoured the streets, but before they could even near the keep, a cavalry charge came rushing out of the keep''s gates and rolled over the refugees.


    Lirian was however by what happened next, usually, a powerful cavalry charge was enough to break the spirits of even the most disciplined of armies, yet those ordinary refugees still seemed fervent in their desire to attack House Kurt and didn''t back down.


    It wasn''t only Lirian who was surprised by this, so were the adapts who were leading the charge on horseback.


    It took three powerful pushes before the refugee army collapsed and lost hope, Lirian watched as those that made it into the city scrambled into the alleys and streets to hide.


    There were probably hundreds who died under the assault but there were tens of thousands who managed to enter the city before the gates were sealed off once again.


    Lirian closed his eyes, and smiled at his success, he turned around and moved about completely unseen in the foggy streets as he returned to the Red Boar.

 Chapter 351 - 116 – Calm Before The Storm

    Lirian returned to the Red Boar, completely unseen, and slipped into Bell''s room.


    When he returned he gave Bell some food that he swiped from the kitchen on his way in, he couldn''t allow him to starve to death after all.


    As Bell happily feasted on the food Lirian provided, Lirian closed his eyes and let his thoughts run free in his mind.


    Lirian had to admit, that he kept trying to overestimate the power of his charm, but every single time his charm seemed like it wanted to defy his expectations.


    Lirian was still uncertain of how exactly it was working, was it some pheromone his body was releasing, was it some intangible power mixed into his presence, did some strange change occur in the chemistry of a person''s brain when they looked at him.


    Lirian still had no idea, but today he discovered that his charm was unbelievably powerful, what he had just done was something that only extremely powerful psychics were able to do, and it would come with great mental strain.


    Yet it cost Lirian no energy, nor did it tax his mind in the slightest, he managed to influence tens of thousands of people, simply by speaking, he influenced them to go on a ''crusade'' of sorts, and even as they were killed they didn''t lose their fate.


    Even when they retreated, there wasn''t a single person who dared to voice a word of complaint about him not coming to their aid in their time of need.


    In fact, there were those with zealous fervour, who were shouting that the attack was a test from god, to test their conviction, to test their hearts.


    Lirian sighed as he thought of those people, they were a disappointment to him in all honesty, he never did like those kinds of people, those who claim that victory is from God, and loss is God''s punishment unto them, to test their resolve and conviction.


    That said, Lirian did think that it would be useful to have such followers from time to time, their fanatism could prove useful in some situations.


    The scene of them holding their ground against a cavalry charge that repeatedly trampled over them was all the proof Lirian needed, if he could create some cultivators out of those fanatics, they would be useful.


    If they could be so fervent in the face of certain death, then their value would be immense.


    The thing that made Lirian the happiest was that he forced House Kurt to open their gates and show themselves, now they wouldn''t be able to continue turtling up in their keep.


    Lirian was looking forward to seeing how they were going to try to resolve the entire refugee situation.


    Their initial attack was justified due to the manner in which the refugees were storming into the city and causing damage but if they started a slaughter again, they would completely lose the trust of their people.


    As a result the villagers would refuse to pay their taxes to the minor nobles, and in turn the minor nobles would refuse to pay House Kurt their taxes, which would cause House Kurt to take a severe hit on their revenue, which would only be elevated when the high noble house that House Kurt was subjected to came to collect their taxes from House Kurt.


    The remedy to the situation was simple but currently, it wasn''t viable, ordinarily, if a village refused to pay its taxes the lord would send troops to take it by force, but currently, House Kurt couldn''t afford to send any of its elite troops to collect taxes, as House Kurt was currently engaging in a battle that could escalate into a war at any time.


    If House Kurt were to use anything less than elite troops to gather taxes, the odds were that they would be killed and robbed before they could return with the taxes.


    Lirian sighed in admiration of the ingenuity of his own plan and closed his eyes to get some rest, a new day would be arriving soon, and he was willing to bet that there was going to be a storm.


    ---


    Lirian awoke the next morning and yawned widely, before climbing off the pellet and getting ready for another day of work in the Red Boar.


    Lirian followed the same old schedule, as the day before, he went out into the back, while the fog still clung to the blades of grass forming drops of dew on the ground and started to chop some wood for the fires.


    He was early this time, so he didn''t have to worry about ''Old Buch'', after the hour passed he brought back all his chopped up firewood, and proceeded to the kitchens where he helped with cleaning and chopping some of the vegetables.


    That simple time quickly ended, when Lirian received his first request to play the lute.


    When Lirian reached the room in which he was being requested to play, he found that it was filled with familiar faces, in fact, it was identical to his first request the day before.


    Anthea, Stella and Selma, were sitting together once again and spiritedly discussed the events of the night, and shared what their families thought about.


    "¡­I don''t see how this is going to do anything else other than hike the price of food," Stella was saying when Lirian entered with the lute in his hand ready to play.


    The three ladies all smiled warmly to Lirian as he entered, and Lirian paid attention to Anthea in particular, he wanted to see if Lady Liberia told her anything by gauging her reaction, but she seemed the same as she was the day before.


    "Can you play ''Hidden Coves''?" Anthea requested at once, she was very enthusiastic to hear some of her favourite songs played by Lirian, if he could make a simple song like ''Tranquillity Upon the Seas'' sound so amazing, she couldn''t wait to hear what her favourites would sound like.


    Lirian nodded, Bell was familiar with many a song, and ''Hidden Coves'' was a moderately difficult song to play, but nothing beyond Bell''s skill level.


    Silence filled the room just as the day before, and the ladies listened to the songs in wonder, they requested the song be repeated several times before finally moving on to different songs.


    It wasn''t long before they started requesting songs that Lirian didn''t know at all, so they settled for some simpler songs, but not before stating that they would bring Lirian some song sheets of their favourites.


    Lirian was incredibly surprised, to a bard like Bell such song sheets were worth more than gold, if he claimed to know some of those songs and played them, he''d be invited to play in the halls of any noble.


    As Lirian started to play some simple songs the ladies resumed their conversation.


    "All these refugees are going to do a lot more than just make the price of food increase," Selma said to Stella in an exaggerated tone.


    "Just this morning my carriage had to come to a complete halt because of a refugee," Selma complained while clutching her heart.


    "You should have seen him, the man looked like he was suffering from a dozen different plagues, and he was coughing out horrendous amounts of blood all over the street," Selma continued speaking in an exaggerated tone, as she spoke of the sick refugee, like he was a demonic creature of death.

 Chapter 352 - 117 – Mitalas And Unity

    Selma explained her encounter, with exaggerated detail, from what Lirian heard it sounded like the refugee was a blood thirsty monster, whose sole purpose in life was to kill and destroy every person that came into his sight.


    When she finished telling her tale Selma said, "It will start of as a drain on the food storages, but if you ask me the real problem, is the plague they bring with them,"


    "Who knows how long it will take before the plague spreads, and our people will be no different from those filthy refugees," said Selma nodding her head vigorously.


    Lirian chuckled to himself as he listened, that was something he was glad to hear, treating a plague would just add to House Kurt''s financial expenditures, and anything that negatively affected House Kurt was a good thing for him.


    He also found the reaction of the others two ladies amusing, when Selma spun her tale, they gasped and clutched their hearts in suspense, if Lirian didn''t know any better he would have thought that she battled a demonic creature from the depths of hell, and lived to survived to tell the tale.


    After the suspense filled story about the refugee who was so sick, Selma didn''t dare to allow her horses to grow to close for fear that they would pick up the plague, the conversation topic shifted again.


    The next topic was also to do with the events of the previous night in particular they discussed none other than Lirian himself, or as the people in the city were calling him ''The God of Cultivation''.


    "The God of Cultivation, it''s such pompous name," Stella said with her face glowing red, it was like she felt embarrassed simply for saying the name out loud.


    Lirian however looked at them in confusion, he couldn''t even begin to understand what made her feel so embarrassed, and he almost lost control for a second as a sudden urge to rip her throat out manifested in his mind.


    When she called the name, he gave himself ''pompous'' in such a condescending tone, he had an urge to kill her, and it wasn''t like there was anything wrong with his name, if anything he felt like it was an understatement of his true ability, calling himself ''The God of Cultivation'' was an understatement of his ability.


    The only time that he used pre-existing cultivation techniques, was the very first time that he cultivated, in all subsequent lives, he crafted and honed all his techniques by himself.


    The only thing he did with other people''s cultivation techniques was use them to showcase his superiority in creating cultivation techniques.


    As for the paths to the second and third accord, those were all things that Lirian discovered purely by himself without the help or aide of any other individual or external force.


    Since the heavens rejected him, he rejected the heavens right back, he proved to all the heavens that he by his lonesome self, was superior to the collective of every other being birthed by the heavens.


    So, calling himself, ''The God of Cultivation'' was an understatement by cataclysmic proportions, not only was he ''The God of Cultivation'' he was the greatest god of all.


    Lirian sincerely doubted that their existed another god, who only followed the techniques of others to achieve first-grade, and from then on pioneered their own path completely by themselves.


    So, by all means, calling himself ''The God of Cultivation'' was not pompous at all, it was quite the opposite, it was a show of pure humility from his perspective and he could not be convinced otherwise.


    "I heard from a refugee that we interrogated, that the man who orchestrated the entire attack last night called the noble''s blasphemers against cultivation," Anthea added with a derisive snort, she didn''t even call Lirian by his self-declared title.


    "I bet that he is just some agent of Unity," Stella said in a whisper, causing the two ladies to raise their brows and look at her curiously, even Lirian looked at her with some surprise as he wondered how the girl could connect the events of the previous night to Unity.


    Unity was not an unknown organisation to Lirian, and he had only spent a small amount of time of Nebula-6 so far most of his time spent on this world was either in a cage, or in this city, so as far the outside world went Lirian was still a little clueless.


    But even so, Lirian had already bumped into a member of Unity in Willcolly, Mr Cassy, he wasn''t an official member, he was likely a potential member that Unity was interested in, he was being given a task and if he succeeded he would have become an official member.


    Lirian only knew that Unity wanted to control Willcolly, as for their reason for wanting Willcolly, Lirian couldn''t be too sure, as there were far too many unknown factors, Lirian listened closely to the next words that followed.


    Stella raised her hand to her mouth with an '':O'' expression as if she said something she shouldn''t have, but as she saw the incessant look in the other ladies eyes, she knew that she wouldn''t be able to keep what she knew to herself.


    "Alright fine I''ll tell you, but you have to promise you won''t tell this to anyone, my husband said that if word of this ever got out it would cause a lot of trouble, not just for us but also for the entire world," Stella said in her own exaggerated way and a hint of seriousness crept into her voices, that only made the others more curious.


    She lowered her tone to a hushed whisper, so as to prevent Lirian from listening in, but unfortunately for her Lirian''s could hear even the rhythmic pumping of her heart, needless to say her whispers were heard loud and clear by Lirian.


    Even as he continued to play the lute with feigned disinterest all the while listening with keen ears.


    "My husband told me that Unity, calls all the nobles around the world blasphemers, regardless of their race or nations, and the reason stems from their desire for the cultivation chambers,"


    "As you know the cultivation chambers were created by the human god Mitalas, before he ascended into to the divine worlds,"


    "Due to his magnanimity the god Mitalas shared the secret of creating the cultivation chambers, with all the races and split all the existing chambers between the races, but humans received the most as they rightfully deserved, since Mitalas was a human,"


    The ladies nodded, the god Mitalas was a god who all humans worshipped and revered, not even the ''Heavenly Empress'' would dare to speak ill of Mitalas, in the hearts of humans Mitalas was the greatest being who ever existed.


    "However my husband told me that Unity believes differently, they claim that the cultivation chambers were created by a different god, a god that those in Unity worship and revere,"


    "Unity claims that their god left the cultivation chambers for them, and that Mitalas is a thief who killed their god and stole the cultivation chambers and passed them off as creations of his own," Stella said with a heated tone with her face flushed red in anger.


    "It''s Unity who is the blasphemers, how dare they speak ill of Mitalas?" Anthea snapped in fury with her fists curled up in anger.


    Lirian was equally surprised but for different reasons, when he inspected the inside of the cultivation chamber, he didn''t get much time to study it but from what he saw there was no way a mortal could have possibly created such a marvellous contraption.


    Rarely did Lirian offer praise to the workmanship of others, but he had to admit that the manner in which the cultivation chambers were spelled was exceptional.


    It wasn''t that one would need great power to replicate the chamber, rather it relied on technique and finesse with a micro attention to detail, it was something that a mortal simply could not do due to the limitations of their life span they simply could not live long enough to get that good.

 Chapter 353 - 118 – Movement From The Keep

    Lirian found the talk about gods a little troublesome, as he listened to Stella speak of the world''s history.


    Gods could not exist within the mortal realm that was a fact, but Lirian was also aware that this world was special.


    It was a world marked by the gods, and the gods had means to influence the world, all this talk about gods was a bit confusing, especially since the knowledge of the people of Nebula-6 was not all that great.


    For all Lirian knew, the people they called gods, were merely those who became immortals, or it could just as well be some avatar that the gods placed on the planet.


    Lirian couldn''t be sure, but he knew that these ladies mental faculties weren''t all that great either.


    These ladies were likely of a similar mindset as that stupid adept in House Kurt and believed that the cultivation of all three centre''s of power is a dead end path, in truth that is why Lirian labelled the nobles as blasphemers against cultivation.


    Such ignorance was a crime in Lirian''s book, it was a crime worthy of having one''s entire family exterminated, if Lirian were to rule the world, he''d label all such people as a plague that needed to be eradicated.


    And anyone sharing the blood of such ignorant fools were bound to have the potential to create faulty minded ignorant fools once again, hence the need to exterminate their entire lineage and ensure that such stupidity never again is born.


    "So, you''re saying that man is from Unity, and he launched that attack last night because he wants to claim House Kurt''s cultivation chambers?" Selma asked after a while.


    Stella gave a quick nod and said no more, as the mood turned grave, the ladies started to worry after what they had learnt.


    If what Stella said was to be believed, then it meant that House Kurt had another enemy asides, from the two noble houses, and it was an enemy they could not take lightly, no it was an enemy that was far more powerful than they could handle.


    Unity had made its name well known, by the terror that they brought upon some of the major cities, just fifty years ago, The Twin Towers, a major city on the east coast of Mithland and probably the most well-fortified of all the cities was brought to its knees.


    Unity killed two of the heavenly emperors that were stationed in the twin towers, if not for the arrival of reinforcements from Blindwatch, The Twin Towers would have existed no more.


    Against such powers, a noble house like House Kurt was worthless, Lord Rupid would have to consider himself honoured if he was granted the position of a common soldier in such armies.


    Lirian keenly listened in on all their conversations that followed, however, there wasn''t much else that happened.


    Lirian heard that the cavalry charge had almost run over the branched head of the merchant''s guild when they emerged from the keep.


    From what Lirian heard he was camping outside the keep gates, with carriages full of gold, all to buy the ''secret formula'', that House Kurt used to clean up the city.


    Other than that, Lirian was disappointed to hear that after the cavalry charge House Kurt shut the gates of the keep once more and continued to refuse all contact with the city.


    ''Just what in the world are those guys up to, after last night they can''t seriously think that I''ll just leave them alone if they continue to hide,'' Lirian wondered curiously, House Kurt''s approach was pretty stupid to begin with, and Lirian felt like he''d become stupid if he tried to understand the minds of those simpletons.


    Suddenly a strange sound started to echo throughout the city, Lirian''s ears twitched as he heard what sounded like metal grating against stone, and when he looked at the three ladies, they were also looking around with alertness.


    It seemed that they could hear it as well, one of the neighbouring rooms door suddenly swung open, created a loud noise and shortly after that more and more doors started to open within ''The Red Boar''.


    Lirian stopped playing the lute and quickly opened the door to see what was going on, and he found that there were dozens of people within the corridor all looking at each other.


    "You there," a noble man pointed at Lirian when he noticed Lirian''s uniform, "What is the meaning of all this noise?"


    "I pay a lot to enjoy my meals in silence, which I can''t do because of this this loud racket, you go and tell the owner that I''m not paying if this racket continues for another second," the man spoke with an arrogance that only kings could have, but as Lirian checked the man''s cultivation he sighed.


    ''Just a lowly novice and his stuck in the earlier stages at that, how does he even have it in him to be so arrogant?'' Lirian couldn''t help but wonder.


    Lirian yawned after listening to the man''s threat, "The sound doesn''t originate from The Red Boar or it''s premises, as such you have no grounds on which you can withhold your payment" Lirian said in a plain tone, "But if you''re short on money and can''t afford to pay for what you ordered, I don''t mind loaning you some money to cover your bills," said Lirian with a twinkle in his eye.


    Lirian like most of the people present already knew that the sound did not originate from ''The Red Boar'', the man was obviously trying to find a way to skip out on his bill and any attempts to appease the man would simply be met with ridicule from the man, so Lirian didn''t entertain his tantrum.


    He merely offered an insult that no noble with any pride could take, if a noble needed to borrow money from a lowly waiter, a servant, it would be a source of ridicule that would follow them forever.


    Some of the ladies brought their hands to their mouths as they laughed at the man, they knew exactly what he was trying to do, so they couldn''t help themselves when he was backed into a corner by a common waiter.


    As Lirian glanced behind the man he noticed that their were woman in the room he left, ''Ah, so he wanted to look like a big deal to impress some ladies,'' Lirian realised, "How much are you short on?" Lirian asked and pulled out his coin purse, which was loaded with money after his last day of playing the lute.


    The noble gritted his teeth in anger, but as he looked at the coins that Lirian started to pull out, his mouth widened with shock as he found that the waiter had more money on him than he got as an allowance from his family.


    It wasn''t just him, but several others who were watching the scene that were surprised by the wealth possessed by Lirian a waiter.


    "I can pay for myself," the noble spat through gritted teeth and returned to his room, his attempts to make himself look like a big deal in front of the woman was completely foiled by a waiter.


    With the commotion settled, the people turned their attention back to the noise, and rushed out of The Red Boar.


    Some went to the gardens, while others went to the streets, and they quickly pinpointed the source of the sound, it was coming from the keep.

 Chapter 354 - 119 – FIRE!

    The city had come to a moment of perpetual silence, as every person whether it be a mother looking after her child, a shop owner opening their store for the day or a lady enjoying a refreshing cup of tea.


    At that moment they all stopped what they were doing and turned to the keep, they witnessed groups of soldiers standing atop the walls that surrounded the keep, pulling on thick and heavy chains.


    Hugh metallic siege engines of death emerged atop the walls, in all the siege engines counted 20 in total.


    "Ballistae," Lirian muttered as he looked at the metallic contraptions, a ballista resembled a cross bow, only it was much larger and a lot more powerful.


    While it wasn''t extremely mobile due to its massive size, the power of it was not something to be underestimated, a single bolt fired from a ballista was enough to tear through entire ranks of infantry.


    When measured by the damage that could be dealt to cultivators, it wasn''t a stretch to say that even fourth grade cultivators, could be injured by a bolt, that said to be able to hit a fourth grade cultivator with such a weapon was very unlikely to happen.


    And currently twenty such contraptions were lining the walls of the keep, ''It''s a great show of power, but what are they planning on doing,'' Lirian wondered to himself, but as it turned out the show was only just beginning.


    The gates to the keep started to rise and the sound was clearly heard by everyone in the city.


    Lirian broke away from the crowds and hurriedly scaled the walls of a building and ran across the roof tops until he reached the plaza at the keep gates.


    The roads were still littered with the dead bodies from the night before, and the stench of the dead tainted the air in its foul stench.


    A force started to emerge from the open gates, and the residents of the city all gathered up to watch as files of soldiers poured through the gates, and at the front Lirian saw what was probably one of the ugliest men he had ever laid his eyes upon.


    "It''s no wonder Izlandi says that she feels like throwing up when ever she is in his presence," Lirian muttered softly feeling a wave of sympathy for Izlandi as he looked at the ugly toad like face of Stanley.


    In truth Lirian felt like he was doing a disservices to toads, when he compared Stanley to one, if there was an ugly scale, with one being moderately ugly and ten being a blight upon the wold, Stanley was a solid twelve, with toads being a three.


    Stanley rode a horse at the front of the army that emerged and behind him the soldiers formed neat files along the sides of the road, they pushed and kicked the dead corpses, shoving them to the sides of the streets to clear the space, and in the next moment the sound of chains clinked loudly.


    Lirian looked at the gates and saw a row of four horse''s, each one was twice the size of a cow, metal chains where wrapped around their body, with each link of the chains being the size of a large man''s hand.


    As the horses moved forward, a ballista was pulled forward, this time Lirian could see the siege engine clearly, the head of the ballista, towered over the people at ten feet, and large removable wheels were fixed to the bottom of the siege engines, but even with the wheels the horse''s still struggled to pull the siege engine.


    But that wasn''t the end, because as the first ballista was pulled forward another emerged behind it, and another followed after, Lirian counted every single ballista that came out, and after the first thirty there were no more horses to pull the siege engines.


    At that point ten novices worked together to pull each subsequent weapon and another 40 ballistae emerged being pulled by the novices.


    In total 20 were placed on the wall of the keep, and now another 70 were being pulled through the city, after hours of parading the ballistae they came to a stop at the walls all around the city, and to the surprise of residents, the novices climbed the walls and using the chains they started to pull the ballistae up the walls.


    That same grating sound that alerted everyone in the morning was heard again, and now they understood why, the grating sound and the occasional loud thumps that shook the city was caused by the ballistae being pulled up the walls.


    Lirian looked through the memories he took from Izlandi, and was surprised to find that she had absolutely no knowledge about the weapons what so ever.


    "That girl is just as clueless as all the others in this place," Lirian sighed in depression.


    As Lirian watched he suddenly understood what was going on, ''So they weren''t completely shutting themselves off,'' Lirian realised and it seemed that House Kurt was keeping a close on everything going on in the city and managed to understand his intentions.


    Lirian wanted to drive away all the minor nobles, that were in the alliance, but with this siege engines in play, that entire plan would have to be washed away.


    If the nobles tried to back out of the alliance and flee, their manors could be fired upon from the keep if they tried to rebel, and if they dared to flee the ballistae on the walls would be able to make quick work of them.


    "Well played," Lirian laughed aloud, with this his past two day of planning was rendered meaningless.


    But still he felt like House Kurt was over doing it a bit, they weren''t even trying to hide their intention to hold all the minor nobles as hostages, it wouldn''t cause any trouble now, but in the long term it would be detrimental, after all at some point they had to return the minor nobles freedom.


    Lirian had seen enough, his plans were ruined for now, but he was happy, finally House Kurt was playing along and he was planning to cherish these coming days.


    Lirian turned around and started heading for The Red Boar, when suddenly he heard a loud shout reverberate across the city.


    He turned around to see Stanley who was currently standing on top of the keep walls, he looked down at the people with disdain in his eyes and acting like he was the king of the world.


    "ATTENTION!!!" he shouted drawing the attention of every person in the city.


    "As all of you are aware, last night House Kurt was attacked by the terrorist organisation known as Unity!"  he said.


    Lirian frowned at that, ''They are accusing Unity,'' Lirian thought, ''Why, won''t that just create a larger panic?'' Lirian frowned, ''What do they get out of making such a statement?'', but soon his question was answered.


    "It has been brought to our attention that they were led by some cowardly, self-declared god, to that cowardly god I have a message!" Stanley shouted.


    "House Kurt has come to understand that you have converted the refuges outside the city into your minions,"


    "For the treacherous crime of joining a terrorist organisation, I have but one word," Stanley said with a wide disgusting smile.


    "FIRE!" Stanley shouted.


    Lirian''s eyes widened in surprise and turned to look at the city walls, the ballistae were aimed and ready, at Stanley''s word, the bolts were shot in rapid succession, and fell on the refuge encampment like rain.

 Chapter 355 - 120 – Decree

    "By the decree, set forth by the Heavenly Empress fifty years ago, all those found to be a member of Unity, are to be executed without remorse, and all those who harbour and grant safe haven to the members of Unity are to be met with the same fate," Stanley recited the words of a doctrine placed forward by the Heavenly Empress herself.


    "As is my duty as a law abiding Lord and noble of Mithland, I hereby cast my judgement upon the refuges, they have harboured and fed the terrorists of Unity and joined them in arms as they brought terror and destruction upon our noble city,"


    "Their crime''s will be met with the appropriate punishment," Stanley stood proudly presenting his noble justification for everyone to hear.


    Lirian realised his mistake, unfortunately no matter how much he knew and understood about politics, the one thing he couldn''t know were the unique laws brought about by circumstances of the world.


    It seemed that Unity had done enough terrorising in this world to earn a death warrant for all it''s members, issued by the person Lirian believed was the highest power if not one of the highest powers in the world.


    "FIRE!" Stanley shouted and the soldiers on the wall, loaded in the bolts, each ballista had three slots, and so they loaded up the bolts and cranked the ballista, before releasing a second shot and a third.


    By the time the third bolt was launched, the first sling was reloaded and cranked, allowing them to continuedly fire without stopping.


    The bolts were shot with deadly momentum, they streaked across the sky and came crashing down with deadly precision.


    They ripped through people like they were paper, even those it passed were smashed by the wind shield created around the bolt, and ended up feinting under the pressure, they were the lucky ones.


    The people outside the city were caught unaware, by the time they realised the danger they faced, the bolts were already falling on them like rain.


    They watched as the people around them were smashed into bits, and those were the fortunate ones, for the ones who didn''t witness the sight were the first to die.


    The torrential rain of bolts seemed endless to the refugees, they had come to this place for a sanctuary, for some respite, from the battles that threatened to take their lives, but in the end it was all for naught, they were forced to witness their sanctuary turn into a hellscape.


    The cries of and screams came from every angle, no matter where one ran the voices of grief and horror echoed, it sent chills throughout the city, the peoples face''s went ashen, all the blood in their bodies ran cold, as they looked at Stanley still standing atop the walls of the keep.


    "Where is your self-declared god now?!" Stanley asked and looked over the people of the city with gleeful eyes.


    "Again!" Stanley ordered and another round of bolts where shot, killing thousands more.


    "Do you see?" he asked, "Your god is merely a coward, he watches as you are slaughtered without so much as lifting a finger," he said in an overbearing manner as he looked down, it was almost as if he was waiting for something.


    Minutes passed in silence, yet nothing seemed like it was going to change, eventually Stanley sighed and returned to his speech.


    "To my understanding, many terrorists from Unity, snuck into the city last night under cover the darkness,"


    "My father Rupid Kurt, the first of his name, the Lord and leader of House Kurt has issued a decree, all the terrorist are to be killed without care of their age or gender, House Kurt will not provide sanctuary for terrorist''s," when he issued the decree he looked to the minor nobles.


    They all understood that this was a test from House Kurt to test their loyalties, if any of them faulted in this task, they would be dealt with by House Kurt.


    "Those who have harboured the terrorists are to be treated the same," Stanley said casting a cold gaze at the people.


    A commotion suddenly broke out in the crowds, and the people split apart and gave way to a man who was dragging a woman and a young boy, who was no more than 5 years old.


    "¡­Please," the woman cried, "You can take me, just leave my boy," she begged with wet eyes and tried to hit the man''s hand away from her son who was being dragged through the street.


    Everyone instantly understood what was happening, the woman and her son were refuges that snuck in during the attack.


    The man went forward with determination and pulled the woman and her son with him, "My lord, please forgive me," the man said falling to his knees, "They came in the night, and my wife felt sorry for them, please forgive me," he cried and pushed the mother and son pair forward.


    Stanley jumped down from the top of the wall he landed with a powerful thud on the ground, that cracked the road, he looked at the mother and son pair and walked close to them.


    The mother grabbed her son and pushed him behind her body, "M-m-my lord, please, we aren''t terrorist," she pleaded, "My husband is a soldier, he fights in my lord armies, I beg my lord for your magnanimity," she said and brought her head down to kiss his feet.


    "Oh, your husband is a soldier, what''s his name?" Stanley asked as the woman continued to grovel at his feet.


    "Darren my lord," she answered eagerly seeing that Stanley seemed interested, "Darren of Zeal, his been in my lords armies for three years now," she said nodding her head.


    Stanley nodded, "Good," he said loudly, he looked into the crowd and he found Lord Thoman Maxim watching closely.


    "Lord Thoman, would you please come forward," he requested.


    Lord Thoman stepped up without hesitation and eagerly approached Stanley, "Is there anything I can do for you young lord?" he asked Stanley.


    Stanley nodded, "Yes actually, it seems that my army has been tainted with Unity filth, find this Darren of Zeal and execute him," he said.


    "NOOOO¡­." the woman cried but before she could make another sound Stanley slashed his sword and her throat was slit open.


    "Mama," the boy cried behind her with worry, he didn''t quite understand what was happening, but he knew that the red coming from her throat wasn''t anything good.


    The boys cries didn''t last long because, Stanley''s sword ripped through his head in the next second, he swung his sword and the blood splattered onto the ground.


    Stanley quickly sheathed the sword and walked to the man, who was still bowing to him on his knees, with a good natured smile, "You are to be commended for setting an example for our people, and for your deeds I ought to reward you and your family, go and bring them here," Stanley said with a warm smile.


    The man welled up with tears in his and bowed profusely to Stanley, "Thank you, my lord, thank you," he cried out and ran back into the ground to fetch his family.


    He returned with his wife and his 15-year-old daughter.


    Stanley''s eye''s lit up as he saw them approach, and he motioned for some guards to join him.


    "Greet the lord," the man was saying eagerly to his wife and daughter as they reached Stanley, they saw the guards, but they thought nothing of it.


    "As much as I wish to reward you, my father''s decree states that all those who helped the terrorists must die," Stanley sighed as if he felt regretful.


    The entire family went still as they heard Stanley, "My lord please, I beg your forgiveness," the man started to cry and fell to his knees.


    Stanley sighed, "I suppose that since you are the first to come forward you can be forgiven, but you must first be punished," Stanley said sternly.


    The family all fell to their knees and thanked Stanley, even a hundred lashes was better than death.


    "Take them away," Stanley said loudly and motion to the guards.


    As the guards tied up the family, Stanley placed a hand on the guards shoulder and spoke softly so only the guards and the family could hear, "Take the girl to my chambers¡­ take her mother there as well¡­ you know what bring the father as well he can watch," Stanley laughed and walked back through the gates.


    He turned around and cast one last look at the nobles, "By dawn tomorrow they all better be dead," he left those words behind before disappearing through the gates.

 Chapter 356 - 121 – Blood Washed City

    The hours that followed Stanley''s departure was like a horror story, as carnage washed across the streets of the city.


    People ran through the streets, some were fleeing¡­ while others chased, horrid and gut-wrenching screams prevailed in the streets and alley ways, and even as one screaming victim was silenced, a hundred other screams constantly echoed to take their place.


    The smell of blood pervaded the air, no where in the city was free from the gut-wrenching stench.


    It sounded like pigs were being slaughtered in Lirian''s ears, as he staggered his way through the streets.


    "Shut-up," Lirian muttered under his breath as he kept a hand pressed against his temples, "It wasn''t me¡­ I-I-didn''t-do-this," Lirian said to the voice in his head.


    It was there again, threatening to cripple his mind and body, its intensity was greater than ever before, it refused to relent, from the moment those first bolts were fired it never stopped.


    ''Why am I being punished for this?'' Lirian groaned weakly and he stumbled against a wall on the road, ''I didn''t kill them, I didn''t orchestrate this,'' Lirian complained.


    It was true, he never expected this outcome, but then even if he did, why should he care?


    Lirian ducked away into an alley as he noticed a group of nobles about to come his way.


    With the way things were going Lirian wouldn''t put it past the nobles to start killing every person that came into sight.


    He witnessed it happen a couple times already, random people who were running to their homes, were savagely cut apart.


    It was like everyone had lost their mind, Lirian had noticed that most people were actually avoiding him, Lirian wasn''t certain if it was his charm or The Red Boar uniform.


    The Red Boar was famous amongst nobles so it made sense that they would recognise it, but Lirian didn''t want to bank on that, one faulty noble and he''d find himself in a fight.


    Currently, Lirian felt like his mind was going to explode, from the pain, he wasn''t in any condition to be fighting.


    Lirian slipped into the alley and staggered into a hidden grove, where he fell to the ground as he grappled with Edith''s voice, that continued to rattle the inside of his mind.


    ''Mercy¡­'' the voice cried; it was just like before, just like that day when she died.


    Lirian tried to stop it, he tried not to listen, but the plea in her voice was one that he could not ignore, not anymore.


    Her plea wasn''t for herself; it was for him.


    Suddenly the world around Lirian lost all its colour, and Lirian found himself back in the centre of the rumbling storm, in the place where everything was calm.


    It was the eye of the storm and he was its centre, only the sound of the roaring thunder reached his ears, but all the raging winds and rampant clouds, that were made up of all the worlds oceans, remained far away.


    Not even the spurting magma dared to interrupt his final moments with her.


    They had been speaking for a long time already, saying all the things they never got to say, for they knew that their time was short, and now only minutes remained.


    Lirian held Edith tightly in his arms, but no matter how hard he held on, he knew that she would soon be gone.


    "There''s something that I have to tell you," Edith whispered while nestling her head on Lirian''s shoulder, Lirian could feel her grip around his neck slipping, so he didn''t dare to interrupt, these were to be her final words to him, and he had to listen.


    "It''s actually something the other me asked me to tell you," Edith whispered in his ear, Lirian relished those moments when her breath brushed his ear.


    And slowly she began saying the words the other her asked her to deliver.


    "I''ve been watching you, always, from the day you crawled in alleys and fed on filth to survive, I''ve been closer than you can ever imagine," Edith whispered gently, she felt like she knew what she was saying, but at the same time there were to many new memories in her head to recall.


    But as she saw Lirian''s shaking eyes, she felt there was a lot more to the words she spoke than she could currently understand.


    But time was of the essence she had to say her piece and quickly.


    "I watched everything, and your pain was my pain, so many times I wished to reach out and whisper some words to ease your heart, but as close as I was, I was still so very far away,"


    "I know that it was hard, and no person should have to go through what you did, I know that you don''t want to hear my next words, its not fair that anyone should ask this of you, but I must say them for your sake, or you will fail just as you did before,"


    "Mercy, my dear Samsara you must learn its meaning, you must accept it, you must show it, you must embody it,"


    "Because,"


    "Mercy is the way of true kings,"


    "Without it you will be lost, and doomed to repeat what has once been done,"


    "My love, you are capable of so much more than merely being a king," Edith used the last of her strength to bring her hand to Lirian face.


    There eyes met, both stained with tears, they stayed like that for a while, "I''m glad that I got to see your eyes again," she whispered ever so softly with her final breath.


    ---


    Lirian blinked and found that the world had gone dark again, he blinked again, and the world remained the same.


    Lirian climbed up and noticed that his clothes were a little big, Lirian quickly realised that he reverted to his real form.


    Lirian lay strewn across the hard ground in the alley, he activated ''Gods Gaze''.


    Lirian looked up to the sky for answers, "Mercy," Lirian muttered, "What is it?"


    "Is it a skill? is it an emotion? is it a law perhaps? Is it a dao all to itself? Or is it something more?" Lirian question without moving.


    His gaze was fixed upon the stars that existed beyond the sky, he watched them twinkle and release their energy as he had spent many an eon in past.


    Looking for the secrets that they might hold, looking for the coincidences that might lead to answers.


    "What is mercy exactly? And how can it help me?" Lirian questioned.


    He could no longer pretend that he didn''t hear her words, they were always going to remain deeply etched in his cold heart, denying them was like denying her, he couldn''t do that anymore.


    As he looked between the stars that no one could see, Lirian wondered if he might ever hear her voice again.


    "Is this last time I''m to hear you?" Lirian asked with a sense of loss.


    But soon he shook his head, "Mercy," Lirian muttered, "I''ll remember that word, it''s your word to me," Lirian said with a smile forming on his lips.


    In a place hidden.


    In a place lost.


    In a place that never existed to begin with.


    The purple eyed woman felt her entire body tremble as she looked through the green haze that always clouded her vision.


    Her spectral body rushed forward to the dark throne, and she placed her spectral hand just an inch over the silver eyed mans.


    She would just pass through him in this form, this cursed form that kept them from feeling each other''s warmth since the dawn of this world.


    Tears formed in her eyes, that splattered like crystals.


    Her tears were not shed from fear, no, and they certainly were not from sadness, no, she was weeping with joy, for a change had occurred.


    The silver eyed man for first time since the dawn of this wretched world, he smiled.


    She remembered that smile, even after all this time, not even the stars could shine so brightly, not even the stars could make one feel so warm.

 Chapter 357 - 122 – Show Some... Mercy

    The screams never stopped, even after hours had passed and the night returned with thick swashes of mist wrapping around the city in its entirety.


    Lirian lay strewn across the ground and unmoving, even now he continued to gaze beyond the sky in search of answers.


    Lirian heard a shout in the alley, it wasn''t the first he had heard since he arrived, for a long time now the alleys had become the focal point of the slaughter.


    The alleys were like a maze that spanned across the city, the refugees fled to the twisting and narrow roads, in the hopes to evade their pursuers, it was what kept them alive so far.


    The mist only served to aid the refugees in their attempts to escape it cloaked them in its veil and hid them from those who would hunt them down and made the tasks of the nobles that much harder.


    Lirian heard footsteps in the alley, it wasn''t far from him this time, but he paid it no mind, then more footsteps echoed in the narrow alley, suddenly there were dozens of them.


    The sound grew so loud that Lirian was no longer able to ignore it, for it was heading directly for him.


    Air was being sucked in and exhaled rapidly by the person being chased, they were puffing so hard that the mist was being deformed by their very breath.


    With every step the person took, those that followed were gaining ground, Lirian judged the pace and realised that they would catch up exactly where he lay, lost in his thoughts.


    "Mercy is not apart of who I am," Lirian said to the night, "But for her, I will try to learn its meaning, if only just a little," Lirian spoke into the mists.


    Lirian climbed up from the ground, and even in the night shrouded by mist, his long silver hair sparkled like a beacon as the torch flames reflected of it''s surface.


    The person running quickly noticed the movement ahead and froze, thinking that they had been cornered, the boy was young, close to coming of age as a man, but still he was merely a boy.


    He had been running for so long it felt like his lungs would explode, the moment he froze, all the exhaustion caught up and he fell to the ground with burning lungs and aching muscles.


    He vaguely saw the group closing in, they seemed almost as tired as him, some fell to their knees when they caught up, the more fit ones simple bent over to catch their breath.


    "You¡­ sure know¡­ how to run," a man said between gasps, the boy hand been running for long before he started chasing.


    Several had passed out in their pursuit, even a novice was forced to keel over as the boy continued to run and evade capture, dozens had come, and even more had given up, they were already the sixth party to pursue the boy, but finally he was at his end.


    The man pulled his sword from its sheath, "You gave us a good work out boy," he gasped and went forward to end the boy''s life.


    He swung his sword, but suddenly a powerful wind gushed forward, it made the peoples clothes flutter and the torches all went out.


    The sword came down fast, but the noble realised that something was wrong, he felt no resistance at all, when suddenly, clank, the blade struck the cobblestones.


    The nobles all climbed back to their feet and scrunched up in a huddle, without the torches light, they couldn''t see through the mist and their missing victim, told them that something was awry.


    "How about you show the boy some¡­ mercy," a voice said from within their midst.


    "Screw you," the man shouted and swung his sword towards the source of the voice, the man smiled when he felt he made contact, then his blade carried through and a body fell to the ground.


    The head rolled to the mans feet and he looked down smugly, this was something he could brag about, taking of a head with a single swing.


    He bent down to take a look at the fool''s face, but as he drew closer his eyes widened in horror, that was the head of his nephew.


    "I offered you my mercy," the voice said once more, but this time the man stayed his hand, his last impromptu act took his nephews life, "You chose it not," the voice sighed.


    Then there was silence, no one would be able to explain what happened next, as those who ventured within the alley seized to be.


    The boy was finally able to get his breathing under control, he didn''t know how he survived, but he somehow knew that he was safe.


    All he remembered was that flash of silver, then suddenly a fire blossomed in the mist and as he looked at the source he saw that silver once again, and whom it belonged to.


    The boy had been hearing stories about the Silver-Haired god, and The god of cultivation, since he was able to enter the city.


    The people spoke his name with reverence and praised him every second of the day, he didn''t get to see the silver haired god when he entered the city, he was too far back in the crowds.


    The boy felt anger toward the god, for doing nothing as those who entered the city were slaughtered, but as he looked upon the gods figure, he found himself incapable of anger.


    He watched as the gods noble figure came closer, with flames hovering above his head, and the god reached out a hand.


    The boy looked on in confusion as the gods hand was filled with a white light, he heard the people speak of a white light filled with wisdom and knowledge that the god gave them, but he couldn''t be certain if it was the same.


    "What is it?" he asked hesitantly.


    "It''s¡­ my mercy," the god answered back, "Or at least I think it is, I''m only starting to understand, or maybe I''ve got it wrong," the god answered with uncertainty.


    ''How can a god show uncertainty,'' the boy thought to himself, ''That''s unbecoming of a god,'' he thought and looked at up at the gods face, yet he was surprised.


    It was the most beautiful face he had ever seen, not even that noble''s daughter he had once seen in his village could compare, yet it seemed oddly human, oddly familiar.


    "Are god''s just like all of us?" he couldn''t help but ask, it was a question that no mortal should ask a god, he knew that it was wrong but he had to ask.


    He expected anger from the god as soon as the question slipped from his tongue, but he couldn''t stop himself, yet the god only smiled as he found his question intriguing, the light in the gods hand grew in power and expanded a dozen times.


    "Why don''t you try becoming one and find the answer for yourself," the god gave him a most unexpected answer, and offered his hand once more.


    This time the boy reached out and let the white light enter his mind, it was knowledge and things he knew nothing off that started to fill all the empty space in his mind.


    "The road will be hard, but there are others¡­ like you out there, find them¡­ it might help you¡­ to survive," the silver haired god left those words and vanished before the boy''s eyes.

 Chapter 358 - 123 – Crimson Mists

    Lirian found the mist to provide the perfect cover for his silent killings, as he moved through the alleys of the city, that were a slaughter ground for the refugees.


    Bodies piled upon bodies and blood ran in thick streams to form deep pools of crimson, the red started to seep into the mists.


    The mist no longer looked like a gentle blanket but rather a demonic fog of death.


    Lirian used the blood fog as his cover, to decorate the alleys, in a similar but different way from before, it was no longer the blood of the refuges that spilt, now it was the nobles blood that formed torrents and rivers.


    Yet as the blood mixed with the blood of the commoners, it ran all the same, with the same speed, with the same colour, ''In death all things are equal,'' Lirian thought of an old saying, a saying as old as life itself.


    Lirian took the opportunity to thin the forces of the nobles, the idea was to make the nobles leave the city to weaken House Kurt''s power, and this was doing pretty much the same thing, and it was right up Lirian''s area of expertise.


    Killing was second nature to Lirian and the red mist acted as a deadly veil for his movements, when Lirian found a group he raced forward in a heartbeat and the soldiers would die before they even knew what hit them.


    Lirian approached the group under the cover of the mist and he would offer them a chance, he would offer them his mercy, but it seemed no one was keen on accepting his offer and Lirian would offer it only once.


    In the moments that followed their deaths would be swift and silent, it would take a while before anyone learnt of the dead bodies, and by the time it was known Lirian would be long gone and in another part of the city repeating his ritual over and over again.


    ---


    To the residents of the city the night seemed to last forever, no one could sleep, no one could rest with such horror on their doorsteps, but then a time came when the city went silent.


    The screams had gone silent and so they thought that the nightmare had finally come to its end.


    They pushed open their windows to take a look at the city, but all that greeted them was the wretched stench of death and a crimson mist that threatened to consume them.


    It was then that they knew that the nightmare had only just begun.


    ---


    Lirian noticed the lack of soldiers, as he did his tally he found that the number he killed was high already sitting in the four digit brackets.


    He was thankful for the novices that he discovered, if not for their noble sacrifice in his hands he would have depleted all his fate particles with the massacre he unleashed.


    There were no fancy spells, nor were there any fancy tricks, it was just him and his hands he used them like the mighty weapons that they were as he crept around in the night, and the night was still young.


    Lirian noticed that the House''s had stopped sending out troops, after incurring such heavy losses, at least 400 novices fell to Lirian''s hand, and only those at the fourth stage and above provided him with fate particles, and thankfully most of them were above that threshold.


    As for the number of ordinary soldiers killed, their numbers ranged close to 4000.


    The losses suffered by the houses were immense, but lucky for them those losses were split across the many existing houses.


    At that point Lirian turned to the keep, he had spent plenty of time in thought, and he was slowly coming up with a method to enable his earlier plans to work, or at least he hoped it would work.


    "Well then time to enter the keep," Lirian said as he faced the keep.


    He walked up to the wall and activated ''levitate'', Lirian steadily rose up against the wall and after a while he left the clouds of red mist as he reached the top of the wall.


    Lirian noticed that there were soldiers walking on the walls, performing their duties, Lirian immediately activated his charm and ensnared the two closest to him, neither of them were novices so it practically turned them into his subjects as soon as they saw him emerge on the walls.


    "How may we be of service master?" they asked in unison.


    "Just keep patrolling and pretend like I''m not here," said Lirian and he moved to the ballista.


    Lirian had given the ballistae a lot of thought since he saw them, at first he wondered why House Kurt didn''t have them stationed at all times, which made him realise that the ballistae were most likely House Kurt''s secret weapon for the war.


    With these weapons in play even the other noble House''s, would find it to be a near impossible task to approach the city, without suffering severe losses.


    Not to mention that the ballistae themselves posed as a threat to even the knights, the third grade cultivators.


    Lirian found solace in the fact that he forced them to reveal this hidden weapon, they were most likely only planning on revealing it in the final stages of the war against the other nobles, it was supposed to be their trump card, but Lirian pushed them so hard that they were forced to reveal it now.


    The ballistae would act as deterrence against their enemies, and at the same time it acted as reassurance for House Kurt''s allies, it gave them hope that House Kurt could win.


    But with such an early reveal, there enemies were now bound to find out about the weapons from their spies and come up with new strategies and precautions to deal with the weapons.


    It wasn''t like it would make the power of the ballistae lower, but it wouldn''t be as massively destructive, as it would be if it was sprung up on them and took them by surprise.


    Lirian examined the ballista in front of him, and found that it was of extremely sturdy build, and the design was extremely good, which brought up another question.


    Lirian wondered how House Kurt was able to afford such weapons, without a doubt each and every one of these siege engines were worth a lot of gold, since they could kill even third graders, their value was immense, yet House Kurt some how possessed 90 of them.


    Such a purchase should have brought House Kurt to bankruptcy yet as he looked through Izlandi''s memories he found no memories of such a purchase or of House Kurt ever running into financial trouble.


    "There is something to all this that I am seriously missing," Lirian concluded and started to tinker with the ballista.


    A weapon like this would consume to much energy to destroy, but the unfortunate thing about it was that it''s components could be rigged.


    Lirian didn''t go with anything obvious, he could have cut the sling but that was two obvious, so instead he used some spells to damage the gears on the crank, after a few turns it was likely to break.


    And Lirian also messed with the spring, the next time the weapon was drawn it was likely that the spring would shatter.


    Those parts could be replaced, but house Kurt couldn''t create those parts by themselves, they had to purchase it first.


    Just as Lirian finished rigging the trap another guard started to perform a round on the wall, and as Lirian noticed the guard he discovered that it was an adept.

 Chapter 359 - 124 – You Tricked Us

    Lirian hurriedly dove of the top of the wall like he was jumping into a swimming pool and activated levitate, he hovered by the ledge and hid away from the sight of the patrolling adapt.


    As the adapt walked past, the guards nodded their heads respectfully, but they said nothing about Lirian and continued with their guard duty, once the adapt was long gone, Lirian climbed back to the top of the wall and scanned the entire wall.


    Lirian discovered that there were four adapts, walking along the wall and keeping an eye on the ballistae, the adapts were spaced an equal distance from each-other.


    Lirian followed behind the adapt and made sure to stay out of his range of detection, as he followed behind the adapt, he stopped by every ballista and repeated the rigging process on them.


    The adapt remained utterly clueless, that he was failing miserably in his task of protecting the ballistae and continued to walk proudly.


    It took almost an hour for Lirian to complete the rigging, when he was done he sniggered at the adapts back and dropped down from the wall, this time he landed in the courtyard of the keep.


    Lirian strolled through the beautiful gardens like they belong to him and kept his ''Gods Gaze'' fixed on the keep.


    He peered beyond the walls and started to identify all the energy signatures within, he started with searching for the three third graders.


    As he looked through the castle however he only spotted one, it was Conner and right next to him was an adapt, Lirian recognised the energy signature, it belonged to Reyna.


    ''It seems that he is with his daughter,'' Lirian realised, and continued looking through the keep looking for the other two, but after minutes of scanning the keep, he found nothing which caused Lirian to frown.


    But suddenly something peculiar caught his eye, something which he never expected to encounter within House Kurt''s walls, there were three adepts huddled together in a room, radiating a bright green glow.


    Lirian was both relieved to find such existences, but at the same time he wondered what such people were doing within House Kurt''s keep, Lirian was certain that those beings had nothing to do with House Kurt, at least he hoped.


    ''Well I''ll just hope that they aren''t House Kurt''s allies, it would be a pity to have to kill such existences so soon after discovering that they exist," he thought and returned to his original task.


    Lirian used Izlandi''s memories to act as a reference and looked at the places she knew her father spent most of his time, but when he looked through those areas, there was absolutely nothing.


    "Are they in possessions of items that can block energy flow," Lirian wondered aloud, his ''Gods Gaze'' was able to observe all flows of energy, but it was limited by only a single factor and that was intrinsic energy quality(I.E.Q).


    The higher Lirian''s I.E.Q the more he would be able see, but he couldn''t identify anything that could disrupt ''Gods Gaze''.


    Just as Lirian was starting to believe that something unseen was at work he spotted a familiar orange glow coming from an area outside the keep.


    Lirian slipped through the darkness in complete silence and soon came across the area where Lord Rupid was currently residing.


    It was a large building filled with hundreds of massive boxes, Lirian kept his distance and used a detection barrier to identify what was inside the boxes.


    Lirian learnt that the boxes were filled with bolts for the ballistae, there were hundreds of boxes and each one held a hundred ,3-foot-long, bolts.


    Due to the destructive power the ballistae held, not even the bolts would be reusable after being fired, they would either shatter or they would be severely warped, rendering them unfit for reusage.


    Thus, the need to have tons of ammunition, and from the way things looked Rupid was guarding the bolts.


    Lirian chuckled softly and moved away from the storage house, he might have considered attacking the bolts, but after rigging the siege engines, Lirian thought that it would be humorous for them to have all the bolts in the world, but broken weapons that will shoot the bolts a few feet forward.


    Lirian continued to scan the surroundings for the third orange signature, but no matter where he looked his eyes failed to find anything, ''Maybe his gone out for a walk, perhaps he wanted to breathe in the fresh air of a blood stained city,'' Lirian mused whimsically.


    After a while Lirian gave up on spotting him and proceeded into the keep, he flew up and entered through an open window.


    Lirian created a detection barrier around him so that the outlines of everything within 20 feet would appear clearly in his mind and he gradually made his way through the keep.


    Even if Lirian couldn''t find the old ancestor, he wasn''t about to let that stop him, it wasn''t like he was afraid of him in any case, it was merely convenient to know where all the important figures were located.


    As Lirian entered he had to sneak through the side corridors that were reserved for the servants, the top floors currently held all the important figures in the family and was constantly patrolled by novices and soldiers, it was like a military parade.


    Lirian''s destination however was in the lower parts of the keep, as Lirian reached the lower floors, it was almost completely empty.


    Lirian moved through the corridors and soon found the entrance to the dungeon, there were two guards sitting under a blazing torch and playing a game of cards.


    They were so engrossed in their game, that Lirian suspected he could walk past them and they wouldn''t notice him, but just for good measure Lirian snuck up on them and smacked their heads together.


    The two slumped down on the table, and if anyone saw them they would think that the two lazy fellows dozed off during their shift.


    With the two guards out of the way Lirian entered the dungeons, in search of Lady Liberia''s daughter Althea Marshall.


    There were several cells with occupants, and with every cell he passed, Lirian heard more and more whispers.


    Then he heard a couple of voice''s, voice''s that were familiar, Lirian was surprised to hear them down here of all places.


    Lirian followed the familiar voices, and as he drew closer he could hear the clanking of steel chains, and pained whispers coming from the people.


    Lirian noticed that the current cells he was walking through were different from the last, there were numerous cains bolted to the ceilings it was more like a torture area.


    When Lirian drew closer, he touched his hair and ripples started to spread from his hand, in seconds his hair changed from silver to black, just like when he was in Willcolly, just like when they found him.


    Lirian stopped in front of the cell and the occupants all turned to him, with faces aghast and trembling eyes.


    "It''s funny isn''t it how time can change a person''s role," Lirian said with a chuckle, when last he met this group, he was the one dangling from chains, but now the roles were reversed.


    Amongst their numbers only four were cultivators, and Lirian quickly identified the one he remembered the most fondly.


    "I told you that I''d remember," Lirian said while facing Colten, "Though I am curious, when last we travelled together I remember how all the members of your squad referred to you as House Kurt''s golden boy," Lirian said with fondness.


    The squad members all winched when Lirian spoke about travelling together, he made it sound as if it was a fun time, but they knew that it was the absolute opposite, at least it was for Lirian.


    "So, tell me, how did a golden boy such as yourself wind up in a place like this?" Lirian asked with a joyous laugh.


    "You¡­ bastard, you tricked us," Colten tried to shout, but his voice came out in raspy croaks.

 Chapter 360 - 125 – I’m Your Knight In Shining Armour

    Lirian placed a hand on his chest and took an exaggerated breath, his mouth opened aghast.


    "I did no such thing," Lirian complained at the unjust accusation.


    "Come now, I think that we all know that I was the most helpful and honest captive to have ever lived, not once did I ever lie to you," Lirian said in a matter of fact tone.


    Lirian touched his hair again and it returned to its natural colour, "From the beginning I told you that all of it was me, the caravan robberies, the empty village, the forest fire, it was just you idiots that refused to believe me," Lirian laughed at them for their stupidity.


    The group gritted their teeth in anger but they couldn''t retort.


    "So, for what are the lot of you being punished? Don''t tell me that it''s because of me?" Lirian asked innocently which only got the lot of them even more angry.


    Lirian understood it the moment he counted the number of them who were in the room, and the system quickly identified each individual, they were the people who brought him from Willcolly to the city and sold him as a slave.


    Lirian raised his hand and started to use his telekinesis on the chains, the squad members heard the chains suddenly start to rattle, then they felt a pressure starting to build up on their bodies.


    The chains started to pull on their limbs, and as they tried to scream they found that they were incapable of breathing.


    The chains pulled their bodies in four directions, and as they tried to scream, they found themselves being suffocated.


    Their bones started to clink and creak under the immense pressure, and their faces went purple from suffocation, and when they thought that they were about to die, the pain suddenly vanished, and they felt air rush back into their lungs.


    They gasped for air as if they had just emerged from the depts of the ocean, they sighed with relief as air tickled their lungs once more and the pain stopped, but just then the pain returned, and the suffocating sensation returned in full.


    Their relief turned into anguish as the cycle repeated itself over and over again, they looked at Lirian and found that he was filled with joy at their pain, and they knew exactly why.


    They had done the same to him, only they had been a lot more extreme, in the end Colten snapped both his ankles and his legs mercilessly.


    They still vividly remembered that sickening crunch, a human body was never supposed to make such a sound.


    One by one they started to faint from the extreme pain and lack of oxygen, some of them outright died under the asphyxiation and pain.


    "It''s such a pity that I don''t have a lot of time to play with you right now," Lirian sighed in lament, Currently the only one still conscious was Colten, "But don''t worry I''ll return tomorrow, and the day after that and the after that, you gave me a month of torture and I''ll be sure to repay you in kind," Lirian said and put Colten through another round of torture.


    Colten''s eyes looked life less as everything slowly started to turn black, the last thing he saw was Lirian''s smiling face.


    Lirian walked away with a satisfied smile, but that was when he realised that he didn''t get an answer, he didn''t know exactly why they were in such a state, ''Should I go over there and smack him awake?'' Lirian briefly considered.


    But after giving it a little a thought, Lirian shook his head, he had a lot to do before the night came to its end and time wasn''t waiting for him.


    Lirian continued through the dungeon until he came to a series of doors, Lirian pushed one door open and found that it was actually a cell, but it was a nice cell, with a soft bed and a proper bathroom with running water and all the facilities a person needs to live in relative comfort.


    ''She must be in one of these,'' Lirian figured and soon found a locked door.


    Lirian walked up to the door and pressed a hand against it, he immediately used telekinetic force on the door and the mechanisms inside started to turn.


    With a loud click the door unlock and Lirian pushed the door open.


    Lirian spotted Lady Liberia''s daughter immediately, she was a novice in the middle stages from what Lirian could see, and she wasn''t as young as Lirian believed she was a grown woman already, not the helpless little girl Lirian imagined.


    That said she was currently sitting on her bed, with a book in her lap and slowly reading under the light of luminous stones, but as soon as the doors opened she climbed up and sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at Lirian.


    She seemed like she was going to ask something but when she looked at Lirian under the light of the luminous stones she stopped and changed her question, "Who are you, you''re not a guard," she said sitting up straight with her hands folded in her lap.


    She didn''t sound afraid, but then she didn''t sound happy either, it was more like she found a strange change and she wanted to know why.


    "Good you have eyes and you can see," Lirian applauded sarcastically at her keen observation, "You can think of me as your knight in shining armour if it puts your mind at ease," Lirian added in a snarky tone.


    "I don''t believe in such nonsense," she said her tone wasn''t overbearing but it wasn''t cordial either, she was simply saying what she believed.


    Lirian chuckled he was only saying those words in jest.


    "Why have you come here?" she asked with her head held high.


    "Did I not say it already," Lirian chuckled, "I''m your knight in shinning armour, what do knights in shining armour do?" Lirian asked with a smile.


    "They kill people, and people call them valiant and glorious for there deeds," she replied giving Lirian an unexpected surprise.


    Lirian smiled, "I like that answer, its so much better than saving princesses," Lirian said and took a seat next to her on the bed.


    "It''s not a better answer, it''s the truth," she replied and to Lirian''s surprise as he pulled himself closer to her she showed no fear or even an increase in heart rate, there was just a sense of emotionless to her.


    "Are you not afraid of what I''m about to do to you?" Lirian asked and caught her hands with a swift movement.


    Lirian noticed a slight change in her heart rate and breathing but nothing else even her voice sounded the same as she replied.


    "If you wanted to kill me I''d be dead already, and if you wanted to rape me I doubt you''d have bothered to speak to me first, I can only guess that this has something to do with my house or my mother," when she mentioned her mother her voice grew a little emotional but other than that there was nothing else.


    Lirian sighed and let go of her hands, "You''re such a bore," Lirian complained, "It seems like your time spent in this cell has allowed you to think about a lot," Lirian sighed.


    "There isn''t much else to do," she said plainly, "Also if you have come to rescue me from this place, then you''ve wasted your time, I can''t leave," she said, from Lirian''s talk about a knight in silver armour she was able to infer what his purpose was in coming here.

 Chapter 361 - 126 – Mother And Daughter 1

    Lirian frowned at her, "I come in here all for the purpose to take you out girl, do you think that I''ll leave without you?" Lirian asked.


    "If you''re here to help my mother, then you won''t take me from here, House Kurt is going to win the war, if my mother betrays House Kurt they will me merciless to my House," she stated like it was a done deal, with no room for doubt.


    "Well you are woefully ignorant of the current affairs, but I''ll hear you out for now," Lirian said and prompted her to go on.


    "Shortly after Lord Rupid returned from Riverfall, Lord Cornick paid me a visit," she said, and Lirian noticed for first time some real emotion in her voice, even anger, but she held it all bottled up inside.


    "He started to brag about how he managed to listen in on a conversation his father had with some stranger, and he let some of the details slip to try and impress me," she said with a hint of disgust.


    Lirian found himself intrigued and prompted her to continue, "Who did his father meet?" he asked.


    But she quickly shook her head, "I don''t know, he never said that part, but he told me that the man handed his father a dimensional storage filled with weapons, weapons that could turn the war around," she said in a whisper.


    "Ah," Lirian nodded his head in understanding as things started to click in place, "You mean the ballistae?" Lirian asked for conformation and his question took her completely by surprise.


    Althea looked up sharply, "How do you know about the weapons?" she asked unconsciously letting a tinge of her surprise leak into her voice.


    "Haven''t you heard the screams all day, or Stanley''s big speech?" Lirian asked and was surprised when she shook her head.


    "The cell doesn''t allow for sound to travel through," she said answering Lirian''s unasked question.


    Lirian nodded in understanding, "Then when is the last time you spoke with the guards to learn the news?"


    Althea shook her head, "The guards don''t speak to me, and the last person I spoke to was my mother, it''s been almost a month since her last visit," she said sadly.


    "A lot has changed in the last month," Lirian said realising that she was completely out of the loop, "For instance Cornick Kurt is dead," Lirian said and instantly Althea''s eyes went wide, and a tinge of light returned to her previously dead eyes.


    "Is that true?" she asked for reaffirmation.


    "It was such a tragedy," Lirian mused with gesture of heartfelt loss, "Struck dead by the vilest of poison''s giving him a most dreadful and painful death, oh, and the truth of the tragedy is still unknown by all,"


    "For a boy to be struck down by his own¡­" Lirian paused and revealed a playful smile to Althea, "I almost gave away something big over there didn''t I," Lirian said in a whimsical manner, and he could feel the joy in Althea as she learned of the news.


    Her joy however was short lived because within a few moments her face lost all its emotion once again, "Even if that is true, it doesn''t change the facts, if you saw the weapons then you know it''s hopeless," she said.


    Lirian sighed "What I told you is just the surface of the calamity that has befallen House Kurt, and for calamity to continue falling upon the house, you need to come with me," Lirian explained and motioned for her to follow him out of the room.


    However, as Lirian returned to the door, she remained firmly on her bed, "I will not risk the lives of my people," she said stubbornly and refused to move.


    Lirian took a breath, ''Calming breaths Lirian,'' he muttered to himself and decided to change tact.


    "I''m done playing nice," Lirian muttered, he was only being nice because of his new merciful approach that he was trying to understand and follow, but since she wasn''t taking it he was done playing nice.


    Lirian was starting to doubt if his current philosophy on mercy was right, since no one seemed keen on taking it.


    "Let me put things in a different way for you, it took quite some effort on my part to get your mother to join me on this," Lirian said coldly.


    "Hump," Althea snorted, she didn''t care for the threatening tone, she had grown numb to such treatment, "I know what that means, if you had to work to get my mothers cooperation, it means that my mother didn''t want to do it in the first place,"


    "You must have threatened her with something?" Althea said with an equal coldness.


    "It''s good that you understand," Lirian said walking close to her, "Can you guess what I threatened her with?" Lirian asked but it was rhetorical as he was pointing at her and he suddenly reach forward and caught her by the throat and lifted her in the air.


    Althea struggled to break free from Lirian''s grasp but she found that it was impossible, but eventually she stopped struggling and embraced her death.


    But then Lirian suddenly let go and dropped her to the ground, he realised that she didn''t mind dying in fact she welcomed it as her death would actually resolve the trouble, she was happy to die for her family, and that was when a thought struck Lirian.


    "You know what I''ve changed my mind," Lirian said, "You''re free to choose, come with me or stay?" Lirian offered like a pro-businessman one offering you a choice between two items.


    All the while smiling internally like a devil, because either way if you choose either option you''ll be in a world of trouble.


    "But before you choose, I want you to listen carefully to the keep," Lirian said and pointed to his ears.


    Althea frowned but did as instructed, she listened carefully but there was nothing to be heard it was quiet.


    "Silence," Lirian said with a smirk, "I snuck all the way in here, and no one has even the slightest idea," he said, "And you know what, I can exit and return when ever I feel like it,"


    "If you don''t want to come out with me then I''ll leave and never return, but then I''ll be forced to reassess the value of my alliance with your mother,"


    Althea''s entire countenance change as she felt a horrendous killing intent creeping out of Lirian, it was there for barely a second, but she felt like she would go mad if it lasted for any longer.


    She could already guess that Lirian was someone powerful, from the fact that he was able to get into the keep completely unnoticed, but the killing intent he displayed was something she couldn''t even fathom, ''How many lives must he have taken to have such a wretched killing intent?'' she wonder with horror, and fear consumed her every thought.


    ''If I don''t go with him he''ll kill mother,'' she realised with her heart in shambles.


    "Your mother is working with me to save you from me," Lirian said, "And now I implore you to work with me to save your mother from me," Lirian said with a devilish smile.

 Chapter 362 - 127 – Mother And Daughter 2

    With that It was done Althea gave up on her stubbornness, she thought that it foolish and that her actions could result in the death of her entire family.


    But knowing that she would be the cause of her mother''s death is she refused, it was too much for her heart to bear, in the end she relented and obediently followed behind Lirian.


    She was surprised by the smoothness of the trip, they simply went through the corridors, without slowing down, if she didn''t know better, she would have thought that Lirian was the master of the keep from the way he arrogantly strutted about.


    When they came to the end of a corridor Lirian pushed open the window and jumped through pulling her along, and they landed gently in the gardens.


    The gardens were clear of the crimson fog, the high walls surrounding the keep made it hard for any fog to build up, it acted as a powerful barrier.


    Althea wondered how they were going to leave the walls, from what she could see the gate was sealed shut, and it required multiple people to open it, not to mention that it would alert the entire keep.


    But strangely she found Lirian walking to the wall without any hurry, when they reached the wall she looked at Lirian strangely there was no method for them to escape, no secret passage through the wall, no secret tunnel undermining the wall, it was a dead end.


    ''Is this just some sick twisted joke?'' she wondered with suspicion, it was then that Lirian chose to speak.


    "Hold on and don''t make a sound," Lirian said and wrapped a hand around her waist.


    Althea wondered what he was up to when suddenly she felt her feet leave the ground.


    She looked down and almost gasped in shock as the ground grew further away, the only thing stopping her from making a sound was Lirian''s hand that covered her mouth.


    ''By Mitalas himself, is this not the power of gods?'' she thought as they continued to move up at a slow pace.


    In the stories Mitalas was said to be able to fly, he could traverse over The Bastion Mountains, and he could fly across the seas from the eastern tip of the world to the western tip of the world.


    There was no place beyond Mitalas''s reach, not in all the lands nor in the deepest depths of the furthest sea, all of that was because of his ability to fly.


    Currently that was exactly what was happening, she unconsciously gripped tightly onto Lirian and watched as the ground grew further away.


    For a long time she imagined what it would be like to leave the cell in the dungeon, she dreamt of one day feeling the warmth of the sun again, and breathing in fresh air, but this was like she was in a dream.


    To fly through the sky and see the world from above, she feared that any second she would wake up from the dream, for so long she kept all he emotions locked away and suddenly she got to experience this it was like liberation.


    As they reached the top of the walls she saw the monstrous siege engines, built to bring only death and destruction.


    But the weapons couldn''t hold her attention for long, because in the next moment she was able to see beyond the wall and a deadly stench rushed to her nose, as she looked upon the crimson mist, that reeked of death.


    "What hap¡­" she started to say but Lirian pressed a hand against her mouth to shut it, he couldn''t allow for any noise.


    Lirian quickly moved over the wall with haste and raced down into the crimson mist to gain its cover.


    He could feel the panicking Althea in his hands but he kept flying through the mist, he located Liberia with ''God''s Gaze'' and flew to the House Marshall manor.


    There was a gloominess to the occupants of the manor, they had received far too many casualties that night.


    According to the laws stipulated by the royals, a minor noble house was not allowed to possess more than a hundred novices, but they were free to conscript as many regular soldiers as they wished.


    However raising one hundred novices was no easy feat with the resources available to the minor nobles and as a result it was rare that a minor noble house would possess more than fifty novices, because when they split the resources between a hundred people, it would create them a hundred novices.


    But the novice''s quality wouldn''t be all that great, it was better to place more resources on a single person and get a great combatant than to have a hundred weak combatants.


    House Marshall as the strongest of the minor nobles, was able to place a small taxation fee on the other minor nobles that existed in close proximity to their territories, it was declared a protection fee and house Marshall would take some of their cultivation resources as the fee.


    Thus House Marshall was the strongest of the minor nobles, they possessed 60 novices in their ranks all of which were considered to be of elite status amongst other novices.


    Of that number only twenty were currently stationed in the city, the rest were tending to House Marshalls territories.


    Of those twenty that were stationed in the city, eleven were killed in a single night.


    Each of these novices were people who were raised and invested in for decades, and in a single night they lost eleven such members.


    It would take decades to refill the hole their deaths left on House Marshall, naturally such loss left the people in the pits of despair.


    Lirian saw that Lady Liberia was alone in her study, he flew down and pushed the sealed window open with telekinesis and flew in with Althea in hand.


    Liberia jumped, as the window opened and a gust of wind flooded the room, she was just about to attack but then she saw who it was that fell through the window and landed on the floor.


    Without even thinking she rushed to her daughter who fell on the ground in her study and she pulled her into a tight hug.


    Her heart was racing as she looked her daughter up and down, to make sure that it wasn''t a dream.


    "Mother," Althea said in whimper as she felt like she was being crushed by the force of the hug, "My baby girl," Liberia sobbed as she buried Althea''s head in her bosom and held her firmly almost strangling the life out of her.


    Lirian flew to the roof for a moment to give the mother and daughter a moment for their reunion, it wasn''t long before the the crying stopped and they started to speak to each other, then more tears were shed between their every word.


    As Lirian sat on the roof, he gave them all the time they needed, and wound up lost in thoughts of his own, "It hasn''t been that long since we last talked but it feels like forever¡­ mother," Lirian whispered into the night.


    Even now he found it strange to be able to say the word mother, and feel the emotions it carried, emotions he never thought he''d ever feel.


    ''You are mine!'' he remembered what Taliyah said to him before he walked through the portal that brought him to this world.


    "I am yours," Lirian whispered to the stars.


    As Lirian looked down at the mother and daughter in the room, he couldn''t help but compare them to himself and Taliyah.


    A loving mother who would do anything for their child and an emotionally broken child with scars unseen, and not easily healed.

 Chapter 363 - 128 – Raining Ballistae

    Lirian floated back down to the window, when the mother and daughter went quiet, they were simply in each-others arms, without saying a word.


    Lirian floated in through the window unnoticed by the two, "Tomorrow follow the plan as we''ve discussed," Lirian said, he found that for some reason his tone had become gentler.


    Lady Liberia looked up; she was wondering when he would show up.


    "You know that I can''t do that, if we try to leave we''ll be shot down," she said with defeat.


    "Now that your daughter is here and not in the keep, you don''t have a choice but to leave, when House Kurt discovers that she''s missing they will come looking here first at which point it won''t make a difference," Lirian explained.


    Lady Liberia sighed, she was beyond feeling anger right now, she was delighted by her reunion with her daughter, but she felt like her days were limited.


    She didn''t even have the energy to feel anger about all the losses Lirian caused to her house, everything seemed hopeless.


    "Even if I rally my house to leave, none of the other nobles will dare to leave," Liberia said shaking her head.


    Lirian chuckled, "I told that you''d get a sign," Lirian said, "It will be loud and clear, and unmistakable when you see it, use the sign to convince the other nobles to follow behind you," Lirian said and turned to leave.


    "What''s the sign?" Liberia asked hoping to get a better answer than before, one that wasn''t so cryptic.


    "When dawn arrives and the blood mist lifts look to the gates of the keep," Lirian said and jumped out the window.


    Lirian raced through the mists, but his first target was not the keep, no, in fact, he was moving in the opposite direction heading directly towards the walls.


    "It''s time to make a scene," Lirian whispered, a spell circle formed in his palm, and a torrent of winds started to pour out of the spell.


    A whirlwind formed completely Lirian''s control, Lirian extended his mental waves to take complete control over the spell and controlled its movements.


    The whirlwind raced towards the wall, sucking in all the crimson mist in its path, the whirlwind became a red vortex of death and it created a large visible area in the city.


    The whirlwind tore through the streets until it hit the wall, then it climbed to the top of the wall and started to race along the wall.


    By that point the guards noticed the rapid change in the environment and the unnatural tornado of death that was running across the walls.


    It blew out their torches and started to lift things of the ground and as it drew closer to the guards they could feel the suction drawing them in, but lucky for them it lacked the power to lift them up entirely.


    Lirian followed behind the whirlwind, as the whirlwind moved past the first guards he appeared behind their unsuspecting backs, they were still busy staring at the twister in horror, when Lirian pulled their swords from their sheaths.


    With a swipe of the sword the two guards fell dead and Lirian moved towards the ballista, "It would be a waste of energy to use up my energy to break these," Lirian chuckled, "But then who was that said, ''Isn''t thou gravity such a bitch''," Lirian laughed.


    He used telekinesis to pull the ballista backward and in a few second it toppled backward over the wall and went crashing down into the city.


    BOOM!


    The entire city shook under the crushing weight of the siege engine, it smashed through a building and created a cloud of dust and with all the mist being sucked into the whirlwind it was extremely apparent.


    Ding, Ding, Ding.


    The bell towers started to chime, the loud sound carried through every corner of the city, and the nightmare that everyone had thought came to its end started once more with a deafening bang.


    Lirian rushed along the city walls killing the soldiers and novices alike with ease, every time he finished with another group he moved on to the ballistae, this time he grabbed onto the weapon took a deep breath and lifted it into the air.


    Lirian felt his veins bulge under the immense weight, then he took off with a short dash in the direction of the soldiers that were rushing to attack him.


    Lirian jumped into the air with the ballista in hand and swung and started to spin like a whirlwind himself.


    The soldiers were helpless before the crushing might of the ballistae, as Lirian spun they turned to splatter against the siege engine''s steel body, but after a while they started to retreat with frantic shouts and screams.


    "Oh, you don''t want be to bludgeon you to death," Lirian muttered, "Fine then!" Lirian roared and threw the ballista through the air.


    The soldiers all froze as they saw the weapon that required entire teams of novices just to pull them, soar through the air, in a manner that it was not intended to be used.


    The ballista steamrolled over the soldiers and under its immense weight the wall started to crack and crumble, until the weapon fell over and crashed down into the city.


    Lirian continued his new task, ballista after ballista went crashing into the city.


    Lirian killed the next squad and started to pull the ballista, but just then some said, "You''re not going to drop this one," and Lirian was suddenly met with resistance as he pulled.


    Lirian turned to find three adapts gritting their teeth and pulling on the chains to stop Lirian.


    "You don''t want to lose the ballista, fine," Lirian muttered, "Then I say till death do you path," Lirian said and gritted his teeth.


    He focused all his power on telekinesis and Lifted the entire weapon in the air with the three adapts dangling from the chains, they didn''t even get a chance to react, when Lirian flipped them over the walls with the ballista, and in the next second they went splat under the weight of the weapon.


    Lirian continued for a while as the shouts grew more and more drastic and crazy, at one-point Lirian heard someone shouting, "It''s raining ballistae, from the sky," while others were shouting things like, "Silver hair and Self-declared God".


    After a while Lirian saw two orange figures ridding through the misty city, a grin split his lips when he saw his two favourite punching bags.


    It was Lord Rupid and his brother, they were coming to bring the fight to Lirian.


    Lirian chuckled, "Such Fools," and at once he cancelled the whirlwind and cast another spell to restore the red mist.


    In the next moment Lirian leapt from the wall and ran across the roof top of the cities at rapid speed, as the two-family leaders reached the outer walls, he returned to the keep.


    "It''s so easy to fool those idiots," Lirian muttered, but at the same time he was curious, as he looked at the keep he could not spot the energy signature of House Kurt''s ancestor.


    Something strange was going on with that old man, and Lirian needed to figure it out.


    "Well it''s a good thing that both my targets for tonight are likely to know the answer," Lirian said to himself and snuck back into the keep.

 Chapter 364 - 129 – Punishment

    Lirian rushed into the keep and caught a lone guard that was still patrolling the halls, Lirian knocked him out and stripped him clean for all he had, when Lirian was done all the man wore were his tighty-whiteys.


    Lirian put the clothes and armour on he even wore a helmet, Lirian died his hair black and started to walk through the corridors while looking through the floors at his two targets.


    At once Lirian found Stanley, in truth he had seen Stanley when he entered the keep earlier, at the time there were three others extremely close to him.


    Currently the three people still surrounded him, but from what Lirian could see the life force of two of them was on the verge of going out.


    In fact, they were as good as dead, it would take a divine miracle for either of them to remain alive.


    Around the room there were still many guards although a lot less than earlier, but it seemed like the guards were keeping a fair distance from the room for some reason.


    Lirian went up and mixed in with the guards, it was surprisingly easy since everything seemed to be a rather chaotic, the guards were all distracted and barely paying any attention to their duty.


    Lirian skirted his way through the guards, and came closer to Stanley''s room, but just as he approached the door, one of the life forces finally gave in and in the next second so did the other.


    Lirian sniffed the air and smelt the fresh blood coming from the room.


    Lirian furrowed his brows and turned the doorknob, as he pushed the door open the smell of blood and other bodily fluids reached Lirian''s nose.


    When Lirian entered the room he extended his detection barrier to the limit and quickly identified what was going on.


    The remaining life force belonged to a man who was pinned to a chair by nails, but the wounds weren''t all that serious, that said if not for the sound of the mans pumping heart Lirian would have thought him dead.


    As for the two dead bodies, that was just a disgusting scene, the bodies belonged to two women, at least one was a woman while the other was a girl, probably fifteen years of age at most.


    Their hands and legs were twisted in inhuman angles, and their bones were crushed in certain places, as for the rest it was best to say that they experienced every horror one could imagine, it was best left at that.


    Even Lirian who cared little for the life others was slightly revolted, the only people he ever tortured were his enemies that earned the brutality, and those that he killed were killed quickly.


    Lastly Lirian identified Stanley, who was lying down naked between the corpses, in his own bodily fluids and relishing in some form of euphoric pleasure that he got from his sick acts.


    He didn''t even notice the intrusion, Lirian raised out a hand and suddenly Stanley was ripped from his bed, his ugly naked body came flying to Lirian without any resistance.


    When Stanley realised what was happening his throat was already being firmly squeezed by Lirian.


    Stanley''s large eyes popped out of their sockets and his fat legs kicked at Lirian, but even when they made contact, they merely hit a veil of metallic purple aura.


    Stanley looked at Lirian with pleading eyes as if begging for mercy, but he received no such thing, when he realised that it wouldn''t work he started to focus on his aura and soon a light yellow aura started to leak out of his body.


    But just then Lirian reached out a hand and took control of the energy inside Stanley''s body, and his aura completely collapsed.


    Stanley let out a pained croak, "Father help," he croaked out in desperation, but his voice was barely loud enough to qualify as a whisper.


    "Who is the coward now," Lirian spat in disgust and flung Stanley across the floor, Lirian himself was growing disgusted from touching him for so long, ''It''s no wonder Izlandi feel such revolting disgust to her family,'' Lirian realised as he walked forward.


    Stanley''s naked body flopped against the ground with a heavy thud, he crawled back to his feet, and he tried to say something, but his neck was swollen so badly from Lirian''s grip that he was struggling to simply take in any air.


    "You are such a revolting creature," Lirian said with disdain, "And to think that you dared to try and challenge me, did you really think that I''d be so foolish as to fall for your taunts earlier, when you tried to call me out," Lirian spat in disappointment.


    "You''re an imbecile if you thought I''d fall for such taunts, but that said don''t flatter yourself thinking that I didn''t answer your taunts because I was afraid, I can end your linage when ever I wish it, I''m merely taking my time," Lirian said.


    Stanley''s eyes had gone red with anger, now that Lirian was no longer holding him he attempted to activate his aura again.


    "Don''t bother," Lirian said twisting his hand in the air, "I''ve already sealed of your ability," Lirian stepped in and punched Stanley in the gut.


    In the next second Stanley collapsed, he vomited all over the floor and collapsed in a puddle of his own vomit.


    "Tsk," Lirian clicked his tongue in disgust, "And he thought that he was my superior," he muttered with distaste.


    With Stanley unconscious Lirian walked up to the man who was nailed to the chair, "You''re the one who brought that mother and her son forward for being refugees," Lirian said, he remembered the man that sold out the first refugees when Stanley issued the decree.


    The mans eyes were like husky pits, that looked into the abyss there was almost nothing alive left inside there, "Do you think that I got what I deserved for selling out that woman and her son?" the man asked his voice had changed a lot from before, it was harrowed and raspy, like a dead corpse that somehow found the ability to speak.


    Lirian didn''t have to ask what his punishment was, he had to watch all that befell his wife and daughter until they died.


    Lirian sighed, "It''s a dog eat dog world, there is no such thing as a fair of just punishment, no one gets what they deserve, they are merely given a punishment, whether it is what they deserve or not, that''s for them to decide for themselves," Lirian shook his head.


    "I see," the man said with his voice devoid of any form of emotion.


    "Is there anything you''d like me to do?" Lirian asked surprising himself that he even made such an offer.


    The man looked at Stanley, "You going to kill him?" he asked.


    Lirian nodded.


    "Make it a shitty one for him, not quick like what you''re going to give me," the man said.


    Lirian nodded again and swiped the sword, the man''s head rolled to the ground, Lirian knew it from the moment he walked into the room, the man simply wanted to die, and Lirian wasn''t so kind as to nurse a person with a death wish back from the edge.


    With then done Lirian decided to wrap up Stanley''s body and take it out with him, at first he went to use the bed sheets but then he decided against it.


    It wasn''t the dead bodies that bothered him but rather that Stanley''s disgusting body had done all kinds of disgusting things there and Lirian had no intention of staining his body by touching it.


    In the end Lirian found a rug and wrapped it around Stanley, then threw him over his shoulder, Lirian looked through the walls and spotted his second target.

 Chapter 365 - 130 – Battle Before The Door

    Lirian threw the unconscious and wrapped up Stanley and held him the air with telekinesis as far Lirian was concerned the more distance he put between himself and Stanley the better.


    Then for good measure he let the ''Flames of Nirvana'' lick over his hands, to clean all the filth, he didn''t know what sort of filth spread from Stanley''s body and he wasn''t taking any chances.


    With that done Lirian held the sword ready and walked to the door, now that Stanley was being held by him, there was no way for him sneak around unnoticed, even with his guard uniform.


    Lirian whished that he could use his charm to get out of this situation, but the ability that it gave him to be deified, was only effective on regular mortals, the novices could be charmed, but it took time and effort and it still wouldn''t be as powerful as when he used it against regular mortals.


    Currently far too many novices were busy patrolling for his charm to work its magic.


    Lirian peered through the walls with ''Gods Gaze'' and located his next target, she was close by just a few corridors away, it wouldn''t take long to reach her.


    Lirian quickly formulated a plan to reach her as quickly as possible, and after a second he chuckled.


    The door opened and Lirian went running out with Stanley trailing behind him the air, it was like a teether ran from the floating bundle and was drawn towards Lirian.


    Lirian rushed towards the closest guards with his charm at full power when he reached the first regular guard the guard immediately fell under his spell.


    "Attack all novices," Lirian ordered and so his word was obeyed.


    Lirian rushed through the corridors creating mayhem within the walls of the keep, when he ran passed ordinary guards he gave them but one command and that command led to total chaos.


    The novices could easily kill the guards who were attacking them of course, at first they thought that it was traitors, but soon they noticed that it wasn''t a select few that were attacking but rather all of them.


    They realised that something wasn''t right, as crazy as it seemed to them it appeared that their people were being controlled.


    The knowledge however did little to help them, in fact it only caused them more harm, because they started to hesitate with their attacks, and instead of fighting offensively, they started to fight defensively.


    Lirian ran through the chaos infected halls, weaving through the madness, and occasionally killed the novices who got into his way until finally he reached the corridor that was his destination.


    There were four adapts guarding the door, acting as a final barrier, but Lirian wasn''t concerned with them rather he was paying careful attention to his surroundings, the Kurt family ancestor was still hiding somewhere and Lirian was no longer ruling out the possibility of him owning some item that was capable of hiding his presence.


    Lirian was keeping a careful eye for him, because a surprise attack from was capable of severely injuring Lirian.


    Also Lirian was keeping another eye out on those three bright green adapts in his vision, by now they definitely heard the commotion, but so far they remained unmoving in a room they shared.


    Lirian ran through the final corridor and stopped before the four adept guards, as they pointed their weapons at Lirian.


    Before they could move however Lirian opened the wrapped bundled hanging above him, "Move or I''ll snap his neck," Lirian said coldly, he didn''t want to waste anymore time, dawn was fast approaching, he needed to be done before the sun rose up.


    The guards looked at Stanley with their mouths aghast, then they gritted their teeth in anger as they looked between the heir to the family and the door they were guarding, it was an impossible decision for them.


    But they had to choose, and before long all four stood firmly with their weapons aimed at Lirian.


    Lirian nodded in acknowledgement of their decision, the death of Stanley would be troublesome for the house to overcome, there were many candidates to become the heir but amongst them Stanley was the best.


    But they had no guarantee that Lirian would spare Stanley even if they obeyed.


    "I suppose that her life and death could just as easily cause the end of your house as well, you can always find another heir if the family continues to exist, but there is no need for an heir if the family is no more, am I right?" Lirian said and stepped into confront the adapts.


    The adapts were all close to the peak of their grade, they were the very best that House Kurt had to offer, amongst them there was even a man with long locks of white hair, and wrinkled skin that looked like parchment.


    For an adept body cultivator to look so old they had to be approaching the end of their lives, and the man in question was a peak adapt.


    Lirian moved forward as a spear was thrust his way, with a simple thought Lirian activated ''Control'' and the area around him was suddenly subjected to his influence, with a thought the spear was knocked of course.


    The adapt was clueless over what had happened to him it didn''t seem much like he was steered of course, but rather that his aim was somehow off, he couldn''t explain it, as for the others their eyes glinted with a strange light as it looked almost like he missed on purpose.


    With the adapts distraction, Lirian swung his sword forward to cleave the man in half, but just then another woman threw herself in front of the attack and used her spear shaft to block the blow.


    Under the force of the impact the sword in Lirian''s hands shattered, it was just an ordinary sword, in a fight of this level it was bound to break, but even if he was weapon less it didn''t mean that his attack was meaningless.


    The woman spear shaft warped like a bow, and she couldn''t hold herself firm, she was lifted of her feet and smashed into the adapt she was trying to protect.


    The two went flying back and crashed against the wall with a heavy thud.


    But then the other two came at Lirian, the time bought by the other two didn''t go unrewarded, they bought enough time for the old man and the fourth adapt to deploy their aura.


    The two slashed their swords at Lirian without delay their bodies and blades were coated with a layer of yellow aura, and it released a destructive might.


    Lirian promptly deployed his own aura, that metallic purple glow emanated from his body and was filled with power.


    His deployment was instantaneous like taking a simple breath, and despite being a novice his aura was twice as thick and powerful as theirs.


    It simply came down to I.E.Q, Lirian as a third accord novice had and an I.E.Q of 4, while they as first accord adepts had an I.E.Q of 2, it was a world of difference.


    The sword came rushing towards Lirian but Lirian raised a hand with the agility of a viper his hand darted forward, as the two sliced at Lirian their swords overlapped and Lirian targeted that spot.


    His fingers clamped down on the blades and completely stopped their movement in its tracks.


    The old man and the last adapt didn''t to believe their eyes as they saw what was happening, they placed both hands on the pummels of their swords and tried to push forward, but they were unable to move Lirian even an inch.


    The pulled back on their sword, but it was all to the same result, they were completely unable to make Lirian budge, and that was when it happened, several cracks started to creak along the surface of the mystic grade blades.

 Chapter 366 - 131 – The Power Of Control

    Lirian pressed on the blades and borrowed on the force the adapts were placing on their swords to fasten their destruction.


    Creak, Crack.


    The cracks ran across the entirety of the blades and shards started to splinter from the weapons, not even the aura of the two adapts was enough to protect the weapons in hand.


    They watched as the two priceless weapons crumbled to pieces, weapons that house Kurt had spent fortunes and countless time to accrue, they were forced to watch as the weapons were effortlessly broken to pieces.


    When the cracks where full, Lirian released his iron like grip from the blades, and the blades started to fall apart like a shattered mirror.


    Ding. Ding. Ding.


    Suddenly another bell started to ring, but was the main bell of the city, the one that could be seen from every part of the city.


    The bell in the highest tower of the keep was being rung, it seemed that someone escaped the chaos and rung the bell to signal the leaders.


    ''Where the hell is that old man, surely he must be hearing the bell as well,'' Lirian frowned he couldn''t explain what was going on.


    He couldn''t find the old man anywhere, and worst of all, he felt absolutely no sense of impending danger, Lirian absolutely refused to believe that some ignorant country bumpkins had the means to impede his sense''s.


    Especially his ''Gods Gaze'', even gods would find themselves challenged to hide things before this technique, there was no way some mortals could possibly have such means, yet that is exactly what it seemed like, just the thought of such a thing happening was frustrating Lirian and making his blood boil.


    Lirian turned his attention back to the two adepts before him, he kicked of the ground and aimed a kick for the old man''s head.


    It was a slow attack and the old man could see Lirians moves clearly, he ducked down to evade the kick, but that''s when something strange happened, he was certain that he could dodge the attack.


    He moved in accordance with his judgement, his dodge should have been perfect, it should have even granted him the power to counter attack, but the more he moved, and the harder he tried to evade, he found himself being drawn in by the kick.


    It was like the kick was seeking him out no matter where he moved, yet to those onlookers, they saw something else entirely, what they saw wasn''t a strange kick but a simple one, the strange thing was the old man.


    The kick was so simple that one could dodge it with ease, yet the old man seemed to be purposely moving closer, to take the kick, it was ridiculous.


    This was the true power of ''Control'', to locked down the field and manipulate the course of events, inside a psychic''s field of control they would become the nightmare of all close combatants and a severe thorn in the side of any mage.


    Just as Lirian was about to land his kick however, he noticed the spearmen from earlier, push his way forward, it seemed that after being affected by control, he understood what the old man was experiencing and rushed to his aid.


    Lirian stopped mid attack as the spear was thrust at his leg, it seemed that the adapt wanted to take Lirian''s legs.


    Lirian stopped his attack did a twirl in the air, which altered his position and steered him out of harm''s way.


    The spearman glared at Lirian with annoyance at the evasive move, but that was when he felt his spear make contact with something, and his spear sunk through the object.


    When the man realised what happened he froze, and looked forward, and saw that the spear was thrust through the old mans throat, and blood was already gushing down drenching the old man''s armour in a layer of red, who stood there with surprise, he couldn''t believe what happened.


    "What the hell have you done?" the fourth adept shouted and threw his fist at the spear man, "You damned traitor," he cursed.


    He had witnessed everything clearly, at that moment, when the spearman thrust his spear it was aimed towards the old man, but he was to late to even react.


    The fourth adept saw it clearly, the moment an opening appeared in the old man, he struck without hesitation, there was even a look of conviction in his eye, as his spear sunk through the old man''s throat.


    Lirian jumped back without a worry and landed on the ground with a smug smile on his face as the two comrades attacked each other, the spearman tried to explain but the other adapt wouldn''t give him the chance.


    Lirian walked over to the woman who received his attack earlier, her arms were still trembling from the power of Lirian''s attack, she watched everything happen in horror, and she found herself incapable of doing anything.


    Lirian reached down and pulled the spear from her hands, she barely put up any fight as Lirian snatched it.


    Lirian held the spear in his hands and gave it a twirl, "I''m quite fond of spears," Lirian mused, "I''ll be taking this one for myself since you won''t be needing it anymore," he said and with a spin of the handle the blade swiped cleanly through her head.


    Her blood sprayed on to the wall like a canvas thick with red paint, Lirian walked past her rolling head and appeared behind the two fighting adepts.


    Lirian gripped the end of the spear shaft and gave the spear a powerful spin in the air, and then he brought it around in a perfect arc, making it cleave through their necks.


    The head of the spear dripped blood as Lirian pulled it back to his side.


    Lirian walked forward and pushed the doors open, only to be met by a single person, or rather a girl.


    Izlandi was calmly seated on a chair, when the doors opened and Lirian walked in she wasn''t surprised, the moment she heard the fighting, she figured that it was Lirian.


    No one else was crazy enough to attack the keep, she wondered if he would come to find her, she sincerely hoped that he would.


    While everyone was busy fighting for their lives, she spent her time putting on her best corset and her favourite red dress that revealed a little more skin than she was used to showing off, all to make herself look more presentable, before she met him, and that was only if he came for her.


    When Lirian entered however she blushed slightly as she realised how dumb her actions were, ''I always forget that he is blind,'' she thought to herself.


    "You''re coming with me," Lirian said, he seemed distracted as he entered.


    "What about the plan?" she asked, but inside she was secretly glad that he didn''t seem to be angry about her missing their meeting.


    "Huh, I make new plans all the time," Lirian said with a casual shrug of his shoulders, "But don''t worry we''ll still do that one, but later," Lirian said raising his guard as he scanned the room.


    Everything seemed fine, everything seemed normal, which seriously bugged Lirian, this was the last opportunity for the old ancestor to ambush him, yet there was absolutely nothing.


    ''Did the old man croak and die from shock after our last battle,'' Lirian mused, ''The hearts of the old are fragile sometimes,'' he thought.

 Chapter 367 - 132 – Just A Little Too Late

    "Where is your family ancestor?" Lirian asked taking Izlandi slightly by surprise.


    She wasn''t so much surprised as she was curious as to why Lirian was looking for him, "He is cultivating in a cultivation chamber, after your fight with him he said that he found the path to becoming a true knight,"


    "He is currently trying to breakthrough, why do you ask?" she asked back curiously.


    Lirian frowned at the revelation, both things he learnt were concerning, if Izlandi was to be trusted then it meant that the cultivation chamber was made with a special material that could not only hide the presence of those within, but also it emitted a special energy that made everything around it appear normal.


    In general most materials that could block ''Gods Gaze'' would appear like a spot of darkness, immediately making it stand out, yet the area where the cultivation chambers stood appeared to be no different from the normal world.


    As for the other matter, a true knight was the level of a fourth grader, and fighting one was currently quite far out of Lirian''s scope to fight directly.


    Their energy level would also have an enormous increase, currently the leaders of House Kurt''s energy levels were still in a range that Lirian could handle, but a true knight would have a base energy level of 504 000, even if Lirian released his heavenly suppression, it wasn''t enough to deal with such attacks.


    Also even though the Kurt ancestor only cultivated a single energy centre and it would cause instabilities to his other centre''s of power, for the first few years after ascending his rank the ancestors mind would be at it''s best before it reached its rapid decline.


    Lirian sighed, ''If he succeeds, I might have to sacrifice quite a bit to walk out of this alive,'' Lirian thought, but he wasn''t gloomy by the prospect, quite the opposite he was happy to hear about a challenge.


    "Is that a problem for you?" Izlandi asked with worry as Lirian had remained silent for a little too long.


    "A problem?" Lirian muttered, snapping out of his thoughts, "No it''s troublesome, but nothing I can''t handle," Lirian replied confidently.


    Izlandi smiled in relief, she was afraid that if her grandfather was successful it would end badly for them.


    "What''s with the floating rug?" Izlandi and curiously and pointed to the rug covering Stanley.


    "It''s your brother," Lirian said.


    Izlandi instantly frowned, "Don''t ever call him my brother," she hissed in anger and turned away from Lirian.


    "Since you have him with you, you must already know what he done," Izlandi said clenching her small fists tightly.


    "Not even the people he slaughtered made sounds remotely close to what that family made,"


    "Even the guards were so traumatised by the sounds that they fled from the area around his chambers," she spat angrily.


    She thought that the poison she used was vicious, but she didn''t even know people could make such sounds, heck she didn''t even know that such sounds could exist.


    "Was he always like that?" Lirian asked curiously.


    A moment later Izlandi shook her head, "He was a pig, but he used be careful and thoughtful with his actions, he never done something like this to my knowledge, but recently he seemed to have snapped, becoming more and more depraved," she said softly.


    Lirian nodded, with a few new thoughts running through his mind, but what they were was unknown.


    "Give me a pen and some parchment," Lirian said suddenly.


    Izlandi quickly did as Lirian asked and watched as Lirian wrote a quick note.


    After reading she raised a brow, "I''m your hostage," she said with shock, "Then what about him?" she asked pointing at Stanley.


    "He is the main message, the signal," Lirian answered her with a light smile.


    Izlandi sighed, "You''re not going to tie me up are you?" she asked with a slightly flirty tone and her fair face turned a shade of pink.


    "Do you want me to tie you up?" Lirian asked with a sigh of exasperation, if she was willing to follow him, he really didn''t need to.


    "Won''t it be so much more convincing if the soldiers see me tied up and helpless, completely unable to help myself, as the evil man drags me away?" she asked innocently with her bright green eyes lighting up.


    "No one is going to see me take you away," Lirian said with a sigh.


    "Oh, but what if we are seen by accident," Izlandi pouted, "Imagine if one of the guards tells my father that I walk out of the castle, with a happy smile on my face," she said with a grin.


    Lirian sighed, "Fine go and get something that I can use to tie you up."


    ''What is wrong with this girl? I swear that she was way different when I first met her,'' Lirian thought.


    Lirian didn''t get much time to think because, Izlandi quickly returned with a huge roll of thick rope, the roll was almost as big as her, she happily dragged it to Lirian and stood still as Lirian started to tie the rope around her.


    "I must say, you really did a number on my father and all of House Kurt for that matter," Izlandi sighed with admiration as Lirian tied her up.


    "Lord Grant''s assassination got the family members extremely worried, the minor nobles were too scared to say anything, but everyone knew what they were thinking,"


    "At the first chance they got, they were planning to break away from the alliance, and with all the in fighting that started when they pointed blame at House Marshall it was enough to make them fear that the alliance would start attacking each-other,"


    "Do you know that House Ventrano has started a blood feud against House Marshall?" Izlandi said with admiration.


    "It''s the first I''ve heard of that one," Lirian replied honestly, but it wasn''t all that hard to imagine, given the evidence he left pointing at House Marshall.


    "You must have been planning all of this for years," Izlandi said praising him highly and she couldn''t hide her admiration, even if she had years she doubted that she would have been able to do the same.


    ''It was more of a spur of the moment kind off thing,'' Lirian thought, but kept that to himself, he didn''t want to blow the girls mind to smithereens.


    When Lirian was done he tied a piece of the rope to his hand and pulled Izlandi, like she was on a leash, but she resisted being pulled.


    Lirian turned to her, wondering what she was up to now he left her legs untied so that she could walk, and kick and flail her legs around, and have all her fantasies about being an unwilling captive.


    "Aren''t you going to do that to me?" she asked with a pout and pointed at the floating rugs, that held Stanley.


    "¡­"


    ''It''s no wonder she wanted to be tied up,'' Lirian realised, ''I swear all these noble girls seem to be obsessed with flying,'' Lirian noted, it was the same with Althea.


    "It feels like I''m going to become some circus ride," Lirian complained softly, with a thought his energy wrapped around her and lifted her in the air.


    Izlandi laughed happily and looked down with her green eyes filled with amazement.


    "Just try not to scream when we move quickly," Lirian said and broke into a run.


    Izlandi''s current room had no windows, it seemed that House Kurt was taking their own precautions against Lirian sneaking in.


    Lirian noticed the excitement that Izlandi seemed to emanate as they ran through the corridors, as it so happened a few guards did spot them, but their lives were short lived.


    Most of the guards were still far too busy fighting each-other and the sound of metal striking on metal filled the corridors.


    When they reached a window Lirian glanced down and spotted the two leaders of the family, they returned to the keep and they were currently racing through the floors.


    "You made it," Lirian said, "But sadly you''re just a little too late," he laughed and jumped out of the window.

 Chapter 368 - 133 – Are You Crazy?

    "Ahhhhh," Izlandi let out a shrill shriek as they dove threw the window, it happened so suddenly that she couldn''t help herself.


    One second Lirian stopped and muttered a few things to himself, Izlandi was to busy trying to figure what Lirian said, to realise when he jumped out of the window.


    In that moment she felt a sense of complete weightlessness as they fell towards the ground, and that''s when she shrieked.


    She clapped her hands over her mouth as she realised her blunder, but it was too late, the sound was heard, her high-pitched scream was particularly ear striking.


    She looked at Lirian apologetically, but she was relieved to see that he looked only mildly annoyed and let out a sigh.


    Lirian reached out and Izlandi came flying into his hands.


    Izlandi''s eyes widened in surprise, as Lirian clutched her throat, but in the next second she realised that she could breathe just like normal, it just hurt a little.


    Suddenly Lirian rocketed up through the air with two spell circles firing from under his feet, he soared up and went higher than the keep walls and landed on the roof of the keep.


    Izlandi found it hard to see anything as they went up, everything appeared blurry at the speed they were moving at, but when they came to a stop she was able to see the keep walls clearly.


    The twenty ballistae were all turned around and currently fixed on them, Izlandi would be lying if she said she wasn''t afraid, under that situation.


    She heard exactly what kind of power those siege engines possessed, the power to shred even knights, and having twenty such machines that could fire three bolts every second pointed at her was enough to make her shake like a leaf.


    But in contrast Lirian was standing with an air of perfect calm, he seemed completely unfazed by the possibility of death.


    But no, that wasn''t it, there was more to it and Izlandi could feel it, the pure and unbridled confidence in Lirian wasn''t only because he wasn''t afraid of death, but it was because he truly believed that they couldn''t kill him.


    His confidence was infectious, and Izlandi found herself calming down slightly under his aura.


    "Release Lady Izlandi and Lord Stanley and step away from them, or we will be forced to open fire upon you!" an adapt on the wall shouted down at Lirian.


    Lirian smiled, it seemed that they were able to realise that Stanley was the one inside the rug, but it wasn''t like Lirian was hiding Stanley''s identity on purpose, it was just what happened when he placed the rug over Stanley, a bonus effect that didn''t do anything for Lirian.


    "You want me to release them and step away, and you promise not to fire?" Lirian asked innocently as he removed the helmet from his head and let his silver hair return to its natural colour and run free in the wind.


    Lirian''s face might have become more masculine, but with his small stature and soft skin, he still looked like an innocent child.


    ''This person is such an idiot, and people actually call him a god,'' the adapt scoffed internally as he looked at Lirian, he was surprised by his beauty but that was all.


    "Of course, the nobles of House Kurt always keep their word," the noble said proudly.


    "Oh, then that''s strange," Lirian said shaking his head like he was confused by what the man said.


    The adapt grunted in annoyance but decided to humour Lirian since it seemed like his approach was working.


    "The last time I visited the keep and played with all you guys, that old toad who only knows how to throw fireballs, said that if I escape you won''t call your selves nobles anymore," Lirian said as innocently as he could, and his words were like three separate arrows all aimed for their three greatest weak points.


    Everything Lirian mention was the most humiliating things that ever happened to House Kurt, Lirian''s first attack in which he dominated the entire house, which he titled as ''playing''.


    Second was the long running insult about the people of House Kurt being descendants of toads and the worst was obviously last.


    The reminder that Lirian escaped after Lord Conner declared that they couldn''t call themselves nobles ever again, if he managed to break away and escape from them.


    "I guess that the word of nobles isn''t worth anything," Lirian said shaking his head in disappointment.


    The nobles of House Kurt scoffed in anger as they were forced to listen to Lirian insult them time and again, and he even acted to innocent about it.


    Even Izlandi was gapping at Lirian in shock, she felt like she had an idea about what Lirian was really like after all the things they spoke of and discussed, so she knew with absolute certainty that all of this was merely a high class act from Lirian.


    "But don''t worry I''m not like nobles I always keep my word, if you really want me to release the hostages, I swear with the heavens as my witness to release them?" Lirian said solemnly.


    "Of course we would appreciate it very much if you would release them," the adapt said gritting his teeth, he knew that it wasn''t likely to happen, so he just wanted to prove to Lirian that he was lying.


    "Alright then," Lirian said and moved his hand forward, immediately Izlandi and Stanley went flying of the roof and hovered high over the ground, then Lirian flipped them over with their heads facing the ground.


    "ARE YOU CRAZY? WHAT THE HELL YOU DOING?" Izlandi started to shriek and panic as she found herself looking at certain death, the ground was so far down, if she fell she would be meat paste and nothing more.


    Lirian ignored her frantic screams, "Okay as promised I''m going to release them," Lirian said and his control started to slacken, the two started to bob and shake violently in the air.


    "No stop!" the adept roared from above with panic.


    Lirian stopped maintaining a perfect look of innocence, "Is something the matter, I''m trying to keep my word to you," Lirian said.


    The adept shuddered as he realised how close to death the two had come, "We''d appreciate it if you put them down somewhere where they can walk," he said, not expecting Lirian to do such a thing but that was okay, he was just doing all of that to buy time.


    "Oh," Lirian said maintaining his innocent expression, "I suppose that does make sense, I forget that other people can''t fly around like me," Lirian laughed lightly  while scratched the back of his head, and to the complete disbelief of everyone there he set Izlandi and Stanley down on the roof a long distance from himself.


    The adapt laughed when he saw Lirian''s foolish move, "You know what boy you were right, nobles don''t keep their word!" he shouted.


    "Fire men," he ordered.


    Izlandi was panting heavily as she climbed up on the cold black tiles on the roof, she was fuming at Lirian, and wanted to unleash a barrage of fire balls on him for what he had just done to her, when she was upside down, she was certain that her panties were visible.


    But as she looked up she heard the adepts order and her heart sunk into her throat as she saw all the ballistae fire all three bolts at one, and their aim was true on Lirian.


    She almost shouted for Lirian to move but in the next moment a spectacle occurred, one that was almost hilarious, at least for Izlandi it was.

 Chapter 369 - 134 – 34 Runes Of Fire 1

    The ballistae released loud explosive sounds, as not the bolts but rather the springs shot out of the siege engines, and it wasn''t just one was all twenty and all three slings that could fire a bolt.


    It completely took the soldiers by surprise, and many of them paid a heavy price.


    The springs shot out and pierced through the bodies of the soldiers, there was so much tension in the springs that it crumpled their armour and wounded them seriously, and for many that wasn''t the end, in their surprise they back away and slipped of the walls, falling to their deaths.


    "Did you plan that?" Izlandi whispered to Lirian while everyone was still distracted.


    ''I rigged the weapons'' she heard Lirian say into her mind, ''But as for the deaths, that was beyond my wildest imagination,'' she heard Lirian laugh in her mind.


    ''By my sacred name, that has got to be such a humiliating death, death by spring,'' Lirian mused with tears forming in the corner of his eyes.


    ''Keep your distance for now,'' she heard Lirian say seriously, ''The main course has just arrived.''


    "Main course?" Izlandi muttered tilting her head, when suddenly the entire roof trembled causing her to slip.


    Luckily she wasn''t on the edge or she would have fallen, as she looked forward a bulge formed in the roof like something wanted out and in the next second she saw her father emerge on the roof with cracked tiles and concrete flying through the air.


    In Izlandi''s memories her father always had a single expression, his face would always remain calm even when he was angry, it was a source of fear for many, but it was also proof that he was always maintaining control over himself.


    But currently none of that calmness existed, his face was contorted with rage, his ugly lips were trembling all the while, it was quite the horrific sight, and opposed to the monstrous hideous beast without any control stood Lirian.


    He was the very definition of calm and composed, and the complete opposite of her father in every aspect as he rose from the ground and hovered a few inches above her father.


    "Sorry, but I can''t allow rubbish to stand higher than me," she heard Lirian say with a smirk, his spear was hanging over his shoulder in a relaxed and unfazed manner.


    Even when faced with her father''s fury he didn''t seem to care.


    "You little bastard, I''ll kill you!" her father roared a guttural roar, that stemmed from his heart, "Centuries, my centuries of blood and sweat, you''ve ruined everything!" he roared like a beast on the verge of collapse and brought out his sword, it was a large body length broad sword.


    He sliced down with all the power in his body, it was a slice meant to heck Lirian in half.


    "I did do that," Lirian replied calmly, Lirian identified the grade of the weapon, it wasn''t exotic grade, but as far as mystic grade weapons went, it''s ability to handle energy and take impacts was top notch.


    Lirian spun the spear in his hands and smacked the blade of course with the blade of the spear.


    It created a large ringing explosion as the two blades met, then Rupid was thrown of course and all the force of his strike travelled down into the roof, an entire corner of the roof was instantly flattened and crushed under the impact.


    Large pieces of debris and rubble broke of from the keep and went crashing down into the gardens.


    Lirian diverted the attack to make sure it didn''t affect Izlandi too much, in his current rage Rupid seemed to have lost all his reason.


    "But then I didn''t get the memo that said I was supposed to care," Lirian added with a cold smirk.


    "Damn you," Rupid cursed at him and swung the blade at Lirian.


    Lirian twisted and dodged as Rupid sliced and attacked, Lirian recognised the movement to be a sword form, and with every strike even if he missed Rupid was putting his body through the motions to build up the tension in his body for the final strike of the form.


    Lirian followed the movements carefully and read Rupid''s moves, before he even performed them Lirian was able to understand what was coming next.


    As Rupid moved his aura started to wrap around his body, a thick layer of yellow light and in response Lirian activated his own aura, the metallic purple aura wrapped around Lirian like a tailored suit of armour.


    As Rupid reach the last three moves of his form his aura started to merge with the form and fuel it''s power, the third last slash was filled with enough power, to release waves of pressure that reached the walls in the distance.


    The soldiers on the wall watched on with anxiety and routed for their lord to seize victory, yet they were afraid as they looked at the silver haired devil who never opened his eyes.


    He still seemed to be at perfect ease as he stepped in and out of their lords attacks, then when an attack seemed to come close he would wield his spear with such precision and steer the attacks of course with graceful ease.


    Lirian felt the power behind the second last slash, the sheer pressure it released was likely enough to still an adept''s breathing, yet to Lirian it was just another attack destined to miss.


    Lirian smiled as Rupid built up all the tension necessary for the final strike his muscles where the tension was built up bulged with indominable power.


    "Your finished," Rupid said coldly he was bristling with confidence at the strike that was about to released.


    "That''s my line!" Lirian smirked taking his hand of his spear.


    "There''s a rule for those who are using the forms," Lirian said, "Don''t stop once you start and never stop when you near the end," and with the agility of a viper, he released a palm strike on the point where all the tension was built up.


    Bang.


    "AHHHHHH," no one really saw what happened, all they heard was the pained howl of Rupid that tore though the first rays of light that came with the rising sun.


    The sword in his hand went flying down into the pasture, where the horse''s slept, as for Rupid, his forearm had swollen to four times its size, it rapidly turned to a sickly purple as blood and puss oozed from the wound.


    Lirian appeared in front of Rupid and whipped his leg forward, his kick landed with devastating force that launched Rupid flying through the air.


    A wind tunnel formed around Rupid as he streaked past the keep gates.


    A loud crash followed when the Lord of House Kurt went hurtling through the sky and crashed into his city.


    Lirian quickly rose up into the sky and his gaze went down through the keep, "Don''t think that I haven''t noticed what you''re up to down there," Lirian said, no one knew who he was speaking to except the person in question.


    "All thirty-four runes of fire fused into one spell," Lirian commented to Conner who''s eye shrunk, down in the keep when he heard Lirian.


    "I''ll admit you''re better than I give you credit for, but you''re still way out of your league here," Lirian said.


    Conner leapt through the broken roof of the keep, his eye''s red with unbridled anger as he looked at Lirian.


    "This is for my daughter!" he roared and a rune formation that begun to resemble a spell circle shone brightly, as it released raging torrents of fire that spewed forth and threatened to burn even the skies.

 Chapter 370 - 135 – 34 Runes Of Fire 2

    The rune formation of the 34 runes of fire erupted like a volcanic explosion, the flames rushed forth with heat capable of melting stone and steel.


    "Let''s see how you can deal with this!" Conner roared at Lirian and laughed hysterically, the 34 runes of fire was part of what got him kicked out of the Blindwatch academy for spellcasters.


    Conner had spent almost every second of his time in the academy trying to master the fire ruins, in order to perform the 34 runes of fire, but by doing so he neglected almost all his other studies.


    After 15 years he was kicked out of the academy for wasting resources on researching the spell, but even after leaving he continued to study it for over a century before he was able to successfully cast it.


    It was a spell that consumed almost every ounce of his energy, and the mental strain was enough to put most people into a coma, but he succeeded in doing it.


    The soldiers all erupted in triumph as the fires burned hot and bright, it was like the sun had fallen from the sky.


    Even the people of House Kurt were affected by the intense heat, the soldiers hurriedly stripped of their iron armour, that was starting to sizzle under the heat.


    Their skin turned blistering red before it dehydrated and started to crack, with blood seeping out, but still they cheered.


    They all thought that it was over when there lord was defeated, it was now that they understood the truth about why mages were always so highly regarded, they weren''t as strong as body cultivators, but one good spell from them was capable of changing the course of a battle.


    Izlandi looked through the flames with worry, she could still see Lirian''s figure with the fires light, in fact, he seemed to glow brightly under its glow, he glowed brighter than ever before and she could see that same unfazed expression, filled with confidence.


    If anything he seemed amused, like the first time she cast fireball and she showed of her skill to her uncle.


    It was exactly how her uncle looked at her back then, like he was saying ''I commend your efforts, but that is only just the beginning.''


    Her heart felt at ease for just a second, before she looked at her uncle with worry, if Lirian was as far above her uncle as she feared what would befall her uncle when he lost.


    Lirian felt the heat rushing towards him as the flames surged forward, "I didn''t think that I''d have to use it today," he muttered softly with an amused smile, those flames were filled with all of Conner''s energy which was a lot.


    "You should consider yourself honoured to have forced me to do this," Lirian voice carried through the waves of heat, and his confident was clear in his tone.


    As Lirian spoke he touched upon the power of ''Truth of Realms and Barriers'', the primary use of the ability was to slip beyond the realm veil, but by harnessing that power of the higher realms, Lirian was able to release the suppression of the heavens that cut his power in half, but he could only sustain it for an hour.


    Lirian''s energy surged with power and created a small field of suppression that pressed down every being present, his charm and all other abilities were boosted to twice their power, or rather their true power even the metallic purple aura around his body grew thicker.


    "The 34 runes of power is an impressive skill to have," Lirian said to Conner, "But it''s only impressive in the hands of an adept," Lirian said.


    "The truly impressive part about your usage of this spell, is that you''ve pushed it to the level of a spell circle and skipped a step in the path of a mage," Lirian applauded Conner for what he was able to do.


    In the arts of spell casting, spell runes were an equivalent of the forms in swordsmanship, the runes had two stages, both were stages that Conner had achieved.


    The amazing part was that he skipped an entire stage of spell casting and created a spell circle, when compared to sword mastery, a spell circle was the equivalent of tension forms.


    Hence Conner''s achievement was impressive, it was akin to a swordsmen skipping ''Free Striking'' and learning ''tension forms'' it was an impressive feat to say the least, it was either the product of true genius or devotion and dedication to the spell, neither method of achieving it was to be looked down upon.


    As a cultivator Lirian had to respect the achievement, to not would be for him to deny a large part of himself, it would be him dishonouring cultivation itself.


    "Now then I''ll show you the path to make your spell a true spell circle," Lirian said and aimed his hand at the spell that threatened to consume him.


    As much as Conner hated Lirian he had to admit his power and knowledge was immense he watched Lirian''s movements closely, yet Lirian did practically nothing at all, he simply reached his hand out, he drew no runes or made any complicated hand movements, and in the next second fire blazed forth in the air before Lirian.


    Conner watched and his mouth opened in shock as flames raced forth to meet with his flames, the flames smashed each other with equal force, with equal heat, burning each other out.


    Conner recognised the spell for what it was, but he refused to believe what he had seen, it had to be some form of trick, all it took was a second for Lirian.


    Merely a second and he replicated the 34 runes of fires effect, and the two spells perfectly cancelled each other out.


    Conner fell to his knees in exhaustion, "A trick, it has to be some form of trick," he mumbled, that spell was his master piece, a spell he spent his entire life mastering and honing to perfection.


    A spell he discarded all things to pursue and make his own, and now the spell was cast with complete ease by his enemy, no ease didn''t even describe it, he didn''t even use ruins and he replicated the spell to the exact level he achieved.


    It was unfair but it was the truth, and he couldn''t accept that outcome.


    Lirian descended from the sky his aura vanished from his body as he returned to the roof, "Believe what you will, but I have shown you the path, it''s up to you to choose if you wish to die in ignorance or to learn from what I have shown you," Lirian said without any empathy.


    He respected those who defied the rules of progression, but he had no time to sympathise with the ignorant.


    With a thought Izlandi was sucked towards him from her place on the roof, she was as red as a tomato with cracked and peeling skin from the intense flashes of heat, the heat was so intense that the mists were almost completely washed away from the city.


    With another thought Stanley was sucked forward, most of the rug that covered him had been burnt, but he was fine.


    Lirian discarded the rug and revealed Stanley''s disgusting naked body for everyone to see, then he leapt into the air and flew to the top of the wall.


    No one dared to block his path or stand in his way.

 Chapter 371 - 136 – City Of The Damned

    The branch head of the merchant guild, Moors Plibian had been stationed just outside the gates of the keep for days now.


    He was waiting for the opportunity to get in and speak to Lord Rupid about the magical solution that could clean the entire city, and vast troves of his wealth were there in his carriages, and that was just the least of what he was prepared to offer.


    He had truly thought that he struck gold, and was determined to stay here until he got in.


    The crowd that originally lined up at the gates however no longer existed, first there was that freak attack in the night.


    Moors Plibian had been stationed here, and remained unmoving he might have been a little round on the belly and a little stumpy on the arms, but he was an adapt, he didn''t have training in the way of combat as most of his time was spent working, but he wouldn''t fear some angry mob.


    Besides no one was so foolish as to attack a member of the guild, let alone a branch head such as Moors himself, yet he was soon proven wrong in his thoughts.


    On that night the keep opened its gates once again, and out came a furious cavalry charge, Moors found his carriages knocked over and he himself was almost run over by a dozen warhorses.


    He managed to escape by the skin of his teeth, it was a strange night alright, but in the name of diplomacy Moors forgave the people of House Kurt, he could accept that it was a tough time for them and time was of the utmost importance.


    But then they returned without offering him so much as an apology, but Moors still remained, he''d waited for days he could wait for a few more, but that was the day that everything changed.


    Through the killings of the refugees, and the blood mist Moors kept his guards and remained in place, and no one dared to try force him into joining the efforts.


    Not even the great noble houses would dare to try to command the members of the merchant''s guild especially as an armed force, the guilds influence was far too great for anyone to dare attempt to command it.


    Even a high nobles title could be revoked if they tested the guilds power, let alone some noble lord out in the middle of nowhere.


    Moors remained even under such trying conditions simply because he knew the value of what he found, and treasure was putting it lightly.


    Currently Moors was still camped outside the keep, he saw the lord and his brother leave the keep and then return with haste, he didn''t get the chance to say a word but he knew it wasn''t the time, he could hear the commotion in the keep.


    A few minutes later Moors heard what sounded like a thunderclap then a yellow light streaked through the thinning mist as the first rays of sunlight came down.


    Moors looked at the familiar yellow aura, "Isn''t that the aura produced by the Kurt cultivation technique," he muttered as the large human sized object smashed into a building, razing it to the ground.


    Moors rushed over wondering just what the hell was going on, his purple merchants coat flapped in the wind as his stubby legs brought him to his destination.


    Moors eyes widened when he saw Lord Rupid lying flat on his back in the ruin, blood was seeping out of his body and his right arm was a mangled mess.


    The yellow aura was gradually fading away, "Lord Rupid," Moors called and sifted through the rubble to reach the lord.


    As Moors reached Lord Rupid he found that he was still alive, and still conscious, but his body was in such a bad condition it wasn''t likely that he''d be moving any time soon.


    Moors was just about to offer his aide to the lord when something even more frightening occurred, a frightening heat wave washed over the city and as Moors looked to the source he found it hard to keep his eyes open under the piercing light.


    Waves of heat washed over Moors and the crimson mist was entirely washed away.


    But what became visible was enough to make Moors wish that the mist would return.


    Dead bodies lay strewn all over the place, there was not a single direction he could turn to without seeing a corpse and blood, blood that was currently drying and crystallising on the wall.


    "A city of the damned," Moors spoke a line that came to mind, it was a line of one of his favourite fictional books, and he felt it to be ever so fitting.


    The flash of heat suddenly vanished, and Moors watched the keep intently, wondering if this was the doing of that self-declared god, the silver haired one that everyone was looking out for.


    Moors also wondered if this was perhaps the work of one of the other Noble Houses, they were already at war with each other, even if they were currently keeping it to a border conflict, so it wouldn''t come as a surprise to him.


    But just then he saw someone appear on the top of the walls, and he saw the silver hair fluttering in the wind, and besides the self-declared god there were two other people, people he recognised.


    The first being Izlandi, they had many good business dealings with each-other, and he admired Izlandi''s work ethic a lot, in the past year he had even deeply contemplated taking her on as an apprentice, but due to her hand already being owned by House Kant he didn''t do as he intended.


    It wasn''t wise to unnecessarily step on the toes of high nobles, over such a small matter.


    When he looked to the other side of Lirian his mouth opened aghast, he certainly knew who the ugly lump was, lord Stanley, heir to House Kurt.


    He could hardly believe what he was seeing the man was being held in the air by some spell, he presumed, but he was buck naked, with everything to be revealed.


    Moors found it a disgusting sight to gaze upon, but he felt no sympathy or pity even for the him, after what he had done, Moors was glad to see that he was being served justice.


    Then the man on the wall spoke, "Are you going to help them?" the man asked, and Moors felt that the question was directed at himself.


    As he looked to the silver haired man Moors found it hard to look away but at the same time his primal instincts that he thought he was to fat and lazy to have, started to shout at him to leave the mans presence at once.


    He couldn''t make out what Lirian looked like at such a distance, but he could see that his eyes were closed, yet there was a horrifying gaze that seemed to completely see through his very being.


    Moors looked between the barely conscious Lord Rupid and the silver haired man with some hesitation, but after a while he shook his head.


    "My apologies Lord Rupid, it seems that I cannot offer you any aide at this time," he said with an apologetic bow to the lord.


    If Lord Rupid''s condition was a product of a fight against that man, then he knew that he had absolutely no chance.


    "My apologies for getting in your way," Moors said offering an apology to Lirian before scrambling of on his stubby legs.


    Before vanishing from sight he cast a final glance at Izlandi, ''Its such a shame that she landed in the hands of such a monster,'' he thought regretfully.

 Chapter 372 - 137 – Execution At The Gate

    Lirian stood atop the wall and sighed, ''This battle was so not apart of the plan, but when they were so close and had me surrounded again, I couldn''t help myself,'' he thought bitterly.


    ''Well hopefully that old man can make a breakthrough, then things will get interesting again,'' he thought with a heart full of hope.


    Lirian turned his attention back to the matter at hand, he had promised Liberia a sign to show that it was time for her to convince the other minor nobles to leave.


    But now he was slightly worried, the fact was that he ended up creating sensations, that were bound to be read as a sign.


    First there was the yellow commit known as Rupid, then the fire display, by all means what was supposed to be the sign had turned out to be a little underwhelming in comparison.


    ''Oh well, I suppose that it will still send a message across,'' Lirian thought with a shrug of his shoulders, at that moment Stanley blinked his eyes open, finally returning to the land of the conscious.


    "You-urgh," Stanley groaned in pain as he looked at Lirian, his throat was still swollen to thrice its size, which made it difficult for him to speak.


    Stanley soon noticed that he was in the air, being held a few feet from the ground by some spell, "Unhangd me atg, once," he said and struggled in in the air, his legs kicked around like a toddlers, only it wasn''t a cute sight to witness.


    ''He really is a repulsive creature,'' Izlandi said to Lirian through the mental link, and the disgust was carried in her thoughts.


    Lirian had to agree, his actions were completely unsightly, and unbecoming of a person with a high status.


    "Relgease me atg once, or my fargher¡­ will showg you¡­ no mercy," Stanley stammered on, while flailing his hands in anger.


    "Sorry I know many languages, but I still struggle to comprehend stupid," Lirian said with a shrug, "Now it''s time for you to become a message," Lirian said.


    "Do you have any last words?" he asked.


    Stanley froze, "Last words?" he muttered stupidly.


    Lirian sighed, "Of course it''s something stupid,'' he said and messaged the bridge between his brows, "I see that my titling of you as ''Dumbass of all Dumbasses'' was spot on," he said.


    "Now then, I promised that man that I would give you a most horrific death," Lirian muttered.


    Suddenly Stanley felt all his ability to move vanish, all his freedom was suddenly sealed, and his hands were pulled apart to either side of his body, his every muscle was strained, and his bones creaked under the pressure.


    He watched with trembling eye''s as Lirian swung the spear in his hand, Stanley thought it was coming for his head, but in the next moment he wished that it did.


    His loins started to burn and a wretched pain tore through his entire body as his manhood fell down to the ground in a bloody heap.


    "ARGGGHHH" his howls ripped through the early morning air, yet no matter how much he howled, no matter how much he wished for the pain to end, it wouldn''t stop, and no one came to his aide.


    Minutes past before he lost almost all sensation in his body, his eyes fell down to ruined item that was apart of him, and his eyes seemed to fade, losing all hope, even if he survived now he couldn''t imagine what he would live for.


    As he looked at his severed manhood it started to float up to his face, "Your very attached to it, so don''t worry, I won''t keep you separated," he heard Lirian mutter softly.


    ''It feels like my energy is being dirtied just by doing this,'' Lirian thought, "Let just get this done as quickly as possible."


    Five ballista bolts suddenly flew over to Lirian and in the next second he positioned Stanley against the wall, a few feet above the gate.


    Four of the bolts went flying with the greatest force Lirian could muster, they tore through Stanley''s palms and legs with ease, and crucified him against the walls.


    Even with Lirian''s full power used, not more than half of the 3 feet long bolts was able to penetrate the solid stone walls, that were infused with dwarven blood.


    ''Truly good workmanship,'' Lirian praised as he released a great amount of silver energy into the structure.


    The entire wall glowed silver for a second, it was much brighter than the last time Lirian did such a thing, that was mainly due to his power being at its full.


    But then the silver light went out and the wall seemed exactly the same as it had been before, Lirian felt completely drained, once he was done, but then he activated ''Conduit'' and rapidly all the energy that was generated from the clash of the ''34 rune of fire'' rushed towards him and was absorbed, there was so much energy in their that his energy was almost fully restored.


    Then there was movement in the city, Lirian found that Rupid was climbing out of the rubble, albeit very slowly and his every movement seemed pained.


    He took small steps forward as blood seeped out from his wounds, he held a hand outstretched at Stanley, "M..my son," he muttered as he looked at the horrible condition of Stanley.


    Stanley''s body had grown numb to all the pain and he was gradually accepting coming to terms with his death, but that was when he saw his father, and disbelieve covered his face.


    Until then he was so busy trying to threaten Lirian, then he was tortured, he didn''t know what had happened, but as he looked at his father''s beaten and battered body, he felt a pain he couldn''t describe.


    "Fagher¡­ save me," he croaked out, it was merely a cry of desperation, but it seemed to give his father the push he needed.


    Rupid leapt into the air with the last bits of his strength, some how he found the strength to jump as high as the walls themselves


    But as he approached his son and was just a few feet away he felt like he hit a steel barrier that held him in place.


    "You," Rupid groaned through clenched teeth looking at Lirian with eyes full of hate.


    "I left a note after I kidnapped your daughter," Lirian said without a care for Rupid''s current emotions.


    "But since things have reached such a state, I guess I''ll say it here and now," Lirian said and started to sum up what he wrote in that note.


    "You are to open all the cities gates, and you will offer safe passage to every person who wishes to leave,"


    "If so much as a single bolt is fired or a single person is killed, the same fate that is about to befall your son will befall your daughter," Lirian said summing up what he wrote.


    Rupid''s eyes flashed with anger and grief, this was a complete check mate no matter what he chose to do he was likely doomed, all his centuries of plotting and effort, were all turned into waste.


    Then Lirian waved his hand and Rupid went crashing back to the ground and was forced to watch as Lirian brought Stanley''s manhood before his face and released that final bolt.


    "Fagher¡­" Stanley cried out as the bolt pinned his manhood to his forehead and pierced through his skull, drilling all the way into the wall.


    "If you fulfil your end of the deal, your daughter will be returned unharmed," Lirian left those words behind and vanished from the walls with Izlandi.

 Chapter 373 - 138 – Slap

    Lirian raced through the city under the last remnants of the mist.


    Izlandi hung in the air just an arm''s length away, but her earlier enthusiasm at the prospect of flying was long lost.


    Her stomach twisted and churned at the nightmarish hell that the city had become.


    Bodies lay strewn about all over the streets, she noticed many ordinary bodies that were badly beaten and disfigured, lying in pools of their own blood.


    Then she noticed the nobles who bore the emblems and colours of their houses, not that the latter matter much anymore, there was so much blood she wasn''t sure if everything had been dyed in red or if her eyes had become unable to see any other colour.


    Blood dripped of walls and rolled down the roofs of the houses, and when Izlandi looked for the source of the blood, it was more often than not, a severed limb that had somehow found its way to such a place.


    Eventually she found certain differences in the manners of death, for the refugees most of them were brutal and messy, very few got a swift death.


    As for the soldiers it was surprisingly the opposite, there were some who were clearly beaten and bashed to death by the refugees as they fought back, but as for the majority.


    Their deaths were swift, many a corpse was simply headless, Izlandi thought so because the slices were so clean that it seemed almost natural, like their heads simply decided to up and leave their bodies.


    Many such sights filled every street and alley within the city, a few times Izlandi keeled over and emptied out her stomach, so much death was far too much for her mind to bare.


    Lirian returned to The Red boar, he discarded the armour he had stollen from the guard, underneath he was still wearing his uniform from the day before.


    The white fabric had turned pink from the contact with the crimson mists, and the clothes reeked of the stench of death.


    Lirian started to change his form to that of Bell''s before Izlandi''s very eyes, her expression was priceless as she watched the change occur, also she recognised the uniform, any one with even the slightest bit of influence in the city knew of the Red Boar, and could recognise the uniform.


    Lirian didn''t do much explaining, and just motioned for her to be silent as he snuck her into Bell''s room.


    When they got into the room, Izlandi saw the real Bell, and understood, that Lirian was acting like him, but that raised a question, who was Lirian to Bell that he would allow Lirian to use his form to do as he pleased.


    It would have been one thing if he was just a random nobody, but Izlandi had actually heard Bell''s name come up in a few circles, her male escort services had actually requested that she try to hire him due to his popularity amongst the noble ladies.


    To learn that he was actually a follower of Lirian was amazing, she wondered what their relationship was and how many other spies Lirian had planted in the city to gather intel.


    Lirian however didn''t answer any questions she threw at him, he hurriedly left the room and went out back to chop wood.


    When Lirian arrived in the garden the mist was almost gone, and he found that all the guys were sitting together huddled up, even Old Buch was sitting with them and not rushing them to get to work.


    When they saw Lirian arrive they stopped their chattering and ''Old Buch'' got up.


    ''Oh man, I''m totally getting an earful for skipping out on work yesterday,'' Lirian complained internally.


    But he was surprised when Old Buch put a hand on his shoulder with fondness and spoke in a relieved tone, "It''s good to see that you back in one piece son, everyone thought that you must have died, when you didn''t return," he sighed in relief and pulled Lirian towards the group.


    They were sitting around a small fire they made on the ground, and they were passing around a pipe filled with tabac, Tommy instantly put an arm around Bell''s neck and pulled him into the group.


    "Seriously Bell, you had all of us worried," Tommy complained, "But how did you even manage to survive in that slaughter?" he asked the question that everyone was dying to know.


    They all pried their ears open and waited for Lirian''s response.


    Lirian sighed softly, as it seemed like he had to weave a little tale for the guys.


    "Before last night the most severe injury I ever saw was when my dad bashed his hand with a hammer, he broke three of his fingers, that was it," Lirian said pulling on Bell''s memories.


    "The truth is that yesterday in the plaza, when I saw Lord Stanley cut of that woman''s head, I passed out then and there," Lirian said which got everyone to chuckle a little at his expense.


    "Yeah. I feinted just like that, but then a few hours later I woke up, it was already dark, and the mists hadn''t turned red yet, but I heard the screams coming from every direction in the city, I didn''t know where to go," Lirian begun, he twisted and weaved a long tale about his struggles through the mists and the mad nobles that tried to cut him down on every turn.


    "What happened next?" Tommy asked greatly intrigued in the story, how much they really believed Lirian didn''t know but it seemed that they enjoyed the tale far too much to care.


    "I''ll tell you what happened next," Lirian said nodding his head, "I jumped from the rooftop and ran to the closest stack of bodies I could find; I didn''t have to run too far too find a stack,"


    "Them nobles were busy killing people with every step they took,"


    "So, I pulled up the bodies and threw myself underneath the pile to hide, but that''s when it happened¡­" Lirian said filling them with suspense.


    "What happened?" they practically shouted together.


    "As I was stuck underneath all those bodies preying that they couldn''t find me, the silver-haired god appeared,"


    "I saw him for just a second, not even long enough to get a good look at him, but then he vanished,"


    "The nobles were so close to me by then I thought that they were going to find me at any second, but then their heads, just rolled of their bodies,"


    "They fell to the ground, and that was the end of it," Lirian said.


    "What did you do next?" they asked eager to hear more.


    "What would you guys have done?" Lirian asked back, "I swear if it were you guys in my place, who aren''t as brave and handsome as myself, you would have shat yourselves in fear," Lirian laughed as he praised himself in a way that Bell often did.


    "I stayed where I was and didn''t move until the mist started to clear up," Lirian said, "Then came back here," Lirian said ending the tale.


    The group continued to chat for a while, when one of the waitresses showed up, "The boss wants to speak with everyone," she said gathering their attention she looked a little downcast and so did the rest.


    Lirian trailed behind the group when suddenly he felt a stinging pain on his face, then it happened again, and again.


    "What the hell is going on?" Lirian wondered as he rubbed his cheeks where it felt like he had received multiple tight slaps.

 Chapter 374 - 139 – Preparing To Leave

    Lirian rubbed his cheeks as the stinging pain coursed through them like an electric shock.


    "What the hell is going on?" Lirian wondered aloud as he rubbed his cheeks like a child who just got smacked, ''How is this even possible?'' he thought.


    When suddenly his eyes widened in realisation, Lirian focused on Bell, and started to look through his eyes.


    In his vision he saw that Izlandi was huffing and puffing with her nostrils flaring in size, and Bell was lying flat on the ground with two swollen cheeks.


    "Urgh, damn it," Lirian cursed in internally at his own stupidity.


    When Lirian looked at Izlandi in her red dress that showed of her fair and long legs, she was quite stunning, and her face had all the nobility and elegant beauty of the elves, the only thing one could complain about was that she wasn''t particularly curvy.


    Lirian realised that she was the perfect target and type, that Bell got him himself off too.


    Not only was she a beautiful noble she practically belonged to another man already, a man that happened to be a high noble, it was simply a risk that Bell could not walk away from without trying his hand.


    And it seemed that he got a severe beating for his efforts at seducing her.


    Lirian sighed in relief and continued to walk forward towards the meeting.


    Lirian sat down and listened along with all the others, a tense mood hung in the air, and the boss looked equally if not glummer than the rest.


    "There is no good way to say this, so I''ll just come out and say it straight to you guys, due to the recent happenings in the city The Red Boar will no longer be operating, as of immediately The Red Boar will be seizing all its operations," he said with a heavy sigh.


    It seemed that the others were expecting this news, but still their bodies showed that it was still quite the blow to them.


    The guys clenched their fists tightly, and some of the woman were unable to stop themselves from crying.


    They had spent years training in curtesy and their manners, to serve and play host towards nobles, all so that they could one day work at the prestigious Red Boar.


    "You need not fear too much about finding work in the future," the boss said quickly to calm them down.


    "While The Red Boar will no longer be operational, the reputation and fame of this fine establishment is well known even in Riverfall and Proge, I have taken the time to write letters of introduction for all of you, so long as you can make it to the great towns you won''t have to worry for work," he said and handed out several envelopes to each person.


    That said while everyone accepted the envelopes, there expressions didn''t change much, they knew that the boss was trying to be helpful and they were surprised by how much concern he was showing.


    Because he was the one losing the most, The Red Boar was his dream and his life, to be forced to close the doors was likely a crushing blow for him.


    "Thanks boss," Old Buch said as he took his envelope, he knew that the boss meant well so he wasn''t going to criticize him, "It''s just that it''s not like this can help us, we can''t leave the city without being shot down," he sighed voicing the concern of everyone.


    The boss nodded, "Speaking of that I have something that I want to discuss with all of you," he said seriously.


    Everyone perked up their ears and listened closely, "Some of the minor nobles are planning to leave the city today, I just got back from a meeting with one of my friends after learning some big news,"


    The boss went on to explain about what he learned of the attack on the keep, and he also mentioned Stanley''s death as well as Izlandi''s capture.


    Lirian had to admit that the network that the boss had created over the years was good, for him to have learnt of the events that transpired so quickly.


    "If you wish to follow them you may, if you wish to stay the choice is yours, as for me I''ll be leaving," the boss said and left the room.


    Lirian got up and followed after the boss, while most of everyone started to discuss, they seemed unsure about their decision, they were afraid of the possibility of House Kurt attacking anyway.


    The rest of them barely seemed to notice that Lirian left, and hurriedly made his way back to Bells room.


    When Lirian returned, the tiny room seemed to be split into two territories, one that encompassed almost the entire little room, save for one little corner that was large enough for a person to stand.


    The areas were naturally dictated by Izlandi, who was glaring angrily at Bell the entire time, and Bell was left shivering in the corner, like a puppy that had been unjustly wronged.


    ''All that I did was put a few moves on her and my fingers just barely grazed her soft and juicy thigh, it wasn''t like I groped her or anything, not that she has much to grab anyway,'' he thought bitterly, it was then that the door opened and he sighed in relief when he saw Lirian.


    Lirian ignored Izlandi when he entered, the moment he stepped through the door she started to complain incessantly about Bell''s atrocious behaviour.


    "Would you pipe down?" Lirian complained and messaged his ears as he walked up to Bell as he approached his form started to return to normal, at the same time Lirian groaned in pain as he touched his fate string again and removed it from Bells.


    Then gradually he reset his fate string frequency, until it was his own again.


    Lirian groaned as sweat poured of his body, touching his own fate string was never a pleasant experience.


    He no longer had any use for Bell, so he decided to release their connection.


    Bell also felt the connection vanish, and that constant feeling of being strangled vanished, he was breathing much easier.


    But when he looked at Lirian there was still that same reverence as always, he knew that he had served his purpose which meant that it was time for him to die, but at that moment he no longer wished to die.


    "Master I wish to make a presumptuous request?" he said respectfully.


    Lirian could sense the change and was curious to find out what brought it on, especially since he was certain that if he told Bell to die, he would obey.


    "I wish to continue living," Izlandi heard his request and her eyes widened as she wondered what was going on, the manner in which Bell requested to live, was no different from how a person requested a rare item to purchase.


    ''Like I don''t mind if you don''t have it, but it would be nice if I could get some of it,'' it took her by surprise and made her look at Lirian with even more wonder if it was possible, she truly wanted to know just who he was exactly, to command such fate from others.


    "Why?" Lirian asked back curiously.


    Bell walked past Lirian and arrived before his lute which he picked up with extreme fondness, then he held it out to Lirian like a parent holding onto their child as they asked for a blessing.

 Chapter 375 - 140 – Letting Fate Decide

    "I felt like I could hear the muses, when you played, I felt like they were there whispering in my ears, teaching me the melodies I always wished to know," Bell said with a heart full of emotions.


    "I wish to one day play as you have, I wish to wash the minds of all who listen into another world, a world in which their minds are as tranquil as the seas," Bell made his request and stroked the chords.


    With that singles stroke Lirian was able to tell that Bells playing had improved by an unbelievable amount, it was complete leagues of difference from when Lirian turned into him.


    ''Could it be that through our connection, my skills with the lute flowed into him, also how does he know about my playing, I didn''t play anything for him?''


    Lirian voiced his question, and Bell blushed slightly as he bowed his head apologetically, "I apologise master, I could see and hear everything you did whenever you turned into me, I was going to tell you at first, but after I heard you play the first time¡­" he trailed off , but what he left unsaid was obvious.


    "I see," Lirian said with a shrug, he wasn''t aware that the fate technique could do that, he could see through Bell''s eyes whenever he wished, but he never thought that it would work both ways.


    ''Katerina, even when she thought me things, she always left some things out,'' Lirian spat hatefully, the fate copying technique was one that he had learnt about from her, when it came to fate there was likely no one who was her equal.


    At least Lirian had never come across anyone who came close in comparison.


    As for Bell learning from his skills, Lirian wasn''t nearly as surprised, he knew that if his fate string was in contact with someone else''s in such an intermit manner, then his memories and knowledge could flow into them.


    It just happened a lot faster than he expected, and he had to thank his lucky stars that he discovered it so soon, if this continued for any longer and Bell saw something with laws, it was bound to be deadly for him and Lirian in turn.


    ''This technique is almost like a double-edged sword,'' Lirian realised with a sigh, it wouldn''t be good for him to use it very often.


    "You know about what''s happening?" Lirian asked Bell seeing that he could see through his eyes the entire time.


    Bell sighed and nodded, he was saddened by the news, but he had always wished to travel to the bigger and greater cities to perform, in a way it was an opportunity,


    "Then you should leave with them, things aren''t going to improve in this place," Lirian advised him.


    Bell nodded, but looked at Lirian with hesitation, "Uhm master," he called out to Lirian.


    "You have anything to add?" Lirian asked curiously.


    "I¡­uh¡­ might I make just one more presumptuous request?" he asked clapping his hands together and squeezing his eyes shut like he was praying.


    "Go on," Lirian said in amusement and gave him permission to speak.


    "Can I follow you master, to learn how to play just as you do?" Bell requested while gripping tightly onto his lute.


    Lirian was taken aback by his request, he''d never had anyone request to formally join him, or follow him for that matter, it did startle him to have someone want to follow him.


    Lirian thought back to the last time he had people follow him and sighed, to many people died, it was his failure as a candidate, his failure as a leader.


    But most of all his mistake caused him to lose Edith.


    Lirian shook his head after giving it some thought, "You''ll die if you follow me," Lirian said in denial of his request.


    "Master, I''ve never been afraid of danger," Bell said with conviction, and Lirian knew for a fact that he wasn''t lying, he wouldn''t live the lifestyle he had chosen if he was afraid of danger.


    "Didn''t you hear me?" Lirian asked shaking his head.


    "You didn''t say no," Bell said with a grin.


    Lirian froze and turned back to face Bell, Bell wore a gloating smile like his request was now going to be fulfilled.


    "I''m not joking, you know," Lirian said once more, "Trouble has it''s ways of finding me, wherever I go, the odds are not in your favour," he added, but a grin was beginning to form on his lips.


    He''d be lying if he said he didn''t admire Bell''s personality, though he made a vow to himself, to never introduce any woman he fancied to Bell, after becoming the guy Lirian knew that he wouldn''t be able to control himself.


    Meanwhile Izlandi looked at Lirian with her mouth aghast, ''Trouble finds him!?'' she thought with disbelief, ''If anything it''s the other way around, he must be troubles apostle, spreading trouble where ever he goes,'' she thought while folding her arms under her small breasts.


    She felt like it was a good assumption, especially since all it took was a few days for him to practically bring House Kurt to its knees.


    Bell chuckled but nodded his head earnestly, he had made up his mind.


    "But you should leave the city now, I''ll catch up with you when I''m done with my business here," Lirian added, he accepted Bell into his group, but the boy was still just an ordinary mortal, if he remained he could still die.


    Bell didn''t argue and accepted what Lirian said without hesitation.


    "Where will master go after this, will master go to Proge or Riverfall, or will master go to one of the other noble houses?" he asked to get an idea of where to go.


    Lirian tilted his head, he realised that he still hadn''t planned that far, his only real goal so far was to reach The Desolation.


    Lirian turned to Izlandi who was busy pouting in one corner of the room.


    "Up or down?" Lirian asked as he turned to her.


    "Huh, What?" Izlandi asked in confusion, wondering what Lirian was up to.


    "Just chose, up or down?" Lirian repeated with a sigh.


    "Hump," Izlandi snorted, "First you ignore all my questions, then you leave me alone with that sick pervert, then when you return you ignore me again until it''s convenient for you to speak to me," she shrieked in anger.


    ''She''s a prissy noble lass, alright,'' Lirian thought with a sigh and turned back to Bell, as he continued to ignore Izlandi.


    Bell seemed happy to see this happen and laughed loudly for Izlandi to hear when Lirian posed the question to him.


    He wanted to get back at her for attacking him earlier, and now was the best opportunity, with Lirian around, she wouldn''t be able to do a thing to him.


    He flashed Izlandi a wide grin before answering.


    "Down!" Izlandi suddenly yelled, in an attempt to stop Bell from giving his answer, but she was a little too late and their voices echoed each-other.


    "I thought that you didn''t want to answer," said Lirian tilting his head with an amused smirk, that got Izlandi to realise that she had been played.


    "Urgh," Izlandi groaned and curled her fists in anger as she glared at Bell, "What was that stupid question about anyway?" she asked while holding her head high in a snobbish way.


    "Just letting fate decide our course," Lirian answered.

 Chapter 376 - 141 – Harsh Truth

    Lirian had thought of an answer as well and as it so happened his answer was ''down'' as well, but he didn''t say it because he didn''t want to influence their thoughts.


    Since all their answers were the same, it was decided.


    "It''s decided we''ll be heading to Riverfall," Lirian said to Bell.


    It didn''t matter much to Lirian, from what he heard from the mayor of Willcolly every power from the minor nobles and up would be required to send their forces towards the Desolation, which meant that either way he would find a route to follow.


    At worst he would have had to make a trip up to Proge only to find that their rout to the desolation would take them through Riverfall anyway.


    It would just cost a little extra time, and Lirian wouldn''t call it wasted, after all nothing is a waste if there is something you learn from it.


    "When you leave the city stop at the closest village and I''ll find you there," said Lirian, and he pulled out a couple of gold coins, it was what he had earned when he was pretending to be Bell.


    Izlandi eyed the money sceptically, she wondered if it was the contents of her secret stash that Lirian was so generously handing out, it went missing after Lirian turned her room into an inhabitable waste land of destruction.


    But Bell quickly shook his head as he saw the gold, he had seen how Lirian earned it, "That''s too much for me to take master, besides, I''ve been able to save up quite a bit while working here," he said refusing the money.


    Lirian shrugged, he didn''t care all that much about money, if he wanted more he could always find a means to get rich quickly, and if he was feeling lazy to put in all the hard work he would simply go on another caravan hunting crusade, to plunder fortunes for himself.


    It was a simple get rich quick means for Lirian, but he didn''t insist on making Bell take the money, he knew that Bell had enough saved up to last him a year or two.


    Bell nodded and grabbed a sack that was packed up full of all his clothes, he didn''t have many personal possession''s and finally he picked up his most prized possession, his lute, he slung it over his shoulder and walked out of the room, leaving Lirian and Izlandi alone.


    "You''re not seriously planning on traveling with that pervert," said Izlandi with a snort of derision.


    "I am," Lirian replied with a smile, "What''s it to you?" he asked wondering just what was going through the girl''s head.


    "No, absolutely unacceptable," Izlandi snapped stomping her foot on the ground, "I will not travel alongside such a man, besides he isn''t even a cultivator," she said.


    "Why would you be travelling with him?" Lirian asked raising a brow, to his knowledge he didn''t recall inviting her along.


    "You," Izlandi glared at Lirian, "Obviously we are in this together, I''m helping you bring down my entire my house, the least you can do is travel with me to keep me safe after you destroy my house?"


    Lirian laughed at her response, "If my memory serves me correctly, you''re working with me to gain your freedom, as for your future safety it isn''t my concern," he replied.


    "You-you can''t be serious," she yelled at Lirian, "I might be a peak novice, but do you have any idea how dangerous it is out there for beautiful woman like me, if I''m lucky I''ll be put to work in a brothel," she yelled hysterically as she pulled on Lirian''s clothes.


    "See, you''ve made my point for me, it''s dangerous out there, and to travel with me is about the most dangerous thing in the world girl," Lirian said coldly.


    "If you can''t even protect your self from simple dangers, you''ll die in no time at all following me," Izlandi froze at that unable to come up with a response, she thought that Lirian was just trying to scare Bell of earlier, but now that his words were directed at her she could tell that it was no lie.


    "Just retire to some village, find a good man to marry have some children and live out your days until you die," Lirian said plainly.


    "What?" Izlandi yelped, "You want me to marry a commoner, are you mad, I am of noble birth, I deserve to marry another noble with great power and influence¡­" she started to rant on like a spoiled child.


    "Izlandi Kurt will be dead once you leave, or have you forgotten the plan?" Lirian asked coldly, reminding her of the purpose of all of this, it was all to allow her to feign her own death.


    "And lets get one thing straight," Lirian said with a coldness to his voice, that stifled Izlandi, she felt the pressure close down on her making her every bone ache.


    "I don''t have time to babysit some spoiled princess, you think you deserve to marry whomever you wish in a manner that you want to, don''t make me laugh," Lirian spat with ridicule.


    "In the world of nobles, one''s family, whether it be their children or wife, one''s friends and one''s allies, every last one of them are tools to be used for the prosperity of one''s family,"


    "You''re father wasn''t wrong for what he did to you, he forced a greater power into marrying you when he had the means to do so, it''s only natural that the greater power would want payback for the humiliation now that your father lost his backing," Lirian said spitting the harsh reality at her.


    "You were happy to be marrying Tanicks Kant back when you would have had the status of a wife, but you didn''t care about the humiliation it was for him to be marrying someone below his station,"


    "Now that you''re receiving the status an ordinary noble such as yourself would be granted if they wished to be with a high noble you''re unhappy, don''t make me laugh,"


    "Remember that the only reason I''m helping you is because it aligns with my goals, if you want anything more then go out there and earn it for yourself," Lirian said without holding back.


    Izlandi''s entire body shuddered, as every word Lirian said drove its way home and pierced deep into her soul.


    She curled up into a ball on the ground, and started to sob silently, she realised that she wasn''t going to get any special treatment from Lirian.


    It hurt her more than she could begin to understand, she only felt a piercing pain in her heart, ''I don''t get it why is he being like this to me?'' she wonder as her heart fell into shambles, but she didn''t voice her question, she was afraid of the answer she might receive.


    Just then the sound of bells started to chime through the city.


    Lirian identified that all three of the city''s bells were ringing, it sounded like a crying widow, mourning her husband''s loss.


    After the events of the day before, it was a fitting sound, how could the city not be crying after the slaughter that dyed its streets red in blood.

 Chapter 377 - 142 – Abandoned City

    Lirian pulled Izlandi up into the air and rushed out of the Red Boar, it was already empty, so he didn''t have to worry about anyone seeing him.


    He flew to the roof of the building and started to observe the city, surprisingly Stanley''s body was still pinned to the wall, but a banner was thrown over his body.


    ''Huh, they were probably having a hard time trying to remove the bolts from the wall,'' Lirian chuckled internally.


    That''s when the gates to the city started to grind open.


    Up on top of the keep walls someone appeared, it was just a random member of house Kurt and he delivered just a few words, "Those who wish to leave the city are free to do so!" the man stated in a defeated tone and disappeared from the walls once more.


    Lirian jumped across the roof tops of the city and made his way towards the wall, as he grew closer so did the sound of the chiming bells, that continued to play like the world was grieving.


    Eventually Lirian landed on top of the gate in plain sight for everyone to see him.


    Yet even as the soldiers looked at him with reddened eyes full of hate and anger, no one dared to move towards him.


    "All of you, get of the wall," Lirian said angering the soldiers even more.


    The soldiers continued to glare at Lirian, but they refused to move.


    "Oh, you want to be tough guys, huh?" Lirian questioned and brought out his spear, that he had taken as booty, and placed it against Izlandi''s throat.


    Izlandi was hanging in the air above him, with her eyes red from crying, she made a pitiful sight for everyone to behold, and the blade against her throat made them all freeze.


    The entire reason they were opening the gates was because she was being held as a captive, if she died than it was the end for House Kurt without a doubt, house Kant would take pleasure in using them to send a message.


    If House Kurt claimed that Izlandi was dead, House Kant would merely say that Izlandi fled from the city with the aid of her family.


    Even if House Kurt brought her body forward, House Kant would claim that it was a just some random half-elf being used as a body double.


    Then they would use that as justification to completely destroy House Kurt.


    The guards gradually started to retreat from the wall, in the attack the previous night, Lirian had taken down 16 of the 70 ballistae that lined the walls, he took out almost all of them from the western gate to the northern gate.


    However, there were still a few that remained.


    A while later there was movement from the city, the first few people reached the gates but they were hesitant to go any further, they kept glancing at the guards and back to the keep.


    It wasn''t until a while later that House Marshall arrived, with Lady Liberia at the lead and sitting on a horse besides her was her daughter Althea Marshall.


    The two nodded slightly at the sight of Lirian, in appreciation, and proceeded to move forward through the gates.


    The outside of the city was no better that than the city itself, the sight was equally if not more appalling than the inside of the city.


    There were thousands of dead bodies littering the area, what made it worse was that their were no walls or barriers to isolate the sight and smell, it was merely a mass grave yard and the earth was riddle with holes from the bolts that tore into it.


    Once the main members of House Marshall left the gate they raised their banners and took of with haste, and as time passed nothing happened, they rode and soon exited the range of the weapons without being attacked.


    Seeing that House Marshall made it out safely, people gradually started to stream out of the city, the houses closest to House Marshall also started to leave without looking back, and soon after that the less important noble houses started to pour out through the gates.


    But it didn''t end there, the residents of House Kurt''s city no longer felt safe after the barbaric acts of their leaders, and so a new tide formed, a tide that outnumbered even the nobles.


    People left by the thousands, and before long the outside had more people than there were inside the city, and still the flood of people showed no sign of coming to an end.


    In the end even the soldiers started to rip of their blue uniforms that signified their allegiance to house Kurt and joined within the crowds as they saw their friends and family leaving as well.


    What was the point of staying to fight if the people they were fighting for had left.


    Then an even more surprising turn of events occurred as the entirety of the merchant guild, came out with all their wares packed on dozens of carts, the sheer number of carts being drawn was the proof of the wealth and power the merchant guild held.


    With all that they brought it was a public statement of the merchant guild declaring that it would be completely withdrawing from house Kurt.


    It was a strange occurrence, especially since, even if the city was seized and taken by another power, no one would dare to attack the merchant guild.


    The new power would merely negotiate new terms with the guild and that was the end of it.


    As Lirian watched he was surprised to find that there were two knights amongst the ranks of the guild members, hired guards most likely, and it was apparent that they had the power to contend against Rupid and Conner Kurt if the need ever arose.


    As the guild moved through the gates, the two knights gave Lirian a deep glance before moving on and lastly Lirian could fell Moors looking at him, studying everything that there was to know about him.


    ''He plans on selling information about me,'' Lirian realised, ''I suppose that it''s only natural, he is a merchant after all.''


    Lirian grinned at Moors, which caused Moors to frown, he knew it from that look he''d been found out, but it seemed that Lirian had no intention of making trouble for him.


    Moors lowered his head and pulled the window on his carriage shut, yet even with his privacy he felt like he was completely seen through.


    The flow of people didn''t stop for hours, it was merely an hour before the sun went down went the last people left.


    In the end House Kurt was almost completely abandoned, only 7 minor noble house''s remained, 3 of which were apart of the 8 heads of the alliance, House Maxim, House Corius, House Vius.


    But with that little bit, it wouldn''t make any difference at all, House Kurt was doomed.


    The city was worse than Willcolly, when Lirian was done at Willcolly all the dead were converted into fate, but now the dead were littering every inch of the city.


    And currently, there were more dead in the city than the living.

 Chapter 378 - 143 – Truth Revealed

    "So, tell me, do you wish to continue with our plan, or would you rather die along side your family?" it was an honest question from Lirian.


    He waited for Izlandi to give him an answer, she had stopped crying hours ago, even a melodramatic noble trained in the ways of the theatre would find it a near impossible task to keep crying for hours on end.


    "..."


    "I-I-I¡­I want to continue," Izlandi snivelled after a long silence.


    Internally she was already coming up with plans of her own, ''You don''t want to take me with you, but I''ll definitely find a way to make you take me with you,'' she thought with determination.


    "I see," Lirian said, what ever her thoughts were Lirian had no clue, at this point it could be anything from planning out her future by herself, to betraying him, but Lirian didn''t care about it either.


    "Since we are still on the same page I have a question to ask you, does your family possess a condensation ring?" Lirian asked.


    Izlandi looked at Lirian blankly and tilted her head in confusion, "What is that?" she asked earnestly.


    Lirian sighed and shook his head, ''And here I was getting my hopes up about testing my current powers against a true knight.''


    A condensation ring was actually a special kind of stone that was born in nature, with just a singular purpose, it increased the potency of the world''s breath.


    The world had a third grade breath potency which meant that by using the worlds breath, the third grade was essentially the maximum that one would ever be able to reach, the worlds breath would offer no more aid in one''s cultivation journey.


    That said there were several natural solutions to breach this limit, and the easiest of all was to obtain a condensation ring, it was a special kind of stone that absorbed breath and increased its potency.


    Back on Xelia, Lirian had actually created a few devices from spare parts and components that could concentrate and intensify a fixed amount of breath.


    It could turn the breath into seventh grade quality in a couple hundred years.


    The thing about this world was, they weren''t technologically advanced, while the materials used to create the devices was just some scraps on Xelia, out here the materials would be less common, but not impossible to find, but Lirian figured that it would be a while before he needed to make use of such a device.


    ''Well I suppose that there is a chance that they possess one, after all Rupid does appear to have some mysterious contact that brought him all those ballistae, I guess that I''ll just have to wait and see,'' Lirian finally thought.


    "I''ll deliver the poison to you in a few days, given the current changes in the population, we won''t need nearly as much," Lirian said as he jumped of the wall, landing softly on the empty street.


    The city was pretty much emptied out, without a soul to be seen in any direction.


    Lirian suddenly came to a halt when he saw a speck of orange approaching.


    "We kept our part of the deal, now honour yours, return my niece this instant," Conner emerged and spoke in a slightly overbearing tone.


    "Oh," Lirian smiled at Conner, "It seems that you still haven''t learnt your lesson from earlier, would you like for me to repeat it?" Lirian smirked and the air around him came to a standstill as he exuded waves of crushing energy, that sent cracks spiralling through the ground.


    "Uncle," Izlandi shouted desperately, she could feel it, Lirian intended to kill him if he showed even an ounce more of disrespect.


    Conner gritted his teeth in frustration, but ultimately lowered his head, "Please return her to me," he eventually forced out.


    "Haha," Lirian laughed, "Where''s Rupid, I''m surprised that he didn''t come to take back his precious daughter?" Lirian asked, although he knew that Rupid was in no condition to move after the injuries he had inflicted on him.


    But feeling the rising anger in Conner, was enough to fill Lirian with glee, ''It really is so much fun to gloat over your victory,'' Lirian thought.


    "Here catch," Lirian said as he tossed Izlandi through the air and into Conner''s arms.


    After catching her Conner checked to see if she was fine and asked her several, important questions, which included asking her if Lirian took advantage of her in any physical manner.


    He sighed in relief when Izlandi said that she was completely fine, just then Izlandi heard a voice in her head, ''Do you see, even your uncle''s concern comes with a price, he was more relieved to hear that you''re still a virgin than anything else.''


    Izlandi closed her eyes and tried not to let Lirian''s words affect her mind, but she couldn''t deny that there was some truth to his words.


    With the questions over he picked up Izlandi and turned to leave.


    ''How rude he didn''t even thank me for being such an honourable man, I didn''t even touch a single part on her body, when I could have had my way with her?'' Lirian felt that he was truly ungrateful.


    "I''ve been meaning to ask how is that daughter of yours doing?" he asked suddenly with mocking concern.


    Conner stopped suddenly and Izlandi saw the murderous desires cropping up in his face, but she sighed in relief when he gritted his teeth and continued to move.


    "You know if your looking for a person to blame for all of this, it''s her and her squad," Lirian continued to call out from behind.


    "But then you knew that already, otherwise they wouldn''t be hanging in your dungeon,"


    "I wonder did any of them fess up the truth about where they really found me?" Lirian asked, finally his words triggered a response from Conner.


    Conner turned to face him with a cold glint in his eyes, "What do you mean?" he asked.


    Lirian chuckled, "Oh come on, can''t you put the pieces together, the silver hair, the caravan attacks, the disappearance of the Willcolly residents," Lirian sighed as he spelled it out for Conner.


    "You mean that was all you''re doing?" he asked.


    Lirian nodded with a gloating smile, "I must say that your descendants sure do know how to torture a guy, for almost an entire month they had their way with me," Lirian said.


    "But I must say I''m quite disappointed, you really thought your people how dish to it out, but unfortunately you guys aren''t capable of taking as much as you dish out, it''s pathetic really," Lirian laughed.


    "All it took me was a few days and you''ve already folded under my feet, like good little dogs," Lirian mocked him incessantly.


    "And you know what, all of it is thanks to your daughter, you must feel so proud to have raised such a prodigal child, she successfully brought about the collapse of your family,"


    "Your ancestors will be so proud when they find out," Lirian gloated.


    "Damn you," Conner turned back in a rage with his mana pouring into his fingers.


    "UNCLE STOP!" Izlandi cried and grabbed his arm in fear, "He''s trying to goad you into a fight you can''t win!" she cried desperately to his reason.


    Conner stopped and heaved heavily, his eyes were like piercing drills, meant to drill deep into Lirian''s heart.

 Chapter 379 - 144 – Hidden Danger *

    Lirian laughed at the piercing glare.


    "You should listen to your niece, she''s smarter than the rest of you idiots," Lirian said, and he did mean it, she was the only to go with what her gut told her about Lirian, and she even gave it some time to think before acting on her gut feeling.


    Whereas Reyna and her squad, all had that exact same feeling when they faced him, but they chose not to listen it, having a good gut was essential if one wanted to whether the storms.


    It was just a good asset to have.


    "Remember this, from now on I''ll be entering your keep every night to torture those buffoons in your dungeon, if anyone gets in my way, all it will take is a thought and I''ll flatten your home to the ground," Lirian left those words before departing.


    ---


    A week quickly passed.


    In that time the remaining soldiers had started to clear up the city of the corpse''s, the bodies were starting to rot and stink.


    Fires burned bright as the bodies were burnt day in and day out.


    Since the day the city was abandoned no new attacks came, but fear still lingered in the hearts of the remaining soldiers.


    Every day they were reminded that Lirian was still present within the city, watching their every move, when columns of the walls would light up in a blinding silver light.


    To people of House Kurt the colour silver had become synonymous with misfortune, and those rays of light would fill them with nightmares.


    They were tasked with finding out what the purpose of those lights were, but so far they were clueless, but they all felt like it was a sign.


    A sign that their horrors were not over, and that misfortune could strike them at any time.


    The bottom floor of the keep had been completely abandoned; it was strange like having an off-limits place in one''s own home.


    It wasn''t that no one was allowed to enter, but rather that no one dared, whenever they listened closely they would hear the chains being grinded as if they were under extreme stress, but they heard no screams, not even a shout, that was the scary part.


    It was hard for anyone to feel hopeful, it was like a nightmare that they couldn''t awake from, the only source of happiness that anyone felt was surprisingly from something that they had previously detested.


    Izlandi was to be taken away in a little over a week, originally no one was looking forward to it, it was just going to be a farce for House Kurt to be insulted.


    Yet many of those remaining were starting to look forward to the day, even if they would be insulted, they would feel a lot safer with people from a high family present.


    Yet on that day another piece of bad news was making its way up through the keep, or rather it should be said that three pieces of bad news were making their way up in the form of three outstanding beauties.


    They were adorned in their favourite colours, the fiery red head Jasmine in her seductive red dress, the boisterous Lily in her white dress that revealed most of her jiggling cleavage, and the calming and gentle Lavender, standing at the lead.


    They pushed past the guards and walked into the great hall, without caring about the disruption they were creating, they continued until they stood before Lord Rupid, who was currently in his seat at the head of the table.


    Lord Rupid had recovered from his wounds, at least enough for him to be able to move around a little, and as he looked at the three feisty woman, he didn''t care for their bad attitude, he had locked his hungry gaze on their bodies.


    They were his late son''s personal whores, given to him as gifts by some of the nobles he had a good relationship with.


    Since his son was dead, he had been intending to go and claim them for himself, he was glad to see them come in by themselves, he needed something to vent all his frustration on, and what better than a few whores.


    "All of you leave us," Rupid ordered.


    A moment later it was just him and the three women, and he looked at them hungrily.


    "You," he pointed at Lavender who was standing in the lead with a smug smile that seemed to say, ''I know what you want,'' "Come up here and serve me," he said.


    "Oh my, Lord Rupid," Lavender called out in a sweet and cute voice, "Are you sure you want that, given that the last person who used to play with me was your son?" she asked but let her dress slip from her shoulders, revealing her fair snowy shoulders.


    She walked up to him and slowly allowed her dress to drop, bit by bit revealing a little more of her ample breasts.


    "You two, get up here as well," Rupid ordered Jasmine and Lily as he shoved everything of the table in front of him.


    "Oh my, you''re such a greedy boy," Lavender said coquettishly and allowed her dress to fall even lower, completely revealing her hardened nipples to Rupid, she could feel his eyes filled with desire and lust.


    When she reached Rupid, he savagely pulled her dressed down, revealing her pearl jewel, that was perfect and cleanly shaven, ripe for being devoured.


    Without a second thought Rupid lifted her and pressed her naked body against the table, and as he hurriedly undid his pants, he watched as she spread her legs wide, practically inviting him in.


    Glistening juices seeped from the crevice between her legs, which made him burn even more with unbridled lust.


    Rupid caught her legs and prepared to thrust in, but Lavender quickly pulled her legs free and wiggled her sexy body out of the way, ''I see that it''s like father like son, an insatiable hunger, but lacking the necessary tools to pleasure a woman,'' she thought with amusement.


    Rupid found himself annoyed by her sudden attempt to break free, in annoyance he caught her sexy long legs by their meaty thighs and attempted to push them apart, yet he was met with an unexpected amount of resistance.


    He tried again using a little of his real strength, but once more he was met with resistance that was impossible for an ordinary mortal to possess.


    He looked down at Lavender and this time he found that she was grinning at him, with a smile that said ''I got you.''


    Just as he was about to use force, he suddenly felt a heat build up to his side and as he turned to look he saw a flame building up in Jasmines hands, ''No runes'' he noted as she blew on the flames in a seductive manner.


    The flames raced out to meet him and forced him to retreat a few steps, but a heavy wind howled and tossed him flying backwards, with a glance he saw that it was Lily who cast the spell.


    Rupid glanced back at Lavender and watched as her erect nipples rapidly returned to normal and the glistening juices stopped seeping from between her legs.


    "Spies," he said through gritted teeth.


    "Of course," Lavender answered with a charismatic smile, "You didn''t really think that anyone in Proge would be so cruel as to gift three beautiful woman such as ourselves to your worthless toad of a son?" she asked without ever losing that calm and welcoming smile.

 Chapter 380 - 145 – Rupid’s Ambition

    Jasmine and Lily grabbed the dress that had been pulled of Lavender''s body.


    Lavender extended her long and intoxicating legs and dropped and slipped through the dress, she even managed to make put her clothes back on look sexy, as she slowly brought it up to cover  ample bosom and slipped her hands back through the short sleeves.


    "Relax Lord Rupid," Lavender smiled, "We aren''t here to kill you, we simply have some questions to ask of you,"


    "You see, your actions over the years have garnered quite a lot of attention from the nobles in Proge, and I imagine that the same holds true for Riverfall, our Lady simply wishes to know what resulted in your banishment from Riverfall?"


    "Do you really think that I''ll answer you?" Rupid asked coldly, as he pulled up his pants.


    From their attacks he was able to gauge their strengths, they weren''t at his level, meaning they were still adepts only they were strong, much stronger than any adept his house possessed.


    If he were at his best he would have been able to handle them, but currently he couldn''t be sure, and that was probably why they revealed their power now.


    They knew that this was their only chance to beat him if the need arose, the fact that they chose to act meant that they had some degree of confidence.


    Lavender merely sighed at his response it wasn''t unexpected, "I swear, we owe that silver haired fellow for the number he did to you, but he just had to kill our hostage in the process," she said with a sigh.


    Rupid''s eyes widened in realisation, they were planning on using Stanley as a hostage to extract the intel out of him.


    "But lucky for us, our lady is nothing if not scrupulous in her planning and anticipated that Stanley might be assassinated," said Lavender as Jasmine pulled out what appeared to be a cube.


    Rupid''s eyes dilated at he looked at the black granite like cube.


    "So, you recognise what this is," Lavender commented with a pleased look in her eyes, "Then you know what it does,"


    "We''ve already attached the receiver to the cultivation chamber your family ancestor is in," as she spoke the black cube started to light up with a series of circles that glowed in a blue light.


    "All that it will take is a thought and the breath filter on the cultivation chamber will lose its effects temporarily," she informed Rupid.


    "Tell us what we want to know, or your family ancestor and your last hope to salvage the situation will be subjected to the poisonous breath of the world," Lavender threatened all the while maintaining a perfectly calm smile.


    No one could have possibly understood the emotions running wild through Rupid''s mind, everything that he had ever done, had literally collapsed all around him.


    The best heir he fathered was given the most humiliating death a man could ever receive, all the careful plans that he laid out fuelled by his ego to one day raise his house to the status of high noble, had been effectively crushed by a single unknown entity.


    A person with no known status, or any renown, it was humiliating beyond all compare, one that his house would likely never recover from, and now to kick him while he was down even some lowly whores were pushing him around.


    It was a humiliation like no one could possibly imagine, one that filled him with grief and anguish yet there was nothing he could do against it.


    As things stood he could imagine how his ancestors must have been spitting in their graves and cursing for his failure, now he had to make a choice reveal the truth or risk the death of the only person who could salvage the fate of his house.


    But revealing the truth was just as bad perhaps worse.


    If they learnt of the whole truth then his house would never recover, no it was likely that his house would be flattened and not a single member would be spared.


    ''No,'' Rupid thought ''I can tell them the truth I simply have to omit a few details,'' he realised.


    "Which house do you hail from?" Rupid asked first.


    Lavender smirked, "Answer my question first, then I''ll answer yours, you have no reason to fear that I''ll lie to you, we have nothing to fear from the likes of a lowly noble house," she spoke confidently.


    "I was never truly banished from Riverfall," said Rupid, yet he noted the lack of shock on the three women''s faces, it seemed that they already guessed that much.


    "It was just a part of the plan to quickly take the region," Rupid explained, "In my early days I stepped on a lot of toes and made a lot of enemies, I made even more when I came into power in my expansion and seizure of lands,"


    "The plan was to make everyone believe that House Mantis severed our all ties with me and use their connections with the Crusader King of Riverfall to have me exiled from the city," he started, House Mantis was a high noble family in Riverfall, and in terms of power and influence they were only beneath the Crusader King Lord Egbert Fallion.


    "With my collapsed status it was only a matter of time before all my old enemies decided to attack and attempt to force me to surrender, taking back all that I had taken from them and more,"


    "You planned to allow them to slowly take all your lands and lay siege to your city and that was when you were going to use the ballistae, to take them by surprise and commit a slaughter to cut down their numbers once all their forces were gathered together," Lavender guessed.


    Rupid nodded, in acknowledgment, "At that point he losses would already be too high on both sides to continue the war, to avoid further losses I was to propose that each side chooses a champion and a battle to the death between champions would determine the outcome," Rupid finished, everything that he said was the truth.


    "That''s a risky last resort you were going to propose, what would you have done if you lost?" she asked.


    "To achieve something great, risk is a necessity, those who avoid risk will never achieve greatness," Rupid quoted, words he had heard from many.


    "That is a great quote," Lavender applauded, it was one she heard many times, that was because it was more than just a quote it was a truth, a truth that inspired so many people to cause trouble in their pursuit of something more.


    "Now then for the real question I need answered, it''s more a three-part question with only one right answer," she said with a charming smile.


    However, Rupid shook his head, "I answered your question now you answer mine, who do you serve?"


    "I suppose that is only fair," Lavender replied, "Lily show it to him," she said.


    Lily nodded and raised her bare arm, as Rupid looked at it, it started to shimmer with light then like it was an illusion the light vanished to reveal her hand, only this time their was a marking that covered her entire arm.


    A white marking that resembled vines and thorns, stretched all the way from her palm and up to the shoulder.

 Chapter 381 - 146 – Heavenly Empress Ivy

    Rupid bolted to his feet when he saw the markings and his eyes threatened to jump out of their sockets.


    "Why, Why would she be involving herself in this?!" he asked with his back drenched in a cold sweat, those markings, "And why would you people even be in Proge?" he asked, the slight overbearingness in Rupid''s voice had all vanished, instead he had to now speak to these whores, as equals.


    No, in fact, their status even superseded his own in many ways.


    "Now, now you have to play by the rules, we answered your question, it''s time you answered mine don''t you think?" Lavender asked with her smile growing even more smug.


    Rupid didn''t even dare to complain and merely nodded in acceptance like an obedient child.


    "We want to know who the real master mind is behind the unification of the region?"


    "Is it Lady Sicilia Mantis, your backer?" she asked with a strange smile.


    Rupid opened his mouth to answer, but Lavender put a finger against her lips to quieten him down, she wasn''t done speaking.


    "Is it Unity that has gotten your ambitions so lit up?" she asked with a smile that sent shivers down Rupid''s spine.


    "Or is it both of the above, a collaboration between a high noble family, Unity and a little noble with far too much ambition to reach beyond his station?" she posed the final question with a fierceness that made Rupid want to squeal.


    ''Damn it, how do they know, how could they possibly know?'' he cursed internally.


    "Now then, Lord Rupid it is imperative that you answer me honestly, this goes far beyond the continued existence of your House, if Unity has had dealings with high nobles this is something that will affect all of Mithland and the entirety of the human race?" she said in a most severe tone, and even the everlasting smile that she always seemed able to wear left her face.


    "This was just between myself and Lady Sicilia, the current head of House Mantis intends to step down and focus on becoming a Crusader, Lady Sicilia and her brother are currently at odds for the seat,"


    "She intended to use me to Unify the region, then once I rose to become a high noble I was to join House Mantis using my house as a supporting banner, the achievement of Unify the region and bringing a new high noble house under House Mantis''s banner, would have earned her all the merit she required to become the new head of the family," Rupid hurriedly explained.


    Every word he said was true, that was one of her main reasons for supporting him, it just so happened that Unity''s plan''s coincided with theirs, and they offered to fund a lot of the plan, the ballistae for instance were funded by Unity, and like that they were both brought into the fold.


    At least Rupid believed that both of them were brought in at the same time.


    Lavender frowned slightly at his response, most of what she knew came from her master, and she had never doubted her master''s words.


    The smile resurfaced on her face as she had an idea, "You know that your House is in danger of being exterminated don''t you, but imagine what would happen if people were to learn that you were under the protection of Heavenly Empress Ivy,"


    "I beat that no one would dare to lay a finger on your house, not even the other races would dare to take you lightly, let alone some silver haired nobody, all your ambitions would be achieved and so much more," she offered and it was the most enticing of offers.


    She noted the wavering eyes of Rupid, and she finally had her complete confirmation, she knew that her master''s assumptions on the situation were correct.


    Rupid found himself wavering, it was the most enticing of offers, one that every high noble family and most great families would die to have, let alone a noble family like his.


    Yet at the same time he knew that accepting such an offer would mean betraying Unity, and not even the title of a Heavenly Empress was enough to dissuade Unity, and he doubted that Heavenly Empress Ivy herself would show up to protect a simple noble like him she wasn''t even likely to send one of her Crusaders.


    And he knew that the first person to come after him after such a betrayal would be none other than a Crusader and master of the shadows at that.


    Rupid shut his eyes and shook his head, his best bet to get out of this was to rely on his father, his father seemed confident in his ability to become a true knight, that would have to be enough.


    "I already told you everything I know, now answer me, why is a Heavenly Empress taking an interest in this part of the world?" he asked.


    Lavender was surprised, by his rejection of her offer, but she hid it well as did Jasmine and Lily.


    But he had already lied to them twice now, pushing was going to get them nowhere, besides she had already made him the best offer she could, if that wasn''t enough, nothing was going to cut it.


    "The reason is simple, the desolation will open soon,"


    "Most of the major cities have already rallied their main attack forces and they are slowly beginning to set out for the north,"


    "It will be the ideal time for trouble makers like Unity to undermine and seize control of the regions, but the only way for them to legitimise their new lands is through ambitious nobles like you, who are willing to sell out your people for the sake of fortune and opportunities,"


    "Your movements over the past century have caught the attention of more than just our master, all the great cities and even the royal city has been paying attention to you,"


    "It''s just that until now there was no urgency in dealing with the mess you''ve caused in this placed, but now that the desolation is opening we have to ensure that we know who our allies are and who we need to get rid of," Lavender explained.


    "Now then our business here is done, you are to provide us with a proper escort to Blindwatch," Lavender demanded.


    "Lady Lavender, you see the state of my house, I cannot afford to put together an escort worthy of you, all my strongest people are necessary to support¡­" Rupid started to excuse himself from fulfilling this request.


    "Humph," Lavender snorted lightly, "Even with your house''s entire force working together you were unable to defeat one man, if he returns to attack you what difference will it make,"


    "Quite frankly if you send people to escort us, you''ll have a better chance of having a few members of your family survive,"


    "You can send your brother, after all he''s the only one who''ll be useful in acting as a guard, and he can bring that daughter of his along,"


    "I hear that he is searching for a way to heal her, he can''t, but if there is anyone that can heal her it''s our master," she said quickly turning on her heel with her dress fluttering.


    Rupid clenched his fist, those women didn''t need him to provide an escort for their safety, he knew she was just doing it to get back at him for not giving her what she wanted, and he didn''t dare to refuse.