Moments later, Dyon walked into Lotus Tower with Ri still sleeping in his arms. It didn’t take him long to spot a bloodied Delia, breathing heavily even in meditation.
She sat near the edge of the Lotus Tower gardens, but she had left a clear trail of blood along the once lush and beautiful greenery.
The anger that Dyon had tried to temper raised in his heart again. Ever since he had come to this martial world, the cruelty of its people and rules had been grating on him. And maybe the worst part was that he was beginning to realize as he matured, that maybe the mortal realm wasn’t so different. Maybe his anger had clouded his judgement into making him think that the mortal realm was somehow some utopia in comparison when that was really far from the case.
The only difference between the mortal and martial realm is that the people here had power. And what Dyon was beginning to realize was that power doesn’t change people, it just makes them more of what they already were.
If the mortal realm suddenly gained the ability to extend their lives by hundreds of time, or the ability to grow strong enough to take your destiny into your own hands, would the outcome really be much different from what Dyon was witnessing here?
The martial realm was a place where no one hesitated to turn on their own comrades – comrades that had quite literally just been putting their lives on the line for you – just for a small chance as survival.
Were the big sect geniuses truly stupid enough to believe that Silvyr would let them go should they follow her orders? Dyon doubted it… No one is that stupid.
They simply latched onto their last fading hope. They latched onto the easy way out. They didn’t want to fight against a mountain they deemed unclimbable.
“Delia? Have some of these fruits.”
Delia’s head snapped up. She had been too focused on healing and recovery, even to the point where she hadn’t heard Dyon approach her.
Dyon was slightly started by the cold blue in Delia’s eyes. It was odd. Her hair was no longer white, but her eyes still permeated with a dense ice that made even Dyon uncomfortable.
“Delia? Is something wrong?” Dyon felt silly asking this question. Of course something was wrong, she was littered with injuries and had lost far too much blood. But, he still felt that there was something off…
“I – “ Delia seemed confused herself. She felt that something in her had changed, but she didn’t know what it was. It had to have something to do with her god level constitution, but, she hadn’t had any constitution awakening pills. So, she had no concept of what could be different.
Dyon shook his head, “It’s alright. We can figure it out later. What’s most important is that you recover.” After shifting a bit awkwardly because he wasn’t willing to let go of Ri, Dyon managed to take some energy fruits he had stored in his ring and gently lay them in Delia’s lap with wind will.
A small smile graced Delia’s lips in that instant. The thought of someone who had become as powerful as Dyon still seeming like a scared child when it came to not wanting Ri to feel uncomfortable, or how he was still so thoughtful to her in that same instant, it made her realize that the world she had been hating all this time still had some good people in it.
Well, that and Dyon did look silly trying to figure everything out with his arms occupied.
After nibbling on a few fruits, Delia felt much better. Although not fully healed, with her essence energy replenished, it would only be a matter of time and rest.
However, Dyon didn’t leave her. He instead chose to sit cross-legged and speak with Delia. It wasn’t that he wanted to romance Delia in any way. If he was being honest with himself, he simply didn’t have feelings of that nature for her. But, he owed it to both Delia and Ava to figure out whether or not the illusions of the old man were true or not.
Someone might think that there was no use in doubting the illusions anymore now that it was confirmed that something really had happened to the Viridi family. However, Dyon remember quite clearly that during the trial, Jade wasn’t sure what happened to the Viridi family either. She spoke in maybes, and not absolutes.
Maybe the old man just made a good guess. And maybe, he specifically went with guesses that he knew would hit the deepest parts of Dyon’s feelings. If that was the case, maybe Delia had never seen him as more than a friend at all.
As Dyon spoke with Delia, he learned a lot. He learned about her troubles with her father. He learned more about the Clyte God Clan and how they had taken her mother from her. He learned about what Madeleine’s relationship meant to Delia, and how in a lot of ways, Madeleine was more like the mother she hadn’t seen in more than a decade rather than just a big sister.
Seeing Delia open up, Dyon did the same. He had never really felt as though he had issues sharing about his parents. In fact, he had told Madeleine about his parents on their very first date together. Although it was something that pained him, he had always felt that it was a story he should tell with a smile on his face.
The truth of the matter was how he felt inside about it wasn’t smile worthy. In fact, it was something that still hurt him very deeply. If not, the trial wouldn’t have been much of a trial for him at all. But, sometimes finding strength is pain is better than ignoring it all together. And maybe thanks to that, Dyon had gained a good friend in Delia.
Far away in a completely separate gate, the battle for an otherworldly legacy had ended and while thousands were disappointed, there was one beauty in particular that was quite content.
Wreathed in flames of dense purple, Madeleine meditated silently.
Her already pristine body was reaching a next level of evolution as her every cell seemed to be being flooded with this new and untold energy.
The curve of her features, the softness of her skin, even the small smile that graced her lips were only becoming more impeccable with each passing instant.
For some inexplicable reason, her glasses burst to ashes. If anyone of the Sapientia family had saw this, the level of shock would have been unmatched.
The spectacles of the Sapientia family were not made of normal material… In fact, they were tempered and forged within the peak most levels of Gama energy found in the peak most levels of the Sapientia family.
While Madeleine clothes burning away made perfect sense, for material tempered by such a high form of energy to burst under these flames?… Just what were they?
Not many knew or understood the Sapientia family. In many ways, they were the most powerful of clans in existence, and yet, they didn’t make moves to conquer much of anything… But, they held a strong presence everywhere.
In Dyon’s universe alone, they had a God Clan on every planet for five total. In fact, the truth of other universes may not be so different. Maybe the most surprising part was that many of its branches were limited by the God Clan title, but were only labeled as such, because they never made any move to conquer even the planets they lived on, let alone any entire universes or quadrants.
Maybe this was why powerful clans allowed them to maintain such a powerful hold on information, communication and economy. However, no one in the martial world was that naïve. To believe that a group of powerful experts would never become greedy and want more was nothing but the wish of a fool. The reason why the existence of the Sapientia God Clans were allowed was because of one major thing: they had no unity… Or… They did a very good job of pretending they didn’t.
As Libro had once told Dyon long ago, the Sapientia God Clan was the only clan that allowed entry of non-Sapientia born people. Because of this, there was little loyalty or leadership among even the highest echelons of the Sapientia. It really did seem like they only existed for the pursuit of knowledge.
They were archeologists and historians, they were merchant and peddlers, they were professors and cultivators… But, as Airic Sapientia had lamented, they weren’t conquerors. In fact, the Sapientia, who would have been the foremost leaders in tactics should the martial world have made rampant use of them, didn’t actually have any books on such things at all.
In fact, this was very deliberate. The Sapientia family went out of its way to remain as unantagonistic and as disjointed and ununited as possible.
However… There was still something odd that many picked up on.
There was no unity, and yet Sapientia family members were clearly marked with golden eyes? There was no unity and the Sapientia family all had the very same glasses? There was no unity and yet the Sapientia family insisted on those who joined changing their last names and publishing their works under the Sapientia family name?
There seemed to be something odd going on. And yet, no one could ever place their finger on it. So, many ignored it.
The Sapientia family had contributed too much and were far too useful and docile to be done away with. Normal cultivators didn’t have time to refine their techniques as much as they would like to. They didn’t have the time to explore and find better energy stone mines and sources. They didn’t have the time to document or even care about history.
Although some families could do these things on their own scale, no one could do it to the scale that the Sapientia did. So, they continued to exist… Keeping everything within their scope and foreplanning…
However, now something outside their scope of understanding had occurred. Their Sapientia glasses had completely burst and a genius that had already been near the heights of everything, had reached an entirely new height.
Madeleine had fought hard for this right.
She had climbed stairs that tested her will. She had been seared and singed with flames of red and frozen to the core with flames of blue.
She had used her wits to jump through puzzles and loops and in the end, she had made it here with only two other opponents to face…
Prince Belmont… And… The third daughter of the essence gathering level.
In the end, it wasn’t Madeleine’s power that won. In fact, although she had thought she stood a chance against the two of them, she quite simply didn’t.
The third daughter of the Uidah was already of the mid levels of the essence gathering level and she was a lower 2nd Grade expert! Her use of Ethereal permeation was nothing like the fighters Dyon had faced.
With years of training, she had managed to learn to perfectly fuse her Ethereal Permeation with her weapon of choice – an elegantly made fan. Her use of wind will and an odd blade type will when coupled with ethereal permeation was enough to match even Madeleine’s first level intent!
If Dyon had known this, he would have been quite shocked. He had yet to meet a single other person with the ability to fuse wills like he could, and yet here was a genius doing so with a will of the supreme law level.
But, maybe the most shocking thing was that Prince Belmont might have been even more impressive than the third daughter of the Uidah essence gatherers…
Some might not see why that’s impressive. As a first prince of the Royal God Clan, why wouldn’t he be able to match up to someone who was only the third best of King God Clan?…
But, Madeleine thought different…
Not only was Prince Belmont from a vastly inferior universe with vastly inferior resources and energy density… He was also four cultivation levels lower than the third daughter…
Prince Belmont was somehow able to completely dominate the third daughter of the Uidah, with vastly inferior cultivation despite being from an inferior universe. And maybe the worst part for third daughter? He was younger than her too.
Before the battle had even really began, Madeleine was completely outmatched. Due to no fault of her own, she also held her own age disadvantage. Madeleine had only just recently turned seventeen during this campaign, and yet third daughter was well into her twenties, and most likely already thirty plus years of age. And although Prince Belmont was only in his lower twenties, age disparity meant even more the younger you were because those were the years cultivation progressed the quickest.
As Madeleine’s master had once said, cultivation drastically slows down even at the peak meridian formation levels. A genius could sweep through the foundation stage and the beginning of the meridian formation stages almost in their sleep. However, things began to change soon after that, and the first drastic change was with the essence gathering level.
One could go from charging through meridian formation levels every few weeks to months, to taking years to fill even a single meridian with essence energy. This only gets worse with the saint cultivation levels where experts sometimes spend decades and even upwards of a century or more on a single stage.
Unfortunately, this only became all the more exaggerated when you were in a universe as weak as this one…
So, when Prince Belmont may near quick work third daughter, Madeleine had been shocked.
The truth was that Prince Belmont hadn’t laid a finger on Madeleine. Having been surprised by Madeleine’s power and ability to make it this far, he had been even more determined in making her his wife. In his logical view, even with his power, he needed someone powerful to stand by his side. As such, in an act of fake chivalry, he had allowed the women to fight each other first, knowing Madeleine would lose.
Then, he defeated third daughter and stepped to the podium to accept his reward…
However, he was rejected…
A normal person might have raged at this outcome. After going through all of this and putting his life on the line, the legacy still refused to join with him. However, Prince Belmont said nothing, felt nothing, and showed nothing. It was almost as though this was an outcome he had expected.
In fact, Prince Belmont only had a single thought before he thought to walk to Madeleine, ‘The Belmont family really isn’t worth much.’
However, when he turned to look for Madeleine, she was gone. A faint and imperceptible light flashed in his eyes at this realization.
A legacy that had disappeared without a trace from the world had reappeared that day. The combination of the hottest fires in existence, with the coldest embers. This was a legacy not match by many and was the very basis of the Belmont family’s lineage. And yet, it didn’t go to a member of the Belmont family…
Amethyst… The singular violet phoenix in existence. The only supreme beast of its kind. Chose Madeleine.
The most important bloodline of the Belmont family. The bloodline and lineage that had kept the fires of their family raging for centuries. Was now in the hands of someone else…
So, as Prince Belmont left the tower alone, leaving Madeleine to the Sapientia family to head home first. His only thoughts were to let his father know as quickly as possible. Madeleine could marry no one else but a Belmont. And that Belmont had to be him.
It didn’t matter that Amethyst didn’t think his talent was worthy. It didn’t matter that Madeleine would likely soon be stronger than him. What mattered was that Madeleine’s virginity now held the key to bringing the Belmont family to new heights.
Before, Madeleine was the only virgin with a 100% access to her god level constitution. That made her value unprecedented and unmatched since no one knew who Ri was or that she even had a faith seed.
But now, Madeleine was not only a virgin. She was a virgin with both a god constitution and one of the most powerful faith seeds in existence…
**
As Madeleine was being wreathed in flames, Dyon sat silently meditating by a large bed in an inn.
They had long since left the gates and were now stationed in a place called Arena City. The world tournament was just a few weeks away and with Earth hosting this time, there was no need to head back to the Elvin Kingdom.
Dyon had opted to stay here. Partially because he wanted to get Ri into a settled environment as quickly as possible, and partly because he wanted to be in a place where he could see Madeleine when she arrived.
Little Lyla and Zaire were chatting and playing on the edge of the bed. It was funny to Dyon because he imagined the scene was quite similar while Ri was waiting for him to wake up. And it was maybe even funnier because he had no idea what children like them talked about for so long. They seemed to never leave each other’s side. But, that made Dyon happy – as though he had a real family again.
That said, right now Dyon was focused on something entirely different. He had jumped forward in cultivation far too quickly and needed time to meditate on his changes. Although the awkward feeling he had had subsided since his fight with Arios, he still felt like there were more things about his body he needed to come to understand better.
The good news was that there was no need to consolidate his foundation. Although the set of meridians the old man had given him were no different from anyone else’s, they had been tempered to perfection in terms of meridian formation standards. If Dyon tried to temper anymore with meridian formation level Gama energy, it would be a waste. And, he wasn’t yet strong enough to handle essence gathering level Gama energy.
‘First, we understand ourselves. Then, we wait for Ri to wake up. And then,” Dyon’s eyes flashed with the black flames of his anger, “They pay.”