Dyon had personally read Aritzia’s article when it came out, so he knew that trouble was lurking around the corner.
Although the deductions on his power level were slightly off, they weren’t entirely so. In fact, they could be considered quite accurate. In addition, he was also far younger than more God title characters considering he finished in 13 years rather than the customary centuries. Only the top ten geniuses and a few within the top 30s of a couple rankings could compare with his speed.
So, although the route of deduction was false, it still ended on the correct note, which resulted in the current problems Dyon faced.
In truth, Dyon wasn’t completely certain that characters like Hela were in the tower. If he was, he would likely go all out to kill them before they could return with news. However, Hela’s performance in the tower clearly wasn’t as eye catching as his.
For one, she was comparatively old when she entered her trials, so they were far more difficult than Dyon’s. So, she had no fate with the rankings at all.
Secondly, Dyon would have no idea which quadrant she went to. Although he was certain that it was either the 30th or the 98th, because they were adjacent to his quadrant and traveling further would take exponentially more energy, that still left 200 possible universes they could be in, as well as thousands of sects and clans on top of trillions of people.
He simply had no fate with finding them.
So, Dyon immediately went to the worst-case scenario: this information would soon be received by those of his quadrant.
That said, Dyon managed to calm himself and think rationally.
Firstly, despite only roughly 30% of gates being of the essence level, 30% of thousands was still thousands in this context.
Secondly, because of the fog barrier, it would take forever for Hela and the other two to get information back to their respective clans. Unlike Clara, they couldn’t make use of the internet as they saw fit because the Sapientia had put many restrictions on it. And, even if they could, it wouldn’t mean anything considering the celestial deer quadrant hadn’t had contact with the outside world, and thus had no internet to speak of either.
Thirdly, even if they found his universe, so what?
Dyon already had a mole within the Uidah, and the Pakal and Ragnors couldn’t encroach on Uidah territory. Since he controlled all the sons and daughters of the meridian and saint level, the Uidah had no chance of attacking an essence gate successfully, and for obvious reasons, they couldn’t send any higher powered beings into the gate, lest they wanted to die an ugly death.
The only thing Dyon had to worry about was the Uidah using other devices to enter their universe like the Kitsune and Madeleine estranged parents had.
Unfortunately for them, Dyon highly doubted they had access to such a treasure.
The Dukes and Duchesses, as well as the Kitsune, were all from a 30th ranked quadrant. Dyon had already deduced this because Dukes and Duchesses of the 98th quadrant couldn’t possible beat the like of Loki and the rest. In addition, Madeleine’s mother was moon level alchemist! She was, without a doubt, among the richest individuals in the entire quadrant. Her being able to afford such a treasure was also within reason.
However… The Ragnor, Pakal and Uidah clans were all relatively newly established. Even when sending their top genius, Loki, to an unknown universe, the Ragnors hadn’t been able to give him even one transcendent treasure, causing him to become greedy for Dyon’s possessions.
Their quadrant was one that had even forgotten about its own Epistemic Tower! They were pitiful in terms of resources despite having the energy density of a once first ranked quadrant.
Despite his mind being at ease, and not allowing this to ruin his vacation, Dyon placed this Aritzia along side Emytheus among characters he would have to pay close attention to. He wasn’t particularly angry with either of because they had yet to do anything to cross his bottom line, but their deviousness and cleverness put Dyon on guard.
In truth, if Aritzia knew Dyon thought this, she would only smile. She had been the first to state not to make an opinion piece, yet what had she done almost immediately afterward?
She knew exactly what she was doing. In fact, she had only written this article for one reason: in order to catch Dyon’s attention.
Why? Because while Emytheus thought her list of potential husbands had expanded to two, in reality, to Aritzia, it was three. It was just two bad she didn’t know that two of those three were the exact same man.
It had been decades since the last time Aritzia personally wrote an article, but this one truly swept the world up into a storm. Her name once again catapulted to the forefront, causing Emytheus to shake his head bitterly.
“It seems I’ll have to speed up this war to become key wielder. If I wait too long, those two will think it’s okay to have thoughts about my woman!” It was only after he read the article that Emytheus learned the list was three long…
Within a snow palace, Dyon couldn’t find the mood to care about such things as he focused on loving his wives.
A man who wanted to compete with him over a woman he didn’t even want?
A woman who thought she could one day steal him from his wives and make him take her name?
He didn’t have the patience. If they wanted to test him, come one, come all.
Soon, the end of the fourth month came and the time for the Golden Flame Quadrant’s campaigns was quickly approaching. It was about time for Dyon to go off on a new adventure.