Ri watched silently as Dyon meditated quietly. His skin was noticeably reddened from its previous tanned color and sweat beaded down his forehead. Yet, despite the pain he was in, a wide smile could be seen on his face.
Ri thought Dyon was crazy for enjoying the pain of whatever cultivation method he was going through right now. But, if she knew he was smiling because he was gaining more benefits than he could count without spending a dime, Dyon would lose whatever higher position he had just gained in Ri’s heart.
Little Lyla, though, had eaten her fill and was happily playing around with Little Black.
The food seemed to have been of great benefit to Little Black as well, because his fur and scales were shining with a pure sheen. Even the white swirls that graced his luscious coat seemed to be made of shining with lights of their own.
However, Dyon could be said to have gotten the most from this experience. His blood essence, which had stalled in its integration for such a long time, had been pushed violently upwards. His demon qilin and celestial deer essences were already approaching 10% while his demon sage essence was pushing upwards to 2%.
Initially, this surprised Dyon because he thought the process would take longer. But then he remembered back to the months of training he underwent. Not only did he prime a good percentage of the essences for easier integration, his body itself had gotten stronger, so the process was less of a hassle.
All the while, Dyon had ordered himself another Ice Petal’s Dance because it was the perfect fruit for calming his raging essence imbalance.
The was because Dyon was becoming more and more aware of how domineering the sage’s blood essence truly was. For one, his soul had reached the 5th stage with no problem. Dyon was clear of the fact this was only possible with the help of the sage demon’s blood. If it wasn’t for it, how would Dyon’s body be able to handle such a powerful soul?
The second reason was because despite Dyon’s increase in soul strength, and by extension aurora strength, he still couldn’t heal his own body effectively. Although minor injuries weren’t a problem, if he got injured like he did back at the legacy world opening again, even with his improved soul he would need weeks to recuperate. This meant Dyon had no choice but to invest heavily into using the pill condensation technique to create potent medicine for himself. But, if he had to use such powerful pills already… what would happen when he integrated even more of the sage’s blood essence?
In the end, Dyon decided to cast all of this from his mind. He easily chose strength over those worries. Maybe, one day, he’d be strong enough that he wouldn’t even need to heal at all because he’d never be injured. So, Dyon settled on not only integrating as much of the sage demon’s essence as he could, but also finding an equally powerful blood essence later to help him balance the demonic aura.
**
Hours later, Little Lyla was still happily playing with Little Black and it was already well past midday. However, since there was still much daylight left, Dyon still chose to bring Little Lyla with him and Ri to the cave.
Dyon stretched as they walked out of Heaven’s Wine. His muscles and bones cracked and groaned. Or, at least that what people guessed should be happening. Because, it sounded nothing like that.
Dyon’s simple stretch sounded like muffled thunder to those near him. Even Ri couldn’t help but look at him weirdly.
When he noticed Ri’s glance, all Dyon did was grin, pretending as though a wink explained everything.
Ri rolled her eyes as she stepped onto Dyon’s array platform. She had secrets of her own, so she naturally didn’t think Dyon had to tell her anything.
Soon, they reached a familiar cave in the depths of the forest. Leisurely walking in, Dyon took a good long look at the pool of ethereal water. But, his mind became distracted when he thought about how Ri had bathed in it, so he decided to focus his mind on the task at hand.
“Little Lyla, you have to make sure not to touch the water, okay? It’s dangerous,” Ri kneeled lovingly in front of Lyla and told her what she could and couldn’t do.
Little Lyla obediently nodded her head before jumping to Dyon’s side, “big brother, are you going to use the pretty flashing light again?”
Dyon chuckled, rubbing the little girl’s head, “yes. It’ll be a big help to your big sister. You should tell her to thank me.”
Lyla’s head bobbed up and down adorably, “she’s very thankful big brother.”
Dyon laughed, sitting Lyla beside him looking up eagerly. Little Black seemed to have taken a liking to the little girl, so he curled up beside her as she clapped happily.
The ground of the cave was surprisingly comfortable, but Dyon still made cushions for them to sit on, not wanting Little Lyla to ever feel any discomfort.
Ri, sitting across from Dyon looked at him intently, “what exactly are you planning on doing? I did tell you how hard it is to open an aurora past 30%, right? You innate aurora folk are too much,” she said bitterly.
Dyon looked up with interest, “oh? Is there more than just me? How many people with innate auroras do you know?”
Ri shook her head, “like I said, an innate aurora hasn’t appeared in this universe for millennia… but the same can’t be said of other universes. There have been 2 that I know of who appeared during campaigns… there may be more, I don’t know.”
Dyon’s eyebrows arched up, “what are they like?”
Ri rolled her eyes, “you sound like a gossipy teenage girl asking me about my crush.”
Dyon grinned, “ooo, do you have a crush?”
Little Lyla giggled when she saw Dyon teasing Ri.
Ri, being unwilling to punish Little Lyla, instead settled for flicking Dyon’s forehead, “stop talking such nonsense. Who has time for something so ridiculous.”
Little Lyla looked up at Dyon with her large watery eyes, “big brother, can you believe that big sister has never liked a boy? She told me when she came to visit,” she giggled adorably.
Dyon smirked, “didn’t you say you shouldn’t lie to a little girl? Look at you now. Hypocrite.”
Ri furrowed her eyebrows, “who’s lying?!”
Dyon gave Ri a devious smile but stopped teasing her.
Ri could only take a deep breath, trying to forget how annoying Dyon was, “campaign leaders with innate auroras are on a whole other level…” she said softly, “they see so much of the battle field because of their 6th sense, they lend the best support imaginable with their speed at creating arrays, and their intelligence can normally scale vastly higher than the average leader.”
Dyon’s gaze turned serious, “so the other universe, our most immediate enemy, has at least 2, maybe more leaders on that level… while we have none?”
Ri smiled bitterly, “you see why my father was willing to pair you up with me now? It isn’t just about the Elvin Kingdom, it’s about the whole universe.”
Dyon contemplated this quietly. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the utmost confidence in himself, but he was also a realistic person. He knew when it was appropriate to back off, and when it was necessary to step forward. He could be arrogant and even disdainful here because he was very clear on the fact that the amount of people his age who could rival him could be counted on a single hand. But, even if he had an utmost confidence in defeating one innate aurora holder alone, what about two? What if the two that had appeared weren’t even all the rival universe had access to?
Ri, noticing Dyon’s deep contemplation let a playful smile spread across her face, “so the arrogant Dyon is finally doubting himself, hm?”
Looking up, Dyon chuckled at Ri’s words, “quite the opposite,” Dyon’s devilish aura started seeping out from within him, “I was just thinking that I finally found some worthy rivals.”
Ri looked at Dyon, shaking her head, ‘this guy…’
Suddenly a clap awakened her from her thoughts. Dyon had reverted back to his normal pure appearance and was preparing to help Ri.
“Alright, let’s open up your aurora a bit more. Shall we?”
Ri looked on in interest and 10s of medicinal pills flew out of Dyon’s spatial ring. A look of confusion cropped up onto her features, “these pills… they’re not potent enough to do anything.”
Dyon chuckled, “just watch, beautiful.”
Ri, for some inexplicable reason, blushed when she heard Dyon say those words. Her head violently turned towards Dyon to see if he had noticed, but she let out a sigh of relief as she realized he had closed his eyes and clasp his hands in concentrated meditation, ‘it’s not like he hasn’t said that before…’
Little Lyla giggled when she saw Ri’s reaction, but was immediately distracted by the 10s of tiny gold arrays that appeared around each pill.
The two girls watched in astonishment as the pills were slowly broken down to their most tiny portions.
A cloud of colorful dust wafted in the cave, filling the area with a distinctly medicinal smell.
The purity path energy from the cave slowly removed the previous impurities of past pills, making the process much easier on Dyon. This was actually part of the reason he insisted on doing it here. He wanted to open as much of Ri’s aurora as he could all at once.
Minutes went by, and soon hours. Before researching this aurora awakening pill, Dyon had thought that it would be far less complex than constitution awakening pills. But, he was very wrong.
A body’s innate constitution was in line with nature. It was naturally their body, so they were only tapping into something they already had.
On the other hand, although everyone could technically make an initial contact with their aurora, they were going against the laws of the universe themselves by forcibly opening it past that point. This was exactly why the higher percentage an aurora was awakened to, the harder it was. Each 30% interval was a major watershed moment, with the last 10% being in the realm of near impossibility, even for the Celestial Deer Sect. In fact, even the Celestial Deer Sect at their peak wouldn’t be able to awaken an aurora past 70%, let alone 90.
In the midst of the slowly passing time, Little Lyla had long since fallen asleep hugging Little Black. It wasn’t that the little girl had lost interest, but she was truly too tired. Ri couldn’t help but loving stroke the adorable girl’s hair as she watched Dyon slowly separate the important components to bring them back together.
Ri couldn’t help but praise Dyon in her heart. Not only had he remained focused for many hours past what she thought was possible, the nuanced control of his time will, the intricacies of his arrays, his understanding of the fundamental parts of the pill and how to properly separate them so as not to lose the potency regained through his time will. Ri found it hard to believe that he really was just a few months older than her.
Soon, the setting sun could be vaguely seen in the cave, reflecting orange and red hues that made the gently fluttering snow and ice sparkle beautifully.
Dyon finally closed his eyes in rest, a large 3cm wide pill resting in his hands. It was almost transparent, but clouds of a rainbow of colors could be seen swirling under its surface.
Opening his eyes, Dyon smiled at Ri, “here you go.”
Ri took the pill delicately, as though she was holding something of untold value. And truthfully, she was. Within the Elvin Kingdom, the guild leaders and elders would pay whatever they had to for this pill. To Dyon, it meant nothing more than a few hours to practice his alchemy, but to others, this pill was life changing.
Watching Ri with interesting, Dyon’s smile didn’t fade, “go on, swallow it,” Dyon waved his hand in the air as though this was nothing much.
Dyon thought back to the endless gardens within the spatial world in his ring. He had never touched the plants and had no real need to. If they could be sustained thousands of years after the destruction of the Celestial Deer Sect, then, a few months with Dyon would hardly change anything. But, this experience made him realize how important the pills he could make were to everyone else, ‘haha, can’t I twirl the alchemy guild around my finger like this?’
Dyon watched on in amusement as Ri swallowed the pill, crossing her legs to meditate seriously.
Her forehead glowed with a white light, but then, something odd happened. As Ri felt her aurora astonishingly breaking past the 30% barrier, the light within her forehead changed to a cold blue flame.
Dyon started, ‘her aurora flame is blue? Not white? Not gold? What does that mean?’
Dyon searched in his master’s memories but couldn’t find such an occurrence anywhere. That only meant one of two things: either the 25th White Mother had no idea, or it was within her sealed memories.
Pondering on the second option, Dyon suddenly thought of a possibility. His eyes widened in realization, but he buried the thought… there wasn’t enough evidence and he wasn’t a fan of jumping to conclusions. All he knew was that since the aurora was a reflection of the soul – literally being a main link to it… Ri’s soul had to be special.
**
About half an hour passed by before Ri’s aurora flame finally settled down. The feeling coming from her was such a bone chilling cold that Dyon had to layer Little Lyla with array after array, just to make sure she felt no discomfort.
Just as she finally relaxed, the butterflies of the cave began to float around her. But, Dyon couldn’t help but gulp.
Ri’s hair stuck to her face ever so slightly, evidence of how much pressure she had just been under. Her chest still heaved as she caught her breath, but the sight was much too enticing for Dyon’s demon essence to handle. Despite this, he couldn’t look away from the sweat slowly dripping down her subtle, but very present ravine.
By the time Dyon’s eyes reached down to her exposed and tone belly, he could only shake himself awake.
Luckily Ri hadn’t noticed, or else he’d probably be a dead man by now.
Trying to calm himself, Dyon stretched his hand out to one of the fluttering butterflies.
Meanwhile, Ri had finally taken her last deep breath and was shocked beyond belief, “65%?!”
She turned a complicated gaze towards Dyon, ‘just who are you really?…’
Just as she was deciding on whether she should ask Dyon and open herself up to being questioned as well, she noticed Dyon frowning.
“What is it?” Ri asked.
Dyon’s confused voice rang out, “my ring… it’s vibrating… why?…”
Ri’s eyebrows furrowed, “ring?… vibrating?…” Ri looked at what Dyon what talking about only to find him staring at the very same spatial ring she had once held around her neck. But, Dyon’s hand was visibly shaking, and it clearly had nothing to do with him.
‘what’s going on?’ they both thought at once.
Suddenly, Dyon’s eyes widened with a sudden realization.
He jumped up, running to Ri. He quickly took off the ring and put it in her hand, “whatever you do, Ri, do not take this ring out of this cave.”
Ri didn’t understand what Dyon was talking about, or why he would say that, but she nodded her head obediently. This didn’t seem like the time to be questioning him.
“Let Little Black take Lyla out of the cave, and have him stay with her. It’s best we err on the side of caution,” Dyon said solemnly.
Ri nodded heavily, watching with anxiety as Dyon scrunched his brows in concentration, as though he was thinking through a difficult problem.
‘could it be that they’re awake?’ thought Dyon, ‘worst case scenario… I’ll have to use the cave left by Ri’s mother to kill them all by teleporting them out…’
With that thought, Dyon vanished into the ring.
Little Black had long since heard Dyon’s words. Flipping Lyla onto his back, she yawned as she wrapped her small arms around his neck.
Ri looked on worriedly. Staring at the ring in her hand, hoping Dyon was safe.
**
Dyon flashed into the ring, looking around with a serious look on his face.
Sound of fierce banging and raging roars resounded through the large world… and Dyon knew exactly where it was coming from.
He sprinted towards the arrays he had put up around them. He knew that he spent hours studying and building the defensive array that caged them in after he stepped into the 5th stage of soul cultivation. Someone, even at the peak of the essence gathering level, would be hard pressed to shatter the array. But, by the time Dyon got to the area he left the prisoner’s of the sage demon in, he couldn’t have been more horrified to find the array had long since shattered.
There instead, thousands of people stood, releasing their auras into the sky, hoping to break their way out of this world.
Somehow, all of them had changed drastically. Their hair color used to be varying, different for each person. Yet, they now somehow all had bright white hair. Their eyes shone a dense, but clear black, as though nothing could cause them fear.
Suddenly, with the arrival of Dyon, everything became strikingly quiet.
But, Dyon didn’t know how he should feel about these thousands of eyes being trained onto him. Was he meant to be happy that it was clear they maintained rational thought? Or be apprehensive about the fact he was no match for so many warriors? Especially with how much stronger their bodies were as compared to the norm.
‘should I send them out now? Can Ri’s mother’s cave handle this many at once? How much time would pass? Would we still be in danger even if I did that?’
Dyon’s mind was in chaos, but, he maintained a calm outer appearance as he scanned each pair of eyes one by one.
Suddenly and silently, a handsome young man stepped forward. He was about Dyon’s height, 1.9 meters tall, and was only a few years older. From the looks of it, he couldn’t have been more than 20 now.
His long white hair flowed, as his shirtless torso and raggedy, hole filled brown pants swayed in the wind.
Suddenly, he crouched downwards. His muscles rippled and flexed as his eye trained on Dyon. To him, there was nothing else in the world but the boy in front of him.
Dyon’s eyes narrowed as he felt the dense killing and demonic aura dripping from the young man and the thousands around him. However, none of the others seemed intent on moving…
‘a test? For what?’ Dyon knew he had no time to think, and he couldn’t see through the young man in front of him, so he jumped to his most serious mode immediately. Dyon could risk it and try to kill them all, but then he would learn nothing. He would either end up dead, or he would kill them all with no one left to explain things.
BOOM!
Dyon’s body immediately expanded to 2.5 meters tall, blasting his shirt into ashes. He had no time to call for his sword, but, something told him that didn’t matter.
The eyes of the young man narrowed at the sight of Dyon.
A blood red aura rolled off of the both of them. Dyon stood tall, not an ounce of fear in his eyes.
BOOM!
The young man sprinted forward, leaving a deep crater behind him. Demonic will condensed in his hand, hardening his skin and amplifying his strength.
BOOM!
Dyon leaped forward, his massive body shaking the world with his every step. Celestial and wind will condensed at his arm, intent on slicing through the aura of the young man infront of him.
To Dyon, there was nothing other than murder in his thoughts. To destroy the young man in front of him with no remorse. No human kindness. No regret.
ROOOAAAARRR
The thousands behind them roared into the skies, stomping their feet and banging their chests.
Battle. Victory. Blood. Carnage. These were the things you would think of seeing this scene.
BOOM!
Their fists collided. A raging tempest of wind blasted between them.
Two young men with one goal. Neither willing to lose. Neither willing to give up.
Silence…
Dyon stood tall, his fists clenched against the young man’s. His fist ached, his arm was partially fractured, and yet he felt the best he had in a while. The thrill of battle filled him with a feeling he found hard to describe, making his demonic battle path thrum with excitement.
But, just as Dyon was about to retract his arm to punch once again, his eyes widened in shock.
There, in front of him, the young man kneeled. His arm crossed his chest in a respectful manner, and his head was lowered in reverence.
“you are indeed the proper successor of Demon Sage Sargerus.”
The sounds of kneeling filled the once quiet atmosphere. Figure after figure bowed their heads to Dyon. The sea of white and black gave off a will that would make anyone’s bloods boil.
Suddenly, the next words of the young man made Dyon tremble with even more shock than before. His thoughts unconsciously jumped to a sassy red-haired girl covered in short, tight red leather.
“Your servant, Arios Sicarius, at your service.”