Lyla happily held onto Little Black as they began to run around the village, even going to villages all around the large city. In the end, in order to carry the hundreds of kids, Little Black had to use his crystal will to carry a huge platform behind him in addition to it taking practically the entire day.
However, while they did this, Dyon was meditating. He had never done something on this scale before, and his aurora had only just reached the Lower Essence Stage. If he wanted a home large enough to house hundreds of kids, it would take quite a bit out of him.
The concept of using arrays to form tangible objects is something only those at the Lower Essence stage of their aurora could accomplish. Although Dyon’s weapon’s hell array could feign this if he incorporated his crystal will to them, the truth was they were still just pockets of energy at their core. To substantiate something real from something practically free flowing and illusory, required a potent amount of power.
The other problem was that Dyon had no experience in architecture or the engineering necessary for it. As such, he had to spend a few hours reading whatever books he could find on the topic within his master’s memories.
Because Dyon was already an engineer and inventor by trade in the human world, it wasn’t difficult for him to pick up on the nuances of civil engineering. It was the same physics, just applied differently.
Dyon took a deep breath. ‘First let me clear this forest a bit and prime the land. I don’t want to destroy these trees though…’
Dyon changed his mind, deciding to incorporate the forest into his design.
A platform shining in rays of gold and swirling complex patterns appeared in the sky, slowly expanding. Dyon’s face was the picture of focus, he sat on the ground, his hands brought together as the fire of his aurora raged larger and larger around him in a purple gold color reserved for those who had broken past the Blossoming Stage.
The array Dyon was using was surprisingly a simpler version of the creation array found at Focus Academy. Although this raised many questions for Dyon, he had no choice to accept it. He assumed it was yet another formation taken from the remnants of the Celestial Deer Clan.
Planks of wood began to manifest from the array, coating the sturdy branches of the tall trees. Pathways, hallways, and rooms continued to appear as the beads of sweat increased on Dyon’s brow.
He built exits and staircases, filled rooms with low level books from the Celestial Deer Sect and playgrounds he used to love as a kid. He built pools and sports areas. The entire structure was larger than even the village behind him, and that was all the more reason why blood was seeping out of the corner of Dyon’s mouth.
However, he didn’t allow himself to give up. He built massive fence structures and elaborate defensive arrays. He poured Celestial Will into the soil around the trees, improving their strength and better fertilizing the lands for food. He placed protective arrays around so that the high up nature of the structure would never lead to the death of a child.
In the end, he looked up at his work to find an elaborate tree house. It was filled with slides from room to room. Dyon had even equipped the structure with games from the human world like basketball, soccer and football. Because he knew it was likely the children had never heard of the games before, he added information transfer arrays as well.
Finally, after hours, he lowered his hands, breathing heavily as he coughed up blood.
“Big brother!” Little Lyla rushed over to Dyon, worried.
It was only then that Dyon realized he had been the subject of an audience for many hours now. He had been so focused that he hadn’t noticed.
“You’re… your soul stage is already at the Essence level?” Ri looked at Dyon like she was looking at a monster.
Dyon chuckled, but was too weak to say anything. All he could do was enjoy Little Lyla patting his face to see if he was okay, he found it adorable.
“Do you like it, Lyla?”
Lyla looked at Dyon with sympathy that could melt a heart.
“I love it big brother,” she said with tears in her eyes. It had been a long time since anyone had gone above and beyond for the orphans, let alone caused themselves physical pain for them.
Dyon patted Lyla’s light pink hair while bringing her into his arms. He raised them on an array platform and turned towards the crowd. .
“This is a place I’ve created for the orphans of the Elvin Kingdom. This isn’t a place for adults, and I won’t tolerate anyone pretending that it is. Although many of you need help as well, I don’t think anyone would think that they deserve more help than a child who has lost their parents. I promise you, if I find anyone doing such a thing, I’ll kill them.”
Dyon turned a warm gaze to the children huddled around Little Black.
“This is your new home now. You can eat, sleep, and grow up comfortably. I’ll find you teachers when I enter the city. But, for now, go in and enjoy yourselves. No one deserves anything less for their childhood.”
The children looked at Dyon with varying expressions. But, it was mostly excitement. The delightful sound of children’s laughter filled the village as the ran to the tree house, jumping around on the slides and choosing their rooms. Dyon watched all of this with a smile before gliding over to Ri who had a few middle-aged women with her.
“Do any of you have kids of your own?” Dyon asked them.
The women nodded. They were a bit worried and apprehensive about Dyon. Many of them had never seen a human before, let alone a human who was willing to help their children even when their own government wasn’t doing the same. They thought there might be an underlying motive behind it. They weren’t as na?ve as children, there couldn’t be anything so good in this world. So, they had their guards up.
“I’ve set up rooms for you all as well. I don’t mind you bringing in your families and leading a good life. However, if I hear that any of you have done anything untoward, I’m sure you understand what that’ll mean,” Dyon said with a serious expression.
Although he understood where these women were coming from, actions were louder than words when it came to gaining trust. There was no point in saying anything at all. The women understood this as well. At least they were willing to acknowledge that this Dyon might lead them to a better outcome than what would have been had the orphans been led to the Norville family or any of the other 8 major families of the Elvin Kingdom.
Dyon, after saying this, finally turned to Ri.
“The day’s already gone, how about we rest?” He said with a smile. “We can head out tomorrow.”
Ri smiled lightly and nodded. She knew Dyon was too tired to do much else anyway, so she obliged.
‘I can’t help them like this right now… But I’m glad that you can…’
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