Only a hybrid could have two celestial powers. The Alliance was working furiously for a functional hybrid. So was the Jai Empire.
The Jai Empire's research was in a different direction, however. Their aim was to create a body that could accommodate the power of three avenues and gather the three sliver-pairs.
'HE called it the final step to godhood.'
Primal Union Body—a concept that existed only in the legends of this god-making project. It appeared twice already and in just a short gap.
Even with the best research teams, Jai Empire concluded that you'd need all three sliver-pairs to create this body. Ideally, all three sliver-pairs. But for a barely functional physique, just a bit of the sliver-pair powers was enough.
Since the order-chaos slivers went missing, even the Jai Empire had a finite number of times they could use the stored power.
But despite that, they hadn't been able to accommodate even the traces of these three powers stably. Any creature they tried to create exploded and died violently.
The most successful experiment was one where the sliver powers neutralized each other and the divine paths didn't work at all.
'But even I don't know what HE is doing. He has the space-time slivers, what he can do must be different from what the rest of us.' Eshala sighed.
On pure impulse, she appeared on a distant planet where she spent some of her childhood. It was a bustling city and she remembered a park here very well. Because it was one of the few times she met her father outside the court.
She was very happy that he came to see her. But after a few words, he didn't even talk to her. She said nothing in front of him but when she returned, she couldn't stop crying.
Ignoring the crowd on the road who couldn't even notice her presence, Eshala walked into that park and her eyes glowed.
A glowing screen appeared in front of her and it went further and further into the past.
If she wasn't here in person now and back then, it'd have been too hard to rewind so back. But she was and so she could.
It was a sunny day, the glowing flowers were falling from the sky and the lake in the park was turning into a beautiful pink vapor, along with its fish that were turning into strange translucent birds.
The young Eshala was watching everything with relish when a man appeared beside her without any sound or fluctuation. He patted her head lightly and told her to work hard to grow strong.
The young Eshala nodded enthusiastically, promising to do her best. She thought, as long as she worked hard, he'd give her the attention. For the young girl, her father's attention was the rarest thing.
'I was so naive back then…' Eshala sighed and was about to wave off the screen when the man on the screen suddenly turned to her.
Eshala froze and a chill shot up her spine.
"Divine rank, hmm. But your path to further progress is blocked." The man shook his head in disappointment and swiped his hand.
The screen began to crack and the man started waking away from the panicking young Eshala who wondered if she made any mistake.
"Aaaah! Haaah!" Eshala collapsed to the ground and gasped heavily. With gritted teeth, she muttered. "D-Disappointment? I'll show you one day!"
She returned to her palace and watched Varian's battle again. The scenes reversed further. She witnessed all of Varian's battles, all the way from when he first almost died but miraculously recovered to when he finished off the spy.
'He's growing strong with every battle. Unless he took a very precious herb, it's impossible for anyone even in the Empire to grow that fast. But someone who can take that herb won't risk his life against a mere Duchy-level spy.'
Things had gotten a bit more interesting now.
'But there are races with similar racial talents. Some need battles to reach their peak strength while others get a boost from near-death experience.'
Eshala knew there were many explanations to rationalize Varian's seemingly abnormal behavior. In the eyes of Divine Rankers, it's just a bit more cumbersome to understand but totally acceptable.
However, she had a hunch in the back of her mind. Even though her rationality said her he was nothing special except for disrupting her plan, her guts told her that there was something off about him.
It wasn't that big of a reaction. Just a slight discomfort, like a small itch.
But she ignored that hunch as another emotion engulfed her. Rage, endless rage boiled inside her heart. This bastard, this little ant, the insect who didn't even deserve a glance from her destroyed the possibility of her progressing any further.
"Unfortunately for him, he's not dead yet. His last traces are in…" Her eyes turned and she felt the 'part' of her in a faraway place. "Nexus Empire."
The traces were cut off abruptly. Since it's just a part of her and sealed at that, it's very much possible to block her out if it's in the domain of a powerful celestial ranker.
Since the space was too chaotic and the traces disappeared abruptly, Eshala couldn't follow up easily.
What's more, tracing it from the edge of Andromeda to almost the most distant edges of Nexus Empire wasn't easy for her. It'd have been easy if that 'part' hadn't been missing but there were no ifs.
"Nexus Empire, the domain of a powerful celestial ranker, chaotic space storms." The Fourth Princess narrowed her eyes.
Nexus Empire was too big, almost one-fourth of the Milkyway. There were many powerful celestial rankers in it. And since there were so many powerful people, chaotic space storms were just too common.
For others, the search would yield nothing. But these clues were enough for her.
She tapped into the empty space and Zahara Onyx who was escaping from the pursuit of three Genesis Empire powerhouses felt an invisible field envelop her. She didn't resist the field and closed her eyes.
The space-time field fluctuated and Zahara appeared right in front of the Princess. Instinctively, she knelt and lowered her head for failing.
Eshala's eyes glowed with rage but her words were calm and chilling. "Nexus Empire, a domain of powerful celestial ranker, chaotic space storms. That's where the box is and the culprit who stole it."
"I'll go right away!" Zahara tried to stand up but her face paled and her skin started to shrivel.
The sequelae of fighting Princess Calamity wasn't so easy to ignore.
"Injuring my subordinate like this, you've grown stronger," Eshala said with a cold smile and gazed into the stars, her gaze penetrated the endless space and reached the back of a woman in a veil.
Feeling that piercing gaze, Miss Calamity turned around and sneered. "Wash your neck and wait. The day I catch up with you will be the day I'll make you pay for everything you did."
Eshala felt a few gazes on her from the Gensis Empire and dropped her plan to prolong this conversation. Shaking her head, she said indifferently. "I didn't kill her but I'll kill you."
Miss Calamity sneered and disappeared.
"Recuperate now. The Alliance already knows our purpose." Eshala said to her deputy and chuckled. Her figure blurred and she disappeared, as if she was never here in the first place.
"Any infiltration now is much harder. Send the strongest spies without alerting the Alliance. Use the sleeper cells if necessary. And that culprit…I want him alive."
