Two days had passed since Dyon's walk through the celestial beast vats. In just a few moments, the gates would open to what he assumed would be the very first campaign war to take place here in a long while.
Although Dyon said that he'd do it alone, many insisted on coming.
It wasn't that they thought they could help Dyon, such a thought would be ridiculous. After all, Dyon was capable of fighting celestials without losing out even with his essence gathering energy cultivation. Such a war would be too easy for him. It was rather that Dyon had brought something back to the 98th quadrant that hadn't existed in a long time…: Pride.
This made Dyon inwardly smile. Even if these thoughts weren't shared by everyone, the fact that at least some felt this way meant that they were headed in the right direction.
Truth be told, he hadn't placed much hope in them. He had assumed that they were simply too far gone. After years of accepting the reality of their inferiority, it wasn't an easy thing to just flip a switch and change. But, it seemed that some were still willing to fight.
However, what Dyon didn't expect was for Violet's mother, Giralda, to ask if it was possible to raise the gate threshold to include saints.
Having not seen the Dragon Princess in a few days, it seemed as though her prideful and flawless exterior had taken a heavy hit.
Giralda had endured centuries of humiliation yet had still been capable of holding her head high above everyone else. But, somehow, something that had occurred in just a few days shattered all of that. Seeing her almost willing to beg and plead, Dyon's heart couldn't help but bleed a bit.
His disgust toward Violet involuntarily deepened. If he had a chance to see his own mother again, he knew damn well that he'd do everything in his power to make sure her smile never faded. Yet, here was Violet, granted the same opportunity, but still using it to cause pain.
It didn't take much for Dyon to understand just why Giralda wanted the threshold raised. She hoped that maybe in the heat of battle, Violet would remember what it truly meant to be a dragon and change. Maybe then the pain in Giralda's heart would disappear.
After coming back, Giralda had thought everything would be okay. Although she was worried about how Marco would treat Ryuu, that ended up being a non-issue. It seemed that the former Master was actually quite happy to treat Ryuu as though he was his own son, doing everything in his power to make sure that his wife knew that he would never blame her.
However, the problem that had been nagging at the back of Giralda's mind, one she had tried her best to ignore, ended up being the problem that brought her world crashing down.
Dyon didn't know exactly what happened, nor did he pry into it. If it wasn't for Giralda and Marco, he wouldn't care about the situation at all. He wasn't very fond of helping those that didn't deserve help.
In the end, though, Dyon could only gently decline Giralda's request. It wasn't just because of his disdain for Violet, but rather that it would affect his plans. Who knows how the army would react to the threshold change? If they sent millions of pseudo-celestials, it would be too much for even Dyon to handle alone. After all, Pseudo-Celestials were still categorized as saints.
"I understand…" Giralda said in a weak voice unbefitting of her bloodline. "I know that my daughter did you wrong, but don't blame her, please. It's my fault."
Dyon wanted to respond, but he couldn't find the words to. He could only watch Giralda float away from the gate entrance.
'Parents really do hold a weight on their shoulders that I can't understand… I wonder?...' Dyon couldn't help but think back to how angered he had been during his first encounter with Madeleine's parents.
To this day, even though Dyon knew the truth, and he knew that Madeleine was more than intelligent enough to understand it herself, no one had ever come out and said it.
Now that those very same two, Amell and Nora, had disappeared once again to who knows where, he suddenly felt compelled to understand their story… And just why they abandoned his Madeleine.
Dyon shook his head. 'I can't be thinking about these things right now.'
If enough ants swarmed an elephant, that elephant was definitely die. That was the truth of the world.
Although essence gatherers were far below Dyon, they could very well have tricks up their sleeves that he had to account for. He couldn't let his guard down.
Suddenly, a heavy hand slapped Dyon's shoulder.
"You gotta leave some of them alone for us." Donari grinned, his magenta-red hair flailing in the wind as the portal slowly began to form between the two large pillars.
Dyon chuckled, looking back at the few who decided to come. There were only about 50 of them, and Dyon doubted that they'd be able to defeat even a single opposing warrior, but he memorized all of their faces. If he wanted to build a kingdom, these were the people who were most important.
'I won't let any of them die.' Dyon swore to himself.
Suddenly, the air shifted as two hundred thousand large white lilies appeared in the skies, each producing a warrior. Except, this time, they didn't all share Dyon's face.
Dyon's hand reached for his forehead, pulling downward as a silver-gold mask appeared out of thin air, only for it to slowly morph into the face of a relatively normal looking man.
"Let's go."
**
"Those old fogies are always being so serious." A young woman with delicate, immature features pouted. She couldn't have been more than 18 or 19 years old, but her disposition was definitely much younger than that.
After going through so many mass teleportations, only to be told they had to fight against such a weak quadrant, these pampered geniuses couldn't help but feel discontented. It had already taken them days to get over that nauseous feeling.
"Take this seriously, Tove." A young man who looked to be in his low 20s spoke sternly. Despite his size and look, he too was no more than 18. The difference was that he was the youngest grandson of Head Nova, so he had no choice but to take on a stoic personality to live up to his family's status.
As for the young girl, she was from a relatively weak family compared to the rest, but her talent was such that many of the upper echelon families had long since been courting her for marriage.
Almost as if on cue, several male voices hopped in to defend the delicate belle that was Tove from the young Nova Prince's "vicious" words. However, Tove's glare sent them all falling back. It was clear she was more intent on listening to Prince Nova's words than that of the others.
"Get ready. We'll be teleporting directly to the Epistemic Tower the moment the portal opens. We set this formation up long ago for this day, so let's hope for a swift victory. If we're lucky, we won't have to face any enemies at all." The young prince let the words thrown at him roll off his shoulders.
"Who died and made you leader?" A short but stocky young man muttered, clearly unhappy. It seemed he hadn't inherited his grandfather's massive, three-meter-tall figure, making him look more like a dwarf than anything else. Still, his understanding of the Profound Earth Sect's core teachings, given his level, were the best of his generation.
Tove rolled her eyes. "Were your ears stuffed with rocks? He was named leader just 5 minutes ago you're your memory really so bad? Unless, you're wishing death upon your own grandfather?" Tove feigned shock. "Oh my, I wonder how he'd react to that?"
The stocky youth's face hardened and for a moment, he really did look like he was made of rocks.
At that moment, the innocent giggling of a relatively quiet little girl broke the tension of atmosphere.
Still, she was so embarrassed to have suddenly become the center of attention that she quickly hid behind Tove, gripping onto the hems of her skirt.
Tove couldn't help but shake her head and smile wryly. This little girl was the youngest princess of the Sona family which matched families like the Ceres and Nova family, not to mention the Profound Earth Sect, in prestige. Yet she clung to the robes of a relative commoner like her.
No one, not even the rock-like stocky youth had the heart to get angry at her, so the arguments simply came to an end with a thankful smile from Prince Nova.
"Let's go."
The moment the portal appeared, the few hundred thousand of them stepped through, immediately clenching their teleportation arrays and crushing them the instant the gate's landscape came into view.
