"You will become a puppet of my Mortal Alliance. Your rights won't be that of others, for all intents and purposes, you have no will of your own anymore.
"When the time comes, you will silently pass off the position of Palace Master from yourself, to my wife, Alexandria Sacharro.
"From now, until then, you'll foster the Water Mist Sect along the path of growth I deem fit. Do you understand?"
[I want to kill you.] Jasmine's voice trembled with a slight perverted anticipation. [I really wonder how good your blood tastes. What kind of face would you make at the end of your life? Would you maintain those same arrogant eyes? Would you feel despair? Would you cry tears of regret or scream the sounds of remorse?]
Dyon smiled. "Why do you ask? Did you forget who ranks first all time on the fifth trial rankings? If you haven't, then you should already know the answer to your question."
Jasmine's depraved state froze. That was right. The fifth trial, the test of the heart. One repeatedly faced death time and time again.
Under normal circumstances, on would have the number of deaths you endured beside you name and rank. However, though Dyon ranked first, his name had no number beside it. When these matters occurred more than 10 years ago now, it had led to endless speculation. But, when others considered the time lag between Dyon's fourth trial results and his fifth… they understood. The tower had been incapable of breaking his resolve!
"You're angry." Dyon said. "You're angry that I look down on you, that I question your resolve, that I treat you with disgust and contempt. But know that you lost the right to be human the moment you decided upon your path.
"Even now, you don't bow down to my words because you truly want to reform yourself, you're lowering your head because you're aware that if you don't, this day would be your last. You're still the same coward you were all those years ago, the same coward that chose the evil path."
Jasmine slumped down in her thrown. [You know nothing.]
"Oh? I don't?" Unlike before, Dyon was legitimately surprised by Jasmine's push back. He was certain that he had cornered her this time. The fact she was still willing to push meant that there was truly something he didn't know. It was either that or the evil path had long since distorted what remained of her personality.
[For every good, there's an evil. For every light, there's a shadow. The mortal plane is inevitably spiraling toward its own destruction because this balance has been lost. Everyone believes that the Heavens are cruel, but this isn't the truth. It's the only unbiased and perfect being in existence.]
"Are you trying to give me a philosophy lesson?" Dyon's brow arched. "Telling me that I wouldn't recognize good if there was no evil is your cop out?"
[Cop out?] Jasmine laughed at the unfamiliar phrase. Still she understood the essence of what Dyon was trying to say.
[I see that you're still ignorant… Were the Dark Phoenixes at fault for their affinity with death? Were the Pride Clans at fault for their affinity with vices?]
Dyon frowned. He suddenly remembered something very important, though he didn't understand why he had remembered this now... When he spoke to Abraxus about the threat they were facing, the old man didn't something as cliché as "this was a battle between good and evil"… His exact words were that the other side was known as Chaos…. And their side was known as… Balance.
[You seem to be under the impression that I "chose" this path. Well let me tell you something.] Jasmine's eyes and mouth spun into deep, endless black pits. [I was born this way. Do I still deserve to pay a price for it?]
Dyon didn't know how to respond. In fact, he didn't respond at all. He fell into silence for a long time before turning and leaving.
Dyon wasn't an individual who couldn't admit he was wrong, and in this case, he was very much so. Of course, there was the chance that Jasmine was lying, but Dyon's intuition told him that she wasn't. He simply wasn't prepared for that level of twist…
Could he harm someone simply for the way they were born?
On the one hand, he felt the answer might be yes. The reason there were so few universes today as opposed to the near infinite number there once was, was because the Dark Phoenix Clan wiped them all out one by one before they were finally stopped by Amethyst. Even to this day, there was a slight taboo still attached to death will precisely because of this…
Were the Dark Phoenixes simply following their affinity for death? Yes… They were. But did that mean others had to simply sit back and accept their actions? Of course not.
However, on the other hand, the Dark Phoenixes weren't entirely at fault either. It was the Heavens that blessed them with their affinity. It wasn't their choice to be the arbiters of death…
Would one blame the earth for quaking? Or the ocean for forming waves?
In Dyon's home world, natural disasters were a major problem, but the disaster itself was never hated or cursed… In fact, in some instances, the people who lived in natural disaster intensive regions were blamed instead when it really wasn't their faults either.
Was Dyon right to disdain Jasmine's existence? Could he even follow the old man's path of Balance if he did? He simply didn't know. It was a dilemma he couldn't answer to in a short time…
So, Dyon left. He didn't give Jasmine a response, but he had very clearly changed his mind about how to treat her. As for the new approach he would take in their relationship? He … also didn't have an answer to that. He realized that the reason Jasmine kept roaring at him to 'Do It' and 'Cleanse' her was so that she could show him just how foolish that attempt would have been.
Dyon had no choice but to pour himself into another task instead: Dealing with the problem that was the Mist Clan.
