"Interesting. So, while you didn't know what benefits the Epistemic key would give you, what you did know was that being around the tower itself would give you enough of a power boost to be able to take out the first son of the essence gathering layer. But, unfortunately for you, you ended up with the first son of the meridian formation layer."
Alidor nodded. What Dyon said was true. Although the calculations for teleporting from outside to inside the range of the Epistemic Tower were too complicated. The variables were significantly lessened if you were just talking about teleporting within the range of the Epistemic Tower itself. As such, Alidor could make use of the spatial tears to greatly nerf the essence gathering first son, kill him and then take his faith seed as his own.
After that, Alidor planned to use the Epistemic Tower to diligently train.
Because he didn't have a tracking array, his actions remained completely covert. So, he could have bided his time, growing stronger with each passing day.
Then, once he reached the peak of the essence gathering stage, he could almost single handedly conquer this gate alone.
"Why would being at the peak of the essence gathering stage be enough for that?" Dyon felt he knew the answer, but, he asked anyway. He was enjoying the exasperated feeling Alidor had whenever he was forced to answer. It was clear Alidor wasn't used to this.
"Haven't you noticed the vast difference in quality between your universe and others? The only reason you're not constantly fighting against peak essence gathering experts is that the Uidah universe doesn't deem you worthy of their best. If it wasn't for your special cases, meaning those of you with faith seeds, they wouldn't send essence gathering experts here at all.
It is likely that you, as someone with previously no cultivation, had the ability to leap up and fight experts at even the peak of the meridian formation realm. However, I'm telling you right now that that's only possible in this universe. If a competent meridian formation expert from the Uidah could lose to some with no cultivation, they would have been killed off long ago because of their uselessness."
"And what's the difference?"
"The difference is quality of wills, techniques and cultivation. Your universe might see a genius having learned 3 wills as a genius."
Dyon nodded. This was indeed true. Back at Focus Academy, most only learned a single will. In fact, the only people Dyon had ever seen use more than two were among the best geniuses he knew. These were people like the Elvin campaign leaders, Chenglei, and even the God clan geniuses.
"However, in the Uidah universe, this is the norm. And none of that is to even touch their technique and superior cultivations"
"Well, it was enough to beat you, no?" Dyon grinned.
Alidor remained silent for a while before speaking. "Point being. The quality of my peak essence gathering cultivation outweighs many from your universe. Even to the point of being tied down by army after army of meridian formation experts."
Understanding, Dyon shook his head.
"So. Can you call off the attacks. Or not?"
"I can control the movements of the basilisks easily. However, the other clans have their own goals. The only reason I was able to convince them to attack was by provoking them before sending out an army of thousands to attack Lotus Tower. In all honestly, they have no idea I exist."
Dyon pondered on this point a bit before he suddenly realized something… If Alidor had no control over the other clans, and the basilisks called for reinforcements in retaliations… Didn't that mean that Dyon had to fight? There was no getting around it. He couldn't just tell Alidor to stop it…
"Let's go." Dyon stood. It was time to go. He had a sinking feeling that he should hurry.
**
Away from Dyon and at the Lotus battle field, he couldn't have been more right.
It had been a day since the lotus alliance finally realized they were being played, but, another army was already approaching them… And, it was clear that this army was much more powerful.
Ri stood, stumbling under the pressure of her own weight before Akash caught her shoulder. "Princess. You're not in any condition to be fighting right now. It's best you don't…"
Ri shook her head. "I'll be fine. This is the last stretch. After we beat them, it not like they can call for even more reinforcements, right? After all, there isn't that much time left in this campaign. They need to save time to head back to their gate entrance." Despite the weakness of her words, the determination firing in Ri's eyes was undoubtable. It was clear that she had no apprehensions about their victory.
Rolling the ring Dyon had given her on her finger, Ri took out two of the final remaining fruits before swallowing them. She closed her eyes, relishing in the warm feeling they gave her as they slowly replenished her tired body.
She couldn't remember how many she had used, but, it was clear that there was no more left to be had.. The truth was Dyon had made a ridiculous amount, but, he hadn't anticipated being gone for so long, or even that this battle would have lasted for just as long. And yet, here they were, about to fight again.
More than two months of continuous fighting with only a single day of rest… It was a miracle that they had even lasted so long. But, everyone knew that there was only one man to thank for that… Him and his tactics.
That said, there was someone else to thank too. Someone who had become the backbone of morale the lotus alliance needed with their backs against the wall, the rock to their waves of emotion, the pillar to their fragile hearts... Someone who happened to be that man's fiancée … Ri Sacharro.
