That very same night, a planet even King Belmont had far from his thoughts was meeting – Planet Naiad.
This was a planet with the closest relations with earth and were home to the Clyte Royal God Clan, the Kami God Clan, and Endora God Clan. But, what many still remembered was the fact that it used to house a completely different Royal God Clan… Delia's father's clan… The Patia-Neva Royal God Clan.
Unfortunately, that clan was now in rapid decline. They were not even powerful enough to gain representation for this world tournament. As such, they were replaced by the Endora God Clan.
"Have you located Patia-Neva yet?" A man with hair such a light shade of brown that it was nearly blond, spoke. Beside him, on a throne just a few centimeters lower, was a woman with beautiful olive skin. She had features that should have been warm and inviting, but there was something decidedly dead and cold about her eyes.
"Head Clyte, unfortunately we haven't been able to. He's very good at hiding. We aren't sure if it was by design or not, but from our sources, he was the head of a pitiful academy just two years ago – named Focus Academy I believe. However, it was disbanded. No one has seen him since then. It's likely that he disappeared knowing we would be coming to this planet for the tournament."
"And his daughter?"
The woman faintly trembled at these words but cut off her emotions immediately. Allowing them to shine through would only bring her more pain.
"I believe her name is Delia Patia-Neva. I don't see her name on the rankings, but she is also much too young for the world tournament – or, more accurately, too young to do well. That said, although everyone who has cultivation between meridian formation and essence gathering participate, if Patia-Neva has hidden himself, I don't think he'd allow his daughter to participate."
Head Clyte nodded. His face remained cold and he never once turned his gaze to the woman by his side. Only he and her knew that this daughter wasn't just Patia-Neva's. But, how could the Head of a Royal God Clan allow information to spread about his wife having a child with another man? All he could do was torture and kill them both. Then, when he was satisfied with the pain his supposed wife had suffered, he'd have her killed too.
"During the group stages, the members of Planet Naiad have only one goal. Kill Delia Patia-Neva."
**
Not too far away, in a familiar mansion, Thadius stood watch over a ring along with Eli – both nervously waiting.
Inside the ring, though, maybe the most nervous person was Ri. All of her ideas had failed and she was only becoming more and more agitated.
It had been a full day since Dyon lost his ability to communicate, but his eyes were just as resolute. If it wasn't for how often Ri melded her soul with Dyon, she would have no idea how much pain he was in. However, there came a point where even though she wanted to share in Dyon's pain, her brain couldn't function properly under so much stress. She had no choice but to pull away and try to calm herself.
Previously, her idea had been to use the Florence family technique to absorb the crystals in Dyon. That way, not only would they gain an understanding of just what the technique was, they'd also kill two birds with one stone by saving Dyon. This would work because it was clear to Ri that this technique was heavily will based. And this will, was clearly related to the red crystals she saw.
However, the problem with that was that even the most soul talented Demon Generals just weren't as talented as Dyon.
The only reason Ri had been able to learn to use the Tree of Life and Death so quickly, despite being far less efficient in comparison to Dyon, was because she had Acacia family blood running through her. The technique was quite literally tailor made for her success.
There was no one in existence who could learn a soul technique as fast as Dyon without that kind of booster helping them. So, Ri had been helplessly trying other things while she hoped one of the demon generals would soon learn the technique.
That said, she didn't hold out much hope… A technique on the level of the ancient Elvin Techniques would be Devour. And, for an accurate gauge of how difficult it was to learn soul techniques, Dyon had once said it would take Ri half a year to learn to use Devour if she put her everything into it. And that was just for the first act of the first stage!
Ri had relatively mediocre soul talent, so she had been hoping that a more talented demon general would be able to learn the Florence family technique much quicker than she could. But, the problem was that she had vastly underestimated Dyon. He did things that were seemingly impossible with such ease that even Ri, who was around him all of the time, had forgotten how truly difficult it was.
That was usually a great thing, but now, it was the worst thing in the world. How many weeks or even months would it take to learn the Florence family technique? The start of the new year was less than eight weeks away, was that enough time? Would Dyon even last that long? Could he deal with such pain for such an extended period of time?
Ri wanted to break down, but she was forcefully holding herself together. She had to figure it out, was this the solution Dyon wanted her to find? Or had he thought of something else?
The truth was, Dyon had thought of a solution much more efficient than this within minutes of his affliction. The problem was that he couldn't communicate it. He lamented over the fact that Little Black wasn't here, or else he'd be able to use their mental connection to convey enough for him to understand. But, he obviously couldn't form something like that with Ri… Could he?
Dyon could only sigh. He was frustrated, but he couldn't be mad at Ri. She was trying her best. Even if a mental connection would work because of Ri's half beast side, how would he communicate something like that to her? She was his wife, he couldn't possibly treat her like a pet, right? Something felt decidedly wrong about that. Then again, he treated Little Zaire like a little brother, so although it was functionally different, the sentiments were just as deep.
Either way, it didn't matter, it was already too late to do such a thing. He could only hope for something else.
Dyon wanted to squirm, but he couldn't move. His mind had slowed done so far that it had taken him almost an hour to complete just that simple thought. If he let things get worse, he might not even be able to communicate with Ri even if they formed a mental connection.
'Come on Ri, you can do it. The answer is right in front of you.'
