"You… How… Your martial talent should be normal! That's the only reason we allowed you to go!"
Dyon didn't seem intent on answering. Instead, he began to draw 5 arrays laced with a dense black.
"What is that?!"
The Asian warriors began to panic. They weren't like General Mace and didn't have the air of an expert. When faced with a situation like this, they could hardly control themselves.
Sending the arrays forward, the five of them convulsed, immediately paling upon contact. Seeing this, Ri released her wills. There was no longer a need for her to keep them in place.
"I think it's time you answer a few questions. You don't need to understand what it is I just did. All you need to know is that if you refuse to answer, or lie, you die."
Clara watched Dyon's back as he practically sentenced people to death without batting an eye. She didn't know how to feel about it. Was this normal in the martial world?
Dyon had never thought twice about killing those that needed to be killed. But, was the same true of anyone who came to the martial world from the mortal world? Could Clara step into the martial world and immediately kill without blinking an eye? She didn't know.
The truth was that Madeleine had never killed anyone directly either. She usually incapacitated her opponents because she didn't know how it would feel to kill. But, that said, she never bat an eye when Dyon killed. In fact, it was a sigh of relief for her because she felt like he was taking the burden of having to away from her.
So, when Madeleine wrapped her arms around Clara's shoulder and gave her a look. Clara immediately understood what that Madeleine felt exactly like she did.
General Mace struggled to glare at Dyon. But, he said nothing. He knew he had made a mistake. He wanted to contact the Daiyu, but whenever he thought of doing something that Dyon would clearly disapprove of, he felt this searing pain in his temple. It was clear that if he acted out of line, he would die.
"To begin, I'm glad you guys made this so easy on me. If I had to fight you celestial experts, things might have gotten dicey. Luckily, you're idiots who thought you could bully my uncle while I was here."
General Mace grit his teeth.
"First, tell me what your purpose for instilling Martial Law is."
Although General Mace tried to fight it, the long her spent not answering, the more the pain increased. Eventually, he couldn't hold on any longer and nearly blurted his answer out.
"Martial Law is nothing other than compensation for my help. By putting the country in a perpetual Martial Law state, I can become the true leader of America."
"Is that all?"
"Egh –" General Mace struggled. "No. It's also a distraction tactic and a fail safe. The final step of the plan, for reasons I don't know, requires mortal cooperation. If the leader of the free world tells you what to do, people are more likely to listen than not. That minimizes those that fight back."
"Mortal cooperation to do what?"
General Mace eventually gave up on struggling. He had done all of this for power and to live longer. He loved his life. What was the use in dying here?
"Human world cultivation has been sealed. As you can see, I can only cultivate through the foundational stages. I don't know why, but I assume they want to use the accumulated kernels. Likely to give it to someone."
"Kernels?"
"Energy kernel. Body kernel. And soul kernel. Although the soul kernel is gone now…"
"And you're saying that the human world cultivation was sealed to build up these kernels to give to someone? Who is it?"
"I don't know."
"How long has this been going on?"
"I don't know."
"When are they harvesting these kernels? And do they know where the soul kernel went?"
General Mace's eyes flashed with something imperceptible as he answered. "They want to make use of something called the World Tournament to harvest the kernels. I'm not sure what about this world tournament is important. But, what I do know is that we also used this World Tournament to spread fear for Martial Law.
"As for the soul kernel. They aren't sure of where it is, no."
Dyon smiled. "You're not as clever as you think you are, Mace."
"What are you talking about?"
"Who do they think is tied to the soul kernel?" Dyon directly responded, cutting to the root of the problem.
General Mace once again began struggling with his answer. But, in the end, he could only bow his head and answer. "You."
Dyon stood from the couch, smiling. "See? Was that so hard?"
Scanning over the pitiful warriors and General Mace, Dyon devised a plan. "G man."
"Mm." President Gallagher responded, snapping himself out of his thoughts.
"I'll be leaving them here. Go ahead and sign the Martial Law papers. General Mace won't be able to refuse your orders. So, you'll still be in charge."
President Gallagher nodded in acknowledgement. "And where are you going?"
Dyon grinned. "To win a world tournament. I'll be taking Tomboy Clara if you don't mind."
"Hey. Don't call me that!"
President Gallagher laughed. "Sure. She's been locked up doing too much studying recently. Let her experience the martial world."
Ri giggled, taking Clara's arm and walking with her toward the door. "Come on, we can talk about how to bully him."
With a final wave, Madeleine and Dyon followed them out. "See you later G man."
Before Dyon could catch up to Ri and Clara though, Madeleine pulled him back as the door closed behind them.
Dyon turned to her, a bit confused. "Madeleine?" Stroking her cheek, Dyon smiled, enjoying the soft feel of his wife's delicate features. "Is something wrong?"
Madeleine sighed, gently gripping Dyon's wrist. "Why didn't you ask about it?"
"Ask about what?" Dyon pretended not to understand.
"Don't be like that. You know what I mean. Why didn't you ask General Mace about your parents and what really happened to them?" Madeleine's purple eyes sparkled as she looked into Dyon's.
A sad expression appeared on Dyon's features as he bent down and planted a kiss on Madeleine's forehead before pulling her into a tight embrace.
He gently held her head to his chest silently for a long while, calming his breathing.
"If I had…" Dyon said softly. "I wouldn't have been able to stop myself from killing him…"
