"Well, I guess it had to come from someone", said Daimon at Freya who could only sigh in response.
"Just for the records, Alicia wasn't like that, she was a responsible girl who knew how to analyze the situation and act accordingly, pretty similar to that little girl", she said referring to Jasmine.
"I guess it runs out on them, depending on their attribute", said Daimon which made Freya who had appeared as a projection next to Daimon, nod in an approbative way.
"You never disappoint, since when did you notice?", she asked.
"From the very beginning, maybe others wouldn't notice, but while mine aren't as extremely opposite as possible, since both of them belong to the offensive type, unlike others, I not only have both darkness and light affinities but I can use them at the same time", said Daimon as he gazed at Joanna.
The black- and white-haired woman, frowned in response, her ethereal form floated around Daimon, as she observed him with interest.
"To say something as crazy as that without even the slightest sign of hesitation, I like you, so can you show me how you do It?", curiously said Joanna.
Daimon showed Joanna his left hand as it started radiating white light, as he has previously stated, his light affinity is completely offensive, so instead of the neutral and calming light of Jasmine, or the composed and solid light of Aurora, Daimon's light was blinding and burning.
He then extended his right hand as a black violent stream of darkness mana gathered around it, unlike Abaris's whose darkness took a haze form, Daimon's darkness looked like monstrous torrent that retorted around him, as if it was a fierce creature trying to devour everything in its way, it was ominous to say the least.
As a proof of it, Sarah's eyes sparkled, naturally she was charmed every time Daimon used his Demon Light, but his darkness mana wasn't bad at all.
Daimon then condensed a lance on each of his hands, the black one was made of darkness mana while the one was made out of light battle aura, which of course took Joanna by surprise.
"Woah, has the people of the current era found the way to walk in the two paths!", she exclaimed, just to hear Freya saying.
"What the hell are you saying, there are ways to obtain abilities of the two paths, but not be both at the same time, he is just that much of a monster, I can't even imagine what his concept might be…", Freya stopped in cold realizing she had said more than what she should.
Daimon shook his head as he dispersed both the spell and the martial art, certainly, Evangeline has told him that while Magic Knights exist, they follow a single path with certain traits from both paths, they don't walk in the two of them simultaneously, like him.
In part that's why Adam nearly shit his pants when he saw Daimon using spells and martial arts at the same time, even him in his Archangel form couldn't do that, though he gained the capacity to control mana externally like mages, he was still tied to use martial arts.
"Nice catch you two, don't let him escape", said Joanna as she gave Jasmine and Sarah thumbs up, just to see Jasmine blushing while Sarah nodded as if it was the most natural thing on the world.
"Don't worry, Daimon is the type to take responsibility, so he won't run seeing everything there is to see and touch everything there is to touch~", playfully said the crazy girl, which nearly made Jasmine choke as she turned to see Daimon.
"Hey, don't say things that can be misunderstood", said Daimon, whose eyebrow was twitching, Sarah was quite wild as always, luckily, she didn't say it in front of the Risha sisters nor Aisha, otherwise this would have ended in a bloodbath.
"I don't want to ruin the moment, but how come you became the core of the citadel?", asked Daimon to change the subject.
Joanna's gaze became nostalgic as she heard Daimon's question, for a change she looked like a proper adult as she gazed at Jasmine and Sarah.
"Before that tell me… what happened to Alice, you only told me she died and to take her lineage for me as that was her last will, I waited for five thousand years to hear more from you", said Joanna to Freya who sighed.
"I was captured and sealed, as I said in my message, that bastard turned out to be the one who killed Tania and after that…", Freya proceeded to tell everything that happened to Joanna, who got angrier with every second that passed, but ultimately, she just had a sorrowful expression on her face.
"I see, even after his death he never stopped being a piece of scum", angrily said Joanna, to then tell her side of the story, in other words what happened after both the hero and the Matriarch of the Light Palace disappeared "mysteriously".
"After those two's deaths were confirmed by me and by that guy's general, naturally new ambitious people emerged from the shadows, but we got rid of them under the excuse of peace, so there was a stable period of peace in which I married and had my daughter".
"I had already integrated Alicia's lineage with mine way before that, so that little girl inherited it safely, just like sister Alicia, she had a pretty strong light affinity, so she was honestly more fit to be the Matriarch than me".
And this is where Jasmine and even Sarah felt a bit confused, according to what they could feel, the color of her magic core and Daimon's own words from before, Joanna was a light affinity mage, so she was perfect for the Matriarch position, or so they thought until they saw Joanna's previously white mana, change to a pitch dark color.
Joanna softly laughed at the surprised reactions of those two, before saying.
"I guess something really serious happened for you to not know about this, when I left an explanation of everything for that little girl before leaving, let me tell you the origin of our last name".
"We are called Ivory because there is both a black and a white color shade, called like that, just like you two, despite having completely different affinities are part of both my Ivory family as well as Alicia's Brightstar family, and as our last name states, the members of our main lineage were always born with either light or darkness affinity, some actually had both".
"Naturally, as we grow, we'll end up keeping one and sealing the other, as trying to train in the two of them is considered "impossible" in many levels".
Though quite rare is not impossible for someone with light or darkness affinity, to awaken an affinity related to the other, for example darkness and lightning, but those who do don't think of it as a blessing but a cure, since the natures of their affinities are too different which means their efficiency isn't amplified but reduced, and that is a large part of the advantage of having more than one affinity.
The only known exception to that "curse" are variants, those whose affinities adapt to the other, due to their ascendence, that's why no one questioned how he uses darkness and lightning too back at the four galaxies, he is considered an extremely rare variant, similar to Aura.
"After our victory, the years passed and though from the bottom of my heart, I wanted to rip that bitch's head off with my own hands, I couldn't find her nor all the ones that followed her, after they left when we finished dealing with the opportunists, so while there was peace on the surface, I knew things weren't that simple".
"My husband died even before my daughter had children, so after passing her the title of Matriarch, I isolated myself to become stronger and didn't leave my chamber for a really long time, the idea was that they thought my life was reaching its end or that I was becoming senile, so they made their move".
"But nothing happened so I realized they were not going to make their move while it was alive, which is why I recorded everything into a book for my daughter and then focused on leaving her something that could protect her… the Flying Citadel".
"I remember that piece of scum saying that most of it was destroyed during the final battle, and the same applied to his own Fortress, luckily there were a lot of remains from it, so I studied it for years and ultimately melt them to form a degraded version of it using a city destroyed during the war as the material, but I couldn't find something to replace the missing core".
"No matter how I tried, things didn't progress for the next thousands of years until I saw it… what came after the Stellar realm, the problem is that if it tried to advance, there was a really high chance that my family would be destroyed".
Daimon nodded, previously he would have doubted about why advancing will bring destruction to the Light Palace, but after Kerrol's experience he got to know that said advance required a long process during which the one attempting to breakthrough, will be unable to do anything else.
It happened to the Blood King, during that time, the system users lit a fire in his backyard, it got to the point where he had to interrupt his advance to deal with those three, Joanna knew that there were eyes and ears even within the Light Palace, so things will get bad if she was suddenly unable to make some appearances from time to time.
"It was then when I received one last gift from Alicia…", as Joanna spoke, her right hand shone in white light, she was using light mana, which wouldn't have been surprising if not for the fact that her real affinity was darkness!
And that wasn't all, the light faded away and was replaced by darkness which covered her hand like a glove.
Sarah frowned as she mumbled with a jealous voice.
"Why did you ask Daimon to show you, if you could do the same?".
Joanna giggled in response as she answered.
"Come on, I'm not trying to steal your boyfriend or anything, unlike him, I can only use them one at the time, so it was truly amazing to see what he can do~", she said before adding.
"Also, I only "awakened" my light affinity after I had put a step into the next realm, but I had to train it almost from zero, and that's when I finally discovered something that could be used as a substitute core for the remodeled Flying Citadel, my magic core".
"And I had to do it quick, because if I aged more, my core wouldn't have been able to endure the process, unfortunately I was only able to make the citadel work as a defensive mean and the usage of the arrays I could save was limited, but that was enough".
Freya felt a headache coming her way when she heard the insane thing, Joanna just said, as one advances more and more into the mage or knight paths, the magic core becomes more and more important, losing it was the same as dying.
"Luckily I was a rune master, so I could take my core and insert it into the heart of the city by myself, so that little girl didn't have to see it, it's a shame that my body was destroyed in the process though", casually said Joanna.
'Yeah, she is as crazy as Sarah', thought Daimon.
However, he also couldn't help but feel some respect for her, she found herself unable to advance due to external pressure, but she found a way to protect the Light Palace sect and even more importantly, her family.
"Speaking of which, where did you find that", said Joanna as she pointed at the white orb which was still orbiting Sarah.
"It was hidden below the Black Fortress's castle, and the core of the Black Fortress which is of an extremely opposite nature, was used to seal it", said Daimon.
"I see, I never understood why that guy's treasure went along so well with Alicia's, even when we didn't know he was a piece of trash, it's not like they were close or anything", mumbled Joanna.
Daimon had the answer to that though.
"Because they were obtained through the same mission, and they were "teamed up", so it was normal that their treasures complemented each other, as they were fighting on the same side".
Those four arrived at Neptune thanks to a mission, call it fate or bad luck, but Alicia was sided with the hero to fight against the Hydra guy and the one who scammed the Snakele's believers to become Skelefiends.
Based on the usability and the strength of the fortresses, they were probably rewards from reaching the final stage of their missions, which was to battle each other, since they obtained the chance to go to Kerrol as their last reward after emerging victorious from the last battle.
"Tsk, whoever did that has a really bad taste, still how did you obtain the core of that guy's fortress, is it related to that lineage perhaps… no, yours is different, if I had to compare it, yours might be lower in concentration but the sensation it gives off is on a completely different level", said Joanna to which Daimon chuckled.
"Well, unlike you, that guy didn't care much about his descendants or subordinates, so he used a genetic seal along other locks, but he miscalculated the fact that there was a superior version of his cherished lineage", he said.
"Oh, that explains why that little girl with light affinity isn't the one linked to the core of the citadel, but don't worry, you'll be linked to the citadel itself, while your sister will control the core, so the two will own it, it's not a gift, right~", said Joanna with a bright smile.
"What will happen to you after your core is removed from the heart of the citadel?", asked Jasmine with a somewhat sad voice.
By all means, Joanna's core shouldn't have been able to hold on until the current generation, it was probably being maintained by the arrays in part, so once it was removed, it will crumb apart.
Joanna softly smiled as she patted Jasmine's head a couple of times, like a loving mother would do to her daughter, perhaps Jasmine did remind her of her daughter, if you think about it, she had earned to finally rest, after watching over so many generations of the Light Palace, though she wasn't conscious until a moment ago, it mustn't have been a pleasant dream, but more of like being in the limbo until now.
Even Freya remained silent, the last person from her time who was still "alive" was Joanna, so once she moves on, she'll be left alone, even if it was just a temporary existence for her, as she will be reassigned after her contract with Daimon ends, she couldn't help but feel somewhat bitter about it… or at least that was the case until she heard Joanna saying.
"Why the sad face, with the elemental conversion array and the energy gathering array that will be improved after putting the real core into the heart of the citadel, my magic core can be sustained indefinitely, you just have to form a link between the citadel and me~".
"Also, it seems like interesting things happen around him, so how can I not be a part of it", she playfully said as she pointed at Daimon.
Freya suppressed the urge to strangle Joanna's projection to death with her own hands.
'I changed my mind, she should just die', she thought.
Joanna laughed as she floated around those two as well as Daimon, with a cheerful expression.
"I have been trapped into a slumber for who knows how many years, I want to see the outside world, not to mention I don't know what happened with my Light Palace, some descendant of mine must have been tricked by that bitch's family, how can I rest in peace before settling some pending scores, wouldn't I become a ghost if I try to leave now".
Daimon saw Jasmine and Sarah's expression and he shook his head.
"I guess you two just got yourselves a weird ancestor, I can't wait to see senior Aurora or those three's expressions", he said.
"I have transferred the control of the heart to you, don't take long otherwise the citadel will fall from the sky", she said to Jasmine.
Joanna then forcefully removed her core from the center of the room, and her projection disappeared on the spot, her core which was still quite worn out flew until it fell in Daimon's hands.
"Here you can have me while the link is formed, enjoy it~", Joanna's voice could be heard coming from the core, now that Daimon observed it up close, there were runes engraved in her core, she actually put an array into it, probably to keep her soul into it, otherwise her personality would have been erased.
For a change, even the crazy girl was rendered speechless, so she ultimately clicked "Y" in the notification that just appeared for her and the white orb flew to take the place of Joanna's core.
At the same time, Jasmine who was now the one with linked to the citadel, saw a notification appear for her, just like Joanna said, while Sarah was linked to the core, Jasmine was linked to the citadel itself, so the two of them had to agree for the process to start.
Daimon felt tempted to sent Joanna's core to his inventory, but he refrained from doing so and just kept her core in his hand, while Sarah and Jasmine were helping the citadel regain its past glory.
