[8th Heaven, Fafnir’s Island]
The organization on Fafnir's island was a little different from that of Kiyohime. In the first place, unlike Kiyohime, he had many children and many grandchildren or lower descendants.
Even then, only a very small number of promising and talented children were allowed on the island.
“Why did you call us today?”
Hydra, one of the four Dragons, complained. His prized granddaughter had come back home and he was busy supervising her improvement. Yggdrasil had really spoiled her by teaching her many different kinds of poison even he had no knowledge of.
He hated being disturbed in such a situation.
“Haha. Don’t be angry. You know big bro hates this kind of gathering more than us. For him to call us now means that the situation must be serious.”
Welsh, the Dragon Queen, smirked on the side, causing Hydra to grunt. He knew that she was right but he couldn’t help but complain a little.
As the youngest of the four, he always got pushed around when they were younger and because of this, he developed the habit to appear tougher. Furthermore, he really didn’t want to be here.
Looking at his two siblings, Fafnir gave a low laugh before shaking his head.
“As Welsh said, I don’t want this more than you. But the situation is what it is. There is a high chance that we will be under attack soon. You need to warn the other four as soon as possible so that we prepare the defensive formation.”
Immediately, the atmosphere changed. Even the belligerent Hydra sat straighter in his seat.
“Someone dares to attack our territory? Are they tired of living?”
Even without Tiamat at the helm, the dragons were the strongest race, equaled only by the angels and the demons. Once Tiamat was added to the equation, they were so far ahead of the others that it wasn’t even worth discussing.
Fafnir shrugged, “I am simply giving Kiyohime’s message. You know that she would never joke around with something as important as this.”
Welsh frowned a little before nodding, “So should we activate all the islands? What about the 9th island though? Who will activate it?”
The 8th Heaven was composed of nine islands, each of them belonging to the nine children of Tiamat. At the same time, those islands weren’t just for decoration, but nodes of power Tiamat had specially created to increase the power of the dimensional wall.
This was mainly to counter the space and dimensional mages. After all, it would be deadly if someone suddenly infiltrated their zone.
While they couldn’t exactly stop a skilled dimensional mage from intruding, they could immediately sense any portal opening and could mess up the coordinates in order to send the portal to a more appropriate place.
Of course, the utility didn’t stop here.
But there was a problem. The 9th island had lost its owner and only the new prince or princess could activate the formation.
If they really had to activate the formation then they needed to find a new owner.
Fafnir groaned, “I already talked about this. Kiyohime proposed to bring the selection forward. The winner will be decided in one day.”
“What will be the format of the fight?”
Fafnir threw an ugly look at Hydra but still answered Welsh while gritting his teeth,
“A battle royale.”
He had to fight the urge to punch the gloating look Hydra immediately showed.
—-
[9th Heaven]
“A battle royal?”
“Indeed. Are you afraid?”
Tiamat asked Sol with a smile at the corner of his mouth.
“Not really? Though Nidhogg might problematic. I am sure she will thrive in such a format.”
“You are right. Her poison will easily incapacitate most of the contestants from the beginning. The way I see it, it will end in a three-way fight between you, Nidhogg, and Kaiser.”
Sol shrugged, not really caring, “It’s a shame I won't have the time to fight and play around with them. I need to crush them fast.”
Tiamat sighed, “We do not have a choice. Skuld's will give us more leeway.”
Everything would happen fast.
The plan in itself wasn’t complicated.
The nine islands didn’t need to be activated at the same time to bring the best results. There was no way Tiamat would create such a stupid system. Tiamat alone could activate them herself.
They didn’t need a prince to activate the Island. What they needed was for Sol to officially be recognized as a Prince.
Once that was done, he would be able to form a contract with Isis at any moment.
But then, why not simply have Tiamat nominate Sol as a prince?
Tiamat wished to reduce the number of variables. While she was known to play favorites, the normal Tiamat would never take such a decision and in their current situation, any unexpected move on her part might alert the enemy.
“In our plan, Isis and Sheherazade play a very important role. Making a contract with Isis will make your breakthrough to the Duke level smoother and have many more advantages. Furthermore, with that little fairy power of Wish, it will be possible to greatly increase the chances of success.”
What was a gamble?
Ordinary people would say that it was a matter of luck. But they were partially wrong.
A true gamble was a matter of probability and a true gambler would do his best to increase the probability of success.
“Once this ends, you will reach an unbelievable level of power. I believe that the investment put in you is something that was never seen and might not be seen for thousands of years again. Success or failure will depend on you now.”
Sol did not refute.
“Aside from this…Are you alright?”
“I…I am a little confused. I understand now why Skuld said that her method would be dangerous for me.”
No matter how much they invested, the most important factor was Sol himself. But how could he learn something that would take weeks in just a small amount of time?
Skuld had the perfect solution.
By bringing the knowledge of the future Sol in the current timeline to the current Sol.
Basically, in the millions of timelines, there was one where Tiamat taught him everything slowly. Skuld just had to bring the knowledge from that Sol into the current Sol.
This was a frightening power but it was also very limited.
Sol could not absorb knowledge farther than one week in the future or even less.
If Skuld made him absorb the knowledge from too far away, the end result would most likely be a mental breakdown as his brain would be unable to keep everything.
Even in the case he survived, his personality might get distorted and there was a high chance of him developing mania or multiple personality disorder.
“I absorbed three days' worth of knowledge but I am already feeling a little dizzy. This is also pretty taxing on Skuld herself.”
“But you won’t stop.”
“Yes I won’t. I need to give my all for this to succeed.”
He give a confident smile and turned his back to Tiamat and walked out of the room.
“I am tired of being the one protected.”
He wanted to become the one who protects and for that, some personal sacrifices were necessary.
Even though it was painful.
Even though he might lose himself.
But it was his conviction and nothing could stop him.
—---
*Groan*
‘It’s so fucking painful!’
The same Sol that had left Tiamat’s throne room without looking back was now rolling and groaning on his bed.
All this while he had been keeping the pain to himself while acting strong but the reality was that even just three days' worth of knowledge was pushing it.
Just how much information could a normal person absorb in one day?
In Sol's previous world, some scientists had presumed that one would absorb about 74 Giga of information per day.
What about a hybrid dragon-like Sol?
Visual information, scents, sounds, and so much more. He could absorb tens or hundreds of times more information.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. The brain would slowly process all that information over the days without affecting anything.
But with Skuld’s method, Sol had been forced to receive all that information in an instant.
The moment Skuld used her power, Sol felt like his brain was about to explode and he nearly fainted because of the overwhelming feeling.
The only reason he didn’t faint was that Sol had already gone through something similar once.
The first time he looked at Luxuria’s face.
Even then, this was nearly too much.
‘I need to hold on. There will be another session tonight. No matter how painful it is, I need to continue.’
He didn’t have the luxury to take a softer road. His life and that of many others was on the line. He couldn’t stop.
Calming down a little, Sol was about to close his eyes and rest when he heard a knock at the door.
*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*
“Sol? Are you free right now? I need to speak with you.”
Hearing Nent’ voice, Sol wondered what this would be about.
“Enter.”
He hoped that she wouldn’t give him any bad news. He already had enough of those lately.
