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n“Mhmm,” Beatrice mumbled weakly.

n“Alright, alright, there’s enough of me to go around, guys. Why don’t we go sit down and you guys can tell me about all that happened while I was away, okay?” Dante laughed softly as he kissed both his wife and daughter enthusiastically, trying to raise their spirits.

n“Oh! Oh! Yeah! Let me start!”

nAntonia practically jumped with excitement at the idea of being able to show off in front of her dad. She pulled Dante and Beatrice to the side, even choosing where they would sit so that they could better view her.

nSitting down, Dante finally had time to size his daughter up. His seclusion had been pretty long this time, lasting about 3 years in total. The toddler-like Antonia who could only reach his shin was long gone, maturing into a young teen of 11 years.

nDue to her superior genetics and stats, she was a lot older physically than she actually looked. From her current height of 5 feet and 6 inches, she was taller than most even at the age she was stipulated to be at. .

nThis entirely came from her two parents, Dante who was 6 foot 2 and Beatrice who was exactly six feet. Her height definitely would not stop there and even had a chance to reach Augeus or Portia’s levels.

nHer purple hair, which she inherited from her mother, had grown out, being tied into a ponytail which allowed Antonia to take care of it better. Her skin tone had not changed, rather becoming more pronounced if anything.

nIt was also clear that puberty was beginning to strike his young daughter, and Dante now had to face every father’s fear, the prospect of his little princess, a swan in his eyes, being targeted by lustful toads, which were boys her age.

nHe was dragged from his thoughts by his daughter, who was impatiently waving her hands in front of his face. “Dad! Focus!”

n“Alright, alright, let me see what you’ve got.” Dante chuckled and admitted defeat.

nDante glanced at Beatrice who was calmly watching with a slightly amused smile, clearly already aware of whatever Antonia was going to show off. This also made Dante somewhat curious and he could easily get the answer using his new abilities, but he didn’t want to ruin the novelty and fun of this moment.

n“Now, look!” Antonia exclaimed as she stood a few steps away from Dante and began to focus.

nSuddenly, her eyes changed color from their usual purple to a golden hue, and Dante felt a slight pull towards them, especially since he was looking right into them. His soul space began to waver and quake slightly, but a casual flick of his soul body’s finger steadied it.

nAntonia seemed to be trying very hard at the moment, so Dante eventually pretended to be in a trance, which made the young lady feel extremely satisfied. She relaxed and let the golden hue disappear, returning her eyes to normal, in which Dante also pretended to come to.

n“Huh? Did something happen?” Dante acted dumb, which made Beatrice giggle and Antonia sigh with exasperation.

n“Dad, I’m not dumb. I know there’s no way I can trap you, but can you at least pretend normally?” She complained unhappily, making Dante rub the back of his head.

nWell, he had never actually fallen into an illusion before. Except that one time he was first spelunking in the Zero Gate and was slightly influenced by some random beast to lose his sense of direction.

nBut that obviously wasn’t the same thing, so how could he skillfully pretend.

n“Fine, but it’s great that you have unlocked your Eyes of Illusion so early. My darling Antonia is a prodigy not seen in ten thousand years!” Dante quickly praised to change her focus, which worked splendidly.

n“Haha, that’s right, even mom said so. I am quite a talent, aren’t I? I’ve also reached the Martial Grandmaster realm in External Martial Arts, the Great Knight Realm in Knight Breathing, as well as a 6th Rank Lightning and Water Magus!” Antonia immediately boasted as her head swelled with pride.

n“Wow! My Antonia is so amazing!” Dante cried out as he clapped his hands with shock.

n“Hehe, and also, I have become an Internal Grandmaster in both the Inferno Ascension Technique and the Celestial Ascension Technique!” Antonia quickly added her crowning achievement last to extract the maximum effect, and Dante naturally let her have her way.

n“Oh my! Antonia, how is this possible?! Only the most talented and cutest girl could possibly accomplish this!” Dante stood up as if in disbelief.

nAntonia was beaming from ear to ear, laughing happily. She had waited for this day for a long time, and had worked hard while Dante was away to achieve it. Having her efforts be rewarded made her feel a sense of accomplishment like nothing before.

n“Well… it was also thanks to mom’s guidance that I got this far.” Antonia stated as she skipped over to Beatrice and hugged her gently, surprising both Beatrice and Dante.

nThe two parents shared a look and smiled gently. Dante then spent the rest of the week with the two, not leaving their side for even a second. As for the pursuit of Lara’s clones, he didn’t see the need to rush it and continued to let his army handle it, only that the process got much more efficient since he had knowledge of all universes.

nThere was nowhere for Lara’s clones to hide nor would there be a single universe that would be spared. Troops were dispatched daily and within a week, would lure out the clone. An omni-clone of Dante would descend and effortlessly capture her, tossing her into the now limitless quantum space that extended into the chaos itself.

nThe good news was that Lara was predictable, or at least her clones were. The same set of actions always yielded the same results at around the same time and with the same amount of effort.

nThen again, that was what would happen if you cut off all communication between the clones such that each one acted independently of the other. Since all their personalities and logical reasoning came from the same source, it was natural that their actions would be the same.

nTime flew by and the number of clones out there in the wild began to diminish rapidly. They had formed quite the civilization within the quantum space, living in peace with each other, something that Etz Chaim found suspicious.

nQuote Etz Chaim: “I know Lara, it’s impossible for her to even tolerate herself, so how could billions of clones do the same?”

nEventually, another 3 months passed by. By this time, Dante had gotten used to his new powers and was exploring new utility for them slowly. It was quite frustrating that he could touch and reshape all the universes in existence, but he could not, for the life of him, even remotely affect the Zero and First Gates.

nThen again, if he could, Etz Chaim who originally had the same authority would have long disabled or destroyed them since they were the primary source of the problem. Dante, now in control of the multiverse, felt the distress Etz Chaim felt as energy was forcefully pulled from hiscore to fuel the activities of those two gates.

nLara was truly insidious in this regard because the energy did not come from the crystal that connected to Origo, or there would have been no problem. Rather, Lara set to come from whoever held the authority directly, meaning it was their own personal energy being sapped away.

nDante was only a new Eternal who just entered the realm, not a peak one like Etz Chaim. He was really feeling the drainage and estimated that he didn’t have her millions of years, but maybe only a few decades at best.

nHowever, unlike Etz Chaim who was too busy suppressing Lara’s main body to do anything about it, Dante had all the time in the world. As such, he devised the very simple and obvious plan to prevent all captured universes from using the two gates for the near future.

nGoing from actively being exploited to passively being exploited greatly changed the energy consumption and reduced it by more than 30%, giving Dante a lot of breathing space.

nOf course, no matter how smart the idea was, it was only a stopgap measure that did not truly solve the pressing problem. Dante issued a command for the conquest to be sped up so that not only could he integrate all universes into one whole family, but he could also achieve his goal.

nLuckily, this command was carried out quickly and efficiently. From ‘lazily’ conquering one at a time, the army went into frenzy mode and disregarded all niceties. Many universes fell on the same day, some even within the same hour, numbering in thousands.

nThere weren’t planets or even galaxies, but entire universes that fell like dominoes!

nSo it was without surprise that almost a year later, the last Lara clone had been captured and arranged before Dante, fulfilling his second task.

nUpdated from .𝘤𝘰

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