Just like that, two months flew by. Ri spent every day diligently cultivating by Dyon. In fact, her progress was so frightening that the little attention Dyon could spare in watching her was spent in surprise.

Unfortunately, the eve of the tournament came and Dyon still had not moved an inch.

The good news was that the red crystals has receded drastically, no longer coating Dyon’s eyes and much of his organs, but, Dyon couldn’t rest for even a single moment. The more of the technique he erased, the harder it seemed to fight. He hadn’t slept in two months, instead spending every waking moment in endless amounts of pain and strife.

He felt better about the situation, though, knowing that Ri was by his side. And, he had benefited from this experience in ways only he knew… For now.

“Should I really go?” Ri looked at Dyon who had closed his eyes long ago. She knew that Dyon wanted her to go to the world tournament, and she also knew that her participation was highly important for the Elvin Kingdom’s prestige as well, but she was torn.

Things like revenge and prestige could wait, but Dyon only had one life. If something happened while Ri was gone, she wouldn’t be able to forgive herself.

That said, Ri knew she wasn’t thinking rationally. There were three thousand demon generals here. And a thousand of them were saints! How could she protect Dyon more than they could? But, a lot of the time, love wasn’t rational.

However, before Ri could think of backing out, Dyon’s neck strained to nod and he grunted as loudly as he could.

Seeing Dyon struggle like this, tears threatened to spill out of Ri’s eyes for what seemed like the millionth time. But, she accepted it. “Okay, Okay. Stop moving. I’ll go. I’ll go.”

Although Ri didn’t say it, there was something else she was worrying about. Dyon and Connery Sapientia had a scheduled a match for the closing of the first day of the world tournament. But, it was clear that whatever Dyon was doing, just wasn’t enough to be ready by the end of tomorrow. How would Connery react when Dyon doesn’t show up?

Ri clenched her small fist and sighed. ‘There’s nothing much we can do…’

Leaning forward, Ri planted a soft kiss of Dyon’s lips before going back to training. She wanted to be in optimal condition for tomorrow.

A few faces floated in her mind. Those would be her target enemies and they would pay.

**

“The path of the absolute is unforgiving. If you’ve stepped onto this path, there’s little you’ll have else in life.

Friendship won’t feel the same. Love won’t feel the same. Family… Won’t feel the same.” Patia-Neva spoke faintly as he guided Delia again and again through a cultivation path.

They both sat in a snow storm of epic proportions, and yet Patia-Neva’s voice seemed to easily cut through it was.

This was a mountain peak that few had ever been on. In fact, it was a mountain peak that wasn’t found on Earth… Instead, it was found on an asteroid in a place known as the ice belt.

This was a ring of asteroids found in the solar system that housed Planet Naiad – the former home of the Patia-Neva Royal God Clan that had now been replaced by the Clyte Royal God Clan.

In the past, when their universe had reigned supreme over all others in this quadrant, the ice belt was known as the ultimate place to learn ice will. This wasn’t just because of its environment. The ice belt was a house to a copious amount of ice abyssal cores making it highly efficient to learn ice will here.

However, over time, this had become a long-forgotten place. It wasn’t until Patia-Neva rediscovered it and used it to propel himself toward becoming the expert he was today that it began to be used again.

The truth was that as a formerly highly noted universe, their home housed numerously inactive abyssal core sites. The problem was that since those places had once been restricted and kept secret by powerful clans, once those clans died out due to the wars, the smaller clans didn’t have the necessary knowledge to find those sacred places. In fact, even if they had the location, very few would survive the harsh realities of it.

If Patia-Neva wasn’t there to shield Delia from not only much of the will given off by the ridiculous number of abyssal cores, but to also protect her from the harsh realities of space, she would have died. It was impossible to survive in space without the cultivation of a saint or if you didn’t have devices to protect yourself. In fact, Patia-Neva himself almost died the first time he came here despite having already been a saint.

Back in Patia-Neva’s younger years, he had always been curious. The Patia-Neva clan had a weird affinity. They held dual blood lines for both nature wills and ice wills. These seemed completely opposing and odd to be found in one lineage.

However, overtime, Patia-Neva came to learn that while their nature wills were natural and stemmed from birth, their ice wills had a semblance of artificiality to them which cause Patia-Neva to wonder… Why?

Afterwards, he hypothesized that there must be a strong source of ice will nearby that was giving them this boost and that since the Patia-Neva were amongst the oldest clans of Planet Naiad, they showed the most drastic effects of this strong source of ice will.

Unfortunately, Patia-Neva couldn’t have been more right. But, his path toward protecting his secret had led to the destruction of his clan, the separation of his family and years of pain he could only blame himself for.

And yet, he still did it… Because it wasn’t just about protecting himself.

That day, when he first stepped foot on the asteroid, he met the only woman he had ever loved other than Delia’s mother. Unfortunately, she had already promised herself to another man, never giving Patia-Neva a chance.

If it wasn’t for her, Patia-Neva would have died without even knowing how it had happened. That day, he gained not only a fresh look on life, but also friends he would continue to protect to this day.

That woman’s name was Kawa Acacia, Ri’s mother.

“Big sister Ri!” Little Lyla’s long light pink hair flowed in the wind as she rushed up the mansion’s pathway to jump into Ri’s arms.

Ri giggled at the little girl’s antics. She knew immediately that Lyla could tell how she was feeling and wanted to make her feel better.

“Your birthday is soon, hm Little Lyla? What do you want?” Ri happily picked up Lyla in her arms. She had always treated Lyla like her little sister, and since she had become Dyon’s wife, that relationship had only grown stronger.

Zaire wrapped his small arms around Ri’s waist after catching up, seemingly looking for some love too. Ri couldn’t help but giggle again while rubbing his black hair, thankful she had such kind younger siblings.

“But big sister, we missed big brother Dyon and Zaire’s birthdays, we can’t celebrate mine first.” Little Lyla pouted, clearly dissatisfied with how busy everyone had been.

Ri looked a little saddened by this. It was likely that Little Lyla already understood that Dyon was incapacitated, but, that didn’t excuse them missing Zaire’s birthday.

Uncle Acacia had come to pick them up weeks before because Dyon had a feeling that things might get dangerous – and he had ended up being right. But, that unfortunately meant they couldn’t celebrate either Dyon’s or Zaire’s birthdays which were only a couple weeks apart.

“Okay, how about after the world tournament, we have a big celebration for everyone’s birthdays?” Ri smiled, trying to negotiate.

Luckily, Little Lyla was picky, so she happily agreed. In fact, she was more excited about watching the world tournament. She had been heavily influenced by Zaire, and since Zaire loved the idea of fighting tournaments so much, she too wanted to see how cool it was.

If Little Lyla knew that Zaire’s love of such things came from movies that Dyon had watched with him while he was in beast form, who knows how she’d react.

“You’ve started to ignore you uncle, little girl.” Uncle Acacia walked up, displaying a pouting face that shouldn’t have been anywhere near the features of an expert as powerful as him. But, his love for Ri was never something he had faked.

“Uncle, don’t be like that. You ran away so fast last time we saw you we didn’t even have a chance to ask you to stay for a bit!” Ri glared at her Uncle, still trying to understand just what had had him so flustered all those weeks ago.

Uncle Acacia, however, completely avoided the topic, looking off into the distance and past Ri as the door of the mansion clicked open.

“Ri?” A girl with sandy blond hair and light brown eyes opened the door. This was, of course, Venus. After so many weeks of recovery and her little brother’s constant care, many of the Viridi family had fully recovered.

“Ah, Venus. This is my uncle. And these two are Lyla and Zaire.”

Venus smiled politely, even slightly bowing. The truth was that she was still uncomfortable in this situation. She had awoken a few weeks ago, but it was odd for people in the martial world to be so… Nice. If it wasn’t for Eli’s pleading, the Viridi family likely would have found a way to leave and attempt to repay their debts in another way.

But, Ri definitely didn’t mind. She had spent much of her time in the spatial ring along with Dyon and as such had left the house to the Viridi to do with what they pleased. With their freedom bought and the money Dyon provided, they could essentially go their whole lives without another worry. However, because they had spent so long in slavery, their ability to trust had all but disappeared.

Ri, understanding this, didn’t push or prod. She allowed their family the space they wanted and only asked that they not leave too soon, or else they wouldn’t have the demon generals to protect them. If the Ragnor God Clan was malicious enough, there was always the chance of them being caught again and resold into slavery.

“I was just wondering if it would be possible to take me with you to the tournament.” Venus asked shyly. Her voice was soft, and she had lost much of her assertive demeanor. After all, she had once been used to being called a genius – a top ranked member of the big sects. But now? She didn’t feel as though she had a right to be that person anymore..

Ri knew that it would be dangerous taking Venus. After all, Dyon couldn’t show up today even though he was technically meant to fight for their freedom. Who knows if Connery would try and use that as an opportunity to take away Venus?

But, Ri decided to trust in the strength of the Elves. She had been looking for a way to get Venus to step out of her shell recently, having seen how reserved she was. This was a good opportunity.

“Of course.” Ri smiled, “That’s no problem at all.”

Seeing this, and not truly understanding the situation, Uncle Acacia decided to remain silent. But, when he noticed a striking lack of Dyon, he couldn’t help but ask. “Is Dyon coming with us?”

A sad smile appeared on Ri’s features, “He’s hurt, right now. He’ll heal up hopefully by the time he’s called to the stage. He doesn’t have to fight until the group stages are over, so he has quite a few days.”

Although the tournament was usually won by peak essence gathering experts, there were still awards for top performing meridian formation experts as well as foundation stage experts. This was because the world tournament only took place once every hundred years because of the difficulty in gathering all of the planets together. As such, it was best to allow as many talents as possible to shine through as opposed to only the ones lucky enough to be born at the optimal time.

In the past, saints used to be a part of the world tournament as well. But, with the decline of the universe, it ceased making sense. After all, the world tournament was meant to be a comparison of young talent so a universe could gain an understanding of its future leaders. This also helped with things like negotiations. There were even times where overwhelming young generation talents could decide whether a clan became a Royal or even King God clan without warring at all.

However, in the universe’s current landscape, saint level experts were already elders – having long lost the right to be called youths. So, the tournaments were held to essence gathering experts.

That said, because of the sheer number of experts that fell into these categories, the group stages took the longest amount of time. As such, it also left Dyon with some good time to hopefully get better.

But, hearing that Dyon was injured but getting better didn’t make Uncle Acacia feel any better. Because if it was a normal injury, it was likely that Dyon would have told him about it personally… The fact he hadn’t meant that he couldn’t. Which, wasn’t a good sign.

“Alright.” Uncle Acacia smiled, choosing to let it go for now, “Let’s go. Your kingdom is waiting for you. After all, how can the Elves show up without their little princess?”

That same morning, Madeleine awoke. Or, more accurately, she opened her eyes from meditation. She had been too excited to sleep for at least the last week.

‘Today!’ She thought happily.

That morning, she took a particularly long time to get ready.

For martial artists, cleanliness was almost always maintained at its peak as long as energy or body cultivation was present. But, often times, some experts, especially women, preferred to clean themselves the old-fashioned way.

Madeleine hadn’t seen Dyon in two years now, and with her new hair and eye color change, she was a bit apprehensive about how she’d be received. This was, of course, ridiculous to many people. After all, Madeleine was among the greatest beauties in existence. To then still be worried about how she looked would make many call her crazy. But, again, love wasn’t always rational.

Making sure to clean every inch of herself, Madeleine’s small hands glided across her flawless skin, down her long legs and even into her luscious and flowing dark purple hair.

Madeleine’s hair was now such a dark shade of purple that it was nearly identical to its original brunette, but, when the sun hit it just right, a shocking a radiant beauty would be clear to all.

After reaching her room, Madeleine diligently coated her skin with fragrant oils. She had gotten these from the Sapientia auction house on her trip away and she was quite happy with the lavender smell. It also held a hint of strawberry that Madeleine thought Dyon would like. Then, she took out a dress she had only worn once.

It was among the first things Dyon had ever gifted her. It was a long white qipao with a single leg slit. It was embroidered in a beautiful gold, but maybe most impressively, it was a transcendent level treasure.

The dress resized itself to cling ever so closely to Madeleine’s perfect curves before she sat in front of her mirror to elegantly twist her hair in a perfect bun – held together by the hair pin Dyon had also gifted her.

Satisfied with her appearance, a brilliant smile spread across Madeleine’s soft lips before she headed to her door and stepped out. But, before she could head in the direction of where her master was likely waiting, she found a man that often made her very uncomfortable to be around – Connery Sapientia.

Bowing slightly, Madeleine greeted him, “Head Sapientia, good morning.”

Connery waved his hand, “There’s no need to be so formal, Madeleine. You’re our first in line genius, the most likely to take my place. You should see me as you see your master – a parent. A father if you will.”

Madeleine smiled politely but didn’t answer. It wasn’t the first time Connery had said this, but she made it a point to not get too close with this man. She could tell what kind of person he was, and it wasn’t the kind she liked. Dyon helped people regardless of whether they’d be useful to him in the end, but Connery was the exact opposite. He would throw you away at a moment’s notice and just as easily accept you back without an ounce of shame.

Seeing Madeleine’s reservation, Connery didn’t think much of it. He was pragmatic and didn’t really care whether or not Madeleine truly like him, what he cared about was whether she was still a Sapientia and could be useful.

“As you know Madeleine, the Sapientia aren’t known for their battle prowess, but that doesn’t mean we’re weak. Often time we hold back for the sake of allowing our clan to be ubiquitous. Only in that way can we touch the most number of places and perform the most amount of research.

I’ve read your papers on music will. They’re quite profound and it’s clear it’s a love for you. You’re the perfect representation of what a Sapientia should be.” Connery lightly smiled.

Many months ago, Madeleine had been sending messages to Dyon about his misinterpretation of music will. In fact, it was due to Madeleine’s help that Dyon had won the debate against Zaltarish as he himself had admitted.

The help that Madeleine had provided was as a result of her poring through relevant literature and putting things to the test herself. As a member of the Sapientia family, it was of course her duty to contribute to research. So, she often chose to do so with music will.

In reality, if Madeleine researched purity type wills instead, her impact would have been tens if not hundreds of times of what it was with music will. After all, her affinity for purity was nearly unmatched. However, there were two reasons she had never done so.

For one, she felt like there was a barrier between her and the Sapientia family. The idea of contributing her best just didn’t sit well with her. It was easier on her conscience to study a will very few people could learn.

The second reason was because music will was something she could use to connect with Dyon. Many of their first talks had been about music will, so it held a special place in her heart.

“Thank you,” Madeleine said lightly, accepting the compliment.

“I came to wish you luck today, but to also remind you of what it is you’re representing. I’m not asking you to win, after all, you’re only seventeen. And, even if you were older, the Sapientia don’t put much stock in such victories.

I only want you to be mindful of the Sapientia image. Don’t let your emotions get out of balance, and always remember to maintain the strictest sense of comradery. It’s important that our family continue to be viewed as friendly and non-confrontational. You will be inheriting my position when you’ve matured, so you must remember this.” With those final words, Connery disappeared, leaving Madeleine alone in the corridor.

Connery’s words were true. The reason the Sapientia were allowed to permeate throughout the universes was because they were seen as completely non-confrontational. Although they too sent their young to the gates, they never took advantage to conquer entire universes – they only used negotiations to further spread their clan without any malicious intent.

After enough years, this had become a fact for everyone and it was the reason why although the Sapientia were seen as among the most powerful clans in existence, they were also the weakest.

That said, it was still important that the Sapientia maintained at least a semblance of strength. So, the display of their first-in-line genius was also important…

And yet, Connery’s words seemed to have a double meaning… “Don’t embarrass me.”

Madeleine stood in the corridor, clenching and relaxing her fists. Her face held a calm sense of neutrality – something that she had learned to maintain over her years here – but, her heart was in turmoil.

Taking a deep breath, Madeleine buried it. She decided to focus on the good of today.

Soon, Madeleine entered a grand hall almost too large to describe in words. In typical Sapientia fashion, the round hall had its walls coated in endless amount of books and pillars.

In the center, Madeleine noticed a large amount of Sapientia youths waiting. Some were older than her and some were young, but they all immediately showed signs of respect with her approach.

Since the Sapientia were often times not blood related, the reaction to Madeleine’s beauty was even more apparent today than it usually was. It was clear that something was different about today and only Airic and her master Ester picked up on it.

That said, while Airic had become quite fond of Dyon because he was so impressed by his tactics, Ester was a completely different story. But, she chose to hold her tongue and emotions in for now. Well, that was until Airic’s words nearly made her cough up blood.

“Ah, Sister Madeleine. You’re dressed very nicely today, Dyon will be very happy!” Airic’s usual scholarly self was very enthusiastic today. He wanted an opportunity to get close to Dyon so that he could discuss the logistics of military tactics.

If people knew that that was the reason someone wanted to get close to a first-in-line genius, they might assume them to be weird. That said, Madeleine, knowing full well what Airic’s personality was like couldn’t help but chuckle. He had definitely improved her mood.

“You know my husband? Tell me about it!” Madeleine asked happily, wanting to take her mind off of things.

Seeing their normally serious first-in-line genius hop with happiness, many of the surrounding youths didn’t know what to think. In fact, Ester nearly self-imploded when she heard Madeleine refer to Dyon as her husband.

That said, Airic didn’t seem fazed. “Dyon’s military tactics are some of the most innovative things I’ve ever seen! Remember the Phantus God Clan and their scaled elephants that you fought in your first campaign?”

Madeleine nodded happily, remembering back to how difficult it had been to deal with. Not only had they needed her music will, they needed to overrun them with sheer numbers. But, Madeleine, being a music will expert, was very much aware that Dyon’s music will wasn’t suited to that tactic. So, how had he done it?

“Dyon managed to find the scaled elephant’s weakness to cold! Then he coordinated just one thousand men to eliminate 10 prince elephants and 1 king elephant! And that was on top of taking out ten thousand Phantus Clan warriors, 10 vice commanders and a commander!

And the best part? All he did was throw a javelin!” Airic got more and more animated as he explained. Eventually, the entire hall was listening to the recounting of Dyon’s feats.

Madeleine couldn’t help but smiling broadly at her husband’s success in just his first campaign. But, she wondered. ‘He did much more than me during my first campaign… But, I was ranked in the top 100 after my first, why isn’t he higher?’

Although Madeleine was now ranked in the top 30, after her first campaign, she had only been in the top 100. But, even then, she had done much less than Dyon. So, why wasn’t he ranked?

Madeleine had looked for Ri’s name too. But, although she had seen an Alexandria Acacia, she hadn’t found a Ri Acacia. She wasn’t sure whether that was Ri or not because Dyon always referred to Ri as either that, or little feu glace which Madeleine found adorable.

Madeleine didn’t know much about the Elves, but what she did know was that many of them were on Planet Naiad when she had gone. After all, that was a better place for peak essence gatherers to fight because the competition was tougher. And, it was also the planet with the closest ties to Earth. As such, there were plenty of elves on the list she didn’t know by name.

“Ah, you may not know this because you’ve been diligently cultivation for the past two months,” Airic praised, “But rumors say that Dyon is actually the demon sage! Number one, can you believe that! And, I hear that he’s also the one who created the Queen Fairy pill that our alchemy researchers have been studying for the past almost year now!”

At this point, even Madeleine was stunned. She knew that Dyon would make a name for himself, but to this extent? She couldn’t help but happily laugh. ‘I should never doubt you.’ She thought. ‘Then, I’ll take your words seriously. Don’t make me wait long then…’

**

Away from the soon to be departing Sapientia, a conversation was taking place in the dark.

This place was where the grand world tournament would be taking place – The Arena City Central Stage.

This arena boasted a capacity of ten million and had an arena floor that was measured in kilometers as opposed to mere meters.

The sections of space were separated by both planet and clan, with more powerful clans being situated in VIP areas that often cut off the view of those on the highest reaches of the stands. As such, there were monitors anchored to the back of these VIP areas, but it was clear that this wasn’t the ideal experience.

That said, many didn’t have strong enough cultivation to see so far away, so, often monitors were their best option.

Aside from the stands, there was another set of VIP seating on the lowest floor level. This housed the members for both the cumulative rankings, and the planet only rankings. As such, the cumulative rankers received better service and seats while the lower ranking planet only rankers still received good treatment, but less so. Although, there was one cumulative ranker spot that seemed to be a quite a bit lacking…

Ignoring this and past the VIP areas and into the basement of the coliseum, two shadows were speaking.

“Just change the format a bit, trust me.”

“What kind of ridiculous request is this? Why do you want me to swap out everyone’s names for numbers?”

“Don’t worry about the reason. All you have to do is say something along the lines of ‘In the interest of fairness, we’ll be replacing our naming system with randomly assigned numbers via array plates’. I’ve already prepared them all, all you have to do is hand them out.”

“What about King Belmont, won’t he be opposed to the change?”

“What are you talking about? The Belmont family had no hand in organizing this, it was left to the Cavositas. That’s why it’s taking place in Arena City and not the Belmont holy land.

Just do as you’re told, and you’ll be rewarded. Be sure to never say names. You can give the clans ways to track the numbers relevant to them, but don’t allow them to share that information amongst themselves. Just say it’ll be grounds for instant disqualification or something like that.”

The second shadow took a deep breath before accepting the spatial ring filled with number plates.

This person wanted them to change the whole structure of the tournament and completely remove names from the equation. It seemed like a harmless request and on the surface it did seem to make things more fair – there would probably be less forfeits this way since most had information attached to names and not faces – but something about how adamant they were made everything… fishy.

Just what was their goal?