Book 5: Chapter 26: Pitiful (2)

Dyon continued to walk forward with an interesting glint in his eye. He was amused because he realized the Elwing had no idea just how much power Dyon had over everything that happened in the gates of this universe.

Usually, not being a part of a massive clan was a detriment to Dyon. But, in this case, it made him nearly invincible.

The reason clans who acquired the key had to compromise was so that they weren’t attacked by massive alliances. No matter how powerful an Emperor God Clan was, they couldn’t very well fight off the attack of an entire quadrant of angry people by themselves. As such, they shared.

However, this was only because those clans spanned across many universes, while the Epistemic Tower Key was only its most powerful in one universe.

The powers of the Epistemic Tower key were simple.

For one, there was free teleportation of between any gates in the entire quadrant. The limitation of this rule was that the teleportation was only truly free in this universe and conquered gates. Meaning Dyon could teleport to any given location in any of the five gates of this universe without issues. However, when teleporting to an unconquered gate, there would be no option but to be teleported to the very center of the gate.

The second power was unilateral control over the threshold of cultivation for gates of this universe. This rule doesn’t extend to other conquered gates because it is redundant. Obviously, if you’ve conquered the gate, you can control this already.

The third power was pertaining to the tower itself. This included freely entering and exiting, deciding who could do so, as well as accessing special areas restricted to non-key wielders. These special areas were the main way in distinguishing those who were talented enough to conquer the tower themselves, and those who weren’t. However, the truth of the matter was that even among those who have conquered the tower, surviving those areas was a rarity.

The fourth power was miscellaneous. But, within the gate that housed the Epistemic Tower, the key functioned as a master key to all towers. This may seem useless, but it was actually of interesting importance.

For example, Lotus Tower. Before Dyon removed the death abyssal core, which was currently slowly reforming itself, that death qi hurt attackers while not harming those defending, almost like a defenders buff from a video game.

Essentially, Dyon and his allies would have this advantage at every tower. Regardless of who owned it, only Dyon would benefit, while all others would suffer.

So, why was Dyon lucky? Because he only had this one universe to worry about, while those massive clans had all of their territory to worry about.

Dyon, and any key wielder, was essentially invincible in the universe that housed their Epistemic Tower. However, as they moved away from that location, that power would be tempered and weakened, causing them to be susceptible to be attacked.

Basically, if the Uidah got the key, and were discovered, they could enter the Epistemic Tower before lowering the threshold to foundation stage experts only. In that case, how could a normal foundation stage expert survive the middle of a gate? Such a thing was impossible.

However, what of their other territory? While they were holing up, their enemies would simply eat away at everything they had built.

Some may say, so what? How could territory compare to becoming a transcendent? Simply stay in the tower until you become more powerful than anyone, right?

But, that was a large reason why one of the most important rules of the Epistemic Tower was put in place.

You could not climb the tower unless you had territory, and you couldn’t climb to the top floor, unless you groomed an Emperor God Clan!

Such rules left key wielders feeling frustrated, but also balanced out the power provided by the tower. This way, talents wouldn’t fall through the cracks simply because they were younger, or a step too late.

However, Dyon didn’t need to worry about any of that now. He could climb to the top of the saint floors without owning even a bit of territory. He had a lot to gain and a lot of room to grow before he started on his true campaigns.

This meant that Dyon was essentially untouchable.

Now, whether Elwing wanted to find out first hand or not, would be up to him. The Uidah, however, wouldn’t have much of a choice.

Elwing eventually stopped 3 or so meters from Dyon. But, when he noticed that Dyon didn’t have any intention of stopping himself, a deep seeded fury was threatening to boil over.

Regardless of whether he understood that his brother was in the wrong, Elwing couldn’t help but feel resentful toward Dyon. Lionel was his elder brother, after all.

In fact, Elwing had been angry with his father for a long time for actually going through with it. But, in the end, he actually had love for his father, whereas Dyon used to be a nobody to him. So, while he had gotten past his hatred for his father, although King Belmont had yet to forgive his own self, he had not gotten rid of his anger entirely. Instead, it was mostly pointed toward Dyon.

Under normal circumstances, Elwing couldn’t do too much because he knew his dad would side with Dyon. But, the gates were a different story. There were only them here, and Elwing had much more people on his side.

Finally, just as Dyon was about to brush past him, Elwing couldn’t hold it in any longer and spoke.

“It’s best that you stay here. Don’t forget who the rulers of this planet are.” Tongue of red flames hovered outward, threatening to grip Dyon’s throat.