?Dyon stood in the air, his hands clasped behind his back as he looked toward his Junior Sister with an indifferent expression.

Aritzia looked back toward him with a smile. “Am I very beautiful, First Brother?”

Dyon nodded indifferently. “Quite.”

“More beautiful than your wives?” 𝖋𝖗𝔴𝖇𝖔𝖛𝖑.𝖈𝖔𝖒

Dyon shrugged. “They’re still mortals, it can’t be helped.”

Aritzia didn’t seem to hear the tone of indifference in Dyon’s voice. What she heard seemed to make her the happiest woman in the world. It seemed that if it wasn’t for the situation, she would take the first opportunity to pounce on him.

“That said…” Dyon’s lip curled. “… You’re still lacking in comparison to my little girl.”

“Puu.” Aritzia giggled lightly. “A father’s love truly knows no bounds.”

A moment of silence took hold of their battlefield once more.

It could be said that despite the fact they had to battle, Aritzia was still feeling complicated. The entire reason she came to the mortal plane in the first place was so that she could get revenge for her First Brother. She thought that it was due to his will to save these damned mortals that he had lost his life.

In her mind, there was no distinction between Dyon’s wives and these mortals. Because they were too weak, they died and left her First Brother alone to wallow in grief. Again and again, they caused her First Brother to feel pain. How could she accept such a thing?

Every time she watched them grow old, the disdain in her heart grew thicker. If her First Brother had taken her as his wife, would he have ever suffered like this? Only she could stand at the top of the world with him.

But, even when she wasn’t shy with her emotions, her First Brother had never chosen her.

“First Brother, I know why you’ve never chosen me to be your woman.”

“Oh? Do you understand the meaning of the words I spoke?”

Our thoughts and values do not align.

He had said these words to her more than once. But, did she truly understand what they mean?

“You like women you have to protect. It fuels your ego. So of course you would always choose weak women.” Aritzia said.

“Weak, huh?”

Despite it seeming like his tone of indifference hadn’t changed, Aritzia felt that she had been thrown into an icy hell. There was a well concealed threat in the words of her First Brother as though telling her not to cross a line that she shouldn’t.

It was simple two words, but she felt her knees grow weak, her chest involuntarily heaving, causing ripples to travel across her exposed, ample chest.

“Since this will be our last moments together, I will explain it to you.” Dyon retracted his subtle aura. “The issue between you and I is that I was never the most important thing in your life. I’ve never touched you because whether I did or not would never matter to you. As such, it was beneath me to do so.”

Aritzia’s gaze turned cold.

Unlike the Elvin Ancestor Ysabell, no man had ever touched her. She was as pure and pure could be. Yet, her First Brother actually spoke as though she was a cheap whore who didn’t care for her face. After so many years of protecting herself for this man, he actually dared to say such things to her face?

“You think I’ve let someone else touch me? Has your soul really grown so weak?”

Aritzia’s words were low and laced with murderous intent.

“You still don’t understand.

“There’s a very nice girl I met in my 109th life. Her name is Ava. I met Madeleine soon after meeting her, so she never took up a large part of my heart. However, I still had some kind sentiments toward the girl. She reminds me a lot of you. She has the same straight forwardness, the same boldness, the same pride.

“In my absence, she was defiled by a man. However, had she ever expressed willingness to be my woman, I would have still accepted her without hesitation.

“Do you know what the difference between you and her is? Why is it that you’re so similar yet still so different?”

The more Dyon spoke, the darker Aritzia’s expression grew. Unlike others, her eyes really could kill. It felt as though hot coals were raking across his body, yet Dyon continued at an unhurried pace.

“If I had persisted in rejecting her for trillions of years like I’ve done with you, she wouldn’t have lived so long.”

BANG!

Aritzia felt as though a thunder bolt had struck her mind. Her vision spun and she even stumbled back a step, her chest heaving with an uncontrolled pain. It felt as though her inner organs were spinning and turning, making her complexion somewhat pale and green.

How could she not know what Dyon was referring to?

Her Dao Heart. If it really had such a large flaw, how could she have lived for so long? If she really loved Dyon as much as she said she did, it would be impossible for her to continue on everyday without issues like this.

There were two things that decided the strength of one’s Dao Heart. The first was how close one’s martial path was to what masters called The Quintessence. The second was more complex and wide ranging. It encompassed one’s state of mind, how calm they were in cultivating, how strong their resolve was. The less heart demons one had to deal with, the stronger one’s Dao Heart would be.

Just how devastated would a man or woman who couldn’t receive reciprocation from a person they loved be? If Aritzia really loved Dyon as much as she said she did… It was simply impossible for her to have lived so long.

“…”

Aritzia recovered her steps and suddenly began to laugh. It wasn’t a laugh of madness, she instead seemed to find this genuinely funny.

“So is that the kind of man you are? You go around collecting women who see you as their whole world? But it seems that you don’t care for them as much as you say you do either, or else you wouldn’t have lived so long either.”

Dyon shook his head. “The reason I still live is exactly due to the resolve I have for my loved ones. I refuse to let the Heavens put me into a grave while there’s still them to fight for. Not the Heavens, not you, not the Sapientia… none of you can stop my steps forward.”

Aritzia sneered. “And how do you know that I haven’t been holding on in hopes that you would one day change your mind and accept me? How do you know that that’s not my resolve?”

“Do you believe that?”

Dyon replied simply, his indifference remaining. Aritzia clenched her jaw, her murderous aura growing.

“This is the difference between you and I. Standing atop the world for me isn’t for myself, it’s for those by my side. However, whenever you speak of being with me, you never mention why it is you love me, all you ever speak about is how the women by my side are less beautiful, less powerful, less worthy…

“Being with me for you has never been about me, it’s always been about you. It’s not that you think that you’re the only woman worthy of me, it’s that you think that I’m the only man worthy of you.”

Hearing this, Aritzia’s gaze turned dim, losing its light.

Dyon’s palm flipped over, a scythe with a three-meter-long palm arm and an even longer curved blade appeared in his right hand. On the left, a chain wrapped around his arm, flickering with beautiful rainbow flames as a land of blackish grey appeared beneath his feet.

Aritzia was the first True Empath in all of history. Yet, Dyon’s words still shocked her to no end. It seemed that she was so very used to seeing through the thoughts of others, so used to it that she had completely forgotten about her own internal reflection.

What was it that she wanted? She wanted to stand at the top of the world. There was nothing else that was as important to her. She wouldn’t rest until she could grasp the world in the palm of her hands.

Even to her incarnation, power was still more important. Because of it, she even attacked Dyon to the point of wanting to kill him.

Before, she hadn’t thought much about it. She had simply thought that since the avatar she let out to have a bit of fun didn’t know that Dyon was her First Brother, it didn’t matter so much. But, she had never expected for those moments to tell her so much about herself.

Suddenly, Aritzia seemed to comprehend something. In that moment, her aura surged, becoming several times more powerful as though she had grasped something incomparably profound. Her gains could even be compared to the time she spent locked away on Earth, faintly shocking even herself.

At that moment, her dull eyes regained her color.

“Thank you, First Brother. I really do love you. But, I will still kill you today for the sake of my ambitions and my Sapientia family. Unfortunately, you’re in the way.”

With a wave of her hand, her naked body was covered in a blazing red-gold armor. Her black hair fluttered wildly, almost spreading out like wings to her back.

“Since I’ve come to this conclusion, there’s no reason for me to hold back any longer. I hope you are right that your wives aren’t weak. Or else, they won’t live past the end of the day.”

As though receiving a cue, the entire Mortal Plane trembled on the verge of collapse. From all directions, an army of gold surged in, riding chariots pulled by unicorns with lustrous golden coats.

Dyon and Aritzia gazed at each expressionlessly for a long while. Then… they disappeared as one, their first exchange completely destroying the universe they stood in.