“I see; I spent nearly 3,000 years trying to find a way back to Earth in an attempt to find out what happened to those I left behind…to no avail.” Cynrik watched as a wave of sorrow visibly washed over Norik’s face.

“Alas, there is no point dwelling on what could have been; we must always move forward. I know you have many questions, and since I am in a good mood, I will allow you to ask, but be aware, we only have 2 hours till I have to send you guys back.”

Heaving a sigh and motioning his hand to tell Cynrik to speak, Norik thought back to all the people he had lost in his long life.

Meanwhile, Cynrik was trying to find the words to make proper questions. Putting aside the fact that the man sitting on the throne carelessly mentioned being almost 7000 years old and feeling an unfathomable amount of power radiating from the man, he decided not to start from the beginning. Instead, he chose to begin with one of the things that confused him first.

“Is Geralt a reincarnator from Earth with a Witcher complex?” Tilting his head to the side and attempting to be as least threatening as possible, Cynrik tossed out his first question, only to get a dirty look from Norik.

“Listen here, you little **, there is nothing wrong with liking the Witcher. I’ll have you know that I read every one of the novels and beat every game back in the day, so when my Wife conceived our first and only child, it was only fitting to name him after the franchise’s main character.” Norik spat as he gripped the armrest of his throne.

“Yeah, ok, I have too, but that still doesn’t explain why you built a school that looks like a bad mashup of Hogwartz and the Wolf School. Don’t get me wrong, I totally dig the aesthetic, but seriously…oh, and then there’s the Cavern of Dorms which looks like it was ripped out of Middle Earth.”

“Let’s not forget that the AI for the Obelisk is named Yennifer. By the way, your kid slipped up and nearly called her mom in our presence, plus she mentioned a husband. One plus one equals two, so….”

BOOOOMMMM

When Cynrik said what he did, a colossal force knocked him face-first onto the ground.

“Do not, ever, and I mean NEVER, speak of my woman in such a tone while in my presence, you brat. You can not even begin to understand the sorrow my Wife has gone through.” Roaring in anger like a dragon in human skin Norik bombarded Cynrik with a combination of Killing Intent and Aura that crushed him into the throneroom floor.

Under pressure, Cynrik’s body convulsed; presently, Norik was emitting 18g on his body, 3g higher than Cynrik’s resistance.

“Hehe, 18g huh, not a bad feeling, but it still isn’t close to when I carved into my Codex pain-wise.” Struggling immensely, Cynrik got his arms under his body, did a strained pushup, and propped his body up on one knee.

“If you don’t want me talking **, then explain the situation, asshole. I don’t really give a flying ** if you are immensely stronger than me; I refuse to change the way I speak, especially to someone who is clearly in hiding, waiting to keel over of old age, while playing house as an elderly wise teacher.” Feeling blood trickle out of his nose and mouth, Cynrik defiantly turned his face up toward Norik and flashed a bloody smile to the Legendary Figure.

Ignoring the look he was receiving, Norik shook his head and spoke instead to Brance.

“Tell me, is your brother always this big of a piece of **? Or is he being exceptionally annoying today?”

Gulping down his saliva and tearing his eyes off the crouched figure of his brother, Brance met Norik’s heavy gaze head-on.

“He’s a bit challenged in the head Lord Ackworth; please forgive him. Between the constant concussions and his suicidal tendencies, I fear his brain may have been fried long ago.” After looking into Norik’s eyes, Brance knew that the man meant no harm and was merely disciplining Cynrik; thus, he decided to throw his older brother under the bus and ask for forgiveness instead of running to his aid.

“He also pulled a similar stunt with Miss Yennifer, and she killed his virtual Avatar. If you want my honest opinion, he is probably trying to get additional benefits by having someone of Your Grace’s strength beat him up since he’s a Masochist.”

Fff**ing TRAITOR!!! Cynrik howled in the Mind link as his eyes read the continuous stream of notifications indicating his Body and Resistance swiftly rose the longer Norik “disciplined” him.

On his throne, Norik raised an eyebrow at Brance’s words and released Cynrik a second later after huffing out a deep breath.

“My Wife, the AI you know as Yennifer, is someone more special to me than you will ever understand.” Flicking his wrist and smacking Cynrik across the room with a gust of Ambient Mana, Norik began narrating while Cynrik ragdolled through the air and slammed into the hard stone wall.

“Her real identity is similar to mine; in fact, she was one of the Three Heroes; her name was Queen Elanalu Qikrana, the Elven Great Sage, and a Tier-9 being.”

Alongside me and our dear friend, Queen Do’irra of the Were-Tiger tribe, the three of us rebelled against our Deities. In creating the CSH, we sacrificed not only our Divinity Fragments, permanently sealing us from reaching higher Tiers, but also millions of other beings in a massive spell formation that required an abundant amount of Soul Power to activate.”

“However, something went wrong. To this day, I have no idea what exactly caused the error. Still, the Spell formation backfired, killing Do’irra, completely absorbing her body and her Soul, which surged the Formation out of control, inflicting a critical injury to Elanalu, who was pregnant with our son.”

“With the Spell completely out of control, Elanalu…*sigh*” pausing mid-sentence, Norik sighed loudly as a look of sorrow gradually graced his blemish-free and rugged face.

“Time was running out, and she took control over the entire Formation, causing irreparable damage to her Codex. As the one in charge of laying down the Formation, she knew how it worked better than myself or Do’irra, and in a last-ditch effort, she sacrificed her Mind, Soul, and all of her Essence to complete the Spell.”

“As her strength rapidly plummeted, Elanalu threw me from the formation, locking me out of helping in any shape or form and leaving me to watch on as my beloved sacrificed herself to finish the job we started.”

“And then, with a world sundering quake, and a flash of light brighter than a star exploding, the Spell was complete, and the vast network known as the CSH was formed, giving every being unrestricted access to a System and linking them all together.” Leaning forward and propping his elbows up on his knees, Norik took a moment to collect his thoughts in silence, leaving Brance to work through the new information.

Meanwhile, Selene had gone over to her Boyfriend’s side, helped him up, and fed him several Health potions.

“Are you ok?” Crouching down beside Cynrik, Selene whispered as she checked his body and noticed only superficial wounds quickly closing thanks to the potions. Offering a hand, which he took, Selene helped Cynrik stand up.

“Yeah, I’m good. I didn’t expect that guy to lash out like that. I knew something was off with that whole situation, but now it makes sense. I would probably react the same way if it were you someone talked about.” Grunting his response, Cynrik stood back up and patted Selene’s hand.

On his throne, Norik eyed Cynrik as he and Selene walked back over to Brance and waited until the three looked at him with their full attention before continuing his story.

“With the Central System HUB online, and the defensive protocols installed, we were able to kick every being above Tier-9 off of Vinestra forcefully and, in a sense, ended the Grand Strife, otherwise known as the 5th Legacy Strife, in such a way that we, the Natives won.”

“It wasn’t all gumdrops and rainbows, though; by creating the CSH and turning it into a regulatory and governing body, we shut out every Deity in existence from accessing our Planet, which, as you can expect, pissed off A LOT of those bastards.”

Squinting his eyes and making several conclusions in his mind, Cynrik raised his hand as if he were in class and waited to be called on by Norik. With the power disparity and how easily the man seemed to lose his temper, Cynrik opted to take a different approach to the situation.

“Talk,” raising his right eyebrow at Cynrik’s actions, Norik smugly nodded at the boy.

“You are skipping over the main question I posed.” Crossing his arms defensively as Norik shot him another pressure-filled Glare, Cynrik stumbled back two steps before catching himself.

“I was getting there, brat. With the Formation complete, and the CSH online, all the designing and planning we put into effect worked flawlessly. The only issue was that two of the three strongest beings on the planet had seemingly died, leaving Vinestra unguarded if the CSH failed to uphold its programming one day.”

“As the sole Tier-9 being left on the planet, I was tasked with rebuilding what I could after the Strife concluded. But there is only so much a single person can do, especially with a planet as big as our entire Milky Way Galaxy.”

“WOAH WOAH, HOLD UP, WHAT IN THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN? I know Vinestra is ever expanding, but I never really put much thought into just how big it is….” Reacting like a cat who just got its tail stepped on, Cynrik blurted out but soon shut up because of another glare from Norik.

“I know damn well you actively pay attention to every word I say in my lectures Cynrik, so shut up. Anyway, as I was saying, there wasn’t much I could do except use my limited access to the CSH and start creating billions of quests that, if fulfilled, would aid in balancing the powers of the world to the extent that no one reigned supreme.”

“But as time ticked on, I grew bored with my never-ending, monotonous life. With my Wife and unborn son gone, I began searching for a way to return to Earth, and when that failed… I built this castle deep in the core of the planet. At the moment, only I have access to this fragmented space, and without my approval, no one can enter, not even Deities.”

“As I lived my days in solitude for thousands of years, one day after another passed uneventfully, that is until 100 years ago. The CSH Adjudicators suddenly notified me that thousands of Divine Beings of Tiers 9 to 11 had appeared outside Vinestra and demanded negotiations to begin another Legacy Strife.”

(Chapter 368 – The Truth About The Grand Strife, Headmaster Rivia, and Yennifer (1) )