Going back 8 years in time.
A silver light flashed on a desolate island and a man appeared in the light. He was average looking, though youthful. He appeared and started checking his surroundings immediately. Only after he confirmed that he was in no immediate danger, he sat down and began planning his future path.
He was Ambrose Rageberg - Aterna Emperor Michael Ragberg's second knight.
Many years ago, when he was a young lad, he had come across good fortune to be selected as one of the spies for the organisation that Michael had set up. He performed his duty extremely well and managed to subtly influence the elven empire to fall completely in Michael's hands. While Michael's strength had played the most important role, the fact that the elves, who were naturally proud had settled for a human overlord was quite miraculous.
Michael was a wise leader and he had guided the plane well. He had raised the status of humans but had not crushed the other races. He had even led the banner and protected against the devils' invasion. But while his power was lauded throughout the plane and he had great vision, he was not very skilled in diplomacy. And while he was quite intelligent, he was no match for someone like Kandriff. In his entire venture, Ambrose had helped him night and day, becoming the brain behind Michael's brawn. Of Michael's three knights, his contributions could be said to be the highest. Ramsus and Remeus were Michael's mask - they were the ones who the world saw. But Ambrose was Michael's shadow. Ambrose had always felt that he had been lucky. If not for the chance Rageberg family gave him, he would perhaps have never even reached the saint realm.
Besides, he had been rewarded greatly by Michael and the Rageberg family. Thus, he genuinely served them. The amount of money Michael had spent on his mother's treatment was quite a huge sum. And after his mother passed away, Ambrose had still found complete support from the family in his cultivation. Ambrose may be a commoner, but he had been engrained with moral values since he was a child. And while he did not show it overtly, he had inherited his mother's proud nature. Thus, his loyalty to the Rageberg family was quite solid. Throughout the years, he had even come to love his place in the family. He treated Ramsus and Remeus as his brothers and Michael as his lord. After the devil invasion, he reached pretty high realm and also obtained the favour to come to Jupyter. One must know that with his power, it would have been impossible had Michael not supported him from behind. Ambrose was aware of the mission that he was carrying. This trip to Jupyter was an opportunity. From what they knew, time in Jupyter was five times faster than in Aterna. As a result, one could gain time on this plane. This was an opportunity to rapidly progress and return to his plane to defend it. He knew even before coming here that it was not going to be easy as the devils were a mighty force. But he prefered to die in his homeland than hide in a foreign plane.
But unfortunately, he had landed on a lone island. The island was uninhabited and there was no one around. There were a few animals but many of them could easily hunt him down. As a result, he became dispirited and did not dare to leave the beach. He had no idea if he would survive. He had to make do for a long time like this. It was only months later that he saw a ship in the waters. He used all his power to conjure a giant illusion of himself and screamed for help. Thankfully, he had learned the universal language before coming here or else he truly would have been in a dangerous situation if the people on the ship mistook him for an enemy. Even now, he had only barely managed to survive the island by risking his life and hunting for game. He managed to board the ship and was taken to a place the people called Sect. Ambrose had no idea what a sect was. There were no sects in Aterna. But he gradually came to learn. People were naturally suspicious of his background and asked him many questions. This caused him a lot of worries. But he staunchly claimed that he had lost most of his memory. This was absurd reasoning but after several rounds of questioning, the members of the ship relented. First of all, Ambrose was too weak! Why would another force send a spy as weak as him? Also, his near-death state contributed to the scene. The demi-ascendants were not interested in forcefully searching his memory and the ascendants did not even care. And so, on the principle - since he made it here, it must be fate - he was allowed to stay in the sect.
Initially, Ambrose was quite angry because he had been given the most mundane jobs to do. Like cleaning and cooking. He had been made a servant. He who controlled the empires of Aterna was now cutting onions for soup! Such discrepancy was hard for him to swallow. Even when he had been poor and not met Rageberg family, his situation was better than this. But he did not know at that time that it was a great blessing for him that he was allowed to stay in the sect.
He later found out that this sect was known as the Endless Sea Sect. This was actually a super-force! Apparently, there were divine cultivators in this sect! It was a huge mental blow to him. The legends that had left people of Aterna shivering in nights all played back in his memory. To think that such a cultivator was in the same sect as himself! He was strangely proud of the fact. With time, people accepted him and he too got to know more about the sect. Meanwhile, he found out that his sect was actually a sub-sect of the Divine Sea Sect and he came to know of the countless legends and stories about the divine ones. He learnt more and more. He did not cultivate much but tried building a safe environment for himself. After a few months passed, he started cultivating again to increase his strength. His luck was pretty good because he was noticed while cultivating by a demi-ascendant disciple and was given a chance to become a disciple of the sect. He joined that person's faction and made gradual progress. He started focussing on flattering the other party and easily climbed the ranks of power. Even with his weak cultivation, he became someone powerful in just a few years! This was something that he had already done with the elves and so he found it even easier this time around. Diplomatics and politics were always his strong suit. With his newfound influence, he started cultivating earnestly. With soul-cleansing pallets cheaply available, his progress in the soul path was akin to flying. And after a full six years of hard work, he broke through to become a demi-ascendant.
As soon as he broke through, he usurped the faction and managed to create his own force in the outer sect. While he was even qualified to become an inner disciple as he was only 50 years old by the time of his breakthrough, he chose to stay in the outer sect. His plan was to take a few followers in and take them back to Aterna. While they were quite weak and worthless here, in Aterna, they would be revered immortals. This would not only improve the combat strength of the plane, but it would also cement the human race's status as well. But before he could plan to do so, he had been transferred over to work as a navigator on a fishing ship! It was only later, he found out that his actions of usurping the faction had led to some financial loss to a cultivator from the inner sect. And this person was actually a rank-2 ascendant. Ambrose thanked his lucky stars that he was also a disciple of the sect otherwise crossing such a mighty person would have been the death of him. He was still careful and did not leave his ship much in the next two years. Why? Because he was afraid. Accidents could always happen and he had offended a rank-2 ascendant. Even if he did not make a move himself, there were many who wanted to please him. They would like nothing more to gift his head to that person on a platter. Thus, he kept a low profile and was gradually forgotten by the masses. Only a few of his loyal followers came over to talk to him once in a while. This was also fine by him. As a navigator, he came to witness the endless illusions in the endless sea. This caused his understanding of illusion laws to advance at a rapid pace. While it did not increase his raw power, it increased his finesse in handling the laws. He even believed that if he could carry out the same thing for a few centuries, he had a decent chance of becoming an ascendant!
This was a terrifying prospect. How many years had it been since an ascendant appeared on Aterna? Perhaps more than a million years. And he had the opportunity to become one in a few centuries. People in Aterna would die for this chance. As his life progressed, he would constantly reminisce about his home. This was true for most cultivators. Many divinities had opened their semi-planes which looked identical to their home-planes. After all, not all planes survived as long as the divinities. Ambrose felt homesick because he had a family there. He had lived and grown up as a native of Aterna. And while he had stayed in this foreign plane for a while, it could not replace the feeling of home in his heart.
One day, as he was talking with his followers, he came across interesting news. In the martial competition of Dead Sea Sect, an independent cultivator actually won! This was definitely a huge deal. After all, even in the endless sea sect, the martial competition was held. And ultimately, it was one of the renowned geniuses who won. That too by a heavy margin. No other challenger could come close. The illusory sun prince won the competition - something that all the people had predicted earlier.
The illusory sun prince was the younger generation leader of Endless Sea Sect. There were other geniuses in the sect as well but none could compare to him. He was also a celestial and had the illusory sun bloodline, a pretty powerful bloodline among the normal ones. In fact, it was not wrong to say that it was a semi-divine bloodline. This made him a terrifying force to deal with. A few weeks before the competition, he had won against an ascendant beast in a fair battle and had slain the beast! While the beast was only rank-1 ascendant, it still spoke mightily about his power. This was the level that Ambrose felt he could never reach. Even if he somehow managed to become an ascendant, he perhaps would lose to the current illusory sun prince.
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After staying in Jupyter for many years, Ambrose knew about many things. He was no longer the naive man who had stepped on this plane. He knew what bloodlines were and what they could do. The illusory sun prince and others like him were the greatest geniuses that walked this plane. And it was not surprising. The core power of most of these supreme geniuses was their bloodline. It was a power that they gained from their ancestors. It could be said that the effort of their ancestors was being enjoyed now by the descendants. Ambrose knew how unfair bloodlines could be. He knew someone in Aterna who had surpassed him in a single leap due to his bloodline. But while such bloodlines were rare in Aterna, they were quite common here. But this was only for the descendants of mighty heroes of this plane. Others who wanted to have the power of bloodline had to work their ass off and collect their savings for thousands of years to be able to buy even the cheapest ones. And powerful bloodlines like the illusory sun bloodline were not even sold. As a result, Ambrose did not find it surprising that none of the mortal cultivators could win against these supreme geniuses. But now, someone had broken this stigma! The prince of the dead sea, the martial prince and the inheritor of world tree were all supreme geniuses that were in the same class as illusory sun prince. But they were all beaten close to death by an independent cultivator below fifty! This was a monumental feat. As this person was a lone-cultivator, he was naturally not a bloodline genius. For someone like that to defeat bloodline blessed supreme geniuses was an extremely hard thing to do. Ambrose knew this because he too was a cultivator around the age of 50 and was not blessed by a bloodline. In this situation, he did not know how he could ever beat illusory sun prince or others like him.
He enquired about this in detail and what was revealed caused him to feel great surprise. The one who had achieved this incredible result was his lord Michael Rageberg!
Ambrose had high hopes for Michael after he came to this plane. After all, he knew that Michael was extremely talented, much more than him. But he also knew that this time around, his luck was incredible. Not everyone can be selected in these great sects. And Michael would perhaps have to find his own way in this terrifying world. He could only hope that he would be fine and would be able to make some progress. After all, he was the cornerstone of Aterna's defence. But he never thought that Michael would reach the level of supreme geniuses! His power-level was insane! Now, Ambrose felt that by the end of 15 years of their fixed agreement, Michael might even solve the problem of devils. After all, he knew the value of a supreme genius! Each and every supreme genius was treated like a treasure even by super sects like the Endless Sea Sect. A supreme genius was someone that could have whatever they wanted under heaven. They had the backing of divine ones! Each supreme genius had a good chance to become an upper-ascendant, a pillar for the sect. And among these supreme geniuses, there could be some that might cross the boundary of cultivators and become divinities. Thus, each supreme genius represented a formidable overlord in the future. A supreme genius, if one managed to grow up successfully could prop up first-rate forces by themselves! If they had a good enough fate, they might even create their own super-forces! And Michael winning the competition meant that he was included in this list. In a way, Michael was already under the protection of Divine Sea Sect. Thus, it would perhaps not be too hard for Michael to salvage Aterna's situation.
Ambrose was truly happy with this development. Michael's growth meant hope for Aterna. And he now had also found a way out of his current predicament. As long as he could find Michael, he would be saved from any danger.
Little did he know that Michael's side was probably the most dangerous place to be!
He immediately left the ship after he reached back into the sect. He then collected whatever money and possessions that he had. He gathered his followers telling them that he was going to find someone who he remembered recently as some of his memories came back. He told them that he would return later and give them a choice to follow him out of the sect and that they should decide in the time in between. Saying so, he left hurriedly towards the dead sea. He did not stop anywhere in between and travelled at his fastest speed. There were teleportation formations inside the sects to directly transfer him to the dead sea sect. But unfortunately, he could not use them. Why? Because he did not have enough money! Thus, he could only travel through old and short teleportation gates and spirit-aircraft and spirit-boats. While he was travelling at a speed that would have been impossible in Aterna, he was still worried. That was because he could sense that he was being followed.
But Ambrose was a master of illusions. Thus, he was very difficult to catch once he set his mind on escaping. He was indeed being followed by a rank-1 ascendant and several demi-ascendants, it was very hard for them to find his traces. Even law-divination was not very helpful. Thus, they could only follow the vague direction and try to zone in on their prey. And so, the game of escape and chase began.
Ambrose kept switching transport and took detours every now and then. It was as if he was going around without any thought or destination in mind. But this was throwing off his pursuers. He zig-zagged his way out of the endless sea territory and took a long-range teleportation spending all his savings in one go. This allowed him to cover more than half the path in a single go and he directly entered the territory of Dead Sea Sect. Ambrose was lucky that the Dead Sea and Endless Sea were located adjacent to each other. Otherwise, he would need many years of travelling to complete the journey on his own. He did not tarry and rushed towards the main sect. Still, he took more than a month to finally reach close to the sect which was actually enough time for his pursuers to catch up.
If I can find Michael and get through this calamity, I swear that one day I will kill that bastard!
Ambrose's heart was in his mouth due to the stress of the chase. He had to use all his wits and brain to hide and continue on his journey. In fact, he was caught a few times and had to battle demi-ascendants as well. It could be said that he was fairly lucky that he did not run into the ascendant cultivator or else...
He shuddered to think along these lines. Every battle, Ambrose focussed on escaping and so, he was beaten like a dog without any retaliation. He kept running away. His pursuers did not know why he had left the protection of the sect in the first place. They all assumed that he must have had some emergency. But now that they had almost caught up, they found the chase even more thrilling. Thus, they were lax and did not want to catch him too early. This was their entertainment, a hunt. But while they were thinking this way, Ambrose managed to reach pretty close to the Dead Sea City. He entered the city and went over to the representative building of the Dead Sea Sect.
> Ambrose : Miss, you have to help me find a dear friend. He is currently in the dead sea sect. This is an emergency!
> Receptionist : Alright sir. Tell me the person who you are looking for as well as the message to pass. Everyone in the sect has their identity token with them which allows them to receive messages in real-time. I will send the message immediately.
> Ambrose : Very well. My name is Ambrose Rageberg. The person I am looking for is Michael Rageberg.
As soon as Ambrose said this, the receptionist looked at him with a gloomy expression. She looked at him up and down before saying:
> Receptionist : See brother, even if you are a fan, this is downright shameless. If you are curious, you should try booking an appointment after the final entrance test. Don't waste my time here.
> Ambrose : Listen miss, I am not posing or bragging. I really do know him. Didn't you hear my name? I am his retainer - Ambrose Rageberg. I also belong to the same family as he does.
The receptionist looked at him with suspicious eyes before sighing and sending the message. As Ambrose had decent cultivation, it was plausible that he was telling the truth. After all, everyone knew that Michael Rageberg came from a humble background. As Ambrose sighed in relief, someone grabbed him from behind and threw him off into the air. Before he could understand what was happening, he crashed into the door, breaking it in the process and fell on the road outside. The receptionist got scared and hid under the desk. At this time, a powerful voice boomed through the building:
> What gall! You dare to cause a ruckus in the Dead Sea Sect's embassy. Are you looking for death?
> Culprit : Sorry senior, but this man is a criminal from the endless sea sect. I am under the orders of Lord Nelson Padrick to kill this traitor of the sect. Please give me some face and ignore my assault.
> You dare to use that brat's name to threaten me! Even if he came here himself, he would have to bow to me. You punk, GET OUT!
A unique spell had been hidden in the voice that travelled through the building and hit the man. He was thrown out in much the same way as Ambrose. Blood seeped from his mouth as he felt pain in his chest. Ambrose, who was surrounded by many demi-ascendants and was in the middle of a fight also received a shock! Then, he burst into laughter. The other demi-ascendants had ugly expressions on their faces.
Ambrose: Serves you right!
The man who had been thrown out got up in anger. But he did not dare to even look towards the building. It was likely that the other party was a powerful rank-3 ascendant. But for him to give no face to Lord Nelson made no sense. Instead, he decided to direct his anger towards his target - Ambrose. He slapped him so hard that Ambrose was smashed into the ground spitting blood and teeth. He then kicked the guy sending him flying across the street and crashing into a nearby shop. He then turned to his subordinates:
> Bring him back here. I will kill him slowly.