FALSE IDOL

Gervaise's frown only grew deeper the more he observed his wife. If the problem had been with her body, that would be fine. But… it most definitely was not. All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

The body of a Ninth Dimensional expert wasn't so easy to harm. A normal woman's body might break down after giving birth to so many children. Putting themselves through so many changes continuously was bound to have an effect.

However, not only was a Ninth Dimensional expert's body far more powerful, their lifespans were such that this was also much less of a worry.

If a mortal wanted to have 16 children and work on her 17th like Leonel's grandmother, Roesia, was, they would likely need to start having children as early as possible, and they would have to be pregnant every year of their physical peak. Otherwise, their bodies would become too weak to have children by the time they got to their late 40s and beyond.

Roesia, however, could easily take breaks as long as ten years between children and still be in her physical prime.

Sometimes, she wouldn't even have a choice but to take so long because it was extremely difficult for powerful people to have children usually. Aina and other Life Force experts were just an exception to this rule.

This 17th child had taken a particularly long time to conceive, mostly because in the last hundred years or so, Gervaise had been completely focused on raising his strength. This meant he had less time, on top of having a body too strong to conceive by normal means.

In the end, it had been over a hundred years since the last time Roesia had had a child, giving her more than enough time to recover amply.

No… the issue with Leonel's grandmother now wasn't her body, it was her mind, her soul.

Forming an Idol made a person incredibly powerful, but it also made you vulnerable in other ways. The Ancestor Primordial Terror was the perfect example of this. It was because he had an Idol that he could be schemed against by the Demoness for so long and not even be any wiser to what was happening.

An Idol was a great form of power, but that power could be summarized in a single word: self-reliance.

An expert with an Idol was essentially removing themselves from the normal laws of the world to build their bodies, their minds, their hearts, on their own understanding.

That made them extremely powerful, but it also meant that if there was ever a problem in their progression, it could easily mean death or outright crippling.

Roesia's mind had been taking so much abuse in the last three days between the death of her grandchildren at the hands of her own, well… grandchild, self-blame, and a feeling of helplessness because she didn't believe that things would be able to change in the future.

She felt stuck. Of the two children she felt closest to, she had been forced to watch one die, and now the other was drowning in political matters and didn't even have the time to see her.

It just felt like no matter what she did, it wasn't correct.

Back then, she had failed to protect Little Leo, and then she had been ostracized by her family for protecting the wrong people in the end.

She had managed to stop the Luxnix family from being wiped out, but at what cost? She had spent those years in a coldness she couldn't expel.

She still remembered how Leonel had allowed her to hold his hands that day during the Void Palace Selection. That happiness was something that she hadn't felt in a long time… but it was also bittersweet…

It was bittersweet because she understood some of the thoughts of her grandson. He wasn't a person who would forgive something that easily unless he just truly didn't care about it.

But what would have to happen for a grandson to not care about the betrayal of his own grandmother? Wouldn't that have to mean that he didn't care much for her at all?

He had allowed her to hold his hand back then maybe out of pity and nothing more. And maybe that was all she deserved.

Now, she couldn't even find the tears to shed for her own grandchildren. What kind of mother was she? What kind of grandmother was she?

She was supposed to be this great talent, the hallowed Northern Star Order. But what had that meant in the end?

"Roesia, you must get a hold of yourself, or else you will die."

The frown that knitted Gervaise's forehead deepened. Every thought he had for what to do was thrown out immediately. Casual interference in the formation of a False Idol could make the situation far worse.

Gervaise was in a better position because he had a soul bind with his wife, one that he hid beneath a wedding ring because an enemy would easily see such a thing as a weakness of his to be exploited, but even he didn't dare to do this casually.

Leonel's grandmother lay in her husband's arms, her breathing shallow, her face deathly pale, and her eyes half closed. It was clear that she hadn't heard a single word Gervaise just said.

…

At the moment, Leonel was having idle chatter with his boys when he frowned. He looked toward the little World Spirit on his shoulders before he suddenly stood to his feet.

"I'll be back."

Their expressions changed. Wasn't it a shit show outside right now? What was he about to do?

Leonel didn't have time to explain anything, and he vanished in an instant, appearing outside in his courtyard. Much of everyone had already long dispersed; there were only a few idle people in the very far-off distance, and it could be said that Leonel's reappearance caused its own small storm.

Leonel didn't have the time to mind them. He drew two fingers across the air and cut space apart like tofu before shooting forward.