CHAPTER 32: 100 YEARS P5
~32.5~
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“I understand,” Kye said. “Our souls are forfeit if we gain any more darkness. You’re giving us a way to survive because you want us to succeed, but you’re giving us an ultimatum on top of it. If our souls gain more darkness, your blessing will prevent it and transport us back to the living world, regardless of our desires.”
Mavel nodded. “That’s correct, and moreso, if either soul is transported back to the living world, both souls will be transported. If any of you three gain any darkness, my blessing will prevent it and all three of you will be transported directly to my palace. The most important thing to me is that you survive. If that is impossible, you cannot remain in Elysium. Your existences as the King and Queen of the World are beyond important, but I am also selfish. And that is my prerogative.” She paused for a moment and patted each of their heads, then turned to Athanasia. “You have my permission to know this conversation, but you may not speak of it to others. If you try, your words will simply not be heard by anyone not privileged to the information.”
“I see. Okay. Uhm...”
Mavel smiled. “To answer the question you are hesitant to ask, yes, I have that kind of power. Don’t worry, these three will give you all the knowledge you need to understand everything in time. Bye, now. Yall behave and work hard!” She vanished without another word.
Alethea, Kye, and Sanae exchanged glances, but remained silent for several minutes. Mavel had said she wouldn’t meddle, but it became clear what she meant. She would not directly help them achieve their goals or do anything for them. She only wanted to give them an extra tool to use to show that she was, in fact, cheering for them and wanted them to succeed. She wanted them to succeed with their own efforts. Even though she gave them an extra tool, they were still responsible for using it. They would have to discover how to use it and make it their own.
They began to contemplate everything, but soon a voice brought them back from their thoughts. Athanasia said, “She is clearly extraordinary, but...”
Kye looked at her with an apologetic smile. “Mavel is...” she trailed off.
Athanasia looked at Sanae next, but she shook her head. Then she looked at Alethea, who did not look away, but instead looked directly into her eyes. “The Almighty.”
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Over the next hundred years, the group of ten trained relentlessly under Alfia. Kye, Alethea, and Sanae grew exceptionally fast. Kye questioned if she could contend with Allison or Luma at full power after the hundred years of training.
A person’s mana growth typically outpaces their physical growth. At a certain point, physical growth slows down. For me, training to reach the trillions where I only need to focus on my body took less than two decades, including growing up. I progressed at a rather casual rate. Training after my body matured, my growth rate increased exponentially.
At the start of my fifth year, my body was capable of withstanding 10t mana output before compression. At the end of my fifth year, before Kye Akari died, I reached 25t.
Once I regained the body of Elysia Athas, my growth rate increased substantially, and that body was already capable of more. I immediately jumped up to around 50t, then in the next few weeks I trained relentlessly and grew to over 200t. I began far outpacing my peers thanks to the ridiculous advantage I had.
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After Mavel modified our bodies, my growth rate spiked again. In the first year, my maximum grew to be over 1000t, but sometime after that, the growth rate slowed down. It’s going to be a slow crawl to increase it further, but even at that point, a one thousand fold Mana Burst would be sufficient to eliminate a SS Class enemy. Ninety-nine more years after that and my output has reached 24000t. Alethea and Sanae are roughly the same. Mavel modified Joey’s and Kaede’s bodies, too, when she modified ours, but didn’t tell us. They are on par with the three of us.
The advantage we gained was that our physical growth was much faster than normal until it slowed down. And because of that, we were able to train everyone else much faster, and they kept up for the most part. Our advantage waned in the first couple years and we were virtually on an even training field, so to speak, for the ninety-something years after that.
My loyal attendants, Ally and Lily, are just slightly behind us at 23500t. My precious daughters Rei and Sora, now with the hundred years of training, are at 21000t. Athanasia managed to keep up with Ally and Lily, reaching 23500t. While she did not have the Blessing of the Primordial like the rest of us do, I gave her the Blessing of the Creator, that I had already given to Rei, Sora, Liya, and Kiya.
I later blessed everyone, aside from Alethea and Sanae. I couldn’t bless them.
Our guess is that it was because we already had the Blessing of the Almighty. I could give blessings to those that had the Blessing of the Primordial. It made sense. The Creator and The Almighty outranked The Primordial. I’d have to discuss that with Mavel or Xera.
After thinking about it for a while, Alethea decided to do exactly what Mavel suggested, so Mavel returned and helped her master her demon magic. It was possible since Mavel meddled with our bodies, so Alethea had her mother’s genes. Meaning she could use her demon magic to hide or reveal more than just reproductive organs.
When Mavel modified her body, her cat and demon features were hidden, but Alethea could reveal them afterward. Before Mavel left after her last visit, Alethea revealed her cat ears, cat tail, and demon wings all at once. She looked almost identical to her mother, who was ecstatic to see her like that, and went home with a big goofy smile.
Alethea gained much from the experience as well. She grew to accept herself in full. For a long time, she was a woman at heart. Then in her final mortal life, she was born as a boy. She hated it and it caused her severe dysphoria. She quickly made the switch and became a transgender woman. After Mavel’s meddling, she grew to accept the male part of herself, but stood firm that she was a woman, just with a little extra. She immediately received acceptance from Sanae and I. We didn’t mention it to anyone else since it’s nobody else’s business what’s in her pants. She spent the rest of the hundred years happily training with us.
Now that the hundred years are up, we had to make a choice. The mana I built up to return us to our time was sufficient. We had discussed it on an off throughout our time there, but always held firm that none of us would speak of our decisions until the hundred years were up. Once that time came, we all unanimously agreed to return right away. Alfia saw us off, and we stepped through the portal back to the year 12006 AE 100.
Once we returned, everyone enjoyed a short reunion. From their perspective, we only were a few seconds apart, but from our perspectives, it was a hundred years. Athanasia was very happy to see her brothers, mother, and aunts again. And the young boys were just as happy to meet Alethea.
After the reunion, we resumed the meeting, discussed the results, discussed the Phantom issue, and then my brothers crashed the party. Azriel and Ezra caused quite a scene, but they were put in their place quickly enough.
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Revision: 2024-10-11