As the 3 Phoenixes below worried, the group of Dragons above watched with tight nerves as their goddess approached Aeshma’s cocoon. The thought of something happening to her had them holding their breaths, even as some of them tried to beat themselves up for even thinking such ‘impossible’ and ‘blasphemous’ thoughts.
But they couldn’t help it. Aeshma’s aura was too ominous and it was growing by the second. Even all the way in the sky where they had flown to to avoid the explosion brought by his sudden evolution, they still felt a peculiar feeling of suppression that caused them to feel helpless. It was terrifying.
But neither of them could bring themselves to voice it out loud. They would say things like ‘The goddess has got this, just watch’, or ‘Heh, Aeshma may be causing a fuss for some reason, but in front of the goddess he’s nothing much’. And the closest they came to admitting their obvious fear was ‘Aeshma’s pretty terrifying right now, but there’s nothing to worry about with our goddess here’.
It was quite stupid. Their feeble sense of security stemmed from the fact that Gaia was in front of them, ready to protect them in the case of an emergency, and the thought should have humbled them. But of course they weren’t, they were Dragons. A domineering race that had suppressed almost all others races with their sheer might, and on top of that, they were a race- the only race, that had not been created by Eridel, possessing a few traits innate to most biological beings that Eridel had chosen not to add into his created races. How could it be them if they weren’t at least a little illogically arrogant?
And even as Eridel’s avatar sat on a gigantic branch of the Tree of Life, listening intently to the joyful words of his pseudo-daughter Ciera with a benign smile on his face, a portion of his attention was definitely focused on the happenings of Aeshma’s situation. How could it not?
He inwardly laughed at these Dragons, but it wasn’t too bad. Life was filled with infinite possibilities that could be explored, and the more variables there were, the more chances of a fantastic phenomenon revealing itself there were. It was for this reason why he permitted the existence of a dangerous being like Aeshma, even creating a race like the Monsters that he had designed to have the specific urge to destroy and kill. It was all for this reason that he soon planned to create the Angel race.
Only when opposite sides of duality clash can something truly magnificent be found. At least, that was what he thought.
“Dad, do you really mean it? I’ll find my Soulmate someday?” Ciera asked with big shining green eyes.
“Of course! I even have a few suspicions of who or what he may be, but this Heavenly father of yours doesn’t dare to create false expectations.” Eridel responded with a pompous nod.
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“Hmph, ‘Heavenly father’, you’re so cringy. Just admit that you created something that got out of your control and you can no longer calculate it. Daddy you’re a faker!”
“Ah!” Eridel yelped like he had been struck by lightning.
…
Meanwhile, Gaia had finally arrived before Aeshma’s giant-and-still-growing cocoon, in fact, it was so big that it had reached the point that Gaia, who was quite big herself- being a 4th Realm Dragon goddess who was also adept in Anatomy Refinement, could actually easily stand on it as if it were a stable platform instead of a growing cocoon. And that was what she did.
She landed upon the cocoon, gingerly at first because she was not sure if the material was as hard as it looked, but when she slowed the flapping of her wings and slowly disabled the innate technique that most flying Beasts had that allowed them to lower their weight when in flight with mana, she realised that the Cocoon could easily take her weight, so she folded her wings behind her back and took a comfortable step.
But her mood was still grim; she had to act quickly. The best way to enslave someone’s Soul was when they weren’t even conscious enough to form a resistance. Even enslaving a ‘willing’ Soul would form difficulties because it was like trying to poke your own eye, you would instinctively resist. Regardless of your wishes to harm yourself, your body, or rather in this case your Soul, would never agree.
Only very powerful beings, extremely unique individuals or strange races, would be able to be in complete control of their body or soul, talk less of both.
In any case, even if Aeshma was awake, he definitely would not be willing to have is Soul enslaved. Well, not that he had the mental faculties to actually think like that giving his obvious state of madness, but the point still stood. She needed to enslave him before he woke up.
After a brief moment of hesitation, she began the activation of the [Limitless Soul Brand] technique for the first time in both of her lives. This was a very, very special Soul Enslavement technique that she had practically died to obtain in an inheritance sight, even though compared to the other things in that place it could have been considered gum under table. But that was how special the creator of that inheritance was.
In fact, she could without shame state that if that person was to have stuck actual gum under the table, so long as he created that gum, she would pick it and chew it for the rest of time.
Limitless Soul The Almighty; that was his name, or at least his most used title. He was a being who had not only pioneered Soul Cultivation, but also a being that had apparently reached the rumoured 10th Realm in Essence Cultivation, the Limitless Realm. Any one of his belongings were priceless treasures that the entire Universe would fight for, and she, a mere Realm 7 Immortal, had obtained one of them. She may have died a short few weeks later because of the relentless pursuit of others, preventing her from capitalising on any of her gains, but it was still the greatest achievement of her entire life.