Unexpected Encounter

"Welcome back, Heian Ciemnosc," a voice echoed around Heian Ciemnosc as he opened his tightly shut darkest eyes. He noticed his Ornament's cabin was open and was back at the humble but obscure place. He saw it looked somewhat empty now, and the world outside was completely black. This was the world and space, no longer the previous scenery of the once-alive Upper Kingdom.

Thud, tomp- tap, tap. Heian Ciemnosc jumped outside his Ornament and looked to the right from where it landed, where he found the Celestial sitting on a lower bench. No, it was a pillar. It had fallen previously, but Heian Ciemnosc couldn't tell when or how. He stared at the Celestial respectfully. She sat down with her back slightly bent and her head low. Her left arm held her right shoulder, and she seemed hurt.

Her silvery hair covered her face and part of her neck as it dangled downwards. Some lay on the pillar, fallen on the ground. The rest is on her back or lap. As Heian Ciemnosc waited for her to address him, she suddenly tilted her head, and Heian Ciemnosc could barely discern her silvery eyes behind the hair.

“Come here,” the Celestial ordered. As she did, her legs stretched, and she gradually stood up as Heian Ciemnosc slowly walked towards her. The Celestial faced towards Heian Ciemnosc’s left as he continued towards her until he was a few meters beside her. “I’m sure confusion is a little on your mind.”

“Come, let’s take a walk. You’ll see more than this place, but you’ll still be here,” Celestial Isayid said. Her feet moved, and Heian Ciemnosc followed 4 steps behind her. Suddenly, like a stain completely overriding the space around them, tainting a canvas and turning into a whole new piece, the dull place was replaced with streets, buildings, and the afflicted.

“What is-” Heian Ciemnosc voiced, but the gentle voice of the Celestial echoed and interrupted him. “It’s the Space Station my Dynasty has secretly built for over a few thousand years… It wasn’t supposed to be finished until 3 years later. I figure it would’ve been enough to obtain the Motherblood Expiritus and prepare it to help our home become a Supreme Kingdom…”

“It’s not your fault, really…” The Celestial stopped walking and turned towards Heian Ciemnosc. Heian Ciemnosc turned his head to look at her after observing everything around him. People from the Dynasty walked back and forth, cultivators aided civilians, and citizens were busy guiding the homeless, hundreds of trillions, to settle in a home. It wasn’t a logistics nightmare since this was a nearly-finished Godly Space Station, but it was a spectacle to experience. Sad, tragic, and raging.

“Our chance is gone, I accept that… My people just… needs time.” The Celestial looked at the streets again and went on. Their walking resumed. This time, Heian Ciemnosc walked beside her and looked at the Celestial with his head slightly down. She moved forth with a straight back and watched at no one but everyone at the same time. “Even if the Motherblood Expiritus landed on our hands, it would’ve been wasted in them. We have no Kingdom…”

“At least you still had a Kingdom worth anything for,” Heian Ciemnosc lightly commented. The Celestial amicable eyes continued looking straight ahead sharply. She turned her head towards Heian Ciemnosc and gently spoke, “Don’t treat your home as nothing. Even though it is a failed Kingdom, and you didn’t see the real cultivation world, it is a place you can return to.”

“Oh…” Heian Ciemnosc refused to comment any further. The Celestial looked slightly down, either fallen pensive or saddened. Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t tell which, and he wouldn’t insult her by nature reading.

When she lifted her head again, she seemed a bit more emotional. More alive. Her lips moved, and her jaw opened. She didn’t miss a second to gently utter, “The Tortoise Head Pavilion sent those things at the worst time. My Armada was already deployed, and the locations they chose were far from where any of my ground forces were. It would take them at least a day to reach there…”

“I chose the people living in that Kingdom than the home that birthed them. It’s a sin of nature, but not. It’s conflicted, and I’m the only aggressor. Not them, you, and much less the Tortoise Head Pavilion.” The Celestial looked up, glanced a little, and returned her eyes to look at the front. “I underestimated the odds. And the world naturally had this light tremor because of it.”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc kept silent, not going for any comment. He didn’t really understand what those things meant. The Celestial seemed pleased with his comfortable silence. “You want me to keep your friend alive?”

“Hm?” Heian Ciemnosc mumbled. His darkest eyes looked at the Celestial and showed hesitation. The Celestial darted her eyes up and down and, with her small, elegant features, demanded him in a light tone. “Open it up. Show me his state. It might not be too late.”

Pushuong… Heian Ciemnosc opened his Covert Space bag and presented his Golden Array Snakes on his left palm. It floated towards the Celestial, who looked at the Artifact and Beto’s dull Soul. Her lips opened, and she softly spoke, ”Ah, this is the Artifact you used in the Change Merit Trials Event. Indeed… Hm. I’m sorry for your loss. Do you want me to keep him safe… or do the same as with Kilah, whom you almost killed?”

“... Yes, and I understand this is something not easily possible for an outsider. I want to take that favor off from you with this.” Heian Ciemnosc said, not doubting his confidence. The Celestial could see that as the tiny box floated above her joint palms and scrutinized the Artifact and Beto’s Soul inside it.

The Celestial turned her eyes towards him and opened her mouth again. Her words were gentle, “You were asked to bring the Motherblood Expiritus, and at least half my Second Step cultivators survive in the Dimension. The first, you failed to accomplish… but you… were not at fault. In fact… from what I know, it was because of you the Motherblood Expiritus wasn’t lost or landed in the enemy’s hands. If it wasn’t for a Relic, the enemy shouldn’t possess it. It would’ve been different.”

“A Relic?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, remembering the powerful, mighty item Ezquivel pulled out at the last time and even sent his head in a strange daze, effortlessly blocking his dark Soul attack. The Celestial nodded slightly. “A Third Step cannot afford to even touch a Relic, let alone possess one.”

“They were backed by another organization.” Heian Ciemnosc said. The Celestial lightly muttered, “It must be at least a mid Fourth Step organization. There’s no other way another power could have a Relic like that one… If the reports were right, you tried attacking its wearer with a Soul Art, right?”

The Celestial looked at Heian Ciemnosc. Heian Ciemnosc felt weird, but he still nodded. The Celestial slightly nodded in return, keeping quiet for 3 seconds before saying just as she made them walk into a corner, where many people were bustling, trying to lighten up the atmosphere in the incomplete Godly Space Station, which could only become a Space Station at best like in the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s case.

“The Small Piece Sigils are well known for their synergy,” the Celestial started. Heian Ciemnosc nodded, knowing she knew he would be aware of such famous tools known worldwide. She continued, “The Sigils of Darkness are the easiest to use, but equally easiest to not know how to sue. With it, one can hide nearly everything, including aura, presence, and cultivation base. This is without joining them. If your Soul attack was blocked, you should’ve been struck back by the Darkness inside.”

“Did that Chosen Ezquivel require another tool to use it? Was he clueless on how to use it?” The Celestial asked, but Heian Ciemnosc knew well what she wanted to know. He grimaced slightly, somewhat adorably, before saying, “He didn’t need any, Celestial. I’ve always had a talent for Spirit Sense, and my dark Soul is unique… Alyona saw that in me and chose to kidnap me after proving myself. Maybe she also had a few things to arrange.”

“Mnn,” the Celestial proudly nodded. “So that’s how it is. Fine, but as I said before, you didn’t bring half my Second Step cultivators. You brought more than that. I asked for at least half, but more than 800,000 soldier units returned. For that, I’m grateful. What happened after they left the Dimension doesn’t count.”

“Celestial…” Heian Ciemnosc spoke, seemingly feeling something from the Goddess’s words. She didn’t disappoint his expectations and said, “Little Beto did something he didn’t know if it would be meaningful or not. But a puremost Motherblood Expiritus’s demise is nefarious to even Supreme Kingdoms. Nature isn’t powerful enough to defend against it. You saw it myself, even I needed help. And it lasted for days…”

“Without Beto’s obstruction, I might’ve not arrived on time. And for what I’ve been reported, you also suffered some setbacks trying to keep your Team safe?” The Celestial looked at Heian Ciemnosc and stared at his expression of wanting to say something. She interrupted him by continuing, “I know you might not see it now. But Godly beings have differences that not even a meager half a step into the Fourth Step can imagine or try accomplishing.”

“Without Beto’s action, the Motherblood Expiritus would’ve expanded to space for hundreds of kilometers. I wouldn’t have been able to stop it, and the Mistaken Fissures Upper Kingdom would’ve been extinct with its seed forever lost… We wouldn’t be able to find it.”

‘!’ Heian Ciemnosc was astounded. Those words meant the Interchanging Dust Dynasty wasn’t just targeting the Fourth Step in this Change, but higher! He couldn’t show it on his face in case the Celestial didn’t like it and kept it in his mind. Even then, Heian Ciemnosc knew she detected his emotions and energy fluctuations, but she seemed okay with it.

“For this and my Second Step cultivators’ assured safety, I can grant you another favor. Don’t waste it.” The Celestial said, stopping beside a food stall facing the street on the wide sidewalk and with the smell reaching him. Heian Ciemnosc knew they weren’t outside and beside this food stall, but it felt too real without his nature reading…

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“... Then, Celestial Isayid, I’d like to ask for a little Frigate…” Heian Ciemnosc spoke after seeing the opportunity. The Celestial looked at him, slightly jolting her head away and tilting it with her eyes locked on his pale face. She slowly returned to a standard position and commented, “I thought all Crimsons preferred Offensive Fighters. Especially those with the ambitions to become commanders of them one day.”

“It’s indeed like that. But my Team will get theirs with our own money. But I’d like one for other occasions, which I can use in emergencies. Will the Celestial grant me this favor?” Heian Ciemnosc cautiously, respectfully asked towards the end of his words. The Celestial contemplated Heian Ciemnosc’s words while staring at his countenance.

“That is alright.” She responded, and suddenly, Heian Ciemnosc felt like a ripple existed within his chest from her words. It was as if she had made the world act with them. She smiled thinly and looked at the food stall vendor. A fatty woman serving several banderillas to the civilians and some curious cultivators.

“Boss, 4 servings, 3 for him, 1 for me. Thank you,” the Celestial stepped forth, and she seemed in another color in Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes. As if a Godly aura surrounded her body like mist or fog around and above her clothes, hair, and skin. The vendor looked up at the side and watched whatever the Celestial wanted her to look at. She was narrowly stunned but rapidly responded with a frown and pointed at the line before the food stall, lowering her head to continue working.

“Beauty, if you want them, form up quickly. There aren’t many yet, and your serving is now getting ready. Hurry!”

“Come on!” Then, without warning, the Celestial grabbed Heian Ciemnosc’s right wrist and pulled him in slight trotting towards the end of the line. The man in a suit at the last spot in the line blushed as the Celestial walked around and stood behind him, placing Heian Ciemnosc before her and her hands on his shoulders. It was slightly comical for Heian Ciemnosc since she had to raise her arms, but then, he saw through the metal of the food stall an image of the prettiest middle-aged woman with her adolescent nephew before her with her hands on his shoulders.

“The Frigate will be fully supplied. I’ll give you 5 years of war worth of supplies. I’m sure that’s enough. Additionally, I have a small request for you. It won’t take long, maybe a couple hours at most, or some days. It comes from a necessary action and is not tied to the Defensive Frigate you’re asking me. Are you willing to do it?”

“...” Heian Ciemnosc felt pressured. After seeing Godly cultivators in action, he was terrified deep inside. The excitement to become as strong as that was never so blatantly obvious within him! However, after seeing what she could do without seemingly causing at least a trace of Soul energy to disperse around them but fool even the Third Step cultivators constantly keeping security tight, Heian Ciemnosc felt his breathing weighing on him and his shoulders heavy.

“Don’t be like that. You would hardly find Godly powerhouses such as Head Estafar. Their premature ends are always extinction,” the Celestial comforted him, massaging his shoulders like a caring aunty would to her nephew. This jolted a thought inside Heian Ciemnosc’s mind, and he cautiously asked. He couldn’t help but ‘visualize’ himself like a shortie looking up with upturned eyes at the Celestial. “Celestial Isayid, are you alright? I couldn’t see through anything, let alone understand it, but… Will you be alright after extinguishing a Godly being?”

“It’s fine,” the Celestial indifferently spoke. Her eyes were aggressive, but her tone towards him was gentle and doting. “We both might be Godly, but he was an Almighty God while I’m at the peak of the Ancient God. Even if he was in the same realm as me, I would’ve still granted him extinction, even if it meant losing half my realm.”

“Oh…” Heian Ciemnosc exclaimed. He couldn’t read through the Celestial’s body, much less with his position and strength. He could only leave curing her possible illnesses for the future. Heian Ciemnosc might have an idea or two of what might be wrong with her, but he couldn’t be sure, nor would he act like a smartass before a Godly powerhouse.

It was their turn before long. Heian Ciemnosc paid the vendor with some civilian coins the Celestial kept in her Covert Space bags and left with hot, breaded sausages in his hands. The Celestial didn’t waste time and sniffed, probed the banderilla’s warmth, and took a bite in under 5 seconds. Her face melted as she put some sauce and other additions onto it. Finally, she looked at Heian Ciemnosc, barely finishing the first. Heian Ciemnosc gave one of his banderillas to her and watched her eat it without anything added. Her face was melted the whole time.

“... So, Heian Ciemnosc,” the Celestial cleaned her hands and threw the sticks to a robot thrash that popped from underneath. They walked a few minutes extra through the streets before the image changed, and Heian Ciemnosc visualized the reality before him warped slightly with pale violet dust scintillating around the corners of the dull place’s corners. They were back at the ‘room’ the Celestial had brought him to.

“What do you know of the requirements to become?” The Celestial looked at Heian Ciemnosc with her hands behind her back. She lifted her head to stare at his face directly. Heian Ciemnosc was only 2 meters before her with a banderilla’s stick still in his hand. The other was on the floor, dirtying the Celestial’s place.

“Ahem…” Heian Ciemnosc quickly sent his Vocón Link’s tendrils to eat them into nothingness within and stood in attention before her. “Essence must be attained. Universal God realm 10th stage.”

“That’s right. But the Godly powerhouses have to worry about it,” the Celestial said, her voice becoming stern, like a strict teacher giving her class. “If a Godly cultivator does not find their Essence and study it, they’re half-worthless. It can vary from the individual. Some of the most renowned figures throughout the history of the world have found their Essence the moment they break into the Fourth Step and attain their Godhood.”

“Even then, there are Lords that found theirs just before they reached the peak of their Godhood. I’m still halfway there. But I’m already lost without my Kingdom. I have my people to continue cultivating, but there is not a place for us to settle somewhere. We are not mercenaries or a Faction. We cannot live a similar life. We are a Dynasty. Proud, focused, and loyal.” The Celestial turned around and grazed her fingertips back and forth a railing.

“... Celestia Goddess-” Heian Ciemnosc stepped forth and was prepared to say a few things, but Celestial Isayid looked up at him sharply and barraged him with severe words. “Careful. Those forbidden words shouldn’t be spoken so lightly.”

“!...” Heian Ciemnosc was alarmed. He had no idea what she was talking about. The Celestial stuck her chest out and gently spoke, comforting him. “Don’t worry. The person who prohibited them has been dethroned for decades already.”

“Oh…” Heian Ciemnosc speechlessly exclaimed. He didn’t know such a thing was like that. The Celestial noticed this and materialized Beto’s dull Soul outside the miniature Golden Array Snakes in her right palm to observe it at Heian Ciemnosc’s head level. “There are many things no book or digital record has, Heian Ciemnosc. Sometimes, you can’t just wish something is at your hands’ reach. If you want knowledge, you have to look for answers.”

“There are legends for that,” the Celestial commented one last time before turning around. Meanwhile, the Golden Array Snakes gently floated towards Heian Ciemnosc. When he recuperated them with his pale left hand, Celestial Isayid suddenly said, without turning around, “It’s a good gadget. Depending on how you tweak it, it can become… Worthy of becoming an Armament. Have you decided what to make it into once it becomes a Relic?”

“I’m still thinking what to forge out of it. It isn’t helpful when dealing with those of equal battle prowess.” Heian Ciemnosc freely spoke. The Celestial hid whatever she was doing, but Heian Ciemnosc felt a terrifying force from her acts, and he didn’t dare peek before, let alone now.

“Aahh~,” the Celestial turned around and showed her pale golden Demoness’s skin again. Her beauty definitely knew no bounds, and she was like an untouchable grace of the world. She looked at her hands, where a white-colored Soulish jade ring with the diameter of Heian Ciemnosc’s hand was held between her fingers in the air.

“Little Beto’s Soul is now safe.” The Celestial’s words brought Heian Ciemnosc relief. She continued, “As for returning him into life, it might be 100 years… or tens of thousands. Is that fine with you? My Dynasty has the ability to speed that up, but only for our most important people. Beto isn’t.”

The Celestial looked directly at the darkest eyes. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the Celestial respectfully, but his words were calm as he clasped his hands and bowed to the waist. “That’s more than perfect. I know my and the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s bounds. I wish not to spoil it. We are in an early alliance, and we’re not kids. I’m thankful, and my Team will be, too.”

“It’s good to see the younger generation of today. This Change is about to… change things, I can feel it.” The Celestial said. Heian Ciemnosc lifted his eyebrows, confused. “?”

“A blob of Essence is enough to make wonders, you know?” The Celestial suddenly said, letting the Soulish jade ring float upwards rapidly to a place Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t see nor sense. “Just a diminutive trace of it is enough to destroy any Kingdom below the Divine classification… The Bluenet Nation is rumored to have researched it during the last few decades….”

“For an Existential Sixth Step organization in charge of a Universal Land, that is enough to gain fruits from any investigation.” The Celestial solemnly looked at Heian Ciemnosc. He stared at her with his darkest eyes contents continuously shrinking. She gently continued, “The Obscure Orb Sect is investigating the Tortoise Head Pavilion’s methods. One thing is the Small Piece Sigil of Darkness and those forbidden Kingdom-eating machinery. But another is the trace of Essence they used to bomb my home.”

“...” The world seemed to fall deaf around them. Heian Ciemnosc looked at the Celestial startle, slowly recomposing, and the Celestial looked at Heian Ciemnosc almost like an equal, but not at the same time.

“Sigh,” the Celestial turned around and faced Heian Ciemnosc after walking away for several meters. “You can take these. Consider them my gift. I’m sure they will be helpful to you, dear.”

Whoooosh… A few thin manuals exited the Celestial’s sleeves, materializing from golden-colored energy beams to solid, and landed on Heian Ciemnosc’s chest. He was forced to grab them with his hands. Heian Ciemnosc felt his pale fingertips pricked by dozens of different pages from a different manual each. They immediately bonded to him, and he felt the strange sensation he could burn them to nothingness without a hope for nature reading.

‘... Does Celestial Isayid see through my ‘Supreme’ Art?’ Heian Ciemnosc thought, no longer caring to hide his thoughts from the Celestial. She grinned after that thought formed, and then, she walked away as his vision blackened and her voice left words behind her every step.

Tap, tap…

“Didn’t you say something about not wanting to spoil our early relations? How about you solidify them even more? Go talk to her, and spend as much time as you want. Don’t worry about the Frigate waiting for you. My people will service them during your absence.” The Celestial stopped her steps and paused for a few seconds before finally saying, “This… was a request she didn’t know she wanted to make. Please, think about it.”

Step, step…

The Celestial left the passageway while Heian Ciemnosc was left behind in it, like a tunnel made of black. Not similar to his Master’s empty blackness and lacking a lot, but more like a… Godly method.

…