Diana
Watching Aalam get so emotional about food, Diana didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. On the one hand, her little brother likely hadn’t physically eaten anything for a year and a half, so the fact he now realized he could was probably a huge burden off his shoulders. On the other hand, the fact he was so much happier at seeing a bag of chips than seeing her really pissed her off.
She should have expected it. From her brother’s perspective, he’d just been away for a year, and he was really bad at putting himself in other people’s shoes, so the amount of pain he’d put her through had likely not sunk into his head yet. But still, she’d been so happy to know he wasn’t actually dead, yet he didn’t seem to feel anything.
“He was really emotional when he learned you were alive, Diana,” Mila sent over the psychic connection created by the rings they were still wearing. “You just weren’t there when it happened. It was slightly more intense than with the chips.”
That did make Diana feel better, but she also felt like hurting Mila, as the woman could have told her the same thing earlier instead of having fun at her expense.
“So, what’s the status of Earth?” Aalam asked, his mouth full. “Anyone with cool abilities? Are there any wondrous places like the soul well?”
“Quite a few people with cool abilities.” Mila smiled at Diana and then turned back to Aalam. “But you can see for yourself. There are the tools necessary for establishing a soul network in the Left Hand of the Runescribe and we’ll be relying on you to set it up once Diana becomes sovereign. Then, under as many aliases as you want, you can participate in the ranking challenges to compete against everyone in the world.
“As for natural wonders, Earth is an E+ rank planet, not just E rank, and that’s not from an inheritance. Its wonder is called an enlightenment zone and it is an area of about 3 square kilometers on the western coast of the island of Zakynthos in Greece. Within that zone, it is easier to advance skills, comprehend Laws, and break through bottlenecks, especially Law bottlenecks. Advancing a Law into a Law Pupa, for example, is much, much easier there.
“One of the five families of the Five Family Alliance, the Pappas Family, found it after the integration and was using it themselves, but they granted the entire island to Diana for her personal use as part of their surrender, so you’ll be able to use it whenever you want.” Mila smiled. “I imagine you’ll probably want to live there.”
“Oh, that was nice of them.” From his tone, Aalam seemed to have completely understood that the Pappas Family had not granted the wonder at all willingly, and, for a second, Diana started to consider when Mila had been planning on telling her about the wonder. Then she realized Mila just had, and she wouldn’t have had time to use it during the last week anyway.
Mila then began explaining everything that had happened since Aalam had fallen unconscious in detail, and Diana and Isaiah stepped out of the tent.
“Are you okay?” Isaiah asked when they’d walked a little distance away.
“Yeah,” Diana lied, sitting down on a rock. But then she changed her answer. “No. Not really.”
The large man sat down on another rock lower down than her on the mountain and looked up at her. “Why?”
Diana contemplated how she wanted to answer. Mila had told her most of the facts about Isaiah, and Diana understood Isaiah’s life had been a lot tougher than her own. She also understood that despite his upbringing, he was a lot like her brother in temperament, not one to really think about politics at all.
If Mila’s judgement of the man was to be believed, he was asking not because he wanted something from her, but because he genuinely wanted to see if he could help elevate her mood, and that made her a lot more nervous than if he’d been someone like Ezra or James.
“Partly it’s my brother. The fact I was so worried about him but he seems so fine, as well as his lack of reaction when seeing me for the first time in a year and a half, is kind of infuriating.
“Then there’s Mila. Seeing how comfortable Aalam is around her still—I don’t know. I thought I was in a good place, having fully forgiven her, but I don’t think I have. I just found myself not trusting her again, not based on anything new, and I don’t really like that.”
“It’s a very reasonable feeling.” Isaiah smiled, his teeth perfectly clean, which Diana realized was a relatively odd thing to notice. “She lies a lot, so it’s hard to know when she’s being genuine.”
Isaiah then laughed, a joyous deep booming sound. “The first two times I met her, she was using completely fake identities.”
“But you trust her now?” Diana felt curious about this, as Mila had a tendency to gloss over anything remotely emotional in her storytelling.
Isaiah contemplated for a few seconds, looking down at the ground. Then he looked back at her. “To have my best interests in mind, yeah. To not lie to me, no.”
“Why?” Diana had forced Mila into a contract where she couldn’t lie and then had an honest conversation with her, but Mila was an expert at contract magic, so she still didn’t fully trust what was said.
“I trust your brother.” Isaiah looked back over at the tent, smiled again, and then looked back. “Do you know the story of how I became a Balance Dragon?”
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Mila just said my brother helped you advance?” Diana felt confused. Mila had mentioned how the resources used were incredibly expensive, and that Aalam had controlled the array which allowed for the absorption, but it hadn’t sounded like there was really much of a story beyond that.
Isaiah laughed again. “The resources I absorbed were well beyond what someone at my level should have been able to handle, and, even with my ability to passively regenerate, what your brother did to me was basically torture. If he hadn’t asked first, I probably would have wanted to kill him. But he was in his berserker state and Mila had no way to know he’d actually asked me, as it had been done telepathically, so she was in a panicked state while Aalam’s Aura stat was significantly higher than hers.
“Then, to put her even further off balance, your brother asked her to marry him, and he was then able to ask a couple questions while she was too much of an emotional mess to be able to hide her emotions.
“She’s an excellent actor and all, but she’s not a robot. And, from what Aalam has told me, I don’t think she was faking.
“That’s when Aalam fully broke up with her, and their relationship got quite a bit better afterwards.”
That sounded like Aalam. Once he saw a problem, he was very much one for creative and, to a normal person, insane solutions. Diana could now better understand why Aalam seemed so much more comfortable around Mila than she’d expected. He didn’t trust his own judgement of people, for good reason, so he’d gone overboard in his verification.
“Were those the only two things which were bothering you?” Isaiah asked.
Diana thought about it for a second. “I’m probably also stressed from having to play politics with all the leaders of Earth’s forces. It’s not very fun.”
“Ah.” Isaiah summoned a metal spear from his spatial storage ring and stood up from his rock. “Want to have a duel then?”
“A duel?” Diana looked up at him, frowning slightly. “Why?”
“I’ve always found training helps me destress.” Isaiah smiled. “And, ever since I met your brother, I’ve found training with someone else is generally more fun than training by yourself.”
Diana just looked at him for a few seconds. Then she released her control over her mana, causing the mana in the area to twist as she summoned both Dioscuri and Helen into her hands. Next, taking full control over her mana again, she merged both her spirits into her body.
Isaiah, in response to her provocation, released his control over his qi and the air for over a meter around him began to vibrate slightly, the rocky ground under his feet vibrating as well. Purple scales formed from mana and qi began to appear all over his body, covering his skin, and, as he retook control over his qi and the vibrations stopped, the energy from her Territory began to gather around him as well, further boosting his power.
Isaiah then rushed at her, thrusting his spear towards her chest at a speed which showed his effective Agility was quite a bit beyond hers, and Diana quickly took to the air to try and avoid his attack. But Isaiah stepped into the air like it was solid ground and Diana was forced to take drastic measures, activating her Spirit Enhancement skill to empower Helen and then using the full power of her Magic stat to make a wall of living fire to block Isaiah’s movement.
The flames were incredibly hot, Diana’s effective Magic stat quite a bit higher than 10,000, but Isaiah didn’t avoid it, activating a defensive skill and jumping right through, getting burned very, very badly in the process. Pretty much only his underclothes survived the fire, but, with his spear right at her neck, Diana watched as his burns visibly started to heal.
“I specialize in speed, defense, offense, and self-regeneration.” Isaiah smiled, somehow not at all bothered by the type of pain he must have just undergone, his burns already half healed.
Diana, for her part, was just looking at him in shock. “Are you okay?”
“Compared to my race advancement, that was nothing. And I need to get injured if I’m going to practice with my regeneration Law.” Isaiah took several steps back. “Want to go again?”
“Sure.” Diana was feeling a little nervous, as Isaiah was seeming more like a madman than even her brother, but, given how fast he healed, his burns already completely gone, maybe pain just wasn't a big deal to him.
She moved back about a hundred meters and then used Dioscuri’s power to enter into stealth. In response, Isaiah charged toward her former position and she moved to her right to try to get around to his back.
When they were only about 40 meters from each other, however, the closest they were going to get given their trajectories, Isaiah, without looking toward her, changed directions and charged straight at where she was moving. Startled, she froze for a fraction of a second. Then she tried throwing beams of pure death energy at him using her hands.
But Isaiah was too quick, too close, and had too good of a defensive skill. He dodged both beams and got even closer to her. Then, when he was within striking range, he changed his Law usage to empower his defensive skill instead of his movement, allowed her to hit his defense with both beams, and held his spear to her neck again.
Yes, she was hitting him with her attack, but she hadn’t been able to do any damage to him at all before his spear reached her, and she only managed to get through his defenses a quarter of a second after she would have already died.
Feeling a bit embarrassed, she shut off the death mana and Isaiah’s chest, slightly rotted from her powerful middle grade Law Larva of Necrosis, quickly started to heal.
“You knew where I was from the beginning?”
Isaiah nodded as he took several steps back again. “Perception is my highest effective stat and I have a powerful detection skill. Even Mila can’t hide from me within a range of 70 meters, and her stealth skill is better than yours while she has a stealth boosting Law. You shouldn’t try to use stealth against me unless we are practicing.” He then looked at her appraisingly, seeming to be analyzing the way she was fused with her spirits. “Your Magic stat is incredibly high and your skills all seem to be the same grade as mine, while your Laws are quite a bit stronger, but the skill which allows you to merge with your spirits is new, right?”
Diana nodded, feeling a bit embarrassed at how easily he could see through her.
“You’re powerful, but you’re like your brother when we first started training together. You don’t seem to have much practice fighting against those at your same level and you have several major weaknesses as a result.”
Isaiah looked contemplative for a second and Diana sensed Mila and Aalam exit from the tent to her right as he continued talking. “First and foremost, like your brother, you don’t have a movement skill.
“While you seem to have a summoner class, your skill set seems designed to have you fight like a mage. Right now, however, you don’t have the ability to keep yourself at range when fighting a warrior like me, so that’s the first thing you should focus on.
“Nana Xara, however, might have other ideas and I would trust her judgement over my own.”
Isaiah smiled widely and the scales covering his body faded away. “Do you feel a bit better now?”
Diana just stared at him, at his large pectoral muscles, his perfect abs, his seemingly perfectly chiseled face, and she didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. “No. Of course not.” Sure, the adrenaline had helped with her stress, but who liked having their weaknesses pointed out?
She looked over at her brother, who was looking at her avatar state with excitement in his eyes, and she realized there was one such weird person right there, and it seemed Isaiah might have incorrectly assumed, given she was Aalam’s older sister, that she was similarly insane.