Vanar
“Twilight, what brings you here?” The Law Master, seemingly enjoying Empress Li’s aunt hanging onto one of his arms instead of being offended, smiled at the master of Vanar’s enemy. “Not that it isn’t nice to see you, but I’m trying to charm this young woman into giving me a good deal, and I don’t really appreciate the competition.”
The Lord of Twilight Flame looked angry, but, at the same time, he retracted his aura just as Vanar was about to report him to the System for being threatening, so he sadly hadn’t lost any of his reasoning. “Kavon, you do realize she’s a shadow, right?”
“Of course.” The Law Master smiled, appearing fully aware of what the Lord of Twilight Flame was talking about even while Vanar had no clue. “But she’s also a participant in the Universal Tournament, so I can’t do anything to her even if I wanted to, making this a good time for a trade.
“You, however, are here for what? Blowing hot air?” The Law Master’s smile grew slightly mocking. “Or are you thinking the C rank you can’t touch without universe altering ramifications will tell you where your nephew and his chamberlain are?”
“Wife.” Li Evelyn interrupted the Lord of Twilight Flame just before he was about to respond, but didn’t look at him, instead looking up at the Law Master instead. “They’ve been married since before they both hit D rank, so she stopped being his chamberlain ages ago.”
“Wife. I apologize.” The Law Master smiled gently at Ms. Li and then looked back to the Lord of Twilight Flame, his mocking smile returning. “Are you thinking this C rank you can’t touch will tell you where her extremely accomplished nephew-in-law and even more accomplished niece are located?”
The Lord of Twilight Flame glared at the Law Master. “Do you think I’m an idiot?”
“Yes.” The Law Master nodded.
“Yes.” Ms. Li, speaking at the same time, nodded as well.
“That much is obvious.” Vanar, understanding Ms. Li was deliberately trying to goad The Lord of Twilight Flame, added on as well.
Then the ancient god’s eyes literally became a bit fiery, flames visible behind his pupils, but otherwise he appeared calm, his aura not fluctuating at all. “Your force is responsible for all the artifacts disguised as belonging to the Havadim Imperium?”
“Of course.” Ms. Li nodded, not even trying to hide this major fact Vanar hadn’t been aware of.
“Given the timing, that much was quite obvious.” The Law Master nodded as well.
Meanwhile, Vanar, thinking over this new fact, took a second and decided it wasn’t that surprising. He’d already seen Lord Aalam create dozens of Empyrean grade artifacts, and Earth had an A rank Black Iron mine, the main material of the Havadim Imperium artifacts. Lord Aalam’s Law talent also leaned toward time and space Laws the most, so it wouldn’t be surprising for him to have the ability to artificially age his artifacts. And, finally, Vanar now understood why Lady Li had always been so less stressed than him about the placement of those from the Za-Lord’s Guard and the United Federation of Planets in the Universal Tournament.
About half the top seeds in the tournament not from their forces—and possibly Krysta La’Vordi as well given her relationship with Lord Aalam, Isaiah, and Lady Krol—technically counted as servants, possibly even slaves, of the United Federation of Planets. And, more important, the number of contestants under the United Federation of Planets participating in the Universal Tournament finals was much higher than Vanar had anticipated, not making up just 8% of the contestants, but closer to 24% instead.
For a force to qualify for half the tournament’s rewards, and thereby gain even more impressive prizes like those required to reincarnate Lord Aalam’s sister, it would need at least 32 C rank contestants, and each contestant would have to take up one of the tournament’s top 32 spots. With around 4,976 contestants having made it to the finals, however, even with over half having already lost by the end of the third round, the placement for those at the top could be a lot more flexible.
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“Did the Primordial Humans faction of gods truly only realize about those artifacts just before the finals?” Ms. Li made an exaggerated confused expression toward the Law Master.
“Well, in Twilight’s defense, gods usually don’t care much about C ranks.” The Law Master looked back at Ms. Li with a slightly chagrined expression. “You have such short lives most of us don’t usually care about the Universal Tournament.”
“Well, that makes sense for you, dear.” Ms. Li lightly patted the Law Master’s arm she was still holding with a gentle expression on her face. “Your force didn’t knowingly birth out the most talented cultivator ever to appear in our universe and then deliberately antagonize him by murdering his sister and her unborn child. Instead, your mother is the fifth greatest external contributor to my nephew’s power, after the Yin Yang Sage, his master, the combat instructor whose death he annihilated a B rank force over as an E rank, and the Divine Child, so you’re not facing imminent doom and thus don’t have any reason to be terrified by a group of young C ranks like Little Sunset.”
“Do you think it’s wise to antagonize me, child?” The Lord of Twilight Flame’s voice became lower, but Vanar was more concerned about the Law Master, who’d started to frown at the mention of Lord Aalam being the most talented cultivator to ever appear in the universe.
“I don’t think it makes a difference.” Ms. Li ignored the change in the Law Master and turned to smile at the Lord of Twilight Flame. “You and yours are going to try and annihilate me and mine no matter what, so there is no reason to show you respect.”
It was at this moment Vanar felt three sources of energy rush into the compound, each feeling like a B rank, and each aiming attacks at members of the Za-Lord’s guard who were still in the tournament, but, as Vanar and the other members of the guard were all wearing law armors when not competing and someone, likely Ms. Li or another hidden member of the United Federation of Planet’s main force, had activated the armors’ shared defense ability, the power of the three attacks were distributed over the 847 members and did nothing.
“See.” Ms. Li’s voice started to echo around the compound as her body transformed into shadow and disappeared. “I knew you’d try to do something stupid like this no matter what I said.”
Then, drawing power from the other 846 members of the Guard through her law armor, she appeared behind one of the attacking B ranks, a humanoid male wearing full plate armor, and reached her shadowy right hand into his back before somehow pulling his shadow from his body and severing his head with a sword which appeared in her left hand.
Meanwhile, Vanar himself had engaged one of the other B ranks, a female elf wearing a loose dress, his surprise attack already having inflicted blood poison, and the third was held down by five other relatively powerful members of the Guard.
“Leave the other two to me as well.”
Hearing Ms. Li’s voice through the connection of their law armors, Vanar didn’t go in for the kill, and the same thing which happened to the armored man happened to the elf and then the other B rank, Ms. Li ripping out their shadows and cutting off their heads, and, given the three flows of primal energy which entered into Ms. Li, this alone was enough to kill them.
“My morals are questionable at best, but, when it comes to my own, I’ll do my all to keep them safe.” Ms. Li appeared in front of the Lord of Twilight Flame and the Law Master, a large amount of primal energy in the process of elevating the power of her soul as the three shadows of the B ranks, all of whom had their eyes closed, hovered around her. “I like having fun, however, and I like making mischief, so, while my enemies should beware, my allies can just grab some popcorn.”
Her oath completed, a dozen other shadows appeared around her, these all of C rank, but some sort of power emanating from Ms. Li shredded them all to bits, and the pieces were absorbed into the mouths of the three B rank shadows, all of whom then opened their eyes, showing ice blue spheres which emanated an aura of death.
“Thank you, Little Sunset.” Ms. Li turned back to the Lord of Twilight Flame, her eyes having transformed into the same ice blue orbs of death, and the three shadows moved to enter into her body like the controlled spirits Vanar had long understood they were. “Of the top 32 from the United Federation of Planets, I was the only one who hadn’t yet met the qualifications for B rank. The snack you sent is very much appreciated.”
The Lord of Twilight Flame’s expression wasn’t disappointed, but annoyed, and Vanar suddenly realized the man likely hadn’t sent the three B ranks, even though they were almost certainly from forces under the forces under his own. “Petty tricks.”
The god then turned around and left, just as Vanar started hearing news of reporters showing up at their compound gate through his law armor, and Ms. Li turned to the Law Master, bowing ever so slightly.
“It seems I have to do some interviews now, dear. You’re welcome to stay and be a handsome backdrop, but the negotiations will have to wait for a bit.”
The Law Master started laughing, looking from Ms. Li to the retreating Lord of Twilight Flame and then back. Then he nodded his head once to Ms. Li, then once more to Vanar, and disappeared, Vanar’s senses not strong enough to tell if he moved physically, teleported, or used some other type of skill.
“Let’s go cause a bit of ruckus, shall we?” Ms. Li turned to Vanar, her eyes transforming back to their normal pretty bluish-gray, and then she moved toward the edge of the compound, seemingly ready to go talk to the press.