WORLD’S UNDERTONES

A small, squared room reeked of silence and still lingering, old scent of blood. Within it, separated by less than a meter, two people sat in cross-legged positions. Lynne’s disposition had changed quite a lot over the past two months, ever since the backlash had subsided. His bone-like features had slowly began growing muscles and his dried up, pale skin had finally regained some color. In addition, his hair grew a bit longer, finally reaching beneath his shoulders, while his usual subtle had grown into a full-out beard.

Thalia sat opposite of him, tranquil expression on her face. Outside of her hair that had grown longer, there were no other changes about her. Before entering, the two had agreed to take monthly breaks in-between the sessions, and today’s the day of the agreement. As the sun outside began to set, Lynne’s twitching eyes slowly began to open, his vision still blurry.

A moment later, he exhaled as though he had been holding a breath for far too long. A few minutes later, opposite of him, Thalia also slowly opened her eyes and exhaled, her eyes immediately searching for him. When she saw that he had recovered somewhat, her lips curled up into a gentle smile.

“That glad to see me?” Lynne asked as he took out two bottles of Heavenly Ale and gave her one.

“Glad to see you doing well. You looked like utter shit, after all.” she replied.

“Deepest apologies for that blunder,” Lynne said. “I hadn’t thought it thoroughly.”

“Still won’t tell me what it was about?”

“Nope,” Lynne shook his head firmly. “Don’t nag me every time.”

“Aah, fine. I bet it was just full of naked women anyway.”

“How’s your progress going?” Lynne asked.

“Slow. Once you begin approaching the peak of Grand Realm, every inch is like a mountainous leap.” Thalia said, sighing.

“You can do it!” Lynne exclaimed, smiling. “At this rate, I’ll catch up to you sooner than we expected.”

“Hm?” Thalia tilted her head sideways, looking at him in confusion.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about,” Lynne said. “I want to take the remaining 9 months in a gulp, without pauses.”

“Why?”

“I think I can break through.” Lynne said casually.

“Fuck you. Didn’t you break through just recently? Just what the shit is that pace. That’s terrifying. Stop lying to me you bitch.”

“Oi, what happened?! Why have you suddenly turned into a grumpy, old hag?”

“Shut up. Don’t talk to me.” Thalia grunted. “Break through again? Are you fucking kidding me? There’s the rest of the world, bleeding and crying for just a single moment of movement, and then there’s Lynne, a man that just keeps shitting breakthroughs as though they are nothing.”

“Aii, that’s not fair. Do you even realize what hell I went through for the first month? I ought to have some benefits from it, you know!”

“Aah, shut up. You’re about to become an Empyrean King. That’s just one level below me! Dammit, when I first met you, you were just some shitty brat barely in Magus Realm, and I was already a King at that point. Look at us now. Fuck you. Seriously. That’s so unfair…” Thalia sighed, seemingly ready to cry.

“Then do your best to become a bonafide God by the time we’re done with seclusion,” Lynne said, chuckling. “That way, you can still ride the highway for a while.”

“You’re really stacked with everything, aren’t you?”

“Jealous?” Lynne asked, smiling.

“… of course I am, idiot. Who wouldn’t want to have a False God sleeping in his Soul, huh? Or have an entire, legendary sect all for themselves? Or have two amazing, Divine Realm Bloodlines? Seriously, if it weren’t for my firm tits, I don’t know how would I keep you around from now on…”

“Yeah, they’re really firm,” Lynne said, licking his lips. “Don’t underestimate your ass either. I’m in love with both.”

“…”

“O-of course, there’s that personality of yours as well.”

“Pft, ha ha ha,” the two burst out in short laughter as they drank the ale. “How confident are you in breaking through anyway?”

“Roughly 90%.”

“So you’re breaking through, then.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Aah, fuck me dead, but I’m breaking through as well!” Thalia exclaimed with slight anger. “If I don’t, I won’t have sex with you for ten years!”

“Oi!!” Lynne exclaimed.

“Ah, you’re right. That’s too little. Twenty years it is.”

“For the love of god just break through, please!”

“He he, I might fail on purpose. That will be some test of love for you~~”

“… if you want to test me, at least throw me into a bath of thousand naked, mature ladies. Even that’s less cruel.”

“Alright, that’s enough with the flirting,” Thalia said, smiling. “Let’s do this, shall we?”

“Aye,” Lynne nodded, smiling back. “See you in nine months.”

“Good luck.”

“Likewise.”

* * *

Outside their small room, the preparations for the tournament were in full swing. Arena had already been built, large enough to house nearly 100,000 people. Whoever wanted to participate had already signed up, and all were doing their last-minute trainings in hope for some form of a breakthrough. The tournament itself was limited to only those under 15 years of age in addition to being locked within the Foundation Realm stage.

At the moment, there were roughly 2000 youths that will take part, of which all will eventually be admitted into the Skyfire Sect as the First Generation of Disciples. 1500 of them will be accepted as Outer Disciples, 450 as Inner Disciples and 50 as Core Disciples, based on their rankings in the tournament. Besides that, there were numerous other prizes prepared, and the tournament itself will be oversaw by none other but Parsia, the Principal and Y’se, each of which will pick a single Direct Disciple of the bunch.

Fyre’s trio of disciples, Silo, Rena and Amelia were currently standing outside the arena, staring with awe at the gigantic building before their eyes. Surrounding them were many youths much alike the three of them as the chatter disallowed silence to exist.

“He he, look at these idiots, drooling over some stone,” a boy’s voice jolted them awake from their stupor. The voice carried heavy undertones of disdain, causing all three to frown. “What? You scared yet?”

“… ah, if it isn’t Dowmat.” Silo said, sneering.

“It’s Dow, dammit!” a tall boy appeared before them, his build rather muscular, face contorted into anger. “Are you making fun of me, huh?”

“… no way.” Rena said calmly. “We’re just saying you’re a doormat.”

“That’s too cruel Rena,” Silo said. “He’s not a doormat. He’s the doormat.”

“He he,” the boy called Dow licked his lips in fury, chuckling lowly. “Laugh all you can. Just pray to gods I don’t meet you in arena. Otherwise, he he…”

“Though, you’re the one laughing.” Rena said casually. “So, shouldn’t you say ‘I’ll laugh while I can and pray I don’t meet you guys in the arena’.”

“… humph, fine. Keep being arrogant. Just you wait!” the boy stormed off in anger, leaving behind chuckling Silo and Rena.

“There are surprisingly a lot of familiar faces here,” Silo said, looking around. “This will be fun.”

“Do you think any one of us can… can take first place?” Amelia asked in a low voice.

“Heh, no way,” Rena said, shaking her head. “We’re not that talented.”

“Aah, I’m already envious of whoever wins it all,” Silo said, sighing. “To meet the King himself for a personal lesson… that honor…”

“You’re really starting to annoy me with ‘King this, King that’!” Rena said angrily. “Why don’t you go and become his concubine then?”

“… what’s that?” Silo asked while Amelia also looked over curiously.

“… s-seriously?” Rena asked as her cheeks flushed slightly red. “Ugh, nevermind. Talking to you is just a waste of time anyway.”

“Ugh, shut up! It’s not like you’re any better!” Silo lashed back.

“D-don’t start, you two, please!” Amelia interjected. “We’ve also applied for the group battles! We need to be bestest of friends for that!”

“…” This girl… Silo and Rena thought as they looked at Amelia, their frowning faces immediately melting down into smiles.

“Fine, I won’t waste my strength on arguing with this idiot,” Rena said. “Where should we go now, anyway? Master told us we’re free till tomorrow, if I remember correctly.”

“Let’s just go into woods and train!” Silo said. “Then eat and then sleep!”

“… aah, I wonder if we’re going to be okay tomorrow…” Rena said, sighing.

“W-we will! Master said to trust in ourselves and each other!” Amelia exclaimed in a slightly higher pitch than usual. “Everything will work out if we do!”

“Yeah, yeah…”

* * *

In a realm far beyond those commonly visited, spiraling down the mountain’s mouth was an iron ledge that acted as a form of a staircase. Surrounding the mountain was nothing but vastness of icy tundra, while the mountain itself was the only thawed thing in the entire realm. Deep within its belly was a humongous opening lit up by fuming flames of running lava river. Around it were hundreds upon hundreds of topless people, all running about while attending their own tasks.

A lion’s agape maw was etched into a side wall, spewing lava into the already running river constantly. Statue’s eyes were ruby gems, glistening brightly, while wall surrounding it was filled with archaic characters. Standing a few meters from the statue was a youthful looking man with long, golden hair, wearing clothes of upper nobility, all adorned with golden threads. He was stroking his chin lightly as he examined the statue and characters surrounding it.

“Lord Divine.” a voice abruptly interrupted him as he looked away from the statue and focused his gaze onto a hooded figure kneeling next to him.

“What is it?” the youthful looking man asked in a calm, almost otherworldly voice.

“We have found the final link.” the hooded figure said.

“Oh? How broken is it?”

“Completely.”

“I see… that’s unfortunate.” the youthful looking man said, sighing. “How’s the progress with others?”

“It’s hard to say. It appears as though we’re running low on Molten Cores.”

“I’ll resupply once I go back,” the youthful-looking man said. “There’s a scheduled meeting of the Vices in three months. I’ll have you participate in my place.”

“My Lord?” the voice sounded out, trances of shock within it.

“I can’t be bothered to deal with them at the moment,” the man replied. “The portal is too important at the moment. First battles have already broken out, and we’ve already lost two minor realms that we used for mining pure Molten Cores. Aah, the Ancient Clans really are relentless in looking for answers.”

“It is fine. Those two realms weren’t that heavily guarded, and their deposits were on last legs anyway. Still, should we launch a counter-attack just a scare tactic?”

“Hmm… I’ll think of something once I go back home. For now, keep trying to repair the links. If we are successful in creating a gateway between our dimension and the dimension of Primordial Gods… there’s no telling what will happen.”

“I understand. What shall I do?”

“… hm, right. I want you to travel back to that minor realm,” the youthful-looking man said, frowning slightly. “Although I told others that the boy is irrelevant, I have a strange feeling about him. I doubt you’ll be able to infiltrate with Y’se watching over, but just keep an eye out for any major movement.”

“Yes, Lord Divine.”

“Good. How’s your progress?”

“Reporting: I’m an inch away from gaining enlightenment in Wind, Lord Divine.” the hooded figure said.

“Hm, you’re at good pace. An inch away from Divine Circle at your age is really impressive. If you face a bottleneck, try looking into Thunder. It shares some common themes with the Law of Wind. You may be inspired.”

“Thank you for your guidance, as always, Lord Divine.”

“Hm.” the youthful-looking man nodded, smiling. “Although they may have more Divine Mages overall, save for the Iylox’s old geezer, Terrman’s Patriarch and Yowox’s Ancestor, most others are at best at Divine Bind stage.”

“… can I ask you something, Lord Divine?” the hooded figure said.

“Go ahead.”

“How strong is Iylox’s Ancestor?” the hooded figure asked.

“How strong? Heh, honestly? I have no idea myself,” the youthful-looking man said, his eyes betraying a glint of admiration and awe. “He hadn’t even taken part in the last Great War, and the last time he fought openly he was already at Divine Circle stage. However, that happened nearly ten million years ago. Honestly, he’s the only one that worries me of all of them…”

“… forgive me for asking.”

“It’s okay. You can go now.”

“Farewell, Lord Divine.”

“Hm.” the youthful-looking man nodded as the hooded figure disappeared. The man’s gaze switched back onto the statue, his lips curling into a slight smile. “However, regardless of how strong he is, if I can obtain this inheritance and if we open up the gateway between the dimensions… unless he already broke through the dreamed realm, he won’t stand a chance…”