"Neither of you are as clever as you think yourselves to be."
Theron spoke this singular line, not caring to say more. It was more like he wanted to crush Garethon’s spirit, to stare right through his soul.
The truth? Garethon and Gian were one and the sa, a pair of split souls that originated from the sa person.
This was probably their final trump card, and they were waiting for the right ti to reveal it. It was just unfortunate that... Theron had already seen through them.
They had left far too many clues behind. So much so that this big, ready and waiting reveal was so pathetically impotent that Theron didn’t even care to speak it aloud.
And yet, those words were really all he had to say for them to know they had been found out.
The location of the Luminescent Moon Sect, the involvent of Gian with the very branch Theron was enrolled into, the fact Gian had a Black Limbo Tortoise Beast Core on hand of all things...
The fact Garethon had so conveniently chosen to target such a small village, so very far away from his Seijin Clan when there were any number of innocent villages he could have targeted...
It all seed so coincidental...
Until Theron saw Juliax. That was when it all clicked.
For Garethon, Juliax was truly his magnum opus. But that wasn’t just because she was so powerful. It was because she was the blueprint for succeeding in exactly what he wanted to do.
A child-like version of himself, one far younger than his true self... one capable of benefiting from the sa plasticity Juliax had without nearly the sa drawbacks.
This was Garethon.
Garethon was just so random child of the Seijin, and Gian wasn’t just so Sect leader of a remote, small power.
Together, they were probably the strongest of the Seijin—their Ancestor, the backbone of this power that the entire world feared so very much.
However, until the perfect, opportune ti, even they wouldn’t recall this matter. Or, rather, Garethon certainly wouldn’t.
They severed the Karma between the two of them, effectively making them two completely different people for the ti being. The benefit to this was that while Gian was the foundation of their strength, he was also free, flexible, and malleable, allowing him to try out countless different paths of cultivation without the dead weight of his previous paths.
When Gian grew a lot older, that was the process of him taking the successes of Garethon and fusing them into his body. Karma ca to collect, and thus the accumulated years showed on him instantly, turning him into the old man that now stood before Theron.
Once these two formally fused together once more, there would truly be no stopping them. The idea that Ott was the strongest on the continent would beco nothing more than a joke.
Before his most recent breakthrough and the current changes to his body, even Theron at full health wouldn’t stand a chance against these two. They had too much experience, too many trump cards, too many thods of turning the tide.
It was why they could just stand here, smiling, as everyone slowly whittled Theron down piece by piece.
And they remained confident...
Until the mont the Heavens themselves could no longer bind Theron. Until that mont the Heavens seed on the verge of breaking and shattering apart right before their eyes.
It was at that mont, as Theron’s Mana ford the maw that roared at them, that they realized.
"You aren’t human..."
They spoke in unison, their voices fusing into one. However, Theron wasn’t watching them anymore at all.
These two... he didn’t just want to kill casually. He didn’t just want them dead.
He wanted them to suffer sothing worse. He wanted to put their souls over spits and raze them over fire. He wanted to bleed their bodies dry, wringing their inner organs hand by hand. He wanted to dim their senses one by one until pain was all that was left.
But soone seed intent on stopping him from doing exactly that.
There was nothing more than a blur, and a palm touched Theron’s collarbone faster than he could react.
The world blurred around them all, and in a flash, Theron’s eyes slowly cleared to find himself in a world of white, seven moons slowly rotating high above him from the brightest blue shading down to the brightest violet.
Across from him, barely a ter away... was a woman that he didn’t recognize at first. Until one feature after another slid into place and he understood.
An older Sadie?
No, it felt more like—.
Theron hurried to touch his back, his eyes flashing with rage and fury when he realized that Malaya wasn’t there.
"Where is she?!"
Theron’s voice sounded like the roar of a wounded beast. His fury was billowing out in ways it never had before. He had unleashed the monster within him, but before it could be set on those he wanted to see suffer, he was being interrupted by this woman yet again.
His patience had long worn thin, and he moved to attack—only to find himself completely frozen in place, bindings of darkness rooting him down.
Slowly, the woman shook her head.
"... I’m sorry, Theron. I really am. Life makes fools of us all. But I’m sure you’ve figured it out already. Malaya is not real. She’ll never be real."
Theron didn’t seem to be listening at all. He shook in the air, his body wrenching an arm free only for it to be caught by another weaving line of Dark Mana.
The look of pity on the woman’s face was only infuriating Theron even more. He felt sothing in the pit of his gut, and a familiar wheezing heave ca from his mouth as though he was trying his hardest to breathe but simply couldn’t.
"Theron..." her eyes dimd. "I can only give you what explanation I can... My na—my real na—is Alauna Sacharro. This world... it’s one of my several dantian. I’ve been refining each one of them for billions of years, trying to find a way to perfect my Path of Creation, but the scope seems too large... even for ..."
Alauna looked up toward the moons, her eyes growing sadder as though trying to recall sothing she couldn’t quite grasp.
"Existence... it’s been crumbling to pieces for a long while. The one who caused it all doesn’t care to fix it, and my father, well... he thinks of it as a test for . But I’m not as good as either of them, it seems.
"I thought that the reason for that was because I never had to go through any of the sa hardship, so I severed myself and my mories, splintering off and forcing my incarnations to undergo a rebirth that would put them through the sa pain and horrors my father and that man once went through, hoping that it would make into the powerhouse they were.
"Each one of my incarnations took on a different branch of the Path of Creation, and this one... this one was supposed to be Darkness. But sothing went wrong.
"You."
Alauna looked down from the moons, the pity in her heart deepening.
"You are my Heart Demon, Theron. You’re the representation of everything I fear the most. I can’t... I can’t let you continue."
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