Their first challenge was to decide where exactly they should go. They could either aim for an already known location, or brave the complete unknown. Both choices had their up- and downsides, which was why the twins spent a long time arguing back and forth before making up their minds.
"Go on. Like we discussed, you'll choose our initial direction."
Not all too happy with all of this, Devashtich glanced at his sister and spoke in an exasperated tone. He would have preferred to follow along a known route, but had eventually come around to the more 'exciting' option.
"Hmm... then let's go this way!"
Retaining a lot of her playful, whimsical nature even after having become 'divine', Spandarmad seemingly randomly decided their fate. This casual display almost made her brother pop a vein, yet he managed to bottle up the frustration.
"Is there any particular reason as to why you've settled on that one?"
What responded to his inquiry was a blank expression, which eventually warped into a conflicted, worried one. She stared at him as if she was looking at a complete idiot, lamenting his apparent sudden and significant loss of brain cells.
"Silly Deva, you should get your memory checked out. We agreed that we'd go with the random route, so of course there is no real reason behind my choice. Duh!"
Feeling a headache coming on, he glared at her for a while, his breaths laboriously deep and measured. If there was one person out there who could always, routinely and easily get under his skin, then it was this brash sister of his.
'Stay calm, we're on a mission! Our voyage will take ages, and most of the time, I'll get to enjoy some well-deserved peace and quiet. Don't let her get to you!'
Psyching himself up, he eventually showed a forced smile and looked away, ignoring her thereafter. Admittedly, though, the misplaced concern in her eyes made it difficult not to blow his top.
"You just sit tight, I'll get everyone."
With these words, she departed from their Voidfaring Vessel. They had already informed those who would be accompanying them, yet they all still had to pack their things and obtain the necessary supplies.
Most of the bigger vessels of the Naxsir's fleets were all able to be fully self-sufficient, even when drifting through the Lesser True Void for countless years. However, the twins weren't taking one of those–instead, a much smaller, but highly advanced one had been assigned to them. Fortunately, with a little effort, self-sufficiency could still be achieved.
More importantly, though, a lot of Energy Veins had been incorporated into its design, allowing even Celestial Stage cultivators like them to live comfortably. Not all of the Voidfaring Vessels in the Naxsir's possession were capable of that, as it required an extremely hefty investment of Energy Veins.
Whilst those could relatively simply be harvested, they were still quite rare in the Lesser True Void, therefore they didn't have a nigh infinite amount of them at hand. Naturally, they could have chosen to take them from the worlds that they discovered, but they had a very strict non-intervention policy when it came to matters of this nature.
A few hours later, all the resources had been acquired and everyone who should be present had boarded. With nothing else preventing their departure, a fast, stealthy and small ship separated from the Naxsir's fleet, silently slipping away.
Taking one last look back at their home, the twins hardened their hearts and had their vessel accelerate. Before long, they had completely disappeared.
'Come to think of it, Spitamaneh also went that way a little earlier. But as they've chosen not to visit any worlds on the way, they should be fine.'
Obviously, Thurgar had been watching over them all along, so he was up-to-date with every decision that the twins had made. He didn't take that one Heaven's Chosen in the Sybillans' territory too seriously. After all, even the one who he had allied with couldn't pose a threat to any 'divine' being at the moment.
-----
"Sir, an allied craft has just passed us by. In response to our probing, they gave us a cipher."
Listening to his second in command's report, Spitamaneh compared the secret code that had been sent with the ones that he was aware of, a rather grim look shimmering in his eyes soon after.
'A secret mission of the highest order? What exactly is going on to warrant something like that?!'
Although he was curious, he knew that he wasn't qualified to request any additional intel. Solely the Venerated Ikhshid could be responsible for a matter like this, therefore it would be best for him to keep his mouth shut.
"Delete all data related to this encounter. And, everyone: Forget what you just saw. Nothing happened whatsoever."
Their commander's stern order was rapidly conveyed to the entire fleet, and after a few minutes of thorough data obliteration, everything returned to normal.
It would still take a bit over a month for them to arrive at their target world, so until then, they would prepare for the inevitable battle to come. With an extremely expansive intelligence network at their disposal, they could obtain as much information about the Sybillans and their history as they wanted.
For now, the majority of the highest ranking individuals on board were busy studying the various civilizations around that area, as well as designing rapid response plans should any of them show suspicious activities whilst they were capturing that Heaven's Chosen.
'I've got to say, it's a relatively unremarkable corner. Unless our intel is severely out of date, there is only one place that has any combat power worth mentioning. And considering their distance from Pytho, even if they wanted to meddle, they would find it challenging to do so. It looks like nothing much changed since I last came here.'
Nodding to himself with a smile, Spitamaneh's conclusion left him satisfied. It appeared like yet again, nothing would stand in his way to success.
-----
The Sybillan Republic's expansive Archives took a non-negligible time to sift through. Even Theodore had to waste a few minutes to get around the measures that Nye had put into place to secure the restricted parts of it. Fortunately, with the man out of the picture and all political power in the hands of Cristyn, transferring the Prime Magistrate's authority to her wasn't much of a challenge.
Most of what could be found at this 'deeper' level was unimportant to their search, discussing past events of the Sybillans' history that were contained to solely their own world. Fortunately, once they put in the right terms, an astonishing amount of exactly what they sought was presented to them.
Whether it be the neighbours all around them, or some other civilizations that had already disappeared or been obliterated long ago, every single speck of information related to them could be accessed. This all would indubitably come in handy once he and his people began to expand his territory.
But that was a matter for the future. For now, only two important discoveries were made. On the one hand, the name of the force controlling more than 200 worlds was revealed: the Tetrachroma Palace.
The Sybillans knew remarkably little about them, with merely a handful of interactions between the two civilizations ever having taken place. Most of what they gathered came from other parties who had dealt with them before and shared the intel. Still, there was barely anything to go off of.
Or, that was what should have been the case. As soon as he saw that name, Theodore couldn't help but think of a certain hypothesis.
'Tetrachroma should mean 'four colours'. And there are four Foundational Elements, often represented as colours. As much as it feels very on the nose, I suspect that this is another pawn of the Ur Family...'
Admittedly, there were plenty more possibilities. The seasons could also be represented in the same way, and the term might have other translations that he wasn't aware of. Still, considering that he had already run into one puppet of the Urs, he wouldn't put it past his luck to come across a second one now.
'If it's truly the Ur Family again, then someone really wants me to pay extra attention to their plans.'
Smirking slightly, he shook his head and focused on the other information of especial importance. Despite the Naxsir not usually coming around to these parts, the data on them was a lot more complete than that on the Tetrachroma Palace. This was mainly due to them having significantly negatively impacted the Sybillans in the past.
Not too many records remained of the individual that they had taken with them, but apparently, they had at least one Supreme-grade Talent–and it hadn't been Prognostication or a variation of it. Their aptitude in every regard was considered extremely high as well, so the Sybillans had hoped that they could bring their civilization to greater heights.
Yet, everything changed when the Naxsir arrived. Or rather, a while before then. Their Oracles had warned them of this event, but nobody ever figured out a solution. When the enemy knocked at their door, a brief but violent confrontation ensued, and they lost miserably. The Sybillans hadn't wanted to give up despite knowing that they stood no chance–until reality forced them to accept this bitter development, no matter what.
Ever since then, they had always kept an eye out for any morsel of news regarding the Naxsir, irrespective of how dubious or inconsequential it was. By doing so, they had eventually managed to deduce quite a lot about them–but of course, all of that was merely equal to what was public knowledge to more impressive forces. They had no idea what the internal power structure of the Naxsir was, or what drove them to hunt for the greatest geniuses of all.
All that they knew for sure was that they could squash their own civilization like a bug whenever they wished. If they should ever gain an outstanding figure akin to that great talent of ages past again, then they would keep everything about them securely under lock and key, never to see the light of day. Until they realized their potential and could stand up against the Naxsir!
'... what great aspirations. Unfortunately, they vastly underestimate 'divine' beings. The divide between the Gate Traversal Stage and the Celestial Stage is completely different from all those before it. Even regular Supreme Pillar heirs would find it tough to bridge it. The Sybillans would have to somehow gain permanent access to a world that can allow cultivators to break through to the Celestial Stage, or create one like that themselves via long-term accumulation and relocation of Energy Veins.'
It wasn't that either of those methods was completely unfeasible, but even today, they simply didn't have the means to do so. They understood very little about Energy Veins, and had no power to stand against those above their own weight class. They hadn't managed to form close relations with a civilization that had Celestial Stage experts in their ranks either.
'I suppose I can help the Sybillans turn into a true powerhouse while I'm here. I'll teach them the ins and outs about Energy Veins–or at least as much as they need to understand. That should provide me with a lot of points.'
Outside of the Named Families, there were very few who had a good grasp on this topic, therefore letting his Students know about some of the basics should easily secure his entry into the third round. But of course, he wouldn't just stop at the bare minimum.
'For now, I'll have to begin laying down my defences against the coming Naxsir threat. Fortunately, I can simply adjust the Lesser Void Sealing Array that I utilized last round. While I'm at it, I'll also reinforce it–those at the Celestial Stage are no joke.'
Summarizing his findings in the Archives, he shared them all with his inner circle, then he started to busy himself with creating some more Compound Array Disks, as well as upgrading older ones. Before long, the Lesser True Void around Pytho experienced subtle changes.