Chapter 15: A Friendly Reunion
(Present time)
After successfully tricking Li Fen into giving him his body, the Grim Reaper had finally come back to life.
But this time, he had the strongest Dao with him — the Wild Dao.
He stood on the stage, fascinated by the immense power coursing through his veins. His eyes were void; he had no intent coming from him, and this feeling was nowhere near what all the twelve supreme laws could offer.
Up at the first city rings, after seeing the disaster about to unfold, she smirked. "I'm sure they can handle a mere human who was going berserk with all twelve laws," she said to herself.
With a slight wave of her hand, her statue, which was on the tournament, appeared before her. With another, it disappeared, appearing in a wasteland.
Devoid of any living being. The seasons there were fast — spring, summer, then autumn followed by winter.
Any being that hasn't mastered the full Law of Time would probably go through their life span in seconds.
The statue of Saerah, made from celestial wood, was more durable than the finest metal. It's the same material used in the making of the armor for Veythr Kealthron. It stood in front of a dog-head skull. The skull was chipping little by little; only with a microscopic eye would one be able to see as time eats away the skull from existence.
The floating statue moved inside the cave, a few miles, then stopped. Turns out the mystery of the cave this time was spatial displacement.
This was clearly the Law of Mystery at its peak.
Saerah was not surprised. She simply smirked. "Seems like I won't be needing your help this time, Chronos," Saerah said to herself. She had been visiting this cave for eons, and due to the Laws of Mystery, different laws have guarded this cave — sometimes Time just happens to be one of them. And Saerah hasn't mastered the Law of Time, so she usually needs Chronos, the Apostle of Time, to help get her consciousness out of the statue.
She activated her spatial law, carving a path for herself, and came out through to the other side of the cave. There she met her old friend Orexane.
"Hi there, Eternal Prisoner," Saerah said, mocking him for his position.
"You came. That means he has again awakened the Great Dao. I don't think the word 'Eternal' should be used to describe my state," Orexane stated. His half-green, half-dark eyes, now filled with hope, rose and looked at the statue of Saerah in the face.
"Too bad his coming will be short. The Celestial God and Seeker Elder are currently putting him at bay, and his path will be blocked, putting an end to this hell loop," Saerah retorted, her faceless head creeping closer to Orexane.
"A loop?" Orexane asked rhetorically. "You are a goddess because someone is up there playing chess. Your whole life is a game in someone else's hands. How do you stand up to the beings that worship you, knowing fully well that you and their lives are being controlled by an entity such as yourself, and if bored, could replace you with a mere creature from the wild?" Orexane made his point, letting silence have their own conversation.
For some couple of minutes, Saerah couldn't utter a word. Her main body was lost; she had just been reminded how far away she was from power.
"How dare you lecture me, human," she asked, her aura running wild. Her ego had been struck. Orexane, feeling satisfied, let out a slight smile.
"Well, I'm not the one stuck in an endless simulation of defeat just to stay alive. You are pathetic. I wasted my powers on nothing. You are a pathetic loser living in the worst possible way of life. It's not immortality, it's torture," Saerah said, feeling much better.
She had just given him the perfect comeback. She was not the shy, timid girl Orexane once knew; she had grown out of her shell.
"I want to believe it's the feeling of being a puppet that made you need one to move around, or maybe you are still the shy Kealthron living in the shadow of her junior brother, but I just can't shake the feeling that it's both," Orexane said, putting a graceful smile on his face.
The silence that followed after this comeback didn't last long before Orexane broke it.
"The Fate Master used Chronos and your brother to trap me not because he wanted to punish me — he could have simply killed me — but chose to trap me. Why?" Orexane asked Saerah, looking at her with his green and black eyes for an answer.
"Clearly because you were not worth his time, and it would be fun to torture one so the rest would learn," Saerah said, her aura now releasing faint signs of anger.
"Wrong, wrong, wrong," Orexane replied, still keeping his bright smile.
"First, if the humans knew their monarch was alive, the tables would turn, and the humans would be the ones invading the wild. Second, what do you do to the powerful ones when they disobey the law?" Orexane asked, keeping his calm demeanor.
"You lock them up because you can't kill them, because you are scared — scared of the trouble they will cause. Now, Saerah, let me ask again — why was I trapped?" Orexane asked while answering the question he had asked earlier.
Saerah, clearly disgusted, her anger overwhelmed the cave. She released a 360-degree gravitational pull downward on Orexane, pinning him to the ground.
"Let me warn you again, human," Saerah said, moving towards Orexane. She held his green hair, raising his head to her face.
Looking at his green bearded face, she gave him a stern warning.
"If you ever act like you know me or feel like you are in any way superior to me, I will rip you into shreds with all the laws I possess," Saerah said, increasing the gravitational pull, wanting to hear him plead.
But the opposite happened. Orexane stood up from the gravitational pull as if he was just waking up from a nap, and with a gentle nudge, pushed Saerah's feet across the cave. He stretched his bones and walked out of the gravitational pull.
Saerah, clearly displeased, sent tons of spatial cleaves towards Orexane, but that too was futile as they just bounced off his burly figure and didn't even leave a scratch.
Those that missed left the dog skull in ruins.
"You know, I really appreciate the fact that you come here to play with me from time to time," Orexane said.
Before Saerah could respond, Orexane vanished from his original position, then appeared right in front of Saerah, landing a blow that sent the statue flying. Fast-forwarding time again, he left multiple outstanding blows that caused a ripple effect on the skull floor.
Saerah activated her Creation Law, and spikes came flying towards Orexane, but as expected, nothing happened.
Chains from the Law of Prohibition and Punishment also came wrapping around Orexane, striking him deep into the skull wall.
But then — snap — the chains broke, and Orexane came landing heroically.
"You have gotten weaker compared to the Second Heavenly War," Orexane said mockingly.
"I will say I'm impressed," Saerah said. She was impressed by what a terrifying being this boy had grown to be — defying laws with sheer power.
"Oh, come on. I spent eternity fighting a war that's already over, repeatedly, and you expect me not to improve?" Orexane said. His smile vanished. All psychic connections were useless in this cave because all your thoughts would be audible here — it was the most honest place to be.
Saerah had just received a call from the Gyreen, requesting her help back at the Capital, so she was leaving.
She turned her back and moved towards the exit.
"Thanks," Orexane said from behind her.
She stopped for a brief moment before leaving.
The space that was once boney now transformed into a battlefield.