47Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡkwbkjN2au9"What? What do you mean you'll cease to exist?" I exclaimed.
"To be more accurate, it means I will not be here to converse with you as we are now," Viraa stated.
"Hm. Not having Viraa's sage wisdom will be difficult for someone so young," Avarice mused.
"You won't be there for me anymore...? No...," I said, disheartened. As much as I hated to admit it, Avarice was right. I was too young to do this without her. I'd grown accustomed and reliant on Viraa's advice.
"You knew...," I realized as our latest moments played through my head. "You knew this was going to happen. You've been less talkative lately. Was that so that I wouldn't miss you? You tried to distance yourself?"
"No child," Viraa let out a small parental laugh. "You are correct. I knew that this time would arrive. But my diminished intervention was not to distance myself from you, but to properly prepare for what is to come — my final motherly act for each of my children. Soon, you will understand. For now, could you summon Michael?"
I did as she asked. When Michael arrived and manifested in the mental space, he seemed a little tired from healing so many civilians and injured klevonians.
He was already disappointed that he wasn't able to fully heal anyone due to his low energy reserves. He could only somewhat heal the worst wounds before moving on to the next, but it was better than nothing.
We only made things worse when we told him that Viraa may be disappearing soon. He'd always had a soft appreciation for her as their creator.
"We have less than an hour before Alissia's heart gives out," Tymon stated grimly, trying to push past the glum moment. "Viraa, you have a plan, right?"
"Yes. Each of you needs to travel to the Royal Palace. We will need Raina," she insisted.
Once they were all gone, Viraa informed me that they were traveling with my body. I found myself wishing I had Trik's memory nodes to clutch for comfort.
Once we arrived, Viraa warned me that she was about to wake me from my coma and to prepare for the pain. When I came to, I was instantly hit with a constant rush of unbearable pain in my stomach. I could somehow feel the point where my organs were missing as the parts that were there tried to operate with them. I instinctively went into my restricted state to limit my organs' functions as much as possible. It didn't take the pain away, but it dulled it enough for me to hang on to my consciousness.
"What's the meaning of this?" Raina demanded, entering the judgment hall to see the commotion. Only she and Meira were there, thankfully.
"That wound..." Meira stated.
I need you to perform the cleansing procedure on Alissa, Viraa telepathically said to Raina.
"What?" I said.
Raina's Displacement cintracy allows her to manipulate and relocate matter within her field of vision. According to our history, it was used long ago to 'cleanse' the zasshu of their non-cindarian halves, Viraa stated.
"Their noncindarian halves? As in cross-species?" Michael asked.
"Yes, shortly after mix-breeding was forbidden," Avarice added. "I read that back then, the first few generations of klevonians still possessed a few potent pneumarian genes before they were diluted and later became mostly dormant with later klevonian generations. Unlike klevonians today, they were able to procreate with other species like a pneumarian can. We learned this earlier while you were...delegated somewhere else."
"That's why even though they were klevonian, the second Ryfa Pakt's klevonian parent was able to mate with someone who was a different species – a vakumite," Tymon stated.
"Oh, yeah," I winced. "And how Cinder's dad got together with a tesseran."
"That also explains why the bansedai showed no concern for klevonians when they wrote the Law of Preservation," Tymon said.
"How did this 'cleansing procedure' rid them of their other half?" Michael inquired, absorbing the information.
Since pneumarians refused to grant their marks on zasshu, half-breed klevonians were attempted to be cleansed of their non-cindarian DNA before receiving an ascension mark, using the power Raina now possesses. This act was later forbidden due to most not surviving the process, which fueled multiple conflicts between the Klevonian Army and Pneumarian Forces, Viraa explained.
"This sounds risky and dangerous..." Michael said with concern.
It is. What we are about to attempt is very similar, but we have no other options. In this stance, however, instead of eradicating any of her DNA, Raina will be trying to essentially swap them around and slightly alter them. If Lisa's body survives this, she will be akin to a zasshu. My ascension marks will disappear from each of you, but Alissia will be able to give you a new mark. However, this mark will be different from an ascension mark. It will be superior – a zenith mark.
"You want me to change her into a zasshu?!" Raina blurted out. "Why in the All-Father's name would I do that? I have no intentions of abdicating the throne."
"I give you my blood oath that I will not take the title of Ryfi Theos from you," I stated through gritted teeth. "I'm not interested in your position. I'm not interested in leading a nation. Truth be told, I dread my position as Crest Head. I only want to survive and have the strength to protect those I care for from those who wish to do us harm. I know you heard about what happened in Forgeton..."
"Hm. I did," Raina admitted. "Not long before you all arrived, I received the news. I was preparing to summon my Commanders to discuss the matter. Care to shed some light on what really happened there?"
"Many people died," I stated seriously. "I was nearly one of them as well, and it was Aeric who caused it."
"The global news reported Aeric's involvement, and seeing your wound, it'd be hard to deny it. But given the parameters of his blood oath, if he attacked, then the Klevonian Army must've provoked him first."
I clenched my jaw in frustration. Raina didn't know everything we did, but I chose to withhold the information for their protection.
Raina, I need you to do this and trust that there is a valid reason for what is occurring around the world — one you will know soon enough. She has given you her blood oath. She does not want your crown. But should Aeric come here, can you confidently say your forces would be able to stop him? Viraa said reasonably.
After hearing Viraa's words and giving them some thought, she silently nodded for us to continue.
"Zenith marks...what's that?" Za'Fia asked next. "Viraa made it seem like only a zasshu could give one. Then that's what Fuse and Felix had, right? It made them strong enough to face any of the Titan Generals."
"I saw one on Fulvia. They're similar yet different from ascension marks," Tymon remarked.
"So, someone else found out," Raina stated.
"She told me," Tymon corrected her.
"Really?" Raina asked, intrigued. "She hasn't even told her Generals."
"Yet you know...," he retorted.
"I like to keep up with my enemies – pinpoint their weaknesses. Not too long ago, I discovered her secret, but I saw what kind of leader she was. She was different from the Ryfa Pakt of the past. So, I gave her my blood oath not to reveal her secret unless she became a threat to my people, at which point I'd be forced to reveal it to cause distrust among her people."
"How exactly are they different?" Avarice insisted.
"Perhaps we should move things along. Your friend doesn't seem to have long," Meira stated reasonably, cutting the conversation. She opened a small yellow-white rift in the air. "Please, step inside. We won't be detected inside."
Meira expanded the rift so that it encompassed the whole room.
Then Raina stepped towards me as Michael placed me on an elevated flat surface that Raina formed from a piece of the floor.
"Before we begin, I must admit that I've never used my power at such a microscopic level before," Raina said candidly. "I've only ever used it to swap the placement of things or change the shape of inorganic matter. I don't know how to use it the way the previous user could, so this favor is extremely risky."
"But if it works, I should be able to stop Aeric, right?" I struggled to get out.
"I wouldn't go that far, but as Viraa stated, you would emerge something akin to a zasshu," Raina answered.
"Not like I have a better alternative. Then it's worth the risk."
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