Morning time at the Dixen Palace, The Alpha Queen's bedroom.
Xunia blinked her eyes slowly to realize she was on her bed instead of the floor she had crashed on earlier. She also noticed the fatigued expressions of her escorts, with the exception of Josephine, as they all stared down at her in worry. Their panic had died down but the worry still remained.
"What happened?" she asked, sitting up.
"Styllaph came to report an issue to you when she discovered you crashed on the floor in a pool of your own blood. She also discovered you had drained your soul power so she summoned the rest of us while Josephine stayed to protect Jason.
After verifying the source of your soul power drain, we restored it for you" Seriel explained and helped herself to a cup of tea provided by Maery. The others were also taking the tea calmly, staring and waiting for their leader's verdict.
"Honestly Xunie, it was so reckless of you to use the forbidden transfer condensation technique and face one of the Judges at the same time. You didn't even use Astara's new batch of elixirs. You made us all fear" Meary scolded, signs of the tears she had shed still visible in her eyes.
To be honest, all the escorts were shocked when they heard the news from Styllaph: their leader fainted in a pool of her own blood. It was impossible but they all rushed there to see Styllaph crouched beside a body, tears leaking from her face.
Their shock went to a whole new level. Josephine was extremely upset that she couldn't come to the aid of her dearest friend and had to pretend everything was alright in front of Jason.
They tried the forbidden technique Xunia had used earlier but after hours of trying, her situation still didn't change. They had already bathed and changed her clothes for her. They cleaned up her room and waited for night to come. The night approached and their hope was rekindled. So, they tried again.
It took half of their respective soul powers but they were able to succeed and stabilize her situation. And unlike Xunia, Astara's elixirs worked for them so their soul powers were restored quickly. They spent the night watching over her in case something happened again.
They got another shock as Meary knelt beside her sister's body and began to cry. Every one of them knew the omega queen was a sneaky fox and so, they didn't trust her.
Xunia smiled at her sister and ruffled her hair.
"Coming from the person who used that same technique to heal me. I'm sorry sister, I won't do it again. And as for Astara's elixirs, I did use them and was waiting for them to digest but Light showed up" She replied and all the escorts frowned. Many of them didn't have good impressions of that particular judge but they kept their mouth shut.
"Thank you all for taking care of me. You may go and rest. We would have a meeting about this later today"
"Yes your majesty" they bowed and left. Only when she verified they were far from her did she open her soul eyes which were pitch black and another Judge appeared.
"You healed me, didn't you?" She asked the figure in the dark, glaring heavily at her.
"Oh come on, you know I did. I couldn't let my goddaughter die like that. It would be a shame to my reputation as the sovereign of darkness" the figure replied, floating and settling beside Xunia on the bed.
"You were there when she came and she didn't see you, how?"
"Darkness is my forte, not hers. Besides, I'm older and smarter" the Judge Darkness replied, smiling proudly.
"Of course you are. What even made you think I was at Death's door? It was just a drain of soul power and nothing more" Xunia fired at her. The Judge's expression changed from playful to serious in an instant.
"Xunialesse, you know more than anyone it's more than that. You had more light energy than you should have in your body and it conflicted greatly with your soul system. Then my sister appeared, sucking it all out of you at once, out of goodwill which immediately caused a backlash on you and your soul power almost hit zero in an instant.
If I hadn't flooded your soul system with dark energy, you would've undoubtedly died and even your pillars of strength wouldn't have been able to heal you. You need to be more careful. Remember, you are a daughter of Darkness not Light" the Judge said gravely. It went without a saying that the Judge Darkness really liked her goddaughter enough to leave her realm and visit her to protect her from her sister, Light.
Xunia clasped the teacup she picked up in her hand tightly and nodded. She knew what she had done had angered the people that cared about her but she was willing to sacrifice even her life for Jason. Even if she couldn't do that because she had a greater destiny, she was still willing to give him her all.
"You love him, don't you?" the judge asked with a small smile. Xunia reciprocated with a smile of her own.
"I don't know really. I care a lot about him and he's a chosen one like me so I can't let him suffer. About the issue of loving him, I guess I do love him just a little" She knew she couldn't lie to her patron Judge so she told her everything.
"That boy is a really lucky fella, having you, my sister, and everyone else dote on him like this. Anyways, take care of yourself. I'll come and check on you soon" The judge said and disappeared. Xunia smiled again and said,
"He sure is"
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Somewhere else in the Dixen palace.
Josephine received the news of Xunia's recovery and smiled. When Jason arrived from the Alpha Queen's room, he met Josephine seated by his desk and browsing through his computer. The first thing she said to him was that his computer was trashy and they were going to get him a new one.
She then launched into a lecture about their technology as he did his normal evening routine. She even showed him the Palace's AI system named Zeze.
Josephine called on the interface and it answered, scaring him to oblivion because the voice the AI used sounded much like his own. Josephine naturally laughed at his reaction and teased him.
However, halfway through her lecture, Josephine froze. Jason kept calling her name and poking her but she didn't respond. He became extremely scared and tried to call on the other queens but none answered him.
He poked her again and she pounced on him yelling, "Got ya" and then laughed hard. He shrieked hard like a little girl.
Jason frowned at her and scolded her for almost giving him a heart attack while Josephine laughed at him. He glared at her and went to sleep, ignoring her laughter.
She stopped laughing and watched him till he fell asleep. After she verified he was fast asleep did she let her tears fall. Poor Jason, how was he supposed to know that his mate was on the brink of death.
A few hours later, she got the news that Xunia was alright and she sighed in relief. She mentally berated Xunia for making her worry but she smiled and relaxed. No matter what, she was a soldier and a queen. She was not meant to show weakness. She got into position and started to absorb metheron energy.
A few hours later after dawn, Jason awoke to see Josephine floating in the middle of his room in a lotus position.
"Morning Jason, did you sleep well?" she greeted, opening her eyes. He looked at her with a stressed expression like someone who had just witnessed a frightening moment.
"You had a nightmare?" she asked with a soft tone. He nodded solemnly. She transformed into her 12-year-old form and floated to his bed. She was extremely concerned so she mentally connected the rest of the escorts so they could see and hear everything happening in their mind.
"Can you tell me about it?" she asked in a childish voice which elicited a dry smile from Jason.
"How can I refuse when you're as cute as this?" she raised her eyebrow, smirking as her form flickered.
"Okay fine. I dreamt that Xunia was talking to a shadow and when they shadow left, she spat out blood and started bleeding from all her acupoints.
Then another shadow appeared and melded with her body. That's when it got blurry then I saw all the queens gathered around Xunia trying to heal her while the shadow that went inside her was constantly rotating. After that, I saw Xunia's consciousness come out her body and she noticed me and floated to me.
She smiled and said she was very tired. She said she wanted to go and rest with her godmother in the great abyss. She said I should take care of you girls for her and she'll be back very soon. That's when I realized she was going to die. So I held her two hands, shook her, and lectured her for God knows how long.
After my long lecture, I used all of my powers to toss her back into her body and that's when she woke up. She looked in my direction and smiled and that's when I woke up too. And when I woke up, I discovered my soul power and light powers have been drained. That's why I look so tired" He explained, drinking a cup of water.
The Queens, after being excused from their leader's office, received a mental prodding from Josephine so they all teleported to their room to concentrate and receive it. Little did they know that Jason would narrate what had happened to them earlier. It showed that he was truly a chosen one.
Josephine smiled and patted his head. She assured him it was just a dream and gave him a few elixirs. They quickly restored his soul power and light energy until the point of him shedding some wastes from his internal organs and acupoints. Josephine immediately chased him to the bathroom and called the servants to clean the room and air it.
After Jason finished freshening up and having breakfast, she told him he wasn't going to school or running because she was giving him some lessons. He settled into a lotus position as per her instructions in the direction of the sun.
"Jason, it's not a sun, we don't have suns. It's just a gigantic star capable of producing light energy" She said, shaking her head. He shrugged it off as he was accustomed to them reading his mind.
"Activate your soul power to absorb only light energy. The reason why your condensation was stunted for many years is because you didn't absorb the right energy. Only absorb the light energy and nothing else" She instructed and closed her eyes, leaving Jason to comply.
He activated his soul power and went into his soul dimension. He then activated his absorption point then filtered the energies coming in so it was only light energy coming in while the remaining were blocked. He activated his 9 other absorption points and followed the same method.
A few hours later, he broke into the Cosmos condensation level and proceeded to the mid-stages, skipping the early stage. An hour later, he was in the late stages. His soul dimension was brimming with energy. The once deserted dimension was now filled with millions of star images so that it looked like he was in space.
"Nice going Jason, you have reached the state which is called One with the stars. Only a few cosmos levels manage to attain this feat" Josephine commended, her voice resonating in his mind.
"Now that you've reached this state, I'll give you this technique called Light of the heavens. Thus the technique is exclusively for light energy Metheron absorbers. It has different stages corresponding to the condensation level of the user. At your stage, the light of the Cosmos, the 5th stage is the highest you can reach. The highest level is the 7th level which is the Celestial Level, which is the light of the heavens.
To use this technique, you have to start practicing it from the first stage until the 5th stage. The first stage is called The light of the Earth, Wordly light.
The second stage, The light of the sky, Sky storm.
The third stage, the light of space, Void light.
The fourth stage, the light of the stars, Star light.
The first step to activating this technique is to form the physical manifestation of your energy first in your soul dimension then outwards. It can be a bow, spear, rod, mace, sword, basically anything" She instructed, leaving him to make his choice. He decided and went with a spear.
He slowly formed the spear in his soul dimension bit by bit till he felt it was perfect. Then he started to train with the spear till he felt he knew the spear well before opening his eyes. He then discovered they weren't in his room but the training hall.
"Form your weapon" She commanded and he called forth his spear.
"A double-edged spear. Nice. Now, the principle of the first stage is that your weapon is supposed to resonate with the force of the Earth so that the light derived is more powerful.
So, for the next three hours, you're going to communicate with the light energies on the Earth and make them resonate with your weapon to produce the first stage. Good luck" She said and disappeared, leaving him seated on the floor of the training hall.
Soon, the scenery shifted and he was in a grassland.
'This place must be filled with more light energy so it's more suitable' He thought and started with his training.
He started by drilling a four-meter deep hole and got into a lotus position at the bottom. He got into his soul dimension and started sensing for light energy Metheron.
Unbeknownst to him, he was being watched by a group of women in a conference room. Amusement and excitement could be seen in the eyes of these women. They were the Alpha Queen and her escorts.
"He is a very smart one. He didn't start absorbing at the top but dug first to get a better feel of the Earth energy. Not many do this on their first trial. Xunia really has good eyes" Paerish, one of the escorts commented.
This escort had deep pink hair, three violet eyes with one eye in the middle of her forehead, fair skin, blade-like pointed ears, and wicked-looking talons that made a steady rhythm on the table.
"Pariesh is right, your mate is smart. He'll be able to use the light of the Cosmos in a week" Styllaph, the escort beside Lorema added. Styllaph had snowy white hair, blue crystalline like eyes, pointed tip ears with frost earrings at the top and below, white skin and a cold gaze.
Xunia just nodded and continued to stare at him. After a while, she took her eyes away and continued with their initial meeting.