"Why...how? This...is unbelievable." Locked on the ground by an irresistible force, Dilnaz stammered, unable to comprehend this turn of events. Even if Harun's fighting abilities and eyes transcended all conceptions, how could a Celestial Kin crush a Monarch's defenses? The mere thought made no sense. But reality often struck people hard, challenging their thoughts and beliefs. Though Harun still sat before his table, the "Get Lost" still rang in Dilnaz's mind, leaving her with two choices: leave, or remain at his mercy.
But as her heart pounded against her chest, Dilnaz felt fissures spread across her incomplete Internal Heaven. The lives and growing worshippers scattered within suffered unprecedented calamities, their faith vacillated, and powerless to stop the change, Dilnaz floundered. With his lips curved into a fiendish grin, Harun stood up, leisurely walking toward Dilnaz. The closer he was, the more intense the pressure of his purple eye and aura became. And feeling the Divine Authority in Harun's right eye, Dilnaz realized the problem.
"A Mandate...the Mandate of Fate." Dilnaz said and focused all her cultivation base to fight against her Internal Heaven's calamity. The end of the Divine Path, Mandates represented a sovereign authority over an aspect of reality. The Mandate of Fire, the Mandate of Joy, the Mandate of Ruin, the Mandate of Lust, as long as they could conceptualize it, peak-level Empyrean Monarchs could create Mandates out of anything.
However, the more profound the concept, the more challenging turning it into a Mandate became. Even something basic such as the Mandate of Fire required a 100% understanding of all fire laws and principles. However, while those principles existed in Heaven's Will's strands, Gods refined but didn't seek to understand them. Thus, once they reached the peak of the Empyrean Monarch Realm, they faced a blockade of their own ignorance—preventing them from becoming Dao Emperors. Even those that knew of this pitfall couldn't avoid it. Heaven gave them the right to refine its strands, but once they attempted to peer into its secrets, lethal tribulations awaited them.
There were only two exceptions: the 33 Heavens' Imperial Seal that chose its master and contained the Mandate of Heaven, and the Serpent Emperor's Sovereign Pupils that contained the Mandate of Fate. Harun laced his previous words in his Fate Mandate, and by challenging them, Dilnaz triggered a Defiance Tribulation that now threatened to ruin her Internal Heaven.
"But how can he already use it?" That Harun's purple double pupils contained the Mandate of Fate was common knowledge among hegemonic clans. However, no one believed that a Celestial Kin could wield the unfathomable power of fate. It'd already be impressive if he could play with his own luck. Alas, most of what they knew about Sovereign Pupils came from the Heaven Warding Emperor and their various ancestors sufferings under the Serpent Emperor's tyranny—the rest were assumptions.
How could Dilnaz imagine that even Harun didn't understand the situation? More accurately, he acted on instincts. He didn't have to think, didn't have to try. As long as he willed it, she had to obey. And if she didn't, Heavenly Punishment should erase her existence. In that moment, Harun felt as if the fate of all living things—by right existed in his palm and that, with a thought, he could command them all.
Reaching out, Harun summoned a purple bow and aimed it at Dilnaz. Pulling the bowstring, Harun condensed an arrow a few centimeters away from Dilnaz's face. Still struggling against the Defiance Tribulation wrecking her Internal Heaven and threatening to wipe out tens of thousands of years of hard work, Dilnaz shivered. The infinitely tall serpent shadow at Harun's back weighed on her soul, convincing her that the tiniest mistake would cost her her life.
"Damn it boss, snap out of it! If you fire this arrow, you will be the first to die!" The system caterwauled at the back of Harun's mind, but couldn't force him out of his trance. Facing the arrowhead, Dilnaz felt as if 10,000 flies latched on her body, draining her luck to the last bit. Images of her futures, countless variations of her fate, fluctuated in her mind, revealing diverse ways her life could end in. But above all else, the immediate threat of that arrow grasped her attention, and Dilnaz didn't doubt that once it struck, she died.
But as Harun's fingers stood on the verge of releasing the bolt, the golden cicada in his heart unleashed waves of golden light—erasing the serpent shadow at his back. Instantly, Harun regained his wits, and as if his consciousness clashed with the eye's power, the bow and arrow vanished.
Strangely, Harun didn't feel confused. His mind fully grasped all that happened till now, as if a defense mechanism temporarily trapped his consciousness in the golden cicada, yet left him able to watch the events. The change didn't escape Dilnaz, and sensing the shrinking weight of her internal calamity, she turned into blue smoke and fled back to the Divine Palace.
"By all the lords of the underworld, this was close, fucking close. What do you think you are? The Primordial Dao Emperor? With your tiny body and negligible cultivation base, how could you aim you summon the power of your Mandate and aim it at a Monarch? Another step and your soul in the Extreme Yin Prison would have burned to nothingness!" The system snapped at Harun, but strangely, he could feel a trace of genuine concern in its voice.
…
The farther she stood from Harun, the more manageable Dilnaz's defiance tribulation felt, and by the time she reached her Empress Palace, the previous hopelessness had vanished from Dilnaz's heart. At the same time, she no longer remembered the futures she saw in the arrow. Still, she didn't dare delay and locked herself in secluded cultivation. Much damage had been done already. Even if she successfully crossed this tribulation, Dilnaz knew that without centuries of work, she couldn't regain all she lost to Harun's two-word command.
Never in her life did she feel so humiliated. Even that day when her father and elders used foul tricks to force her into marrying Agiri...couldn't compare.
"Since you made that offer, every second I glanced at you made my eyes burn. So please do me a favor: get lost and stop sickening me.
Words cannot begin to describe how sorry I feel for Jiyan."
Harun's words and deeds replayed in Dilnaz's mind, and chaotic emotions clogged her heart.
"Who are you to judge me? Who are you to insult me? All men are worthless, and after I prove that you're no better...Harun Erdewan, I will kill you!" Dilnaz pledged.