Orion was just coming out of his formation, not using the battleship's device to access the Void Heaven Reality as that would make him unable to use the full extents of his soul peculiarities. He saw Fidele and the two kittens watching a recording of the battle he finished, seemingly just getting towards the end.
It seems that there is some deviation ongoing as only inbound streamers could watch as it happens, while the rest have to make do with the deviated recording. This might seem like a technical issue but something tells Orion that the technicalities should have evolved to the stage where galaxies could watch at the same time, not just a few people.
This is probably to make the rarity of the booking and earn some resources with every event like this.
Soon, the recording finished as Fidele turned to look at Orion, with her eyes reflecting many symbols, seemingly trying to calculate his person.
"I see, you have been making progress in the mental exercise you were given." Orion, not looking at her replied to her stare.
Fidele herself just replied with a nod.
"Ask!" Orion said resignedly.
"Great! How strong are you?" Fidele's face immediately lit up as she asks the question burning her the most.
"If you're referring to my cultivation level then I'm just a peak mortal." Orion said idly, "As for ability, I'd estimate I'm in the later ranges of the first immortal class."
"How do these cultivation classes or realms work?" She asked immediately.
"You could have checked that on the infiplex." He shot back.
"I wanted to hear your opinion on it."
"The mortal realm which starts from the first refinement of the body to the Heaven-Earth-Man Class then comes to the saint realm which is just required to provide easier transition from the mortal to immortal realm." Orion paused here, "Based on my calculations, beings in the ancient times just underwent however many tribulations their talent requires at a go."
"One who could only be a third tribulation saint would undergo a three-in-nine tribulation, with nine-for-nine tribulation being the highest and extermination tribulation being the peak."
"This tradition seems to have been forgotten and people have made the tribulation process a whole class of its own in-between mortality and immortality."
"The immortality class has nine classes, again based on what I'd calculated, with each class being split into nine levels."
"Celestials come after immortals and the realm is also split into nine with each class requiring a nirvana to advance. Those are not talks for now, just for you to know it." Orion concluded his speech with a sip from the cup Fidele had passed him during the process.
Orion rose from his position moving to an adjacent room, motioning for Fidele to follow as the two kittens just lay on the sitter looking bored.
"What are You?" Fidele, who was following behind him thought for a while before asking the question, "I have seen recordings of Roc fights during my short stay here and I know, you are different from them."
"How do I say this? It's like even you don't know your depths, especially in that battle. You were searching for your limits."
"Did you find it?" Fidele concluded while looking at the back of Orion who was pressing his hands on a transparent chamber containing a very large heart.
"That was two questions, making four you asked me. You have one left." Orion did not turn around still looking at the heart in the chamber.
"I..." Orion paused, lifting his face, for a moment Fidele could swear she saw a smidgen of confusion before it lit up, "I do not have a soul core like everyone else. It should be impossible but I killed my soul core, he is not dead of course."
"While it might seem harsh, it was the path I chose, a path unique to only me, a path no one had tread, a path no one might take." Orion was glowing with pride by this point as if he was narrating his most impressive achievement while Fidele was wallowing in confusion.
"This gave me something I termed a void soul. This soul physique has unlimited growth, infinite comprehension, and infinite authority. A soul core is required to tether a living being to their body, It is duplicated during core formation and infused in the Nascent soul."
"This is what defines a living being. A soul core."
"Not having it meant it was impossible to be 'alive', impossible to cultivate, so I created my cultivation path."
"I created an authoritarian physique cultivation technique, the only thing that can house my soul."
"This means I cannot use Qi, mana, chaos or any other form of energy to cultivate. I can manipulate laws and energy by my physique." Orion lifted his shirt showing the tattoos on his body which looked to be constantly changing.
"The authority I had was infinitely small when I began creating this body, which is why I was born a mortal."
"About my depth? I've never found it."
Fidele was confused, she had never heard of half the information Orion dropped. Stilling for a very long moment, she asked "What is an authority?"
"Mortal realm cultivators learn about concepts of the world, like fire concept, space concept, water concept, sword intent..."
"These concepts would be evolved into laws which they would cultivate until those laws become Dao, Path etc... different names but the same meaning. Paths are usually unique to individuals."
"Above that is the Divine Dao, this is the pinnacle in the six paths. These are usually the fundamental truths from which other Daos or laws are formed in a universe. They are few in the Universe and only a few people can control one."
"Those who control these Divine Daos were called the ancestors like the Dragon Ancestor who controls the Truth of Power and Chaos, Roc Ancestor controls the Truth of Space, Six-eyed Ancestor controls the Truth of Fate... "
"If any of these should die, their Truths would disappear with them for aeons before reforming and allowing another person to take control of them... Only one person can possess a Truth in that said universe."
"The Race Ranking is as a result of the Race's ancestor possessing a Truth."
"Authority is above that, this is something only those who had exceeds their universe can possess. Even in true infinity, someone like me would be rare." Orion was glowing with pride right now, while Fidele's eyes seem to clear out a bit of confusion.
"Why are you telling me this?" She asked, she should be his enemy in a normal scenario, why was he being kind?
"Five questions are up. You have to redeem favours for questions or study the formulas I gave you and find answers yourself." Orion said as he left behind the large heart still beating and Fidele in the room.
*Isn't he scared of my betrayal?* Fidele thought, looking confused.
"Don't think too much, even if this universe freezes over, I might not die. Dammit, I answered another question, play me music now!!" Orion's annoyed voice came from outside as Fidele quickly followed behind grumbling, "Do not calculate my thoughts!!"
...
...
On Gari's ship, Mercian and Budderon moved forward not minding the gazes of the workers on the ship who were leaving Gari's control room. They moved calmly until they got to the flight deck of the battleship, by this point, all workers and subordinates of Gari were absent leaving only the old man in the chamber.
"You've gotten something for me?" The Old man said as he was looking at the void and the solar system in fascination. Void-men had been fascinated by the void believing themselves to be the true children of the void despite their average ability at manipulating the elements amongst the top thousand races in the six paths.
"I think Thanen is part of a secret organization," Mercian claimed with certainty, which prompted a laugh from the old man sitting on the Captain's seat.
"Do not try to amuse me and tell me something I do not know," Gari said, from what he could see about the way she'd gone about the matter, it was clear she must have had help from someone else, someone their branch had no information of... YET.
"I think we might have found one of their rookie technique." Mercian didn't take offence at the older man's mockery as she just beckoned at Budderon who showed up with a recording, a recording extremely famous in the system. The recording exposed the colours of the Azure Mountain Saint.
The three of them gazed at the recording as they could not help but admire the man named Barry Thompson, He made the documentary well detailed and connected all the details about Vospan's life in order of intensity.
One thing that stood out to the three of them, was the volatility of Vospan's emotions, all the crimes he committed seem to have been done under the influence of this mental instability.
"Where is this young man?" Gari asked implying Barry, Vospan had died in the worst possible way for a living being.
"He's dead, to the best of our measurement." Budderon was the one to reply to the question, "Closest second would have him in the ship with the Roc."
"Hmm... That little brat!" Gari spat but his eyes tell another story.
"This is the recording of Thanen and the readings we gathered during the interrogation." Mercian continued from where they stopped.
Gari watched the recording and digested the data gathered before opening his eyes, "I see where you're going. They are using the same technique."
"Seven Manifestations of Saints and Demons!!!" All three said at the same time, Gari furrowed his brow, "While this technique is rare for some, it is quite common given the scope of our branch."
"It fits the condition of the dead brat but Thanen's version seemed to be an improved one."
Indeed, while the technique had caused most to suffer mental demons and die, some of the more exceptional ones had used the technique to manifest a high-grade saint soul capable of reaching six tribulations. It would have been coveted, if not for its risk. After all, who would dare cultivate the technique of Heart Devil Sovereign in vanity?
Another shortcoming was that the technique was for those in the mortal levels to cultivate.
"Thanen had 14 clones, all were mortals." Gari said as he started writing talisman scripts mid-air, Mercian and Budderon watched the elder try to calculate the possibility, "Each one must be an aspect of the technique, the last survivor should be /Desperation/ but she is incomplete, she would most likely dissipate in about...." His talisman was already evolving into a formation by now, dazzling Mercian and Budderon.
This is one of the needed skills of an investigator, the ability to calculate universal probabilities. This is what makes them extremely valuable even in an Organization like the VHT.
"...two thousand mortal years?" Gari was completely focused on the formation forming when a mysterious aura suddenly appeared and interfered with the formation.
"WATCH OUT!!!" Gari was quick to respond as he formed a barrier enveloping his probability formation, the formation implodes generating a mysterious wave spreading out only to be caught by the barrier.
GROAN COUGH
Though the wave was stopped, Gari was still injured and even he couldn't block the message in the attack.
*HMPH... Do not calculate your death.*
This message invaded their thoughts with a burning intent.
Another reason why investigators are so rare is that they die young. The reason those capable of calculating universal probabilities die is that celestials are capable of detecting this form of probing and interfering in the case of weaker beings. This highlights the carelessness of Gari, thinking this should be a small localized case to their branch, never entertaining the possibility of a celestial being involved.
His carelessness had endangered both Mercian and Budderon who both were pale, suffering from the intrusion of their mental space by a domineering intent, the celestial could have killed them all but it seems the celestial was lenient enough to warn them.
Budderon even scalp split, dripping blood.
Still, they came to the aid of the elder coughing blood on his knees.
WHEEZE! WHEEEEZE!!
Taking deep breaths, Gari turned to his juniors, "Our branch cannot handle this."
"Freeze Thanen, Freeze your investigations... Cough Cough... We are moving to our parent branch."