Transcendent.
Just like the name, they're people who have transcended their humanity. They are some eccentric people who have bigger ambitions than what the people of this world could possibly think of.
Even a Monarch, who's a powerhouse in an Empire wouldn't dare to stare directly at a transcendent.
They're beings that one shouldn't dare to peek at, beings who have true names that shouldn't be uttered, people who can dictate the way of the worlds.
Gods, that's what they are to others.
The difference between a Monarch and a Transcendent is far larger than the difference between a Star (aka) Elite and a Monarch, which indicates why they're revered as gods.
That said. How difficult it is for one to become a person such as that. In the entirety of the human domain, there are times when a single Transcendent wouldn't be born in a span of hundreds of years. That will confess about the difficulty of ascension to a Transcendent.
As for why they're so fixated on increasing the number of Transcendents among humans, even though they do not directly participate in the war between races, or deploy these kinds of rules and competitions for a potential candidate, which would expose them to the world and make them a target. Nobody knows clearly. People, even Monarchs, seems to lack the rights or necessary data to learn about them.
But, there are quite a few hypotheses that go around regarding this. For example,
Thesis 1: For fun! As stupendous as it may sound, it was actually an argument. That, those eccentric Transcendents just do it for their fun because they want to see something interesting happening once in a while.
Even on our Earth, how many kings or emperors have we seen who announced competition or created laws for their own ideology and pleasure? It's the case even in a world like earth where individual people have no power on their own.
Then think about this world, think about what people would think and would do, if they had the power to destroy a planet on their whims. That's the core logic of this thesis.
But, it's not considered as a serious thesis among experts. Only people from the cults who revere the world as the sole god, tend to believe this entirely. Others only use this as a form of gossip and banter.
Thesis 2: They just don't care. As mentioned earlier, every Transcendent candidate is supposed to be unrivaled in their generation and this competition is actually a privilege that is only given to the descendants of a paragon grade family.
Although it makes them a target of other races, cults and organizations that are against the Human Federation, it without a doubt also gets them people who would support them within the human domain, either because of their familial or personal ties or just to simply curry favor over the possibility of them becoming a candidate.
After all, all families are monitored by the Human Federation. They wouldn't want to offend the federation or a potential Transcendent candidate by creating bad blood with them, just because of their family history or wars.
Heavy competition between families is common, but unless a very serious taboo is committed, it won't turn into a war. So it's like the Transcendents saying to them,
'We made them a candidate, do whatever you want. Fight them? Disrespect them? Plot against them? Put them down? We couldn't care less. Do all you can, push them to their limits. As far as it doesn't touch the taboo, you're free to do whatever. After all, could you possibly defy us under our watch?'
(There are a lot of taboos among awakeners. Here the taboo represents someone who is more than one realm higher than the other party trying to fight them.)
Thus, the candidate's life is actually quite 'safe' until they grow up, except for having a high mental pressure to get stronger and the possible consequences of failure, which is exactly what they wanted to provide the candidates along with that opportunity, that is fighting against the best of the best in their generation at free of cost with no holding back and getting all the resources they could from their family.
These two are the most common theses that are said about this law of choosing a head.
....
Inside the barrier, Clara, who was facing the full front of Taylor's oppressive aura, didn't even seem to flinch. Moreover, her face formed a slight smile.
"Sigh... You're still the same even after all these years. Becoming enraged when it comes to family. Well, why should I even say that when that's the reason I decided to marry you!"
She said while leaning forward with both her hands placed on the table supporting her cheeks, she had a nostalgic expression on her face.
Taylor's face didn't appear to change, even a bit. But inwardly he was cursing her for flirting with him in between this serious discussion, in this kind of situation of all times.
"Sigh... I get your point. But, do you really think I would harm our grandson voluntarily? It is indeed the decision of the head. I can't share all the details, but believe me in this one, Tail, if what the head said was true. Then, it's the best course of action to take."
"Even so, why now of all time? Clara, he's just 5 years old now. We could've waited till he became a Star or an Elite to announce it publicly, like the others normally do."
Yes, this is not an uncommon occurrence. In fact, it happens at least once in a century, at most being, three at a time, which only happened once, which was over 3000 years back, when this law was first initialized. Even at present, a few years back, a candidate was announced in the Qi empire.
So, the announcement of a possible candidate alone wouldn't leave them shell shocked. They're all envoys from a strong background, even if they have not witnessed it personally, they would have at least heard about this. So, what left them flabbergasted was rather the age of Jayce when the announcement was made.
'A 5-year-old is identified as a potential Transcendent candidate? What a joke!' Is what, that was ringing on everyone's mind in that hall.
Normally, a candidate announcement will be publicly made like how Taylor described. In fact, even the person involved will only know about this after their breakthrough to the Star or Elite realm. That was also why the first competition was held in the expert realm.
No one knows how these candidates are decided by the Transcendents or what parameters they use to measure their talent. Since talents are quite relative in this world.
But, this is the first occurrence of someone as young as Jayce being made to be a candidate, even throughout history.
"No. As I said, it's the best way for him if we are going to announce him as a candidate anyway. That child is special so don't worry about him breaking down because of pressure."
Taylor became silent. He knows whatever he does will not change what happened, nor can he go ask the head to change his decision or provide him with an explanation.
He silently contemplated her words, trying to analyze the hidden meaning. Especially the word 'special'.
'I have long since known that he was special. After all, his soul, even as he was just a newborn, was as powerful as an average adult.'
Everyone in the family except for Jayce's aunt and Joey know about this matter. They took their turns checking his soul only to find nothing odd except for its abnormal purity and strength.
But, he doesn't know whether that alone is enough to call him special to the degree of marking him as a potential candidate.
'I also know that he is smart, too smart in fact for his age. Although he tried to hide it, much to my shock.'
If Jayce were to hear his grandfather's thoughts, he might have his heart broken at the revelation that his acting he thought so highly of all along had fooled no one but his naive aunt and foodie cousin.
Well, we can't really blame him, forget about the Monarch. Even a Star aka Elite realm expert could see through a normal human's facade.
'Maybe, there is a bigger conspiracy behind all this, something so big that she doesn't even dare to say it out loud, not even to me.'
He sighed.
But this time. He couldn't be more wrong.
----
A.N:
Hello!
Hope you all liked the chapter. If there are any issues, leave them in the comment box.
By the way, the name of the world Jayce living in is also called earth, the same name for Edward's planet too. So, I will keep the word earth reserved for Edward's planet and address the current world as I did in this chapter.
If you have liked the series so far, add it to your collection or if you find this good, just leave behind a review.
Thank you!