In the following days, I engross myself in learning formations from Ling Sheng'er. Dusk also joined in the lesson as she wanted to include those techniques in her paintings.
Shen Meng and Soaring Feather shared some of their insights on Cultivation during this time, allowing the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion to better their Cultivation techniques. Both sides were able to gain something from this exchange.
Today, there will be a meeting between overloads of Nine Galaxies that Seven Realms Sacred Mansion organized for us, as Shen Meng wanted to establish permanent relations for the future. As the time of the gathering was approaching, I finished my learning and was about to meet with the rest of our group, but Ling Sheng'er stopped me.
-"Sheng'er, I must say, from a shy girl who couldn't even speak a full sentence, you've grown quite fearless to shamelessly plead with me."
-"Because I know that you won't refuse if I ask nicely."
-"Sigh, you are aware that you are probably the most important person in the younger generation of the Seven Realms Sacred Mansion."
-"So what?! I'm a free person!"
-"I'll suggest you follow us to the Sect to cultivate for some time, but the decision will be left in the hands of your Mansion Master."
-"Thank you!"
-"Go and prepare what you want. Knowing you, you already have something that will 'convince' your Mansion Master."
-"I don't believe in luck, after all."
Shaking my head, I walked behind the running Ling Sheng'er. Dusk stood a little further away, drawing some sketches in her notebook. She followed me without raising her head.
Minutes later, we entered the main hall, where the rest of our group was waiting. A little further away, Ling Sheng'er was talking with the Mansion Master. Her enthusiastic look was a great contrast to his exhausted expression.
-"What did you feed this girl? She was so afraid of you before, and now she is your little fangirl."
-"I did nothing, Nian."
-"Hmm..."
-"Yue, did you learn everything you wanted?"
-"Yes, formation techniques here are truly fascinating. My avatar in Hold already tries to alter them for usage with our runes."
-"You never cease to amaze me when it comes to modifying techniques. By the way, thank you once again for upgrading my own techniques."
-"No problem, once again."
-"Will you take part in the talks?"
-"No. If I were to take part in it, I would automatically represent Hold."
-"Right, forgot about that."
-"I'll act as guardian to the disciples during their part."
-"OK."
-"Good luck, then."
-"You too."
I left the main hall with my Guards, and we walked to where the disciples were gathering. Blue Lotus, Lin Xiaoge, Frost Cloud, and Frost Moon were talking with the younger generation of local forces. We joined them, but only after I turned into Fox and jumped onto Jingliu's shoulder, as I hoped to avoid attention.
At the same time, in Hold, I was absorbed in modifying the formation techniques when Fu Xuan came to my workshop.
-"Yue, are you busy?"
-"Nothing that I can't do later. How can I help you?"
-"I encountered a trouble that requires your presence."
-"Hmm? Can you explain?"
-"I was helping Roman with his work on singularities in Nobu's world when we finally were able to locate Goetia."
-"He was trying his best to hide. Did you send Gudako to his location?"
-"Yes, she is already engaged in combat."
-"Then why do you need me?"
-"Because we found that there is a third force there."
-"Third force? Somone from Mages Association?"
-"No, for whatever reason, Knights of Round Table under the lead of King Arthur are fighting against Goetia."
-"Let's go to the World Compass. I have to see it myself."
I teleported us to where Roman was communicating with Gudako. On the screens, fights between Demon Gods and Hold and King Arthur's Forces. My arrival was noticed by Roman, but I raised my hand to stop him from interrupting his job.
I took a record of what had happened to get up to speed while watching the situation happening there. Thanks to training in Hold, Gudako and her team were able to fight with their opponents while still having some leeway.
King Arthur's forces were much larger, having thousands of knights there, but their joint strength was not much better than what we had. For the time being, they kept their distance from us, not interacting with us in any way.
-"Can we confirm if they are another enemy?"
-"We tried, but we were ignored. For now, we are in the enemy of my enemy situation."
-"OK. Let them be and focus on finishing Goetia."
-"Will you go there?"
-"If the need arises, but my avatar is still busy, so I hope that nothing sudden will happen."
I finished reading all the data we gathered and then turned to Fu Xuan.
-"Let's go and try to Divinate some things about that King Arthur. We will need more info to decide what to do next."
-"I agree."
Two of us went to the Omniscia, and we started doing readings on the knights that appeared there. This proved time-consuming as King Arthur was able to somewhat shield himself from Divination, making our job much harder.
We persisted in our efforts, being able to get a look into what had happened around an hour later. Returning to Roman with the new information, we came at the perfect moment when King Arthur, Gudako, and Goetia were having a standoff.
-"You are back."
-"Yes. Read this. It may be important later."
-"Goddess Rhongomyniad? Holy Lance... This got much more complicated."
-"Try not to engage her. While her appearance is linked with my killing of Alaya, she is still a neutral force for now."
-"I also don't want to fight her. She holds power to bring gods back."
-"Good, keep everything under control. I'll step in if something happens."
As the situation in Hold was taking place, my avatar outside was watching some sparring sessions taking place between disciples of various forces.
Because some people were interested in techniques from other worlds, they proposed a contest to show the powers of both worlds. The first fighter was Lin Xiaoge, but as her strength was still low, she wasn't able to fight against stronger opponents.
She was finally defeated by Chu Lingxi from Holy Valley. The loss was not shameful, and she even befriended her rival, but she had to leave the arena. Taking place behind Jingliu, she started playing with my tails while talking with Chu Lingxi.
Frost Cloud and Frost Moon had similar strengths to Lin Xiaoge, so they didn't come forward, resulting in Blue Lotus taking the stage. As her strength could rival masters of this world, she was able to defeat all opponents, having slight trouble with a man who had the same surname as Chu Lingxi.
He was called Chu Feng, and thanks to his World Spirit, was able to fight with Blue Lotus on equal footing, but finally lost because of soul techniques that he didn't have counters to.
After that, a woman possessing the Dragon Bloodline called Long Zhizhi challenged Ling to fight. Ling agreed, and the two of them found themself in the arena.
-"I always wanted to fight a Dragon."
-"I'm not exactly a dragon, at least not what you think a dragon in this world."
-"But you still have a bloodline of one. I can feel it."
-"If you say so. Yue! Can you strengthen the field?"
Ling's words surprised those here, as they didn't know who she was speaking to.
~"Can't you control your powers?"
-"I just want to be sure."
~"Sigh. Give me a minute."
Jumping from my place, I landed next to Ling. Everybody finally understood who Ling was referring to, making me the focus of them all. Ignoring them, I constructed a formation reinforcing the arena.
~"Done."
-"Thanks. You ready, Long Zhizhi?"
-"Give your best!"
Ling manifested her lantern, blocking attacks from her opponent. They exchanged blows for a few moments, breaking away without establishing victor.
-"Impressive."
-"Haha, when you praise me, it is almost like an insult when you think of my age. Well, time to be more serious."
Ling waved her hand, freezing space around. In an instant, everything froze. Runes appeared on the stones to prevent them from breaking from sudden strain. Long Zhizhi, who was in the middle of it, was injured quite badly by that. If not for me taking her out the moment Ling attacked, it could have killed her.
~"Ling."
-"Sorry. It's hard to control my power offensively."
~"I'm aware, but you should train your control more."
-"I'll do so."
I started healing Long Zhizhi with Path of Abundance, and before her friends came to her side, she was back to full health. She thanked me for help and started talking to Ling as if nothing had happened.
The next person to fight was Nian. Her opponent was Xianhai Shaoyu, a man with an Immortal Fish Blodline. He was strong but was no match for Nian and her creations.
Dust was the last of the sisters to take the stage. Her opponent was Jiuhun Miaomiao, who was Elf. Once again, the dragon sister emerged victorious, as Dusk's drawings were able to trap and then defeat the Elf princess.
Finally, it was Jingliu's turn, but she refused the challenge. None of the people present here could be a challenge for her. She finally agreed to take part in a contest similar to what she had with Ling Sheng'er before.
Ling Sheng'er herself came here some time ago, but her eyes were locked on me. From that gaze, I could feel that she would definitely pick me up if I was within her arm's reach.
The three best World Spiritists came forward and, in an hour, set up the strongest defensive formation they could. Jingliu stood in front of it and manifested her sword. This time, she used more of her strength in the attack, which resulted in not only a shattered formation but also in the quarter of the arena being frozen.
This made people here understand that she was beyond their capabilities, and when everyone was happy to end this contest, one last challenge appeared.
-"I want to change that World Spirit called Yue."
~"I'm not World Spirit. Also, why do you want to fight me?"
-"I want to see the strongest person from your world."
~"Impossible. None of you can stand to move from me."
-"I'm not so weak."
I opened my eyes and glanced at the challenger. The moment my pressure arrived, he fell to his knees and started sweating profusely.
~"It's not that I despise you with my words. You literally can't stand my aura."
I closed my eye and jumped on Ling Sheng'er's head. Everyone could feel some of the pressure and didn't continue trying to challenge me. After this small episode, nothing major happened, and as my avatar may be required in Nobu's world, I left the gathering and informed Shen Meng of my departure.
In Hold, I was observing the battle between Goetia, King Arthur, and Gudako. The stalemate continued for the last hour, and no side was able to deal any significant damage.
-"Roman, do you have a way to defeat your creation?"
-"Yes, Ars Nova, but you rejected that idea."
-"I don't want a member of Hold to sacrifice himself."
-"Then you can try using my Seals to create something similar to Ars Nova. Using Divination techniques as a basis, you should be able to do it."
-"Hmm... This is feasible. It would still result in Solomon's ceasing to exist. You would be the only Romani Archaman."
-"This is something I want, to be honest, and, as Alaya is no more, most of my power as Solomon was also lost."
-"If you say so, then I'll try to erase him."
-"When will you be there?"
-"In a few moments."
-"Let's hope that King Arthur is not the next enemy."
-"I have a feeling that she won't be one."
As our talk continued, my avatar entered Nobu's world and teleported to where Gudako was. Appearing some distance away, I took the Oath of Silence and decided to test it in true combat. Entering the battlefield, I struck the ground with the staff. The chime announced my arrival, along with sealing Goetia's powers.
Thanks to Roman, I had a detailed understanding of Goetia's strengths and abilities. Now, with the reforged Oath of Silence, I was able to deprive him of almost half of his power. Most notably, I was able to seal his strongest ability, Ars Almadel Salomonis.
Not giving Goetia a chance to respond, I grabbed nine rings that he carried, and with one I received from Roman, I could prepare my true attack.
I looked at King Arthur, who was looking at me. Even though her eyes were behind a lion mask, I felt familiarity coming from her.
-"Mind keeping him occupied for a while?"
-"I'll buy you the time you need."
She then jumped forward, engaging Goetia in close combat. She started throwing him around like a rag doll as he proved unable to recover the power I sealed.
Focusing on ten rings, I used a technique that could manifest Karmatic Punishment. Taking the Karma of others to gain their destiny, powers, or any other thing is Taboo. Goetia was able to do so only because Roman discarded his identity, basically undergoing reincarnation.
The Chaos didn't punish him because he used nine rings to prevent it, but this resulted in his Karma becoming cursed, which I could use to my advantage. Now that the rings stopped shielding him, he started receiving his punishment.
As his soul was being destroyed from the inside by the punishment for breaking the Taboo, I used the rings to trace the point in time when he became the 'Solomon'.
After locating the exact point when that happened, I entered a false Aeon state drawing upon Path of Finality. I then targeted that moment in the past, sealing the identity of Solomon with ten rings, making it so Goetia never had become him.
This created a Paradox, as we were in the future, that should not exist. Normally, this would break some time Taboos, yet because I was mending different Taboo, I was not only not punished, but this future also became real thanks to [Correction Force].
As Geotia lost his identity of 'Solomon', his power was still sealed by me, and he still was receiving punishment, he was unable to continue fighting. King Arthur used this moment to pirce him with the Holy Lance, bringing him to the brink of death.
To be sure he won't survive this, I called Lamb to finish the job. She appeared by my side and fired one arrow. It pierced Goetia in the crystal in his chest, just above Holy Lance.
Goetia didn't have a chance to continue the fight. He turned into ash as Lamb killed him by bringing an End to his soul. Soon, the whole battlefield returned to silence.
King Arthur then turned to me and approached me as I returned to my human form. She stopped a few steps before me and raised the Holy Lance, pointing it at me. As the situation started becoming tense, she made the Lance disappear along with her mask.