~"Look what you did, Otto."
-"Well... I might have overdone it slightly, but this is not a bad outcome, right?"
-"..."
~"..."
-"Otto, don't be insensitive! Imagine us in that situation. While I'm looking forward to our day, the decision about it should be left entirely to us, not be the result of circumstances."-Kallen chided her partner.
-"This... I apologize, Riveria, Yue. I should have been more thoughtful."
~"Don't worry, we know that it was unintended."
-"So what is even going on?"
-"Baiheng, because of how Otto had spun the story about Yue and me, countless people call for us to marry."
-"I see... But why do we worry about that?"
~"Sigh. To be honest, I'm not opposed to this. Just... Marrying someone that I come to love, while in a false world, more so, under a false name and identity feels wrong."
-"Then why we don't ignore it?"
Riveria and I looked at each other before we answered Baiheng's question. Both of us could see unwillingness in the other's eyes.
~"Because we won't have a good occasion to marry otherwise."
-"Because of Yue's status, it was agreed that he could give an official title only to those who transcend mortality. While as Elf, I have a long lifespan, I'm far away from becoming immortal."
~"Doing the ceremony here, while won't allow Riveria to claim the official title of my wife outside, the ritual will still be completed, and this is what matters."
-"I see. I understand now. Rather than for others to recognize your status, you're thinking about doing it so you two can treat each other like husband and wife."
-"I know that I'm someone conservative and traditional, and the fact that Yue can't give me the title and ceremony is something that weighs on me heavily."-Riveria sighed slightly and looked at me apologetically.
~"Don't feel bad, Riveria. I'm well aware of how hard it must be to willingly enter a relationship with someone who not only has multiple partners but also can't even give you the recognition you deserve."
-"Ehem."-Seeing that the atmosphere becomes somewhat subtle, Otto cleared his throat.-"I believe that we should come to the decision before anything else."
~"True. Riveria, I have nothing against going through with it."
-"So be it. Sigh, I hope nobody will be angry at us later."
-"Then you two, please act troubled for a few more weeks."-Otto rose from his seat and started to use exaggerated gestures like he always did when he started to scheme.-"I'll be sure to make your most important day perfect."
~"Just don't cause more trouble for us this time."
Otto laughed and offhandedly assured us that he would be careful. Kallen also stood up and bowed to us, apologizing for Otto's behavior before catching up with him.
~"Baiheng, please remain by Riveria's side for the time being. Tyrande, you will temporarily take the position of Commander-in-Chief, only in name, mind you. I'll still be giving orders through you."
-"Sure!"
-"As your will, Your Majesty."
-"What are you planning to do, Yue?"
~"To at least be thorough in what I do."
Otto started doing his things while I left many of my responsibilities to Tyrande and redirected some of my attention to contact others in Hold. The first person I needed to speak to was Loki, and I also needed to consult my wives on the matter.
-"So why did you call me here? I'm quite busy now."-Loki asked, annoyed.
~"Riveria and I will marry. While it can't be an official marriage in Hold, I want the ceremony to be true and complete, meaning I need you to preside over the ceremony as the goddess of familia to which Riveria belongs.
-"Wow! You should have told me that directly!"
~"Due to time dilation, I need you to be ready tomorrow."
-"Sure!"-Loki ran from my office, presumably to prepare everything she needed from her family.
~"You can invite familia... I'll send her a message."
-"Did you try to attack Loki? Why did she run so quickly?"-Nobu asked as she walked into my office.
~"I'll explain this in a moment."~I waited for Astraea, Ningguang, and Elysia to also enter before explaining what had taken place in the Trial and what I planned to do.~"Do you have anything against it?"
Four of them looked at each other, communicating something using their eyes, before Astraea answered for all of them.
-"We are all for it. More so, we would like you to slowly marry every person you are involved in that way, privately with a similar ceremony that you described, but..."
-"What about us!"-Elysia jumped at me.-"What you plan to do was not part of our ceremony!"
~"I know, that's why I wasn't to perform that missing part with you right away."
-"Sure, I never planned to leave, so this will only help me."-Nobu stood up and started walking out of my office.
~"I'll take us there directly."~I called out to Nobu before teleporting five of us before the [Yggdrasil].
The difference in time between 'reality' and the Test made it so in the day I was organizing things in Hold, around four months passed for the contestants in the Simulated Realm, during which some things had changed.
Otto utilized his scheming talent to the fullest by serving as a glorified quest-giver for the contestants. He not only delegated many aspects of organizing the event but also made everyone believe that it came into existence thanks to their actions rather than being agreed upon by us.
This allowed many people to rest, taking their minds off the battlefields, especially as the situation on the outer wall was getting worse day by day. Even without Nobu, her Generals didn't let me have a breather.
However, this didn't stop me from preparing the venue for the upcoming wedding, creating a powerful illusion to fool both contestants and spectators. I wanted my family from Hold to be present for this occasion, so I needed to make sure no one saw something they shouldn't. After setting some formations and using the Simulated Realm to my advantage, everything was ready.
As the world of Cultivators was rarely religious, and even if, the families and clans took precedence over personal beliefs, this marriage looked much different from my previous one. The first step was to pick up the bride, so the procession from the town center to Riveria's manor set out under Tyrande's command.
The town center was picked as the venue due to neither of us having any family in the settings of the Trial, and as there were literal million people interested in the event, the only place that could allow a mass of people inside was the town center.
I was waiting there, and while for contestants, I was in the armor of a defense soldier, in reality, I wore the Royal Armour like my avatar, that was sitting next to Shen Meng. There were already many guests present, and thanks to the constant reinforcing of the idea that the identity one had outside doesn't matter here, everyone talked freely without caring for the family name one carried.
Many luxurious and exotic dishes were served to everyone attending, and Eden agreed to entertain everyone with some music. The atmosphere was festive and upbeat. One wouldn't think that almost everyone here had just finished fighting with a horde of monsters, looking at the relaxed appearance of everyone present.
-"Those guys are fun."-Loki walked to my side.
~"Don't bully them, Loki."
-"I'm not bored as much."-Loki rolled her eyes at me.-"Just how bad is your image of me?"
~"Someone who will always get involved in anything 'fun'."
-"Can't argue with that, but I still have some self-respect! I won't bully those guys! What I meant is that their idea is funny. How did Yae called it? Main protagonist syndrome? Yes, something like that."
~"I find it quite fascinating. In a world where only strength matters and one world can doom the whole planet, everyone believes that they are destined for success."
-"Delusions. Even if they arrive at that pinnacle of Cultivation, they would never become True Gods."-Lokis eyes looked at all those present with undisguised pity and despise.-"In Orario, all adventures at least understand their place."
~"Some of them have a chance to transcend."
-"You speak about Shen Meng? Yes, she will achieve that one day, but that comes to your assistance. Same with that Fether woman and those girls that fly around you when you are in Sect. But all the rest will never leave their world."
~"Evil god Loki speaking?"
-"No. It's just that recently, I'm getting fed up with misplaced confidence."
~"I can return your true power so that it is no longer sealed, like Astraea's."
-"If you do that, I will overuse my power again. It's better the way it is now, as at least plotting and everything is more entertaining."
~"Let's talk about this some other day. Riveria almost arrived."
-"Go then, don't let her wait anymore."
I walked toward the entrance, where the crowd just noticed the procession approaching. The people made space for the sedan chair to be placed just at the entrance, where I waited. After opening the door, I extended my hand to Riveria, and after helping her up, we walked back to the hall.
Despite the wedding following traditions of the Cultivation world, Riveria decided to wear a white-green elven dress carefully decorated with silver ornaments. Seeing Riveria dressed like that was novel, as she was a person who always wore heavy robes covering as much as it was possible, and her beauty enchanted by the dress resulted in me taking a few more glances.
Her true appearance was, of course, covered by illusions, but even then, spectators couldn't help but stare in a daze at her. I could see that she was uncomfortable with all the people looking at her like that, so I unleashed some of my aura to wake those people up, reminding them who they were staring at.
Noticing my action, Riveria squeezed my hand to signal she was ok, but she closed the distance between us, no longer simply holding my hand but my arm. Walking like that, we entered the hall where the main guests were seated and approached Loki, who stood before the altar.
Well, calling it altar might be true to outsiders, but as both Riveria and I could see through illusions, its true appearance was fully revealed to us, and what was before us was part of [Yggdrasil].
The reason behind it was that in the Elven marriage ceremony, the couple would swear their vows not to some god or goddess but to the tree their tribe revered. Most often, it would be the Tree of Life, like in Riveria's home forest and Emerald Dream, but as [Yggdrasil] was an even holier object in that belief, it fit the criteria perfectly.
As there was no need to wait for anything, Loki started to perform the ceremony. The first step was cleansing and receiving the blessing of Spirits, but this part was somewhat awkward, as no Spirit would dare to bless me, a True Spirit, so I was one blessing both Riveria and me during my own wedding.
Ignoring slight discomfort, we proceeded to the second part, the exchange of vows. Same as during my first wedding, we made our vows to the Divine Fire Loki borrowed from Ouranos, and while my vow was identical to the one before, Riveria's one was a little different.
~"I, Yue, the Principle of Progress, hereby pledge my unending love over this Divine Fire. Be it woe or joy, now or in old age, I will uphold duties brought by this sacrament. Shall I fail to upkeep this vow, may my Soul know no rest."
-"I, Riveria Ljos Alf, hereby pledge myself to Yue over this Divine Fire. From this very moment until the end of times, I shall be his support and respite. My love shall never wither as I uphold duties brought by this sacrament. I shall never fail to upkeep this vow, as I pledge upon my Soul."
After both of us finished, a golden chain bound me together with Riveria, symbolizing the establishment of the vows.
In a normal wedding, this would mark the end of the ceremony, but we moved to the third part of the ceremony. Loki already stepped aside, and both Riveria and I approached the [Yggdrasil], placing our hands on its trunk.
Moments later, small branches emerged and wrapped around our arms. As this was happening, the [Yggdrasil] slowly pulled part of Riveria's Soul and connected it to me, performing what is known as Soul Marriage.
This was something really done in the whole of [Myriad of Worlds], as Soul Marriage was truly an eternal ceremony, meaning that the only way to sever it was the destruction of the Soul, meaning the true death of the participant.
This was not an equal connection, as my Soul was much more powerful than Riveria's, and because of this, I was able to control her in some aspects, such as feeling her thoughts and emotions, not to mention her being unable to use her Soul without my permission, but in exchange, her Soul was now shielded by mine, meaning that even if her body was to be destroyed, I would be able to revive her from the [Yggdrasil], granting her form of false immortality.
This was why I performed the same Soul Marriage with Elysia, Astraea, Ningguang, and Nobu before. As Aeon, I could be considered eternal, especially as Kinderd was contracted with me, any conceivable end was almost impossible to happen to me.
This was a much higher form of immortality that anyone could achieve, and that's why Astraea wanted me to perform such a ceremony with every member of my family, as it only granted false immortality, not an endless life but the ability to be revived, but ensured that our family was never separated by an End.
I agreed with her thoughts and planned to do so with girls close to me who were willing, but this was not important today. As the ceremony was now officially finished, both Riveria and I started to entertain guests, mingling with them and talking while receiving congratulations.
As today Nobu promised to stop any attacks, and no contestant was foolish enough to try anything, the whole day passed with almost no incident, allowing everyone to relax and enjoy the short respite from the battlefield.
The only thing that broke this peace was something I noticed during the ceremony. In the crowd of contestants, one person was able to not only notice my illusions but even attempted somewhat successfully to see through them.
This caught my attention as despite illusions not being power coming from my Aeonic nature, it was a talent I cultivated for most of my life, and someone being able to see through it should be impossible in such a weak world. Deciding to contact that person later, focused on the reception until the war drums sounded once again.