Exactly eighty-eight days later, the day of the Red Horizon finally came.
The Great Elders of the Peace Faction of the Shadow Spawns had long completed their impartation session. 'Hermes' had been in seclusion since then to digest his gains. Today was the day he would exit his training and compete for the title of Mercury Sovereign.
*****
In the training chamber, Fang Yu's eyes flew open. He had a calm expression on his face.
Truth be told, Fang Yu hadn't expected he would occupy Hermes' body for this long. As days, weeks and even months passed, his emotions had alternated from mild anxiety to intense worry and finally, resignation.
The good news was that he had adapted somewhat to being Hermes by now. Fortunately, the slight changes in his personality that he couldn't hide were perceived by the Elders as growth and nothing else. This way, Fang Yu faced no issues with his undercover identity.
As of now, he had mastered a total of hundred abilities from the initial twenty that 'Hermes' knew. Most of them were movement-based as they constituted the bulk of the Shadow Spawns' inheritance. There were also some attack-based abilities, although their physical lethality were not very strong. The remaining few were esoteric and hard for Fang Yu to grasp; he only touched upon the surface of comprehension.
"I suppose Hermes will perfect them in the future. According to myth, he has some authority in the Underworld. These two should be the foundation behind that!" Fang Yu gave up on learning the two esoteric abilities for now. One of them was related to refining divine thoughts while the other was a method of guiding souls to the Underworld.
"It's time. The solar lights are about to align!" A divine thought was relayed to 'Hermes' mind by one of the Elders guarding his seclusion. 'Hermes' quickly got up and exited the room.
"Today, I'll finally meet my twin, Rhemes. I wonder if he'll be able to tell," Fang Yu was not as worried about the former ratting him out as he was before. He could always use the excuse of the competition to accuse Rhemes of trying to sabotage his participation with a false claim. In the same vein, he could even accuse the former of being a spy too.
A pair of dark wings materialized behind 'Hermes' and he took to the skies. Hollow Travel was a more optimal choice to reach the gathering point, but he was trying to show off his might and gather public favourability from the masses.
Indeed, the flying Hermes with his perfectly sculpted figure, cold eyes and grand aura was quite pleasing to the eye. As he flew over their heads, he left the ordinary Shadow Spawnfolks in a daze.
It was only a bit before the Red Horizon would manifest. Overhead, Fang Yu could see the sun's solar flares begin to dim slightly.
At the same time, all Shadow Spawns felt their powers stir. In the darkness, they were innately several grades stronger. It was fitting that the battle for the next Mercury Sovereign was happening while they were at their strongest, ignoring the fact that they would enter their weakest cycle right after.
Planet Mercury had actually been without a Sovereign for quite a while now after the previous one had been ambushed and assassinated by invaders as soon as he came into power. Logically, the day of the Red Horizon wasn't the most ideal day to select a Sovereign. But since the Elders were in agreement, it could only mean that they had a plan to deal with the possibility of invaders today.
Meanwhile, Fang Yu finally landed gracefully on the ancient podium. The entire population of the Mercury dwellers fell on him at the same time.
Fang Yu wasn't nervous about the attention. His gaze was fixed instead on the only other person standing on the podium with him.
Although all Shadow Spawns looked alike, this person was an exact replica of Hermes. Fang Yu had a faint illusion that he was looking into a mirror.
"So this is the Rhemes?"
Just as he was sizing up the other party, Rhemes was also doing the same. A cold frown slowly crept on his face.
Like Hermes, the elders of his faction had spent the last months imparting a lot of knowledge to him. Personally, Rhemes devised a strategy sure to grant him victory against his twin spawn.
Hermes and him shared a telepathic link, and this tiny detail was a loophole he was planning to exploit ingeniously in battle. For other Shadow Spawns, sharing divine thoughts was a matter of choice; one could dispel a transmission link at any moment. But for spawns that shared a telepathic link like Rhemes and Hermes, it was more complicated. Having perfected an innate divine thoughts ability, Rhemes was confident that he could rely on this telepathic link to completely take advantage of Hermes in battle.
Unfortunately, Hermes was not 'Hermes' right now but Fang Yu, who did not share a bond with him. Rhemes' plan to infiltrate his twin spawn's mind failed before it could even begin.
"Who are you and what have you done to Hermes?" If it was anybody else, they would have assumed that Hermes simply perfected an innate ability to guard his divine thoughts. But Rhemes was different; he was absolutely certain that the 'Hermes' before him was not quite the real deal.
'Hermes' face was the perfect expression of indignation. With an arrogant expression, he relayed a divine thought around him.
"Brother, you can forget about relying on our psychic link to mess with my mind. I've mastered Divine Thoughts to Great Completion."
If Rhemes' question to him earlier was equivalent to a private chat between the two of them only, Hermes' present action was equivalent to him shouting for everyone present to hear. The Shadow Spawns scanning the battle with their senses instantly grasped what was happening.
"Rhemes' plan was to mess with Hermes' mind to win the battle? What an insidious plan!"
"An insidious method is honourable as long as the desired outcome is favourable. But I'm actually more impressed at the fact that Hermes has mastered Divine Thoughts to Great Completion. Only Elders have grasped innate abilities to that level."
Even Elder Zeno was surprised, "Even though we imparted our insights on Divine Thoughts to him, isn't his comprehension too fast? And Great Completion no less?"
Meanwhile, Rhemes looked livid. He was not unaware of the shift in the spectators' standpoint. Even worse was the fact that he knew he couldn't expose Hermes without sounding like a liar.
With no other choice, he lunged at Hermes. In his mind, he was thinking that regardless of who the imposter was, he just had to defeat him fair and square to clinch victory.
However, Fang Yu was not Hermes.
It would have taken Rhemes only a while to grasp the real Hermes' battle pattern if it was him fighting. But Fang Yu, despite receiving the impartation of knowledge from the elders earlier was not a true Shadow Spawn and did not fight like one. His style was an imitation of the fighting style of those otherworldly Immortals he had watched on Tv back on Earth as he exchanged blows with Rhemes.
This created a unique situation; the innate abilities of the Shadow Spawns, in the hands of Fang Yu as Hermes as he simulated the battle intent of his favourite fictitious heroes, became completely unpredictable. This rhythm completely threw Rhemes off balance and he found himself suffering a loss soon enough.
"I can't go on like this!" Rhemes didn't have time to spare thoughts as to the origins of 'Hermes' fantastic combat style. He directly analyzed his situation.
"There is no mistake about it; this imposter is wielding Hermes' body. Could it be that one of the Elders transferred a sliver of their Divine Thoughts into his body to win this battle for their faction?" But such an act left obvious traces. There was no way anyone could do this without being discovered. The Grand Elders present weren't fools after all.
In his moment of distraction, 'Hermes' lunged forward and abruptly vanished. The next moment, Rhemes felt a sense of foreboding and suddenly saw his own shadow stab a dagger towards his throat.
The distance was too close and Rhemes could not react in time. Stunned, he set aside his inhibitions and tugged at the telepathic link he shared with Hermes with all his might. This happened at the same time as the solar flares from the sun completely vanished, shrouding the entirety of Mercury in darkness.
While the dagger in Hermes' hand continued its motion unimpaired, something else was triggered. Fang Yu felt a powerful consciousness stir within him. The original consciousness, Hermes, was awake.
Simultaneously, the body he had been occupying for the past months seemed to finally realize he was an imposter.
In the spectators' view, the shadow dagger pierced into Rhemes' throat, snuffing off his lifeforce. Only a few Elders felt a slight trace of suspicion.
In the brief spell of silence that followed, a solar flare appeared above the planet, enveloping it in a dusky light. The Red Horizon finally arrived, heralding the birth of a new Mercury Sovereign.
As the true Hermes opened his eyes, he saw the thousands of Shadow Spawn simultaneously bow to him in worship. Looking down, the body of his twin spawn was in his hands, lifeless.
Several planets away, the supreme existence, Lord Saturn, suddenly exited his meditation and cast his gaze to the faraway Mercury which was buzzing with activity. His Divine Sense captured what was happening in a split instant.
"After that incident so many millennials ago, the peasants finally have a new Sovereign. But what was that fluctuation in spacetime I felt just now?"
As Fang Yu's psyche was being transported by a mystical mechanism infinite eons forward to his present, he had no answer to the Ancient Sovereign's question.