Second Genesis

Grey stood there with a wild grin stretched across his face, The Virtueless--his rod--still pointed directly at The Immovable’s head as though he hadn’t just watched one of the strongest existences in the Holy City get launched across the courtyard.

Mauve looked like she wanted to faint, Elowen somehow looked even worse, and poor Petri stood off to the side with the expression of a man wondering at exactly what point he had lost control of his life.

Maybe he should have stopped Grey earlier, maybe he should have elbowed him harder, chained his mouth shut, thrown him into a hole and drowned him in the baby oil he liked so much. Something. Anything. But all of those thoughts felt a little useless now.

The other disciples weren’t doing much better. Legan had finally stopped trying to crawl into Modric’s personal space, Lloron stood in stunned silence, and even Xerchen seemed like he couldn’t quite process what he had just seen. His master had been sitting against the wall for several seconds now, unmoving, a thin trail of blood running from the corner of her mouth, and that alone seemed to have shattered something fundamental in his understanding of the world.

"Master."

Xerchen moved first, hurrying toward her. But he made it three steps.

Then the world around The Immovable changed.

BOOM.

Xerchen slammed into the ground so hard his knees cracked against the stone, his palms following a moment later as an invisible pressure forced his entire body flat. The sound of his bones creaking filled the courtyard, not breaking yet, but bending close enough to the line that everyone nearby heard it.

Grey’s grin widened.

’Well, that’s fucking terrifying.’

He wasn’t under the illusion that this old woman was easy to defeat all of a sudden.

The space around The Immovable had become something else entirely. Grey couldn’t see an actual black hole, but everything around her gave him that exact same feeling. Light, sound, energy, even the little motes of dust hanging in the air seemed to be getting dragged inward and erased.

Xerchen’s own Frame flared desperately, trying to resist, but compared to hers it looked like someone had brought a kiddie pool to fight the ocean.

Then The Immovable’s eyes flickered.

It was subtle, just a tiny shift, but Grey caught it. She looked like someone had suddenly woken her up.

The pressure vanished.

Xerchen collapsed completely, unconscious before his face even settled against the stone. The Immovable exhaled a long, slow breath, her silver eyes regaining their focus while the streak of blood at the corner of her lips stood out starkly against her pale skin.

Grey still had The Virtueless aimed at her forehead.

His smile didn’t move.

He wasn’t a Dominion Class right now, not really, and he wasn’t stupid enough to think one breakthrough had suddenly made him stronger than someone like this old hag. But he was very, very curious about what his new Quasi Dominion could do.

Curiosity had gotten him killed before. Several times, actually.

But, all that really meant was that he had experience.

The Immovable didn’t rise immediately. Instead, she lifted one hand and waved lightly through the air.

A priest appeared.

Grey blinked.

He hadn’t seen where the man came from.

"Treat him," The Immovable said calmly, pointing toward Xerchen.

The priest bowed quickly, hurrying over to the unconscious disciple. Only then did The Immovable slowly push herself upright with her cane, her movements so steady and natural that if Grey hadn’t just watched her cough up blood and get launched like a baseball, he might have thought none of it happened.

By the time she stood, the blood was gone too, and he hadn’t seen her wipe it away.

Grey narrowed his eyes.

’Wasting magic bullshit on aura farming. What happened to shame?’

The Immovable looked around the courtyard as though Grey wasn’t standing ten feet away pointing a Dominus Class rod at her face.

"The Instance beneath the Church is of far greater importance than any dispute between us."

Grey’s eyebrow twitched.

He wasn’t annoyed that she ignored him.

Well, maybe a little.

But mostly, he wanted to know how the fuck she could just skip over getting her ass blasted into a wall like that. Was this what old people did when they were embarrassed? Pretend nothing happened and start giving a lecture?

His grandfather would fit right in here.

"The fate of the capital may be decided by what happens within," The Immovable continued. "This time, the matter must be left in the hands of the younger generation. Those above the Command Class cannot enter, and those who do enter will find themselves facing the strongest youths of the surrounding empires."

Grey’s smile faded a little.

’Surrounding empires?’

The Immovable continued speaking with the same calm tone. "You will enter an arena. There, you will be tested alongside those who have gathered from the other powers. You do not need to conquer the Instance in the traditional sense, nor must you destroy everything within it. You need only prove that you belong."

Grey frowned. That sounded simple. Which meant it was definitely fucking bullshit.

"Prove what?" Legan asked, surprisingly serious now.

"That your Empire deserves to remain."

Silence settled.

Even Grey stopped smiling.

The Immovable’s gaze swept across them. "If you succeed, the Instance will clear and the danger beneath the Church will be resolved. If you fail, the consequences will not remain contained below us."

She tapped her cane once against the ground.

"The capital will fall."

Grey’s brows furrowed deeper.

Something about this didn’t make any sense.

An Instance beneath the Church, tied to an arena, involving the younger powerhouses of several empires, and somehow the entire capital was on the chopping block if they screwed it up? What kind of fucked up tournament arc was this?

And more importantly—

’Other empires?’

Grey’s expression soured.

Did that mean other human empires?

Or was "empire" just the convenient translation the Genesis System was feeding him?

Because if it was the second one...

Grey sighed inwardly.

’Alien fuckers again.’

Of course. Just his luck.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!