Marriage

'Today's the day...I know what I have to do. But doing so will only result in my death. Should I still do it?'

Cain sat in a room surrounded by maids readying him for the ceremony. His thoughts were sporadic. 

The whole process of marrying the Princess was not traditional. Sun Xiang didn't like the thought of his daughter marrying another family at all. Instead, he broke all norms, making Cain marry into the royal family, taking on their name, and gaining honorary status as a prince.

Not to mention only this, many traditions and steps were passed or completely ignored. All Cain has to do is walk down the aisle to meet his wife, and complete the marriage ceremony. That was it, the Emperor was to take it from there.

Funnily enough, the Emperor wanted the ceremony to happen in the throne room so he could watch everything from his throne. His arrogance was like a giant sun.

Cain frowned. 'Even if Sun Xiang wasn't present, it would be impossible to escape. There will be many guests from all over the land. They will no doubt try and stop me so they can get on the Emperor's good side. I'm completely alone.'

The maids finished tidying up Cain. He was then propped up and taken away to another room.

'I'm like a doll being personalized....'

...

Music played, and the sound of zithers echoed through the halls of the throne room.

Guests sat on both sides, parting an open path for the bride and groom. The hall was remodeled just for this event, the Emperor was going all out for his daughter.

'Master isn't here. He said he was stuck in one of the northern provinces. He found a good clue apparently....'

Red decorated everything, the carpet, the banners, and even the walls were pained over. Extravagance held true.

This was perhaps the most expensive marriage in all of the Sun Dynasty's history. Spiritual Treasures acted as decorations, even the chairs had spirits in them that helped with comfort. 

Everything looked simple, but it was nothing but. 

Walking down the aisle, Cain saw Yun'er, she was wearing a red dress depicting flowers, and a veil covered her face but didn't hide her smile. The one to be happiest about this event was of course her, the one who caused all of this.

Deep down, Cain didn't want to be upset with her. He kept blaming her environment for making her this way. But isn't it the environment that molds all people? In the end, a person's choices were their own, there were no excuses to be made. This was the princess's decision, one Cain couldn't accept.

One step, two step, three step, four. The hall was silent, only the echoing footsteps of the groom were heard. Everyone looked at Cain, their gazes filled with envy or pity. Some of the guests surprisingly understood the situation Cain was in.

He stood before Yun'er and the Emperor. The girl smiled and turned to her father. They were to bow to him before bowing to each other.

Yun'er bowed, Cain did not. The music stopped, and the silence was filled with stares and silent gasps. Sun Xiang glared at Cain, his anger was blatant, killing intent spreading and drowning the hall, causing Cain to gasp for air.

"You dare refuse? Will you not marry my daughter?" Sun Xiang's voice was cold and arrogant. He was a man among men, the ruler of one of the three countries.

Cain spoke from his heart, "I cannot. I will not."

Everyone held their breath. Yun'er gazed at Cain, heartbroken, tears blinding her sight. Yet there was a hint of understanding lingering in her heart.

Sun Xiang's figure became shrouded, his image vanished from his throne and appeared before Cain.

But the groom was prepared, metal wires sprouted from all directions as his left arm controlled them to layer themselves in front of him. Sun Xiang didn't care, his arm transformed into fire as he sent out a simple punch.

The wires ripped and snapped like flimsy string and Cain was sent down the hall, landing near the guests.

'What to do what to do. What should I do? Unseal the mist? But the voice said not to do that.....but... I no longer listen to him!'

Just as Cain was standing up in deep thought, the Emperor came again, his glowing fist moving towards Cain like a signal of death.

As the fiery arm closed in, a black and white armor conjured around Cain and took the punch. Cain was once again thrown back to the end of the hall, he could see outside, it was raining.

The armor protecting him shattered as black and white dust floated up into the air.

'I must!'

Cain quickly stood up, his skin cracked and glowed. Red fog escaped from the cracks and seeped out, layering the floor.

'I can't break it too much, I still don't know what my other self was wary against. This should-'

The cracks along Cain's body suddenly widened, the red mist rampaged out and moved like a snake towards Sun Xiang.

'This entire seal broke! How is this possible!'

Sun Xiang had a look of surprise, his hand reached out and grabbed the mist as it squealed and evaporated into nothing, instinctively, the rest of the mist retreated to Cain's side.

(Hah. Idiot. You don't know what you've done, do you.)

'What?'

(I told you not to use our powers. Why do you think that is? I would have said only to try not to use them if it was only for the digestion of the vampire core but there are other reasons. Thankfully this was only the first time, we might not yet catch the eye of the territory core.)

Cain became alarmed. 'Core? Can we catch the eye of the Core? It's alive?'

(Not quite, I have reason to believe the cores are extensions of the system more than we know, they can act as branches of it. Although not conscious like the Dream Core, they can act autonomously to deal with outside forces. We were only lucky until now because the core we saw was under influences beyond us.)

'Hurry and make sense, the Emperor is still wary of me!'

(Hah...In Netherane we weren't considered an outside force and the core preferred us to Numineer. In the Ocean of Deep Ones, the core was being suppressed by two rulers. The Dream Core and Vampire Cores were already under the control of someone else but their holders weren't rulers yet, so the system couldn't act to take action to notify them of our presence per se. This is increasingly so for the Dream realm because outsiders were common. There was no reason for those cores to act before, but not now.)

'So what should I do, we have to escape!'

The voice laughed and became increasingly lively, (No, the Heavens will lock onto us. Give me control. I will deal with everything, I even have a way to seal this place for a time so the Heavens cannot react. Then I will escape and seal us again, giving you back control.)

'What, no! Just tell me and I'll deal with everything!' Cain didn't wish to lose control, that was his absolute bottom line.

(Afraid not this time. You've already agreed since you unleashed the mist. You promised to give control if this happened.)

'I did?'

The voice didn't continue. Cain himself didn't know if he ever agreed to anything, but that wasn't the point, the voice just needed to fabricate a reason. Suddenly, all Cain felt was slumber overtaking him.

To everyone else, Cain seemed to become silent for a few seconds. Sun Xiang was staring at him with interest before muttering, "A demon? No, that's not it. What type of rare thing are you?"

Heads turned, and by the time they saw Cain, his eyes were now dyed red. The aura around him became ominous and evil, all Growth Stage Cultivators and below quivered and shook uncontrollably like a hungry predator was before them.

Yet everyone had the same feeling, they had to kill this person, or else they would die.