Chapter 10: The Talk & Time Moves On

Ciri?

What does she want to talk about?

"Come in." I called out to her as I got up from the bed to be somewhat presentable.

Ciri entered the room and promptly closed the door before coming face-to-face with me, well....I was 2.5 meters tall now so she had to look up, so I sat down on the bed so she would be at my height.

"You need to apologise to your family."

Oh for fucks sake!

I put both my hands on my temples as I began to massage them for the talk I was going to have.

"Why should I? Firstly, I don't trust that they want to act all lovey dovy as a family like we used to be. Second, I'm getting married to Ranni, a Princess of a Royal Family, like you, so you are already aware of what I'm trying to get at here. If I'm not mistaken, didn't your birth father Emperor Emhyr want to find and bring you to his side so he would marry you to keep the Bloodline pure, especially for someone with Elderblood in their veins as your mother had before you?"

"That-how do you even know about that?!"

"I looked in your mind when you first entered my territory. You were an intruder and unknown individual with unique powers. Also what is all this about Geralt and Yennefer using a Unicorn as a be-"

"Enough of that! Get back on topic!"

I laughed manically in my mind like a supervillain at the God Tier trolling I was doing!

"Stop that! I know your laughing in your head!" Ciri scolded me while she looked like she was going to lose it.

"I'm sorry. I will listen to how you will answer back."

"Thank you. As for what you said, your no doubt aware of my complicated family heritage and the troubles it brings. Emhyr, back when he was called Duny, was a "good" father. Though that changed when my mother helped smuggle me off a ship we were meant to depart on all together. What I'm trying to get at here, is you may not understand the full picture. I only found out that Emhyr never truly loved my mother and only acted in love because he claimed my mother as part of the Law of Suprise to cure his curse. No one ever knows the full side of the story, there are always two sides of a coin. You have only seen one side and they only saw their side of the coin. You need to help them to understand the your half and you need them to help you understand their half of the coin (story). From what Ariel told m-"

"Ariel? I'll need to "punish" her later for loosening her tongue on things she shouldn't have let slip." I interrupted Ciri as I spoke aloud to myself.

*Ciri coughs*

"Sorry go ahead and finish." I said as I continued to be patient and calm while slithering to her fully.

I will give her the opportunity to speak, no one ever let me voice my own thoughts and opinions in my past life and I plan to do better tgan ky old self in this life.

"...From what Ariel told me, your family truly was a good family. It was only because of your father being the previous Patriarch that he guided everyone into making your sister the favourite child."

"*sigh* That's not all of it but yes. He did make everyone favourite Jade, but primarily because they knew the other families and even the Royals would one day find out that Jade was of the Light attribute, especially since the last one had skipped the family tree by two generations. When my father died in battle, Lilith became the New Patriarch and life improved. We were all a good happy family and Jade and Lilith did their best to help me. Jade would mostly come to drag me out of the bars and brothels where I had fallen drunk due to the stagnation in my Cultivation. Lilith did her best to find valuable items to help me while Jade acted like an older sister scolding me even through I was the older child and she's my younger sister. But I had gone to a certain brothel were my Cultivation was taken by a group of Duel Cultivators who can take another's Cultivation for their own through sex primarily. After that I was ignored because of what I had done, the countless chances of redemption and times I had been helped by Lilith but mostly Jade, only to throw it all away. As for why the ignored me, I think it's because it was some form of punishment."

"See! You don't know what the true reason is?! You need to understand it! It could just be a misunderstanding of communication! Don't throw away the chance to be with your family, your loved ones."

"Your talking about yourself aren't you. And you witnessed the interaction outside between the three of us." I probed Ciri of her true reasons of coming here.

"I-I do miss them. Geralt and Yennefer. But the Wild Hunt had captured them last time and used them as bait to lure me in, luckily I had saved them but I need to stay away, at least for now. I want to see Eskel, Lambert, Vesimer, Triss, Dandelion and everyone else. But just like you showed me of Vesimer's death, if I go back now then they all will be in danger, I can't bear to lose any of them. You can't throw away the chance to make ammends with your family when the opportunity is in front of you. If you distrust their true reasons so much, then why don't you use them to your advantage as well? Surely there's something you can do to benefit from this in some way at the very least to be enticed to forming a connection with them?"

I pomsered over her words for a minute before coming to a conclusion.

"Very well. I suppose you are right, there is a few things I can use them for. But you know Ciri, you shouldn't worry about those you left behind, you'll meet them eventually, and I'll help you with all the potential dangers that they might face because of your close proximity to them. I will even kill Emhyr and trap his soul inside an object. Maybe a rug on the floor of some kind?"

"I'd like that, and thank you of both of what you said."

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Lilith Luminous pov:

Jade was crying in my arms far off to the side away from the gazes of everyone present.

Tallon's words had devastated her, and me as well.

A long time ago when we had last seen of Tallon, he had ventured out of the Manor's gates only to never return.

When we git worried at where he could have gone, especially since he had just lost the ability to Cultivate, might have been devoured by a pack of Magical Beast's.

We had managed to track him down far into the woods near the Family grounds.

Upon entering a now exposed cave that didn't have an entrance before, as I had come across this region manu times when hunting Magical Beasts a long time ago, we found the Inscription Notebook that Tallon always had along with many of his possessions spread out across the ground.

There was some text on the wall and this place seemed to be a test of sorts that required one to die.

Putting two and two together, we had no choice but to accept the fact that he was dead.

Even after years of denial of this fact we still tried to use out resources to find him but to no avail as it always led back to that Death Cave.

My Individuality helped me in my Cultivation but also to be a better person as they were Freedom and Love.

I was a bastard child in my family and was looked down upon, my free will taken from me as I was forced to obey the family's every order.

However, I had enough and chose to run away so that I can have the 'freedom' I craved and over time I made a family, a family that I would show my 'love' to unlike how my past family had been unable to give me other than hate and disgust.

When Tallon and Jade grew up I saw how Tallon was developing a jealously towards his sister and even envy.

It was to be expected, but Jade didn't have it easy either as we needed to make sure she reached the Heroic Ranks fast enough because we all were aware that keeping Jade as a Light Attribute Cultivator a secret wouldn't last forever.

I had previously been a part of the Empire before I fled here to the Utra Nation, so I was aware of what happened to Light and Darkness Element Cultivators when they are discovered.

They disappeared, one of them was a good friend I had made while once attending a Noble Family meeting.

However, I never saw her again after a few weeks upon her Element as a Darkness Cultivator was revealed.

That was why I had more than likely given more attention to Jade than Tallon, but because of that I wasn't as demanding of him then I was with Jade and gave him freedom of his own to do with as he pleases.

Upon my husband's passing in battle, I had been able to connect with Tallon more and rekindled our family bond.

But he slowly went into a spiral of depression and self destruction, despite mine and Jade's attempts to help him he continued to ignore us.

But when he lost his Cultivation because of his own mistakes, I needed to set a foot down for the first genuine time I had raised him.

I ordered everyone to Void any contact with Tallon until he showed improvements to bettering himself.

I wasn't given the best treatment myself from my parents so maybe I was wrong in how I approached things but I myself never had a good family and as such didn't know how to fairly or properly discipline him for what had happened.

I had thought he would come to feel lonely and regret what he had done because of how everyone was suddenly avoiding him because of his own actions.

It had worked partially since he had tried to beg me and Jade to speak to him and forgive him but we stood strong in our own conviction.

He needed to actively take the step towards changing rather than half empty words that he had broken in the past.

But he had died soon after when he left...

I felt I was to blame, even Jade did most of all as she wanted to protect him because despite his jealously towards her in their childhood, he had loved her and found great joy in being with her while also comforting her when she often cried about the harsh and strict demands and responsibilities that my husband placed upon her as a Light attribute Cultivator.

But recently, we had found out from the Royals that a wedding between Tallon Luminous and Ranni of Forossa royalty was to happen in two months time.

Upon finding out that Tallon was alive a d properly investigating if it truly was him we were devastated to find out he had lived alone for so long and never returned.

Though we knew why he didn't, that was all the more painful when confronted with the harsh truth of reality, and the words that came from his very lips a short while ago.

Just as I was pondering over the past as I tried to comfort Jade, I head a pair of footsteps approaching us.

I quickly shook Jade for her to pull herself together, while I turned around to see who it was.

It was my son Tallon and a girl with ashen hair and a scar across her eye.

"I am willing to hear the both of you out." My son said.

He turned his gaze to Jade and saw that her eyes were red from all the crying she had done and tried to wipe away before he came.

He sighed and walked over to her before taking her into his embrace and giving her a hug and a head pat.

Jade couldn't hold back her emotions that had been all over the place from the various few days upon finding out he was alive, to what he said a while ago and with him hugging her now and she wailed in his arms.

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Tallon pov:

Years had went by and everything had been going better than I hoped.

My wedding with Ranni was perfect, a Banquet, the normal festivities, the wedding itself where many Noble parties had attended since they could feel I was nearing the breakthrough to becoming a Rank 5 Solid Cultivator.

In addition to my already infamous reputation as the Frost Monarch.

Oh, interesting thing you may not know, I never actually revealed my face to anyone, that was also one of the reasons why Lilith and Jade never found out about me in the last few hundred years.

Not only did I give myself a false name as an alias but also had concealed my appearance to the public by wearing a mask which is how I earned the title and name of the Frost Monarch.

(Mask and his armor looks like image in auxiliary chapter and book cover picture.)

Even some of the Royals, that were able to, had attended to maintain relations with me on a positive, I was given many gifts which I took with a smile on myself at all the free loot cause they needed to keep me on their good side.

Thomas Balvan, some of his family and Lord Balor, Thaddeus and Second Prince were the noteable individuals that had came to my wedding.

I was greatly shocked that Second Prince had came since I was aware of his true origins and power.

Second Prince was created by King Elbas in his experiments and was the second successful one.

The first one had failed and was destroyed and when King Elbas was going to give the title of First Prince to the second creation, it had said that it was Second Prince because it is the second experiment while indicating to the destroyed and failed first experiment.

Second Prince had limitations placed on him because of his potential to be equal to King Elbas since from what I remember, Second Prince is very much like King Elbas in terms of Individuality or some stuff like that.

Second Prince was the strongest of the Elbas family being second only to King Elbas himself, in addition to being nearly Immortal since he is actually a crystal, if the crystal breaks then Second Prince would die.

It's possible that the Second Prince I am seeing is just a false clone of the real one but i guess that's irrelevant.

He just cane along to show that the First Prince was too busy so the Elbas family wanted to show their "sincerity" by sending Second Prince instead.

Regardless, my wedding went very well though I didn't do sex with Ranni yet. My Rank 5 body would destroy her Rank 0 body and kill her if we did try it, so it was just a silent understanding. We did do lots of "lemon" stuff which shall not be described.

(A/n 🖕 hahahahaha! No R18 scenes just yet you Heathens!!!)

I had also been able to convince Ciri to cultivate with us and stay in this world as it will give her the power necessary to help her to become stronger for her loved ones back in her original world.

No new body was needed for Ciri because the Elderblood Gene allowed the user to use a primal magic that was a Source of Mana, essentially she already had her own "Dantian" if you can call it that.

Also this wouldn't cause problems for her because she had the Elderblood which would allow her to Teleport across Space and Time to Time Travel back to her world at the exact moment she left.

As for my family, Jade and Lilith, things have been going better.

I had used a Astral Fang on them to ensure they were telling the truth about them wanting to make ammends with me.

A bit forceful but I was taking no chances at being deceived on the premise of them being "family".

As for what an Astral Fang is, it is like a truth forcing dagger.

When stabbed into the target, they are compelled to tell the truth absolutely.

This had given me the idea when I was still in the Elden Ring universe and used the power of the Elden Ring to create Idrak's Ionic Fangs.

A more potent version of the Astral Blades that can effect any being of Rank 7 and below.

Idrak is the name of an Eldwyrm Dragon from the Dota game and TV series.

Idrak is an Ionic Dragon which are incapable of lies and when they speak they say the truth, be it partial or absolutely, only true words can leave their mouths.

Over the next few decades my relationship with them had improved especially when I now know that they truly meant it.

I tried using Ciri's Elderblood to send another [Shadow Copy] to another universe, but Ciri was targeted by a Rank 5 Heavenly Tribulation as well as me and my [Shadow Copy] the moment I almost sent the [Shadow Copy] to another universe.

Fortunately, Jade had been with Ciri and was talking with her at the time. Jade also being a Rank 5-Solid Cultivator had been able to dispel the Heavenly Tribulation targeting Ciri with ease.

I came to the immediate decision to not use Ciri's Elderblood to try and gather more power from another universe for the foreseeable future.

Furthermore, I had begun the process of becoming a Hybrid with a custom created Magical Beast, which I had used the Elden Ring to create.

I made many Custom Magical Beasts so that it would fuction live the Silver Mimic Tears that the Nox people of the Eternal Cities of the Lands Between had created.

A Mimic Tear is basically just a metallic slime creature that is capable of even mimicking the player in all aspects since Celestial Dew was used to create them through an alchemical process.

I made plenty of them so that all the inhabitants of the Lands Between can use them to imprint themselves onto.

To become a Hybrid the a Magical Beast and the Cultivator in question must have the same personality, Element and be of the same Cultivation level to avoid lethal scenarios from occurring.

There are other requirements but these are the main ones.

In the last few decades I had also met with Ivor, the only person that still knows the Elemental Forging Method.

I used the Elemental Friging Method, once I had improved it, to make each and every single individual into a Hybrid once they prepared their Mimic Tear Magical Beast.

As for myself, I had created a very specific and unique Dragon using the Elden Ring akin to the Elden Beast.

This Custom Dragon had aspects of all the different Runes and Principles that the Elden Ring embodied at the time into itself.

The various Heavenly Tribulations sent to smite my new Hybrids was easily dealt with though some did die, that was not a problem since they were all prepared to face death.

The other Demigods and my family had also became Hybrids once I explained it to them.

Simce they had advanced very rapidly in their Cultivation, just as fast as Noah Balvan had done thanks to their stronger souls and superior intellect, learning and adaptability, they advanced quite far in less than a hundred years.

The following is the individuals and what creature was used to make them into a Hybrid including myself.

Ps, i had also became a Rank 5-Solid Cultivator the last few decades.

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Tallon - Water Primeval Crucible Cosmic Elden Dragon - Rank 5 Solid

Ranni - Water Ancestral Crucible Cosmic Elder Dragon - Rank 5 Liquid

Ariel - Wind (Limgrave) Stormhawk Lord - Rank 5 Gaseous

Shiraori (somehow?) - Darkness Arachne - Rank 4 Solid

Ciri - (All Elements) - (All Elements) Shadowbound Beast (Wolf) - Rank 4 Liquid

Jade - Light Kitsune Fox Empress - Rank 5 Solid (Peak)

Lilith - Water Shen Long Dragon Emperor - Rank 6 Gaseous

Melina - Fire Primeval Shadowbound Beast (Smoldering Phoenix) - Rank 5 Liquid

Godwyn - Lighting Farum Azula Ancient Dragon - Rank 4 Solid (Peak)

Ancient Dragon Fortissax - Lighting Human Cultivator - Rank 4 Solid (Peak)

Ancient Dragon Lansseax - Lighting Human Cultivator - Rank 4 Solid (Peak)

Horah Loux/Godfrey - Earth Shadowbound Beast (Lion) - Rank 5 Liquid

Beast Regant Serosh - Earth Human Cultivator - Rank 5 Gaseous

Morgott - Light Crucible Regal Ancestor Spirit - Rank 5 Gaseous

Rykard - Fire Primeval Serpant Ouroboros - Rank 5 Gaseous

Tanith - Fire Crimson Snake Empress - Rank 4 Gaseous

Malenia - Fire Shadowbound Beast (Aeonian Butterfly) - Rank 5 Gaseous

Miquella - Light Shadowbound Beast (Nascent Faerie Dragon) - Rank 5 Gaseous

Rennala - Water Farm Azula Elder Wyvern - Rank 4 Solid

16 Crucible Knights - Earth Ancestral Crucible Beasts - Rank 5 Gaseous (had a headstart by starting as Rank 4 new body already)

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Lilith and Jade's home, the Starlight Sect where the Luminous Family Manor resides was attacked by a wave of Magical Beast's with many Rank 5 among them and a single Rank 6 Magical Beast.

However, since I had convinced Lilith to move her Sect to Forossa before that suprise event happened, all was well.

However, not everything had been finished and some of the Sect had been destroyed but a majority of it had been salvaged and transported to Forossa in time.

I guess this is why the Luminous Sect didn't exist in the original story of Birth Of The Demonic Sword.

A family as large and well known for giving birth to Light Attribute Cultivators over many generations of my father's Bloodline would have been mentioned once or made an appearance in the original main story.

This must be the reason why they didn't appear, they had been destroyed by the wave of Magical Beasts and the Rank 6 Magical Beast leading the wave.

Because of that, Lilith who was already a Rank 5 Solid Cultivator had been able to breakthrough and became a Rank 6 Gaseous Cultivator with my help and future knowledge advising her.

Lilith advanced to Rank 6 in secret since I told her to do her Tribulation on Forossa, now I had a Rank 6 Powerhouse of my own and could publicly declare Forossa as its own independent Nation whenever I wanted to by deactivating the Formations that keep the Landmass unaccessible and hidden from the rest of the world.

Now that Lilith is a Rank 6 being, I had asked her to collect and gather as many many Rank 5 and Rank 6 Magical Beasts that she could for me and all the Hybrids of Forossa to consume.

However, I didn't kill them off yet but kept them alive.

I was currently developing a Formation technique that could biologically clone the Magical Beasts and their Dantians at the same Rank that they are with as minimal Breath consumption from the environment as possible.

As for the Hybrids of Forossa, I had taken special care to ensuring that the negative side effects to the process would not occur, hence none of my subjects would be consumed by the natural beastial hunger of being a Hybrid.

The two smiths Hewg and Iji had been very busy in the many years since my wedding until now.

They had many apprentices and other smiths working unders them, but why I paired them up together is because I get the best of both worlds.

Iji was the Smith who crafted the Black Knives using the Rune of Death on Ranni's request, all his Weapons were magically imbued and never decayed over time, even the Scarlet Rot in the game couldn't cause it to decay, but they were all blunt. Imagine Gut's Greatsword in the Bersek series.

However, Hewg was a perfectionist, he was imprisoned by Queen Marika inside the Roundtable Hold to create a weapon for the Tarnished Player that is capable of killing a God, the Elden Beast to be specific.

This also meant that Hewg is capable of imbuing a weapon with the power of the Rune of Death since that is the only way to kill Radagon (other half of Marika/Marika herself) and the Elden Beast who are God's in their own ways.

While Hewg can make sharp weapons, Iji will do his own stuff with them, making all the weapons that they create for my kingdom to be of perfect and legendary quality. In addition to teaching them the Elemental Forging Method to help them in the process, my territory is slowly while also rapidly becoming more powerful over time, capable of rivaling the other Factions/Nations.

I stopped my musings of the past asvi received a report from my Spies that Lord Ballor sent his daughter June Ballor to the Royal Academy in the Utra Nation.

'That means the protagonist Noah, under the disguise of Vance, is there as well. It seems his mother had died and the plot has at last begun.' I thought to myself as I went of to prepare for a possible arrival.

I had a Base of Operations on the Main Continent in the same place my Niflheim Sect previously was.

This was so that anyone who needed to get in contact with me could do so through one of my subordinates, or coincidentally encounter me personally.

The mining operations was going very well and helped the Rank 0 population of my territory to use the Vostrum to use the Rank 3 Body Nourishing Method which my spies had discovered from their inflitration into the Empire.

In the upcoming days I had waited here and at last the one I had been expecting had came as I greeted them in my main office.

"Greetings Patriarch of the Balvan Family, to what do I owe this suprise visit from you in the flesh?"

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One note: the reason why everyone didn't react to MC suddenly being 2.5 Meters in height while the other Demigods are similar or slightly smaller than MC is because they don't find it abnormal since the reason for the sudden growth sprout could be the drawback and result of a unknown Body-Nourishing method. While they are suprised by the sudden height, they don't much care about it. Just imagine what it would do to King Elbas' pride to be forced to look up towards someone taller than him for the first time, lol, his pride would get damage along with his Cultivation speed.

I will also explain why Horah Loux/Godfrey is Rank 5 Liquid, along with some other Demigods, since he isn't a born Demigod like the others. Each one of them has a reason for it and I will only explain when it is relevant.

Ps from Author Riku In Real World:

I had to speed up the Chapter and cut the last conversation short so i just did a pov for Lilith for more character depth because my aunt had just suddenly been admitted to hospital yesterday and I had to sped 6 hours standing until she had been processed. My backs killing me cause I had to bend forward the whole time.

Also I posted a new auxiliary chapter detailing Tallon's current forces at the time of the wedding for Forossa and the Niflheim Sect combined.