Hours passed.
Samael sat within his bubble, thirteen rings standing proudly at his back, their amethyst hue just as blinding as it was beautiful.
Comfortably, he stood at the peak of the Harmonic Echelon stage.
Exhaling a breath, he finally allowed his body to relax, taking a few moments to feel the horrifying power that flooded his flesh—along with the speed of his mind, which simply made no sense for someone in the awakening realm.
'Decent.'
Looking around, he nodded at the presence of the tribulation, which had only kept growing over time.
Technically, he hadn't passed it.
The potency of the flames and lightning that swam within its midst had reached a ridiculous level.
And still, he didn't plan on letting it touch him.
The reason why he'd let the tribulation accumulate and fester, growing and becoming more and more dangerous, was simple.
Fuel—it would act as fuel for his seed.
Not just fuel, but foundation as well. Just like the Puffer Sark Bloodmead acted as the core of his seed, this tribulation, too, would become a part of it.
WHOOOSH!
Samael's thirteen Qi Rings expanded and began to spin, a terrifying vortex of suction forming as, against the will of the tribulation itself, it broke down.
Devoured by the rings, it shrunk down, unravelled, and dissolved.
It became nourishment.
A roar echoed above, followed by the distant hum of collapsing thunder.
The skies flickered, panicked, as if reluctant to give up their judgment. But judgment no longer had a place here.
.
.
.
.
Myelle was startled, seeing Samael suddenly drop down from the skies, the tribulation fading without ceremony.
The formation that had engulfed the arena cracked and shattered just as Samael's feet softly touched the icy floors of the coliseum.
He began walking toward Myelle just as the latter stood up, brushing off the cold and broken shards of snow clinging to his robes.
"Are you done?" Myelle asked, dusting himself off. "You should've let me know ahead of time that it would take this long," he complained, stretching slightly as strength rushed back into his limbs with euphoric clarity.
"Also, I must say—this formation you've come up with, if you sold it, you could make quite the sum. Even more so if you sold that tribulation summoning method."
Samael chuckled. "Don't try and groom me into your nonsense. I'm sure you all already have your own methods to do the same."
Myelle's brow twitched hearing this. "You can never have enough methods. And as far as I'm aware, we have no methods that allow a mortal to cast a formation of such scale and effect with no resources."
"How did you even cast this? From the footage I have, the formalism just… magically appeared."
Samael shook his head once more. "You're a terrible predator. Aren't you supposed to goad me first? Look at you—vying for my secrets already."
"As for how I did it? I simply drew it using qi." He pointed at his crown. "This artefact makes it quite easy."
Reaching Myelle's position, Samael's foot tapped down, and a seat of ice appeared beside him, upon which he sat with little concern.
"So, how do we do this?" he asked with a yawn. "Do we fight to make it believable, or will you be making up a lie on my behalf?"
Myelle folded his arms, tilting his head slightly. "We? What makes you believe there's a 'we' in this? As far as I am aware, you are a criminal I've been tasked to arrest and bring to justice."
"How dare you insinuate a speck of corruption in my holy soul?!"
"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say." Samael rolled his eyes.
Taking his crown, he tossed it to him. Then, forming a slab of ice in his hands, he drew a few runes onto it before throwing that at him too.
"Use this to make false footage of the battle that happened here."
Myelle's eyes widened. "Are you stupid? They'll be able to see through this in a—"
"I'm stupid?" Samael cut in. "I just summoned a tribulation that engulfed the entire sector with a formation I drew in less than five minutes, and you doubt I'd be able to fool whatever superiors you have?"
"I'm the stupid one?"
Pushing down his embarrassment, Myelle stored the crown and slab of ice away, walking over to Samael to cuff him and finally take him away.
Whatever plan Samael had, Myelle was more than a little curious to see how it would unfold.
After all, he was quite bored with his life anyway.
—
—
News immediately broke out.
The entity that had plunged the capital into darkness days ago, destroyed the Everheart sector, and summoned not one but two tribulations over the entire city, was not some ancient horror or forgotten god.
He was a young boy. A boy merely weeks away from his sixteenth birthday.
The social landscape of the empire had already been shaken by rumors surrounding the youngest royal heir and the implications of his future. But this incident tipped it over entirely.
The news spread beyond the capital—to provinces of the empire and even to the foreign lands surrounding it.
The hidden powers of the world received the whispers and warnings. And beneath the veils of society, figures and shadows began to move—planning, conspiring, and preparing.
Unrest bubbled within the hearts of the people. Worry spread like wildfire across the sectors.
This was further exacerbated by the fact that the young man hadn't just killed an Elder of the Void Trading Alliance—sparking tensions and the looming threat of war—but had also been arrested.
Not by the Royal Guard. But by the Grand Order Council.
War with the Void Trading Alliance was now on the table. The fragile balance maintained with the Grand Order Council had been broken. And the empire itself stood in danger.
Could the Royal Guard no longer be trusted within their own lands? Were the people even safe anymore?
Was the crown… fading?
In nothing but a few days, a thousand eras of peace and trust had been disrupted—so much so that envoys of the empire were forced to come forward to assure the people.
And of course, the bigger the issue became—and the more forces that were implicated—the harsher the young boy's sentencing would be.
He was assured to receive the death penalty.
And all of this played within the palm of Samael's hand—at the expense of his elders' sanity.
Soon, it would all pay off.