Chapter 623: [623] Oh supreme.
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Alan was a bit taken aback by her question. She looked at him with eyes full of expectation, but unfortunately, she was looking at the wrong person.
Whenever Alan met Lanesha these days in a physical or spiritual body, she would always talk about fate, always... He would always feel sick, as she never stopped talking about how marvelous and hideous it was. But then again, because he had been listening to her for so long about "fate". He did have a response.
"Aren"t you contradicting yourself?"
Her gaze deepened. Alan felt as if she was simply contradicting herself, all this time she went on and on about how everything, no matter how large or insignificant, was connected to fate. That everything had a path to be followed, dictated by fate. She also mentioned how the fate she was talking about was different from the element of fate, that the celestials utilized.
According to her, everything had a destiny that must be followed, no matter what. Even those who knew their fate and tried to change it, as powerful as they were, were unable to do so. The most they were able to do was change minor things that would not dictate the end result. No matter what, their efforts would be futile to the end result dictated by fate.
If it was fate, it must happen. It is bound to happen, and that cannot be changed, no matter what.
"Yes, you"re right. That would be contradicting myself."
She looked up towards the sky, or at least the ceiling of her colossal palace. Alan followed her gaze but couldn"t see the ceiling at all, only a ma.s.s of impenetrable darkness. He shivered, the recent nightmares related to the Supreme of Darkness, Valus, did not help at all.
She took a deep breath, her eyes, much like his, shone like the diamonds they were, and she looked down once more.
"Isn"t the sky beautiful, Alan?"
"... I don"t know, I can"t see it."
"Oh."
She looked once more and let out a chuckle. With a smile on her face, she said.
"Well, you will be fascinated with the night sky of Lanekia, it"s much greater than that of Earth and...what do you call that other planet?"
"Gigantia."
"Ah, yes, that one!"
"So...can I know why you called us here? For real now, please don"t talk about fate once more..."
"Does a mother need a reason to see her son"s face?"
Thankfully, She didn"t go on another lecture about fate, much to Alan"s liking. He tried his best to make sure that did not happen.
"Fair enough, but why have your son be accompanied by so many people?"
Lanesha smiled, and said.
"It"s because you alone won"t be able to accomplish the trials set by mother." "What?"
"She is so stingy, you know! I already tried my best to avoid this, but I just can"t with her! What more do you need to prove that you are worthy of my legacy? If I say that you are my son, and have shared mine and her ichor with you, accepted you into my house as my own flesh and blood, what more do you have to prove?"
"Is she talking about... Ariel?"
Alan thought, a bit bewildered by her outburst. Lanesha seemed to be displeased about whatever she was talking about. Regardless, Alan was happy this was not related to fate.
"So... I"m guessing Ariel wants me to...prove myself?"
If that was the case, he was ready to do it, although he still didn"t understand why he had to bring the others here. He could understand Kazikato, since he was the actual son of her eldest child. Not like Alan.
"Yes, and I can"t even say no because she is doing out of love and care for you! It"s quite annoying how mother decides to show affection."
He had to agree with that, Ariel...wasn"t really someone who struck him as someone who could show affection. Especially ever since he had read those texts in his dreams. He didn"t know if they were truly authentic, but the dragon tongue seemed real to him at the very least.
She was described as the being who created the very concept of death, of an end...so anyone that didn"t have chills whenever she was mentioned had to be insane. Could a being like that truly be capable of showing affection.
"... Actually..."
The texts did also say how crazy she went after she lost her eldest daughter...and how she ripped apart The Shape-shifter of the Divine, Trickster of the Profane, a being who was also of the [Primordial] rank like her. He just didn"t know if he was someone who would actually receive her affection like Kazikato. He was, after all, not truly her blood from birth.
Although she did go through the effort of creating the new version of the system though, as much as it was lacking. Alan had a though that, if Ariel wanted, she could probably make this new system equal to the original, or even upgrade it in some aspects. That was up to her,
though.
"Love, huh..."
From Ariel of all dragons...the very dragon that would always try to mess with him whenever he was in her realm, and also made the process of absorbing her drop of ichor absolutely torture. Lanesha did describe her as someone strict or "spartan" like, but it was indeed too much. He didn"t have any hope of clearing whatever trials she had planned at his current level of strength.
"Alan, as soon as I chose you and decided to give my blessing to you, you were family. Stop thinking about such thoughts."
He felt as if he was flicked in the head, although Lanesha didn"t move at all, neither did she manipulate mana to do it for her. She could always read his thoughts....unpleasant as it was.
"Whatever, it"s probably something way above my level."
Alan sighed and left those thoughts of his behind, trying to accept it as it was. He asked.
"So, what are these trials that I have to clear in order to get my... grandmother to approve of me?"
He was actually going to call her something else, the t.i.tle used to refer to someone that was the head of a family, but he didn"t quite know what it was. Patriarch? Matriarch? He judged it was probably one of those two and decided to ask the rest about it later.
Lanesha"s smile vanished from her face, and she said in a somber tone.
"You should be seeing them in front of you, soon enough?"
Alan raised his brows, and looked in front of him, expecting a black window to appear out of
this thin-air.
And soon it did.