Gacha Sovereign

When Alex returned, he found Zera with a smug on her face as if she witnessed something amazing that she could make fun of.

"What?" Alex asked with a poker face.

"Nothing." Her tone was playful. She must have thought something inappropriate.

"Anyway, I am going back to cultivate. I can't really waste my time." Alex decided to ignore her thoughts and went back to where he usually practiced.

"Alright. With your pace, I believe you can reach your goal within the time limit." She nodded and left him alone.

After seeing her going inside the house, he proceeded to the cultivation.

There was nothing happening in the meantime. It was a peaceful two months. Even those in Eulja were having their relaxing time, waiting for Alex to return. They were eager to see him again after the information about him coming over to meet up with them rang on their ears.

Obviously, Lin Xingzhi was the one spreading it. They were trying hard to prepare for something special to greet him.

Alex was unaware of the fact that these two months actually gave them a headache. Nonetheless, they felt pretty good about it.

…

Two weeks passed, Aria gradually woke up from her cultivation, knowing that her time was up. She looked at the glowing token and rose from the floor.

Before leaving, she looked at the gate that had disappeared and was never seen again, thinking about Alex. This was the man who changed her life from a dreamer to a fighter. She didn't wish to be a powerful expert anymore. Instead, she fought for it and would attain it by herself.

With another bow, she channeled her Spiritual Energy, and the token teleported her outside the tower.

When she left, she found Ilevis waiting for her alone.

"Peak Master?" Aria was amazed to see someone at her level standing before the gate and waiting for her this whole time.

"Fu." The latter let out a sigh of relief and explained. "I thought something happened to you, considering you are the last one to leave this place."

"I am the last one?" Aria tilted her head in confusion. She thought she would leave this place together with the other people since Alex said there were a few people that managed to get into the fifth stage.

However, Ilevis explained. "The others have left the Pavilion since a week ago."

"Eh?" Aria noticed once again. It was Alex's doing. If not because of Alex, she must only have one week to practice inside the tower. She thought, 'He helped me again. Now, I can finally understand why the Sword God told me how lucky I am…'

She couldn't help but smile.

"Why are you smiling? Do you not know how worried I am?" Ilevis narrowed her eyes.

Aria faced Ilevis with a calm expression while thinking, 'You worry about me? No, you are worried about my ability. Because of what happened to Nyx…Alex, you are afraid that I will suddenly disappear. The worry from you and Alex is far different. One has a hidden intention and the other one has sincerity.'

The thought was harsh but pretty accurate. Unfortunately, Aria couldn't say anything to avoid her suspicion. It would be a problem if she couldn't leave this world in the future. She simply smiled and assured her. "Don't worry. I know how to take care of myself, Peak Master. I won't let anything happen to me before I take care of my revenge for him."

"…" Ilevis frowned. Aria seemed to be "obsessed" with taking her revenge, and every time she advised her, she wouldn't listen.

Little did she know the "revenge" she was talking about was just a fake, just so she could give her a little freedom for missions and her personal matters. And ultimately, she would sneak out of this world.

She smiled and asked. "Should we go back?"

"Y-yeah." Ilevis nodded, and the two flew away.

…

The remaining time passed quickly, and Alex officially had a Rank 8 Sword Qi and Spear Qi. He felt satisfied because there was only one more step to reach Divine Rank.

When he opened his eyes, he found Zera sitting on her couch while sleeping.

Next to her was a mountain of papers that were filled with techniques. She seemed to have done all this without rest for a month or so since she had prepared so many things.

She gradually opened her eyes the moment she realized Alex's presence and hurriedly fixed her appearance. "Ah, I am sorry. I dozed off."

"No, no. I am the one who needs to apologize for waking you up. You have worked hard, so it's better to rest." Alex advised her while glancing over the mountain of works.

"Uh. I wonder why we are always so sleepy when doing all these works while we don't need a single sleep when cultivating for years. Working is really mystical."

"I need to agree with you." Alex nodded in approval.

"Haha! So, what are you going to do now? Leave? There are two more days before the time limit."

"I will use my time efficiently, so I will continue my training, but I will just take a breather for a while. Do you need any help in your work?" Alex asked. Since Zera had been helping him during the practice and would help him taking care of the trio later, he thought he should offer some help as well.

Zera couldn't be happier to introduce Alex to the works, but it turned out she was a sadist. If the work she had finished was big, the task that she introduced was at least ten times what she had done.

Alex immediately took back his words and did a few things to help.

When they were working, Zera suddenly started a random talk about her Master, the Sword God. "Do you know that my Master actually hates you?"

"Yes, I do."

"I wonder why…" Zera sighed. "I mean, you both didn't have a conflict with each other, but Master always talked bad about you. At the same time, he kept smiling every single time. It perplexed us every time we witnessed that.

"I once asked him whether he really hated you, and it turned out he didn't say a single lie." Zera smiled and looked at Alex with a smile.

"So, you are going to take revenge for that hatred?" Alex asked with a calm expression.

"Nope. This was what happened to the Eight Swords. We misunderstood this relationship. In his retirement, I had a chance to ask Master again, finding that it turned out he didn't say all the things about you.

"It was true that he hated you, but there was another meaning behind it. He couldn't comprehend your action and your strength. I mean, whenever you were in a pinch situation and your people were about to be killed, you would become a demon.

"You were the scariest person in the Universe during that time. When he fought against you, he often wished that you knew how to run away. After all, you were a careful person who thought about all risks.

"Yet, that power allowed you to protect your people and became feared, making no one want to mess with you. When I asked him about this, he always told me one story. I know that you don't want to mix your current life with your past life, but I just couldn't help but tell you this story. This was my favorite story when I was young after all.

"Back then, there was a situation where Eulja only had around one hundred God Rank Experts while the enemies had a thousand God Rank Experts. The power level was similar, so this overwhelming number would surely become the downfall.

"But everything happened differently than anyone could predict. Not only could you win the battle, you still had thirty people after killing eight hundred people of your enemies. In the end, the enemies escaped because they felt they would lose.

"You know what happened? You led them in front like a demon god. Despite your injury, you wouldn't think anything other than fighting to open up an escape route for all your subordinates. At that time, your subordinates became something similar to you because of your action.

"They became a symbol of martyrdom. People said you had a few seconds to live when your heart was stabbed, and they exactly used that last second to kill more enemies. It was amazing and scary at the same time.

"And in that battle, you became famous as someone that people shouldn't mess with. My master was around that area, so he witnessed that battle. Of course, you couldn't expect him to help you, right? Considering you were not friends or anything. At the same time, it was at a time like that, my Master started taking a liking to you and tried to understand your strength.

"He always wondered what kind of power could emit a terrifying power like that and the answer was too ridiculous to believe. My Master then ended up believing it and asked us to know about that as well.

"Unfortunately, none of us could become someone like you. What you have is simply nothing but friends. The courage to take on a whole world just for your friends, the strength to gain people's admiration, and the trust between each other.

"Those three…Most people only have the second one. Even when they trust their comrades, people could still find the sliver of doubt in their eyes, so they failed. As for the first one…It was just too ridiculous to be true. Some people tried that and died in the process.

"I am telling you this because I believe you have the potential to surpass your past self and just want to show that even though my Master hated you so much, he also had the utmost respect for you." She cupped her hands and bowed deeply. "You might not be the same person, but I know deep down you are the same. You are…Alexander Sirius after all."

Alex couldn't let out a single word. He never expected to hear a story like this and didn't know how to respond. People often compared himself to his past self, but he paid no heed because he would do what he deemed right.

But in this story, he realized. He is he, the Spirit God is the Spirit God. This won't change. But there was another sentence after that, they both are Alexander Sirius.

Alex closed his eyes and fell into deep thought.

Zera knew that he seemed to have an inner struggle, so she stopped, waiting for him until he finished.

It took him one hour before he finally opened his eyes again. "Thank you for reminding me about this."

"I didn't have that intention though, but I will still claim the thanks."

Alex shook his head helplessly. From what he understood, he didn't compare himself to his previous life wasn't due to them being a separate entity. However, it was all wrong. The only reason was that he escaped from his previous self, afraid to be compared.

It was an act of cowardice. During this conflict, he learned his dignity, responsibility, and determination. He would prove that he, Alexander Sirius, was qualified to be the king of Eulja, not because it came from his past self, but he himself had influenced the people's heart with his action.

Even Zera called him Alexander Sirius was only due to him asking for it along with the influence of the past Spirit God, not because of his name.

"Thanks to you, I have figured out what I need to do." Alex smiled. "This time, I will let people know the name of Alexander Sirius instead of the Spirit God. It will be hard, but it's not impossible."

"I don't know what you want to do, but I wish you the best."

[I will support you in achieving your dream.]

Alex smiled. He knew that all his wives had accepted him for who he is, so he knew he had someone in his back that would support him no matter what, reassuring him.

"Thank you." Alex smiled, saying his thanks not only to Zera but also Lin Xingzhi.