Reaper of the Martial World

Book 9: Chapter 54: Mortal (3)

The atmosphere was slightly awkward. Several dozen mortals stood before Dyon, their heads hanging low. They didn’t need to be geniuses to know that Dyon was disappointed in them.

Though they had some resentment because Dyon brought them to this world then all but abandoned them, they couldn’t bring themselves to shamelessly say this.

Had he ever let them starve? No. Had they ever wanted for anything? No. Had they been treated with love and respect? Yes.

But, any resentment they might have had vanished into the air when Dyon spoke.

“I’ve failed you all.”

They all stood in the plain grey landscape beneath Soul Palace. The large space had remained relatively unused. In fact, Dyon planned on turning this location into the Sacharro Clan’s land as Madeleine asked. With some effort, bringing beautiful soil, plants and trees here wouldn’t be difficult. Also, it wasn’t impossible for Dyon to add a reflection of the sky to cover the bland grey walls as well.

But for now, this wasn’t what was on his mind. He needed a solution for the mental hurdles facing his people.

The issue was that this was a matter of culture. How many from the mortal world could pick up everything and live life in a world filled with slaughter? Maybe only a very few rare minority could.

Although these kids were born in harsh conditions, relatively speaking, the reality still stood that the weak Legacy Worlds they had lived in couldn’t compare to the real martial world. This truth was depressing for them.

Allura, Sibyl and Kedar hung their heads lowly. They came with such confidence but had greatly disappointed their own expectations.

Somehow, hearing Dyon blame himself, they only felt worse.

“You all have power within you far exceeding anything many of the martial world could ever imagine. Each and every one of you is talented beyond believe. It’s just that you don’t believe in yourselves as much as you should.

“This world is a cruel place. You grew up, instilled with beliefs about equality of the genders and races, about the basic human rights of every person, that murder is bad and turning the other cheek was good.

“However, now you’re in a world where everything has been flipped on its head. The powerful rule everything, nothing is more important that your blood and lineage, and death follows even the slightest of slights.

“I understand. It’s jarring. And you shouldn’t have had to face that alone.”

Kedar smiled bitterly. “It’s a nice excuse, but you don’t seem to have that problem, brother.”

Kedar was the only male of the three first geniuses birthed to the mortals. The poor guy fell in love with Clara at first sight, only to then learn that she was Dyon’s wife. He vowed then to grow strong enough to defeat Dyon, but here he was, displaying his cowardice in full view. How could Clara love a man like him? It was obvious that only someone as valiant as Dyon was worthy of her. Images of him single handedly winning the Five Clan Beast Alliance war still played in his mind.

Dyon sighed. It was true he never had that problem, but that was because he was arrogant beyond belief, at least, that was the simple answer.

He simply refused to allow anything to affect his mental state. This was why the matters surrounding the Chaos Flame were a blight on his heart for so long.

However, Dyon didn’t say this. If his response to Kedar’s words were that he needed to be more arrogant, he might as well stop trying to be a leader all together. That wasn’t what they needed to hear.

“Do you know why it seems that way…?”

The youths slowly raised their heads to meet Dyon’s gaze. Dyon slowly began to project some of his memories.

“When I first got to the martial world, I got the shit kicked out of me. In fact, if it wasn’t for Demon General Ava Sicarius, I would have died that day.”

Seeing images of Dyon getting his arms broken by Darius then spit on by Red and Blue sent the emotions of the youths into a spiral.

“Soon after, I met my first wife and her elder brother tried to kill me… After that, I was forced to battle for my life against 11 God Clan geniuses and could only allow my wife to be taken by her master… I lost count the number of times I almost died in the Elvin Kingdom… My own allies tried to kill me during my first campaign… The Ragnors descended and had plotted everything… King Belmont actually thought he had the right to test me to decide IF I could marry my own wife…

“The tower… The trials… The Cathedral… The Valley of Geniuses…”

The youths watched what seemed like Dyon’s life story.

“I don’t seem more well adjusted than you all because I’m better than you. I was simply thrust into a situation where I had no choice.

“We humans, especially us mortals, have always been creatures who quickly adapted to changes. Even after having our cultivation talent stripped from us, we all saw how beautiful and grand the society we built was.

“Who would think that mortals could build towers over a kilometer tall? Who would think that mortals could walk through space? Who would think that mortals could do even half of what we succeeded in doing?

“Do you know why I insisted on calling us the Mortal Alliance, why I will call us the Mortal Empire? It’s because these are our roots, this is our history.

“Remember where you came from, remember what your ancestors before you were able to accomplish without even a fraction of your current strength. Hold your heads high.”

The hearts of the mortal youths pumped despite themselves. They couldn’t help but feel their faces flush with excitement.

“For the coming battle, you will all follow me. I’ll show you the way. Together, we’ll get revenge for what the martial world did to us in our infancy.”

Dyon’s eyes scanned them one by one.

“Are you with me?!”

“YES!”  

A cry without hesitation rang through the hollow space… A cry filled with hope.