Chapter 1334: Love Or Obligation? 2
Chapter 1334: Love Or Obligation? 2
Draco choosing to acknowledge this was something she did not expect, and she never predicted that things would end this way. In her mind, this was realistically one of her worst fears, that this matter would be brought out and estrange them from each other.
However, Draco quite literally dragged out her biggest insecurity and fear then beat it up until it cried uncle. Now, she felt so silly for ever thinking the way she did before, and realizing this did not make her feel ashamed, but rather all the more happier.
Wiping a tear from her eyes, Shuangtian couldn't help but joke despite herself. "I can now see why even the lazy Zaine is so dedicated to you. You have a way with words, Draco Morningstar."
Draco smiled and folded his arms. "The words are sweet, sure, but the intention behind them is what matters for us both."
Draco looked away, into the distance with a thin smile. "I have many flaws, too many to count. One that I don't have is lying to the women I love, or anyone I love for that matter. Not now, not ever."
Shuangtian had gathered herself by now and regained her air of belligerent majesty akin to a warrior princess. She nodded in agreement, recalling that indeed, Draco had never actually lied or been untruthful to them, with everything he did being open and aboveboard.
Maybe this was the result of his rough upbringing pre-Boundless in both timelines. After all, whether it was this timeline or the previous one, there was one immutable fact, which was that he had spent 21 years alone, in a low-income slum area while having a mysterious 'curse' that made others want to bully him.
Up until now, even Draco did not know the reason for this, but he felt it had something to do with the great three mysteries about their situation.
What are they?
The first was the most important, the mystery of their remuneration, or regression rather. Who did it, why did they do it, and what were they to gain from it?
The second was the strange deific nature they possessed. The Eternal bloodlines, Control and their status as clones of the top three of the original nine were powerful, but it was clear that they — Draco, Eva and now Shuangtian — possess something more that qualifies them to sit on a throne far higher than anything they could comprehend.
Caelo confirmed this, The Will of the Eternal Plane confirmed this and so too did Anubesetesh.
The third and final was the origin of the AI and who its creator was. Draco had once suspected Lucifer, but he had just vanquished the fellow a few moments ago and could tell you that whether it was their regression or the AI, the fellow had nothing to do with it.
These three great mysteries were their biggest issues so far, and every other mystery fell beneath them, some even linking to them, like Draco's aforementioned 'bully-able' nature when his bloodline was sealed or the strange Innate Technique Generator he and Essence Stalker had.
Too many mysteries, too few answers.
Shuangtian was now much better and seemed far more confident about herself and one could see a relaxed nature in her posture. Seeing her like this, Draco smiled then turned to Eva, who seemed relieved that it was all over.
"And then there's you."
Eva visibly flinched, slightly shocked that the topic suddenly switched to her and given what Shuangtian just received, she was not looking forward to what came next.
"Draco, can we not do this right now?" Eva asked softly, putting on a slightly pitiful expression.
Looking at such a beautiful woman making such an expression, even the tough Shuangtian felt extreme sympathy and was about to ask Draco to drop the matter, but her expression faltered when she saw Draco's sneer.
"Nice try, you wretched witch. Do you think that after dealing with that cad, Lucifer, I cannot tell that you are also subtly influencing my wife?" Draco suddenly stretched a hand out as the strange symbol appeared on his forehead.
Immediately, the same symbol appeared on Eva's forehead and immediately, the celestial beauty found that she could access none of her tyrannical bloodline power at all.
Her expression shifted to one of shock and fury as she exploded with her power, straining against the seal, but was surprised to find that it was extremely solid. Looking up, she saw that Draco was strained too but not as much as he had been when he sealed Shuangtian.
"Don't look defeated, the problem is not you, it's me. After struggling to deal with Shuang'er, I have developed better ways to implement the seal, not to mention I placed it in you beforehand."
Draco's words made Eva give up on the struggle as her expression became ugly, and her dissatisfaction was visible on her face. Meanwhile, Shuangtian was shocked and slightly overwhelmed by the sudden change, not knowing what to do for a second.
"Draco, what are you doing?!" Eva roared. Even if she was willing to forbear often, she still had her own pride and standards, so she couldn't just let him mistreat her at the slightest instance!
Shuangtian looked over, wanting to know the answer to this as well. The entire situation was not just bizarre, but truly frightening when one took into account that even at his lowest, Draco had never mishandled Eva in this timeline after reconciling!
Draco tilted his head with amusement. "What am I doing? That's a good question, Amaterasu, what do you think I'm doing?"
Both Eva and Shuangtian were stunned, not expecting it to be about this. Eva even visibly relaxed and seemed to look at Draco with a hint of speechlessness.
"So it's about this? What, you think Amaterasu has taken over my mind and soul like Lucifer tried with you?"
Shuangtian shook her head but did not speak. After her heart to heart with Draco, not to mention his outing of the hidden Lucifer, his credibility for these things was incredibly high.
You could call him an edgelord and you could say he was the strongest of the 'Dracos', but one thing that was for sure was that this fellow was extremely good at identifying problems and then resolving them using his own methods.
Draco raised an eyebrow. "Is that not the case, Lady Amaterasu?"
Eva shook her head and folded her arms. "Draco… there is no hidden takeover here. I literally willingly merged with Amaterasu to achieve equilibrium, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to achieve a deeper connection to my bloodline back then."
Shuangtian nodded as this was true, glancing at Draco to see his rebuttal. However, Draco simply sneered and lowered his outstretched finger.
"What nonsense! Willingly merged? Why don't we replay those memories and see if there was any willingness in them?"
Draco didn't ask for their opinions as he hijacked their mental channel and took them back many years in Boundless, back to the era of Riveting Night.
..............
Eva's mind recoiled as Draco's will forcibly pulled her through her own memories, dragging her back to that distant time in Boundless when she had first undergone the Ascension Ceremony.
She remembered the realm of endless abyssal darkness, a space where the thin lighting barely revealed the endless rows of statues, each representing different aspects of the bloodline she possessed.
She saw the shadowy form, the same as the unknown entity she'd purchased from the Bazaar so long ago, its presence now revealed as a warped version of the Heavenly Goddess branch, which also morphed into the Mother of the Abyss Branch.
She recalled the oppressive aura of the aberrant statues that had loomed behind the Mother of the Abyss, the monstrous Void Beholder with its multitude of tentacles with eyes, the infamous Cthulhu and the other statues that radiated a promise of a pain worse than death.
She remembered Amaterasu's visage among them, wearing a golden robe while being benevolently serene, an aura of divinity that had even moved her evil heart as Riveting Night.
It was truly a point of arrogance in now knowing that this was the Light Angel branch, formerly believed to be the Celestial Maiden. Rather than a brave angel maiden, Amaterasu had styled the branch after her own visage, believing its 'enhancing beauty', 'extreme sexual prowess' and 'mental domination over mortals' was perfectly represented by herself.
It took Eva so much effort to cleanse this branch back then. It was even worse when she remembered the pain of having to tear away her own skin and don a new one to align with that warped inheritance back then during the Ascension Ceremony.
It was as if Amaterasu was telling her that her human visage as Eva was not good enough, and she had to wear the skin of Amaterasu herself to be qualified.
And then came the cleansing flame of the white sun representing the Goddess of Light, arguably the only inheritance that actively supported her back then, releasing a searing light that burned her soul's filth.
It had nearly annihilated every bit of impurity of her being and even had accepted her 'unholy' nature, merging it with its power to form a unique expression of 'justice' rather than some rigid, imposed morality.
Eva in the real world clutched her temples which were exploding with energy, her pristine white teeth gritted to the utmost limit while her golden eyes became bloodshot.
These memories now threatened to overwhelm her as Draco forced them forward. Even the him during that period of time had seen it all thanks to the AI warning him about Eva's anomaly.
The statues, the miasma, the flayed skin, the light of judgment all swirled in her mind like a sped-up video, played over and over again until it finally broke through and showed that final moment.
The decayed throne.
An empty, broken symbol of what had once been a legacy of light.
"Before we unlocked 100% of our bloodline power, we were stuck at 99% and were beholden to the whims of our bloodline avatars. To access stronger power within our bloodline without being able to breakthrough, we had to dig deeper into the abilities we were limited to, and to achieve this, the AI facilitated a connection with our bloodline source in the form of the Ascension Ceremony," Draco stated with his arms folded behind his back, his expression cold.
Shuangtian sighed deeply. She had a clue of what Draco was getting at, but looking back, he was talking about things that they hadn't known at the time. The Draco and Eva of that era once thought that the Ascension Ceremony was a step-by-step process to reach 100% bloodline, so they had taken it seriously… more seriously than it actually deserved.
Who would have thought Lucitera's birth would change everything? It even gave them the capital to come and save her, changing their fate forever and linking the three of them together and bringing the kind of balance that Draco spoke about just now.
"I was mostly okay. Lucifer handled the bloodline well and had no intentions of invading back then, so my avatars only need a bit of show from me to wholly invest. You, on the other hand, had the unfortunate fate of descending from the most pretentious bitch in history," Draco said bluntly, making Eva's expression warp slightly.
"Amaterasu, you might not have intended to take over Eva initially, but like any arrogant parent, you disliked how she developed into Riveting Night and wanted to remake her in the image you felt was fitting for your reincarnation."
Draco snorted. "However, you didn't dare do it directly because you were only a remnant will, with only some mild authority and no power. Given how cruel and decisive Riveting Night was, if you dared to cause trouble she wouldn't hesitate to destroy you on the spot, so you chose to play tricks."