BXBX NOVEL Chapter 309: For the Grand Collective.
"I do not understand, was the whole point of this excercise to point out how much they were lacking?" Cecelia asked with a frown.
"Even if you are looking for the best amongest the best there had to be more than just one person who could have been useful, you also explained latent talent and the possibility of those who were late bloomers like Dina, maybe there are a few Vatui like her hidden in the crowd here as well?" She gestured to them, but Ikaris shook her head with a scoff and raised her hand toward the encampment while Dina returned, using her mana like a telekinetic hand to carry Cosmo a few metres behind herself.
"That is unlikely," Ikaris answered shaking her head a second time casting [Greater Heal] across the encampment and mending everyone of even the simple scratches that they acquired in their scuffling with Dina.
"Dina Levina, Han Young, Bruce Chaolong, Eris Schneider, Usami Takae and Sol Vestic, what set them apart from the rest is that they were the only ones capable of doing what they did," She explained, "Master is a special case, he is not just one in eight billion like the rest of them; he is one in a Collective, he was chosen by the collective itself to save it, the other five in comaprison were the only humans on earth who qualified to be transmigrated and turned into powerful heroes, there won\'t be anyone like them in such a small group, the possibilities fall too far below zero- we don\'t have that kind of luck," Ikaris explained while Arla and the others nodded in agreement.
"The heroes\' summoning exchanged the souls of the most powerful mages on all of Arkadia to carry us over," Ikaris stared at her hand after she had finished healing the masses, flashing her fingers with a look of surprise when her mana turned from white to gold for a few seconds again.
"Is your mana okay, Milady?" Arla asked.
"Her mana?" Dina looked up as soon as she landed, staring at Ikaris with an expression of concern. "Did something happen whe I wasn\'t paying attention?" She approached Ikaris and took her hand, looking at the residual golden mana while it disssipated.
"No, this is fine, my mana has been undergoing change ever since Master became Godslayer, remember, it is only a matter of time before it is completely new in nature; I had only assumed that the change would have been a lot slower; my initial prediction was over a hundred years of metamorphisis but I can hardly recognise my mana currently, the process must have sped up somehow without me realising it."
"Your soul\'s garden, no doubt that must be the reason," Arla suggested. "I have yet to get mine, but from my understanding it is like gaining several thousand years of mana stacked over a small period of time," She spoke up and dina snapped her fingers in agreement.
"Indeed, with master\'s mana constantly multiplyig like that because of the new births it only makes sense that your already large mana pool would be influenced faster than you initially calculated, I mean look at me as an example; my mana doesn\'t look or feel anything close to what it was before assimilation." Dina added and Ikaris accepted that with a nod.
"What the heck are they talking about this time?" Jenifer looked at Keele who shrugged and looked at Cecelia, but she also shook her head and shrugged since they had not been made privy to Sol\'s ability to separate parts of his Collective safely and implant
raw mana along with the birthing universes inside if someone else\'s soul as long as they could withstand the pressure and backlash of their soul suddenly getting enriched with the pure power of something as massive as a universe.
"Mine has multiplied to a few hundred now, I have access to less than a percent of my dormant powers," Dina looked at Ikaris seriously.
"Of course, I have been tapping into that power ever since Talia began eating my mana, it makes sense that my calculations would be off with such a large factor of my current strength changing with the use of his mana." Ikaris looked to the crowds again, walking forward and standing with her hands outstretched as she quieted their idle chatter after what had just happened.
"Princess, we failed to meet your expectations, right?" A random face in the crowd asked.
"You did, yes," Ikaris answered almost a little too quickly. "Aside from Cosmo, everyone else here has too little battle experience to go up against the heartless Emporium, for your safety as well as my peace of mind, it is better if you stay away from the fighting for now; mana was granted to you so you have the opportunity to learn how to properly utilize it before we return."
"How long do they have?" Hudor aslked.
"Not just them, Hudor, you as well," Ikaris looked around at him.
"That is the best choice, you have a history of making bad decisions and making no decision when there should clearly be one, you need to learn a lot before you can fight by the princesses side," Zara pat his shoulder with a consoling smile seeing his expression falter and his shoulders slouch.
"Cheer up, Hudor, take the time to be with your people and learn with them, you spent so much time leading them that you have forgotten that you too are a part of them."
"I agree, even now I have yet to look at my husband..." Cecelia lowered her gaze. "I do not deserve such a loyal man, not after what I did in the name of keeping everyone safe from the General\'s search." She closed her eyes and balled her fists. "I can feel his gaze, but I am unable to meet it," She shuddered.
"With your mind in such a state, Cecelia, is it okay for you to be on the battlefield?" Keele asked but the white-haired woman shook her head of said thoughts and looked up with a determined glare. "???"
"My place is behind Her Highness, I will do what must be done for the sake of the Vatui race, my happiness... my punishment, whatever he decides can wait."
"I would never..." Ikaris shook her head in disbelief at what Cecelia had uttered; merely thinking that there was a chance that she would never see Sol or Talia again made her want to abandon everything and run home, but at the same time that she started faltering in her resolve she heard Sol\'s voice in her head, along with Dina and Arla.
[We do what we do because nobody else can do it, we keep pressing forward for the sake of the Grand Collective.]
Like a newly converted believer, Arla sunk to her seat and clasped her hands, staring into the sky while Dina did the same, Ikaris in contrast smiled and clasped her hands, looking to the skies with an expression or reverence as their sigils hummed in tandem several times before going dark again.
"Was that resonance again, what happened?"
"Nevermind all of that, we have a lot to do and a limited pool of time to accomplish it; we need to erase the presence of the Emporium from the Khalla-Nova Collective as fast as possible, we burn through our mana and souls if we have to," Ikaris declared, staring to the mass one last time.
"Everyone, train diligently, do not rest in my absence, I will return in exactly one month to take with me the strongest among you, likely with more refugees and possibly a new home, I do not have the time to explain so I am giving the system permission to answer any question in my absence, this concerns the state of the Emporium, The Grand Collective, and the true reason we need to purge them with such haste, everyone, we\'re leaving."
"It sounds like sometning big is happening behind the scenes," Hudor looked at Cecelia for a response and she nodded with a bead of sweat rolling down her cheek and then looked at Ikaris again.
"I will check on you soon, do not slack off." Zara aimed her fingers at the pseudo leader and he raised his hands in defeat and nodded.
"Understood, Ma\'am," Hudor chuckled. "If mana is as amazing as you make it look, I want to become a soverign with it, I will grow fast and steer clear of my former attitude, Princess, thank you for believing in us; thank you for this opportunity to right our wrongs, I will not fail you a second time!" Hudor sunk to his knees with his eyes watering and sweat dripping down his forehead.
"What is that idiot saying this time?" One of the men that had been mentally scarred by Dina leaned his head with a loud scoff. "He-"
"You fools!" Hudor exclaimed after Ikaris and the others had vanished inside of a glowing door. "Don;t you see that we are to blame as much as the princess is?" Hudor stared at them.
"She was heading the war, she was at the forefront and those who were in charge of the King\'s safety failed him, before she even disappeared we failed her as her trusted subjects!" He stomped then glanced at Alpha who quietly stood next to him staring at them all.
"There is something at stake here even more important than the Vatui crown, more important than who leads us, Her Highness is on a mission after so many years of being absent, she needs us again, will your pride not allow you to properly serve our Beloved Princess?!"
"She doesn\'t even consider herself our beloved princess anymore!"
"This is not about her," Alpha spoke directly into their heads when Hudor nearly attacked the man. "The grand collective is in grave danger of being annihilated by a being with power on par with Master Vestic.
Master deterred him once before and he has gone into hiding, but the threat is more present now than ever before, the Emporium is in the way of allowing master to act freely in his pursuit of this threat, he needs the Emporium gone and he has chosen Ikaris as his acting voice and hand of eradication, set aside your personal feelings and try to understand something very important here; Alpha\'s eyes glowed menacingly as she exerted mana for the first time ever.
"You are at war with a force of darkness that has the power to end all realities on a whim, the Emporium is a stepping stone, Ikaris is another cog in the machine, and our only hope of being saved is Sol Vestic, advocate chosen by Light to fight said Darkness; raise your battle prowess and become reliable assets to my Lord, you do not fight for the Vatui nor the Godslayer races, your fight is for the survival of the Grand Collective."