楼上的上瘾女士

Nihasa rolled her eyes at his question, 

"The way you phrased those words makes me sound like some manipulative and insidious bitch" she said as she leaned forward in her throne.

Hal was about to lean back even further from the throne when Nihasa vanished and reappeared behind him smiling.

"Is that not what you are?" Hal asked as he released the throne's armrests and turned to face her.

The throne melted into the darkness of the space but neither mother nor son spared it a glance as they stared at one another.

Nihasa shrugged in response to Hal's question,

"It is. But it's callous of you to say it to my face like that. When all is said and done, I gave you life."

Hal ignored her words, especially the last sentence as he said,

"So what was it? What were you planning?" 

Nihasa shook her head,

"Nothing. I wasn't planning anything." she said.

Hal smiled,

"I don't believe you"

It was not really much of a declaration as his default reaction to whatever Nihasa said was usually utmost disbelief.

"What else is new?" Nihasa said and there was a finality to it that told Hal that she was about to make her exit.

"I wonder how worrying it is to you that with the Dao of Sovereignty, I am moving ever closer to being capable of expunging your will from my soul and bloodline. 

That I am heading ever closer to removing your ability to spy on me through your will and demonic goons within me" he said and Nihasa paused her exiting motions to look at him and smile.

The smile was wicked and her dark eyes seemed to be smoldering as she said,

"It will take a lot more than the comprehension of your Dao to get rid of my ever-present eyes on you" and with that, she left.

Leaving a sort of ominous presence in her wake.

Hal knew she had returned to the darkest part of his soul which was where she had always resided as a sliver of his mother's will whose only duty was to spy on him and report back to the Devil queen.

Hal stared at the spot she had been just seconds before and his mind could not help but become preoccupied with his thoughts.

He would forge ahead and comprehend his Dao (not that he had a choice anymore the moment he entered this space) and wondered what the repercussions would be.

Grimoire could not help him in the comprehension of his Dao after having told Hal that he would have to create his own path from now on as there was no precedence to what he was about to attempt... For what he was about to become.

At one point, Hal wondered if, once he had comprehended his Dao, Primevals or even stronger cultivators, in general, would seek his life in hopes of gaining Sovereignty.

He let go of that thought as foolish eventually.

Daos are not subject to change once they have been comprehended because, at that time, the individual's entire identity becomes tied with their Dao.

They live and quite possibly die by it.

The only possible way to switch would probably require the complete loss of powers in which the individual would have to start from scratch and even then, without a major change in character, the result is usually the same as what they started with.

Hal's thoughts would have probably continued and gotten more exaggerated but the silhouette of a dark and humongous humanoid figure that was suddenly in front of him took priority.

It had begun.

"YOU ATTEMPT THE IMPOSSIBLE. NO ONE CAN BE SOVEREIGN" the large silhouette said and Hal sighed,

"I've heard that a lot already. Doesn't change a thing"

There was a pause and then a deep sounding chuckle that seemed out of place from the gigantic faceless silhouette before it said,

"IT DOESN'T?" after which a force slammed into Hal and forced his head to be flooded with information... Information on all the lives he had lived.

Starting with the most recent.

Hal began to witness it all backward.

Every single memory that had been wiped clean by Nihasa's Reincarnation ring was brought into remembrance and they all came along with excruciating pain.

Pain that had him yelling out in anguish while Sassy looked on, powerless to help.

-------------------------------------------------------

***

As Hal faced tests in hopes of strengthening and comprehending his Dao of Sovereignty, for many, life went on.

All of his women as well as his forces knew he was not dead and they all believed he would one day surely return and while they waited, they were dedicated to their cultivation.

They were dedicated to increasing their strength.

They were dedicated to not being a disappointment to Hal the next time they saw him. 

And so time went by.

Days turned into weeks and weeks into months and before they knew it, a year had passed.

At the Royal Academy, the year of probation was over and unworthy students (those at the bottom of the points table) were being kicked out of the Academy.

Over the course of the year, there had been attempts made by those awarded zero points during the entrance exams to win enough points to remain in the academy.

The easiest way to win points was by winning duels but in all honesty, it was only easy when the proposer of the duel actually believes they are strong enough to win or strong enough to at least not lose in the case of those who wish to just better or display their skills.

There was no rule in the Royal Academy that forced participation in duels but this was a cultivation institute that only accepts the best of the best so it is unavoidable that there would be a lot of huge egos walking around.

A gentle shove was usually all that was needed to rouse the tense, battle-ready spirit within the average student.

And so while doing missions to gain points was also a valid option, not many take it.

Early on in the school year, a little after Hal left the Royal Academy to go to Doxon, students were beginning to apply to join student Guilds while some, those considered especially talented were targets of honey words of interested Guilds who hoped to get them to join.

Melinda was a target of quite a few guilds but her reply to all of them was 'No'. 

And in the case where they became adamant and annoying, she let her irritation get the best of her and claim the Student guild system was basically built to take advantage of new students such as herself.

She was speaking facts that she had gotten from her research into the Student Guild system and interestingly deep knowledge of what life within the top guilds was like.

There were rankings for student Guilds within the Royal academy and those at the top always received certain privileges that proved they were a cut above the rest.

The rankings were based on the 'collective' efforts of all members in the guilds.

Not just positive but negative as well.

This means the victory of a member of a guild is the victory of the guild and their defeat is the defeat of the guild.

The victory adds points to the guild tally and defeat takes out of it.

Ordinarily, there was nothing wrong with this as it was a fairly easy system to follow, however, what Melinda hated was how all new recruits were quickly restricted to what they could do on account of how it could affect the guild as a collective whole.

And then there was the fact that as weakest and newest in the guild, when it was time to distribute rewards and allocate privileges, the new recruits always got the short end of the stick.

Now, it is worth noting that Melinda understood that usually, it was not the fault of the guilds... She knew they were usually not actively cheating the new recruits and just had too many members to care about and keep a tight hold on that they just had to be tough and harsh most of the time.

But it was hard to be empathetic of their predicament when every year they would still recruit as many worthy new students as they could.

Why?

Because the more the members, the more the avenue to get points that will help the collective whole of that particular guild.