楼上的上瘾女士

Hal had reverted his eyes to how they were before his creation of Infinity (Blue irises and white sclera) and that took away his infinite pull but was the only change to his appearance.

His black hair retained its nightmarish hue and while his cultivation remained hidden, he was now constantly exuding authority that he could/did not want to stop.

The journey to the Rose Petal Hotel was fairly quick with the use of a commercial carriage and once he arrived, he made his way in with no one trying to bar his way or asking for credentials to prove that he was authorized to be there.

They all just let him move as he pleased and soon, he was giving a rapt knock to Tanya's office and only entered when he heard the granted permission from behind the door.

No guards were guarding the office and in all honesty, that was not needed.

The moment Hal opened the door and before he actually stepped foot in the room, he took notice that there was someone else in there besides Tanya...

"And so we meet again, Hal Doxon," the Empress of the Haron Empire said and she was seating behind the desk in the chair that should have been for Tanya.

As it should be, Tanya had given the seat to her mother out of respect for the established hierarchy.

"Your majesty" Hal smile and gave a small bow but while the motion was respectful, the smile on his face and the air he was giving off was not... It was jovial... Friendly...

The Empress caught on to this but she ignored it as she said,

"Can we assume that this is you finally making an effort to return to the Royal Academy? Your studies have been on hold for far too long"

'Studies?' Hal thought and then looked over at Tanya who just shrugged.

That single shrug from Tanya was a disclaimer that she had no idea what her mother was on about and the meeting she had organized had nothing to do with it.

Hal faced the Empress,

"Probably not. I've been a bit busy you see" he said.

The Empress nodded,

"Of course you have... Busy with schemes and what-not. Too busy to revel and take pleasure in the seeking and discovery of knowledge." she said and then shook slightly on the seat she was sitting in.

The shaking took barely a millisecond and the moment it passed, The Empress was already in front of him,

"You have wrought the interest of various members of the Imperial family and they all wish to make your acquaintance. Interest from the Imperial family can be a double-edged sword that has the habit of moving according to your attitude towards those favors.

I like you... You Intrigue me because while you seem flippant about the amassing of knowledge, you still appear to have a good amount of it. I favor you and as such, I am interested in picking your brain... But the longer you ignore me, the more harmful my interest in you can be..."

As she said the last part, the Empress' eyes flashed and she released a pressure that terrified Hal to his core.

It was worrying... It was like the feeling a misbehaving student gets when faced with the possible repercussions to be received from their teacher or worse yet, Principal... Except that that feeling was multiplied at least a billion times.

Even when the Empress smiled, that feeling and that intimidating factor on her face never left.

"I'll leave you two to discuss whatever it is that you wish to discuss but I will be expecting your visit at the Royal Academy no later than tomorrow morning." she said before scattering into flecks of light that dissolved immediately.

How she had dispersed seemed to have nothing to do with a real body making an exit and even without Tanya, Hal knew the reason.

"That was just an Avatar. Occasionally, mother likes to be dramatic" Tanya said and stood up from to sofa in her office which she had been sitting in since Hal had arrived in the office.

A cosmic Avatar... It was one of the marks of a cosmic saint/Transcendent Beast and their cultivation realm's way of giving them ways to cheat the system.

Avatars are clones made of cosmic energy but unlike skills or abilities that do the same, Cosmic Avatars are capable of comprehending Ordinances and even cultivating with all the benefits absorbed back into the main body.

Cosmic Avatars are extensions of the main body and can be used to deliver messages or stare-downs as the Empress had just done and can appear wherever the main body can picture in his/her mind.

That said, Cosmic Avatars are useless in actual combat.

They are capable of wielding portions of the main body's strength and Aura to intimidate and even oppress a fellow but they can not actually do battle.

Any aggressive contact and they dissipate into flecks of light.

Their uses are just to cultivate or comprehend ordinances separate from the main body with all the knowledge gained and all the cultivation progress absorbed seamlessly back into the main body.

Advancing in the Cosmic Saint/Transcendent beast realm and progressing within that said realm Is completely dependent on the creation of cosmic Avatars.

A one-star Saint has one cosmic Avatar and a two-star saint has two with the number increasing according to the number of stars so that a nine-star cosmic saint has nine Avatars all of whom are dedicated to helping he/she to advance to the Demi-god realm and even then, the majority still fail.

It is a testament to how difficult cultivation is at the Cosmic saint realm that them having help from the very start does not stop them from being trapped at a level for hundreds of years.

The worrying fact about Avatars was that there were fairly accurate representations of how fearful the main body was.

If the cosmic Avatar of the Empress could make him feel as he had felt, it made Hal think if he might not have truly understood just what a massive expert the Empress was.

"Here," Tanya said and handed Hal an official-looking envelope that even had the Imperial family cost of arms pressed on it to seal it shut.

"What's this?" Hal asked as he took the envelope and turned it over a few times.

"It's an official summon from my father.

I asked to deliver personally mostly because I doubt anyone else can get a gold of you to deliver it. Plus, I am still your sponsor in the Royal Academy" Tanya said before retrieving an orb from her spatial ring.

"Why does the Emperor wish to meet me?" Hal asked while he eyed Tanya who was rubbing her hands on the Orb.

Tanya shrugged,

"Why else? You've put yourself on his radar and there is no real reason to ignore you. You are an asset to the Empire and he wants to you interested in the Empire's affairs early." she said ad then looked up from the orb and into Hal's face as he opened the envelope and pulled out the official letter to see that the summon was in two weeks.

"Hal?" Tanya said and Hal looked up from the letter,

"Yes?"

"Was it you?"

"Was it me- what?" Hal asked although he knew what she was talking about.

"Was it you at the border?" she asked in a calm voice and for a good while after, she and Hal just stared into each other's eyes.

And then Hal spoke,

"Does it matter?" he asked.

"Yes, it does. You could be working against the Empire... You could well be working put down what my family has worked to erect.

So, Yes, it damn well matters."

"Certain things can't last forever... Among those certain things is this empire.

​ Even now, there are conspiracies to finally do away with the Haron dominance.

I admit to nothing but surely, you see the inevitability of your family's fall to be a fact" Hal said.

Maybe he should have had more tact... Maybe he should have been more mysterious and closed and not revealed so much but he felt... No, he knew, that this conversation had to be had.

Even before he put himself in her service on the promise of mutual benefits, they had both been on very different sides.

Hal had given her a chance to come to his side but he could tell that the chances of this happening were next to none.

"Maybe you are right," Tanya said and then placed the Orb on her table before activating it to reveal a weirdly drawn map that was almost impossible to understand.

"I am still going to go after the Nexus stone. You once offered to assist in every way you can... I wonder, does that offer still stand?" she asked.

"Of course," Hal said.

He was not going to miss an opportunity to see the Nexus stone... An opportunity to get close to it... A chance to be there when the princess attempted to get her hands on that faith-granting tool.

Tanya nodded,

"Very well. We shall table the matter of your possible betrayal of the Haron Empire for later.

We will leave to get the Nexus stone tomorrow... The moment you are done with your meeting with my mother..."