"Grown man like you, are you still treating our daughter like a little girl?" Bingtian mocked Litian mercilessly with a look of amusement.
"That's right! I was locked in prison enduring torture by my family day and night without ever getting to see my daughter! Not only that, my darling wife had sacrificed her life to stabilize my daughter, and I had to endure more than 21 years of imprisonment without knowing her fate!"
Litian unearthed what lay in the depths of his heart, his eyes becoming bloodshot.
Bingtian's expression softened significantly, deeply moved by this action. Following her death, she had entered a void of nothingness, leaving her without any worries till she was eventually resurrected by her daughter.
Alas, her poor husband had to live out each and every second of those years, enduring physical, emotional and spiritual torment day and night.
If Misery never released them from the tower, what would have the fate of Litian and Fengtian have been?
Her husband had never spoken about this, falling back into old habits and roles after she had been resurrected like nothing changed. Bingtian herself knew at the back of her mind that something had been wrong, but since Litian had kept up the act of everything beeing fine, she had ended up believing him without questioning it.
But no, he wasn't. Like most men, he had buried his pain deep down to avoid becoming a burden to others, but it had been festering and nurturing all this while, finally exploding at this moment.
Looking at his expression, Bingtian understood that Litian never had any intention of ever disclosing this and would have downplayed it as him 'disliking' his son-in-law, when it actually had nothing to do with that.
Obviously, Litian was extremely favorable towards Draco, a dominant and powerful young man with an endless future who had brought them great closure. The issue lay in Shuangtian herself, and the father-daughter conflict between them.
The lack of presence in her life, coupled with her tremendous suffering, had resulted in Shuangtian having little recognition towards her parents. In fact, Shuangtian had only shown some affection towards Bingtian because the mother and daughter were just too alike in terms of looks and personality, as well as the fact that the had woman had sacrificed her life to save her child.
In comparison, Litian might have been locked up in prison to suffer for 21 years, yet to Shuangtian such a feat was simply unremarkable. After all, she too had suffered day and night for that same period of time. Was she who had endured such hardship from the moment of her birth really supposed to pity an adult whose lifespan could easily surpass a hundred?
Not to mention that he was father, tasked with protecting her, but he couldn't even fulfill that basic responsibility and wanted her to affectionately call him 'papa'? Was he dreaming?
Bingtian sighed, sympathizing with both perspectives. Throughout her life, she had often acted as a mediator between opposing sides, but she lacked the ability to unite these two... mostly because Shuangtian's stubbornness made it nearly impossible.
Bingtian chuckled to herself with exasperation. She herself was boisterous and domineering like her daughter, but she wasn't particularly stubborn about things. In fact, she was a bit impulsive and impressionable.
Looking at the embarrassed Litian who clearly wanted to take his words back, Bingtian's lips twitched as she long knew the source.
It seemed father and daughter were not as estranged as they thought!
「Name: Heavenly Plum – True God
Level: The Law of True Strength (Basic)
Divine Energy: 100%/100%.」
「Law of True Strength - Divine Law
Grade: EX+
Effect: This is the pinnacle Law of the 'Strength' conceptual series, allowing the user to use any offensive, defensive, and support-related abilities related to the concept in imbuing to their bodies, skills, or techniques.
Sources: Barbarian God (Divine Class) + Endless Strength (Passive Skill).」
「Name: Heavenly Ice – True God
Level: The Law of Elemental Ice (Basic)
Divine Energy: 100%/100%.」
「Law of Elemental Ice - Divine Law
Grade: EX+
Level: The Law of Essence Vibration (Basic)
Divine Energy: 100%/100%.」
「Law of Essence Vibration - Divine Law
Grade: EX+
Effect: An unspeakably powerful Law generated from nothing by the unique power of a unique being from a distant galaxy. All things in the universe have a wavelength and the user of this Law can affect them to a degree relative to the Rank of the Law as well as the strength of the wavelength in question.
Sources: Lord of Purgatory (Divine Class) + Song of the Universe (Passive Skill).」
Anubesetesh did not have many options in regards to choosing his Law due to the uniqueness of his existence first of all, then his unique class which was generated from him second of all, and then the unique Divine Skills his class spat out in the end.
The Tomegamon Progenitor hovered in the air before his section of the Grey Rot, his expression solemn. Out of all the core members, he was the oldest and most knowledgeable, having fought countless abyssal monsters in the void of space while traveling to Earth and even before that.
He knew many abyssal monsters that could create localized calamities from their fur alone, but there was only one which could have the potency of this level. If it was that being, then the entity behind this game was tremendously foolish for allowing it to come here in the first place!
If Anubesetesh knew that the AI had brought that creature here just to create content for the players, he might be so furious he would manifest a cane and discipline this AI!
This was the literal definition of bringing a wolf into the house!
Still, he did not shirk his duty. With a light shake of his fingers, the Grey Rot within a few meters before him suddenly shook like it was the flash trying to vibrate himself through a wall.
The scary part was that the longer it shook like this, the more ethereal it became until it disappeared completely.
There was no fuss, no explosions, no powerful world-ending attacks.
Just silent destruction.
Anubesetesh checked the gains from clearing the Grey Rot and then continued his work.
「Name: AkaWhite_Ninja – True God
Level: The Law of Karmic Manipulation (Basic)
Divine Energy: 100%/100%.」
「Law of Karmic Manipulation - Divine Law
Grade: EX+
Effect: A very potent Law that allows the user to see and manipulate the strings of karma that bind the world, allowing them to change cause and effect as well as trace the source of all things.
Sources: Spellbound Shadowblade (Divine Class) + Karma Killing (Active Skill).」
Gage was currently extremely focused. He was glancing at the huge blood-red 'thread' that hovered above the entire area of the Grey Rot and extended far into the distance.
This was the karmic thread that tied the Grey Rot to its originator, but the 'thread' was about the circumference of a crater. Just being near it, Gage felt like he could be crushed by its sheer presence.
"However, I must cut." Gage stated simply, his entire demeanor changing from unsure to staunch, his hand gripping the katana at his waist.
With a fluid motion, Gage stepped forward and released a simple horizontal swing right from his sheathe, which turned into a huge crescent-shaped blood-red sword wave that struck the gigantic red thread in the sky above the grey rot.
CLANG!
Yet what looked like it should be made of soft material was as hard as metal, easily resisting the oncoming attack.