"Emily?" Erick's voice sounded concerned.
"Yes, it's me," Emily responded. "I need to talk to you about what happened with Orion's clone."
"You know the truth about what happened there, right?"
"I do."
"Can you be a witness for Orion when speaking to your father?" she asked.
"...I can't."
"Why?" A frown appeared on Emily's face.
"It's because my opinion doesn't matter. I've already told my father everything. What he decides now isn't in my hands, but you don't need to worry. My father would never punish the innocent."
Emily nodded in understanding. "Alright, I'll talk to you later."
"I'll be waiting."
With those words, she ended the call and sighed, looking at Orion. "It seems I will have to go with Father tomorrow to the Emperor's Heaven Palace."
She could only go tomorrow with their father to address the situation.
Orion nodded, but he didn't feel as worried as his family members. He believed that the Emperor wouldn't make a stupid decision and punish him for crimes he didn't commit, just to calm the two Magi families and the crowd at his gates.
"Come with me to the Emperor Heaven Palace tomorrow," Emily invited him.
"Me too?" Orion hadn't thought of going there, but now that his sister asked him to go, he felt that he should go and see the result of this ruckus with his own eyes. After all, the emperor's decision would heavily affect him and the Darkwood family.
"Yes, you too," Emily confirmed. "It's important that you're there. This decision will affect you and our family directly."
Orion nodded, feeling a mixture of anxiety and determination. "Alright, I'll go."
Emily nodded. "Alright, you two can go now."
Orion and Ella left the training field after their big sister dismissed them.
Only Emily remained, standing in the training field, looking at the wooden sword with a deep frown on her face.
"Am I doing the right thing?" she muttered to herself, looking up at the sky.
"Why me?" she asked.
As if answering her questions, drops of rain began to pour on her face, but she continued to stare at the sky, seeking answers she had never gotten for so long.
***
Back in his room, Orion checked his status and examined the curse he had copied from his big sister. He had also copied a curse from Erick when Erick wrapped an arm around his neck to share some secrets. Additionally, he had copied a curse from Elyn when he threatened to kill her in a fit of anger.
That would be a total of three curses but only time would tell if any of them would be useful to him or not.
He hadn't activated the curses of Erick and Elyn earlier, fearing his clone would also get those curses if he were to activate them and had decided to activate them when he was home but because of the current problem, he had completely forgotten about those curses and only remembered them when he copied her sister's curse.
'Status.'
[Description: The talent of light augmentation allows the wielder to enhance and manipulate light. However, this potent ability comes with the curse of radiant burn, which inflicts physical burn and sensory repercussions on the wielder's body when using their light-manipulating powers.]
'The negative effects shouldn't affect me so let me see what it really does.'
Orion thought, went into the abyss of darkness and activated the curse.
After that, he held his right hand and used the curse. In an instant, his entire right hand turned bright golden, illuminating the whole room.
'I believe this light is the one that would cause the burning effect. If it were Erick instead of me, his right hand would be burned to crisps. But to me, this is a boon; with this curse, I can control light itself—well, a part of it.'
Orion mused as he looked at the golden-colored hand of his.
He then deactivated the curse and everything returned to normal.
'I haven't been getting a good curse lately.'
He had copied nine curses since he arrived at his home and only one could be said to be usable to him. Others were just trash.
'It seems I will have to increase my habit of copying curses.'
He thought and looked at his universal bracelet.
The things his sister had told him this afternoon were still in his mind—Doom. He just couldn't distract his mind from that.
'Let's see if there is anything on this.'
He immediately switched to the news feature of the universal bracelet and looked for anything related to Doom.
An hour passed like that but he didn't find anything related to Doom.
'It's really as I expected.'
He had initially considered his ignorance about his sister and Doom a significant oversight, but now it appeared deliberate. His premonition had prompted him to investigate, confirming his suspicions. Any mention of Doom or the events of that day had been systematically expunged from the news.
'Emperor doesn't want anyone to know about this.'
Orion thought and pondered that this matter related to Doom may have huge significance to the entire universe, hence their restriction of any news about it.
"Huh?"
At that moment, a recent news article caught his attention, published just a few hours ago.
After reading the whole article, a frown appeared on his face.
'They made me the number one rank in the elite ranking? What the hell!'
Although he was stronger than Astral in his base form, he would need 3 to 4 of his curses in Curse Transformation mode to be able to fight him in his limitbreaker form. So, he felt that the ranking was a little strange or that whoever ranked him up to the first place only did that as a result of the battle between Astral and his clone in that place.
'The Hyperion Tower is acting suspicious.'
He thought and laid down on the bed, intending to sleep.
'I hope tomorrow is a good day.'
With that hope, he fell asleep.