The Holy Princess continued to be an inconsolable mess. All her life she had lived along a path of absolute purity. In fact, she had been found by a Holy Empress very early on, so she hadn't even faced many grievances in her life to begin with. It wasn't until the Holy Arc was destroyed that she finally learned what hardship was, and it was because of that time that she managed to survive Dyon's torture.
However, knowing that she had almost killed an innocent human was too much for her to handle. Seeing her react in such a manner almost made Dyon feel bad for having ever tortured her in the first place. This was the kind of woman who had a fan club of white knights to swim through hell or high water for her. If they ever found out that Dyon did such a thing to this innocent human, Dyon feared he wouldn't have anywhere to hide from their rage.
Dyon scratched the back of his head. Why couldn't she react to being locked up like the three kitsune geniuses had? In fact, those three were still being trained into useful pawns for Dyon. Yet, despite the seals on their own will, they still hated Dyon to the bone. Truth be told, Dyon much preferred this sort of reaction than the wacky Stockholm Syndrome he was facing now.
"I'll use the rest of my life to make it up to you, I swear." The Holy Princess sniffled out these words through her tears.
Madeleine giggled as she watched the black lines continually forming on Dyon's forehead. She found this dynamic quite hilarious. It was only missing the torrent of snot and tears that would have covered her husband had the Holy Princess not been a spirit.
"Alright, alright." Dyon said in slight annoyance. "Since you want to make it up to me, you can start by not crying."
Trying to stop the tears, the Holy Princess bit her illusory lips, staring at Dyon like a pitiful puppy.
"Good. Now, tell me your name. Referring to you as Holy Princess is getting annoying. Did no one ever think that such a title was narcissistic?"
The Holy Princess pouted. "My name is Lilianna, but there's nothing narcissistic about my title! It's no more arrogant than someone earning the title Fist King, or God. In fact, aren't you called a True God?" Even though she promised to make up for her mistake, Lilianna wasn't willing to suffer such a loss. If the title Holy Princess was narcissistic to him, then what did he think of Holy Goddess? She couldn't allow an insult to her former ruler.
"Good point." Madeleine said through another laugh. Then she turned to Dyon, "Be nice."
Dyon sighed. "She's your burden now. I can't lug her around." Speaking to this point, Dyon suddenly remembered something. "There was someone with the Princess of Beauty title that wanted to follow you."
"And that's not narcissistic?" Lilianna grumbled to herself.
Ignoring her, Dyon continued. "She's currently in the Celestial Beast's Mystical World, so if you have time, you can visit her to see if she has anything that's of use to you."
As Madeleine was nodded, Lilianna's eyes widened. "Did you just say Celestial Beasts?"
"Yes?"
"Impossible. That's impossible." The Holy Princess shook her head vigorously.
"It's very much possible. Had you paid more attention when you met me last, you would have noticed that part of my bloodline was from my celestial beast monster, and maybe then you wouldn't have tried to kill me." Dyon gave her a deadpan stare.
Lilianna blushed slightly in embarrassment. "Then why don't I sense it not even though I'm looking for it? In fact, why is your blood like that… You're more beast than human…"
"My former bloodlines were purged after my true constitution awakened." Dyon felt some regret saying this aloud, especially since it involved the discarding of the Demon Sage's bloodline. The good news was that the remainder of his Master's bloodline was catalyzed into a manifestation thanks to the Florence Clan technique.
"Oh.."
ραпdα---nᴏνa| сom Dyon walked over to the still quivering mineral sprite.
'How do I communicate with it?' Dyon asked the hamster twins.
'You can convey ideas and concepts to it similar to how your soul link with your wives works. However, it's too much of a blank slate to know any languages because it's likely never interacted with someone who can speak. That said, sprites are known for the intelligence, it can likely learn very quickly.' Little Yang explained.
Dyon almost laughed at those words. Intelligent? But, he still acknowledged the fact that had the sprite been up against anyone else, it would have likely won. So maybe it was more intelligent that Dyon gave it credit for.
Reaching out slowly, Dyon's soul began to convey a sense of comfort. He wanted to balance a partially stern exterior, while also letting the sprite know that he wouldn't hurt it anymore. Hopefully, the sprite would understand that its torture for that past two days was in consequence of actions Dyon was dissatisfied with and would thus learn that bad was rewarded with bad, while good was rewarded with good.
The sprite shrunk back initially, but after being fed pure soul energy, just like a child, it seemed to ignore the bad for the sake of the good.
It was then that Dyon used an array Clara had created. It was meant to help translate languages so that they could bring everyone from the mortal realm into their fold, but Dyon believed that with a bit of tweaking, it would work in this situation as well.
But even Dyon didn't expect it to work as well as it did.
...
A steady stream of information was sent to the sprite. Suddenly, it understood that Dyon hadn't entered its home knowing it was there, but rather had done so for the resources it had accumulated. It also understood that Dyon had been planning on leaving but was stopped by it. And finally, it understood that Dyon's punishment was because he was dissatisfied with its actions.
The small seed of a conscience was birthed within the mineral sprite, causing it to feel very sorry.
'I – i-i-it i-is v-v-ver-very s-so-sorry.'
When Dyon heard these words project into his mind, he almost couldn't hold back his laughter. Since he had been referring to the sprite as an 'It' this whole time, it believed that its name was exactly that.
Dyon shook his head. 'Let's call you Rainbow instead, how is it, Little Rain?'
'R-r-rainb-bow?' The sprite's demeanor brightened, maybe because it was happy to have a name now.
Suddenly, its form began to change. What once was a blob of light grew to be slightly more than a meter tall. Its features became more pronounced, changing from a sphere to an oval, and then to an oval with protruding limbs, but finally the semblance of a head formed.
'What's happening?' Dyon asked the hamster twins.
'It seems to have decided on a form for itself… This usually doesn't happen until the sprite has matured for several million years, but this sprite is clearly too young for that. So… This probably means that instead of choosing a form based on its sense of self, it's modeling itself after someone else and imprinting itself as your kin.' Little Yin explained.
'This is actually very rare because sprites are very good at hiding. They're known for being easily influenced at a young age, but they're also just as dangerous. So, even in the rare cases where their hiding spots are found before they mature, even top tier experts usually die before even reaching the step of being able to influence them.'
Dyon nodded. He had to admit that it was unlikely that any other person would have been able to reach the point of influencing this sprite. In fact, he would have died outright if Little Rain hadn't decided that his body was a good vessel.
For one, others wouldn't have even been capable of penetrating into the outer layer of the silver mountain to even realize that there was something interesting on the inside. Secondly, because of this, they would have tried to chip away from the outside, something that would have enraged the sprite into retaliating in full force.
Imagine being attacked by a mountain several miles high. Who could possibly escape such a thing?