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Imperial City...

Imperial Palace...

The past day had been very eventful with the return of Sapphire city and the Cult\'s takeover of the Dane Duchy.

Whatever manpower the Harons had placed in the Duchy had all been killed which had of course caused the tightening of the hold they had with the rest of the Duchys around the capital.

Other than weeding out anyone showing the smallest indications of being affiliated with the Cult, the Harons also made it so that the Duchy capital was isolated in the sense that no one could travel from Dane to any other Duchy or even the Imperial city.

Along with giving this order, the Emperor had experts on expeditions to Dane with the use of Spatial warping to shorten the otherwise long journey in the absence of Teleportation Circles.

Isolating the Dane Duchy had mostly been done out of retaliation for the Duchy shutting out outside entry and they did not really expect it to be effective because they still had no way of neutralizing the portals the cult used to travel.

These were all recent events but even before all this and throughout the year that Sapphire City had been gone, a storm had been brewing in the Haron Imperial family with a certain organization making itself known and showing how much it had infiltrated the Haron family forces.

The infiltration became known two months before the return of Sapphire City and there was hardly anything any objecting member of the Haron family could do.

It was not just warriors of the Haron family who had joined the organization but also more than half of the fifty Elders of the Haron Family.

The Elders were the backbone of the Haron Imperial family and having that many on the Organization\'s side did bode well for all those against the organization and by those against the Organization, Tanya, of course, takes the top spot.

Never would Tanya have expected that the infiltration had been so deep... Never would she have guessed that the rot had spread so far and that was negligence on her part as the organization had been her nemesis ever since she began her search for the Nexus stone.

Ever since the organization made itself known, speculations were made as to who the head was and it was not hard to guess but said head did not make himself known. Rather he had the organization continue to bring people on his side.

The organization of course did not have the intention of destroying the Haron rule over the continent but rather wished to establish it with the right candidate which was Nozel.

The fact that the goal they proclaimed was the upholding of the Haron family\'s power did not change that it was an insurrection. Loyalties were getting shifted with the ultimate goal of shunning the Emperor and his choices over to one side.

This was unacceptable.

No matter the future potential of the organization, the full focus, and support of the Haron family had to be on the Emperor and his choices and the allowance of any other occurrence was the invitation to trouble.

The Emperor had been in the dark in regards to this organization for so long and now that he was in the know, he made his displeasure clear and the organization became an internal matter to be dealt with.

At a time when Sapphire City had made its return and then made a declaration of the takeover of the Dane Duchy, the head of the organization finally made himself known to Tanya who was the first to be involved with the organization.

"Nice jewelry," Tanya said as she acted as relaxed as she possibly could be in the face of the massive disadvantage that she was in.

"You have one of your own, do you not?" Nozel said with a chuckle and behind him was a grinning Pietro.

Nozel\'s words were about the Nexus stone which Tanya was accessorizing.

"I do. But I would never display it at the center of my forehead like a cocky moron" Tanya said.

"Oh, but I am not being cocky. This just happens to be the most optimal place to put it. Besides, even if I give you free rein to attempt to take the gem, you will fail every time." Nozel said calmly with the air of choosing his words deliberately.

Nozel had always been gentle and soft-spoken but this was different... The prince spoke like someone taking care of the massive power he wielded. Tanya called Bullshit!

"You wanna bet?" Tanya asked and she flexed her cultivation to which Nozel waved his hand dismissively,

"You are delusional if you think fighting and defeating you will be a challenge for me. I have surpassed what you grasp or understand to be power," he said and as he waved his hand, he released waves of force which slammed into Tanya and caused her to involuntarily pull back her cultivation.

The setback did not affect Tanya\'s ability to smile while she spoke though,

"From failure to bejeweled powerhouse, you\'ve come a long way," she said, and that caused Nozel to frown while Pietro let out a growl.

Nozel once tried for the Royal Academy but failed and that had been a source of ridicule that caused him to be shunned in the family.

Nozel, of course, had the opportunity to retry the next year but he opted out claiming he was not good enough and would never be able to shake off the stigma of his first failure.

He was right... Since he failed the Entrance exam once already, he would always be referred to as a failure even if he succeeded in passing the second time around. That was the way of things.

Anyway, the fact that Nozel dropped out of the second attempt had him termed a coward along with being a failure.

Since then, Nozel became a shut-in and it now could not be any clearer what he had been plotting.

Nozel, through Pietro and Ergo, began the search for the Nexus stone and once he failed to get to the map(orb) before her, he turned his sights to another source of power, one that Tanya was in the dark about and it was in this search that Cirk was necessary.

That made for the meeting with Hal in the tomb when they took the Artifact that brought the Monument of Ordinances earlier than should be. The artifact then birthed the gem Nozel had on his forehead.

Nozel\'s frown eventually became a thin smile,

"A true rise to power. The story of the underdog... Don\'t you just love to see it?

Tanya, you can go about parading yourself as the Crown Princess all you want but the throne is mine. I will have it before Father can even think to give it up to you" he said.

"You\'re threatening Father?"

"Was I being too subtle?" Nozel said with his widest smile yet.

"Well, I won\'t let you," Tanya said.

"It\'s not a matter of what you allow or not allow. This will happen. My power is greater than yours... I am fed by a source you cannot begin to comprehend.

Your ordinances? Useless.

Your cultivation? Pointless.

Your bloodline? Irrelevant."  Nozel said and to his words, Tanya said nothing so Nozel continued,

"There is power beyond cultivation. At some point, cultivation becomes just a path to divinity... True power is to possess the strength to rival that divinity before even reaching that level in cultivation.

The Monument within which you received the ordinance with which you boast, I have forged a connection with.

I have a bond with it and that bond is centered within this gem" Nozel said and pointed at his forehead and he let that settle in before he added,

"The Nexus stone lets you harness the faith of the populace in the Haron family\'s superior rule but that faith is dwindling.

The many troubles plaguing the Empire and the rising insecurity all cause a reduction in the supply of faith. The Sapphirine Cult is especially siphoning that faith.

That just goes to show how fickle a power source \'Faith\' is"

"But faith is essential," Tanya said.

Nozel shrugged,

"True but it works best as a support for an already established power. If used as a foundation, things will quickly fall apart. You can\'t use power gained through faith to maintain that faith... You can try but you won\'t succeed.

Faith is essential but you not only need power and control to get it, but you also need power and control to maintain it.

You don\'t have that power and it is now a detriment. The faith you can now amass and muster will do nothing to stop my rise to power.

So just give me the Nexus stone," he said.

"What?" Tanya was caught by surprise at where Nozel\'s words led to.

"Give me the stone"

"You still want it? Despite all you\'ve just said?"

"Of course. In my hands and with my power, I can unleash its true potential" Nozel said.

"Why would I give it to you?" Tanya asked and snickered at the silliness of such a thought.

"This is me being gracious. I could kill you if I wish but I\'d rather give you the chance to be on my side. Give me the Nexus stone in submission to the inevitable." Nozel said and Tanya burst into laughter...

"HAHAHAHAHAHA... How did you think that would go? Did you expect me to be moved by your \'graciousness\'? Oh please!" Tanya said and flicked her wrist to retrieve a vial of dark red fluid,

"How is this for a counteroffer?; I don\'t give you the Nexus stone but I take that gem right out of your cocky forehead"

*BOOOMMM!!!*

The moment Tanya was done speaking, the wall of the lounge exploded, and out came charging a female figure with her fist directed at Pietro...

... While that happened, Tanya downed the liquid in the vial she had retrieved from her spatial ring...