Chapter 471: Quid Pro Quo (1/2)

Iz Tayn slowly walked through the vast gardens in her home, not sparing the divine flowers a second glance until she reached a burning mountain.

“Hello, uncle. Is grandpa awake?” she asked, and the ground started to shake the next moment.

Enormous pieces of rocks rearranged themselves, and the mountain turned into a golem hundreds of meters tall. Its whole body was covered in extremely dense scriptures to the point that not a single inch of its body wasn’t covered with fractals. Iz always liked looking at the mysterious patterns while meditating, but she had other things to do today.

“Master has been expecting your return, he is awake,” the enormous golem rumbled as it stretched out a finger that was over a dozen meters wide.

Iz disappeared in a puff of flames the next moment, and the fiery flowers and red sky were replaced with the boundless cosmos. In front of her a scorching sun hovered in the void, with an impossibly large man sitting on top of it. The man looked to be an amalgam of man and flames, and the heat he emanated far eclipsed the sun beneath him.

It was Mohzius Tayn, her grandfather.

Iz was just a speck of dust compared to the terrifying size of her ancestor. However, the scales of the cosmos somehow changed, and the gargantuan man was suddenly the same size as Iz herself, and the sun even smaller than her own [World’s End].

“How did it go?” the middle-aged man asked with a warm smile.

“51 Days,” Iz said as the bored expression she usually wore outside became increasingly animated. “You lied! It wasn’t exciting at all. The last guy was pretty tough, but it was just one long slog.”

“Ha!” Mohzius laughed, and the star beneath him flickered as it shared the man’s mood. “Old Man River’s descendant in your cohort took over 65 days to break the ceiling. I can’t wait to see his face when he hears about this.”

“My age group? Theleferos is almost twenty thousand years old,” Iz snorted, but she was still secretly happy about her grandpa’s expression.

Seeing his smile more valuable than the titles and new treasures she received, since her grandpa had been pretty down since her grandma had to leave.

“Still the young generation,” Mohzius smiled. “By the way, haven’t you only been gone for a few days? Why didn’t you stay and play with your friends? I am sure we have a nice house by the tower.”

“What friends? Just a bunch of people who only thinks about benefits and getting stronger all day,” Iz muttered before her eyes lit with excitement. “I met someone interesting inside the Tower though! But I need your help, grandpa.”

“Hm? Met someone? A boy?” the old man said, a frown quickly appearing on his face.

“Yes, but I just found him interesting,” Iz hurriedly explained.

“Bringing someone out from that spatial fold is quite troublesome,” the man muttered. “Your uncle can’t do it without getting hurt, and I can’t leave this place for the next few centuries.”

“No, he’s not someone from that place,” Iz said with a shake of her head as she described her encounter on the 7th floor.

“Dual classes and dual races? And you say he’s a human rather than a wanderer?” her grandpa said, looking a bit interested. “Sounds like a mutated constitution or a twinned soul. Perhaps even the fusion of two individuals with interwoven fates.”

“But he somehow managed to remove the marking just after I returned. Can you help me?” Iz entreated.

“That is much easier,” the man nodded, and a small mote of flame split off from the sun and entered Iz’s forehead.

A small rune emerged a few seconds later, and the man grabbed it in his hand.

“He seems to have completely blown up his torso to rid himself of the mark,” Mohzius said with a smile. “A gutsy fellow. But he didn’t notice the branding on his spirit body. I strengthened it a bit, he won’t be able to remove it easily now. But why do you want to see him?”

“No particular reason,” Iz shrugged. “I was bored and he was interesting, so I thought I would go visit and take a look. Besides, he called me a lunatic, he owes me an explanation.”

“Remember to not go around causing trouble in the lower realms,” the man sternly said. “Most people are just trying to live their lives.”

“I know, grandpa,” Iz muttered.

“… Fine,” the old man eventually relented. “You can go when you have undergone your next bloodline evolution and formed your first Dao Branch.”

“But that can take decades!” Iz exclaimed.

“Just the blink of an eye,” Mohzius smiled. ”Better work hard.”

“Fine. I’ll go and break through now. Goodbye, grandpa,” Iz Tayn said before she looked up at the stars. “Goodbye, grandma.”

The next moment she disappeared from the remote star system, leaving the giant sitting on his sun. However, a massive claw ripped through the fabric of space, and a scar even larger than the celestial body appeared the next moment.

An eye of impossible proportions gazed down through the tear, and just its gaze put tremendous pressure on the whole star system. However, the giant wasn’t worried in the least, but rather looked up with a smile matching the one that was usually reserved for his sole granddaughter.

“It seems you’re well on the way of getting better. Just a few dozen millennia and you might be able to descend,” he said with barely restrained elation.

“I didn’t hear everything just now. Has little Iz met a boy? And you actually wanted to send her into his arms?” a booming voice echoed across the cosmos.

“Iz is more talented than both of us combined, but she lacks the drive and curiosity to walk toward the Terminus. I am hoping that she will find something worth fighting for, like how I fought for you all those years ago,” Mohzius said, his smile widening.

A snort could be heard from within the void, and the whole star system shook in response.

“If my granddaughter runs away with some man before I can even meet her, I’ll fight it out with you, old man,” the voice said as white flames danced in the eye. “How dare he call my beautiful granddaughter a lunatic. He better not come to this sector of space.”

“Yes dear,” the old man smiled as he closed his eyes, some wistfulness flashing in their depths. “You should go back now. I can only hold back the Heavens for so long.”

”How do you know my ancestor? Is she your master?” Catheya asked point-blank, her pitch-black orbs boring into Zac's eyes.

Zac was about to respond, but he suddenly felt a small pang of pain in his chest. He was already feeling pretty wretched after the fight, and he couldn’t help but wonder if the cursed sword had left some lingering threats.

However, he felt fine except the exhaustion and a quick inspection couldn’t pinpoint any issues, so he returned his attention back to the Draugr sitting in front of him.

“It’s not what you think,” Zac finally said after the pause.

“Then what?” She said, leaning forward in eagerness.

“There is an Incursion of the Undead Empire on my home planet,” Zac slowly said, ignoring the question. “Can you deal with it?”

Catheya froze for a second before she wryly sighed.

“No. I am willing to pay a lot for information pertaining to my ancestor, but I cannot help you in that regard,” she said with a shake of her head.