Tamasya’s Floating Island...
The air around Tamasya’s floating island had been filled with an unsettling sharpness.
Manifestations of shadows drifted silently across the palace halls, carrying out their assigned duties without sound and without drawing attention to themselves.
Deep inside the palace, within a secluded chamber far removed from any disturbance, Tamasya had seated herself in a meditative position at the centre of the room.
Her posture remained steady, yet her body had begun to show subtle signs of strain as she drew in deep, heavy breaths, each one carrying more effort than the last.
Something imminent had begun awakening inside her, something long suppressed and tightly bound.
"Steady yourself," Shadow’s voice resonated in her mind. "I will break the fifth seal now."
Tamasya’s body did not react outwardly to the warning of the shadow because there was no need for her to brace physically.
What she faced was an entirely internal battle being waged within her.
Until this moment, she had successfully broken four divine seals that had been forcibly placed upon her cultivation by divine beings.
Now, with Shadow’s assistance, she had begun attempting to break the fifth seal.
There were only two known methods to remove forced divine seals.
Either the beings who had originally placed the seals needed to remove them willingly, or someone of equal or greater authority needed to intervene.
Thankfully, Tamasya had Shadow by her side, a being whose existence allowed her to bypass limitations that would have otherwise made freeing herself impossible.
She had never attempted breaking these seals while still inside the Prison of Gods because that would have been suicide; the Nether element present in that place would have consumed her without mercy.
At that time, Shadow’s attention would have been entirely diverted toward breaking the seals placed upon her instead of shielding her from the Nether element, making it impossible to maintain the delicate balance that had kept Tamasya alive within that hellish place.
Now, however, the circumstances were different.
The air inside the chamber began buzzing with a strange frequency as ghastly shadows detached themselves from the objects they had been bound to.
They slithered across the floor, the walls, and the ceiling, slowly converging towards Tamasya as if responding to an unspoken call.
If William had witnessed this scene, his eyes would have sparkled with astonishment.
Even with his absolute affinity for the shadow element, he remained incapable of commanding shadows in such a manner.
What Tamasya possessed was not mere absolute affinity like William.
She had crossed that threshold long ago.
She had reached the stage of Tenet.
Tamasya now possessed the Tenet of Shadows, a state where she could communicate with shadow itself, interact with it, and understand it as if it were her mother or sibling rather than a tool.
This stage of elemental interaction remained mysterious, achieved by very few beings across the world of Aris; most of the people, even powerhouses, remained bound to the level of affinity and never crossed it. They had no means to elevate their level of elemental interaction.
Only very few beings were given that privilege; Tamasya was one of them.
Snap!!
A sharp sound echoed as the fifth divine seal shattered.
"Aahhhh!!" Tamasya cried out as pain surged through her; her voice broke despite her resolve and tenacity.
The agony that accompanied the breaking of a divine seal had never lessened, regardless of how many she had already endured.
"Congratulations, Tammy," Shadow spoke calmly. "The fifth seal has been broken."
"This one was more painful than the last," Tamasya huffed in a tired voice; her breathing was uneven as the aftershock coursed through her.
"Those bastards placed nine seals on you, Tammy," Shadow continued.
"Your cultivation has now returned to pseudo-divinity, but to fully unlock your true cultivation, you must still break the remaining four seals, and the pain will only worsen from here."
"Maybe your mate might have something that could help," Shadow added casually.
"For now, I am his master, not his mate, Shadow," Tamasya replied firmly. "As a master, my duty is to help my disciple, not ask for his help."
"He has already done the greatest favour possible by freeing me from that hell," she spoke with a steady tone despite her exhaustion.
"Do not dismiss it like that," Shadow replied. "You gave him your talent when he asked, and you also gave him an academy recommendation."
Tamasya shook her head slowly. "There is no comparison between the freedom he gave me and a bit of power I granted him."
Then, without warning, a smile bloomed across her face.
"What was his reaction when he found my note?" she asked.
"At first, he woke up to the doorbell but did not realise you were gone,"
Shadow paused briefly and chuckled before continuing. "His mood soured immediately, and he threw me against the wall."
Tamasya raised an eyebrow but did not interrupt.
"It seemed like he wanted you to live with him," Shadow added , "just like you wanted to live with him."
Tamasya giggled softly, a strange happiness blooming in her chest as she imagined William’s reaction.
She felt satisfied knowing that his restlessness in her absence exceeded her own.
"Hehe," she chuckled.
"What did he do after that? Did he cry? Did he shout my name toward the sky again and again?"
"No," Shadow replied bluntly. "He entered some kind of domain again. I told you before that brat has too many secrets."
"That domain lay beyond my reach, " Shadow continued. "I could not enter it, so I do not know what he did there."
"Oh, poor boy must be missing me a lot," Tamasya responded with a sorry tone. "Did he come out after that?"
She did not care about the domain at all. Her concern lay entirely with whether William still missed her.
"He emerged after seven days," Shadow replied. "It seemed like he trained quite extensively. I sensed that he grew stronger."
"It was his first day at the academy," Shadow continued. "Suddenly, the door rang, and he ordered me to open it, but I ignored him. I am older, so why should I open the door?"
Tamasya chuckled softly. "That’s so like you, Shadow."
"At last," Shadow continued, "your mate gave up and opened the door himself, and there he met his second mate, an elf blessed by spirits."
"What??!!" Tamasya interrupted sharply, not allowing Shadow to finish.
"Did you say second mate?" she demanded. "What do you mean? That must have been his friend or something, right?"
"Elements do not lie, Tammy," Shadow replied calmly. "Friends do not cry and say, ’I missed you.’ Friends do not throw themselves at each other and hug as they will never separate."
"Your mate did all that with this elf girl."
"Really??" Tamasya’s voice turned cold and ominous.
"They kept hugging for hours, " Shadow continued mercilessly. "Your mate and his second elven mate were so close that I feared they might mate before you mate with your mate."
Suddenly, Tamasya’s aura flared violently, causing the shadows in the chamber to tremble.
"How dare he!!" she roared.
"Calm down, Tammy," Shadow replied. "They have not mated yet."
Tamasya could not hear Shadow anymore; a pang of unease and fury spread in her chest, and she clenched her fist.
"I am going to meet him,"
"Let us see if any vixen dares to touch him again."
"He is not in the academy right now," Shadow replied calmly.
"Huh??"