"She’ll be okay. Won’t she?"
Mrs. Lynia’s words echoed in the silence of Morgaine’s bedroom, where she lay unconscious on her bed, with Mrs. Lynia sitting beside her.
And by the side, on a chair, sat Ryuk, silently tapping his fingers against the armrest.
"Yes. She would," he answered with a reassuring smile.
After he had left the family grounds, he had bought her a high-ranked healing serum from the system’s shop and fed it to her before deciding to bring her back home.
All her injuries had healed, and her body had stabilized before he showed up.
They only needed to wait, and hopefully, her consciousness would be strong enough to take control of her body.
Mrs. Lynia rubbed her daughter’s forehead.
Truly, she didn’t seem to be either hot nor cold.
Her temperature was okay for a Fallen, and her breath was even.
With her worries calmed, her comms appeared before her, and she browsed through them before Ryuk felt a ring in his head.
"There is a lot of top-secret information in the book," Mrs. Lynia continued. "Most I haven’t gone through, but I’ve gotten some findings from the book related to one being a Choosen."
"I’ve sent you the important notes."
Ryuk opened up his comms and browsed through the notes he had been sent.
All of it correlated to what he had already learned: the Chosen One having to be replaced by a new consciousness and being bred for power to become an ultimate powerhouse for the sake of advancing the family up the hierarchical ladder of status.
It was something that was obviously only advantageous to the Dominare family.
It appeared beneficial for the Chosen One, as she was nurtured with the family’s full resources; however, that was merely a facade.
In the end, she is only grown in power so as to be a slave to the whims of the family, and there was absolutely zero consideration towards the Choosen ones’ families.
It wasn’t even mentioned at all.
"Have they really fused a new consciousness in her?" Mrs. Lynia asked, and Ryuk remained for three seconds before he ultimately answered.
"Yes, but that consciousness should be weaker now..." he answered, when all of a sudden, the light in the room came on brightly.
Morgaine’s room had its light previously disconnected by Mrs. Lynia due to her absence.
However, after her return, she naturally switched it back on, although it required some time to fully activate.
As soon as the TV turned on in the room, Mrs. Lynia instinctively reached for the remote on a nearby desk to turn it off. However, she paused when she noticed the news currently being shown.
Ryuk noticed it and turned back, and he saw a satellite image of what had gone down just a couple of hours ago.
It revealed a truly heinous-looking purple devil, who was turning the Clan Elders into a spray of blood while exchanging blows with Morgaine.
She was identified as the Chosen One of the Dominare family who bravely defended her family against the monstrous entity’s attack.
The news attempted to comfort the Dominare family after the loss of their Clan Elders and announced a bounty of 500,000 Amma Coins for anyone who could bring the "Invading Monster" to justice, and warned other families to be on alert.
"Those purple tattoos..." Mrs. Lynia noted, and she turned to look at Ryuk, especially at his tattoos.
Her spine chilled at the realization.
"Was that really you?" she asked, surprised as the footage of absolute destruction and unmatched domination by the Purple Devil played again at the end of the news.
"Yes, that was me...but that wasn’t Morgaine. It was the other consciousness of hers, and it had to be weakened if Morgaine was to wake up."
He explained, and she exhaled.
"I’m not mad you defeated one who possessed my daughter. I’m thankful if anything."
"But killing all of the Dominare Clan Elders...Do you think they’ll let this go?" she asked, and silence reigned in the room for a while before he replied:
"They won’t."
The Grand Elder had tried to seek revenge, but in the end, he had retreated.
But he was just one of the three Grand Elders of the Dominare Family, and according to hierarchy, there was usually one supreme Elder in these families, one whom Ryuk had not even seen, nor was aware of his cultivation stage.
One of them might retreat, but would the Dominare family really allow their Clan Elders to be killed without retaliation, and their Choosen one, whom they had spent so much time and resources on, to be taken away from under their noses without trying to get her back?
He wasn’t stupid enough to think they wouldn’t come back for revenge.
It might not be now, since their enemies now have news of their weakness and would soon be sieging them from all sides.
But once that was done, all the hate would be directed back to Ryuk, and obviously, Mrs. Lynia and Old Jack would be taking part in the damage.
"We have to move out," Mrs. Lynia said quietly.
"I’m sorry for the trouble," he said to her.
If he had not lost himself to anger back then, perhaps, he wouldn’t have killed all of the Clan Elders from his unregulated aura.
Perhaps, he should have just returned home after doing what she had asked him to do instead of going in search of Morgaine.
Perhaps, he...
"No." Mrs. Lynia said, cutting off his thoughts as he turned to her.
"If you had returned after sending me the book and I learned my daughter’s consciousness is being replaced, I would have still asked you to bring her back home." Mrs.Lynia said, not the slightest of doubts in her words.
"The Dominare Family would not have agreed to that, and we would have no choice but to move away from their radar.
"The result is the same as now: we would be at odds with the Dominare Family."
"Your actions only made what would eventually happen come quicker."
"And that, at least, saved me from the heartache of spending days knowing that Morgaine isn’t truly Morgaine, and feeling the pain of her absence while debating whether it would be worth the risk to try to bring her back, all the while trying not to get you into trouble."
"Decisions made under such a pressure-filled emotional state would only end in a mistake in the end, and who knows what extra damage it will cause."
"Your actions cut away all that, and now we have Morgaine and a clear next motive, which is to move out."
"So...don’t guilt-trip yourself. You did what was best for us," she said, and Ryuk found it hard to really refute her points.
She stood up and left the room, her fingers rapidly tapping on her Amma comms panel.
"I’ll call up Jack. The sooner we’re out of here, the better."