As the conversations continued around me, I found myself becoming less interested in what everyone was saying and more interested in the people themselves.
These weren’t ordinary guests. They represented races that had lived for thousands upon thousands of years as the mightiest races of the Prime universe.
Evelyn had mentioned that she intended to invite only the strongest representatives each race could spare, but standing here now, I couldn’t help wondering whether that was actually true.
My eyes drifted toward the Dragon delegation.
Kaelra, I had absolutely no doubts about. Even without releasing her aura, the pressure surrounding her felt almost identical to Evelyn’s. If I had to guess, both women stood only a step away from reaching the absolute peak of the Saint realm. They weren’t merely powerful Saints. They were the kind of monsters capable of deciding wars by themselves.
But then there were the two daughters.
Lyra and Sera.
They looked young.
Far too young.
Dragon lifespans were absurdly long, so appearances meant almost nothing, but even then they carried themselves with the excitement of teenagers attending a festival rather than experienced warriors preparing for an expedition that might very well end in permanent death.
Were they truly among the strongest Dragons....or had Kaelra simply refused to leave them behind?
My attention gradually shifted toward the Essari.
The more I looked at them, the stranger they seemed.
The Null Realm rejected Essence.
That was one of its most fundamental laws.
Everything here revolved around souls and Soul Force, yet somehow the Essari had achieved something that should have been impossible. Essence flowed naturally beneath their skin as though the Null Realm itself had accepted an exception to its own rules.
How?
Were they born this way? Did they cultivate some unique technique? Or had their race fundamentally transformed itself after countless years living here?
The thought naturally led me somewhere else.
The Prime Galaxy.
If these races still existed outside the Null Realm...
What would they be like?
Would Dragons still dominate mountains and volcanic worlds? Would Astrals quietly observe history from hidden cities while deciphering their endless visions? Would the Essari remain the only civilization capable of wielding Essence and Soul together?
The universe had suddenly become much larger than I had imagined.
For so long, my attention had remained focused on Earth, Vaythos, the Eternals and the Lords that I had almost forgotten something obvious.
Every one of these races possessed their own history. I quietly extended my perception once more, allowing my senses to brush across the hall.
The results only confirmed my earlier impression. Kaelra, Evelyn and Sue. All three radiated an almost frightening level of control over their Soul Force. Their energy wasn’t explosive or oppressive. If anything, it was perfectly restrained, compressed so completely that not a single strand leaked unnecessarily into the surroundings.
Peak Saints.
Or close enough that the difference no longer mattered.
Marcus, Samuel, Dean...they were also terrifyingly powerful, but compared to those three women, there remained a gap.
A thought suddenly crossed my mind.
Curiosity won almost immediately.
The black markings quietly spread from the corners of my eyes, remaining faint enough that nobody around me seemed to notice. The rotating crosses hidden within my pupils completed only a single revolution before slowing once again.
I wasn’t asking about the Twelfth Soul Current.
Just a simple question.
Among everyone present... who poses the greatest threat to me?
The answer arrived almost immediately, costing so little Soul Force that I barely noticed the drain. There was no vision this time, nor any mysterious voice announcing a name. Instead, a familiar soul signature quietly surfaced within my consciousness, allowing the All-Knowing Eyes to simply point toward the individual in question.
My gaze instinctively followed that signature across the hall until it settled on Dream Astral.
That genuinely surprised me.
If someone had asked me to make the same judgment myself, I would have chosen either Evelyn or Kaelra without a moment’s hesitation. Both women stood at the very peak of the Saint Realm, and neither made any effort to hide the confidence that came with such strength. Sue wasn’t far behind them either.
Although she carried herself with considerably more elegance, the Soul Force flowing beneath her calm exterior was just as terrifying.
Dream, on the other hand, had barely spoken since arriving.
He had quietly remained in the background while Sue represented the Astrals and Ork answered most of the questions regarding their visions. If anything, he appeared to be the least remarkable member of the delegation.
Yet the All-Knowing Eyes had reached a completely different conclusion.
Whatever standard they used to judge danger, Dream Astral ranked above every other Saint currently gathered inside the hall.
That realization alone was enough to make me look at him differently.
Almost as though sensing my attention, Dream slowly turned away from the window and met my gaze across the crowded banquet hall. The tiny clock hands within his mismatched eyes paused for the briefest moment before beginning to rotate once again. A faint smile appeared on his face, simply acknowledging that he had noticed me observing him.
For some reason, that small smile unsettled me far more than Kaelra’s overwhelming aura ever had.
"Representatives of the Noctari Race have arrived."
My eyes left Dream and moved toward the front.
Unlike the Dragons, whose arrival filled the hall with laughter, or the Astrals whose mere presence brought silence, the Noctari seemed to suck the warmth out of the room before they had even entered.
Nobody smiled or stepped forward eagerly.
Even Kaelra quietly folded her arms while Sue’s pleasant expression became noticeably more reserved.
Three figures slowly walked through the massive doors. At first, I thought they were wearing flowing black robes.
Then I realized...
They weren’t wearing anything. Their bodies themselves were made of darkness.
Not darkness as a color but actual shadows.
Their forms constantly shifted around the edges, as though smoke struggled to remain in a human shape. Occasionally an arm would dissolve into black mist before reforming a heartbeat later, while the lower halves of their bodies seemed to fade into nothingness with every step they took.
Only their eyes remained perfectly stable.
Two silver pupils floated within featureless black faces, giving the unsettling impression that the darkness itself had learned to look back.
The leader stood well over eight feet tall, his body slender almost to the point of appearing fragile. Yet despite that build, I sensed an unsettling danger from him. There wasn’t the explosive pressure carried by Kaelra or Evelyn. Instead, standing near him felt strangely... empty.
Almost as though every instinct inside me wanted to avoid that patch of space entirely.
The two accompanying Noctari were shorter, though no less unsettling. One continuously toyed with a black coin that seemed to disappear and reappear between his fingers, while the other calmly observed the hall with an expressionless face, his eyes never lingering on anyone for longer than a fraction of a second.
The attendant quietly stepped aside the moment they entered.
Evelyn walked forward to receive them, although I immediately noticed one difference. She stopped several steps farther away than she had for every previous delegation.
The leader of the Noctari inclined his head with impeccable manners.
"Lady Evelyn."
His voice was smooth and pleasant.