Michael braved the unknown, barging into the private Montgomery residence with the express intent of taking the brunt of Yuna’s choice.
He was the one who needed her to become his Arbiter, not the other way around. Naturally, he should be the one in her place getting lectured by Xere.
He did his best to cosplay as Fudge, finally using his immense control over mana to sneak his way past the Montgomery guards and into their private residence.
And with his 9th stage Body Formation cultivation, no one was none the wiser to his presence. He was nothing but a shadow on the ground, becoming the absence of light itself.
Using the shadow clone on Yuna as his compass, he finally found her location.
He took a big breath, before he opened the door and walked forward with confidence.
"If you have anyone to blame, it’s me."
His bold words echoed into the pristine, white palace of the Montgomery residence. It looked like a supreme court worthy only for the gods themselves.
"Michael?!" Yuna started.
He walked forward and faced the tall woman right next to Yuna. She was an imposing figure. Not in a physical sense, but in a sense of pure grandeur and stateliness. It felt like reality itself was bending simply because of the weight of her presence.
He didn’t even sense any Aubility Power on her, which only made her more impressive in his eyes.
"Madame Xere, my name is Michael, and I am the leader of the Nation of Reborn," he said, introducing himself with determination.
"Michael—" Yuna said, trying to stop him. It was a misunderstanding!
However, Xere held out her hand and stopped Yuna from saying anything else.
There was a slight curl in her mouth, an expression of pure curiosity and mirth. She seemed eager to know what would unfold next.
"So you’re the boy," Xere muttered with indifference. "You stole my Yuna away from my family."
"Yes. I am. Yuna is our Arbiter."
Xere crossed her arms, the gravity around her bending the fabric of space to the point where Michael felt a force trying to pin him down.
Michael stood undaunted. He wasn’t going to falter.
With a shrug, the GodForge pieces in his heart began to unspool its threads, becoming tendrils out of Michael’s chest that began to wave around the air. It fended away the tremendous force of gravity trying to push him down.
This earned him an intrigued raise of an eyebrow from Xere.
"What makes you think that you’re worthy of her?"
Michael suppressed his inner impulse of brushing his curly hair. He was no longer that guy from before.
"I’m not worthy of her," he admitted. "She is a wonderful human being that is honestly too good for anyone.
She’s humble, when she has every reason not to. She gets the adoration of the entire world, yet she still cares for the wellbeing of those that are not as fortunate as hers.
I love that about her. And it’s what made me become who I am today. My entire goal in life is due to the fact that Yuna changed my life for the better. She inspired me.
And now, I have the chance to fulfill that goal. And to do that, I’ll need her help. I will not be able to fulfill any of my goals if I don’t have her beside me.
Yes. I don’t deserve her, but this world definitely does.
So please understand that I will never let go of Yuna. She’s my Arbiter. If you have anyone to blame for that, then blame me."
After that impassioned plea, Michael’s entire body was flushed with red hot blood. Sprawling out all of his feelings into the world made him feel very vulnerable.
But he knew that if he didn’t say what he felt, then he wouldn’t be able to reach Xere.
And in all honesty, this felt harder than when he fought those two Nascent Spirit Pieces. He could barely catch his breath!
Meanwhile, a smile finally broke out of Xere’s face.
Slightly laughing, she turned towards her granddaughter.
Yuna was beet red. Her entire skin was flushed with bashfulness. She couldn’t believe she finally heard those words from Michael! That was nothing less than a—
"My little fox. Looks like he beat you to it," Xere teased.
Yuna hid her face with her hands.
Meanwhile, Michael was completely clueless to the whole situation.
What was happening? It didn’t look like there was any lecturing going on between the two of them.
"Uhh..."
Yuna finally worked up the courage to turn towards him. "It’s okay, Michael. She... my grandmother approves."
"Oh..."
All the tension in Michael’s shoulder finally released. He could finally take a breath of fresh air.
"Hahaha, sorry for teasing you there, Michael. I just wanted to see the extent of your devotion to Yuna," Xere said. The intense gravity around her body completely dissolved. Now, she just looked like any other mortal, albeit a little taller and younger than her age would indicate.
"Devotion?" Michael asked, a little bit out of the loop.
"Hehe... I didn’t know you felt that way about me," Yuna said, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I... I adore you too!"
Michael’s cheeks blushed. "Oh... uh... thanks... me too. Ah, I guess I already said that."
They were definitely good friends now, he thought.
"I went to your house this morning," he told Yuna.
"I know. I’m sorry," she said.
But Michael understood her worries, no matter how ungrounded they turned out to be.
"I just wanted to give you a gift to cheer you up a little bit."
He took out the metal box from his shadow inventory, revealing a Vanilla Ice Cream molded to become a white rose.
"You finally remembered!" she screamed out.
In her excitement, Yuna lunged at Michael and gave him a warm hug.
Michael blushed again and awkwardly returned her hug.
"Alright, you two. Scram. Gramma’s gotta do some work," Xere said, shooing them off.
But before they left, Michael turned to her and revealed another metal box from his inventory.