In the Body Formation realm, a Maugnetic strives to create a corporeal form for their Diva. And once they achieve that, they would be able to manifest them outside of their own psyche, becoming an indomitable armor that grants its user solidified Aubility Power.
In the Nascent Spirit realm, a cultivator must now form their Diva's spirit. This was their soul. Most cultivators keep this spirit deep in their own psyches, hoarding it until they form a full soul for their Diva, thereby ascending to godhood.
But Nascent Spirit cultivators could also choose to bifurcate this soul, leaving it behind an item like that midnight. This would allow their Diva to briefly manifest in another location away from the Maugnetic.
Most people called that a Nascent Piece
Katarina never thought that the Platinum of this stronghold had a Nascent Piece in his arsenal.
If she knew, she would have never allowed Keo and Lady Farren to go into the castle alone.
Although this Nascent Piece was only a fragment of the real thing, a tiny slice of a ginormous pie, it still contained genuine Nascent Spirit power. It was not something that even a half-step 9th stage Body Formation cultivator could ever hope to defeat.
But somehow, this golden-haired boy did it. Against all odds, he deprived them of a valuable Platinum leader and his stronghold.
Not only that, but he achieved something that even Katarina was not able to do.
He was able to injure the Grandmaster.
After all, although that Nascent Piece was bifurcated from its Maugnetic, it was still inextricably linked to its owner. It was still a 'limb' in its body.
Its death would bring unimaginable pain and suffering to its Maugnetic.
It would be akin to feeling your mind and heart get struck with millions of needles while simultaneously getting sliced apart into pieces.
The loss of a Nascent Piece was even greater than losing a piece of limb. This was their soul. Grandmaster was losing a vital part of his soul.
Katarina could only lament the fact that she couldn't see that heinous bastard's face as he felt the repercussions of losing one of his Nascent Spirits. He must be clutching his chest in his tall ivory tower, his face filled with confusion and anger. His frustrations would only continue here on as he learns that one of his strongholds was unceremoniously sieged deep into the night, leaving no survivors at all.
And to think that they had originally thought they'd succeeded in their plans…
They successfully brought chaos and destruction in the Elven village, stole its most powerful Mithril weapon, and got away with it without anyone even knowing.
This would have been a crucial step in their plans.
But then, in the span of a few minutes, everything turned into a fiasco of disastrous proportions.
Katarina felt extremely jubilated.
Who would have thought that their greatest victory would come from a boy who didn't even know the war he was fighting?
…
…
…
"I'm dead tired," Michael muttered, his body sprawled on the floor.
"You could have died," she said, half-awed and half-reprimanding. "A Nascent Piece is not something that even cultivators in our realm can easily deal with."
Michael pushed himself off the ground, arching his back in pain. "That's because I didn't know anything. You didn't tell me about Platinum or that Nascent Piece you're talking about."
Katarina turned silent, agreeing with his words. When they arrived in the stronghold, she only told them to take Lyra and escape as soon as possible without fighting anyone. She never told them why.
"Are you going to tell me about this organization now?" Michael demanded. "After all this, I think I deserve to know."
She pursed her lips, still undecided on the whole situation.
There was a reason why they kept everything tightly sealed. This was forbidden knowledge. If they began spreading information about them to anyone who would listen, they would suddenly wake up to see bodies littering the floor.
After all, they were dealing with extremely powerful people, people who were on the brink of achieving godhood themselves.
Telling Michael of everything would get him killed…or maybe put him into a path of something much worse.
In Katarina's eyes, he would be much better off ignorant about the underbelly of the world.
But seeing the look in his eyes, she had a feeling that he would only be pushing himself into the darkness whether she told him or not.
And at that point, letting him go in blind would only assure his death.
But if she led him and guided his way, there was a very small chance that his unique capabilities could ultimately end up helping them win the war against the darkness.
He'd already shown that tonight.
Dad, is this why you chose him as your protege?
Perhaps the professor saw something within the kid, and in a moment of prescience, realized that he was the key that they needed to finally turn the tides of battle.
Katarina took a deep breath, a pensive countenance written on her face, before she finally nodded.
"Okay. I'll tell you what you need to know."
…
…
"Let me introduce myself properly for once. My name is Katarina Petrovich, and I am the only daughter of the great Grunwald Lichtenstein," she said with pride.
This was the first time Micheal heard of the professor's real name. He thought Lichtenstein was his first name, not his last.
But why is her last name Petrovich and not Lichtenstein?
Since this wasn't really relevant to the mystery of their organization, Michael decided to reserve this question for himself. He was much more interested to know about where they came from.
"We are a part of an organization called the Eternitus Consortium, a gathering of like-minded people with the express intent to save the world from the ruinous ideology of those who want to bring down the apocalypse.
We only exist to do one thing: destroy the Ersatz and their cataclysmic doctrine."