Muiyan Faye had expected a bit more drama— perhaps some crying, some shouting, or at the very least, a little public rage from Dupravel Nuna in the aftermath of his son's kidnapping.
But to her mild disappointment, the Black Serpents Guildmaster kept his composure remarkably intact.
Even if he was boiling on the inside— which she had no doubt he was, given every intelligence report painted him as a doting father who spoiled his son rotten— Dupravel did not crumble, did not shout, and most certainly did not break down.
At least not here. Not in front of everyone.
Instead, he stood tall, face unreadable, expression carved from stone, still playing the part of a dignified Monarch, even as the ashes of his enemies cooled at his feet.
'Tch… guess you don't reach Monarch status without learning to bury your emotions somewhere deep,' Faye thought, exhaling lightly as she shook her head in disappointment— before letting her gaze drift to the one person she was actually worried about.
Leo.
Leo clutched Jishan's dagger like it was the last thread tethering him to consciousness, his fingers locked tight around the hilt as his breaths came in ragged, uneven pulls, each one sounding like it might be his last before passing out of exhaustion.
"Leo… are you okay?" Faye asked, her voice softer than usual— gentle, almost maternal— as she quickly uncorked a healing potion and pressed the cool glass vial to his lips.
*Gulp*
Leo drank greedily, the vibrant blue liquid sliding down his throat in heavy swallows.
Warmth spread through his body almost instantly, rushing like a current through torn muscle and fractured bone, sealing micro-tears, soothing skin lesions, and igniting a burning sting deep in his dislocated shoulder as it began realigning on its own.
"That was a valiant fight, kid… You did well to survive," came a calm, measured voice from nearby.
Mu Jianlong— the Mu Clan Patriarch— approached with the quiet dignity of someone used to commanding rooms without raising his voice, as his gaze fell to Leo with a rare flicker of respect.
"It's unfortunate," Jianlong continued, kneeling beside him and picking up the camera that was still live and rolling, "to see young talents like you being targeted by those cowards. The Evil Cult pretends to be righteous, but all they do is prey on the weak while dressing it up as justice."
With a flick of his thumb, he shut the camera off, ending the universal broadcast abruptly.
"You two— Rodova instructors. Get your boy to the medical bay. He's been through hell and needs proper care immediately."
His tone was firm, not demanding but still absolute— like an order given out of concern and not authority.
Faye and Major Hen exchanged a brief glance before nodding in sync, as without wasting another second, they each took one of Leo's arms, supporting his weight between them as they prepared for ascent.
And with that, they leapt out of the pit— one level at a time— carrying the bloodied champion out of the crater, away from the battlefield, and toward the recovery he so desperately needed.
However, as they made their way there, they all looked back at the incident that took place in a different light, with each focusing on a different aspect of what unfolded.
Hen looked back at the incident with rage bubbling in his heart, as he completely bought into the narrative that the Evil Cult was the most despicable organisation in the universe that needed to be eradicated at any and all costs.
In his head, he thought about likely upcoming scenarios where the righteous alliance might put-up a recruitment notice to prepare a war-force against the Evil Cult, as he thought about leaving his teaching job and signing up for it, just to do his part in eradicating Evil from this universe.
However, contrary to him, Muiyan Faye saw this event as something else entirely.
From Faye's perspective, this attack was a grand success for the Evil Cult, with them succeeding in sowing fear and chaos into the universe and kidnapping Darnell Nuna.
However, she also felt anxious for the fallout that was about to take place in the near future, and whether or not the cult was ready for it?
Having successfully kidnapped Darnell Nuna put them in a war-path against the righteous alliance, where sooner or later a massive conflict was sure to unfold.
Finally, Leo's takeaway from the event was perhaps the most inward-facing of all, as he cared little for his own injuries, the cult's escape, or even the fact that his actions had been broadcast to every inhabited quadrant of the universe.
Because all he could think about— all he could truly feel in this moment— was how monstrously powerful the Monarchs who had stood above him were.
Mu Jianlong, Dupravel Nuna, The Enigma Wade—
He had fought valiantly today, spilled blood, broken bones, and clawed his way through four Grandmasters to claim victory for Rodova, and for a fleeting moment after he achieved it, he had felt invincible.
But then they appeared.
And everything he had accomplished felt small.
Insignificant.
Their very presence warped the space around them— as their auras didn't simply exude power; they imposed it, like their existence itself bended the laws of reality.
'The pressure that Dupravel Nuna exuded when he said, 'Stop, Nobody moves—', it made my blood chill as my body flinched and refused to obey my own head.
What level of strength must he have? That I can't even disobey an indirect command of his that he spoke casually?' Leo wondered, as he felt his heart sink in his chest.
Today he realized that there existed a level of strength so far beyond his own that even a thousand versions of himself wouldn't make up a fraction of their pressure, and it made him feel slightly depressed at how weak he was in the grand scheme of things.
Leo had witnessed Wade say, "I can't sense them in this solar system," with the same calm he might use to comment on the weather, as if searching an entire star system for two people was as trivial as glancing around a room.
'Their attacks… could split this asteroid in half if they wanted to. Maybe even the planet beneath it. And they're holding back,' Leo thought, his lips tightening as he exhaled slowly, every throb of pain in his body now eclipsed by the weight of that realization.
'So this… this is the difference between those who command the universe and those who fight in it. This is what it means to be at the peak.'
And yet, despite the inadequacy curling in his gut, despite the humbling force of their existence crushing down on his pride, Leo didn't feel despair.
He felt hunger.
He felt resolve.
Because today, he had witnessed the peak for the first time.
Today, he had seen what it meant to be a 'Monarch' versus a 'Monarch level talent', as he realized just how far a distance he needed to travel, before he could be proud of himself as a warrior.
And although he wasn't quite there yet, Leo had confidence in himself that if he continued to survive, he would surely get there one day.