Zeraphine was a daughter of a Prime. And this was inconceivable considering that Primes was no longer considered to be humans. They were an altogether different kind of being. Mortal humans couldn't conceive what these beings are. And for such a being to give birth to a child was all the more impossible.
During the transformation between a Principal and a Prime, their bodies transform and become beings that didn't have gender. As beings that exist and can interact beyond the three-dimension, they have changed and cannot even be described to be beings who have locality in time and space.
The transformation is so different that these beings act and think differently. To Principals and Presiders, Primes were strange, enigmatic beings.
And among all Primes, Prime Zephirus was the strangest one of all.
As a being beyond the three dimensions, it was physically impossible for such a being to conceive a child. Yet it did so. Prime Zephirus was soon linked to a Mid-Tier Presider and gave birth to Zeraphine.
This created a lot of speculation and even created several battles among the Prime's who demanded an explanation to Prime Zephirus. Prime Zephirus refused to tell them and merely laughed at his challengers, stating that this was one of his breakthroughs.
The Primordial was neutral to the bickering among the group but confirmed that Zeraphine was indeed of Zephirus's own blood.
The law that the Primordial declared only allowed an Aragarian to bestow a limited number of technologies that were one level lower than their current standing. Every time they ascend, they would gain an opportunity to bestow it, but only to offspring born after they ascended. Most Aragarians have multiple children and would often copulate with Aragarians who were lower than them in terms of their level.
But since Primes never had children, the highest tech to be bestowed has always been Presider foundational techs.
The birth of Zeraphine naturally created issues as she was born after Zephirus ascended. A person born with a Principal leveled tech has not been seen since the founding of the Aragarians. The Aragarian world all were looking at Zeraphine's growth.
Principals were curious as Aragarians born with such advantage has never been seen. Half of the Agrarian consensus believed that Zeraphine would be powerful. She was granted such a great head start in the game. While everyone else is born trying to figure out the principles of the foundational techs, she would have such outstanding technology. No one knew what possible future such a person would have.
The other group believed that Zeraphine would never prosper. The Fight of Life, the struggle and study of science that would spark inspiration would be things that Zeraphine would never experience. And so, many believed that she would be a mediocre Principal. She would be the weakest Principal known ever to exist.
Many Primes raged and rebelled for Zephirus to never ever bestow Zeraphine Principal techs and argued that since such a case never occurred, Zephirus can only bestow Presider level techs, and many threatened to attack Zephirus if he ever broke that vow.
Zeraphine only received Pioneer-level techs when she was born. It was only her mother, a mid-tier Presider, who was finally allowed to give her the techs she needed.
But as a child, Zeraphine had grown outstandingly smart and managed to improve the Pioneer techs and make it reach a level that was near the Foundational Presider level stage!
This event created another turmoil within the Aragrian world as they claimed it was impossible for someone who lived less than a hundred years to achieve that on her own. The investigations led by Prime monitored and even scanned Zeraphine in front of several Principals.
The ruling then found that Zeraphine had a technology that only Principals should have.
Her soul has combined with her body. It was as if she was born with a Nefilius Suit.
A war nearly broke out, but Prime Zephirus claimed that he never gave her a tech endowment and even invoked the presence of the Primordial.
The Primordial ruled that Zephirus claims were true. And this caused another upheaval. Many Prime's and Principals vowed to be after Zephirus and Zeraphine if Zephirus would perform his bestowal. They argued that Zeraphine already had such an advantage that it should have been considered a bestowal of techs.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtZephirus didn't have much to say but only mocked his adversary. Still, after the event, no bestowal ever occurred.
The nature of Prime Zephirus being a transcendental being made it difficult for him to spend time with Zeraphine. Ad shortly after that event, Zeraphine's mother also died.
At that point, Zeraphine practically grew up alone. Many times did she pleaded for her father to help her but was met with silence.
Zeraphine grew up being told two extreme things as she tried to scale the ranks of the Aragarian world.
Those with power laughed at her and called her a cheat. Some even claimed that she was a bastard born of her mother and that Zephirus was never her real father but only used this trick to subvert the law. They would mock her and whatever achievements and developments she could achieve as a young Presider. Those born of Principals would claim that she cheated or used whatever evil means her father used to have her.
The other extreme was the constant praises from two-faced people looking to manipulate or flatter her with words to acquire more techs or find a way to get acquainted with Zephirus.
The two opposite ends of people that Zeraphine could meet made it more painful and heartbreaking for her as she grew up. She would be laughed at for being perfect as it was but an illusion given to the bestowal of her father. She would also gain fake allies because of the alleged perfection of being naturally born as someone with the potential to be a Presider.
All the more, Zeraphine continued to grow up hating her lineage and her father. She even hated when people addressed her as Princess, a title only reserved for Principals. Because of this, she vowed to be her person and tried her entire life to piece the mysterious puzzle, which is herself. She took the few techs that she could and even secretly studied the special soul that allowed her to make quick breakthroughs.
Soon, she became an official Presider and managed to acquire two Judges Claim. Her ascension brought both hate and flattering pretense from many. Her father made a rare appearance and talked to her and made many Presiders give her research materials and various data for her use.
And while Zeraphine was just a whelp among the Presiders, she had something that no one else had. The power of the Soul.
As far as she could tell, only Principals would have the ability to have her power. And now, before her was such a being.
The old man was casually talking and convincing the Emperors to bring Charm into the meeting. Since Lara was a Programmed Slave, her presence shouldn't be a problem.
"You can ask the Progenitor if you are unsure." The old man's voice showed a little impatience.
"It's alright. I'm sure they won't mind. This could be an eye-opening moment for them!" An Emperor laughed.
"Good! Emperor Hercules, please escort Charm promptly." The old man commanded.
Emperor Hercules nodded and began to offer his hand for Charm to take.
Charm was stuttering and trembling.
"Hm? Intriguing. What an odd girl." Nogard continued to be amazed as he looked at Charm.
Zeraphine observed the two and could not tell whether the old man wanted Charm or her to be around. Left with no choice, Zeraphine followed in hopes of learning more about it.
The pair followed. Lara was quiet and was doing her best to hide the roller-coaster of emotions she felt.
Charm, on the other hand, was in heaven. She saw herself headed towards the altar. For some strange reason, Cliff was Emperor Hercules's best man.
But then, this fantasy ended, as she saw Cliff sprinting while being chased by Eva.
The anger surfaced, and she didn't take a peek at Cliff.
"Charm! Wait!" Cliff called out and chased after the group.
Lynd finally ended his presentation at the arena, and Charles gave his closing spiel and welcomed everyone at the World Governing Trading Hub. The crowd dispersed, and Alexander Lanterk also emerged with the crowd. He still had a mystified look on his face and got even more confused as he received a message from Zeraphine telling him she was with the Emperors and he should avoid communicating with her at all cost.
Alexander frowned and decided to go back and establish his base to lay out his techs in order to uncover the many mysteries he learned.
"Phallic techs?" Lanterk murmured.
Suddenly, the crowd of people leaving the arena all burst into screams and cheers, and many began to profess their undying love.
Lanterk glanced, and his heart stopped.
Meryl Mikado.
The memory of what had he saw earlier was superimposed in the image of the walking Meryl. Meryl was as beautiful as she was but kept sprinting along with her guards to avoid the crowd of people.
Lanterk acted without thinking. He used his techs to force a layout of the entire building. With the map in his head, Lanterk deduced where Meryl would run and moved towards that location.
Soon, he saw a man leaning by the window and observed the beautiful underwater scenery.
"Him? Who is he? Why is he here? Should I get rid of him?" Lanterk pondered. He didn't want to allow any hindrance from his meeting with Meryl. Lanterk's current form was that of a small boy. Compared to the good-looking and suave man, Lanterk knew that Meryl wouldn't notice him!
Lanterk observed the CCTV cameras scattered all over and cursed as he could find no way to kill the man.
Suddenly, the doors burst open.
"Danny!" Meryl called out. There were no guards following her this time.
"Meryl! It's good to see you!" Danny smiled.
Lanterk grew angry at the scene. Meryl practically ran into the young man's embrace.
"I've missed you so much!" Danny laughed.
"Me too! Being so far away from my boyfie… Hmp! You sure didn't flirt around with any girls?'
"Of course not! I'm more worried that some guy might take you!" Danny laughed.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmLanterk was growing even angrier that his face couldn't hide his disgust.
The two, however, had known that Lanterk was there.
"Pioneer." Meryl did a very subtle sign which the Unlocked all knew. This was their means to communicate with each other.
Danny had been informed that he had a new mission that involved getting someone jealous and was immediately on board.
Danny resisted the urge to glance at Lanterk.
"Hmp! Lusting after Meryl, huh?" Danny was smiling but kept hiding the inner rage he had.
"Ahem! Sorry. I- I… don't mean to interrupt." Lanterk finally spoke.
The pair turned and noticed Lanterk.
"Hey, kid. You lost your parents or something?" Danny gave a surprised look but intentionally provoked Lanterk.
"Danny! Be nice!"
"Kid came at a bad time!" Danny cursed and went all alpha by putting his arm around Meryl.
"Hey! I know you! You're that Exoskeleton Pilot that nearly got me, right? I actually asked for you after the fight!" Meryl identified Lanterk.
Lanterk felt his stomach turn.
"Oh. Ye-yeah! Sorry about that whole attack. And erm… congratulations on winning that." Lanterk smiled, unable to hide the jittery sensation that was tingling all over his body.
"Meryl Mikado." Meryl moved forward and offered a handshake which Lanterk greedily took.
Lanterk was about to introduce himself when…
"You're Alexander Small Willy, right?" Meryl asked ahead.
Lanterk froze.
"Oh? Alexander Small Willy? What a weird name." Danny laughed and didn't even hide it.
"Danny!" Meryl chastized.
"You really go by that name?" Danny mocked as he stepped in between the handshake of the two, forcing Lanterk to let go of Meryl's hands.
"It's… it's a fake name." Lanterk gritted his teeth.
"Oh, ok. Alexander Small Willy. I'm Danny Bigus Dickus.." Danny offered Lanterk a handshake.