Isabella trailed her hand over the rough stone wall of the dark and narrow corridor as she made her way down it towards her destination.

A thin film of compressed water mana covered her, casting a mild blue light upon the walls and revealing the multicoloured flecks of crystals that glittered on them. The mana-film rippled as silent, invisible forces acted upon its surface; like a placid lake disturbed by a strong breeze. The wavering light only illuminated things in a small radius centred on her, leaving the rest of the passage dark.

Unlike her usual course of action when facing conditions of low visibility, Isabella strongly restrained her soul sense, because if she activated it here, her senses would be overwhelmed by the sheer density and turbulence of the ambient mana. It was this overabundance of active mana that had transformed the rock of the walls into elemental crystals over two millennia of constant washout. And without the film of water mana protecting her, even her enhanced Demigod physique wouldn't last long within the vortex.

Reaching the end of the corridor, she found her way blocked by a heavy stone door, glittering with the same rough outgrowths of colourful crystals as the rest of the rock.

If the Capital was the heart of Regiis and the Imperial Palace was the heart of the Capital, then beyond this door was the very centre of the Palace – the core of the Grand Topology that encompassed the Capital.

Laying her palm flat on the heavy stone door, Isabella pushed and her mana surged in tandem with her, lending the strength of a crashing wave to her effort. With the deep rumble of stone grating against stone, the multi-tonne slab of rock sank into the wall, and with another grunt of effort, Isabella pushed it far enough to reveal a gap between it and the doorframe. Sliding through the gap quickly, she pushed the stone slab again and shut the door, sealing herself in.

Turning around, she took stock of the cavern she had entered. It hadn’t changed much – or at all – since the last time she had been here a couple of months ago. Massive stalactites of white, blue and light green crystal hung down from the domed ceiling of the cavern, while corresponding stalagmites of black, red and yellow crystal towered up from the ground. This was the absolute centre of the perpetual mana vortex of the Capital and over the years, the mana had condensed into these interlocking spurs of crystal.

Isabella weaved her way through this mildly glowing crystal forest; the mana turbulence and the size of the crystals reducing along the way. Until at the very centre the mana stilled entirely, like the wind within the eye of a storm, and the forest gave way to a clearing.

There, at the heart of the clearing floated a perfectly round sphere of transparent crystal ten times the size of a human head. Two figures, one woman and one girl sat facing each other on either side of it on two rush cushions. The crystal glowed with a harsh internal brilliance that cast stark shadows of the two figures on the floor of the clearing.

Even with her soul sense sealed, Isabella felt extremely uncomfortable bathed under that light. She could feel the substantive agglomeration of the soul force within the crystal – Vita’s Divine Will.

Earlier, Tier 5 peak mages at the end of their natural lifespans used to imitate the Elementals and forcibly absorb a huge amount of mana in order to try and break through to Demigod somehow. This was simply an unrestrained gamble with very low odds of success.

Less than one in ten thousand survived and even less were successful.

Then, a little more than two thousand years ago, Emperor Adam had become the first person to reach the level of Demigod through the use of contractual bonds – thus opening a new era of magic where reaching Tier 6 was a hundred times easier than before with a one in a hundred chance of success.

While this had given Emperor Adam a huge initial advantage in terms of military strength, in the later years of his reign, as the technique of Contracts spread and became widely accepted, the advantage reduced more and more. Also, Demigods were just too destructive. A war between two of them could ruin huge swathes of the environment. Destroying a city was just a day’s work for them.

Thus, he needed a deterrent, an assurance that even if some nation went crazy and set out its Demigods against Regiis, they would have an answer.

The answer was this floating sphere. It was a weapon of mass destruction created by siphoning off Vita’s Divine will from the ambient mana and condensing it within this specially created crystal that had exactly equal amounts of all six elements. The entire topology of the Capital was created to aid this process.

It required the constant attention of two extremely talented women – at least one of them married to a man she could pass the excess Divine Will off to – working in tandem to keep it stable. That was the duty of the Empress and the Empress dowager. That was the secret technique of Regiis. Only the Demigods and the Emperor knew this secret beyond the two women in question.

As though sensing her approach, the two women raised their hands in perfect synchronization and placed their palms on the surface of the crystal. For a moment, nothing seemed to happen, then the light slowly dimmed until it faded to a mild glow within the heart of the crystal.

Both the Empress and Princess Venus opened their eyes and fixed their gaze upon her in eerie tandem.

“Isabella,” they spoke in one voice, “well met.”

Suddenly, the Empress raised a hand and slapped herself, the sharp crack resounding in the silence of the cavern. She shook her head as though awakening from a dream. “I absolutely hate when that happens,” she muttered while rubbing her reddening cheek.

Princess Venus too seemed to have been thrust out of that strange melded condition by that slap and she rubbed her cheek too – most likely suffering from phantom pains.

Getting to her feet and smoothening down her skirt, the Empress greeted her with a smile. “Isabella! What brings you here? It’s been too long since we last met.”

The Empress had the bloodline of reindeers in her veins. She had taken after her father, the previous king, who was a member of the prestigious Rangifer family in the Northern Province. The current Head of the clan, the Empress’ cousin, was a Marquis while the previous Head, her uncle, had been the Duke. Her beautiful antlers, that had been polished to a shine, rose up from her layered white and brown hair, revealing her deer ears that were twitching with happiness. Her short tail was concealed beneath her velvet skirt. The Rangifers were famed for not only producing an Emperor from their line, but also for their dual affinities for Wind and Light, forming the Compound affinity of Speed.

“It’s only been two months, Celine,” said Isabella as she walked over to the woman and gave her a hug.

Patting her back, Empress Celine replied, “Yes. And that is much too long.” Releasing the Demigod from the hug, she pulled back while keeping a grip on Isabella’s shoulders. “It’s hard to find sensible people to talk to in the palace. I was counting the days till your return.”

Turning to Venus, she called the young girl over. “Come, greet your teacher.”

Approaching them, the Princess curtsied deeply to Isabella. “Greetings, teacher,” she said in a soft voice.

In Venus’ case, she hadn’t inherited the traits of either her father or her mother. Instead, her grandmother’s blood had skipped a generation and manifested in her. Pure white wolf ears peeked out of her messy white hair, with an underlying tint of pale green, and a bushy white wolf tail swayed behind her back. Her pale green eyes were extremely limpid – like pools of still water in a forest reflecting the overhanging canopy of leaves. She possessed the bloodline of the Wind Wolves, one of the hereditary noble clans.

This wasn’t strange as the current Lupin Demigod had served as the Emperor in his youth. He was her great grandfather.

The final winner of a Swayamvar was supposed to be the most talented man in the Empire. It was logical that some of the Emperors would reach the highest Tier of magic. In fact, four of the twelve hereditary families had risen when an Emperor had successfully promoted to Demigod. And another five had originated from the promotion of Empresses as well as the direct descendants of the Emperor. Only three of the families’ progenitors had no direct connection to the throne.

Beyond meeting up with her friend, Celine, and her pupil, Venus, Isabella had come here with a goal in mind. She came straight to the point. “Venus, when you were younger, you once snuck your sister in here, didn’t you?”

Without any fluctuation in her expression, the Second Princess replied serenely, “Yes, teacher.”

“Why?”

“I wanted to show off my new technique. I always idolized sister’s strength.” Still in that oddly calm voice, she continued, “I wanted her respect. At that time, I thought showing her I could do something she couldn't was the way to earn it.”

Isabella shook her head inwardly. Contact with the core crystal was very taxing. Even though her mother carried most of the burden, Venus was too young and inexperienced. She would always end the session drained of all mood. And in this state of enforced placidness, she could talk about embarrassing things without compunction. Only to regret the words later.

She would have to slowly adapt to the pressure by increasing her cultivation base and by simply building up an immunity to it over time.

“How much did you tell her?” inquired Isabella.

“Up to the part concerning the extraction of Vita’s Divine Will,” said Venus. “That was all I knew then.”

The Empress butted into the conversation. “If you’re worried about my eldest daughter divulging anything, then please stop. She was made to swear an oath to that effect.”

“Although,” she relented, “Artemis did end up modifying that remnant technique into a contract with an inanimate object.”