Broken

As word about their emperor’s deeds was spreading throughout the kingdom and even outside of it from the mouth of his guards, Seth was trying to enjoy a cup of tea in his parents’ company.

Nash was staring at his son with an amazed look while Hilda was doing her best not to say anything about Seth’s deeds.

Their weekly time together was quite awkward, and Seth eventually excused himself after half a day, not wishing to be there when Hilda finally exploded.

With much of the day left, he teleported back down Tn the spring and pulled the girls out for fun.

At the beginning of the next week, Seth returned to his cultivation.

Slowly, Seth fell into a schedule. He cultivated for five days, only taking a break or two to spend time with one of his wives and check on Leora, which usually happened whenever Caitlin’s complaining would get too loud.

For the last two days of the week, he spent the first gathering lust energy from the women of the empire and the second half with his parents and half with his wives.

His schedule will hold on for three weeks in the month, while he would only focus on his wives in the fourth. They didn’t leave the underground place, but in the fourth week, he would go from one spring to the other, spending some time with each one of them.

----

In this rhythm, over a year slowly passed, and everyone’s progress was quite noticeable. Due to most of their time spent in cultivation and their long lifespans, no one inside felt time pass too slowly.

What surprised everyone, including Seth, was Katy suddenly creating a lust source half a year back. When asked about it, she had no explanation about how it happened, but Seth figured it must be Lust’s doing and didn’t bother too much about it. What came as a bigger surprise was that she no longer relied on his lust energy to survive.

He had not started helping her cultivate yet because she was officially pregnant, and he wanted to wait for her to give birth or whatever was supposed to happen, but there was no progress in that matter either.

Even after an entire year, there was no swelling on her body and no physical signs of pregnancy. Seth would have even thought she had miscarried if not for the orb still existing inside her soul.

With lust not answering his calls and her situation not changing that much, Seth could only wait and monitor her status along with Leora’s.

With her becoming an ascended, her title of Imperial Concubine should have changed to that of Imperial Consort, but Katy refused it, saying she didn’t want the people to know yet.

Seth didn’t question her and allowed her to do as she pleased.

After a year of sitting inside the manor underground, Katy decided to move back to the surface and only visit from time to time. That way, there would be someone from the Imperial family in case any trouble arose, and she also wanted to spend more time with Hilda and Nash.

With Katy’s movement back inside the Imperial Chambers, Seth and the girls resumed their schedule.

---

Ten years had passed since Seth began his cultivation, and he was barely at the starting line of his fifth shell. All his lovers at the fourth shell had reached the fifth shell, with Hollie coming closer to the sixth shell while Maya also pushed forward toward the seventh.

During these ten years, nothing of notice had happened inside the Endora Empire besides its continuous expansion. It was a period of peace and development for both humans and ascended.

Still, peace was a feeble concept.

A few weeks later, as Seth was cultivating inside his pool, his divinity suddenly shook, struggling against the seal that housed it.

The movement was slight, but it didn’t escape Seth’s notice, and he quickly got out of the water. Looking at the water drops falling in slow motion, his eyes flashed a dark-red color, knowing his time was over.

Kronos was coming, and by the way he unleashed his divinity over the entire world, Seth knew he was not there for a friendly chat.

With no time to waste, his destruction source started revolving, and Caitlin got pushed out of his body. Materializing nearby, she was about to complain when she also spotted the slow-motion water drops.

Noticing the intense look in Seth’s eyes, she quickly understood what was happening and closed her mouth with a serious expression.

Seth was busy using all his destruction energy to prepare for a contingency he hoped he would never have to use, but due to Kronos’ sudden arrival, he knew he had no other choice.

Seeing the blood leaking from all of his orifices, Caitlin raised her hand, wanting to stop or help him, but she paused mid-action and didn’t disturb it. With each passing moment, she could feel it as well.

The terrifying energy coming in their direction.

Seth used his fifth shell destruction energy to cut his soul into seven pieces. One around each of his sources and a last one clean of any source or energy.

Keeping his consciousness with the destruction source, he ripped the other parts apart, sealing each in a small destruction seal and having them exit his body.

Those souls exiting his body were like puzzle pieces containing his memories.

Looking at Seth’s pathetic appearance as his sources were leaving his body, Caitlin started silently crying; her fists clenched so hard that death energy was slowly leaking out of them.

When his five other sources besides destruction were entirely separated, Seth pushed them towards Caitlin and said: “Let my sources enter your body. You won’t be able to connect with them, but you can still feed them life energy to keep those souls from fading.”

Caitlin nodded, her lips pursed as she enveloped the five sources into a thin thread of life energy and slowly dragged them inside her own body, waiting for Seth’s following instructions without a word of protest.

As Seth opened his mouth to speak, a tiny worm appeared to the side, and Seth put his instructions for Caitlin on hold, throwing his last remaining piece of soul to the worm.

“As we planned.”

The worm didn’t say a single word and disappeared from the room along with Seth’s last soul piece, allowing Seth to turn back to Caitlin.

Wiping the blood off his hands, Seth caressed Caitlin’s cheek, removing the tears leaving her eyes, and said: “I trust you to keep them safe. Just go and wait for me to find you.”

“Go where?” asked Caitlin, her entire body trembling with Seth’s touch.

“Remember. Wait for at least one year on the first floor before walking out. No matter what happens, don’t move to the next floor, and don’t come out for at least one year.”

“What does that mean?” asked Caitlin again, and Seth bent and kissed her lips before saying. “Remember that calling you’ve been feeling. Say after me: ‘I accept the Tower’s calling and agree to take its trial.’”

Caitlin’s face paled, knowing a thing or two about it, and she asked: “You want me to hide in the Tower? No. I can’t - “

Seth blocked her words with his finger, shaking his head before looking straight above. “You’re the only one that can do this, Caitlin. Please trust me. Once you leave the Tower, hide and wait for me to find you.”

Caitlin sniffed once and nodded, kissing Seth back.

She could feel it as well. Kronos’ imminent arrival.

“I love you. Please take care.”

“I love you too, Cait.”

After Seth nodded, she muttered softly through her sobs. “I answer the Tower’s calling and agree to take its trial.”

Seth smiled and watched as her body faded away, leaving him with his outstretched hand in mid-air.

Shortly after her disappearance, Seth’s smile faded, and he looked around the room at the other pools. He knew his time was only slowed because of his time anchor, but any other being under the seventh shell was completely frozen in time.

Sighing, he took one more look towards the mansion where Leora was resting before his eyes turned dark red, and his body got covered in destruction energy.

‘Remove all my memories and only leave a single goal inside this piece of soul. To kill Kronos. Also, break the seal on my divinity.’

<Your soul and source won’t be able to support a complete divinity.>

‘I know. Just do it.’

<...>

<Affirmative.>

With no hesitation, Seth started flying upwards, digging a hole through the ceiling of the underground chamber and continuing to fly up. Notifications kept appearing in his vision, but he ignored them all.

<Divinity seal unleashed.>

<Destruction source crumbling under the full pressure of your divinity.>

<Destruction source destroyed.>

<Soul losing its integrity>

Even with his source wholly gone, a crown took its place, revolving continuously in the center of the destruction energy, fueling it as it continued traveling upwards.

‘What have you done?’ an angry voice resounded inside Seth’s piece of soul, but Seth’s memories were gone by now. He was just an empty soul with a single drive.

‘He had to kill Kronos.’

Soon, Seth’s energy form reached its goal, and a young man appeared before him.

‘What have you done?’ asked Kronos, repeating the question Seth’s divinity asked him as he felt the pressure emanating from the energy cluster in front of him.

Seth didn’t look like he wanted to chat, rushing straight at Kronos, the crown inside his soul releasing more and more destruction energy.

A trail of void replaced the space around him as Seth rushed right in front of Kronos. A hand made out of destruction energy rushed out from the cluster of energy, heading straight for Kronos’ heart.

Kronos’ eyes shook, and his divinity started revolving as well, the hand aiming for his heart slowly starting to fade away, but Seth was like a rabid animal, pushing on despite that.

Kronos cursed inside his mind as he stretched his hand forward, grabbing the divinity inside Seth’s energy form while Seth’s hand grasped his.

<Link to the Tower lost.>

<Time anchor broken.>

<System integrity fading.>

<Goodbye host...>

A tremendous explosion ensured in space just outside the world, its shock waves making the earth tremble.

The entire continent was immediately sent into a state of panic, with earthquakes breaking the land, volcanoes erupting, and tsunamis forming in the oceans surrounding it.

It was like the end of the world was coming, and no one would be spared, but as the whole world was about to fall into pieces, a giant shield appeared high above it, preventing further destruction from spreading.

The lands calmed eventually, but billions of people had already fallen victim to the sudden calamity, while the remaining ones were still in a state of panic.

While all this was going on, deep in the darkness of space, a pure blue world was floating toward the source of the destruction.

Sitting on a throne made of ice, a beautiful woman looked deep into the space’s darkness with a pensive expression.

“Mistress...” a man kneeling on the side muttered. “Is that?”

The woman nodded, turning her head to the raven floating beside the man.

“A divinity has returned to the universe. Is there still a point in me going there, little bird?”