Harvey had to say it. He was very nervous. He had never been this nervous for a long time, but today he was!
As Caspian and Victor battered at each other, he got the entire image.
Victor was trying to cuckold Caspian… Yes… Was he a fool? Harvey wondered.
No… Victor was not a fool!
Harvey squinted his eyes… What was this brat playing at?
…
The girl stood there looking coldly at everyone.
“Nova?” Caspian asked in shock as he looked at the girl who locked stubbornly at him. There was a 10% chance that she might appear here, but he didn’t expect it like this.
He quickly appraised her.
Name : Nova Von Astrom Class: Fire Starter |
She was the real one! Why was she here? Didn’t Mirage fail to locate her?
Many attendees began to whisper to each other, not sure what to make out of this.
Theodore glared at his son, not sure if this was a part of his supposed perfect plan or not.
“SHE IS FAKE! SECURITY!” Victor screamed while pointing at Nova as if he was troubled, but no security personnel answered, they were all seemingly unconscious.
The brides on the stage began to look at each other wondering what was happening there. Victor didn’t inform them of everything. They were supposed to just play along, but now they were not sure if this girl was the real one or not.
“SHE IS A FAKE!” The Nova on stage claimed. Totally ignoring the attendees’ inspecting gazes.
“No… I am the real one,” The new Nova calmly said, “And proving this is extra easy!” she added as she took out a strange talisman and then threw it in the air. A sudden burst of light drowned everything in the hall.
“Look at the truth!” the new Nova said, gesturing toward the stage.
Under the astonished eyes of everyone, the Nova on stage began to slowly turn into a man. A very handsome and feminine man, but nevertheless a man!
“Ssssssssssssssss…” the crowd hissed in shock. Even Lara who was faking being unconscious was shocked. Wasn’t this Alex? Why was he here?
“Alex! What are you doing here? Why are you acting as Nova?” Victor pointed to Alex and asked in shock as if he had no idea what was going on. Totally shameless. But subjectively he was avoiding a lot of trouble by announcing that he knew nothing of this.
“Ah… You told me to?” Alex was quite clear that there was no need to lie here. Victor almost kicked her ass.
“ALEX DONNER! I KNEW THAT NAME WAS FAMILIAR!” Caspian said, “The last surviving member of the infamous thunder sect! I remember seeing you once in a tournament back then!” he added, making Victor pause and frown.
Sh*t…. He didn’t expect Alex to be identified this quickly, she never told him she met Caspian before.… Damn her!
The plan needed to be readjusted. He quickly notified everyone to switch to scenario 51/A. It was not perfect, but it was the best option!
On the other side, the attendees began to look at Alex in shock. Was this Alex? The one on the council's wanted list with a very big award as he might hold the key to knowing what truly happened regarding the Mantis incident.
Olaf, the family butler, like others looked at Alex and then glared at Victor and Theodore for not reporting this. They totally ignored him.
“Alex? Is it true?” Victor asked as he had no idea.
“Please don’t be mad, young master… Yes! I am the heir to the Thunder sect!” Alex nodded, she was aware that she must not let the world know that Victor knew about her. “I just wanted a shelter so I decided to use you! I didn't mean you or your family any harm...” she said as she tried hard to remember the script Victor gave her last night to study on the road.
“I don’t care about that! I just want to know how you turned into Nova! Can I do that too?” Victor asked in a perverted tone, totally stunning the listeners. That’s what he cared about? Well… they wanted to know too!
“Ah…” Alex didn’t know how to answer that.
“It was a body-changing pill!” Nova, who was watching the show, said coldly, clarifying, “The rare talisman I used reversed the effect of all temporary body modification in this hall!” she said to Caspian, explaining why his Talisman didn’t work.
“I see…” Caspian nodded. This made perfect sense!“Oh…” Victor opened his eyes wide. “Body changing? Where did you get it? Do you have more?” he asked the flustered Alex as if he had no idea.
You gave it to him! Don’t think that I don’t know that you stole some sanitary napkins from my house and used the blood on them to ask an alchemist to make them!” Nova said, “He wanted to marry me even if only in the name to humiliate us!”
“Oh!” all the attendants looked at Victor like he was a pervert… Especially Nova’s family. Stole what? when? how?
“LIES...These are baseless accusations!” Victor yelled as he secretly gave a series of instructions to Alex and Yin to start the plan. “I am an honest man!” he added, but no one believed him.
“Regardless…” Caspian said, giving Victor a cold glare. “This will have to be investigated by….”
Caspian began to talk, but before he could continue, Alex jumped on him with a golden spear. Caspian was totally unprepared for this sudden attack as Alex was very fast and she attacked from an impossible angle.
The attendees gasped in shock as the golden spear hit right in the center of Caspian’s forehead where it was stopped in its tracks by a reverberating light.
“ALEX STOP!” Victor yelled a little too late, but Alex didn’t listen to him and struck at Caspian again. But the latter was prepared this time as a golden shield formed in his hand, which he used to defend against the attack.
The sound of metal hitting metal rang in the hall as sparks flew in the air.
“Trimon!” Caspian yelled for his man.
“HOW DARE YOU RUIN MY PLANS!” Alex yelled angrily as she struck again. This time, however, she was aiming at Nova.
“Sh*t! Trimon, take care of Nova!” Caspian yelled, changing his plan, he had to defend her.
Nova was essential to his demonic array.
His momentary hesitation was a big mistake, as it left him wide open.
The spear that was going to be deflected by Trimon, wasn’t there anymore as it was now aiming at the gap in Caspian’s defense. It struck like a shadow and hit again right in the middle of his forehead.
Caspian cursed as he was pushed back then paused as a sound of shattering could be around him… Caspian gasped. His indestructible shield that had three charges was shattered in two! This meant that Alex was hitting him at the exact same spot. What kind of proficiency was this?
This guy was dangerous!
For the first time since entering the hall, Caspian was scared. Really scared. And he didn’t like this at all!
“You shall die!” Caspian yelled as a jade-decorated sword appeared in his hand. From the sheen of its blade, it was clear that it was very sharp.
“Stop this now!” Theodore yelled. This situation was very delicate. He wanted to intervene!
"Stop! This is not our fight," Olaf stopped him.
Theodore silently cursed and decided to let these two fight it and only intervene if the situation got out of hand.
Caspian, totally ignoring everyone else, attacked Alex without delay intending to subdue her, but again after three strokes, he realized that he was totally outmatched. Many in the hall noticed this too.
It was not like Alex was better than him at fighting, but his strikes were not connecting with her as she was very slippery and her spear was moving all over the place at impossible angles that were hard to defend against. It was as if he was fighting an illusion!
“LOOSER! IS THIS REALLY THE FAMOUS CASPIAN? I can’t understand what’s so good about him!” Victor suddenly began to spout nonsense.
Caspian really wanted to curse back at him, but a sudden feeling of forbidding danger stopped him. Alex had used the slight distraction to attack again. Caspian quickly used his sword to deflect the spear, but the damn thing disappeared right after it touched his sword and spread right in front of his head! SH*T!
“Boss watch out!” Trimon, who was now protecting Nova, warned, but it was too late.
Caspian clenched his jaw, using all of his strength he swung his already extended sword at a nearby column, to use the recoil to push his head back to the side slightly and managed to barely parry the attack at the last moment.
Fsssssssst….. The spear tracked a red stroke of blood on Caspian's handsome face, making everyone in the hall gasp. This was a big insult, especially for someone arrogant like Caspian who prided himself as the heir of the biggest sect. The heavenly sect.
“The kid is dead…” Trimon said. No one has humiliated Caspian like this before and left in one piece.
Nova just squinted her eyes and watched with a smirk.
“YOU FILTHY MONKEY…” Caspian’s eyes turned red with anger as he touched the gushing wound on his face. He was very furious.
He was about to move again using his supreme martial arts but paused when he felt it… The feeling of burning. It was like his soul was getting ripped away from his body. He knew this feeling, someone was trying to banish him.
SH*T!
What? Where is he? Who was doing this?
Looking around with his appraisal, Caspian realized that it was none other than the golden spear in Alex’s hands…. The spear was some kind of a blessed artifact! When it injured him, its power must have activated!
VIVI’S BLESSED SPEAR , A
CAN DETECT DEMONS ON TOUCH. |
“YOU! YOU ARE A DEMON!” Alex suddenly said as she looked at the spear and then at Caspian in shock. “YOU FILTHY DEMON DIE!” she attacked again with hatred this time as if he was the one who killed her father.
Caspian gasped… SH*T. Without thinking, he knew what to do… This bastard and his spear needed to disappear forever no matter what or his entire plan would be ruined!
Caspian quickly activated his life-saving treasure, the SSS-ranked artifact, The Gate Of Doom, He took it from his ring in a split second and aimed it at Alex without thinking. It was a tiny red oak-wood box that once opened released a flash of a black light that evaporated everything in its path.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM….
A huge explosion shook the hotel, as a hole was opened in its side.
…
“Watch out!”
“A BOMB!”
“JUSTICE IS SERVED AT LAST!”
“POLYGAMIST SHOULD DIE!”
"Arrest them! they must be culprits!"
The people below the hotel began to flee in chaos as the explosion from above made some debris fall. Nothing major though.
“Breaking news! A sudden explosion broke the white hotel” Gloria said as she got shoved by the people who ran around her. She was not running, this was her chance “We have reports of….” she paused as the cameraman gestured for her to stop then looked at his camera.
“What now?” she scolded.
“Strange… We don’t have a signal…” the cameraman said as he looked toward their van… it was not there.
“What’s wrong?” Gloria asked.
“Where is our Van?” the cameraman asked as the people around him began to calm down and look up.
“The van?” Gloria asked as she looked around searching for the damn van while sweating. It was not there. “Could it have been stolen?” she wondered as began to panic.
She had begged the editor for this chance for the entirety of last week! But he kept telling her that it might be dangerous.
If something were to happen to the channel’s high-tech broadcasting Van she would have to literally sell her body to pay for it.
“It’s there!” suddenly the camera said, making Gloria notice the van.
She quickly ran toward it to discover that it had been completely ransacked.
The recordings were all gone!
…
The smoke slowly cleared from the hall as most players stood up and began to look around. Most of them were veteran players and a little explosion didn't really faze them. Only noobs like Archie, Gary and April were scared.... No Archie was no longer in the hall.
Harvey and Amon on the other hand were part of the few who didn't move at all. They remained relaxed in their seats from the start, watching the show.
Alex, who was standing proudly in the center of the hall before, was no more. Only the broken shaft of her Spear and some dregs of the wedding dress she was wearing remained.
Behind her, the mark of the destruction ray was left. A black streak of soot dug through the marble tiles and reached the walls in the back which had a new big hole as a decoration.
Thankfully, no one else was hurt, as Alex was standing in a safe spot, and there was no one behind him! Just the stage was a little damaged. The old Priest was the closest one to the destruction ray, but he was lucky that he was already unconscious, or he would have completely lost his mind at the sight of death passing a few inches to his right.
Caspian slowly closed the box with a bead of sweat going down his eyebrow. He really overreacted there. That banishment effect was not enough to hurt him, but when Alex suddenly said that he was a demon, and with everything happening around bewildering him, he lost his cool. Thankfully that hateful blessed spear was destroyed!
Sh*T! Caspian looked around at the wary attendees, They were not shocked about the death of a man. Unlike their still-unconscious friends, they were players, they didn’t care about the lives of a few men. But the escalation of events was really beyond their comprehension.
Hopefully, no one would believe Alex’s claim that he was a demon… They probably already forgot about it. Caspian convinced himself.
Victor at the stage was gaping in shock with his brides who were gasping in total disbelief. They were wondering if this was all part of Victor’s plan.
Other than them, there was only one little girl who was also shocked, but for the right reasons.
Alex was dead! She couldn’t believe it.
Lara’s eyes were filled with tears, but moments later a whisper in her ear made her open her eyes wide and look at her shameless esteemed brother. “Alive? Really? What show?” she asked herself.
Just a Caspian thinks his secret is safe, it got blown wide open in front of everyone. This is going to be fun. By the way, where is Tom when we need him?
Disguized as Nova...
Wait for the wedding night.
Right there, pretending to be Nova, and probably enjoying the show/sweating about the danger Caspian just presented. The way Nova grinned felt like a Tom thing.
Though I think I have Victor’s plan pinned down with that move. He is getting Caspian to ruin his reputation and steal Tom, Victor will marry Elise as her replacement. Then later on, the actual Nova will appear with the Dark Chamber story and make Caspian look like he got played even harder. Nova reveals this stuff, probably trying to hurt Victor so she can marry Caspian, not realizing what he did, and seals her fate as Victor’s bride, as there is no way he is getting into Victor’s wedding a second time without declaring a war.
Though, upon writing this, I realized Victor could just say to the crowd that that spear was incredibly effective against demons, explaining why Alex could fight Caspian, and Caspian is back against the wall again. And I wonder how many bombs he has to pull out before is becomes an all out brawl.
Though, this kinda leads to a bit of an issue, as most of the Von Weiss family members we know were created earlier on in the series, and therefore are actually relatively low leveled compared to newer characters like Caspian’s slave and the Fate lord’s slave. (Still a fan of the idea of Victor making one of them his by the end of the wedding).
Part of me is curious how things degraded to the point that level 100 became the level people became monsters, as level 2000 has been said to have been achieved in the past.
I… got off track, didn’t I?
@Definitelyreal We were told that level 150-200 was high powered pre-reckoning: this is because you can only level up in dungeons in the current timeframe. Post reckoning everyone gets the system upgrade to level up immediately and can earn exp from the various monster incursions not just the dangerous task of clearing dungeons, hence levels start to go up over 500 years.
Seems consistent to me.
@Definitelyreal I think Victor will apprise the broken spear and even destroyed can "detect demon's smell" and ask Harvey to test Caspian as a third party to verify if he's a demon, putting the heavenly sect against him and avoiding or hastening the birth of the demon king
@nickt
Yes, but as far as I can remember, they cap out at 126. As the second most powerful council family, it feels a bit too weak to project the power they have, especially with people like Falcon having “legendary” achievements according to the family, likely before/while achieving his current level of 105.
I don’t think that this is necessarily much of an issue, but I think there might need to be some rebalancing in later versions in a similar way to the monetary aspects.
Or I completely misunderstood something at some point, could be that awakenings level the playing field. Mike got quite a boost from his.
@Danni_Chaos
He can do a lot of things to expose Caspian, the question is of when he will. Making him nervous about it being exposed so he makes more rash decisions is one thing, but exposing him to everyone might make him pull out all the stops, and I don’t think he wants that to happen while Lara and his family is here. He also would have to marry Tom if Caspian doesn’t escape with him. I think he will wait until Caspian has escaped with Tom to expose him, if he exposes him.
@Definitelyreal I agree that the Von Weiss are extremely under powered for their position. However, there is an entire class of Von Weiss that are missing. Theodore tells us that awakened (player awakened not bloodline awakened) Von Weiss can live easily over 500 years. I think the oldest Von Weiss we have met have been the Vault elders and Cassius of the black faction all strong for Von Weiss but unimpressive compared to the truly powerful that we have met so far, but their ages are probably just over 100 and not bloodline awakened. There should be an entire class of 400 plus year old Von Weiss with bloodline awakening that should be fairly powerful, they may not even appear very old.
Honestly, the Von Weiss elders have been a complete disappointment, they seem to have prioritized instant gratification and enjoying a their positions over strengthening themselves.
Another, key point is level in this story sometimes feels meaningless. Caspian at level 102 is scaring the sh*t out of everyone. Yes some of that is his backing the Heavenly Sect, but John Trove, and Amon gave the feeling that he was just more powerful. His slave is 70 levels higher than him. Lin at level 0 was one of the strongest characters. Attribute values barely seem aligned with level, and skill composition and level, SS class skill vs B class, seem more important than level.
@KONASBUD Considering the Age of the Matriarch and Patriarch, there was probably a civil war, attack, disaster, or concentrated effort to kill Von Wiess Elders about 200 years ago, perhaps the Von Richter elimination cost a lot of lives. The family is a lot weaker than they should be. (alternatively, everyone assassinates everyone else when they start getting too powerful) .
@Blueneck666 something happened, it's weird Victor hasn't eluded to it if it was a big event. Maybe they left for another world. The problem with a big war and the aftermath, especially with the much weaker younger ones winning/surviving, is the surviving faction living a decadent lifestyle instead of actively working to gain strength makes no sense. Yes we'd see it in human terms over the course of a hundred years because it would be multiple generations living an life of ease. But, in this case it would be one generation and not even that, they would be aware of how much their family lost power and how vulnerable they were, I just don't get them going straight to easy living.
It may just be a flaw in the story, we know he sometimes changes course which can leave things kind of weird. I prefer to think that there are a) group of power house Von Weiss that have left the family ti the younger generation for some reason. And or b) the Von Weiss has a group of hidden true powerhouses who don't get involved with the daily management of the family, maybe semi retired, but can step in under certain circumstances, and are probably the true reason the family hasn't fallen so far. They may even be willing to let the family fall if it is through there own incompetence. We know that there are other hidden powers and even another class of more powerful dragons out there somewhere, maybe the better Von Weiss are with them
@KONASBUD It may also be part of the Economic War Treaty. Where too many strong people may draw all the other families to put you down.
That combined with the fact only about half would survive the awakening ceremony, and Theodore is very Fertile and has so many heirs compared to so many other elders only having 1 or 2 means they wouldn't have the numbers to risk their heirs in dungeons and get everyone's levels up.
Plus Authority restricting everyone's level to Authority*10+9 means you have random chance to possibly keep everyone's level down, is it worth putting a maxed out person in a safe-ish dungeon only to have them gain 0 exp because they didn't gain an authority point?
@KONASBUD my head cannon is that the Von weise old monsters were at the ruins under the family islands, and some problem happened killing most of them including the great elder head of the family's secret hall, probably after the last patriarch died, that fight over the family leadership that lead to the creation of the three factions
@Blueneck666 the authority thing was my first instinct, there is still a bunch of missing old timers, even if they look 40 but are 250, but awakened bloodline people seem to gain authority at a more generous rate. The authority of everyone we have seen who are awakened have high authority for their age and level, including the only two Von Weiss we have seen Alice and Mike.
Fertility, or at least passing the bloodline is an I interesting point, but if you are living well past 500 you have a lot more time to reproduce, especially the men because the women may not want to give birth after a certain age but these dudes seem to want more heirs. And, frankly there is a question of the women who awakened then married into other families, they are long lived so there should be some out there even if they aren't powerhouses.
I'm not really taking a position on this or anything, if for some reason the Von Weiss are just weak, and never seem to make it to old (elder dragon) age, so be it I guess. I just think it makes more sense structurally to have had something happen to them. We've seen just a glimpse of awakened Von Weiss bloodline players in Alice and Mike, they are exceptionally strong for their age, now imagine what they could be if they continue to progress until about Theodore age, not to mention for another 500 years. Alice may be an outlier because she is part of the Heavenly sect but there is no reason to think other Von Weiss who are focused on getting stronger wouldn't have somewhat similar results, even if a bit less.
I have definately gotten sidetracked here, and it currently doesn't have a lot to do with the wedding, I just think that there has to either be an entire class of Von Weiss that are out there somewhere, or something had to have happened to them.
@Danni_Chaos I kind of thought the ruins had something to do with it to. I don't know if it wiped them out, maybe they use the ruins to go somewhere else, travel to a different world or plane if the meet certain requirements. Honestly I was just trying to make the point that the Von Weiss shouldn't be this weak, we haven't seen many awakened bloodline Von Weiss, we have seen other families lose power over time after not awakening their bloodline, but Victor has stated that awakening their bloodline isn't that difficult, I assume relative to other Bloodlines. And, we haven't really met any old Von Weiss, we've met old men but they aren't elder dragon awakened over 400 years old kind of old, just guys in their early 100s.
@KONASBUD There was also a comment about the main line and certain people having a better bloodline concentration.
Grandma is the last child of the previous patriarch alive... someone has been killing them off slowly...
Fate Sect
@Blueneck666 good point. But her uncle is alive, so her dad's brother, and I think they count him as main family too. Also, Bill os main family, eligible to become the Patriarch and he isn't part of his grandma's line. I'm not sure what constitutes main family, it's not just Anne's, thereby Anne's father's decendants.
@KONASBUD ladies & gentlemen, I'm sure that all your points will be well taken care by the author ( @Akaichi ). I'm certain all will be revealed with time & Jin Long's Duke of Mount Deer (Wei Xiao Bao) will be super jealous of Victor's achievements. I wonder if Victor will be getting 7 wives, 70 consorts & 700 concubines in the end or not.
@KONASBUD the ruins might give a chance to increase authority, so those old dragons gamble for it and lose, the ruins is the reason Victor's nameless enemy destroyed the family
@Danni_Chaos He does have an Alias:
The (young) Light Lord.
I think the young Scion was chasing an interplanetary Lordship and didn't care who he consumed.