Changing People

"Have you noticed?" Yao suddenly asked when Mo entered their room.

"Noticed? Noticed what?"

"Many people and their fates changed," Yao seriously said, grabbing his hand and sitting him on the bed with his head on her lap. "And the reason is us."

"Like?"

"Like Myzer and Hiari," she answered softly, caressing his hair. "Those two, if you remember, wouldn't have achieved much and were certainly different than they are now." She looked at the ceiling. "Before, they would have never dared hurt each other or even get in a dangerous situation."

She looked at him and, with a smile, continued, "but now, not only did they gut each other out to prove that they would do anything, but Hiari and Myzer did it with such calm and fearless expressions because they wanted to help us."

"That's true," Mo nodded, enjoying his wife's touch, "but we could also say that we ruined them. If they became so crazy to do that, then the reason behind their acts is the blame," he looked at her, "and the reason is us."

"Do you even care about that?" she chuckled, looking into his crimson orbs. They emitted such warmth to bask in that only she would enjoy.

"Of course," he smirked, "not."

"You said there are others?" he questioned.

Yao nodded, "Hesroth, Deckim, Nathan, and many more."

"It's true that Hesroth is now more relaxed than when we met him," Mo nodded, getting up and changing positions. "Deckim always had great potential, but no one saw it. Nathan? He's just a broken, brainwashed person. Though looking at him back and then, he does feel like a changed man."

"We also changed," Yao said, enjoying his gentle touch. "Previously we were people who would use people with smiles on our faces," she put his hand on her heart and smiled, "now, we are people who would use other people with smiles on our faces, but we won't throw the useful ones."

Mo burst out laughing at her words and neared his face to her ear, "I promised myself to say this whenever I can. Yao Vrec, I love you."

"I love you too, my beloved husband."

***

"What?!" Freya screamed, looking at Arthur incredulously, her eyes widened, mouth opening and closing several times. "So… you gave the Sect away?"

"Yes," Arthur replied with all seriousness. "From now on, we are called Chaos. We will reveal ourselves when they decide the troops are ready, and we have 40 years to prepare."

"And you are leaving?"

He nodded again. "I need to breakthrough a new realm, and the materials I need aren't here. Also, you know we can't reveal this to anyone!" he said, voice cracking in the excitement that he didn't hide. He was happy to advance finally.

"Fine," Freya raised the white flag, "but I want to meet them."

"Let's go then."

Arthur led Freya to Mo and Yao's room and knocked. A few seconds later, a beautiful chromatic haired woman opened. She looked like the sun and moon with differing auras surrounding her.

Yao looked at the guests and voicelessly gestured to enter, "what do you need old geezer?" she asked, sitting down on furniture she materialized.

Arthur looked at Freya, who kept looking at Yao with a dazed gaze as if looking at a goddess. "Cough!" he nudged her over, breaking her stupor as an embarrassed look came and left her.

Freya looked at the woman who had such a beautiful voice and introduced with a bow, "I welcome the matriarch. I am Arth- I mean, I am the ex-Sect Master's disciple."

"Hey!" Arthur immediately called. "Stop lying." He remarked.

Fuming, Freya turned to him and coolly said, "it's not a lie. In everyone's eyes, I am your disciple. Now shut up and let me talk to the god- Matriarch. You can leave." She shooed him away with a hand gesture.

"No can do, my dear," Arthur teased and added, "I also have something to discuss with her."

"You two stop," Yao said, shooting annoyed glances at the two. "So, what do you want? Speak fast."

Freya straightened herself and introduced, "I am elder Freya, the one who really takes care of the sect instead of this lazy bum," she pointed at Arthur, "I am also known as the Sect Master's disciple because not many knew my existence, they believed the lie we concocted."

"Alright, alright," Yao stopped her, seeing Freya about to talk more, 'damn, I didn't take her for the talkative type, and why is she telling me her life story.'

"Keep taking care of the sect and here take this," Yao got up from her seat and handed her a middle-grade potion that she just concocted, "this will help you if you get in trouble."

"What about you, Old Geezer? What do you want?"

"Actually, I heard that you are a brilliant Rune Master, and I thought that we could discuss Runes before I left," he said, hiding the real reason.

"I suppose so," Yao hesitated for some reason before nodding, "I will pass by you later after talking with Mo."

Silence descended as the two finished the missions they came to her for and took the message as the silence and awkwardness increased.

"Then I suppose we should excuse ourselves," Freya said and bowed before leaving the room with Purple Ash in tow.

"Son, are you there?"

[Yes, Mother!]

"There is something I need you to check with your new ability," Lu Yao muttered in seriousness. "And your Father must absolutely not know of this!"

[…but]

"No, but!" she sternly said, stopping the protests. "I know you don't like lying or hiding things from us, but this is for his own good," Yao coaxed gently.

[…okay,] Infinite Darkness conceded and energetically inquired, [so what does mother want me to do?]

"You can stimulate muscles and imprint on them techniques as if they had been practiced for a long time, right? It's like establishing artificial muscle memory."

[Yes.]

"That's good," she smiled evilly, "I want you to search my memories for a technique called Holy Ascension and analyze it."

Infinite Darkness went silent as it inspected Yao's memories, and after ten minutes, it gave a reply.

[Mother, this technique, although powerful, is dangerous! That man who used it almost burned all his bloodline and life force!] with a worried voice, Infinite Darkness gave its opinion.

"How much time will your father take to come back?" she asked Infinite Darkness ignoring his plea.

[…He will be back in another 3 hours as Hesroth is asking him some questions.]

"How much do you need till you take the key components of this technique and imprint it on my body?"

[To do that, I would need to break it into its basics before removing the life-threatening parts and-]

"Don't remove anything. I have a better idea," she interrupted. "If you modify the technique to enhance the muscles to degrees suitable for it, then I would be able to use the technique without harming my bloodline!"

[This could work!] Infinite Darkness ecstatically screamed as if it should have been the one to this, [but this mean that the pain you will go through will be immense…]

"Is it worse than when we created Arcane energy and regained our memories?" she thoughtfully inquired, rubbing her chin.

[No, absolutely not] It denied, [but it will be immense, although you have been through worse I-I don't want mother to suffer…] it muttered the last part quietly, but because they were talking through her soul, she heard it and smiled softly.

"You really care about mother, don't you?" she softly asked and smiled, "mother also cares about you and your father. And to gain such a technique would make me go through pain. I would gladly do it for you two! I will gain another trump card like that," her determined and sincere words touched the System and made it comply.

[Then, mother, it would take a week to enhance and change your muscles to suit the technique and, in that week, Mother will go through pain for 6 hours a day of enhancement not to damage you and your body.]

"Very well, let's start. We have three hours to use."