Law Tower(Part 2)

The people on the outside of the trial world were all in discussion over the events that had transpired. The ships had faded into the background and a banquet had been set up in front of the massive screen and everyone sat together feasting and watching the events. Now that Atlantis had turned the panels back on, they would be on for the rest of the time, so it was the true time to sit down and watch the show that was the trials. Some people made bets on things and at the head of the table facing the screens was the vice principal who was sharing a conversation with the people closest to him when a figure in a cloak appeared next to them. He was hardly even noticed by any of them until he spoke.

His voice was young and playful, but by the time that it was heard, the person hearing it had already frozen. "Agnes, did you follow my instructions? Is he in there? Agnes turned slowly and stood and bowed. "Yes, sir, he is. He has just started the main trial. The queen has recently restarted the screens." The man nodded with his cloak never falling. He vanished from his spot and the vice principal felt like he could breathe again, but then the doors to the trial world opened and the figure charged in. Once he was gone, everyone, including the founders who had some ideas, all turned towards the vice principal. Steven Slate, who had gotten paler in the male's presence, was the first to speak up as he now looked visibly paler. "Was that him?" Agnes nodded and finished his drink before an attendant appeared and poured him another one. "Yes, it appears that the founder has come to watch the proceedings himself. I suggest everyone mind themselves."

The cloaked man, on the other hand, had appeared in the trial world before taking another step, causing ripples to form in the sky as he vanished and appeared once more in the heart of Atlantis and directly next to the queen. He quickly scanned the screens and smiled. "Oh great! I truly thought you would kill him, grandmother." She sucked her teeth as she stood up and smiled at the person that had appeared. "You know, I truly did think of killing him after seeing the decision he made in the law tower, but I suppose it's partially my fault. I did not tell him what would happen if he chose more than one law. I did not expect him to make such a decision." The cloaked man smiled and took off his cloak, "I wouldn't be so sure grandma, he's talented like my dad talented, I daresay even more talented than me and my siblings, he's certainly the real deal though."

The queen, on the other hand, took in the image of her grandchild. He had changed since she last saw him. He had cut his hair short on the sides and sported a mohawk of dark green curls. His hair itself was darker green now while glistening in the light, a far cry from the deep black that it was when he was still a child, while his eyes still pulsed with a familiar golden glow.

He was standing there in a forest green suit that had leaves imprinted on it that would periodically shine with a different color of the rainbow. It was modeled after his father's coronation suit. There was a scar on his lower jaw that went down his neck, which caused his grandmother's mana to flare. "I disobeyed my father and went out to battle when I should not have, it was in fact an ambush from the ghosts. Father had to fight three Ghost Faction astrals to pull me out of the ambush." She could only shake her head. "I could be there helping. Your father is a stubborn mule." Valentine could only shake his head at this because how could he not understand that his grandmother was just as stubborn as his father? "Here grandmother, I brought you some things from mom and pictures of the family and the newborns, considering you are a great grandmother now."

The queen smiled and looked over it all before she sighed. "I believe it is truly time to put my pride aside and return to my family. I think after this year's trial, it is time I come to have a conversation with your father." Valentine nodded so hard he shook the platform they were standing on. "Now the only issue I have is that I was planning on administering the trials in turn for him, telling me how you and the others were. Valentine smiled and shook his head. "You can look at that stuff, but still monitor the tests and talk to Rowan. I'm going to go to the ninth floor. I told him I would come see him and I have a present for him as well as information that he will want. Plus, I don't doubt my grand uncle is still here. I may as well visit him, too."

The queen raised her eyebrows, "What can be so important that the prince of the Ark would need to come all the way here to relay the information?" Valentine smiled wryly. It is about a woman that recently ascended. Her cultivation speed saw a massive increase, and she's a primogenitor as well. She's been adopted by my father for special reasons. She didn't tell us about her connection to Rowan until father got over his excitement. Her situation is rather special."

The queen then caught up Valentine on the portion of the trials he had missed as he smiled. "Ah, now I'm even more interested. I only have limited time here, so I will only appear for this first test. Once he makes it to the top floor, I can give him the information and test him myself and if he passed ill, give him his present and the info." The queen only nodded as Valentine spent time catching her up before vanishing and heading towards the ninth level of the Law tower. He did remember to leave words for his grandmother as he left though, "Rowan is special, I think whatever he's got planned will show you that, but you must give him the chance to show you, father may have picked him to be his disciple but he's got the support of the entire family, we all agree that Rowan has a positive effect on father. One that not even he cares to mention. He's been in a bad mood ever since Rowan left, especially recently."

Rowan, on the other hand, was just stepping onto the first level when he noticed something instead of a single person being on this floor waiting for him, there were instead three. The robotic system came online a second later, after some of the light from the glowing door faded from his eyes. "Participant has acquired three law strands from the first floor and therefore the difficulty of the test has been raised. Participants will have three challengers instead of one." Rowan stood there for a second, looking gobsmacked. The queen had failed to inform him of that tiny caveat that turned out to be a massive problem if handled poorly. "Test will start in one minute. Please prepare yourself for battle. All elemental mana has been locked away and only Laws can be used at this time."

Rowan smiled and began focusing. Drawing on the laws was similar to mana, but the power of laws came directly from the Myriad realms. The laws were constants throughout the entire universe and his master had synced the Ark to the real world for that very reason, so Laws could be properly cultivated by cultivators alongside their other aspects of cultivation. So when a person drew upon law energy, typically it would flow from the universe through the cultivator and their mana zone, mixing with their own mana before producing an effect based on the combination of both aspects. Now with elemental mana actively being purged, a feeling that made Rowan rather queasy actually thanks to it feeling like his attunement was cut off from him. It was just the power of laws and element free pure mana, but in the case of Rowan, a fact that no one had been able to factor in due to the only person knowing that he had already created soul force being Empry, so he was already at an advantage. Well, he would be if his plan worked.

Rowan channeled all three laws at the same time while he pulled the brownish diamond from his pocket that he had created from the death of Stoodley. He had created this diamond through using his armament spell while he was using the soul manipulation ability, but he had not been able to free whatever was in the brown diamond, but now things were different. The law of storms collided with the brown diamond first, causing the whole thing to vibrate in Rowan's hand. Storm's were natural disasters, he believed that while the law itself would make his spells carry the aura of natural destruction wrought by nature, in this case it was so that the object in his hand would carry the force of an act of nature.

The three on the other side still had not moved, not only because they were restricted by the floor but because of what happened next. The law of souls hit the diamond and cracks spread throughout it. Green light spilled from the diamond and the shaking intensified while the last Law blasted into it. The diamond shattered immediately right as the timer hit zero and the criminals still wrapped in cloaks charged. Rowan, on the other hand, was marveling at the diamond in his hand that the people in front of him had missed. It was now completely neon green with a brown skull and crossbones on the front.. He flung it forward as they charged. Rowan could not identify what laws they were using, and they had not bothered to speak. He just knew that they would be at the introductory level as well. So it was to the greatest surprise when Rowan's voice full of happiness echoed across the room.

There was a spell that his master had taught him first. It was a personal creation of his called the equip spell; it was an auxiliary spell that gave further power to equipment and items created by a creation user and even inadvertently used the laws of words to give the time even more strength as it was summoned. Rowan could use it because he could use his storm attunement and elemental mastery to control creation mana, and in this moment, he used it with pure soul force for the revelation of his trump card. "Equip Flying Dutchman!"