Book 11: Part 9 – Shinji and Brianna

Everyone present was rendered speechless, but none more so than Wukong himself. For as long as he could remember, he had never had any family – at least not in the biological sense.

His earliest memory was of him being ostracised in an orphanage back in the Yulan Plane due to his ape-like appearance. After turning five and learning the basics of body tempering, he decided to leave his "home" and venture out into the wild to fend for himself.

He spent the next few years living amongst magical beasts, killing and surviving as though he really were one.

It was only when he turned eight that he was inadvertently found and adopted by his master – Arianna Qingya. It was at that point that he finally understood what it really meant to have a family.

Still, as much as he loved his master and his senior brothers and sisters, he had always wanted to know the truth about his lineage. Unfortunately, there was no one he could turn to for answers; as such, he had long since given up on getting answers, believing it simply wasn't on the cards for him.

After settling his incredibly turbulent emotions, Shinji explained that a few billion years ago, long before he became a sovereign, he met Wukong's mother, Brianna.

At the time, he had just broken through to the High God Realm, and thanks to him being a Violet-Eyed Battle Ape – an Apex Divine Beast – he was able to hold his own against the average commander.

It was because of that fact that he grew a little too confident and began stirring up trouble left, right, and centre. Eventually, he ended up provoking an expert that he shouldn't. That expert was Brianna.

At the time, Brianna was a peak commander, only one step from becoming a paragon in the laws of lightning.

Despite him being a fairly powerful commander, Brianna was able to toy with Shinji, handing him the most embarrassing defeat of his million-plus-year life.

After that day, Shinji vowed to avenge his loss. Every time he made a breakthrough in his comprehension, he would come back and challenge Brianna, but Brianna would still defeat him with just as much ease as ever.

Still, despite having the ability to do so, she would never attempt to kill him. Only embarrassing him a little before sending him on his way. But over time, the more they fought, the more they began to enjoy each other's company, to the point where, eventually, Shinji would visit Brianna, not just to challenge her, but just to see her.

That was when a cataclysmic event took place. The original intermediate Sovereign of Destruction was killed by Wodred – the Chief Sovereign of Destruction – after doing something that crossed his bottom line.

As the Chief Sovereign of the same element, he had no interest in the Sovereign Spark, nor did any of the other Destruction Sovereigns at the time, but for just about every High God of the Edict of Destruction, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity to ascend to heaven.

It had been a few million years since Shinji's original challenge against Brianna, and his strength had come a long way since then. Even amongst Commanders, there were very few who could claim to be an opponent, especially with his heaven-defying Divine Ability – Berserker's Might.

Unlike Wukong's, which merely increased his physical ability and gave him a near-perfect battle IQ, Shinji's increased the might of his Destruction Divine Power 10-fold, as though he were a soul mutate. Furthermore, unlike his son, when he entered this state, he didn't lose his reasoning.

At that point in time, even though purely in terms of comprehension, he was quite a bit inferior to Brianna, purely in terms of strength, he had surpassed her. It was because of that fact that several of the commanders and seven-star fiends who were competing for the opportunity ganged up on him, seeing him as their main competitor, preventing him from taking the Sovereign Spark.

Thankfully, he wasn't on his own. Although she was an expert in the laws of lightning and had no affinity for the Edict of Destruction, with how close the two had grown over the last few million years, Brianna supported him in his endeavour.

With the two working together, although it took some time, they were eventually able to gain the upper hand against their opponents, but just when it looked like Shinji would be the ultimate victor, the sudden emergence of a new competitor turned things on their heads.

Muyan, a well-known soul mutate of the Divine Darkness Plane, arrived. At the time, although he was merely a paragon in the laws of Darkness, his Divine Destruction clone had reached the seven-star fiend level as well.

It was a combination of all those reasons that even amongst Paragons at the time, only those who were Apex Divine Beasts as well could compete with him. Unfortunately, as powerful as they were, Shinji and Brianna were far from a match.

Shinji was ready to sacrifice himself to allow Brianna to escape with her life, but just when it looked like Shinji was going to die, Brianna, motivated by the threat of losing the man she grew to love, made a breakthrough and became a Sovereign of Lightning, which allowed her to protect Shinji.

Still, Muyan was too powerful for her, but with her fighting without regard for her life, Brianna, along with Mosi, who was originally one of Shinji's biggest competitors for the Sovereign Spark but, refused to allow a foreign expert to take what he believed belonged to the experts of the Infernal Realm, were able to stall Muyan for just about long enough for Shinji to steal the Spark and become the new Intermediate Sovereign of Destruction.

As a Sovereign, Shinji was able to easily suppress Muyan, but just before he could kill the soul-mutated paragon, Phueus' energy projection appeared and asked for leniency on behalf of his strongest emissary.

As a newly promoted Sovereign and only an intermediate one at that, Shinji decided not to provoke a Chief Sovereign and allowed Muyan to leave with his life – a mistake he regrets to this day!

After that day, Shinji and Brianna spent the next few billion years travelling the universe together. And because of their power, they never ran into any trouble.

In that time, with the boost from the faith garnered as a Sovereign counteracting his lack of comprehension as an Apex Divine Beast, Shinji's comprehension of Destruction had reached 99%.

To break through that final barrier and become a paragon, Shinji would regularly enter isolation for tens if not hundreds of thousands of years at a time, and in that time, Brianna, with no need to train any longer, would go on adventures by herself or visit old friends she had made in the various Divine Planes.

The last time he entered isolation was a little over a thousand years ago. Before doing so, Brianna had already informed him that she was pregnant with their child, but because she would be having the child of an Apex Divine Beast, she would be pregnant for over ten thousand years.

It was for that reason Shinji felt comfortable entering isolation for 1000 years, at which point he would head over to the Divine Darkness Plane, where Brianna was planning to go to visit her sworn brother and sister – the leaders of the Vis Clan (Amira's paternal grandparents).

What Shinji hadn't expected was that not long after entering isolation, he would have a sudden epiphany, allowing him to make that long-overdue breakthrough and become a paragon at last.

As soon as he completed his breakthrough, the first thing he did was head over to the Divine Plane of Darkness to tell his wife the good news, only to find Augusta and Phueus embroiled in battle in the skies above the now-destroyed Viz clan.

At the time, he didn't care about their battle. He was only interested in finding out what happened and where his wife was. As such, whilst Phueus and Augusta were busy battling, he questioned Muyan, who was also present.

Muyan explained that he had been the one to massacre the Vis Clan, but he had never seen Brianna. He claimed that had he seen her, he wouldn't dare touch her out of respect for him.

Even though Shinji had no proof, he didn't believe Muyan's words. He knew how much Muyan resented not only him but also Brianna for denying him the chance to become a Sovereign.

Shinji knew that killing Muyan would gain the ire of Phueus, but after his breakthrough, he no longer feared those at the Chief Sovereign level. With the support of his Divine Ability, he was no weaker than the average Chief Sovereign now, and although Phueus was also an Apex Divine Beast as well and subsequently still stronger than him, Shinji's target wasn't Phueus but Muyan.

He knew killing Muyan would inevitably put him and Phueus at odds, but he refused to believe that Phueus would lower himself to oppose himself for a mere deity, regardless of how powerful said deity was, and even if he did, he was in no mood to care. Unfortunately, before he could go through with his intention, Wodred made an appearance and stood on the side of Phueus, and as much as he no longer feared Phueus, the same couldn't be said for Wodred, and since he had no proof, he couldn't ignore the request of Wodred.

After that, Shinji returned to the Infernal Realm with a belly full of rage and no place to vent it. Still, as far as he was concerned, as small as it was, there was still a chance that Muyan was telling the truth, but as he had no idea where Brianna could've gone, his best bet was to wait at their home for their return.

He'd been praying since then till now that Brianna would one day return, but seeing Wukong there today, fully matured at that, it was clear that was impossible!

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