Rivers of the Night

"I CHALLENGE YOU!" she roared, raising the badge up high.

Theron looked at the badge, not knowing what it was, but the indifference on his face didn't change.

"Do I look like a member of your Clan? What weight does your badge hold over me?"

"You know nothing," she sneered.

BOOM!

The skies cracked, and suddenly, the perpetually sunny Tyre Empire became consumed by clouds.

There was finally the slightest flicker in Theron's eyes. Now this… this he didn't expect.

"You seem surprised," Monet sneered. "Maybe if my grand uncle didn't spend so much time in backwater territories, raising a snake like you to harm his own family, you'd know more about the real world. I wonder what rock he's been hiding you under."

Monet seemed to take real satisfaction from not explaining the full scope of what was happening. But Ott—he had already moved.

Theron caught it out of the corner of his eye. That was the movement of a man not just shifting for the sake of protecting Kiedran and the little boy, but because he didn't want to get caught up in what was happening either.

It was another piece of the puzzle, but something Theron didn't quite understand at all either.

He looked at the Alpha, but the latter seemed to be shivering as well, backing off slowly. But it wasn't Monet it feared, but instead what was coming down from the skies.

That was when Theron sensed it.

A Mandate.

A Heavenly Mandate.

But it was far weaker than any Theron had sensed before. It wasn't a Tribulation; it was something else. Almost as though the power of the Heavens was being… borrowed?

Theron raised an eyebrow, a curiosity being stoked within his heart. Was this what he was looking for?

Something very interesting was happening here.

"Do you feel that?" Monet's sneer deepened. She seemed to have mistaken the fact Theron's eyes were locked onto the skies as some sign of fear. "You probably lie in bed all night thinking about just a fraction of this might. This is just a little taste of the Tribulation you'll have to crawl through very soon. You have no idea who you're messing with, and it's obvious my grand uncle hasn't explained anything like this to you before.

"It's what he does best. He's a little snivelling snake in the grass, always hiding his true intentions behind a fake smile and an even faker façade.

"He's a fraud just like you are, and there's no way you'll escape this."

'Fascinating…' Theron thought.

Monet's words seemed to be filtered in through one ear and out the other. Instead, his gaze—and his Third Eye especially—was so focused on the scene playing out before him that he couldn't be bothered to pay attention to anything else.

There was something very special about the badge in Monet's hand. It triggered a sliver of the world's Heavenly Mandate, and from that Mandate she could force the Laws of a region to change to listen to her words.

Essentially, when she challenged Theron with that badge, she was actually forcing the Heavens to acknowledge their battle. That was to say that anyone who interfered in their challenge now would be struck down. The more powerful the person who tried to interfere, the more powerful the punishment.

'But this Heavenly Mandate feels… very weak.'

It couldn't be helped. Whether it was the first or second Tribulation Theron had faced, both of them had been triggered under the effects of multiple interfering people. Plus, he had slashed the first one several times, agitating it all the more, while the second had been triggered beneath the might of a genius the Seijin Clan had taken an interest in—not to mention the birth of a Weapon Spirit.

This badge was obviously only meant to reflect a very small portion of the Mandate of Heaven to begin with, so to say that Theron feared it… well…

Wouldn't that be nothing more than a joke?

'She carries that around everywhere… does that desensitize her to it? Truly fascinating…'

Theron had noticed an oddity in Gold Mancers he had come across recently, where they seemed to fear him more than they should—a fear that was beyond just his own personal strength.

But Ott didn't react like that, neither did Monet. And Silver Mancers didn't react to it either because they weren't sensitive to it. Now that he thought about it, Elder Kelyne Black was also quite unbothered.

Another person might think that they had overthought things. But after seeing this badge…

Theron couldn't help but wonder.

The symbols on that badge didn't reflect anything that was related to the Tyre Empire. He had observed enough on the way here to know that for certain.

That meant it almost certainly came from a third party of some sort, and more likely than not—since Monet was openly affiliated with them—it was a Sect or Guild.

If it was, then Monet was certainly not the only one that would have ties to this. Or more accurately, the Tyre Clan wouldn't be the only ones…

Chi.

Another bolt of lightning fell from the skies between the two, spreading out in a wild field of energy that formed a dome around them.

All at once, Theron sensed several powerful senses surging toward the region, while even more lesser senses were rushing over here with their own legs.

All of them wanted to know who had activated their badge. They knew more about how it worked than the current Theron, so they were well aware of the sacrifice that was necessary to force the issue.

It could only mean that someone was well and truly enraged.

Ott had already picked up Kiedran and the little boy, expanding the distance between himself and the Mandate of Heaven's field.

Finally, Theron looked down from the skies, his eyes landing on the badge in Monet's hand.

He really wanted to know what the limits of this thing were. If they were to his liking, then… how could he get his hands on one?

Slowly, the sound of an unsheathing blade resounded as Theron pulled out a plain short sword.