Galaxy Fall: All My Skills Are Maxed-Chapter 155: The Bauhinia Bloodline
[Some Moments Back. 5am.]
[Hayatobi’s Office, Dragon Empire Academy.]
"Why are you here this early?" Hayatobi asked, rising his head from the heavy parchment in his hand. He stared at Yakima, who stood at the heavy oak door of his office, a confident, calculated smile on her face. The early morning gloom of the Dragon Empire still clung to the frost-tipped windows.
"Can’t I come and visit my old man?" She asked, walking gracefully towards the expansive desk, and sat down on the high-backed leather chair opposite Hayatobi.
"I am here this early to ask about Mirabella."
Hayatobi raised an eyebrow, dropping the kingdom’s security documents on the table. His sharp gaze was fixed on his eldest daughter. He could read the ambition—and the underlying anxiety—in her posture. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦
"Why do you want to know about her?"
"Well..." Yakima thought for a moment, organizing her tactical approach, and nodded her head:
"We will be going on a very important mission tomorrow and I want to know everything about my teammates. I already know about the others, except her." As a Guild Master, operating with unknown variables was a risk she despised.
"Hmm..." Hayatobi stared at her for a long while. He understood the lethal ecosystem of the empires better than anyone. He exhaled softly, his breath misting slightly in the cool room:
"Ok... There is just two things you need to know about Mirabella. First, she doesn’t follow anyone orders apart from mine, second... Don’t get her angry, and she must be free to do as she pleases. Just take note of this, she will never do anything that will disrupt this mission. So just let her be... That’s all you need to know." Hayatobi said, staring at Yakima, his tone brokering absolutely no argument.
"Ok... What if I refuse all these?" She asked seriously, her pride as the leader of the Dragon Tooth guild flaring up.
"Well..." Hayatobi relaxed his broad back on his chair, shifting his gaze to the intricately carved stone ceiling, contemplating the sheer destruction his student was capable of:
"She won’t disrupt the plan, but just know she won’t help with the mission, In a simpler way, she will completely take her hands off the mission." He explained, his voice turning grave, and continued:
"Besides, she is not bond to you and your rules, she is not your guild member, nor your friend... You’re just one time partners. Oh, and I gave her the Military force badge; this solidifies my statement... She can disobey you, and you’ll be powerless to do anything."
"Military badge." Yakima scoffed, looking at the side, completely dismissing the weight of the artifact.
"The only rank that can disobey an empire guild master is only the Captain ranks above... You just gave her the badge, so she is just still a cadet, that can’t protect her." She said, confident in the rigid hierarchy of the military faction.
"That’s not actually the issue here." Hayatobi leaned forward, staring directly into his daughter’s eyes, trying to convey a warning she wasn’t prepared to hear:
"Mirabella has the strength to wipe out your guild members from this empire, and she will do it without a scratch on her... You saw what happened in the training ground, didn’t you?"
Yakima turned to him, a slight, dismissive frown on her face. True, Mirabella’s raw stats were strong, but could she really take on the Dragon Tooth? An elite force with 300 veteran members, the weakest being a Level 30 vanguard, and do it without taking damage? It defied the established scaling laws of their world.
"Aren’t you exaggerating too much, Dad? Even if she is that strong---"
BOOM!!
A blinding, cataclysmic bright explosion sounded from the sky. Due to the early hour, the shockwave violently woke up everyone across the sprawling Dragon Empire, instantly drawing the terrified attention of the guards and elites who were already awake.
Yakima and Hayatobi snapped their heads to the window, staring at the swirling golden lights in absolute shock. The next moment, a deep, omnipotent robotic voice—the absolute voice of the World System itself—sounded from the heavens, projecting its authority and stunning everyone into a paralyzing silence.
[Worldwide Announcement: Congratulations!! Spectral Has killed the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Elite guards under the demon emperor, and destroyed three demon cities.]
[Congratulations! Due to her great support to the humans, Spectral has gained a new major ability: All Damage dealt to her by humans will be halved by 50%, and she gained 10 Billion Gold Coins.]
"...?!!!"
A suffocating, deathly silence descended in the office, and all over the heavily fortified Dragon Empire. Everyone stood, sat, and lay completely frozen. Their gazes were blank, the impossible, reality-breaking words still echoing violently in their minds. A permanent 50% racial damage reduction wasn’t just a buff; it was a shift in the balance of the entire world.
"What?!"
Hayatobi stood up in pure shock, his heavy oak chair falling backward to the ground with a clatter:
"There is no way she went to the South region!! It only means, she... That girl entered a dungeon." The terrifying logic clicked in his veteran mind. Only a Gate could bridge that distance.
Without saying another word, he violently channeled his energy and vanished from the office, leaving only a swirl of displaced white dust, and a thoroughly dumbfounded Yakima behind.
"Killed five elite demons, and wiped out three demon cities? Who is this spectral?" She asked the empty room, her mind racing. She turned to the spot, expecting to see her father for answers, but saw only empty space.
"Wait!!"
She stood up in sudden horror, the blood draining from her face as her father’s previous, ominous words finally registered in her head:
"Is Mirabella spectral?!!" She yelled.
Yakima violently turned around and rushed out of the office, sprinting down the grand corridors, heading straight to the dungeon hall.
’Spectral.’
It was a legend, a ghost name only known to those who started from the lower server. And now, the mythical name had violently reappeared in the upper echelons, bringing with it a paradigm-shifting level of shock.
Yakima ran down the marble stairs, her face entirely paled: ’Wipe out my guild! If she is Spectral, she alone can wipe out the whole dragon empire! I now know why my father value her!!’ She thought, her previous arrogance shattering into a million pieces.
____
[Sword Empire Academy Training ground. 5am]
WHOOSH!!
A massive, hyper-compressed phoenix made of searing elemental flames shot violently towards Jessica. She leaped desperately to the side, her boots skidding across the reinforced arena tiles, but to her horror, the heat-seeking construct pivoted mid-air and followed her trajectory.
".....?!"
"Water style--" Jessica began to chant, drawing energy from her core to counter the heat.
"No!"
Nadia ruthlessly waved her hand, cutting off the ambient spirit energy flow. An invisible, kinetic force smashed heavily into Jessica. She flew backward like a ragdoll towards the towering arena wall, smashing her spine against the enchanted stone. She vomited a mouthful of blood, her vision blurring, and fell hard on her knees.
"I kept on telling you... Stop casting your skills aloud! That will only alert your enemies, and they will be prepared to counter it!" Nadia yelled, her voice echoing like a whip crack in the silent morning arena. She opened her palm, and a jagged piece of earth appeared, then started spinning at blinding speeds until the friction forged it into a razor-sharp dagger.
"You must master that eye of yours, child." She threw the deadly projectile at her. It passed a fraction of an inch past Jessica’s ear, burying itself deep into the stone wall behind her with a deafening crack.
"...??"
Jessica was dumbfounded, her chest heaving as she stared at the embedded blade.
The fiery phoenix still hovered ominously behind Nadia, its burning, mindless gaze fixed entirely on Jessica, waiting for the command to execute.
"Come on now! Bring out that eye!" Nadia yelled, pushing her student to the absolute breaking point. As she spoke, Nadia’s own vibrant green eyes shifted dramatically. The color bleached away, turning completely white. Her pupils vanished into the void, and then, intricate, tiny runic circles appeared deep within her white eyes, spinning slowly like the gears of reality itself.
Not only that, the flesh on her forehead split open flawlessly, and a literal Third Eye appeared, identical in its terrifying, pupil-less majesty to her original two eyes. The ambient energy in the training ground instantly submitted to her presence.
"Come on, I am waiting." Nadia added, her tri-focal gaze fixed intensely on Jessica, pinning her to the ground with sheer spiritual pressure.
Jessica gritted her teeth, nodded, and forced her battered body to stand upright. Channeling her strength, her forehead split opened, and her own, less refined third eye revealed itself to the morning air.
"It’s a sad thing you’re not a true bloodline of the Bauhinia family, so you can only have that one..." Nadia started walking slowly towards her, the ambient elements parting around her steps:
"Let me tell you a secret about our mythical Eyes..."
"Secret?" Jessica was stunned, wiping the blood from her chin.
"Once we awaken these eyes, we become one with nature, the whole element will bend to our will. Anything is in our reach, it’s true we can’t make illusion like the soul eyes, or clones and attacks like the celestial eyes, but we can control the very nature of any world... Once you master this eye, you will be invincible in any location you find yourself." She stopped exactly ten meters from Jessica, the perfect striking distance:
"You said this Mirabella can copy others’ skills, right?"
Jessica nodded her head heavily, remembering the humiliation.
"Then you must master this technique I am teaching you! With this... No one will be able to copy your skills, because everything will be control by that eye of yours." She pointed a strict finger at the glowing eye on Jessica’s forehead. It was the ultimate counter-measure against any anomaly.
"If you can master this eyes, no illusion or attack can affect you! You alone will be able to wipe out a city! This is also the main reason the sword empire can hold the spot of the strongest empire out of the three... Do you understand why I want you to master this skill now?"
Jessica exhaled, forcing the pain down, and nodded her head sharply, her fists clenched tightly at her sides: "I understand, Mistress! I want to get stronger!!"
"Good... I like that, you will need this power in the coming glory flag competition--"
BOOM!!!
Nadia paused mid-sentence, the atmospheric pressure violently shifting. She raised her head, her three eyes staring through the reinforced glass ceiling of the training dome, watching the golden explosion ripple across the morning sky. Then, the omnipotent voice of the system sounded all over the proud Sword Empire.
[Worldwide Announcement: Congratulations!! Spectral Has killed the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th Elite guards under the demon emperor, and destroyed three demon cities.]
[Congratulations! Due to her great support to the humans, Spectral has gained a new major ability: All Damage dealt to her by humans will be halved by 50%, and she gained 10 Billion Gold Coins.]
"....?!"
Nadia, a master of elements and a pillar of the Sword Empire, was completely dumbfounded. The sheer scale of the achievement broke the logic of her teachings. "Who is Spectral?" She muttered in deep confusion.
"Spectral."
She turned sharply to Jessica, who looked entirely lost, the oppressive weight of the announcement crushing her previous resolve. "Do you know the name?"
"I don’t know, but it sounds familiar." Jessica said in a low, trembling voice, a phantom memory from the lower servers scratching at the back of her mind.
"Ok, you and go and rest for some hours, we will continue later in the day." Nadia waved her hand dismissively, the training session entirely derailed. The geopolitical landscape had just violently shifted; she needed to contact the Emperor.
"Ok, Mistress."
Jessica bowed deeply as her third eye closed back into her skin. She stood upright and walked away, her steps heavy with exhaustion and a new, lingering dread.
Nadia stood alone in the center of the arena, the fire phoenix dissolving into harmless sparks around her. She stared silently at her retreating student for a while, before slowly raising her head back to the fading golden words in the sky:
’Spectral... Not bad.’
