33 Risen#re

The ball room was still a spectacle of silence as the nobles were still gaping with disbelief at the ease with which Lirian took down a Lord.

Lord Draco was after all someone who had overcome tons of obstacles with his own ability, if he wasn't a great fighter there was no way he would have had a chance to hold his current position yet he was lying on the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut.

Crying out in pain, as he lay on the verge of dying, and all of it was just from a single strike of a prince candidate, it was an indication of just how monstrous Lirian's ability was, and it spoke volumes of how incredible his future achievements would be.

It was a completely different thing from when he had Telamon killed, then it was a trial and the empress was the executioner, but this was Lirian giving Lord Draco a physical defeat in a clash of skill.

The silence was suddenly broken when one of the princess who was crying got up a fled while trying to cover her private parts, as she did the members of her family came running to drape her in cloth and the family made an immediate departure, and the others all followed in suit.

Their families had been utterly humiliated by Lirian, and this would leave a scar on their successors for life, the people of the Draco family also carefully picked up their Lord and Prince before leaving.

They all cast hateful gazes at Lirian on their way out but dared not say anything in the presence of the emperor and empress.

When they all turned back to the talent steps they found that Lirian was standing on the 18th step and the colour had changed from grey to blue, they also noted that Lirian was fully clothed once more as he prepared to take the next step.

"Wait," the emperor said to Lirian, "Lirian explain yourself, your actions are not something that can be ignored or taken lightly," he said in a grave tone.

"I already have," Lirian said plainly, "I will not tolerate anyone trying to humiliate me and I will absolutely not allow anyone to think themselves my superior, if you or anyone dares to think differently you are all welcome to climb up here and challenge me,"

"It makes no difference whether one or all of you come, I will crush you all the same," Lirian spoke while clenching his fist, and his every word was absolutely tyrannical in nature.

He showed that he placed no one at all within his eyes not the nobles, not the empress nor the emperor, his words showed his absolute arrogance and confidence in his ability, on a place where all other were made equal, he truly believed that none could equal him.

And after witnessing his single attack on Lord Draco who could doubt him.

The emperor was taken aback by the unbelievable arrogance of Lirian, and he too gritted his teeth in anger at Lirian's tone, as Lirian was not even placing him in his eyes at all, just as he was about to rebuke Lirian, he felt a gentle touch and turned to see his wife locking eyes with him.

The empress looked at Lirian with a complicated look in her eyes, and sighed, on some level she always knew that this is who Lirian truly was, he was after all a god, how could she even dream of being seen as someone with talent by Lirian.

"Leave things be for now, we'll discuss things when it is settled and done," she said to the emperor.

Seeing the pleading look in her eyes, he sighed but let her have her way and the two of them promptly climbed back down and watched as Lirian climbed, but now Lirian didn't walk he ran up the steps.

Lirian ran up the stairs, now that he was done engraving his image into the minds of the nobles he had nothing to wait for, in a second he reached the 22nd step breaking past the limit of Emperor Clovis, Emperor Albus and his mother, and soared up.

Lirian bounced off the highest step ever achieved the 24th step, the step that only the Guardian Titania had reached, yet he didn't linger there for even a second, the nobles all lost their minds when they saw what Lirian managed to accomplish.

A feat that was never replicated since the founding of the seven civilizations, and yet he achieved it with absolute ease, with his next step Lirian became the first to ever break the halfway mark of the stairs.

When Lirian reached the 27th step he felt the pressure increase by 5 times, and the colour of the stairs changed once more from blue to green, creating another first.

Lirian continued to run unhindered up the stairs, and pushed through with ease until he reached the 36th step, it was there that he finally started to feel a bit of the restraining pressure, acting against him.

It was also on that step that the pressure increased by 6 time and the stairs changed from green to yellow, and it was there that Lirian finally slowed down a little to a jog rather than a sprint.

In no time at all he landed on the 45th step and the crushing pressure was amplified once more by 7 times, this time the steps released a blinding red light like the fires of hell had come to life.

It was then that Lirian finally felt real resistance as he took the next step, on the next step however there was a change, the pressure increased to 8 times and when Lirian reached the 47th step the pressure climbed up again to 9 times.

Lirian could feel it acting on his centre's of power, his dantian the core of all energy and his spine the core of strength were still fine but it was his mind that started to get affected.

Lirian knew why, he did have a an extremely firm will, one that was tempered and built up over countless life times, but currently Lirian's will had been shaken.

He was even suicidal after Edith's death which is why his mind was being affected, but then Lirian thought to his final promise to Edith before she died, he promised her that he'd do everything in his power to move past her death, and live a good life.

He didn't know if he'd be able to but he gave his word so he had to try, with that belief firmly anchoring his mind and will Lirian pushed himself onto the next step, and in no time at all he hit the 49th step where the pressure was 11 times greater.

Lirian took one last deep breath and pushed his way up, finally mounting the peek of the steps, essentially making history, if he didn't count Arthur Pendragon's ascent.

In the back of his mind Lirian secretly wished he could find that Arthur Pendragon and crush him under his foot, for no other reason than he helped Katerina, that was more than enough for him to want to rip him apart, but that was 52 billion years ago, unless Arthur became a god it was impossible.

And from what the goddess of pride Anuka had told Lirian no new gods were born over the past 40 trillion years, so he didn't think he'd get the chance.

When Lirian reached the top everyone watched with batted breath, as the entire steps lit up in a black light, and the darkness started to spread.

In just seconds the ball room seemed to have vanished and be replaced by empty space, but everyone could still feel the ground beneath their feet and the chairs they were lounging in.

As they looked around they could see each-other and above them they could see the seven dots that always appeared on the images shown by the steps hanging in the sky, and the sixth dot was shining brightly like a luminous star in the galaxy.

Lirian could see all of this too as it was being projected into his mind, but just then he felt an eye, yes a single eye that had a very unique power to it peering at him.

"CURIOUS!" Lirian heard a voice explode inside his head, from the power within that voice Lirian immediately understood that it was a gods and it even released it's its imposing might on him.

Lirian had felt some truly terrifying existence's when he was brought into the god realm, and other than his father the most powerful existence he felt belonged to a little azure dragon that spent a lot of it's time perched on his father's head, the dragon god Kalatis was his name.

This was not Kalatis by any means, but Lirian did sense a power equal to that of the dragon god Kalatis, a power that sat just a hairs breath away from the third-grade of gods.