While Li Yu was undergoing his breakthrough, Vespera and her mother were having their family reunion.

  Vespera knelt on the rocky bank of the creek with her arms wrapped tightly around her mother. Queen Morrigan of the House of Night was leaning heavily against her daughter's shoulder. The shock of being freed from amber, instantly healed by Lian’s life laws and then immediately sealed with a restrictive soul brand was still crashing over the Night Queen in waves.

  "Vespera," Morrigan whispered with a firm grip on her daughter. "My clever, stubborn girl. I thought... I truly thought I would never see you again. I thought I would be killed or worse."

  They remained quiet after that for a long moment. After several long minutes the immediate wave of emotional catharsis began to ebb. The harsh reality of their surroundings reasserted itself. The eleven god-like beings and the young human boy were sealed away. This left the two demonesses alone in the wasteland.

  Morrigan pulled back slightly but her hands rested on Vespera's shoulders. She looked at her daughter and noted the exhaustion etched into the lines of her face. The scuffs on her armor and the depth in her eyes that hadn't been there a few months ago. It was clear that she too had been through a lot.

  "We cannot sit on the bare stone like common vagrants," Morrigan said. A hint of her old and regal authority returned to her tone, though her eyes remained soft. "If those... entities... finish their business and emerge, I refuse to be found shivering in the dirt."

  Vespera let out a watery chuckle and wiped her eyes with the back of her gauntlet. "Always the Queen, even after the kingdom falls. You are right, Mother. We need to rest. It seems we will be waiting here for a while."

  Vespera stood up and helped her mother to her feet. She walked a few paces away from the creek to a relatively flat expanse of stone. Reaching into her spatial ring, she pulled out a small, intricately carved wooden pagoda no larger than her palm. She infused it with a surge of her demonic Qi and tossed it into the air.

  The artifact expanded rapidly and landed on the rock with a heavy but satisfying thud. It was a spatial pavilion. A comfortable, two-story temporary dwelling complete with minor defensive arrays, soft silken cushions and a small internal heating formation. It was a luxury item Vespera had purchased long ago for diplomatic travels.

  "Come," Vespera said while guiding her mother inside.

  The air inside the pavilion was warm and carried the faint scent of night blooming jasmine. It was a stark contrast to the barren winds outside. Vespera led Morrigan in and they sat at a table. Instead of drinking tea, they both enjoyed wine.

  As she poured the wine, the silence between them stretched once again. The emotional impact of the day was too much. They both needed time to process everything that had happened. They were enjoying each other’s company in silence. Something that both of them thought they would never get to do again.

  Morrigan was the first to talk. "Our home is gone," She said while staring into the rippling surface of her wine. Her voice was hollow. "When Malakor and the Spider Queen ambushed me. They said they had already wiped it out.”

  Vespera sat on a cushion opposite her mother and her hands tightly clasped in her lap. "I know. I went to Grim Spire. I heard the rumors. They said you sealed yourself away to buy time in the face of such power."

  "It was the only option," Morrigan said bitterly. "The amber is an ancient relic. It preserves the body but drains the soul to maintain its absolute defense."

  Vespera leaned forward as her heart hammered. "Do you know where my brothers were sent? Or does the technique send them randomly so even you don’t know."

  "It is random. Even I do not know where they are now. However, once my strength is restored I should be able to sense them once again. I can use that sense to track them down and get our family back together." Morrigan said softly.

  "We will find them," Vespera said fiercely. "We have the time now. We will track them down. We will reunite our House."

  Morrigan took a slow sip of her wine. Her sharp eyes suddenly locked onto Vespera. The vulnerability of the mother retreated and was replaced by the calculating intellect of the Night Queen.

  "We have the time," Morrigan repeated while setting her cup down on the wooden table. "And it seems we have the backing. Which brings us to the absolute impossibility we just witnessed outside."

  She reached up and her fingers grazed the spot on her chest where Gongsun Lian had branded the restrictive soul seal.

  "Vespera," Morrigan said, her tone dead serious. "Who is Li Yu?"

  Vespera let out a long and exhausted sigh. She leaned back against the cushions and looked up at the wooden ceiling of the pavilion. "Mother, if I told you I knew exactly who he was, I would be lying to your face."

  Morrigan frowned. "You brought a human boy to the Demon Realm, a boy who commands entities capable of slaughtering three Demon Lords and two Beast Kings as if they were pulling weeds... and you don't know who he is?"

  "I didn’t bring him here, Balor did.” Vespera went on to retell the tale of how she met Li Yu and how they ended up here. Letting her mom know about their soul contract after she tried to kill him initially to how they were planning her mother’s rescue together.

  She in fact did not know much about him. They talked about things during their travels but ever since she recovered enough to travel, thoughts and conversations were usually on her mother’s situation. They hadn’t gotten time to relax and get to know one another properly.

  “And he didn't command them," Vespera corrected gently. "The woman in the black armor.... She said they were here to repay a favor to someone named Khaos. I believe that is someone Li Yu knows. When I found out about the siege, I was going to mount a suicide charge to find safehouses. Li Yu stopped me. When I went out to the city to get more information and come up with a plan to save you, he must have contacted that senior. He most likely called in a massive favor to save you."

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  Morrigan’s breath caught. "He used a supreme favor... for us?"

  "He said he owed me a life debt," Vespera said softly while her eyes dropped to the floor. "I already told you about it earlier. He never forgot it. He used whatever ultimate leverage he possessed with that entity to summon those eleven gods... just to save you. To save me from getting myself killed. Paying back his debt."

  Morrigan leaned back as her mind raced. The geopolitical landscape of the world had just been violently upended because a human boy felt he owed her daughter a life debt. It was a bit romantic, it was terrifying and it was utterly unprecedented.

  "What else do you know about his background?" Morrigan pressed. "He is only at the Soul Formation realm, yet his foundation is so dense it feels like staring into a black hole. And the woman, Lian... she bound my soul to him instantly. She didn't ask anything from me, she didn't ask for our treasures or territory for example. She bound a demon to a human boy and called it the 'price of freedom'. That implies she sees his life as infinitely more valuable than anything she could get from me."

  "I have heard him say he comes from a different realm. But from the brief conversations about that, the beings there are average. Besides the Guardian Beasts that fought off Balor, no one there seemed special," Vespera recounted and was piecing together what little she knew. "He has an alter-ego here. They call him the 'Little Void Demon'. He’s been moving around here and hoarding demonic cores and artifacts. Oh, and he accidentally intercepted Lord Malakor’s disciples' betrothal gift to the Thunder Scale Warlord a few weeks ago. That doesn’t matter though since Malakor and most likely his disciples were wiped out."

  Morrigan blinked and was processing the information. Then a sudden, sharp bark of laughter escaped her lips. The laughter grew, echoing in the small pavilion until she was holding her sides.

  "Oh, the irony! The same boy would eventually have him killed. Karma is a beautiful, vicious mistress."

  Her laughter faded into a contented sigh. She looked down at her chest again and was tracing the invisible lines of the seal.

  "This brand," Morrigan mused quietly. "When she placed it on me, I expected to feel the suffocating chains of slavery. I expected to feel my mind being warped. But it doesn't feel malicious, Vespera. It feels... absolute. Like a law of nature. It ensures I cannot harm him or betray him. It makes me his sword and his shield if that's what he wants."

  She looked at Vespera and her eyes were clear. "If being bound to this boy. A boy kind enough to cash in a supreme favor for my life is the price for our survival and the total annihilation of our enemies... then I would pay it a thousand times over."

  "Both of us," Morrigan said while shaking her head in disbelief. "The Queens of the Night, bound to a human youth. We will need to talk to him once he comes out. I would like to go back and rebuild our kingdom, our home. Find your brothers and continue where we were. With 4 of the Demon Lords now gone, there will be a lot of fighting going on as others try to take their spots. It is a golden opportunity for us."

  "He is a good person, Mother," Vespera said. "Unconventional. Infuriatingly casual at times. But he is good. He will most likely let you do as you wish as long as it doesn’t get in the way of the core things he wants to do. He’s currently much too weak to have interests in ruling over territories here. He doesn’t seem that interested in ruling even if he was though."

  "We shall see when the time comes." Morrigan declared as she closed her eyes and settled back into the cushions. "But for now, I need to meditate and recover."

  The wait began for Li Yu to come back out.

  Inside the pavilion, time lost its urgent edge. The first two days passed in a blur of quiet conversation and deep meditation. Vespera stood guard outside the pavilion doors for hours at a time and was watching the opaque grey dome. It remained entirely static. Not a single ripple disturbed its surface.

  She also watched the perimeter of the ravine. She expected scouting parties from the remaining demon factions or rogue beasts to investigate here but nothing came. Of course this was taken care of by the generals of Lian. By the fourth day, a comfortable routine had settled over the mother and daughter.

  Morrigan’s color had fully returned. Her silver hair shone with its usual luster and the regal, imposing aura of the Night Queen began to naturally emanate from her once more. Though she was now bound to another, her power was returning rapidly.

  Vespera spent her time practicing her demonic arts. She found that the ambient energy around the ravine was incredibly dense and conducive to her cultivation. She was also taking the chance to get pointers from her mom. It was rare that they were spending so much time together. Normally her mother wouldn’t have this kind of time for her. It was a blessing in disguise in some ways.

  On the sixth day, Morrigan stepped out of the pavilion and was looking at the grey dome with a mix of anticipation and awe.

  "It takes immense time and resources to step into the Divine Transformation realm," Morrigan noted with crossed arms. "With their help, I am sure his foundation will be impossibly solid."

  "He had a mountain of his own demonic cores," Vespera added as she leaning against the wooden frame of the pavilion. "But you're right. Whatever they are doing in there, it will most likely go down in history at some point."

  The sun set on the sixth day and painted the desolate sky in streaks of bruised purple and fiery orange. Then came the seventh day. Vespera and Morrigan were sitting outside the pavilion and drinking a fresh pot of tea when the air in the ravine suddenly changed.

  The wind stopped. The opaque grey dome, which had stood like a solid mountain for a full week, began to hum. The sound was low at first, a vibration that rattled the teacups on the table, before rising in pitch.

  CRACK.

  A massive fissure appeared across the surface of the grey light. Vespera and Morrigan immediately stood up with their bodies tensing.

  With a sound like shattering glass, the entire dome dissolved. The grey energy broke apart into millions of glowing motes that were quickly carried away by the returning winds. The array flags planted in the cardinal directions crumbled into fine dust with their purpose fulfilled.

  The center of the ravine was revealed. The creek was still flowing. The flat boulder was still there. But the bed of grey ash that surrounded it was vast. It was a silent testament to the unimaginable wealth that had been consumed.

  The eleven god-like figures were standing in the distance and looked to be discussing something. Li Yu stood in the center of the ash. He had his back to them and was looking up at the sky. He wore the same simple robes he had entered with but everything else about him was fundamentally and terrifyingly different.

  Vespera couldn't sense his cultivation base anymore. Before, she could feel the edges of his Soul Formation power. Now, when she extended her divine sense toward him, she felt nothing but an endless, crushing abyss.

  Morrigan felt it a bit more clearly. It seemed as though the laws of the world itself seemed to naturally bend around him. The ambient spiritual energy in the ravine was slowly and subconsciously gravitating toward his skin. It was then being absorbed into his very flesh with every breath he took. His skin held a faint, pearlescent sheen that spoke of a vessel forged beyond the limits of humanity.

  The Devouring Abyssal Leviathan Physique was fully awakened. Li Yu turned around.

  When his eyes met theirs, Morrigan instinctively lowered her head. The soul seal in her chest hummed, acknowledging the absolute authority of the being before her. But even without the seal, the sheer density of his presence demanded respect. It was as though he was a completely different person.

  There was still a large gap in their strength but it felt terrifying all the same. Li Yu looked at the pavilion, then at Vespera and finally at the Night Queen. The pressure surrounding him softened instantly and was replaced by a very human, exhausted but incredibly warm smile.

  He walked toward them.

  "Sorry for the wait," Li Yu said. "I hope you managed to make yourselves comfortable."