Read Novel Full Chapter 1942: Accept / Decline
Chapter 1942: Accept / Decline
Quinlan Elysiar had barely sheathed the Soul Reaper at the altar when the marks woke.
He felt it through the bond before he saw it: the Bloodfather marks warming on the skin of his family.
Around him, all of his women’s eyes went unfocused at once, on windows only they could see.
[Ding!]
[You carry the Sovereign of Iskaris’s mark!]
[Land’s Strength: on Sovereign Soil, all attributes +20%.]
[Ding!]
The women who carried his mark on their wombs received a second notification.
[The Sovereign has named you Empress of Iskaris. Title granted: Empress of Iskaris.]
[The Sovereign’s house is Elysiar.]
[Ayame Elysiar. Take the name? Accept / Decline.]
Ayame read it at his side with her hand still on his sleeve, and he watched her face do the thing it did before she cut something in half: absolute focus, then the decision.
"Accept," the Skysplitter said out loud, to the window and to him.
Down the line, nine more women were reading the same page.
"ACCEPT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Vex did not get past the first line, screaming from the bottom of her throat.
"Blossom accepts!! Blossom is Blossom Elysiar!!" The dogkin had no second name to give up, and neither did Vex. Lucille took hers to the end with both hands over her heart before she whispered yes.
"Kitsara Elysiar," Kitsara tried out loud, tails up. "Hmm. It makes me sound even more slutty. I love it."
"Yes," said Kaelira to the window, smiling fondly.
"Serika Elysiar..." Serika stopped and looked toward Rykar Vael below the dais on his four mechanical limbs. He sat straight and gave his daughter one slow, proud nod.
Serika winked back at him. "I’ll always be your daughter." Then she grinned. "But I shall become a wonderful wife! Accept! Elysiar sounds richer anyway! Like I’m a proper lady."
"Aurora Lorien..." The alchemist glanced at the front row, where her father had started crying again, and accepted before he could get a word out.
"Yes," said Jasmine for the second time that day, and for the second time the gold came up in her eyes.
Only Sera had not answered.
The Dawnbringer stood with her lips pressed together and her blue eyes on the window, and Quinlan knew the face. It was the one she made when the elven rite and her own opinion disagreed.
"Quin..." Seraphiel sighed.
"There’s nothing to feel bad about," Quinlan said, understanding. She was proud of her heritage and did not wish to lose the name her mother had given her. The Dawnbringer had already told him this a long time ago.
"..." She examined his face for a long moment, smiled brilliantly, then lifted her chin at the window. "Give me both."
The window considered that.
[Seraphiel Vaelorith Elysiar. Accept / Decline.]
"Accept," said the Dawnbringer.
Through the seam beside the altar, from her side of the stars, a squeal cut through that had nothing to do with rites.
"Nyxara Elysiar!!" Nyxara was shouting at Mimi. "Say it! Say it back to me! Nyxara Elysiar!"
"Nyxara Elysiar!!!" Mimi cheered, laughing. Especially when Nyxara lifted her with both arms, eyes streaking with tears, and begged, "Again!"
Mimi obliged.
But among those who wore the Bloodfather mark on their wombs, there was a sole exception.
Standing against her pillar at the edge of the square, Black Fang read a window with three lines fewer than everyone else’s.
[The land you stand on has a Sovereign, and you carry his mark.]
[Land’s Strength: on Sovereign Soil, all attributes +20%.]
The system offered the Venomborne Terror exactly what she had agreed to and not one line more. She read the two lines, closed the window, and looked at Quinlan with eyes of appreciation.
"Good," said Black Fang.
The boost landed.
It came up through the soles of their feet, and he felt all of them take it through the bond at once, every channel going hot together.
Serika’s hair lifted off her shoulders and caught, red going white-gold at the tips.
Kitsara’s tails fanned out behind her on their own and stayed there, every hair standing.
On the far side of the dais, Jasmine’s seal blazed gold through white silk, and down the line every woman lit up in her own color.
The square saw it too. Ten thousand people watched ten women grow stronger in front of them in the space of a breath, and the sound out of the crowd this time had fear under it.
"The empresses..."
"Look at them! Look at the Solar Fist’s hair!"
"Empresses!! Empresses!!"
The chant went out of the square into the streets and came back louder.
Against her pillar, Black Fang had not moved.
But the air around her had begun to rot, and the light dimmed at that edge of the square until the elves nearest her hugged themselves without knowing why. Her violet eyes had gone back up to the blue where the wall had been, swirling.
"..." Ayame had seen her sister’s face from across the dais, and grinned. "Quin, look at big sis. She’s going to kill something before the day is out."
"I know," the Primordial Villain grinned back. "She can finally level up again. I’m amazed she held back this long."
"Let’s not waste more time," Ayame mused. "She won’t hold for long. I think Maelstrom might get his head chopped off first."
...
The chant was still going when Quinlan opened the link.
[Master’s Link] ran on the slave bond, and he narrowed it to the dais. The ten brides standing on it heard him.
he said, into ten heads at once.
While Quinlan had been open recently toward the general populace of Iskaris, such as speaking up about his mothers, his goals, and more, he had no intentions of becoming an open book.
Now that the stakes had risen to levels he still didn’t quite comprehend, it was even more so the case.
Ayame whispered into all their heads. Her voice was buzzing with excitement."> <Thalorind has opened up to us, and it’s now time to act like we did in the beginning,> Ayame whispered into all their heads. Her voice was buzzing with excitement.
Lucille purred.
Quinlan nodded."> <I don’t know about literal masks again, but yeah. We have to take things very seriously,> Quinlan nodded.
"> Serika was in agreement as well. <For all we know, there are people out there much higher statted than we are, with classes and powers we aren’t prepared for. Best not to let them get info on us from our allies.>
Silence reigned supreme on the link for a good few seconds, as every participant buzzed with sheer excitement for the grand unknown that awaited them outside the only land they knew all their lives."> <...> Silence reigned supreme on the link for a good few seconds, as every participant buzzed with sheer excitement for the grand unknown that awaited them outside the only land they knew all their lives.
Kitsara purred.
"> <Sure.>
He opened it.
[Name: Quinlan Elysiar]
[Race: Primordial]
[Level: 65. XP: 611,204,978 / 1,960,534,764]
[Land’s Strength: active. All attributes +25%.]
[Health Points: 4688]
[Mana Points: 5625]
[Vitality: 313]
[Strength: 253]
[Agility: 266]
[Magic: 375]
Sixty-five. Seven levels for the many weeks he spent grinding the labyrinth religiously.
Take the land buff away and the Vitality line read two hundred and fifty, the Magic line three hundred. The other quarter was the crown, and it came free with every step he took on his own soil.
he said, widening the link one head, into eleven at once, Iris included."> <Three hundred and seventy-five Magic,> he said, widening the link one head, into eleven at once, Iris included.
Serika said.
Kitsara decided.
Vex cut in, everyone ignoring the foxy’s thought process.
Quinlan smirked and faced the front rows."> <...Perhaps this will help,> Quinlan smirked and faced the front rows.
"You’ll all want to see this one. Come with us."
"See what?" Skarn’s hackles had never fully come down since the sky cracked.
"The edge of the world."
Quinlan reached into the land with the thing that had woken under his boots at the beastkin fire, the sense that ran through every road and field of Iskaris now.
He found the nearest stretch of coast his land could feel, a shore he had never once stood on, and opened a gate to it.