House of Amarin

"Master, should I come with you?" Asked Swimmy, standing with Paman, who was rubbing the remaining Realm Keys on her fingers, letting them slowly merge into her body, hidden from view.

"That would be too suspicious. Your job will be to lead them to the sub-realm I have chosen! Don't screw this up, Swimmy! They can't pick up on your scent!"

"No worries there, Master!"

"Camyu will slowly send out the rest as we all return and start taking up positions of power. I want everyone to be ready in ten years at maximum!"

With that order, Paman opened up a swirling, dark entrance, stepping through it without hesitation, disappearing from view. Swimmy stood there, watching the empty air for a long time. He was about to let out a long breath and leave when Camyu appeared next to him out of nowhere.

"She will fail."

"Eh?! I hate it when you appear from nowhere! Damn!" He yelled before registering her words, "What do you mean?"

"She has been erratic. Not like before. Her reincarnation went awry because she refused to start from scratch. Wanting a perfectly balanced and compatible body... After missing out on two of them, she had to settle on the last option, and this was the result. She will lose the battle and become nothing more than the alien memories of another."

"Geez, you are bleak! Get a bit of optimism in you already! She is a Sect Master who was hailed as the new Founder, combining so many elements! She saved us from destruction, and now we can finally walk on solid earth again! We are returning!"

"We are not. She will only bring us destruction... She will be the doom of the Sect. You are simply saying that because you were beaten into servitude over and over again... Don't delude yourself with my Mother's fake grandeur. She is a woman who is obsessed with order and control... yet, now chaos rules her mind."

"Ugh... Don't say that!" He whispered, looking around nervously as even though the ethereal wolf was untouchable here, he was not. "Damn..."

"If she is gone, you would be free and could return to your own Realm."

"...."

"Swimmy?" She asked, looking at the hesitating demon who finally let out a short sigh, lowering his voice.

"What do you have in mind?"

"Easy... Make contact with the daughter. I will handle the rest through you."

"Ugh... I hate it when you do that! But... okay! Okay! I will do it!"

...
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......

"Lia, there are two students here to see you." Hajna expressed, appearing next to her desk.

"So early in the morning?" She yawned, still in the middle of drinking a cup of tea, leaning back in her chair, enjoying the morning silence. What she was only missing was the sunrise.

"They say they have an important message."

"Mhm... let them in."

It didn't take long for two, around 17-year-old students to appear, both of them being boys. The first glance at them told Lia everything she needed to know, as their brown eyes were way too old compared to their faces.

"If you are not here to defect, don't even bother opening your mouths." She continued sipping on her tea, watching them calmly.

"We are here to tell you who the remaining two are who won't cooperate." The one on the left said, cupping his hands. "So you can deal with them as you see fit. We won't interfere."

"Now you got my attention, gentlemen!" With a soft chuckle, she leaned forward, putting down her cup and signaling for them to sit down. "I am all ears!"

"We don't know much, but we received a message from the Sect itself. We knew about what happened before and..."

"We didn't want to participate in it." The other one added, quickly bowing his head, "Since listening to your lessons, we had... doubts growing within ourselves. I think the Sect realized it, too. That is why it sent us this order to come and speak with you."

"I don't really get it." Lia hummed, tapping on her table, which was a signal for Hajna to constantly monitor them and record not just their speech but everything, from their feelings to the shift of their butts."

"There is a schism forming within our Sect; that is what Lady Camyu told us."

"Isn't she dead?" Hajna asked suddenly, reappearing with a surprised look on her face.

"You?!" The students stood up at once, clearly recognizing her. "You are supposed to be dead!"

"Oookay! Calm down, now!" Lia groaned, standing up and slapping her table. "It seems we are talking about dead people again? Meriath really needs to clean up its closet... Okay! Let's back up a little and start from scratch! Names?"

"Iscaria and Lubos." They said simultaneously, standing up and bowing towards Lia in a very formal way.

"I know of you two." Hajna answered with another surprise, turning towards Lia, "They were a pair of valued Guest Elders within their Sect. Initially, they came from more minor, different subordinate factions, and later on, they were granted full membership and became prominent diplomats. They interacted three times with the real Hajna."

"The real one?" The duo questioned, slowly coming to a realization.

"She is not the Hajna you remember, but... a construct. I won't explain further." Lia waved a hand, making them sit back down. "At least the second batch are diplomats, eh? An improvement! Now, what about this schism thing? I am more than intrigued now!"

"We have been relaying the lessons, recorded in their entirety."

"Including your notes from the library."

"I guessed as much. Not that it is something super secret, only my ideas." Lia shrugged while listening to the two, yet their faces immediately hardened.

"No... they are not! They have something in them that feels like pulling off a veil that we didn't know existed! Since doing our reports, we know that the Sect Master and many Grandmasters branded it as inferior... But not all. Lady Camyu began slowly trickling it down to others, and those who have been on the same idea that it is a great expansion of our methods began thinking differently."

"It can't be that deep!" Lia chuckled, still unable to see how a simple retelling of her experiences and her ideas could have such an effect on ancient cultivators.

"Our methods didn't change for longer than we can remember. Many of us had been trapped at the same level of strength for thousands of years." Lubos continued calmly, "We don't know much about it or how it is at the top, but since a long time ago, we have seen something that could elevate our methods."

"It is in the way you talk about the Cosmic Energy and how the Eight Elements are one and the same!" Iscaria continued in a fired-up tone, "You speak of it as if you already saw through their complications, and that is a certainty that you will manage to combine all eight! Nobody from our past leaders has ever dared to talk about it so openly and so blatantly!"

"In our records, only the Founder dared to exclaim that he was going to do it, but... from what we know, he perished along the road," Lubos added, placing a hand on his comrade's shoulder to calm him down.

"Well, perishing is very much of a possibility!" Lia nodded with a smile, "I never said it would be easy, but only that it can be done. It is evident if you look at it from afar! Mhm... So, some people in the Golden Claw like my approach, huh?"

"They can't be trusted!" Hajna warned her at once, her voice turning dark and cold. "They are the reason my home and people were killed! Why I was killed!" The sudden interjection surprised Lia just as much as it made the duo look awkwardly at each other.

"We are too low-standing elders to know about that... But someone is coming who would be able to tell you more."

"Oh? Who?" Lia asked, her ears perking up.

"Lord Swimmy. We got a message that he is on his way to bring a message to you. We are here to pave the way for his arrival."

"Mmmhm... I see... Well... then I need to prepare a welcoming party, huh?" She chuckled, making the two look at each other, feeling that her words didn't have the friendliest undertone to them.

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......

The meeting between Swimmy and Lia took place not at the Institute but at a desolate place, where the continent was constantly rumbling, shaking as it was breaking apart, already leaving behind a dark, bottomless chasm.

"Should I come? I can still turn around!" Erias sent over a message, accompanied by Arcus's voice, echoing from her bracelet.

"Yeah! We would be there in a jiffy!"

"Thanks, but we will be fine! I believe it when they say he comes to talk and not to fight." Lia answered confidently, floating in the air and watching the horizon.

"Don't be overconfident!" Erias warned her but trusted her judgment and didn't pester Lia for long.

When Swimmy arrived, he was flying through the air in her original form, looking like a giant warship shaped like a black and white fish.

"Alone?" He asked with a laugh, transforming back to his human form, yet the moment he spoke, multiple different auras locked onto him at once. "Oh..."

"No, I'm not." Lia chuckled, watching his sheepish smile as three dragons, led by Albert, appeared from the skies, followed by Lucian and Lakhmu, revealing themselves from below. "Why?"

"N-nothing! I was just... lamenting a little; I thought Erias and Arcus would be here! I wanted to spar with the latter!"

"Yeah, yeah... sure!" Albert scoffed as the group surrounded the fish-demon.

"So... I heard you wanted to talk?" Lia questioned him with a wave of her hand, signaling to the others to calm down.

"Not me. Just a moment!" He shrugged, letting his body shiver, and then, with a retching sound, his eyes rolled back into his head, and a woman's voice spoke from his mouth.

"Greetings."

"Ah... The wolfy... I remember your voice. You would be this Camyu person? You never introduced yourself before! Rude." Lia smiled, crossing her hands, somewhat already expecting it.

"I was... once. Now, I am not so sure. I don't even know if I am real; what I know is that I became the Golden Claw."

"Bless you."

"I was merged with the Sect, or at least what remained of my soul was."

"Once again, bless you. So?" Lia shrugged, not really interested in her sob story. "Look, I don't trust you and the other leaders you have, as you are responsible for most schemes. Unlike your weaker members, the top is just as covered in shit as your Leader! I know that you masqueraded as Hajna, instigating the war you all lost in the end."

"True." Camyu nodded, admitting it without hesitation, "Our estimation was to use the newfound Immortals to deal with the growing Soulbound Sect. They have been advancing way too quickly, breaking the balance of the Six Sects." She continued explaining, ignoring the fact that Lia began clapping sarcastically.

"Good job!"

"Just another plan in my Mother's arsenal. She got too used to winning, and this time, her calculations missed one core variable... the enemy's strength. Everything has been spiraling down since then! But are we here to reminisce about old mistakes or make a deal?"

"You started it! Now... Tell me why we should trust you first!" Lakhmu asked, his voice booming with strength.

"Because I want to survive. That simple." Camyu answered bluntly, looking around, measuring them, "And to show my dedication, I am here to tell you something that you will most likely want to hear."

"Hurray..." Lia scoffed, but after hearing Camyu's following words, she couldn't help but start shaking as her mismatched eyes were blazing in separate blue and crimson fires.

"My Mother currently took over the body of the one you know as Reyra and is about to be found by your search parties. She will play along nicely with you and try to become your people's leading voice. I am here to tell you about her condition and how to save the still surviving soul inside that small body. How's that sound?"

"It sounds like..." Lia said through gritted teeth, "I want to serve you people to those Immortals on a silver platter..."