Rivers of the Night - Chapter 662
Chapter 662: Bestow
Theron didn’t feel a great bout of shock when the spear was suddenly taken from him despite the circumstances. The Nightingale Ancestor Spear was designed for those with the Nightingale Bloodline.
What he didn’t expect was that the Matriarch also had Nightingale blood. Her reaction toward Sadie’s death had been substantially more aggressive than her reaction toward the Patriarch’s death, so the fact they might be related didn’t even cross Theron’s mind.
But not only were Patriarch Nightingale and Matriarch Macie related… the latter was actually the former’s daughter.
This was simply how old Patriarch Nightingale was. Even his own daughter was quickly reaching the end of her lifespan while he was still in his relatively young middle ages.
But now it was Macie who was slowly regaining her youth, and this time through means that were under her own power alone.
The result?
The Nightingale Ancestor Bird was suddenly caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, it had an unprecedented genius in Theron. While it was well aware that Theron was no real Nightingale—something it had figured out long ago—he was a monster the likes of which that rarely appeared in the world, let alone in the Nightingale Bloodline itself.
However… Matriarch Macie had triggered the most ancestral blood of their Clan. Her authority was absolute, and even if she was beyond her pride, the Nightingale Ancestor Bird’s greatest duty was to the bloodline it served.
As a weapon with a spirit… there was only so much Theron’s perfection refinement could do, especially since he was no true Soul Mancer.
Maybe if he was, he could override the instincts of the Nightingale Ancestor Bird. Unfortunately, there was no getting over the reality of it all.
BANG!
An echoing clash reverberated across the skies, waves of darkness painting the glowing silvers, whites, and pristine blues black.
Macie howled into the air, Kempe being blown back by the momentum of her roar alone. Her cultivation broke through once again, moving up to the Ninth Resonance Cloud Realm.
Rings of gold pulsed around her and the cadence of her aura shifted.
Theron’s eyes narrowed, knowing that the situation was quickly growing out of hand. The entire time, Macie had her eyes on him as though she had completely forgotten that Kempe was the one who attacked her.
From the very beginning, despite never finding any proof, Macie had been suspicious of Theron. Before, she needed him. His strength would make or break whether the Sect would be resurrected or not.
But now… did she still need him?
The grief she had been holding in for Sadie’s death had completely consumed her. She would rather kill an innocent than allow a demon to roam free.
The howling echoes began to slowly fade into the distance as the sound of breaking glass shattered its momentum. Macie broke through yet another barrier, firmly standing within the Quasi Dome of Heaven Realm.
A crown of darkness flickered above her head, the momentum of a Celestial Resonance blooming throughout the skies before her.
‘She didn’t manage to make it to Primal Resonance… she probably needs to accept the Nightingale Inheritance first to do that. But…’
There was something about her Resonance that made Theron feel particularly suffocating.
Most Resonances Theron came across were singular in their focus like back his home world within Sadie’s dantian. They could target one thing and strengthen one thing.
Theron’s own Resonance had always been multi-purpose and application to all sorts of things. He applied it to his movement, his blades, his Spell… the number of things seemed endless and unfathomable.
While this seemed to be the case in this world as well, that was far from the truth. Instead, these people relied on their Echoes to give more of that multi-purpose feel, while their Resonances were often just basal amplifications to their Mana alone.
This felt different, though…
Macie’s Resonance now felt a lot like Theron’s own. It encompassed the skies, capable of being applied to all aspects of her battle style. And when it was unleashed….
BOOM!
A pair of blackened wings appeared to Macie’s back. The last of her wrinkles faded, a gorgeous young woman with lips as red as blood and hair as dark as a raven’s feathers appearing in the skies.
The spear in her hand changed, it jigsaw-like pieces shifting and orienting themselves until its blade pulsed with fog.
SHIIIIIIING!
A sword-like aura radiated outward, but it carried with it a particular scent of death.
A scythe took shape.
Macie’s hands gripped the polearm, her proud bust swaying with her movements as she arced it across the skies, slashing right through the void as though it was formed of the silkiest of fabrics.
And then she looked down.
Her eyes had turned ruby much like her lips, her teeth revealing small canines that glistened with the slightest hint of saliva and the health of a young woman in her prime.
Her Mana churned with presence and menace, and that was when Theron finally felt the last of what was confusing him.
‘Those three disciples…’
He had felt it when he was fighting Rauther, Tyran, and Ophan. The three of them had an odd Fire Resonance to them that made their flames not only stronger, but exhibit a unique sort of character.
Not only did Macie’s Resonance feel like Theron’s in that it could be applied to all aspects of her being, but it also felt like it had this unique character, something Theron’s own Resonance lacked.
It had strength, direction… a hidden Mandate within that could be instantly grasped by one bestowed with it.
No, it felt like something even stronger than a Mandate, though incomplete for the time being…
And Theron ahd a feeling that the moment Macie stepped into the Dome of Heaven REalm, it would be full fledged.
“Theron Galethunder.” She spoke in a layered voice. “You killed my Little Sadie. Such a precious little girl who had done nothing but good in this world.
“Today, I’ll bestow you with death.”
BOOM.
She vanished, her scythe appearing before Theron’s neck in the next instant.