Chapter 701 Needing A Win...
Hal was crosslegged and his eyes were closed as he sunk deeper into himself and furthered his cultivation through his revamped cultivation technique.
With his having taken control of the Grimoire(now Codex), Hal could not really keep using the Primordial Cosmic Art and there was a need for a change in regards to it and so he created the Infinite Sovereign Scripture that combined his development of infinity with his Sovereign Dao.
It was built with the Primordial Cosmic Art as a foundation and specifically to be an improvement and even further improve his cultivation speed.
The Infinite Sovereign Scripture can be however Hal wishes it to be but will always command every bit of Cosmic energy in the environment to converge around Hal with whatever speed of absorption that Hal pleased.
Everyone he had so far given a Cultivation technique through the Grimoire was given a derivative of the infinite Sovereign Scripture and as they all received it, every bit of connection they had to either Order or Chaos was cut off so they belonged to Infinity and Infinity alone.
When it was clear that the Monument was reaching the end of its time in the Nexus world and was ready to move on, Hal opened his eyes and they still locked Scleras as their Sapphire blue remained encapturing and sucked in any observer.
Around Hal was a gigantic serpent with horns sticking out of her the side of her head in complete majesty... Her emerald green scales shone even brighter and her eyes were closed as she absorbed the energy she had gotten from feeding on Hal's blood...
The Serpent was obviously Sassy who had moved even further in the evolution of her Serpent Bloodline which was to be expected as she had been feeding on Hal's blood and evolving her bloodline for twenty years now.
When Hal's eyes opened, Sassy could feel that it was time to leave and her eyes opened as well with them also depicting a similar Infinite pull as Hal's.
Hal stood to his feet and stretched his muscles before taking off his clothes, which were quite rough and tattered enough, and bared himself to Sassy who quite enjoyed the show.
Hal put on new robes and as he did, he noted the extra inches to his hair that was now heading towards the middle of his back,
"A haircut perhaps?" he wondered with a look at Sassy who was silent for a few seconds as she pulled herself out of how gripping he looked.
She shook her serpent head enough to signify no before she told him,
Hal chuckled,
"Of course you do," he said.
Sassy then tried to shrink and she succeeded in reducing her size to the point where she was no longer gigantic but soon found that she found not shrink to her absolute miniature form.
The realization was a disappointment as it meant the end to her stealthy attachment to Hal by wrapping herself around his wrist.
Her smallest size was now that of an adult cobra.
Hal could detect her disappointment and he just smiled before reaching down so that she could slither on his arm and then make her way to his shoulders where she was able to coil her length twice and place her head beside his.
She still looked like a large serpent and would definitely draw attention, especially with her glowing green scales, but she could still retain that attachment she clearly still wanted.
"Let's go," Hal said, and right before he made his move to get out of the private action he was in, he took a second or two to reevaluate all that happened in the Monument.
The almost light feeling that he was no longer being attached to a bunch of manipulating and using assholes but he also knew that he had just opened a new chapter on his journey.
He might wish to be and he might claim to be to his followers but he knew that he was not Omnipotent and was still very much vulnerable.
Killing him was still possible and should he die, truly die without a tether to the realm of the living at which point his soul would finally make its way to the nether realm, then all that he had worked for and done so far will fall apart.
He would no longer be Sovereign which would open up the power and position to someone else and all his efforts to develop Infinity would come to a stop with Order and Chaos quite easily stomping it.
Nothing was set in stone at the moment...
He would never let any of his future victims know this as he arrogantly stomped on them and put them down beneath his Sovereign boot, but he was actually more humble now.
Any god would wreck him as he was now- Infinity and all.
"Oh well," he said quietly as he exited the private section but not to exit the Monument but to go to another Private section where Valerie was opening her eyes as the Monument prepared to toss her out.
Valerie opened her eyes to the sight of a fairly simply dressed Hal with an Emerald green horned-serpent coiled atop his shoulders.
When she looked up at his face, she could not stop herself from gasping at his eyes... Those beautiful Sapphirine orbs that were pulling her in...
"Val, it is time," Hal said and it jolted her out of whatever Mind-melting visions of ecstasy his eyes were showing her.
"T-Time for what?" she asked but Hal did not answer as he knew she was bound to remember why in a moment and her wide-eyed expression of realization marked that moment barely three seconds later.
Valerie had gained insight into the Elemental Ordinance of Nature which could be called a derivative of the Abstract Ordinance of Life.
With her gaining insight into an Ordinance, Hal could help her move on to the next stage of her taking control of the cultivation she had received from the Inheritance.
It was meant to be a long and tedious process but Hal found that it was far more straightforward now as all he needed to do was to take control of her Ordinance and use it along with Infinity to crush the docile imprints that were placed inside her Ordinance.
The process was quick and easy and Valerie didn't have to do a thing which was why Hal had even decided to do this now considering Valerie only had some minutes left before she was tossed out of the Monument.
Following the crushing of the two Imprints, Valerie was shrouded by the outpour of every bit of power contained in the inheritance which she explained to have made her feel bloaty.
Five minutes later, the process was complete, and following a complete takeover of the Cruz Inheritance, Valerie boasted robust and impressive cultivation at the Peak stage of the Cosmic Semi-Saint realm and as she did, Hal granted her a derivative of the Infinite Sovereign Scripture which would mark her indoctrinating return to normal cultivation.
Had it not been for the time constraint, Hal would have truly sealed the process with rigorous dual-cultivation that he would have had a lot to gain from while introducing her to the pleasure of refining his energy-bustling seed.
Alas, that would have to wait.
Feeling the power within herself and hardly able to wait for her ability to make use of her new skillset, Valerie looked up at Hal and said,
"Thank you"
She had just said it when the Monument shrouded her in the multicolored light that was its signature and took her out of the Monument to right outside of it at the border of the Continent.
Hal had tapped into the sentience of the Monument enough for the gigantic Artifact to have manners and not toss him out like a common stranger.
For Hal, the Monument produced a portal that was quite similar to the one that everyone had used to enter the Monument in the first place.
Hal knew already that he could not decide where he would be dropped and knew that the Monument would return everyone inside it back to the side that they had entered through i.e Haronians will return to the Haron Continent and Dystopians would return to the Dystopian Continent.
With Sassy still around his neck, Hal stepped into the Portal and exited back at the border of the Haron Continent.
The Portal dropped him just a few meters away from the crowded region it had dropped everyone else.
Before anyone could notice him, which was sure not to take long, Hal pulled out a mask and put it over his face to protect his identity.
He wanted to be noticed... He wanted to be seen... He just did not want to be recognized.
He had just put on the mask when a voice called from the crowd and the voice seemed quite ready to do battle already.
"Hey you!" said the voice and Hal turned around to eye the one who had spoken.
The one who had spoken was Creten Haron and he rightly identified the serpent on Hal's shoulders to be the Dystopian breed that it was.
This sight of a Mask-wearing individual with a Dystopian Serpent on his shoulders raised a lot of flags and as he began to form conspiracy theories in his mind, Creten summoned his Cosmic Armament and so did many other Harons around him.
Creten's green eyes flashed with violence and a readiness to make up for his failures.
He had been unable to kill any Dystopian not to mention bring any trophies to his father and had also failed to gain insight into an Abstract Ordinance or any Ordinance for that matter.
At the end of the day, the difficulty of Abstract Ordinance comprehension had trumped his eagerness and diligence.
He needed a Win...
He needed this Win...