Chapter 762: Stress

"All in favor of restricting access to the Dark Prison?"

"All in favor."

"All in favor of the Themarian Rights Act?"

"All in favor."

"All in favor of extending the Supervirus Non-human Prevention Act?"

"I still think it is selfish to not bless the other species with special abilities."

"We have been over this, it is an unpredictable disease with an unpredictable outcome."

"All in favor."

"All in favor of the budget alloted to surveilling Riley Ross at all times, at all places, at any given circumstances?"

"All in favor!"

"All in favor of letting Queen Edith, the variant of Princess Aerith of New Theran, stay in our universe?"

"All in favor."

"All in favor of letting Hanamichi Chihiro, a variant but also the reincarnation of Hanamichi Chihiro of the Earth from our universe but from a different universe, stay in our universe?"

"Who...?"

"All in favor."

"All in favor of the budget alloted for the Norinlad-Human-Evaniel Unknown Exploration?"

"It's Evaniel-Norinlad-Human Unknown Exploration."

"Queen Vania, it's just a name."

"All in favor."

"All in favor of the budget alloted for the Tournament?"

"All in fav—"

"Now, hold on a minute. Since when did we put a budget for the Tournament? I thought that was a private entity?"

A few weeks after the chaotic events that had transpired in the confines of Ahor Zai, the Common Council were now having a meeting regarding the different changes that have occured ever since their last meeting—which is a lot.

The meeting has been going on smoothly and was about to conclude. That is, until, Elder S'adar suddenly added something that was not in the scope of what they have all discussed.

Empress also almost raised her hand, but quickly noticed Elder S'adar's... ulterior motives.

"Wait... Don't tell me the Common Council has been sponsoring this so-called Tournament from the start?" Empress stood up from her chair; her eyes scanning the rest of the Elders.

"Well... It's more like our predecessors created the Tournament in the first place?" Elder S'adar just shrugged; his long monkey-like tail, wagging in excitement, "We hold it every... 5 Earth years."

"Just leave it, Human Elder," the queen of Evaniels, Queen Vania, raised her hand to speak, "This tradition has existed before our time, we have no right to abolish it."

"Yes, we do," Empress moved away from her seat and walked to the center of the dome, "That is why we're here. What use do we have if we're not going to change anything? Why are we even here if we're just going to follow the rules and laws of those who came before us?"

"I know my use, Elder Adaeze," Queen Vania also appeared in the center of the dome, "But I would get why you would be confuse—you have no use, after all."

"No... use?" Empress's left eyebrow quickly rose, "Tell me again whose species was present when the themarians took over Ahor Zai? And tell me who prevented them?"

"Please, we have all seen the footage. The themarians went away on their own."

"Oh, I wasn't talking about that—I was talking about the fact that you were also in Ahor Zai during that moment, Queen Vania," Empress smirked, "And you chose to hide...

...and here I thought running was your species' special ability."

"And infidelity is yours."

"You—"

"What? What are you going to do!? You did not even attend my birthday last year."

"I told you, I was needed home! It is not like I am fast like your people, we perceive time differently!"

"Right, like your people did not fix warpspeed travel. Wait, you did!"

"..."

And while Empress and Queen Vania argued in their own world, the rest of the Elders all just looked at each other with blank expressions on their faces. And after a few seconds, they all just nodded their heads and started leaving one by one.

Elder Apo was the first to leave; his golden glimmer, glittering in the air as he quietly just floated away.

Elder S'adar was also about to leave, but he noticed that Elder Tedi's hologram has been quiet the entire time they were having a meeting.

"Are you not going to leave, Elder Tedi?" Elder S'adar jumped and sat beside Tedi's hologram; his spiky hair, slightly bouncing as he did so, "Wait...

...are you even here? Or are you just pretending to be here using the hologram? That's a little sneaky, if I say so my—"

[I'm here,] Elder Tedi's hologram turned to look at Elder S'adar, [I am just thinking whether or not the proposed budget for surveilling Riley Ross is truly necessary.]

"...You're still thinking about that?"

[Yes.]

"But we've discussed this many times, Elder Tedi," Elder S'adar let out a small chuckle, "You're not going to be the one to guard him."

[I still think we would save a lot of our budget by doing that,] Elder Tedi shook her head, [And by doing so, we would also progress a lot faster with the Unknown Exploration, as Riley Ross's existence is definitely deeply connected to the existence of the universe itself.]

"...I honestly think the exploration is useless, Elder Tedi," Elder S'adar stood up, "With the existence of the multiverse coming to light. Don't you think exploring the Unknown is...

...boring?"

[Absolutely not,] Elder Tedi shook her head again, [I would go even as far as saying that the multiverse even made our universe even more mysterious. The Primordials—how do they exist? And how do they see the multiverses as just one single plane? Do the multiverse just exist beside each other, and the primordials are just beings that are bigger than the universe itself? Like we are in some sort of aquarium? Or are we perhaps just... programs? Don't you think it's—Elder S'adar?]

Elder Tedi blinked, and Elder S'adar was no longer anywhere to be found. And so, Tedi just took one final glance at the arguing Empress and Queen Vania, before just letting out a sigh and vanishing.

As for the two ladies, well—they would probably be inside the dome for a while.

***

"Okay, you can move now, Riley."

"Hm."

"What is it, what does it say, Mom?"

"We'll know in a few seconds."

Somewhere below the Ross' Residence, beside Whiteking's secret bunker, Diana's themarian ship was now also parked underground.

Hannah and Diana were inside the ship, in a silver room, looking at a large screen which contained some things that completely do not make sense to Hannah. It did not matter, however, as Hannah was not even looking at the screen, but rather at her mother.

"So, what does it say...?"

"...He's still sick," Diana let out a small and very deep breath as she shook her head, "Are you sure that when the other Diana tested you, she did not see anything?"

"No, I am sure of it, adoptive mother," Riley approached the two while putting on his shirt—as he just finished being fully scanned by Diana's computer, "It would seem my mind degrades in this universe."

"No, not quite," Diana shook her head, "You are sick, but it is not regressing as I thought it would—you were worse during the 5 years you and Aerith were missing."

"..." Riley's eyes squinted as he looked Diana in the eyes, "You are aware of the reason why, adoptive mother?"

"A working theory," Diana waved her hand, causing the screen to turn into a hologram and scatter around the ship—and once again, the language did not make sense to Hannah and Riley,

"At first, I thought that Aerith's... suicide caused your mind to deteriorate, but that wasn't the cause at all—it is this."

Diana then pointed at a hologram that looked similar to a DNA strand.

"What are we supposed to be looking at here?" Hannah walked around the hologram.

"The Supervirus. Well, at least it is supposed to be—it is different in your brother's case since he could have different variants of the virus at one time, but that's not important," Diana shook her head as she too, started circling the hologram,

"The Supervirus is causing Riley's mind to deteriorate."

"The fuck? I thought whatever Riley has came from Alice?"

"It did, it does. But something in the Supervirus is triggering Riley's illness."

"But Riley's been using his abilities since forever."

"I suspect only certain abilities affect his mind. The power he received from Alice is one of them," Diana looked at Riley, "But the ability that amplified this is—"

"Paige's abilities," Riley answered for Diana.

"Yes," Diana nodde, "It puts a lot of stress in your mind. It happened to Alice too—she loved you, but taking care of you was something she... wasn't really equipped to handle."

"...What?" Hannah's face could not be painted as she looked at her mother, "You're not serious, right? Stress? Riley's literally one of the strongest beings in the entire universe and you're telling me...

...that stress is killing his brain? You've got to be fucking kidding me, Mom."

"It's a working theory," Diana just let out a sigh as she waved her hand, making all the holograms disappear, "But with Riley, anything is possible—he is connected to a primordial, after all. We will learn more once everything is—"

"Yup, it's stress."

And before Diana could finish her words, two individuals suddenly entered the room—Alice and Diana-1.

"Wha—How did you get inside the ship?"

"Uhm, her...?" Alice pointed at Diana-1.

"I apologize. We were going to knock but Anna just let us inside," Diana-1 let out a sigh as she started looking around.

"Anyway, it's true," Alice just rolled her eyes as she approached Riley, "I avoid stress as much as possible. Like, as much as possible. It's the reason why I dropped out of college."

"You didn't go to college, Alice."

"High school," Alice pointed at Riley, "Anyway, leave these stuck-up intellectuals by themselves and let's go somewhere else, son."

"I am not your son, Alice Lane," Riley shook his head, "But where do you want to go?"

"Charlotte Lane," Alice shrugged, "Mine died early, so...

...why don't we talk to your grandma, yes?"