Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

In killing Cirk's mother, the sword stab by Melinda had been mostly a medium to allow her to drain the woman of all of her life essence thereby making her 'dead'.

Once the purpose of the killing (to completely break Cirk mentally) was complete, there was no reason to let her remain dead and Melinda promptly returned her life force which essentially brought her back to life.

Cirk's mother might have made some comments and was clearly very opinionated about Melinda's exile while supporting whatever her darling son did, but Melinda saw no reason to kill her. She still had restraint.

Plus, letting the mother live on to forever mourn her son seemed a good enough punishment. This was supported by the fact that Cirk's mother saw being alive and seeing her son's dead and tortured body to be immensely painful and promptly broke down the moment she could observe her surroundings.

Her sword wound was closed and healed with Hugh walking over to her and consoling her.

Hugh made to leave with his mother but Melinda stopped him,

"Stay," she said and Hugh's body was locked down while still embracing his teary mother.

The very moment Cirk died, Hal saw his soul get separated from his body. The sight of a soul will always be hidden to the plain sight of any who did not have insights into specific Ordinances such as the Abstract Ordinance of Death and the Elemental Ordinance of the Nether.

The Nether Ordinance referred to the ethereal soul and was an almost direct link to the Nether realm which contains nothing more than Nether energy and bends to the will of death while shirking from the will of Life i.e Life Ordinance.

At her level of Life Ordinance comprehension (still at insight level), Melinda could not see a soul or interact with one but she definitely could feel one moving around her without a body.

Anyway, with insight into the Nether as well as into Death, Hal could see and interact with Cirk's soul.

When he saw Cirk's soul separate from its body, Hal knew there were only a few seconds before it was claimed by the Nether realm where it would either roam or be pushed towards early reincarnation.

Reincarnation, either early or eventual would be preceded by a cleansing in the Nether sea of the Nether realm. The Nether sea will wash the soul clean of all imprints which referred to all memories and the majority of the soul's sense of self. Essentially returning the soul to that of an unknowing new being ready to experience new life.

Hal felt reincarnation or moving into the Nether realm at all, was a form of escape for Cirk and with a flick of his right index and middle fingers, he dissipated the confused soul into energy that he made his own.

The energy barely made a difference in Hal's being and it went unnoticed but at least the bastard was out of any possible path of redemption or new life.

The Ax Cirk had been wielding had fallen from his hand at some point during his battle with Melinda, likely the moment she stabbed him in the crotch (that would make anyone drop anything), and it had its blade stuck into the ground.

Hal stretched his hand and called the ax towards himself and once he gripped the handle and observed the Ax, it was for confirmation of why the Ax was familiar.

It was the same Ax that had been wielded by a man named Ergo who Hal had made met twice... Once with a multicolored-haired man named Pietro and at the time, Hal put him in a closed void to be mangled by the instability of the space.

Ergo, of course, survived which led to the second meeting in a tomb where Ergo had been with Cirk and the two worked together to retrieve the Artifact that brought the Monument of Ordinances to the Nexus world ahead of its scheduled time of arrival.

Anyway, at the time of the second meeting, the Ax had had a blood gem that had obviously been ditched for a different power source. Whatever that power source was though, it had cut off supply almost as soon as Cirk was dead.

"Makes sense" Hal mumbled with a chuckle.

Absorbing Cirk's energy, basically, his essence granted Hal all of the Dane man's memories which Hal looked through in barely a second and served to confirm his first guess although he had already believed his guess to be completely accurate even without this confirmation.

Whatever thoughts were going through Hal's head, he mostly put them aside to focus on current events, most notable of which was Melinda addressing her father and Uncle,

"You two don't deserve to command the Dane Family. Grandmother never should have given up command to you" Melinda said.

"It's an error in decision I still very much regret. However, I still do not wish to step back into the role of Matriarch and the responsibilities of Duchess seem beyond me" Isabella chimed in and relaxed the aggressive stance she had taken against the Elders who promptly regained their voices to voice objections,

"You return after a year of absence and kill our chosen heir and now you are admonishing the Duke, how arrogant and unaware of your surroundings can you be?" asked one Elder.

Another turned her eyes to both Devon and Damien,

"And you two have been silent since" he said.

Hal freed the brothers from his command of silence and inactivity and while he did not give them a speech to read/speak out loud, the two brothers knew how they were to speak or act now that command belonged to Hal.

"What CAN we say? What do we have the right to say" Damien asked. He looked to be struggling to find the right words to say and he also struggled against the tight hold of power Hal had over him.

Devon was the same but his words flowed better,

"We chose Cirk because he showed himself to be powerful and apparently had the means to retain that level of development and even share it with the family as a whole.

He had plans for an alliance that would greatly benefit the family so we welcomed him back despite his past mistakes but now that he's dead, do we alienate the living and talented?

Bah, we would lose our authority over the Duchy before we can truly establish it" he said.

"You could have stopped her from killing him," said another Elder, and Hugh looked over at his father noting that his father had indeed been quiet and inactive when his mother was killed.

"I could say the same thing about you. You were right here and you did nothing. And don't you mention Mother 'cause she was only one woman against you bunch" Damien said and the more he spoke, the more fluid his words were and the louder his voice became.

The Elders spared a glance at Hal whose gaze had dissuaded them and then gulped but said nothing.

Hal finally decided to have a say in it all and flew up as calmly and as quietly commanding as any being could ever be.

He moved towards the Elder at the forefront, the one the others all seemed to pander to, the 'Head Elder' you might say, and as he got closer to the said Elder and thus walked past Isabella, the Patroness bowed and moved very much out of the way.

"Look at me," Hal said to the head Elder who could not help but avert his eyes.

The Elder raised his head but the moment he got close to staring into Hal's eyes, the Sovereign presence emanating from them caused him to avert his eyes again.

"Of course, you can't," Hal said in a quiet tone and it chilled the Elder to his very core.

Hal had limited his Sovereign might to just his eyes and it appeared that was still very much enough for this seasoned cultivation expert.

Hal snapped his fingers and a symbol appeared in mid-air, high above the Dane Duchy Palace. The symbol released a tentacle that descended and pierced through the Elder's chest.

"Ack" he groaned in pain but he was very much alive and not at risk of death, rather, his entire being was getting subverted by Hal's Sovereign might. The very might that he could not afford to look into.

The symbol contained the submission of every other region in the Duchy all pushing for the capital to join the faith.

The symbol tapped into the faith of every Dane (Melinda and Isabella) who was already a part of the faith and used them as anchors to gain roots in the Dane Family, specifically the Elders.

From the tentacle attached to that Elder, others branched out and every other Elder got stabbed in the chest while being trapped in the region by Hal.

Once every Elder had been connected to the symbol, they all released more branches that began to attach to every member of the Dane family.

It was a beautiful network to behold and would mesmerize anyone, however, only Hal, Melinda, Isabella, Damien, and Devon could observe the beauty as all others were dragged into a trance meant to tie them to the faith of the Sapphirine Prince... The Cosmic Emperor.