Chapter 597 Deal
Even if the Queen's Image acted as if she was not surprised, she was actually terrified about Dilan's achievement.
It was not difficult for her to scan and figure out that Dilan was only at the fourth Tier. Yet, even without being in possession of a lot mana, he easily manifested a small Destruction Domain and the Immortality Aura before he executed the Immortal Godbringer Amasutra technique flawlessly.
His body took a tool from the execution of the technique but it took Dilan only a second to heal. It was as if he was totally unscathed when he looked deep into the Queen Image's eyes.
He smiled lightly, understanding that he did something amazing, an achievement that nobody at the fourth Tier was supposed to be able to.
"The question is now…did I steal the technique from one of the other Images of the Queen of Immortality, or did she teach me for a few thousand years in the City of Trials?" Dilan asked the Queen's Image who stared at him, trying to find an answer in the database, using countless emotions and trains of thoughts that flashed through the database where all Images were connected.
"If stolen…you wouldn't have been able to create the Immortality Aura properly…let alone release the Destruction stream of Immortality…You must have been taught… by one of us…but I have no data about you…that means you were taught by one of us…whose data we cannot detect…City of Trials?...Contact to the Image in the City of Trials is cut off…One of the five perfect Images taught you…Congratulations…"
Dilan felt like he was talking to the system of the Primordial Ascension, just that the Queen's Image seemed to be a little bit broken down.
He retrieved a bunch of Essence crystals from his storage ring and threw them toward her.
The Image caught them and devoured the crystals without leaving a single crumb behind. She began to smile lightly and bowed toward Dilan.
"I believe you. What is your name?" She asked and Dilan began to smile. His plans had been a little bit disrupted, but it was way too exciting to find one of the Queen's Images.
It was as if the Queen of Immortality had expected this by giving him permission to exploit her a little bit.
"My name is Dilan Cier. Nice to meet you!" Dilan said, stretching his hand out while Oricalm changed its shape once again. The Soul Weapon reverted back to the form of a ring. Dilan adored his Soul Weapon and he was glad that he asked for it as one of his two rewards in the City of Trials.
Both rewards were worth the trouble he had gotten in to obtain them…though he had often regretted his decision not to have demanded much more from the Oracle and the Origin…they put him through hell after all.
Meanwhile, the Eternal Darkness was just given the godly fragment belonging to one of the strongest Gods that had ever existed in the Universe, without demanding anything in return.
Dilan was pretty sure that both the Oracle and the Universe favored Nial Orin, though he couldn't care less what the Oracle thought about him he was jealous of the rewards Nial had obtained without too much work…and he had just been a baby at that…it was truly regrettable.
'At least they have higher expectations from Nial, which means that he will be considered a bigger disappointment the moment the Universe gets devoured while only he survives…poor Nial…'
Siegfried looked at Dilan and his smooth movement as he transformed the rapier into an inconspicuous ring with gleaming eyes he wanted to approach his Uncle and ask him dozens of questions, but he was forced to stay shut from the Sisters, who wanted to let Dilan deal with the extremely weird supernatural things.
Dilan was more accustomed to encountering extraordinary existences such as the Queen of Immortality, so he should make sure that everything would be fine. Letting Siegfried lose would certainly create lots of trouble.
The Image looked at Dilan's outstretched hand and she grasped it lightly. Shaking his hand, she introduced herself as well.
"Nice to meet you, Dilan Cier. I'm the 341st Image belonging to the lesser batch of the Queen of Immortality's Soul Shards!"
Dilan knew that the Queen of Immortality created a tremendous amount of Images but he could only shake his head when he heard the number of the Image in front of him.
'Just how many Images did you create… and why did you do that, to begin with? If the answer is boredom…then…I don't know anymore…'
He smiled at his thought and let go of the Image's hand. Many thoughts squirmed through his mind and he was trying to figure out the best way to make use of the Image.
"Do you want to make a deal with the citizens who live on your flying island? The citizens have been providing you with Essence Crystals as you already know," Dilan finally asked while his mind continued to rattle.
There were too many things he could make use of, but he didn't feel like exploiting the Queen of Immortality, not after one of her Images taught him so much, for such a long time at that!
"A deal? What kind of deal do you think will be worthy enough to attract my interest?" The Image asked, somewhat arrogant, and somewhat intrigued.
"It's nothing special, just a business deal in which we promise you to provide you enough Essence crystals so that you can unlock more functions within your Heart Soul after your long hibernations. We will also protect you with all your might as long as you allow us to live with you…and you teach us…or rather the others everything they want to know…" Dilan proposed, slightly uncertain whether the Image would accept the deal because of the last point of the request; sharing of knowledge.
"I...am not sure if that deal is fair. It's mostly in your favor, don't you think so?" The Image asked sharply and Dilan nodded his head.
"You would be correct, if not for the fact that you will die if you don't receive enough energy from beings living on you.
You absorb the power they subconsciously release in their surroundings to maintain your life, and you awoke from hibernation because you were fed Essence crystals. If everyone leaves the flying island, you will fall into hibernation after some time, before you, the 341st Image will die!" Dilan spoke quite nonchalantly but the information were far from simple, especially what he added afterward,
"And I know very well how important staying alive is for every Image. Please don't try to say 'I am just a flying island, I don't have emotions'. That's not true, and you know that even better than I do! You want to stay alive, grow stronger, and evolve, whether that is in the form of the flying island as it is right now, or transform into a flying land mass as big as a continent, or even transformed into a humanoid Spirit!"
The Image looked at Dilan for a long time, trying to search the database to figure out what the best answer would be.
However, there was no answer to the given proposal, not from the logic of a mere Image from the lesser batch of Soul Shards…
"You do know a lot more than you should know…" The Image said and Dilan agreed once again.
"That's right…and I take your hesitation as an 'I will gladly accept the deal you proposed', alright?"
"Okay…"