'Just one more day until we'll see each other again–I'm looking forward to it!'
In one of the worlds under her control, Eleanora's true self raised her head and opened her eyes, a calm yet playful smile blossoming on her lips. Although she was located deep underground and immersed fully in abundant magma, her gaze still penetrated all the way to the surface, where the clone which she had prepared was already waiting.
She had kept its cultivation progress the same as her actual body's–meaning that the two of them were currently at the Deific Ordinance Realm, almost ready to break through once again. Although this meant that she had 'merely' improved by one realm since she had met Theodore last, her growth wasn't limited to just this.
Sure, there had been some more unfortunate souls that she had managed to find, but those were pretty much scraps and hadn't served to enhance her a lot. What really mattered was that she had expanded her army of clones!
Other than her true self and the single copy of hers that she always met her ally with, all this time, she had been creating and strengthening a simply terrifying number of clones. They came in all shapes and sizes: Male or female, old or young, human or a different species–she had them all.
Every single one of them had been crafted into resembling what one would expect a 'regular' Heaven's Chosen to look like. Naturally, they all had 'identities' which couldn't effectively be traced, as their origins were far too ordinary to ever enter the eyes of the Named Families. Still, at their core, they all bore a part of her soul.
Fortunately, she had Talents at hand that allowed her to camouflage this fact. In addition, she had her clones emulate their own daily lives, even when nobody was looking. In essence, each fragment of hers was role-playing as whoever they had been 'cast' as.
The further that they deluded themselves into believing that they actually were who they pretended to be, the more impeccable and impenetrable their act became. At this point, even someone like Theodore would find it difficult to discover their peculiarities if he solely relied on the performance that they were putting on.
However, if he looked a bit deeper and pondered about where Eleanora had actually found all of these Heaven's Chosen, then he would surely grow suspicious of them. After all, there weren't simply a few dozen here–by now, there were thousands!
And most terrifyingly of all, every single one of them was in the Dawning Numen Stage, with some of them even having made it to its very pinnacle and being capable of wielding their Divine Will!
An army like this, purely numbers-wise, easily surpassed the forces that Theodore had at hand. And despite not necessarily blowing his people's top combat powers–meaning Cheong Suhyeon, Navya, Satoru and Vigdis–out of the water, they could at least stall them for quite some time if his Coattail Ascension wasn't taken into account. Clearly, Eleanora's Talents were not to be underestimated.
But for now, she didn't intend to introduce this facet of hers to her business partner. After all, the more about herself that she hid, the better. She was aware that he was doing the exact same, therefore neither of them had the moral high ground to accuse the other of being duplicitous.
There were many reasons as to why she was mass-producing these clones. On the one hand, she wanted to prepare a force of her own with which she would enter the second round of the Heavenly Succession. There was always the option of recruiting those who she came across, yet she had not been particularly fortunate in this regard. Also, raising others into proper and truly loyal Subordinates would take a lot more effort and investment than simply utilizing her Talents.
On the other hand, the creation of these copies came with far too many advantages for herself. Not only did every single one of them represent a lifeline for her–meaning that she could 'restart' from them if her true self was killed–but they also passively strengthened her purely by existing.
Admittedly, it was not the biggest increase ever, but the higher that their cultivation stage and realm was, the more Standard Attributes and various other enhancements they would provide to her. Best of all, even if they were destroyed, this bonus would be retained. And as long as the fragment of herself that functioned as their core somehow managed to sneak its way back to her side intact, she would experience further growth!
Therefore, the more of these copies that she produced, the stronger that she would become. Coupled with her ability to benefit from slaughter, as long as she accumulated enough, she was confident in making it very far in this competition. Winning it was another matter altogether, of course, as she knew herself to not be amongst the top echelons of all Heaven's Chosen. But long-term survival was a great start in and of itself.
'Alas, I should already mentally steel myself for tomorrow. Else, his progress is going to heavily weigh on me.'
Thinking about that certain monstrous peer of hers again, her smile couldn't help but turn wry. Her own confidence had grown to a remarkable extent, and by now, she was certain that he could not fully kill her at all, no matter how hard he tried or which cards he played. Yet all of that didn't change that whenever she felt how much he had improved, she took a strong hit to her pride.
Fortunately, she had ample experience in dealing with this, which was why she wouldn't let it become an issue impacting their cooperation or a stumbling block hindering her own advancement.
Letting her gaze wander across this world and the manifold clones within once more, she eventually closed her eyes again and let her true self continue to cultivate. At the same time, her copy that Theodore was oh so familiar with made her way to a Teleportation Array, then got transported to their previous meeting spot.
The Gulong World had been transformed into one of her strongest fortresses long ago, yet by now, even all of the extremely vast and powerful Arrays laid out throughout it wouldn't be enough to pose a hindrance to Theodore. That was why, as soon as she arrived here, she began to adjust them into purely outwardly defensive ones.
From today onwards, she would no longer keep them as a potential card to use against her associate in case of an emergency. Not only would they be pointless, but she also wanted to foster some trust between them–or whatever the Supreme Pillar heir equivalent of it was.
Happily whistling to herself, she returned to a small cabin that she had built over here and would occasionally stock with ingredients, supplies, useful gadgets and furniture. Just like last time, she began busying herself with baking various mouth-watering pastries and making a vast assortment of delectable confections.
As soon as they were freshly done, she would put them away into one of her Storage Rings, ready to be served at a moment's notice. Amidst her kitchen-related pursuits, an afternoon plus a night quickly passed, and the morning sun shyly peeked over the horizon, its first rays illuminating the lands.
Finishing up in her comfortable little home, Eleanora walked towards the exact spot where their last rendezvous had taken place, then she pulled out a familiar table alongside two sofas. With only minutes left to go, she perfectly replicated the way in which it all had been set up last time, then casually awaited his arrival.
Punctual on the dot, a bright light soon shone forth from the nearby Teleportation Array. Seconds later, that familiar figure once more graced this world with his presence.
Although she had strongly prepared herself in advance, Eleanora was still startled by the extremely fatal danger that she felt the moment when she laid her eyes upon him.
'How is this even possible?! If he told me that he had actually travelled back in time from around the middle parts of the second round, then I'd believe him. The power that he's exuding right now clearly doesn't belong to this beginning stage of the Heavenly Succession anymore.'
In contrast to her internal complaints, a wide smile spread on her face. Rising to her feet, she arrived in front of him and shamelessly scrutinized him from head to toe for a bit, then nodded appreciatively.
"You've been working hard, I see. Congratulations on making it to the Dawning Numen Stage!"
Reciprocating her beaming welcome, he slightly and politely bowed.
"You're too kind! I'm still lagging behind a little. I should be the one congratulating you! With the Will Sublimation Realm just around the corner, you've pretty much almost arrived at the Holos Acclimation Stage."
The two engaged a bit in these performative pleasantries, then they made their way to the table and sofas once more, where Theodore was met with a delightful assortment of delicacies that had been generously prepared for him.
"... I know that I said this last time already, but these are amazing beyond belief. I seriously could get used to this trial marriage experience."
Her smile widening, Eleanora's eyes turned into crescents. Despite knowing that he was mostly just buttering her up and paying lip service, it nonetheless felt nice to have her efforts be appreciated.
"But my dear potential husband-to-be, I don't want to be the only one working hard for this relationship."
Calm in the face of her slightly narrowed eyes, the corners of his lips rose. With a casual motion, he took out a sheet of paper from his Storage Ring, then slid it to her across the table.
"Don't worry, I haven't been idle either. Those are my recent findings–I believe that they should be enough to qualify me to enjoy these treats."
Back when he had adjusted the Compound Array around the past Enki Imperium's territory, he had naturally incorporated a Lesser Void Scouting Array into it as well. Since then, he had left it to his Subordinates to make use of it and faithfully record anything that it stumbled across.
Doing so wasn't a particularly challenging task, but rather a boring and repetitive one. Still, someone had to do it if they hoped to expand their influence and obtain more resources. But whilst almost anyone powerful enough would be capable of documenting the Array's findings, actually understanding what the data meant was completely different.
Therefore, exactly like when they last met, yet with their roles reversed, Theodore was now testing Eleanora. Based upon what intel that she could gleam from it, he could attempt to figure out her current Array Formation Proficiency. Naturally, she always had the option of hiding parts of her capabilities, or even totally misleading him. Still, assessing her in this way couldn't hurt.
"My, you really weren't kidding! While it's not as expansive as the one I found before, this cluster of worlds does consist of more than 40 of them, with some reaching similar heights in terms of Energy concentration. From what I can see here, we can even make a clean split between us–we won't awkwardly have to share specific worlds again."
Glancing at him out of the corner of her eye, she gave an intentionally ambiguous analysis, yet she simultaneously made known that she did indeed figure out the exact details. Whilst this served to expose her minimum Proficiency level, she had also deliberately presented it all in a rather frustrating way.
"... I'm glad that you're happy with them. So, regarding which exact worlds each one of us will be in charge of..."
At first glancing at her somewhat speechlessly, Theodore chose not to comment on her antics and proceeded to discuss the exact allocation of resources with her. Only once the two of them had come to an agreement did he exit his business mode again, allowing them to return to their playful banter.
The hours flew by amidst their 'flirting' and casual conversations, until eventually it was time for him to bid her goodbye again. Right as he rose to his feet, he 'suddenly recalled' something that he had meant to discuss with her earlier.
"Come to think of it, if you happen to have a bit of time in the future, would you like to engage in some friendly one on one spars with the two women that accompanied me before?"
Somewhat shocked at this blatant attempt to probe into her secrets, she soon smirked a little, then nodded casually. Even though she wasn't confident in facing him directly, those girlies shouldn't be too much of an issue, at least this early on. She wouldn't really have to expose many of her cards, therefore it was all fine and dandy. That aside, if she did this, then he would also owe her a small favour in return.
"Sure. Let's find some time in a few months, after we're done with this new batch of worlds. I'll prepare the venue and contact you once I'm ready."