As they realised what Garott was inadvertently telling them, all the members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan suddenly broke out into euphoric cheers.
Several of them even broke out in tears – Gisalson included – as they understood that the war was officially over. The Eight Great Clans could forget about trying to suppress them ever again. They may not have their Sovereign level backing anymore, but they had the next best thing. They had a Paragon-level Apex Divine Beast.
Seeing their reaction, Garott felt a pang in his heart as he could only imagine the torture this family had to endure all these years during his absence. Still, as much as he wanted to let them continue to let out the emotions everyone had suppressed all this time, he knew now wasn't the time. There were two Sovereigns present and they hadn't come to watch this.
Garott told them they couldn't continue to show their guests such a sight; there would be time to indulge in their happiness and relief later, but for now, they had an ancestral baptism to complete.
Verdel, as the leader of the White Tiger Branch, was the one to lead the baptism personally.
Typically, only members of the Four Divine Beasts Clan would be allowed to witness the proceedings, but today, they were willing to make an exception to the rule.
Under the eyes of Beirut, Ace, and the others, Verdel ushered the 33 individuals undergoing the baptism into a pool before tossing in a large white gemstone.
As soon as the gemstone was dropped in, each of the participants felt a warm and soothing energy coursing through their veins, causing them to release moans of pleasure involuntarily.
Even Alyssa was no different. Still, she wasn't surprised. She was told by Linley what to expect. She knew that the first part of the baptism was referred to as the priming section. The energy from the crystal effectively primed the participant's body and prepared them for the second phase.
The second phase was truly excruciating; it was the part where the energy released into your body would merge with the participant's soul.
For most descendants of just about any Divine Beast, unless they were like Garott, who perfectly inherited the bloodline of their ancestor, they would typically inherit the body of their ancestor – albeit a weakened version – but they wouldn't inherit their ancestor's soul attributes. It was for that reason that Alyssa now, and Linley in the past, could transform into their Divine Beasts "combat form" but not use their Divine Ability.
The ancestral baptism was a genius method the four ancestors came up with in the past to give their descendants a leg up.
The first part of the baptism would help slightly improve the quality of their physical bloodline abilities, but the second one would completely transform their soul, allowing them to use their ancestor's Divine Ability.
Unfortunately, because it was effectively transforming the soul, the pain they would have to bear was unexplainable and whilst the purer the bloodline was, the less painful it was to start off with, the longer they spent accepting the baptism, the less effective their bloodline became at shielding them from the true pain. But at the same time, the longer one was able to last, the better their Divine Ability would become in the end.
Ace and the others watched from the side as Alyssa smiled peacefully, accepting the blessing of the original White Tiger.
After only a couple of hours, the first of the batch began to grunt in pain as the first stage ended. Because it only took a couple of hours for his bloodline to finish being primed, it meant the purity of his bloodline was incomparably weak and in turn, he was forced to bear the full brunt of their soul transforming from the very beginning. As it did, a very faint phantom of a Divine White Tiger manifested in the air behind him, slowly becoming more corporeal as time went on – exceedingly slowly!
Over time, one by one, the priming stage of the baptism ended for just about everyone, aside from Alyssa that is.
Still, aside from Alyssa, the one that seemed to gain the most attention was surprisingly the youth whose priming stage first.
Although his priming stage ended first, he was impressively able to grit his teeth and bear the pain for over 22 hours. In fact, it was only when Alyssa's priming stage came to an end after 24 hours, and the phantom of an almost lifelike Divine White Tiger manifested behind her that the youth's Divine Ability seemed to give way, almost as though it was out of subservience.
Many of the Clan's upper echelon looked at the youth with appreciation. Gisalson, who took the initiative and sat with Beirut, Ace, and the rest of their party, noted that although the youth's physical bloodline was weak, his Divine Ability would be no weaker than a fourth-generation member, but more importantly, the willpower he displayed allowing him to last so long would make him worth training in the future.
Still, the person everyone was most interested in was, without a doubt, Alyssa. Simply by relying on the purity of her bloodline, Alyssa was able to go another 24 hours before the pain started to creep in, and even then, it was minuscule at best. Still, the pain only increased as time went on.
Even before leaving the Yulan Plane, Alyssa had learnt to bear an extraordinary amount of pain, and the thousand-plus years in the Celestial Realm had only further strengthened her Willpower.
Linley revealed that because his physical bloodline was already perfect by the time the priming stage was completed, he didn't feel any pain during the second stage at all, but Ryan and Gates were able to last six and seven days, respectively, before passing out.
As time went on, the size of the crowd didn't decrease. In fact, it only grew larger, with more and more descendants coming over to watch the birth of a new elite.
After lasting nine days, when Alyssa looked as though she were at her limits, Gisalson revealed that she had done incredibly well. Even amongst the first-generation descendants, only the four branch leaders had lasted longer than she had.
Just when it looked like Alyssa was about to give in, she opened her eyes and looked at her friends – more specifically, she looked at Killian. She was well aware that as a three-way soul mutated, Killian was destined for greatness. His potential was limitless, and although she was no slouch herself, she couldn't compare to him. Still, this was her chance at closing the gap, albeit only a little.
The various senior members of the clan looked at her in disbelief as her shaky condition somehow stabilised, and she continued to persevere.
It had to be understood that among the four branch leaders, Garott's younger siblings lasted ten days, followed by Yura Nimo – the Matriarch of the Vermilion Bird Branch – who lasted a little over 11 days, Verdel, who lasted 12 days, and Gisalson who lasted a full 13 days. Of course, that didn't include Linley, who effortlessly lasted the full 14 days.
So, seeing Alyssa pass each of their records one by one – her Divine White Tiger phantom growing more and more corporeal by the day – their shock could be imagined. But they weren't even slightly jealous; in fact, they were more hopeful than anything else.
The one thought they all shared was that this was the start of a new era for their clan, and they weren't wrong. First, there was the appearance of Linley and his group. Then, there was the return of Garott, a genuine first-generation descendant who had become a paragon. And now there was Alyssa; not only was she a supreme genius with an unyielding will, but she also had incredibly close ties to Ace and his group of monsters.
When Alyssa made it to day 13, everyone present, from Ace and his group to each of the members of the Four Divine Beasts clan, were all silently praying that Alyssa create a miracle and last the full 14 days. Should she do so, she would be the first in the clan's history to be born with an imperfect bloodline but awaken the true, perfected Divine Ability of their ancestor.
Still, no one was praying harder than Killian. His body was practically trembling as he watched his wife suffering. He didn't care how strong she would become; he was already more than strong enough for the both of them. Even so, seeing how much she wanted it was enough for him to want it for her.
Time seemed to slow to a crawl the closer she got to the 14-day mark, but eventually, the Divine White Tiger phantom behind her became perfectly clear. Not a single trace of instability could be seen from its incredibly domineering face.
It only lasted for a second before Alyssa collapsed, unable to stay awake any longer. Verdel moved to catch her, but before he could take a full two steps, he watched helplessly as Killian seemed to teleport right in front of her, catching her in his arms.
Alyssa was unconscious, but that did nothing to stop the crowd from bursting into a wave of cheers, unable to contain their excitement.
They had spent so long shrouded in darkness with no light at the end of the tunnel. But now, finally, it looked like there was no stopping them. Very soon, they would be able to walk out from Skyrite Mountains with their heads held high, and no one would dare to stop them!
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