The thought was an unfinished shard of glass, too sharp and horrifying to grasp. No one could complete it. To even contemplate that the raw, world-breaking power they had just witnessed belonged to a B-Rank was to invite madness.
And in that madness, Orion's calm, placid smile only grew wider, a serene crescent moon in a sky choked with dawning terror.
It was a quiet that screamed.
A chaotic maelstrom of emotions howled through the minds of every soul tethered to this moment, from the trembling spectators huddled in the stadium seats to the millions staring, paralyzed, at their broadcast screens across the Republic of Cascadia.
The silence left in the wake of the battle was a physical entity, heavier and more suffocating than any sound. It was a vacuum filled with bone-deep terror, shattering disbelief, and a revelation so profound it was already cracking the foundations of their world.
The arrogant, disdainful nobles, those who glided through life with their heads held high in the rarefied air of the Apex, were now little more than ashen-faced statues. Their meticulously crafted masks of composure had been sandblasted away by the sheer spectacle, leaving behind the pale, slack-jawed expressions of raw, undiluted shock.
Even the veteran heroes, men and women who genuinely believed themselves to be the righteous pillars of society, couldn't suppress the involuntary shiver that traced a glacial path down their spines.
This was a fear that burrowed deep past flesh and bone, settling like a parasitic frost upon their very Aether Cores—a primal dread they hadn't felt even when facing the most fearsome and depraved villains the Sump had ever spawned.
In the section reserved for the promising new generation from Aegis Academy, the air was thick enough to drown in.
Terris's voice was a strained, trembling whisper, barely audible over the frantic chattering of his own teeth. "Ju-just what are they?"
Ed, usually the calm and collected rock of their group, could offer no words of comfort; his eyes were bulged so wide they seemed ready to leap from their sockets, desperately trying to comprehend a reality that had just declared war on logic.
Jane, whose sharp tongue and sharper wit always had a retort ready, had lost all the wind within her. Her mouth hung slightly agape, her brilliant mind short-circuiting against the impossible data it had just been fed.
And then there was Ryan Sterling. The Lightning Blazer, the rising star of his generation, felt nothing. Or rather, he felt everything and nothing all at once. The world had dissolved into a roaring, high-frequency static in his ears.
The impossible power Orion had unleashed wasn't a raging inferno; it was a placid abyss, an ocean of absolute zero so deep and still it defied all laws of nature. A profound, soul-eclipsing fear consumed all other thought and sensation, leaving only the chilling certainty that he was a firefly gazing upon a black hole.
Across the Republic, broadcast viewers were spared the crushing Aetheric pressure that permeated the stadium, but the visual was no less devastating.
It was agonizingly plain to see who the dominating force was.
In the perpetual twilight of the Sump, villains who had carved out their territories through brutality and cunning felt a full-blown panic seize them.
These two... these monsters... had just materialized from the same gutters they crawled out of. Their established hierarchies, their hard-won power, all of it suddenly felt laughably fragile, like a sandcastle built in the path of a tsunami.
Nowhere was the shock more personal than within the lavish estates of the Wintercroft and Vance families.
Maids, butlers, and guards felt a cold sweat drip down their faces, their starched uniforms suddenly feeling tight and suffocating. They all vividly recalled seeing those two siblings trailing their young madams through the halls just days earlier. The consensus then had been insultingly simple: they were extra muscle, Sump-rats who got lucky, hired help not worth a second thought.
Now, reality had smashed that perception into a billion pieces of glittering dust.
"This... this can't be real, right?" a young maid mumbled to her colleague, her eyes wide with a horrified awe that bordered on worship. "How? From the Sump… how is this possible?"
Another, her gaze glued to the screen as if hypnotized, couldn't look away as she uttered, "I don't know how or why, but I do know this… nothing will ever be the same again."
In a lavishly appointed viewing room, the patriarchs and matriarchs watched the broadcast, their own emotions an utter storm of calculation and shock.
Theron, Kaelen, Elara, and Alya were more familiar than most with both the Valerians and the siblings. They knew the true depth of the Valerian family's power, a lineage steeped in generations of Aetheric dominance.
They had also experienced a taste of the utter, crushing defeat that Orion and Lyra could deliver.
They had been certain the siblings would win, but to this utterly insane, world-altering degree…
Theron let out a long, heavy sigh, the sound echoing the immense weight that had just settled upon his soul.
"I have no idea how the future will turn out," he remarked, his voice gravelly with grim acceptance. "But I can say with absolute certainty that opposing those two would have been a complete and utter dead end for our families."
Kaelen slowly nodded, his jaw clenched so tightly a muscle jumped in his cheek. "The only move for us is to fully support them and their needs. Without question. Without hesitation."
Elara furrowed her brows, a deep line of consternation etched between them. "To think… to think the day everything begins to change started with two youths from the Sump, and in the span of just a few days."
The speed of it all was what truly staggered the mind.
Alya, alone among them, felt a small, placid smile grace her lips. She shook her head gently, a gesture of profound understanding. "Well, we better stop gawking. I have no doubt that all of us will have mountains of work to do after this."
The other parents couldn't help but subconsciously nod their heads in agreement. The political landscape of Zenith City had not just been redrawn; it had been violently erased and was now waiting for a new master to paint upon the blank canvas.
At the entrance of the now-ruined stage, Elysia and Lisanna stood like enchanted statues. The pristine, diamond-hard ice barrier Orion had so casually created stood between them and the devastation, but they barely saw it.
Their gazes were locked on the young man at the center of it all, the epicenter of this world-shaking event. Wonder, awe, and a hundred other pleasant, dizzying sensations flooded their entire beings, warm and intoxicating.
They could feel it, a frantic, hummingbird thrumming in their chests, their heartbeats accelerating to lightning speeds. An unfathomable, magnetic draw pulled at the very essence of their Aether Cores, a symbiotic resonance stronger and more insistent than ever before.
Lisanna let out a long, dreamy sigh, her usual bubbly energy replaced by a captivated, breathless reverence.
"Completely… amazing," she whispered, the words feeling utterly inadequate.
Elysia's cheeks bloomed with a full, unrestrained blush, a tide of crimson that she made no effort to hide. All the pride and aloofness she typically wore as armor had melted away under the sheer force of his display, leaving only the honest, heart-pounding admiration of a young woman staring at the man who had just conquered her world.
"He's one of a kind," she murmured, her voice soft with an emotion she was only just beginning to understand.
On the ruined stage, Orion swept his gaze across the stadium, drinking in the atmosphere.
The fear.
The awe.
The bewilderment.
He could taste the utter, soul-deep helplessness radiating from thousands of people.
This. This was the foundation he needed to build.
The sensation of standing above everyone, an invincible emperor whose every action dictated the flow of history, was definitely enlightening.
A quick glance over at his sister confirmed her satisfaction; a small, sharp smirk curled her lips, revealing her private enjoyment of the sheer, overwhelming spectacle.
But this was far more than a simple power trip. To achieve his goals, to facilitate the growth of his [Progenitor's Legacy], Orion needed to project this sense of supreme, untouchable superiority. He needed everyone in the city, in the entire province, to understand on a fundamental level that there was absolutely nothing they could do to stop them.
With this momentum seized firmly in his grasp, Orion's voice cut through the stunned silence. It was a casual tone, devoid of any Aetheric enhancement, yet it instantly commanded the attention of every single person as if he had whispered directly into their ear.
"Now then," he began, his voice echoing slightly in the cavernous ruin. "I'm sure everyone can plainly see that wanting to oppose a B-Rank force is not the brightest of ideas, right?"
He gestured languidly with one hand at the flawless ice dome that had protected them all. "Hell, without my intervention, there wouldn't be many of you, if any, still sitting here in awe."
That statement knocked the last remaining wind out of everyone in the stands.
He was perfectly, terrifyingly right.
When Lyra had overpowered the Valerians' combined assault, the resulting shockwave was not a simple blast of air; it was a pure, unadulterated wave of kinetic force. Only another powerful B-Rank hero could have hoped to contend with it.
It wouldn't have mattered how many C-Rank Heroes were present, how advanced their personal defensive technology was; that sheer, overwhelming force would have annihilated everything in its path, reducing them all to a red mist.
But none of that came to pass, precisely because of Orion's protection.
This realization twisted their emotions into an even more conflicted, agonizing mess. No matter how violent, how blunt, how cruel the siblings appeared to be, it was an undeniable, objective fact that Orion had just saved all of their lives.
Yes, he had saved them from a situation the siblings themselves had created, but in a sense, they were never truly in any danger. He had been in complete control of the entire chaotic situation from the very beginning.
He hadn't just won a fight; he had orchestrated a masterpiece of destruction and preservation simultaneously.
A collective sigh seemed to pass through the crowd, a sound of dawning, horrified respect. Murmurs began to spread like wildfire. "It's true… it really is true…"
"The chasm between C-Rank and B-Rank… it's not a gap, it's a different dimension of existence…"
Orion let this thought settle, allowing the full, crushing weight of their new reality to sink in before he continued. "Like we said before, you are either against us or with us. And I'm sure you can see that aligning with a B-Rank power—and powers that will grow far beyond that in the future—is far better than limiting yourself to this meager C-Rank province. Correct?"
The thought caused murmurs to erupt again, louder this time. Only now, there was zero disdain for Orion's borderline arrogant comment. There was only the slow, dawning realization of the opportunity—and the threat—they were facing.
They were a province shackled by their C-Rank limitation, and two people had just appeared with the keys.
But amidst the fear and frantic calculations, one more thought was buzzing across everyone's mind, a question too important, too terrifying to ignore.
An older, wizened veteran hero, his face a roadmap of a hundred battles, slowly, carefully, pushed himself to his feet.
He began to speak, his voice loud enough to carry but pitched low, deliberately avoiding any tone that could be perceived as a threat or disrespect. Respect and considerable fear filled every syllable.
"Excuse me… Sir Guardian," he paused, finding it far too familiar and suicidally dangerous to use their actual names at this point. "You mentioned something… something about you having the ability to break the cage of C-Rank. Is… is that really true?"
Every sound in the stadium ceased. The frantic whispers, the heavy breathing, the shuffling of feet—it all vanished. All eyes, all cameras, all attention in the entire province focused laser-like on Orion.
This question was equally, if not more, impactful than the siblings' overwhelming power.
After all, what was more terrifying than two B-Ranks?
An entire squadron of them. An army.
The very thought was baffling, world-shattering, and intoxicatingly tempting.
Orion met the old hero's gaze and smiled, a casual, disarming expression that did nothing to quell the tension.
He knew a secret like this would only bring about chaos, but chaos was a ladder. The concern for such things belonged to the weak civilian he had been just a week ago.
Now, he was not only as powerful as other strong B-Rank individuals, but his power was growing daily as he trained and his symbiotic bonds with Lisanna and Elysia deepened. And to smooth the road for forming more such bonds with greatly talented women, a demonstration—a promise—had to be put forth.
Thus, Orion flicked his gaze over to where Elysia and Lisanna stood behind the ice barrier, his smile finally waking them from their daze.
"I think it's time for you two lovely maidens to come and take the stage."
"Eh?" The girls were startled, blinking in unison.
They had assumed this was the siblings' moment to shine, a declaration of their arrival. What could they possibly offer by standing beside these titans of power?
Lyra clicked her tongue, an audible sound of impatience that cut through the silence. "Stop gawking already. Don't tell me you've forgotten how we even got to this point."
"That's…" Elysia and Lisanna took a moment, their minds racing before the memory exploded in their minds with the force of a revelation.
The profound, life-altering symbiotic bond they had formed with Orion. The kiss. The surge of power. The evolution of their talents mirrored in him.
It was the sole reason the siblings had grown from dangerous unknowns to this terrifying, world-shaking point in a matter of days.
In that instant, Lisanna's eyes gleamed, her natural bubbliness returning with a vengeance as she understood the play. She hooked Elysia's arm with her own, her grip firm and excited.
"Oh, I see what this playboy wants to do," she chirped, her voice regaining its musical quality. "Hmph, since he wants to put us on display, let's actually show everyone what real noble elegance looks like, Ellie!"
"You…" Elysia narrowed her eyes at her usual nickname, but the proud, regal temperament she was known for was quickly flooding back, chasing away the last vestiges of her starstruck awe.
She regained her composure, lifted her chin, and gave a sharp, confident nod. "So in the end, this pervert really intends to be this bold. Come on then. We shall witness what his glib tongue has to say for itself."