Chapter 75: [Chapter 75 ● The Gates of the Hidden Giant!]

Time passed.

The journey continued.

The five had begun their trek at some point past noon, and by now, it was already dark night. But they didn’t stop, as they could clearly make out the shimmering silhouette of a marvelous city in the distance through the shadows.

"So..." Aezaleon suddenly broke the calm silence, his steps unhalting. His gaze landed squarely on his four girls walking beside him. "How should we proceed forward? I mean, even if we are capable of concealing our presence perfectly, I don’t want to take any unnecessary chances."

Focusing his attention on the most powerful one among them, he asked, "Do you have something, Clementine? Any type of ability that can mask our calamitous presence completely, making us seamlessly blend in with the regular residents of Varion?"

Clementine matched his gaze, and upon comprehending the validity of his concern, she nodded. "Indeed, I do have many of such abilities capable of masking our presence and distorting the perception of others through deep illusion. I can guarantee that as long as there is no Archaic-blood in this city who has comprehended the Transcendental Cosmic Law of Archaic True Illusion, none would be able to see through my illusions," Clementine boasted, her voice carrying a tone of absolute certainty. "Even if they stand at the absolute peak of mortality—as Mortal Entities! Because just to comprehend a normal Transcendental Law, one has to transcend the mortal boundaries completely and become an Immortal."

"Well, that’s good," Aezaleon replied with a smile.

In some time, under the illuminating moonlight, they were moving steadily on the paved road leading towards the city. Far ahead, their sharp vision was already able to make out the many carriages, people, and adventurers lining up to enter the massive settlement.

There were many outsiders gathered there—from elves, humans, and beastmen, to demons, angels, and many more. Many appeared to have just returned back to the safety of the city walls after some successful calamity hunts. Some were laughing and cheering, planning about what to do the next morning happily, discussing their next tactical step and their next hunt.

However, at the same time, there were also some who were deeply dejected, either because of their own painful injuries, loss, or because of the sudden death of their comrade. Considering the vast crowd, there were many people, and there were also many conflicting emotions born from many different reasons and causes.

"Okay, it’s time, little sisters. Let’s get inside husband’s soul," Clementine said, giving Anastasia, Auguszta, and Aphryne each a quick glance. They nodded in understanding and vanished the very next second. She focused her attention entirely on him afterwards.

"Remember, the guards at the entrance will ask for Energy stones as a fee for you to enter inside the city. Just pay it without any fuss. Also, mind your own business and keep to yourself; we don’t want any pointless attention drawn to us right now. Our main job is to keep our identities concealed for as long as possible, not draw attention, focus entirely on our growth, gather Information, and also investigate any other hidden powers in this place. That’s all."

She reminded him gently, discussing a few other strategy points too. "Leave the last part of the investigation to me; I’ll see to it myself. You focus on your own things, alright."

Aezaleon nodded.

In the end, Clementine activated her unique ability—[Aura of Flawed Phantom]—on him, thus completely morphing his calamitous presence into that of a vampire. Considering his natural crimson-red eyes and matching red hair, it was the best choice available.

HM!

Aezaleon felt the sudden change occur, feeling a bit uncomfortable for a brief moment, but the strange sensation vanished as soon as it came. He looked back towards her and once more nodded. The task ahead was simple; despite all the detailed Information they had gathered through Anastasia, absolute caution still needed to be maintained.

To not cause trouble and draw unwanted eyes towards themselves, even his newly bonded wives had entered his soul. They knew perfectly well that their beauty was a striking trait that would surely attract annoying trouble, and at their current stage of development, it wasn’t wise to kill indiscriminately. It would only cause more problems and divergence in their simple plans. There was no need to make things more complicated and difficult for themselves when they could avoid it pretty easily.

Aezaleon was already on the move, heading directly towards the city by following the paved road. To say he was not nervous entering the home of his natural enemies would be a plain lie, but that was all; aside from this slight edge, his mind was utterly composed. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Soon, within ten to fifteen minutes, he arrived at the massive city gates.

The sight before him left him momentarily stunned.

Under the dark veil of night, the massive city stood like a silent giant. Towering walls stretched endlessly into the distance, their dark stone surfaces glowing faintly under long rows of lights placed along the top ridge. The gates alone were enormous, standing nearly five hundred meters tall, while the surrounding walls rose even higher, reaching perhaps two thousand to two thousand five hundred meters into the sky like an iron fortress meant to defy the heavens themselves. Standing this close, their sheer scale felt even more overwhelming to him.

The area outside the city was alive with constant movement. Carriages rolled in and out, guards stood watch like unmoving statues, and countless people gathered near the entrance. A constant sea of murmurs, footsteps, and distant calls filled the air, yet he paid no attention to any of it. His mind was fixed on only one thing—entering the city walls at this moment.

He moved toward the separate line meant for those on foot, located on the right side, while the large carriages of noble families, clans, and wealthy merchants entered through the left. Aezaleon stopped behind the line, calmly waiting for his own turn to pay the entry fee and enter inside. However, it looked like fate had other plans for him.

"Hey, redhead..."

Aezaleon ignored the voice completely. It wasn’t like he was the only one who had red hair; he had certainly seen many individuals with the same hair color in the crowd.

"Oyy, are you deaf or what?"

Aezaleon simply moved forward in the line. He was pretty sure he wasn’t the intended target of this rude voice. Yes, he was indeed pretty sure, but the low murmurs from the guards at the gate told him otherwise.

"Looks like Ahal is at it again. He truly hates vampires, huh?"

"Well, his mother was raped by vampires, you know, and as if that wasn’t enough, they were even wicked enough to force him to watch everything," another guard sighed, feeling pity for his troubled comrade. "Such absolute torture."

"Looks like today will be different. This vampire looks so powerful, I can’t even sense his Ascension rank!"

Aezaleon sighed heavily. ’Why do you have to make me a vampire, Clementine?’ he grumbled mentally through their link. ’If this outsider truly steps out of line, I will really kill him. I don’t think I have that good of a self-control.’

’How would I have known about something specific like this beforehand?’ she defended herself. She was watching all that was happening outside directly through his eyes, currently relaxing without any clothes in a hot bath in her castle inside his soul sea.

’Don’t worry though. If things escalate too much, don’t do anything reckless; I’ll handle everything myself,’ she commented, taking a slow sip of his blood from the glass in her hand while lazing in the cool water.

’Fine!’

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Today shit happened and I lost all my notes regarding [Innate Ability Framework], [Engineered/Learned Ability Framework], [Full Prowess Matrix], [Bloodline Tiers], [Core Tier Advancements], [Elemental Power Intrinsic Order, Manifestation Stage], [Law Comprehension Levels], [Law Fusion/Assimilation Framework], [Element Rank].

I even lost full Ability Codex of [Absolute Will] and [Blood Queen’s Quintessence], from Elemental Power: Nytherion, Varkyros, Eclipse, Clementine’s elemental power. Nothing remains, and I really feel like crying man! That was like two months of my dedication, now it’s all gone just like that because of my own stupidity!

SIGH!

Still there are some fragments and also the raw draft that was in my tab, I’ll try to recreate everything from those but I just wanted to tell you guys that the Chapters would only be one per day because of this from now on, to until some time.

And of course because of this there will be much changes in how the Abilities and all that have not been mentioned would work and also towards topics already mentioned.

I’ll notify you guys about whatever changes that has been made! Guess that’s it from this idiot.

Thanks for reading until now!