Both Ivan and Artyom had separate dinners where they made to feed their fathers and the elders in their factions the Devil Pellets.

It seemed a normal dinner to all those involved and when the pellets were dropped within their goblets and served along with wine rich in cultivation resources that would at Least add an iota to their progress, things were truly underway. 

Since the pellets were within them and had taken root, the passive abilities kicked in and they become the root of Hal’s takeover.

Progress was slow and it practically crept along but eventually, every single member of the Doxon family has ingested at least one Devil pellet.

And only when she was sure, the first part of the plan was successful did Arya activate the pellets and the second part of the plan began.

You see, Arya was an impressive Alchemist and definitely more skilled than Hal but she was still not good enough.

She was refining pills to be used against Semi-saints and Saints and that was way above what she was capable of normally.

And that was why, while she could not refine the pellets with the potency that was required to truly bind saints and semi-saints to the Devil Seed in Sapphire city, she could use her Devil spells to grant them the ability to evolve.

Which meant that the activation of the pellets set off their evolution.

Now within the targets and hidden from sights through the trust felt by the targets for those who fed them, the pellets spread their influence all about the insides of their targets.

Not harming them in any way but ingraining themselves with their very being. With everything that made them who they were right now while also assuring that any further Improvements or developments would be tied to the Devil seed and hence to Hal.

Yes, Hal had inflicted any possible future generations of the Doxon family with the fate of belonging to him, the Sapphirine prince.

It was months before all this was complete.

Before the complete corruption occurred and the result was the sudden nefarious connection forged between every member of the Doxon family which Svetlana was viewing through her Orb.

She only saw the connection for a few seconds and then it was gone. 

Seemingly hidden from her sights and every attempt she made to peer even harder at the disturbing connection was fruitless.

How could she have known that she should not have seen the little she saw and had only been privy to it for those few seconds because she was a Doxon?

While not tied into that connection, it had reached out to her.

And now that it had been forged, every member of the Doxon family, excluding Kirill and Svetlana had it ringing in the back of their minds that Hal was all that mattered.

That serving was all that mattered.

For the next few weeks after she viewed the connection, Svetlana worked to look deeper into the situation and discover what was going on. 

To know what her vision had meant.

She discovered nothing.

No one in the Doxon family acted any different.

They all spoke and moved as they did before her visions.

Which made her feel silly for having expected the change to be so glaring and evident to be showing in how they now spoke or walked.

The only notable difference the Doxon Duchess could point at was the peace that now descended upon the Doxon family.

Not even Ivan nor Artyom showed the zeal towards becoming Duke anymore… And why should they?

They had played their parts.

All through the months that had passed since Hal’s disappearance, they had acted as they had been ordered but now that Hal’s stealthy takeover was complete, it was time to drop the facade.

Of course, they did not go about yelling to the whole Duchy that they would no longer be against each other and rather simply focussed more on their cultivation a while trying to ignore the prodding pain they were still feeling courtesy of Hal.

Despite the alterations having died down and not being as public as it had been before, many still felt the cousins were against each other and their decision to recluse themselves and cultivate was to bolster their strength in preparation for a final showdown.

The showdown that was meant to finally determine once and for all who the strongest and most deserving of the title of Duke between the two was.

Svetlana was in her lounge and had just stopped her investigations while coming up with theories that could possibly explain what she had seen which she remained sure had not been a meaningless vision when Kirill came out of seclusion.

“It’s all so… Quiet” Kirill said.

He was not actually referring to the quietness of the Doxon Territory as that was quite common because even though Dual cultivation occurred a lot in the Doxon territory, there was usually the good sense to use noise-canceling runes to keep them from getting out.

This was especially true in regards to the depraved nature of quite a number of Dual cultivators in the Doxon family.

No, Kirill was referring to the quiet feel of the Doxon family.

He could sense the peace and the lack of fighting between factions.

Having been indulging in the bodies of his Cauldrons and only taking breaks to mediate and refine their essence for the past seven months, he was not current with things happening in the Doxon family.

He had however been at peace with the knowledge that, should something happen that required his involvement, there was no way he would not have gotten involved.

Whether it would shake the Doxon territory enough to pull him out of seclusion or Svetlana would call for him.

“Yes, it is” Svetlana said but she was a tad distracted.

Kirill noticed,

“What is the matter?” he asked while taking a seat opposite her.

Svetlana took a few seconds before she answered and even when she did, she provided no information,

“I don’t know” she said.

In her mind though, she thought,

‘Hal, just what the hell are you up to?’

She knew what she had seen with her Orb was his handiwork and that he had involved Ivan and Artyom in his plans, just as she knew he was not dead.

How did she know?

Well, she could just feel it.

She worried.

She worried that what he had done would be detrimental to the family and that despite her powerful abilities, she found herself powerless against it.

She never told her father what she had seen in the Orb and simply kept it to herself as a topic to interrogate Hal with upon his return and she wanted it to be a topic she discussed with him personally and not with those working with him.

She had a feeling that what they actually knew was greatly limited.

Kirill frowned but did not really question Svetlana further.

He had his own information-gathering network.

It was only a matter of time before he was up-to-date on matters occurring within the Doxon family…

… He just hoped things were not as bad as they look on Svetlana’s face was making them seem.

***

At the outskirts of the Haron continent in an unpopulated location, there stood two men both of whom were recognizable as Ergo the buff, shirtless man, and Pietro, the green-eyed Semi-saint with Multicolored hair.

The excitement was clear on both of their faces although, Ergo’s was more evident with his wide grin.

Pietro was holding the Beacon Artifact that Ergo and Cirk had gotten from the tomb a year ago and he carried it while marveling at the energy within it.

Energy ready to power up the beacon and call upon its target.

To pull it to the Nexus world.

“One year” Pietro said with a sigh.

That was how long it had taken to fill the last bit of energy the beacon needed to be powered.

This last year, members of the Organization, powerful members had contributed to the Artifact and it still took so long.

He could not help but wonder and marvel at how long it must have taken to fill the beacon up to that point.

He also reasoned that Yaksher had probably spent the years of his life filling the Artifact.

He placed the Beacon on the ground and he activated it.

*Brrrrrrrrrrr*

*BOOOOOMMM!*

After activation, Pietro and Ergo stepped back and watched the Artifact shake violently before expelling the large amount of energy within it in a violent outburst that was focused upwards but still spread about the Artifact and forced both Ergo and Pietro more than a few steps away.

The beam of energy released by the Artifact did not indefinitely travel toward the atmosphere of the Nexus world though.

A portal appeared between the beam and the clouds and the beam went through the portal which showed the Artifact was an advanced combination of tracking and Teleportation.

And then…

*BANG!*

… The Artifact shattered and the energy beam was cut off.

The portal also closed up once the last of the beam had gone through it.

Ergo stared up as though hoping to still see the beam or the portal but Pietro was staring at the Artifact or more accurately, what was left of it.

He stepped forward and picked up the core of the Artifact which was the most important piece in the second part of the Organization’s grand plans.

“Did it work?” Ergo asked and his answer arrived in the form of a robust pillar of light that suddenly tore through the atmosphere of the Nexus world.

The robust and dazzling pillar of multicolored light descended onto Gelread Valley, which was the name given to the neutral stretch of land that demarcated the Haron and Dystopian continents.

“You know what Ergo? I think it did” Pietro said while sporting a wide grin of equal proportions to Ergo’s….