Deep underneath the surface, in a secluded cave mansion which he had created for himself, Sverre awoke from his state of cultivation. He had reached the absolute limit of the Holos Acclimation Stage decades ago, just like the vast majority of all Named Family descendants. However, contrary to them, he had not chosen to venture forth into other worlds and contend for supremacy.
Ever since his run-in with Eleanora and Theodore, he had become a changed man, putting his own safety first, above any potential gains–in other words, he had turned into a coward. But who could genuinely blame him? He only had one life to live, and no truly outrageous Talents on his side.
Compared to close to a century ago, his current self was a lot more reasonable. Maybe due to his concerningly low Mind Attribute, he hadn't actually managed to grow much from his illusory lives, instead earning the ire of his family due to his poor performance.
These 99 years had been an opportunity for introspection–but also a tough trial. Fortunately, he hadn't gone mad, despite being all alone down here the entire time.
'I wish I could just give up and get out of the Heavenly Succession completely. But unfortunately, after joining, I'm here for good until the very end. That aside, even if I could escape somehow, father and the elders would probably kill me for deserting my siblings... and that despite me being utterly unqualified to help them.'
Irrespective of the immense strength which he had gained by now, Sverre felt more depressed than ever. Even his Divine Will wasn't of much help and didn't serve to reassure him whatsoever. All in all, he looked like a picture of misery–the confident young man from before was gone.
With only a few more days until the end of the first round left to go, he saw no reason for him to continue enhancing himself, as he wouldn't be able to make much or any progress in that time anyway. For now, he would mentally prepare himself for what the Heavenly Succession had in store for him next.
But no matter what his result for the first round would be, he wouldn't dare to let it get to his head–not that he expected to see anything impressive to begin with. Even if the rules and goals for the second round would be practically perfect for him, he would continue to lie low.
Hidden away in obscurity, he would fight for survival and await the day when he could return to the rest of the Heavenly Dao once again.
He wasn't the only one who thought this way. Some Heaven's Chosen had awoken to the grim realization that they were not in fact the greatest gift which all of existence had ever seen, shattering their arrogance and baseless confidence.
Not all of them could handle this drastic change in worldview as well as Sverre did, leading them to lose themselves in debauchery or utterly inexcusable acts committed out of despair. Yet, there were also plenty who grew from their setbacks.
Still aboard the fleet of Fire Seeds, Salvator carefully divined his future again and again, yet the results were always unclear, as if something was deliberately concealing them. This didn't serve to frustrate him, however. Instead, he heaved a relaxed sigh of relief.
'As expected, there is no way for me to spy on what will happen in the next round. Naturally, such precautions were taken. But more importantly, now that I've repeatedly confirmed it, it appears that I will smoothly make it there!'
Close to a century ago, he had already obtained the same result, but his divinations couldn't possibly take into account all of his fellow Heaven's Chosen's actions. Theodore, for example, had been one who he had been unable to even trace at all. Therefore, it was not impossible for someone similar to spell his doom, which is why he had never been able to truly kick back and enjoy the voyage.
With so little time left until the next chapter of everyone's story, though, the tension slowly faded. Whilst he still kept a bit of his guard up, for now, he would allow himself to get some well-earned rest.
Contrary to most of his peers, due to the usually rather low Energy concentration aboard and around these Voidfaring Vessels, he had barely clawed his way to the early realms of the Dawning Numen Stage–and even that had been excruciatingly difficult.
But although this would make the very beginning of the second round harder for him, it was still better than clashing with someone beyond his divinations. Taking a small loss like this in exchange for his safety was not a big deal.
Completely opposite to the previous two, who had often felt as if danger was breathing down their necks, Ninna experienced a flawlessly smooth ride. Never once did she have to leave the Plane-type world prepared via her family's machinations, peacefully cultivating without a care at all. Regarding the male heir of the Winter Family who she was supposed to look for... she had never once made an effort to find him.
Fortunately, her elders didn't expect her or any other members of the Ur Family, to actively scour the first round's event venue for their target. They were simply too unlikely to have any success whatsoever, especially in a mere century, so nobody bat an eye at her instead focusing on becoming as strong as possible while she could. After all, the more capable that she was, the more efficient her future searches would become.
Just like her, there were many fortunate ones who had stumbled across ideal or at least great cultivation environments and had completely lost themselves in them. They didn't end up racking up many Heaven's Chosen Levels, as they rarely came across their peers, but they certainly became incredibly powerful.
Amongst them, there was a figure shrouded in mystery. Nobody could tell whether they were male or female, old or young, or even human. All that anyone who ever laid eyes upon them could be sure of was that they seemed to be vaguely humanoid, and were most definitely real.
Activating a small device, the individual waited for a few moments, then a holographic image of an orange-yellow haired young man kneeling atop the back of some sort of feathered monstrosity far too large to be displayed alongside him appeared.
"Renault Dompteur, report your progress."
A voice which felt eerily artificial, and almost robotic in nature, resounded. It was abundantly clear that the speaker would not tolerate any form of insubordination.
"Yes, Young Master! I now have 27 Holos Acclimation Stage beasts under my command, with another one likely to break through before the end. My vast army is at your beck and call."
Not daring to look up, Renault shivered, yet still conveyed all relevant intel. For many Heaven's Chosen like him, their controlled creatures, or other beings of a similar kind, were an intrinsic part of their strength–and even themselves, to an extent. This was why they could choose to bring them along into future rounds of the Heavenly Succession, if they so wished.
'Seriously, I just can't grow used to how much he's changed. 'Terrifying' is the best and only real way to describe him.'
He had no idea how that youngster from the Summer Family had become the enigmatic figure who he was now conversing with, but ever since they had first re-established contact, the one that he served had presented themselves in this way.
Whether the competition had allowed him to finally activate a Talent of his which he had always kept hidden, or if something else was afoot, Renault couldn't say, and it honestly wasn't any of his business. As an underling, all that he had to do was to listen to the orders which he was given. And at least when it came to that, he was not incompetent.
"Good. Don't forget our plans. You're dismissed."
Not elaborating on what they meant by this, as their Subordinate had naturally been clued in long ago, the mysterious being cut the connection between them and returned to complete calm. All that they had to do now was to bide their time.
Some of the Heaven's Chosen proclaimed their identities openly, like Theodore, whereas others were a lot more low-key about themselves. There were plenty of them who faded into the background completely, despite their excellence, as well as others who practically transformed into entirely different people from who they had been before.
There were too many dark horses and hidden monstrous geniuses, only very few of which truly decided to genuinely enter the fray this early on. The vast majority of all information that had been gathered about most Supreme Pillar and Pillar heirs was false, deliberately manufactured by their families to hide their real capabilities.
Of course, there were ways to find out the truth, but they couldn't always be used, as preparations to combat or prevent these methods had long been made. Unless it was a Supreme Pillar investigating a regular Pillar–or even a Named Family, for that matter–families on the same level could hardly win over each other in this regard.
That was why even the Winter Family could not state with full confidence that their intelligence department's findings were flawless. Because of this, Theodore and his siblings had been repeatedly warned to take all data regarding other Supreme Pillars with a pinch of salt.
Yet even amongst the less prominent families, there were many who had managed to pull the wool over the eyes of the various spies and intel gatherers all around. With seven eons to prepare for this unprecedented event, as long as they educated their children well and took many precautions, it would be hard for those at the very top to discover how special their offspring truly were.
And all of this didn't even take into account the countless fortunate ones being born all over the Heavenly Dao's worlds just before the Heavenly Succession began. Nobody could ever truly account for every single one of them. All that they could do was to give their own children the best possible lot in life.
Lucas of the Lerner Family was amongst those most lucky ones, yet directly after his arrival in the event venue, he had been hit by Rheya's scheme, exactly like Theodore. Yet despite having lost his single use life-saving item, he didn't alter his course of action for the first round whatsoever, marching ever onward undeterred.
With one of his Talents enabling him to sense absolutely everything related to his own fate, he was generally not met with anything which he couldn't handle. If it hadn't been for the fact that he couldn't use this method to get information about rounds of the Heavenly Succession that he hadn't begun to participate in yet, then it would have been impossible to silently plot against him.
But because of that, he also couldn't say anything for certain about how the second round would go for him. He had spent all of his time reinforcing himself, in an effort to be capable of meeting any potential scheme head-on from here on out.
'I'll have to be cautious, if only for a while.'
Knowing that he couldn't allow himself to slip up during the brief period of time when he was actually somewhat 'vulnerable', he narrowed his eyes a little. The beginning of every new stage of the competition was akin to a blind gamble, and one which he couldn't do anything about.
Having not only brought his personal prowess to the utter peak that he had been able to reach, but also having recruited quite a few capable Subordinates along the way, he had done the very best that he could.
'Realistically speaking, the chances of being confronted with another impossible situation again are vanishingly small. But I still can't just disregard the possibility.'
All of the victims of devious stratagems like Rheya's felt the same as he did–if they managed to last until this point in time, which most of them did. With bated breath, they awaited their future.