The World's most Overpowered Side-Character

"There was a shift in the mana surrounding us just now," Dr'ul was seated on a wooden park bench wearing casual Arkadian clothes with her hair tied in a ponytail and folded in her lap.

Next to her was Renia with her hair shortened to the length of her shoulder, and opposite of them across the table sat Cecelia and her sister Zara, all four were locked in a game of battle strategies called Conquest, much like chess, but it employed the use of a hundred players on each side, with the table having terrains and realistic rules.

"What was that feeling just now?" Zara asked.

"It felt so familiar," Cecelia admitted, but while the two of them were there trying to figure out what it was Dr'ul and Renia glanced at each other, smiling and keeping their discovery a secret.

No doubt, Sol was with Ikaris, even if he had arrived in the same realm as them again, they would wait until he had sorted his arriving affairs with his immediate family and then approached on his own.

That was their mutual agreement, but the universe seemed to be working against the sisters when S'mael came crashing out of the sky, leaving a crater in the ground as he leapt out in his [BLACK JACKAL] transformation, excitedly skipping from one leg to the other and gnashing his teeth.

"Did you feel it, did you sense it?" He asked. "Did you?!"

"We did, brother, sit down and calm yourself, there is no point in taking action yet, when she is ready, Ikaris and Company will entertain us." Dr'ul turned her gaze to him, sharp and commanding, leaving him no room to argue or find excuses. Your next read awaits at empire

"Sister," Adonai appeared next, standing at her side with his hands folded behind him. "I take it you have already realised the current events?" He assked, looking at the game they were playing intently.

"I have," Dr'ul answered him with a nod. "When they are ready, they will naturally announce it, usually I am the first to make a move, but..."

"Indeed, you have matured a lot over the last year, your Majesty," Adonai admitted with a smile, much to the goddess of war's humilty.

"Thank you," She smiled with her sheeks reddened and her eyes locked onto the current game, watching the troops she had employed try crossing a valley only to get attacked by giant spiders, resulting in a half of them perishing before they made it to the other side.

"I would love a fight though, Ikaris has been absent for the last four months entirely, focusing all of her attention to the little Princess rather than us, not that I mind; she needed to stop and breathe a little," Dr'ul continued.

"About that..." Renia seemed nervous. "I heard through Dina that Ikaris has been training the little one every day since she left, up to six hours a day, she is already capable of things like intricate [creation] magic and has a natural affinity for physical combat-"

"Physical- She is only a year old!" Dr'ul snapped, shocked. "What could she possibly be preparing the child for?!"

"Umbra, what else?" Cecelia bluntly spoke up after listening to them. "You saw him, we all did, after our Commander had defeated the foutrh General of the emporium, that man appeared out of nowhere..."

"A monster among monsters, it is unbelievable that the power he wielded was only a year's worth of dedicated training, he was ridiculous." Zara added. "She nearly died in that fight, Only Lord Vestic has the tools to face his alter ego with a chance at winning, had it not been for Talia's sudden ejection of Light Mana, who knows what would have happened to the Her Highness and the rest of us."

"Yes, ultimately, we were saved by the grace of a One year-old who had no idea what she was doing." Adonai shook his head. "It makes sense that she would begin training Talia, with Master Vestic missing after his promised date of return, and Umbra coming after us, every option, every idea, every little glimmer of light seems like a beacon of hope in the dead of night."

"Agreed." Cecelia nodded.

"She is only an infant though."

"We should focus on this game and start training again."

"Making a second Arkadia and having Beta seal it in a self-generating dimensional barrier was a stroke of genius, Adonai." Cecelia looked up at him.

"Thank you, I along with Beta understood that you all needed a place to expend your stress, so creating a restricting environment with severe conditions like this was a given.

"Severe conditions?" Zara looked to the side at several people in the distance, mostly Ikaris's vanguard, sprawled onto the grasslands heaving and unable to do much more than crawl around. "I can hardly lift my hand, I heard that Hudor cried a little last night when he almost wet himself," She chuckled.

"Yeah, calling it severe is not enough, this atmosphere and gravity feels like it will kill me if I release control of my mana for even a second." Cecelia chuckled. "In just a month since arriving here, I have been under more pressure than even the [Nightmare Prism]."

"Now that might be an exaggeration."

"Dr'ul, you are ridiculously strong, you already adapted to this place, but for us mere mortals things like this take time."

"Sure."

***

"Papa, look!" Talia held out her hands forging a small replica of his favourite hammer and grinning proudly, revealing her four tiny teeth in the process.

"Wow!" Sol exclaimed dramatically though he was actually surprised.

At a year plus, she was perfectly potty trained, she could form most sentences without much issues, and she was capable of flight, she had adapted to fighting, she could manipulate Cosmic levels of mana and she had already mastered [creation] magic.

"Why is she like this?" Sol asked Ikaris. "Have you seriously done nothing but train her for the last six months?"

"Seven." Sara corrected him. "Milady and the little Lady have taken up arms every day for the last Seven months."

"God god, Ikaris..." Sol began, but trailed off and rested his hand on the goddess's head. "Has it been that hard?"

"It has," She answered, but then raised her hand and created a small orb of light.

"This is my... no, that's Talia's mana?" Sol stared at it in shock, pure light that was even stronger than Ikaris's. "What?"Nôv(el)B\\jnn

"Talia is the reason you have a home to return to, Master," Alpha rested a beverage in his hand.

"I haven't asked yet, huh?" Sol picked up his daughter and turned to the others. "Let's get everyone introduced first, and then I want to know everything."

"Of course, love," Ikaris happily stood and turned to everyone else who had been seated a few hundred feet away on New Atla, waiting patiently while they chattered and caught up.

"Come this way," Sol called to them, and faster than a flash Xie appeared, standing closer to Sara than everyone else and greeting her with a nervous smile, after Xie's arrival, Yu came, standing before him, and then lowering her head and clasping her hands respectfully.

"Zhang Yu greets her Highness-"

"Zhang Yu?" Ikaris perked up, but then narrowed her eyes immediately afterwards. "Are you by any chance related to the man who arrived here a year ago he claimed to be from a place called Drifting Heaven, he also bore the name and was searching for a woman who fits your descriotion perfectly?"

"I would assume so," Yu answered immediately. "He is my father,"

"I see." Ikaris lowered her gaze, as did Dina and Arla. "Your father is an asshole." She raised her head again, "He is secluded on a random rock somewhere in here, because he is stringer than I am I have hesitated to approach him, he deserves a beating."

"I have a bone to pick with the basterd as well!" Sol began grinding his teeth as he thought about the cheap shot that nearly killed him and caused him to go comatose for a year.

"As do I," Yu made the same dark expression as Sol, crackling her knuckles and grinding her teeth.

"Oh, this is Fuhua, she is my official First Disciple." Sol changed the topic when she arrived and stood before them, lowering her head gracefully.

"Oh, a princess?" Dina leaned her head, looking at the woman and reading the updated Codex simultaneously. "She seems decent too, pretty strong for someone in the Cosmic realm."

"Ah... thank you!" Fuhua accepted the praise with a bright smile. "Master was kind enough to save me, so I have dedicated my existence to his servitude, I promise, I will become stronger!"

"Good spirit," Arla admitted.

"Arla."

"Yes, Master?"

"Why are you still in the Cosmic realm?" Sol asked her shocked. "With this density of mana, and your skills, you should already be a divine!"

"I was waiting for your return, Master, I have long decided that you will be there to witness my evolution, remember?" She asked him, smiling with her head leaned.

"Of course, but this could cause you some serious harm if you keep it bottled any more," Sol shook his head.

"True, I may need your help in regukating my mana when I begin metamorphosis."

"Master, Your Highness," Grecia seemed to cut into the atmosphere like a hot knife, Dina, Ikaris and Arla had pretty much ignored her presence before, but now that they were actively observing her, something felt bizarrely familiar about even seeing her without even reading her mana, even though for some reason she had very little.

"Ikaris, this is Grecia, she is-"

"Blood of my blood..." Ikaris approached the woman while she was still bowing, taking her by her cheek and staring at her intently. "What the actual... is she real?" She asked.

"Pardon?"

"Where, how... Who are you?"