楼上的上瘾女士

This was Hal\'s first visit to the Empress\' office within the Royal Academy. The last time he met her, over a year ago, it had been at her study in the Imperial Palace.

In all honesty, there was not much difference between her study in the Imperial Palace and her office in the Royal Academy... The only really notable difference that was not in the architecture of the room was that her study in the Palace had been more grandiose.

There had been jewels and artifacts while this office was just chock full of books.

Hal\'s eyes were first on the Empress who was staring a hole into him and then, his attention quickly shifted to a phenomenon a little to the side.

Melinda had her legs crossed and was levitating about two feet above the ground with her eyes closed and a look of serene peace on her face.

Floating in front of her was a scroll upon which golden writing was illuminated and those golden writings were giving off energy (energy that Hal could see and feel to be divine) into a formation that was drawn directly under Melinda.

The formation was made up of runes but the runes seemed to have very little to do with Astral energy which made sense considering they were being powered by Divine energy.

Hal watched as impurities were forced out of Melinda\'s body by the formation beneath her... The impurities were dark and quite disgusting to look at but they never lingered as they disintegrated almost immediately they came out of her body.

Hal knew what she was doing... It was just an elaborate take on what she had been doing since the Empress became her mentor.

What made it particularly more elaborate was for no other reason than the encounter she had had with Sariel in the Monument of Ordinances.

While Hal had indeed cut off her connection to Sariel, he had also allowed her to completely make every bit of divinity Sariel might have left inside her her own.

Now she could better manipulate the divinity that was coating all the writings of the various scrolls that the Empress had on her shelves.

Melinda was already taking steps to create a replica of the formation she was currently making use of within the Harem space and with Hal\'s help, through the Codex of Infinity, she was almost done.

She never had told the Empress of her secret cultivation center where time was massively sped up and the Empress had never asked and had never been bothered by the fact.

Very soon, she would be able to take her cheat setup into the Harem space to further cheat with it.

Melinda\'s focus was all on her cultivation... She had attained insight level in an Abstract Ordinance and all that was left was to bring her cultivation up to scratch.

Hal did not entirely trust the Empress and while she might indeed only be interested in mentoring Melinda, he believed she might still have an ulterior motive which was not too much of a stretch...

After all, she was the Empress and while she acted more aloof regarding the running of the Empire, she must at least have the desire to retain her status.

Anyway, Melinda trusted the Empress and claimed she reminded her a good deal of her grandmother but as even Isabella Dane had ulterior motives, it was hard to find the comparison reassuring.

That said, Melinda was not some damsel he was attempting to protect and she was very capable of picking who she spent time with and who could be beneficial to her focused goal of personal improvement.

"Does that make you proud? Seeing her hard at work?" The Empress asked while she gestured towards the chair in front of her desk.

Hal walked to the chair and took a seat before he said,

"Of course. Is this what you asked me here to ask?"

"I asked you here for a chat," The Empress said with a smile.

"You threaten and pressure me for a chat?" Hal asked and the Empress nodded.

"I wished to pick your brain. I can tell and it will not be the first time that I will tell you how evident it is that you possess knowledge that far surpasses your station.

Your continued improvement is proof of this.

Surely, you must feel the eyes on you now." the Empress said.

"The eyes on me?" Hal asked in confusion and the Empress nodded,

"Of course. The short time you have spent being seen since your rearrival has been enough to reinstate the interest many people have in you. Me included.

The Emperor is quite eager to make your acquaintance and so are various Elders of the Imperial family as well as many members of the Imperial court.

You have roused the interests of many distinguished fellows and as I told you through my Avatar, Interests can be double-edged."

The Empress went silent and let that hang in the air before she continued,

"Take me for example... My interest in you is fairly positive. I wish to share a bit of the knowledge you possess but will not be acting extreme in my goal. Others are not like that.

You are young and are constantly defying odds and while many have made no action towards you, mostly because you are not entirely a nobody -You are a Doxon- that is subject to change."

"When you say your interest is positive, is that because you believe you can get at me through Melinda?" Hal said... Touching just a bit on his lack of trust for the Empress.

The Empress chuckled and there was a glint in her green eyes,

"Believe me, my interest in Melinda has very little to do with you. She has a solid pedigree of her own and just happens to be a very rare find who can make use of my Divine scripts as they are intended to be used.

And before you ask, Yes, I have something to gain from Melinda besides the pride of seeing my student succeed where my other students and I have failed.

Melinda has been harnessing Divine energy and passing some to me in hopes of purifying my being and helping me break through my bottleneck.

Our relationship is symbiotic... As it should be.

Is that bad?"

"No I guess it\'s not," Hal said with a light smile.

The distrust was still there and the Empress could see it clearly on his face.

She smiled at that before she said,

"You should be careful. When you meet the Emperor, you will not be meeting him alone."

"I know," Hal said and then he let a moment of silence pass while he eyed the Empress and had a thought... A theory that he decided to test out.

"You know, there is something I feel like sharing with you. I think you will find it fascinating... If your mind can withstand the information that is" Hal said.

The Empress furrowed her brows,

"I dare say there is nothing you can show me, dear boy, that my mind will be incapable of withstanding," she said.

"Are you sure?" Hal asked.

"Undoubtedly," she said and Hal stood from his chair.

He walked around the desk until he was beside her chair, at which point, the Empress turned her chair to face him.

She was quite relaxed.

"It is information that will be much more entertaining when passed directly into your mind," Hal said and stretched his hands towards the sides of her head.

The Empress leaned forward just a bit and put her head in range of his hands.

Hal placed his fingertips to her temple and as he did, the Empress said,

"Look how relaxed I am with you so close to me and your fingers pressed to my temple. I trust you, surely you should trust me too"

Hal chuckled,

"Do you actually trust me or do you just trust that I am too weak to be a threat?" he asked.

Silence...

"Just get on with it" The Empress eventually said.

"Very well, brace yourself... You are about to witness the birth of all things..."

As soon as Hal spoke, he transferred the memory to the Empress and watched, with a bit of satisfaction, as her body seized up and she was treated to mind sundering and head-exploding sensations that were synonymous with a mortal brain attempting to comprehend the incomprehensible.