Her eye twitched, annoyed at Kaida's nonchalance. To which she paid no attention. Having no reason to continue the conversation with what seemed like an overgrown brat. Kaida continued walking, at least that's what she'd tried before stopping, noticing two guards standing right in front of her. She blinked, deadpan, and shifted space, folding it, going past them akin to teleportation. On the other hand, she heard the lady's voice.
"Now, where do you think you're going? Don't you know you have to pay up if you meet a noble?"
Kaida sighed and gave no attention, still looking away while examining the newly made area, which she had been renovating earlier. "If that were the case, then I'd have to give Osami, Akari, and Amaris each their own share of what I have. Could you tell me how much? Since I met them first." Kaida only spoke their names to deter the lady, just to see how far their names worked.
"As if you know any of them, stop bluffing. You really think someone with your level of arrogance would even get close to talking with a Zarathushtra? Absolutely not." The lady responded with a snarky tone. "Just what I expected from someone like you, you probably stole that clothing anyway."
Kaida paid absolutely no mind to her, willing to see how far she'd go. She also thought to herself, "The insults aren't even that bad... I wonder how far she's willing to go before getting fed up."
"I bet you even tried to bribe Amaris to be friends with you, a pathetic excuse of a non-cultivator like you." The lady was growing increasingly irritated the longer Kaida ignored her. Though this wouldn't be long.
Kaida's head tilted up. A snort released from her nose. "Oh? You can't even sense my core. I'm a realm lower than you, yet your perception and awareness can't even detect my Qi, let alone my core." Kaida released a flicker of Qi towards her, grazing past her cheek, not wanting to initiate a fight, but rather to release a warning shot. She went to leave. Not wanting to deal with a noble's tantrum.
The lady fumed; a single insult was all it took to get her over the edge. She was clearly proud of her realm. So to be belittled like this by what she assumed was a good-for-nothing commoner had ticked her off. She left a final reply in an attempt to finally get her to react. "Only parasites hide their Qi. Did you crawl in from the gutters to play cultivator? You think you belong in the same world as us?"
Kaida found this at most irritating. The insults spewed out were nothing; she was waiting for the chance to fight back against the lady if she did go for an attack, or others she held power over did. "Strange. For someone at Astral, you've never even heard of Void-Born cultivation. Or perhaps you have, and just assumed ignorance was safer. Either way, you've chosen well — thinking isn't your strength."
A final nail in the coffin, as it was called. It was what made the lady completely livid. A small sense of thrill as she formed a coating of Pure Qi right around her body. Her core shifted to be at the bottom of her leg. Considering it was metaphysical, it could shrink and grow.
Meanwhile, the other people there, including those who were visiting from the end of the empire, and their walls, such as Viscounts and their children, or even maids and commoners who worked there, hearing such an insult to a high-ranking noble, was unheard of. Gossip had begun immediately. While Commoners scurried away, nervously, not wanting to get hit in collateral damage if a fight had begun.
"Not just that. She said Void-Born. No one says that word here." One of the Viscount's daughters spoke to her brother, whispering, as if it were some taboo.
"...Void-Born is taboo? Why is it such? It's not like it's some evil realm." Kaida had thought to herself, though. Suddenly, the air shifted as the lady assumed a stance.
A release of aura, the air thickened, iron-heavy. Dust lifted off the cobblestones, quivering like frightened insects under the pressure of her aura. Flowing outwards across the buildings, reaching to the end of the street, which curved.
She looked back. The pressure was there, but Kaida was magnitudes of times stronger than the typical Core Formation. She'd be comparable to a Stage five Core Formation when she was only in the first Stage. Though with her abilities, it'd be a different story.
"Stop. If you move even a single step, then you won't leave this City. I could even throw you to those Filthy flesh-eating beasts." She spoke, her voice cold. Filled with rage. Ready to attack Kaida at a moment's notice.
"Flesh-eating beasts? Oh, a Komodo Dragon." Kaida blinked and let out a soft chuckle. Her eyes enhanced with Pure Qi, an attack came, yet the lady hadn't moved.
A lunge as Kaida stopped forward. The noblewoman's fist cut through nothing but air, the displaced wind ruffling Kaida's hair. A silence fell, punctuated by the gasps of onlookers. The strike hadn't just missed — it had been ignored. Stepping to the side, without attacking back. Letting the lady make a fool of herself first by attacking and completely missing.
A beat of silence right after the gasps. And soon a maid spoke up to a butler, one who was old and clearly a long-time helper of a Noble family.
"Void-Born? Doesn't that mean she's cursed?" the maid hissed. Her words carried farther than intended, rippling through the crowd.
To which, before the butler could even say any reply. "Why does Void-Born mean cursed? Does that mean Heaven Defiers are rule breakers and should be imprisoned? I'd love it if you used your logic on everything." Kaida was being sarcastic. But also pointing out the hypocrisy.
The maids and even noblemen and noblewomen stiffened, not wanting to take her words seriously. Considering they didn't even know her. "This... Well-"
"Don't continue talking like that! You-" The lady who had attacked shouted, her voice echoing through the streets. She blinked, her eyes turning to the lady. "Quiet. I'm talking to someone else. Not you."
A look of annoyance as she got into a stance. Ready for a fight, though it seemed there were many openings, Kaida would be able to react and dodge easily unless the lady used a powerful ability. And it was precisely why she wouldn't be cocky.
"...I could still lose here. So I shouldn't push my luck." Kaida would've never provoked the lady in the first place. It wasn't her fault. But the arrogance of the noble was persistently showing.
Though she expected it. A normal person would revel or go into despair at the level of power she was at. Let alone what the noble was at, even if there were stronger.
Before the fight could continue, it was interrupted. An insane pressure of complete dread. For Kaida, even now, the power she felt from this was clear; there was no chance to do anything about it. The cobblestones cracked as if bowing under an unseen weight. Even Kaida's breath felt heavy in her chest.
Additionally, her Qi had stopped entirely. Halting like they were useless. Not from the power difference, but from an ability, or something passive. The lady reacted, confused about who it was, but stopped. Even now, she knew not to continue doing whatever they were doing.
Finally, the voice of the one in the armor spoke. Standing between Kaida and the lady, whose name was finally revealed. "Countess Alexandrea." Her voice was raspy, yet old and commanding, like a person who'd lived for too much. Yet the gender couldn't be pinpointed by voice alone. Especially not actions.
"You must not fight someone. And you must reflect on your actions before you come back. Thinking you are higher simply due to more strength or status is not a healthy habit. And would not be fit for a Countess." The armor rubbed against itself, metal scraping.
The armored being's head turned facing Kaida, a ten-foot-tall behemoth. "You also should not. But from your words, you only instigated to see how they'd react." A soft chuckle within the armor. "I'll let you go this time. Since you didn't want to until someone acted."
"...As for the Void-Born taboo I've heard of lately. I'll do something involving that... Later." A clear grumble of annoyance from the voice inside, finally showing a hint of pitch change, an older Woman.
The crowd was silent in the presence, cowering in complete fear. Even those in realms beyond Divine Transfiguration, or even within a realm unseen by those below their own, cowered in fear, their hands shaking, as the blood drained from their faces. Being spit out of what was empty nothingness for the fact that even their abilities were utterly useless in this being's presence.
"...This woman isn't weak. She's probably equal to Sect Leader Lucien... But she's different." Kaida was holding her breath. She knew nothing else to do but wait for her to leave. To which then she'd continue with this day. Something more than ordinary. Even in a world like this.
Once the armored lady was gone. Kaida blurred, her form shredding into light as her body broke the air itself. To the onlookers, it was as if she had ceased to exist, but the sky screamed in her wake. Travelling at her maximum speed, if only for a short burst, her core slid back into her chest, bleeding Qi through every cell and bone, shunting away inertia that should have liquefied her them.
The inertia, force, and complete energy release left inside her body shifted, even though this was usually impossible according to the logic of her original world. Sent out through the sky a giant explosion. Kaida's movement is equal to a pulsar wind.
Her eyes saw where she'd move beforehand, and she changed her trajectory afterward. Yet, in that moment, Kaida stopped, slowing down a minute beforehand as she skidded across the ground, absorbing more and more of her speed until she came to a complete stop.
Stopping, she had noticed what looked like two people from the Underworld. "...I've not given them information, and now I don't want to in the first place..." Her eye twitched in irritation. "But I know this is going to become a fight... I'll just focus on what dirty tactics they might use."
Kaida left no room for them to attack, even for those who could move instantly. Her hand took out a blade from a rip in space. Something she'd done before becoming Core Formation. Though it was dangerous to use back then.
A blade slipped out, dripping an invisible yet powerful coating. As soon as it touched the ground, the land was permanently scarred. The blade was colored a dark ocean blue. Glowing yet not in the dark. Covered in Qi and protected by it.
"You haven't been giving information to us. You should've come back since you have time too after this long. Though it seems you've only betrayed-" A monotone voice, from someone of equal caliber to Kaida. So another Core Formation. The other one nearby was at Astral Formation, presumably watching and going to help if something went wrong.
"...Did you really expect me to stay on your side after you kidnapped me to even get me on your side?" Kaida was stunned to say the least. To think these people were dumb enough to think she'd stay on their side.
"There's no reason to not be on our side! The Empress is corrupt, and we're only going to replace her power! She doesn't let anyone else decide the laws, and only herself. You saw the taxes on the border towns. Do you think her so-called advisors didn't order those? And that taboo on Void-Borns." He spoke, his cheeks turning red and his voice getting louder, seeing his hand move to presumably attack. He was also a Void-Born, for the fact that she couldn't see his core.