Three days had passed, Feicui Long spent a lot of time with Isabella, they went to some restaurants, watched the stars, or even watched a play. Today, they were about to leave for the Skylion family meeting, but Isabella wanted to do something before they left. After all, there were still a few hours before the meeting, so Feicui Long stayed alone with Johan, with whom he talked about various things...
On her part, Isabella walks to her room, with everything that happens, the memories, the feelings. She has almost forgotten her grandfather's box. She wants to open it to see what it contains...
When she opens it, she sees several small letters, plus a small necklace. It is a carefully made artifact. Although it is an artifact, it is not very powerful; its quality is only from the elemental realm grade 9, upper rank, advanced level, but it is a growth-type artifact. The artifact has her name engraved on the back. The necklace also opens, revealing an image engraved on an image stone. The image shows her four grandparents, along with her father and mother, and a newborn Isabella...
One of the letters is for her and says: "For my beautiful Isabella, I long to see you grow, my pretty girl, to see you become a strong woman, capable of leading this fallen family. You are the greatest hope of this foolish old man, who had given up long ago on this almost impossible task. Our family has many enemies, more than you think. They have been trying for too long to make us perish. That is why I want to tell you, do not give up my girl, never give up. Show this cruel life that our Skylion family was born to rule and therefore will never bow before the cruel tricks of fate.
You are the one who will make it possible, I believe in you, I always will, because you are my second greatest treasure... because when I saw you, this hopeless old man regained his spirit, his happiness and saw the light thanks to you... this medallion is for you to remember that no matter what happens, your family will accompany you, whether in good or bad times, with love and pride your grandfather, Karl Skylion."
Isabella cannot help but cry, cry for a while, her grandfather, although she could never meet him, since he sacrificed his life protecting her, always accompanied her even after death. Even so, he always thought about her future. Destiny is cruel sometimes, the living and the dead come and go, some are born, others die, that is the path of the laws... the reason why cultivators fight against their destinies... but even knowing that many times it is inevitable, it hurts, it hurts a lot, you know?, because that is how we are beings with the ability to feel, this pain is what makes us what we are...
Isabella stands up and gathers her grandmother and her mother, giving them the letters that her grandfather had saved for them since before his death... the two could not help but break into tears either, her grandmother said: "This foolish old man... why did you have to go before this old woman..." and her mother, normally imposing, calm and strict, also broke down crying: "Dad... why you...."
Isabella hands over the corresponding letters to her uncle and her two aunts... as well as those for her father, the partners of her aunts and uncle... there was even one for the main butler, the main maid, and for the grandfather's best friends and the granduncle, the grandfather's brother, the grandfather's nephews and the grandfather's sister-in-law.
Isabella tells her family what happened in the trial, how her grandfather's soul had been accompanying her since she was a baby after his death and how most likely these letters were written after death... the family feels sad, but they have to endure the suffering momentarily, because what is coming is very important...
...
In the banquet hall, everyone is gathered, 250 members of the Skylion family. Each one here directs a town or village of the barony, a sign of how big this family once was and also a sign of how resilient it is.
The different members are gathered, some in small groups, others in large groups, but all looking towards the central chairs, where normally the head of the family would sit. There is a woman with platinum-colored hair and red eyes, looking at them with a very calm gaze without any hint of what this person is feeling or thinking.
At a certain moment, the ancestress, Kristina, claps her hands, making the servants enter. After this, the banquet formally begins. Everyone eats calmly, but all this is too calm... it is really a slightly strange calmness, even Feicui Long, who is not from the family, can feel the strange atmosphere.
When everyone finishes eating, then the ancestress begins to speak: "The Skylion family was chosen by the Supreme God of Beasts, Fernando, to protect this temple 50,000 years ago, with this, the founding ancestor, just in the year when our worst enemy, the Church of the Sacred Origin, in the year when the Supreme God of Origin, Adolf, unleashed his crusade of total annihilation against mortal races, despite all the challenges, our ancestor managed to conquer the continent and keep it united for a full 15,000 years..."
Kristina stands up looking at everyone: "In the year 35,000, thanks to the work of the great traitor disciple of our family, the Church of the Sacred Origin, the Lord of Monsters of the Changing Mountains Continent, the Undead Tyrant of the Abyss of Desolation, the Lord of Devils of Avernus, all joined together to try to kill our ancestor who was undergoing the celestial tribulation to reach the celestial divine realm, although they did not succeed and ended up dying, beings who surpassed him by a whole realm, the wounds were too severe, the ancestor would perish and would enter the tomb where the holy first wife of the founder rests."
Kristina stands up and turns her back to everyone, looking at the image of the founder, then says: "After his fall, we did not gave up, we held on for a long time despite the constant sieges from our enemies, despite the attacks on this continent, we remained upright, but even so, even if an empire is unbeatable, there is not much to do when the enemies are endless and live in the shadows predicting destiny, we began to lose territory, to lose the strong ones, although people like us emerged and recovered territory, but even so we never gave up no matter the difficulties, we faced them with a smile, because that was the will of the founder, because we protect the mortal races and the will and desires of the Supreme God of Beasts!"
Then Kristina turns around with a cold face and says: "I am not going to blame you for the current state of the family, I myself know how dangerous the enemy is, I myself even died under their poisonous claws, but even so... I want you to tell me WHY THE ENEMY ATTACKED THE FAMILY TEMPLE, the enemy never dared to do it, never even when we were weakened, especially because of the founder's protection formations, it just so happens that at that moment the formations deactivated momentarily..."
Kristina, with a voice as cold as ice, says: "Now I will give you a chance to confess, whoever admits their betrayal I will grant a quick death and let their soul live, but to those who refuse my show of mercy... not even their soul will remain, also all present will sign these contracts created by me, they are contracts of absolute loyalty, no one will be able to refuse to sign them, it will not restrict your freedom, but if you betrayed... or did something against the interests of the family, I will just tell you that you will wish you had died."
From her hand, the contracts flew to all members of the Skylion family, including the main ones like Isabella's brothers and cousins, obviously excluding Isabella and Feicui Long, many signed with their blood without hesitation, approximately a quarter of the entire family, these included the entire direct branch, even Isabella's great-uncle, another quarter hesitated a few minutes but still signed, another quarter waited 15 to 30 minutes, but ended up signing, the last quarter... from that 25% only 9% signed after an hour and much hesitation, 84% signed, that is 210.
The ancestress see this and nodded and says: "At least I know that the majority remains loyal and will continue to be since it is an inheritable contract, the contract only restricts harm towards the family and its goals, in exchange for signing it they will be freed from the curse and will be allowed to participate in the trial to awaken their blood, and the family technique will be assigned up to the maximum level to those who signed immediately, to those who delayed 5 minutes up to the demigod realm, those of 15 minutes up to the great immortal realm, those of 30 up to the great sacred realm, those of 45 minutes up to the great spiritual realm, those of one hour up to the spiritual palace..."
The ancestress pauses before looking at those who did not sign: "As for those who did not sign and did not reveal their betrayal, the family guardians will determine their fate..."
The ancestress snaps her fingers and the statues of the sky lion, the imposing warriors, and the planetary celestial tiger lit up their eyes evaluating everyone in the room, this was something everyone saw for the first time, those who did not sign began to grow uneasy, some even tried to run, but when the statues activated an incredibly powerful energy barrier closed the exits and entrances, the guardian statues then started a carnage, killing and tearing apart each one, the worst part is that even though many of them had not reached the level to perceive souls or a technique to see them... they could see how those who died and their souls were sliced, torn into pieces slowly, screaming in endless agony.
After a while, although everyone is uneasy, those who survived and signed the contract felt a little happy for the great rewards, but the banquet is not over yet, this is only the initial part...