Villain Retirement

"Wrong."

"..."

'Wrong…"

"..."

"Wrong! I thought you, as stone-faced as you are, would do well in this! Why can't you get it!?"

A full day had passed since Gracy started teaching Riley the so-called 'Way of Cultivation', and yet he had spent all that time just sitting with his legs crossed on the carpeted floor of Gracy's room… with absolutely no progress at all.

"I am afraid I truly do not get it at all, Miss Gracy."

And before another hour could whisk away, Riley finally opened his eyes and stood up; shaking his head as he released a long and very deep breath,

"You are asking me to breathe from the core of my stomach, I do not even know what that is, Miss Gracy — and I am versed in the topics of anything and everything related to human anatomy."

"This has nothing to do with anatomy!" Gracy almost slapped Riley on the head, before remembering who it was he was talking to. The only thing Gracy could really do was close her fist and release a sigh of her own.

"Look…" Gracy then left Riley on the carpet and sat on her bed, crossing her legs and slightly revealing her thighs which were being covered by her silky robes, "...You should stop thinking about this the logical way — the dao is literally a suspension of the belief of everything other than power. Logic? Scrap that."

"I am afraid abandoning logic is mentally impossible, Miss Gracy," Riley remained standing on the carpet as he looked at Gracy.

"Trust me, Riley… a lot of people are fully capable of functioning without logic. Most have never even used it in their life."

"Like you?"

"Yes, like—What!? No!" Gracy once again balled up her fist, but she just literally bit it as she couldn't really throw it at Riley, 'less she wanted something logical to actually happen, "How do I even explain this to you?"

Gracy started getting even more frustrated as she started pacing around her room; her feet, stomping on the floor and causing the entire sect to tremble.

Gracy's sect was large. After all, she forcefully took over her previous sect, taking everything from them both figuratively and literally — erasing everything about it and turning it into the Mega Sect it is now.

Even with this size, however, everyone could feel the tremble that was originating from their Matriarch's private chambers.

"That's… coming from the Matriarch's room?"

All of her sect members stopped whatever it was they were doing. Those who were training in isolation even came out of their caves as they felt this tremendous pressure echoing throughout their entire sect like drums that were being struck by a staff straight from the heavens.

"What… what do you think they are doing there?" And soon, several sect members started gathering near their Matriarch's pavilion; taking in gulps as they looked at each other.

"Do you think…

…they are doing dual cultivation?"

"!!!"

And as soon as those words were uttered, everyone just let out gasps of shock at the same time; creating an orchestra of bewilderment and utter disbelief.

"The… Matriarch is doing dual cultivation with a Celestial?"

"Do you think… how do you think they are doing it?"

"Stupid! Of course… of course, the Celestial is inserting his—Oh, I can't say it!"

And as her sect members were starting to get excited; even covering their faces as their breaths started getting heavier by the second while they imagine what their matriarch was doing, Gracy was still stomping her way across her room.

Riley's eyes could really only follow her as she started circling around him; looking at him from head to toe while doing so.

"Riley…" Gracy then whispered, "...It's like this, okay? You don't need to imagine having no logic at all. But just try imagining yourself living in a metaphor."

"..." Riley could not help but squint his eyes.

"You are nothing."

And as Gracy said those words, Riley let out a small hum.

"You are just an empty husk, maybe not even," Gracy then sat down on the floor and crossed her legs, gesturing to Riley to do the same, "You do not exist, but at the same time, you are the universe itself. You are nothing, but at the same time, you are everything."

"..." Riley sat down and closed his eyes as he continued to listen to Gracy. His slow breaths, soon becoming silent, before becoming nothing at all.

"You are creating your own universe inside yourself," Gracy whispered as her energy started emerging from the very center of her torso, "This universe then, in turn, become the center of yourself — the source of your life."

"..."

"Follow my breaths," Gracy then took in a small but very deep breath; lasting for a second, but enough for an eternity, "Are you feeling it now, Riley?"

"No."

"Tch. You are," Gracy opened one of her eyes to glance at Riley, only to see a small orb of energy forming inside of him, "Can you feel it?"

"I can," Riley nodded, "But it's weak, incredibly so, Miss Gracy."

"Don't let any other members of the sect to hear that," Gracy rolled her eyes, "For someone who just started their path to cultivation, your energy is already abnormally big. Mine was too."

"I suppose the supervirus has something to do with that?" Riley continued to stimulate the heat forming inside his chest as he spoke.

"Maybe," Gracy shrugged.

"This is a very interesting power, Miss Gracy," Riley's hair started to float; almost as if he was underwater, "It is amplifying every ability I have."

"It did the same to me," Gracy nodded, "Enough that I could actually do things I couldn't do before."

Gracy then raised her hand, and as she did so, flames emerged on top of her palm; completely still, compressed.

"Hm. It is quite easy to control as well," Riley breathed in as the core of energy inside him started getting bigger, before turning small again as the energy compressed — this process repeated several times until the core of energy inside him became almost solid, "Interesting."

"Show off..." Gracy immediately removed the ball of fire in her hand, "...You're a fucking monster. I am just starting to realize it was the wrong decision to teach you. Fuck!"

Gracy then clasped her head tight as she realized what she had just done, "Why did I even fucking help you get stronger!? Aren't you supposed to be like the god of destruction or something!?"

"No," Riley shook his head as he opened his eyes and took one final deep breath as he stood up, "And you taught me the dao in exchange for me saving this world, Miss Gracy."

"Shit…" Gracy's eyes widened, "...Can you just forget all that and destroy your core?"

"Metaphorically?" Riley tilted his head.

"Fuck…" Gracy covered her face, "...So, how are you going to do it?"

"Do what, Miss Gracy?"

"Save this planet!"

"Oh," Riley then closed his eyes, stretching his arms to the side as his feet very slowly left the floor. And with a small hum, he snapped his fingers, "It is done, Miss Gracy."

"...What?" Gracy blinked a couple of times, "What do you mean it's done!?"

"I have already destroyed the asteroids that are headed to this planet."

"But you just said the asteroids were as dense and hard as Theran!"

"Yes, I confirmed that when I destroyed them," Riley nodded, "This cultivation thing is incredibly interesting, Miss Gracy. It just casually enhanced my telekinetic ability by several folds, I do not feel even the slightest stress in my body."

"You're… fucking joking, right?" Gracy could really only force out a small chuckle as she stared Riley in the eyes.

"No," Riley shrugged, "Well then, I will be taking my leave to continue my search for Sister."

And as Riley said that, a portal appeared from behind him.

"W—you're going to leave!? I thought you were here to rescue me!?"

"No," Riley once again shrugged as he stepped into the portal.

"Wh—" Gracy could not really say anything else as she just looked behind her, before just clicking her tongue and stepping into the portal herself,

"Fuck!"

And as she found herself back in the council room of the Council of Ross, she could really only let out a curse, garnering the attention of all the clones and Hera variants who were resting while waiting for the space station's power to recharge.

"You followed me back, Miss Gracy?" There was a small amused look in Riley's eyes as he saw Gracy scratching her head, "I thought you wanted to stay in the universe?"

"I did, I do!" Gracy almost cried out, "But I can't just stay there while I know a war is about to fall onto the multiverse."

"A war?" Riley tilted his head.

"Yeah — against King," Gracy's voice quickly turned serious as she looked around her, "We're gonna destroy that fucker for killing your adoptive dad and enslaving trillions of people."

"You may not be as strong as Aerith, but your sense of justice is there, Miss Gracy," Riley nodded, "Impressive."

"Tch," Gracy waved her hand, "And besides, I can always go back to my sect once we killed that bitch. You saving them would be useless if King would just appear to enslave them in the future."

[Oh, I am afraid that is impossible, Gracy Gray.]

"Hm?" Gracy could really only blink as Ahor Zai suddenly approached her, "The fuck do you mean?"

[You can't go back to the universe you were just in,] Ahor Zai shook her head, [It was a dying universe, so we have programmed the space station to lock access to it once we were done.]

"W…what?" Gracy gulped, "But… we can still access it somewhere else, right? Bard has this Nexus in our universe. We could access it there, right?"

[...]

"...Right?"

***

"Ms. Pearson."

"..." Somewhere in the expanse of the multiverse, in a metal room with only a set of chairs and a table, King and Paige sat; with Paige with arms crossed and glaring at King.

"Are you perhaps ready to talk now…

…about what you really are?"