Paying no heed to her envious gaze, the man in question merely displayed a small smile. Nodding at Cheong Suhyeon in appreciation, he and Vigdis came to her side, briefly checking whether or not she was fine, although it was mostly a formality–they both were certain that she had not been harmed.
"Darling, I'm feeling a little bit light-headed. Can I lean on you for support?"
Vastly overplaying her own exhaustion, the goddess-to-be 'innocently' blinked her eyes, her gaze a pitiful one. Knowing exactly what it was that she was planning to do, Theodore felt a slight headache coming, yet he didn't resist and chose to play along–after all, it would still provide him with a bit of amusement. And that aside, it was not as if he had ever planned to hide their relationship.
"But of course!"
Allowing her to wrap her arm around his and snuggle against him–clearly to a further extent than what would have been necessary to keep her on her feet–he shot the spectating Dragon Family heiress an apologetic glance. It was almost as if he was attempting to make amends for bothering her with this public display of affection.
'... does that girl truly think that I'm trying to steal her man?'
Somewhat speechless, Eleanora took in the show that they were putting on and simply didn't know how to react to it for a moment. Back during her last encounter with Theodore's two Subordinates, it had already been plenty obvious that there was a bit of romantic tension between him and Cheong Suhyeon. This time, she could plainly tell that they likely had acted upon those desires–after all, they had made no effort to conceal it whatsoever. Still, they hadn't been this blatant earlier.
However, this didn't really concern her. Whatever her business partner got up to in his own home, it mattered little to her unless it interfered with their ongoing cooperation. Yet, that somewhat smug look on that saintess-like woman's face was ever so slightly annoying. To the point that she felt strongly compelled to throw her hat into the ring.
"Here I am, just as weary, yet my potential future husband is giving me the cold shoulder. How cruel!"
Heaving an exaggerated sigh, she shook her head in sorrow, hints of tears shimmering at the corners of her eyes. Fully aware that Theodore's look had intended to convey to her that this wasn't his idea, she nonetheless chose to drag him into this and position him front and centre. That way, the focus would shift from Cheong Suhyeon and her to him instead.
"First come, first served. But I do have another shoulder."
Initially shaking his head helplessly, he soon invitingly motioned at his free side, not a hint of wariness in his eyes. It was as if he and Eleanora weren't a danger to each other, but rather long-time comrades, or even more than that.
"... touché, but I don't like playing second fiddle. So you'd better make it up to me the next time we're alone again, alright~?"
With a seductive wink, she licked her lips a little and departed on the spot, not allowing for Cheong Suhyeon to get another word in. Instead, her goal was to plant a seed of doubt in her–although she knew that it was unlikely that she would succeed.
As soon as she was gone, that presupposition proved to be the case. The target of her manipulation turned to face Theodore, an amused smile on her lips.
"I'd say I played the part of the petty, jealous girlfriend pretty well, wouldn't you say? No matter how I look at it, she at least doesn't dislike you. There might actually be a chance, wouldn't you say? But more importantly: How are you planning to reward me for my hard work?"
For a moment, he felt tempted to point out that the jealousy hadn't entirely been an act, but he knew better than to actually say it. Whilst he very much doubted that anything substantial would develop between himself and Eleanora in the short term, as long as she one day proved to be trustworthy, he naturally wouldn't be opposed to a union with her.
Still, who knew how long it would take for either of them to truly feel something meaningful for the other, or whether that would ever happen? However, there was someone else who had already managed to enter his heart, and who was currently right in front of him. And she now had his full attention.
"How about I tell you when we're back home? This is hardly the place for it."
Shooting her a meaningful glance, he nodded at the constantly collapsing vestige of a world which they currently found themselves in. Ever since Enki XXXIII's destruction a short time ago, more and more of what still remained was falling apart at a rapid pace. In less than a few minutes, it would all be gone.
"Fair enough. Then let's go quickly, I'm looking forward to what you'll have in store for me."
Accompanied by a white light, the trio teleported away, utterly unmoved by the demise of a whole world. As soon as they were back, Vigdis left the lovebirds to their own devices, returning to her cultivation chamber. Once she had sat down, she couldn't help but recall today's battles with perfect clarity.
'Yeonnie is truly a marvel. That Talent of hers allows her to accumulate far more faith from her believers than others–extremely rapidly and easily, too. Although she didn't tell me the details, my rough estimates place her efficiency at approximately ten thousand times faster than normal.'
Before transforming into 'the divine', those following the path of the Faith Receptacle would still be progressing through the cultivation stages as normal, only afterwards would they slightly diverge and experience the true benefits of this alternative way to greatness. Naturally, if it was chosen as a supplementary path, such an alteration to one's course wouldn't be necessary, but Cheong Suhyeon was planning to go all in.
And who could blame her? All of her Talents practically screamed for her to do so–she was 'made' for it, likely unprecedentedly so. Despite both her and Vigdis having temporarily elevated themselves to a state very close to 'the divine', it didn't mean that doing this was a piece of cake.
Even amongst Supreme Pillar descendants, not everyone was necessarily able to pull it off. In Vigdis's case, her runic tattoos' unique properties provided her with this ability, whereas Cheong Suhyeon completely brute-forced it via an overwhelming amount of the power of faith. Quantity–if amassed to a sufficient extent–could result in an elevation of quality as well.
'But all things considered, I'm still lagging behind far too much! For now, I'll be focusing on making it to the pinnacle of the Dawning Numen Stage, and then that of the Holos Acclimation Stage. At that point, I should still have plenty of decades to absorb some of the metals which we've gathered.'
Her own Growth-type Talent had kind of fallen to the wayside for a long time already, mostly because simply cultivating as hard as she could allowed her to make far more efficient, faster progress. Yet once she had made it to this round's limit, it would be time for her to invest heavily into this special ability of hers.
Of course, she knew that it wouldn't lead to miraculous changes on the same level as Theodore's Growth-type Talent, but it was still better than exclusively concentrating on refining her Golden Cores and Coreflame plus training to use her Divine Will.
From pretty much every world that she and their faction had passed through, they had collected anything that could be of use to her. By now, there were many warehouses and Storage Rings packed to the brim with precious and powerful metals for her to choose from.
There was no doubt that this collection would only grow in the future, as well. After all, they wouldn't be sitting still and twiddling their thumbs. Whenever new worlds cropped up on their radar, they would be scouring them for absolutely anything that they could use.
'Enough with the self-pity. Deific Ordinance Realm, here I come!'
Banishing any distracting thoughts and emotions from her mind plus heart, Vigdis closed her eyes and soon drifted off into a meditative state of self-deception.
In the following days, after he and Cheong Suhyeon had got their cravings for each other out of their systems, Theodore finally broke through to the Resolve Realm. And during the next half a year until his regularly scheduled meeting with his business partner, he made it to the Dedication Realm as well.
In the meantime, Cheong Suhyeon did the same, slightly faster than Navya, who followed soon–only a day–afterwards. As for Vigdis, she was still quite a ways away from the next breakthrough, although she was getting closer. Xie Mei and Han Junqiao, on the other hand, were firmly in the Tenacity Realm, the Resolve Realm not yet close enough to prepare themselves for it.
This time, when Eleanora and Theodore got together, both of them had discoveries to share, therefore their 'profits' were almost twice as big as usual. Still, having long since reached a point where very few could stand against either of them–or even his Subordinates–nothing especially worth mentioning occurred this time. Eleanora also didn't insist on continuing on from where they had left off.
The months passed by once again. First, Theodore achieved the Deific Ordinance Realm, then he soldiered on until he made it to the Will Sublimation Realm–which directly, painlessly and automatically brought him to the Divine Will Realm.
It was at this point that the highest possible realm of his first round's cultivation journey was reached. Needing far more Energy to advance than others, due to the size of his Dantians, the Energy concentration limit that was imposed upon this part of the event venue hit him harder than most. And there was precisely nothing that he could do about it.
He would have loved to go beyond this point, but he had to accept that he had to call it quits here–for now. Other than further improving what was already there, his days became filled with working on his Proficiencies.
Compared to regular cultivation, doing this was much harder and more time-consuming. His Existence's Foremost Calamity also couldn't provide him with any shortcuts, so he was all on his own–but that wasn't something out of the ordinary.
Throughout his illusory lives, he had spent the majority of the time completely alone, whether that be due to him being busy improving his strength and having secluded himself to achieve this purpose, or because everyone else had died. Solitude was a dear, intimate companion of his, not something to be avoided.
But before he really got started with it, there was one more matter to take care of–one which he had pushed aside since quite some time ago. Due to the excessively terrifying kinds of growth that cultivators underwent, basing all of the Standard Attributes in his Attribute Panel upon those of regular mortals wasn't something that could be done for long. Eventually, the numbers displayed would get so big that they would be replaced by formulae instead.
Admittedly, making any changes to this was primarily a quality of life decision, not exactly one that was genuinely necessary. It also truly put into perspective just how little the regular, average populace really amounted to in comparison to a real expert.
'For now, let's make the peak of the Dawning Numen Stage's Divine Will Realm the new standard.'
The instant after he had made his decision, his Status Panel appeared in front of his eyes, with all of the resulting changes clearly listed. Obviously, such paltry little calculations couldn't pose a challenge to the Heavenly Dao at all, or even waste its time.