Ascension of the last Celestial

As the two royal families made their way away from the teleportation platform and into the buildings hanging at the side of the massive tree, Valerian turned his head to the side and locked eyes with the elven crown prince, whose intense gaze he had felt since they arrived.

’What’s his problem? Don’t tell me he’s dissatisfied I’m here.’

Valerian broke the eye contact and continued his calm walk with his family.

The surroundings were made of white marble with root-like engravings on them. As they made their way through a corridor that was built directly into the bark of the tree, Valerian turned to his right and looked outside one of the windows.

What he saw was a marvelous sight. They were currently extremely high above the ground, and from their point, he could see other buildings out of the same white marble built on the gigantic branches of the tree. Each of these branches could hold hundreds of houses, with some of the higher branches holding massive buildings that looked way more luxurious than any of the other ones.

The different branches were connected with walkways and stairs made from white marble. All around these houses, Valerian could see elves living their day-to-day lives, seemingly undisturbed by the sheer scale of the tree and the height.

As they made their way to the royal palace of the elves, which resided at the top of the tree, Valerian put his hands leisurely behind his back and enjoyed the view of the passing windows. His mostly black clothes created a striking contrast with the white marble that seemingly made up almost every building.

As for his clothes, they were actually the reason why he took so long to get ready. Because after his experiments with his new weapon, Twilight, and the discovery that it could change into any shape, Valerian decided to try something different.

When the maids left his room for him to get dressed, he immediately threw away the clothes they prepared for him and instead called upon Twilight. After that, it was a long and grueling process of forming his "weapon" into the stylish clothes he is wearing now. But it was worth the effort, because now everything he wore was made of the material with the highest mana conductivity, meaning that any reinforcement with mana would work even better than before, giving him an extra layer of protection at any given moment.

Another thing he realized was that manipulating an object that already existed was easier and faster than summoning a new one, so turning one of his sleeves into a sword would be faster than conjuring a new one, making his entire body battle-ready at all times.

As Valerian was lost in his thoughts about the applications of Twilight, Helias and Freya were engaging in light conversation on the walk.

"I don’t mean to be rude, but is it possible we could say our congratulations to the princess before the party starts?" Freya asked the elven empress, Avelia, who at the mention of her daughter let out a sigh that was entirely unbecoming of an empress. But Freya and Helias didn’t seem to mind, as they also had a child that didn’t want to leave the house or meet other people.

"To be honest, I don’t know. She’s always holed up in her room reading books or working on some new spell."

The princess of the elven empire is a genius, a true genius. As the first person to be born that is [Loved by Mana] since Helias, paired with her brilliant mind, she spends almost all her time in her room studying magic and working on new spells she found an interest in.

And her parents couldn’t really force her to leave her room and engage with high society. Since she has an older brother who will take over the empire after her parents, she has no obligation to attend any formal meetings. Additionally, all the spells she created on a whim helped the elves better their quality of life. As an example, all the white marble that seemed to make up every building was created through an earth spell to turn regular stone into a stronger, more magic-resistant marble, and the elven princess created that spell while researching an entirely different topic.

"That’s a shame. I have only heard rumors about her magical abilities and beauty."

At the praise of the magical prowess and beauty of her daughter, Avelia had a proud smirk on her lips. "Indeed, she takes after her mother."

Alderon, the elven emperor, chimed in, causing Avelia’s smirk to widen.

"Maybe she would be interested to meet our Valerian. He himself is an extraordinary genius, unlike anyone I have ever seen. It hurts my pride, but even I wouldn’t be able to keep up with his progress if we were the same age," Helias spoke, causing all eyes to land on Valerian, who was still engrossed in his thoughts about Twilight. Sensing all the gazes on him, Valerian looked up and saw the two royal families looking straight at him.

"What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?"

At this question, Alderon shook his head. "No, you didn’t, Prince Valerian. If you don’t mind my question, could you share with us your rank?"

Even though he was cringing slightly at the formal title, Valerian complied. "I recently reached S-Rank."

Silence filled the corridor of white marble. Even the eyes of the elven crown prince widened, showing a reaction for the first time.

"And how old are you, if I can ask?"

"Of course you can ask. I turned 15 a few days ago."

The same silence took over.

"Marvelous." That was the only word that left the elven emperor at the insane statement. "I will ask her if she would be interested to meet someone who is even more talented than her."

"Sure." Shrugging his shoulders, Valerian agreed to the possible meeting with the elven princess.

After that, they continued their walk, but the entire atmosphere changed. Now it seemed a bit weighed down by the fact that the royal family of the Solaria Kingdom managed to take a future powerhouse into their family that even surpassed their own.

’I really got better at that. Hah, I’m just the greatest, I guess.’

The reason Valerian was praising himself like a full-blown narcissist is because the elven royals weren’t able to feel any abnormality with the mana in the atmosphere or feel his rank. When Valerian was younger, the mana in the atmosphere would naturally act differently when he was around; it would gravitate towards him and reflect his emotions. But after the incident at the orphanage, he was an emotional wreck. Heavy emotions like grief, anger, sadness, and guilt would fill his heart, and his surroundings would reflect that.

When he remembered the fire that burned the building down, the temperature would rise to such a high degree that any water around him would evaporate, stone would melt, and flowers would catch on fire. When the crushing loneliness would overcome him, the gravity would increase, causing everyone around him to fall to their knees, and the weaker servants most of the time had to be taken to the royal healer since their knees and spines would be crushed by the increase in gravity.

So, one of the first things he did was to learn to control his emotions in such a way that the mana wouldn’t cause his surroundings to be destroyed. After years of effort, he managed to separate his emotions from the surrounding mana while being able to connect them at will if needed. Along with that, another thing he learned was to suppress his rank so that no one can feel it. When he’s in the palace back home, he never really suppressed it, seeing no reason to, so he used this opportunity to test how well it works against stronger beings.

Finally, after a walk that was way too long—one that Valerian could have skipped entirely thanks to his space affinity—they arrived at the very top of the oversized tree.

And standing in front of them was a castle so large it was unreal to think it existed on a tree. It was about the size of the Solaria palace, which was already way too big.

When they reached the front gates, instead of walking all the way to some guest room, Valerian couldn’t take it anymore and sent his mana outside his body. He scanned the entire castle in seconds. When he found what seemed to be the throne room, he sent space mana outside his body, folding and bending it beneath his will.

"I hope the throne room is okay."

Before the others could react, reality twisted around them and they appeared in a massive hall with a silver throne at the end. Unsurprisingly, everything was made of white marble.

As everyone turned to Valerian, he saw the helpless faces of his parents and the slightly irritated faces of the elven pair, while the crown prince just stood there, and the interest in his eyes just kept increasing.

"I apologize if it was rude to teleport everyone without asking, but I just can’t walk anymore. Really, why does every castle need to be so big?"

At his complaint, both elven rulers just sighed.

"He’s just like her..."

"Is every genius like that?"

Apparently, his action reminded them of their own daughter.

"No matter. Let’s just go to the tearoom and sit down." Waving his hand, the elven emperor channeled his own mana, and they arrived in the tearoom. Unlike Valerian’s clean teleportation, this one caused Elena to get slightly nauseous. Valerian looked at the elven emperor with surprised eyes, who looked back at him with a smirk.

"What? Do you think you are the only one that can use space magic? But I have to admit, your use of it is more refined."

Clapping his hands, maids with freshly brewed tea and freshly baked pastries appeared.