Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

Everyone heard the laugh being as booming as it was and while the members of the Sapphirine guild smiled along with their leader's mirth, the members of the Golden crow guild frowned and their leader, Gilbert was especially annoyed.

The skill that ad been used by the members of the Sapphirine guild was made by Melinda or more accurately, she improved an existing skill with Divine energy.

During her lessons with the Empress over the past few months leading up to the Guild war, Melinda had mastered quite a bit of the divine scripts and used them in ways that the Empress of the Haron Empire had in no way expected.

First off there was the use of a script that she read out as 'Divine Cleansing'.

Basically, the Divine cleansing was a technique with which those not yet at a cultivation level where they were able to have Divine energy (Cosmic Demi-god to Cosmic god level) could cleanse their foundations using second-hand Divine energy.

The script she read had explained that Divine cleansing was a ritual through which gods favor their devotees who were not yet at the Demi-god realm and were not yet gods.

The theory of Divine cleansing claimed that there were impurities in the bodies of all cultivators who were not yet gods and rather than waiting until they were at the Demi-god realm where purification would begin in earnest, a god could provide the purification beforehand.

Through said purification, the devotee who received the favor of the god would see his/her cultivation skyrocket.

This also made it seem as though cultivation into the cosmic god realms were all about continuous cleansing of impurities and attaining even greater states of purity but Melinda was not entirely sure about the truth in that.

Anyway, she had used the techniques, or at least she attempted to use the techniques, for Divine Cleansing on herself by taking control of the bit of Divine energy that the Primeval queen of Virtue had left inside her but that had failed.

The divine energy that Sariel the Primeval Virtue queen had left inside Melinda was of a small quantity and meant to forge a connection between the Virtue queen and her potential Avatar and so it was nowhere near enough.

But Melinda never gave up.

She dug deep within herself in a 'What would Hal do?' sort of way and then she got it.

If she did not have enough Divine energy, she could just steal them.

The Divine scripts all contained Divine energy as a precaution to keep their knowledge out of the eyes of all unworthy mortals which was anyone who didn't yet have Divine energy.

Already, Melinda was breaking by using the Divine energy left inside her by Sariel to read the scripts so why not use it to trick those 'sentient' scripts into believing she was a god who was here to retrieve her Divine energy?

Why not trick them into giving her what she wanted?

So she started implementing her plans or at least she tried to implement her plans and quickly realized that she could not strip any of those scripts completely of Divine energy.

If the script had enough to spare, she could take the excess but overall there must still be divine energy remaining for the scripts to remain divine.

Also, there was a criterion for the trickery she was planning which was the comprehension of her Dao but as Melinda had already comprehended the Dominant Dao at this point, that was in no way, a setback.

And then she began...

Selecting carefully all divine scripts that had enough to spare and taking as much as she could afford to take and then using that with the Divine Cleansing technique, she improved her cultivation with such speed that would make even the monstrously speedily cultivating Hal proud.

Of course, she knew that the cultivation boost that that was just one stage at the time was merely a side effect of the Divine cleansing and that the real usefulness of the Technique would come in faster breakthroughs going forward.

Meaning that Melinda could stop cleansing and her cultivation would still be fast but Melinda had a goal which was the complete eradication of her impurities on the path to becoming Divine herself.

She knew, through the very scripts she was reading that there was a limit to Divine cleansing and that she was nearing that limit every day but she was determined to ride the wave until she reached that limit.

She told the Empress of her discovery or more accurately, the Empress figured things out which was, in truth, not hard as Melinda was practically manipulating Divine energy in the room next to hers.

In all honesty, Melinda never actually tried hard to keep it from the Empress who never acted with fanaticism for Melinda to Divine cleanse her.

Harlyn Haron (The Empress) merely sighed, 

"Ah yes, the Allure of Divine cleansing. I don't need it" she said with a smile.

"You don't need it?" Melinda found her words incredulous.

"Yes, I don't. And trust me, dear, I knew of it before you did. Not through the scripts but through the Haron family's connection to our patron god." at this point, the Empress went deep in thought for a few seconds but then she shook herself out of her thoughts and smiled,

"I have to say, your manipulation of Divine energy is bold and Sacrilegious. I love it," she said.

"What do you mean, you don't need Divine cleansing, Have you ever had it?" Melinda asked.

"Never." The Empress said with a glint in her eyes,

"Your majesty... Harlyn, what is your cultivation? Just how many stars adorn your sainthood?" Melinda asked as it suddenly dawned on her that the Empress might be much more fearsome than she had previously thought.

The Empress didn't reply and simply winked.

That action of hers made Melinda realize that not only was the Empress more fearsome than she had previously thought, but there was also probably no one in the Haron Empire who knew the exact date of her might.

Anyway, back to the case at hand,

While she was cleansing her foundation of impurities, Melinda also used the Divine energy to improve on blasting skills but they were more of a one-use situation.

To use a skill that has a hint of Divine energy within it, then the one using it has to have Divine energy within them.

The reason normal skills were open for use for all cultivators was that all cultivators had Cosmic energy.

When Melinda gave specific members of her guild these skills, she imparted it to them mentally and passed the Divine energy they would need to make the skills work into them as well.

And then she trusted Suri to make the right call on when was perfect timing for the skills to be used.

Seeing it catch the members of the Golden crow guild by surprise was well worth it. Almost as worth it as it was to reinforce the trust her members had in her.

While she had never promised powerful, special skills, she had always promised them that their smaller numbers that were exactly what the Sapphirine guild members wanted would not make them weaker than larger guilds which were what had been hard for them to believe was possible.

It was looking more than possible now.

Gilbert clenched his fists and directed his face towards where Melinda's voice had come from and he yelled at her,

"You are just going to hide inside that building? You won't even show your face? Just how cowardly can you be?"

Melinda rolled eyes before she said,

"I told you already. You are weak. If we face each other, the result will be just like last time. You do remember last time right?"

Gibert's face flushed with embarrassment but he recovered quickly to sneer,

"You had surprise on your side last time. Things won't be the same this time. I am ready. I will not underestimate you" he said.

Since the incident the last time he was on the stage with Melinda, rumors had spread, and while the information was two and distinct of each other they never painted him in a good light.

One rumor stated that Melinda had the strength to rival even the strongest guild leader as it had taken only one hand on Gilbert Doe's shoulder to send the Golden crow guild leader to his knees.

This rumor retained that Gilbert was powerful but just not as powerful as the new student who was just one year into her Academy years.

The other rumor, which had been propagated by the other Guild leaders, stated that Melinda's dominance over Gilbert Doe was not a sign of her prowess but a sign that Gilbert was never deserving of being a Guild leader.

The first was still acceptable but Gilbert didn't wish to go by any of the labels that made it sound like Melinda was better than him.

He had spent a majority of the following days after the incident quelling a revolution within his guild. A revolution that painted him weak and not fit to lead.

He wanted to set the record straight.

Melinda stepped out of the headquarters building...

Her calf-length black hair braided and her golden eyes glinting with malevolence. She had her sword cosmic Armament in hand and the golden veins on the white sword were as clear as ever.

She looked beautiful. 

There was nothing imperfect about her looks that were glorious from head to toe.

Her smile was so enchanting and her sauntering walk was wonderful to behold.

And when she spoke, her voice sounded like music to the ears of all who heard,

"If we face-off, Gilbert, I will crush you"