Rise of the Cosmic_Emperor

While Hal cringed in his mind at Gregory's stupid attempt at false familiarity, he smiled at this father of his and ascended the stairs to stand before him.

"Father" he said with a false grin a well and spread his arms as though to give Gregory a hug.

The Payne Patriarch smirked in return as he chuckled at Hal's gullibility, after all, why else would he come here alone with no backup if he did not believe Gregory was truly all about making peace.

He spread his arms to receive the hug when Hal simply pushed him aside and walked into the Estate main building.

Leaving Gregory hanging.

'Alright then' Gregory thought and forced a smile as he followed after Hal who now seemed to be exploring the Estate Halls.

With his arms still spread, he twirled in the building as though he were reminiscing his time there.

Something Gregory knew was impossible.

Another explanation for what Hal was doing was that he was getting a feel of what would one day soon be his.

If that was so, then Gregory felt justified to call him a dreaming idiot.

"So, you called me here to make peace so I reckon you prepared refreshments." Hal said and at that time, Burt came around the corner.

He bowed first to Gregory and then gave a short curt bow to Hal. Just as would be expected of someone playing along with Gregory's scheme when they both did not agree with it and hated Hal to the bones.

"All is ready" he said and Gregory clapped his hands with a smile.

"That's good. Come on Son, right this way" he said and led the way to a cozy dining center that was intimately for the two of them.

Hal followed behind him with his ever-present false smile that put Gregory at ease, because, unlike Gregory, Hal's smile was flawless and looked perfectly genuine.

The little table in the intimate dining Hall was laden with sumptuous meals and delicacies. The meat of Demon beasts that were good for the body of a cultivator were also very abundant.

Hal sat at the chair and without waiting for Gregory to say anything, he made sure the food was clean of poison with his Astral sense and then he dug in.

While Hal's eating habits were quite refined, the fact that he did more wait for the man of the house, his father no less, was an act of disrespect.

Even then, Gregory forced himself to keep smiling, 

"Well, dig in, My Son. All this was prepared just for you. Hahaha" he laughed boisterously and pulled a few dishes to himself.

Hal acted as though he had not heard him.

A few minutes passed in silence that was only broken by the occasional clinking of cutlery against plate and then Gregory broke the quiet, 

"So listen, Son. A lot has happened in the last few months. A lot of it my fault and quite a few of it were your faults too" he said.

Hal said nothing and continued to munch down delicacies.

Gregory waited for a while but continued when he noticed Hal was not going to say anything, 

"There has been too much Bloodshed in this family..." He said but Hal interrupted.

"There's only been one death" he corrected.

"Well, yes. But your Brother still counts as too much" Gregory said with an edge in his voice as he referred to Rad.

Hal chuckled, 

"No, I don't think so. As far as bloodshed goes, I don't think Rad was important enough to count"

Gregory became indignant, 

"He was your brother!" He exclaimed.

Hal smirked, 

"Are you sure?" He asked.

Gregory narrowed his eyes and took a deep calming breath, 

"Hal, I'm trying to let bygones be bygones" he said.

'Damn, he's so bad at lying, I could kill myself' Hal cringed.

"If that means I have to act like I did not enjoy killing that idiot, then I don't want bygones to be bygones" He told Gregory.

Gregory shook his head as he attempted to adopt the poise of a respectable elder, 

"You are too focused on the past. You ignore that killing Rad is why you now have Lillian gunning for your life. 

I want to mend fences but all I can see in your eyes is the desire to tear down everything I've built. I don't know how resourceful you are now but I'm sure very, does not cover it.

Even then, tearing down all my hard work is but a pipe dream. Why not come back home and let us work on leaving the past in the past and focusing on the future?"

Hal whistled in his mind,

'Okay, I take it back. This dude is good'

'I'll say. It's almost as though he's painting an image with his words' Grimoire agreed.

Gregory continued, 

"Also, I can finally tell you about your mother and you can also see that she's the one that's really guilty of tearing this family apart"

Hal chuckled at Gregory's attempt to make someone else the scapegoat and make himself clean in the process, 

"Wow, Greggy. You've really touched me with your words" Hal said with a sigh.

Gregory smiled but Hal was not done, 

"But I don't want to hear anything right now. Also, I think it would be a shame for you to stretch a hand of friendship to me without having all the facts." Hal stood from his seat, 

"Come on, there is something you need to see" 

Gregory looked confused but stood to his feet as Hal walked out of the Main building to approach a carriage driven by Castor and was waiting for him in front of the gate.

"Hop in" he said.

Gregory looked skeptical and chanced a glance at Burt who was still following behind him.

Hal sighed, 

"Of course, Burt can come"

Even after saying that, Gregory was still cautious.

"I can't believe you are this scared. Do you want us to make peace or not?" Hal said with impatience.

"I'm not scared of anything" Gregory said with confidence and boarded the carriage. He was still very confident in the fact that at the very least, Hal knew nothing about his true intentions.

Once all three were inside, the Carriage trudged along at a steady pace that was not too slow or too fast. Soon they were getting well past the high-end city locations and heading to the slums.

Then they were past the slums and leading towards a location most would scoff at and was known to be mostly uninhabited. Not even by the dregs of society.

But Gregory recognized this location and when the carriage began to ride up a steady slope and heading to a vantage point, there was no longer any doubt.

Quickly, he spread his senses out of the carriage and it confirmed it.

They were heading to the location where his true elites were training.

Then the carriage stopped and Hal alighted first. When Burt and Gregory came out of the carriage as well, they found that they were encased in an opaque Dome of Royal blue Astral energy.

They soon realized that the Dome not only blocked them from seeing Outside of it they could also not hear outside of it either. Gregory spread his senses and realized it also could not go past the Dome.

"What is the meaning of this?" He demanded.

Hal waved his hand up and down as though to placate him, 

"Relax. I spent a lot of time on this. The least you could do is let me have my big reveal.

So you said we should let the past remain the past and focus on the future but I'm sorry, I cannot do that, 'Father'.

I made a promise to... myself and I cannot and will not break it."

Gregory suddenly had a bad feeling. This location along with this Dome that did not let him know what was happening...

"What promise?" He asked in a careful voice.

Hal smiled cruelly, 

"See for yourself" he said and...

*Snap*

...with a snap of his fingers, the Dome became transparent.

Gregory sped to the boundary of the Dome and pressed his hands against it to look down at the valley where his elites were.

Other than two ladies who he could make out as Melinda (now golden-eyed) and the traitor maid Rita, everyone else he could make out in the crowd were his men.

So why...

Why...

Why were they killing each other?!!!

...

Let's back up to when Hal left the Mansion for Payne Estate and Rita and Melinda watched him leave. The latter did so with a pout.

Rita looked down at the map in her hands which Hal had given to them both so that they could find out where the Elites were and prepare things ahead.

"Let's go" Rita said and the two left for the location.

Once they arrived, they had to admit that Gregory could not have picked a better spot and he was a brilliant man to move his best men to this location.

All the men were training dedicatedly. Not just in cultivation but they were also honing their skills in hand-to-hand combat. With those at the Cosmic Armament Realm training with their Armaments.

With their incredible security, they caught Melinda and Rita quickly and led them into the hideout. As the two had not resisted, they had not been bound.

Not to mention, they were both great beauties.

Melinda and Rita were not worried as they had not really tried that hard to sneak in.

This was good enough.

"What are you doing here?" Asked one of them who seemed to be the leader and released his pressure to show he was at the Mid-stage of the Cosmic Armament Realm.

Melinda smiled sweetly, 

"We bring news"

The leader looked confused, 

"What news? Who are you?"

Rita smiled widely, 

"Consider us two ladies with your best interest at heart, also,

You have traitors mixed in with your squad"