Chapter 221 In-laws - End
Here's the revised passage:
Everyone watched with bated breath as the fire enveloped Portia's lifeless body, which was in pristine condition for some reason. However, minutes passed, and the fire had made little progress in burning her to slag for the nirvana to begin, which left everyone surprised.
"What's… going on?" Dante asked with confusion.
As someone who frequented the Magus World and even partook in their power system, he knew that the Nirvana Fire was not weak and did not know failure. It was a rule-type power with absolute authority, the equivalent of a master ball in the Pokemon world.
"Uhh… well, it might be that mom's body is too strong so even the phoenix fire is having a hard time, especially since the quantity is so small," Beatrice explained with a strange expression.
Dante turned to the other three and saw that they had expressions of expectancy, which made him wonder just how high the numerical values for Portia were. Beatrice saw his confusion and came to stand beside him with a reassuring smile.
"Mom's SDI cannot easily be calculated, but it is at least 10 times mine at my peak," Beatrice stated, which shocked Dante.
When Beatrice said 'at her peak', she meant with Bionics and Psionics activated, which was 2 million! So Portia's base level started from 20 million in all fields??? Then how much stronger would she be with Bionic and Psionics?!
How could such a woman even have been killed? Even if she stood there, antimatter weapons should have… okay no, cough. No matter the SDI, anti-matter was anti-matter. It was also a rule-based substance that simply erased matter.
But everything else should be useless against her, even dark matter!
"Don't make the mistake of thinking mom was invincible. Firstly, at her level, she cannot use Bionics or Psionics because her body destroys them through rejection. Not to mention there is nothing that our current level of technology can do to boost such senseless power," Beatrice explained.
It seemed that because she knew that her mother was about to be revived, she was far more comfortable talking about her. Her revelations also made sense because Dante began to feel the strain the level 1 student bionics were having in boosting his stats 10 times.
There was only so much 'potential' nanites could squeeze out of the body and mind to multiply your ability when such ability goes beyond conventional limits. Whether it was Beatrice, Portia, or Dante, they could never have gotten here naturally or through any evolutionary method.
Their current senselessly high stats were facilitated by superpowers, an esoteric existence that technology could not understand nor replicate. Everyone with stats above 500 in the universe had such stats because of superpowers and nothing else.
"And secondly, she had a hard time acquiring enough energy to sustain her daily life. If she didn't have her gluttony superpower, mom would likely have been crippled permanently," Beatrice added as she glanced at her mother in the tank.
Dante nodded in agreement. Even at his mere 2000 in all fields, he was dealing with energy problems every day. If it wasn't for Gluttonous Inferno greatly relieving his problem, he didn't know how he would survive at higher levels and might not even dare to continue raising his stats.
It was great in theory, wasn't it, to be able to endlessly grow your power? However, being able to grow one's power endlessly with no cost was only possible in fiction and fantasy. Unfortunately, due to the presence of science in the Eternal Universe, there were going to be all sorts of rules and limitations that held one back.
Sheesh, the amount of energy that Portia must consume in order to take one breath must be enough to power a level 1 civilization for years. Thinking about it like this really put into perspective how crazy superpowers were in that they could allow someone to reach this level and maintain a humanoid form as well as human body functions.
"I've been meaning to ask… did you guys anticipate resurrecting your mother?" Dante leaned toward Beatrice as he asked what bothered him.
"Not exactly, but we did feel like something along those lines might happen given her situation," Beatrice answered slowly.
Beatrice glanced at Dante askance. "You must be asking because you're wondering why we put her in a cultivation pod instead of burying or cremating her, right?"
Dante nodded without shame because that was truly what he was wondering. He found it weird that they had her in such a state when he expected there to be a coffin or something.
Beatrice shrugged helplessly. "You think we didn't try? Mom may have lost her life but her body is still the same as it was. No fire we have in this world can melt her flesh, and burying her would be a waste since she cannot decompose."
Dante was left speechless because he should have obviously realized this. With his mother-in-law's stats, how could her cells be damaged by anything other than anti-matter? And using anti-matter on her corpse seemed unnecessary, so why not just preserve it?
Who knew, with such strong vitality and cell activity, she might just wake up one day once her body accumulated enough energy!
But then, would that person really be Portia Portinari or just a vessel with her memories?
Anyway, the nirvana fire would not have that problem. Even if Portia's soul was destroyed thoroughly by some other means, the nirvana fire would drag it from the depths of nonexistence and revitalize it.
And that was the least of its effects. Depending on Portia's own strength and willpower, she might end up undergoing true nirvana and doubling her already potent SDI up to nine times.
At that point, her strength might be enough to punch holes in time-space. However, even her current body was taking the phoenix fire too long to melt, so it was unlikely that she would be able to use it to ascend further.
Not to mention… cough cough… there might be requirements for energy in terms of not only reviving her once but undergoing nirvana.
For a normal weakling, the energy within this small bit of flame was enough to revive them 900 times.
But this woman…
The group remained standing for an hour, but the fire barely made any progress. It was clear that their dramatic expectation of Portia coming to life right away was unrealistic, making the faces of everyone constipated.
So… to stand here diligently for the remaining time or to leave and do their own things?
Augeus closed his eyes thoughtfully and then turned to the rest. "Zestinia, Dante, and Bea, you guys leave me here with my love. I will monitor her progress and keep you posted."
Beatrice was surprised. "Papa, are you sure? I also want to wait for mom."
Augeus shook his head with a bitter smile. "That won't be possible, and you know it. I am only a clan head and can go missing for months on end as you are the true power of our clan."
"But not only does young Dante need to be at school for the various tests and the Zero Gate business, you are an admiral and need to be present at all times for the Prime Human Council's directives."
Beatrice wrung her lips but could not refute. She had already squeezedher privileges dry by covering for Dante's repeated absences to the Prime Human Council's summons.
If she began to 'desert' her post, it could spell real trouble for her and the entire clan. Just because they were wary of her did not mean that they would stand for outright insubordination.
"Master Augeus, are you sure?" Aunty Zest asked with hesitation.
Normally, she never questioned Augeus' orders, but this time she couldn't help but ask.
Seeing her like this, Augeus rather laughed and seemed to be relieved. "Yes, I can stay here and gaze at my beloved, making sure everything goes well. The rest of you have other tasks to perform, so don't worry about it."
After a bit more persuading, Dante led Beatrice and Aunty Zest out, the two women having conflicted expressions on their faces. They felt as if they had betrayed Portia somehow, but Dante understood Augeus' decision.
Since this revival would take time, the most crucial thing was to stabilize the outside world and make them feel like nothing special was happening.
After all, the resurrection process could be interfered with, and if so, he would have nowhere to cry to if an enemy faction detected something, since Dante and Beatrice disappearing for a long while after publicly visiting the clan ancestral plane was definitely strange.
Don't forget, they all thought the revival would be instant, so Beatrice literally brought the government-issued dreadnought over.
In the end, Beatrice and Dante left the ancestral plane, the woman herself needing a lot of comforting from Dante, as there was inevitably a bit of disappointment at not getting to reunite with her mother on the spot.
Dante could definitely understand how she felt to some extent, so he decided to spend another week with her.
Meanwhile, his avatar had already entered the second mock exam for the past seven days and caused a serious uproar with endless consequences not seen before since the universe became civilized…
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