Liara blushed suddenly when she saw the playful look on Noah's face.

The heat rushed to her cheeks, a sensation she hadn't felt in her life.

In that brief moment of eye contact, she realized she had moved far too close, well within the personal space of a man she had just met.

She immediately took several steps back, making some distance between them, and smoothed her shimmering silken robes to compose herself like the queen she was.

"That's right," she said, her voice regaining its steady, melodic tone. "The human race is existentially very weak. Though your potential is vast, your beginning is very far from ours. A Phoenix is born from fire and divinity; a human is born from clay and struggle."

She paced slightly in the garden, her eyes tracking the puppy on Noah's shoulder.

"Not only that, the greed of the human race is insatiable. I have met countless humans who tried to sneak into our empire just to seek resources or steal our feathers. And you betray your own kind easily. But I am getting a very different feeling from you. Your demeanor is that of a ruler. You are not afraid of my presence, whereas the Nova Emperor might have started groveling in front of me right now."

Noah listened patiently.

As she spoke the last few words, the air in the garden grew heavy.

The playful light in his eyes didn't vanish, but it deepened into something ancient and cold.

"Well, you are right about some points," Noah said calmly. "Such as the fact that I am a ruler and I am certainly not afraid of you. But as for the character judgment of humanity, you have no right to speak on it."

"You have seen only the desperate and the broken."

"I will be the ultimate ruler of the human race and eventually every race. Under my rule, no one will see those things you mentioned again. There will be no need for greed when there is abundance, and no need for betrayal when there is strength."

As he finished speaking, his aura completely changed.

He shifted from a humble host petting a dog to a terrifying ruler who stood above the heavens.

His simple robe began to float as if caught in an invisible updraft.

The laws of the world seemed to bend toward him, acknowledging their master.

Liara gasped, taking several involuntary steps back.

Her golden wings instinctively tried to manifest to protect her, but the pressure was so immense they couldn't even unfurl.

She felt small.

For the first time in her life, the "True Phoenix" felt like a common bird in the presence of a storm.

She looked at him, terrified by the weight of his soul, yet she couldn't help but notice how dignified and majestic he appeared.

He didn't look like a tyrant.

He looked like the inevitable end of all things.

Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the crushing aura vanished.

Noah offered her a small, polite smile.

"Uh! I am sorry for that," Noah said, his voice back to its warm, breezy tone. "Please go to the guest room and take some rest. Food will be ready in an hour."

Liara blinked, her heart still hammering against her ribs.

She took a deep breath, trying to steady her shaking hands.

"Umm, thanks. But you know, we don't really need food at our level of cultivation. We thrive on essence."

"It is just a basic courtesy of our human race," Noah said with a chuckle. "And besides, my mother is cooking. It would be a waste to miss it."

Confused but strangely intrigued, Liara nodded.

She signaled to her guards and maids, who were standing like statues of ice, unable to even breathe.

They followed her into the Sorus estate, guided by a polite servant.

Once they entered the guest suite, a magnificent area decorated with rare woods and calming incense, the captain of the guard immediately fell to her knees.

Her eyes were wide, her pupils dilated with lingering shock.

"Your Majesty... how is this possible?" the captain whispered, her voice cracking. "I don't understand. How can his aura be so suffocating? It was like I was looking at a tremendous wave in the ocean while standing there as a tiny ant. He is just a human!"

Liara sat on the edge of the large, comfortable bed.

She didn't look angry or insulted.

Instead, she had a strange, dreamy smile on her face.

"Who knows? But I can sense something amazing is going to happen in this tournament. He isn't just a king, Captain. He is something else entirely."

As soon as the guards left the inner room to take their posts, Liara's royal dignity crumbled.

She fell back onto the soft bed, grabbing a silk pillow and curling up with it like a teenage girl who had just seen her crush.

She kicked her feet slightly, her mind replaying the way Noah had looked at her.

The "Spring of Love" had finally arrived in the heart of the eternal Phoenix.

She had fallen, quite literally, for a human.

An hour later, a servant knocked on the door.

"Her Majesty is invited to the dining hall."

Liara composed herself, checking her reflection in a mirror of polished silver.

She walked to the hall, expecting a stiff, formal banquet.

Instead, she found a cozy room where a kind-looking woman was setting plates on a wooden table.

"You must be the Phoenix Queen!" Noah's mother, Elena, said with a bright smile. "Come, sit. Noah told me we had a special guest. I hope you like spicy chicken, oh, dear, that was a poor choice of words, wasn't it?"

Liara laughed softly, feeling the tension leave her body.

"It's quite alright, Elena."

The meal was a revelation.

Even though Liara didn't need the calories, the flavors were unlike anything she had tasted in the high dimensional planes.

It wasn't just the salt or the spices; it was the "warmth" of a home.

Noah sat across from her, eating casually, looking like a normal young man once again.

As the meal ended, Liara looked at Elena.

"This was wonderful. Honestly, I've spent my life surrounded by priests and warriors. I've never seen how... a home works."

She turned to Noah.

"I've decided. I want to stay here in this house instead of a hotel. And I want to learn how to cook from your mother."

Noah paused, a piece of fruit halfway to his mouth.

He looked at his mother, who seemed delighted at the prospect of teaching a queen, and then back at Liara.

"If you don't mind the noise and the lack of royal servants, I have no problem with it. Stay as long as you like."

The next twenty five days were a blur of activity and rising tension across the universe.

While Liara spent her mornings in the kitchen with Elena and her afternoons watching Noah from a distance, the rest of Aetherion was transforming.

The massive arena Noah had carved out was now complete, a shimmering bowl of diamond hard rock that could withstand the collapse of a star.

As the final day approached, the void around Aetherion began to scream with the arrival of powerful beings.

The Dragon Race arrived first.

They didn't send a ship; they flew through the void in their true forms, massive serpents of gold, black, and red that blocked out the suns of the local system.

Their roars shook the very foundations of the planet's barrier.

The Spirit Race followed, appearing as silhouettes of pure light, riding on clouds of condensed mana.

They looked down on the planet with cold, judgmental eyes, waiting to see the "human upstart" fall.

Even the Nova Emperor arrived, looking pale and exhausted.

He had spent the last few weeks trying to balance the demands of the ancient races while secretly praying that Noah wouldn't kill him for his previous cowardice.

On the morning of the ceremony, Noah stood on the balcony of the Sorus estate.

Behind him stood his twelve generals.

The change in them was staggering.

Thanks to the Enlightenment Spirit Pills and Noah's personal guidance, each of them had shed their old limits.

They stood there, twelve pillars of power, each having broken through to the Half Step Transcended Realm.

In any other empire, one such being would be a god.

Here, they were merely Noah's subordinates.

Noah himself felt the Cube in his soul vibrating with immense power.

In these twenty five days, he hadn't just watched over the city.

He had delved deep into the fundamental codes of existence.

He had now comprehended over 2000 Laws.

"The guests are here,your majestry," William whispered, his voice vibrating with newfound power.

Noah looked out at the horizon, where the gold of the Dragons and the light of the Spirits met the dark blue of the Aetherion sky.

The tournament that would decide the fate of all races was about to begin.

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