Protogene Assimilation

The glaring light of the sun peered through the only window that hung at the top of a very small room. It was totally cramped in the room with what little space the room contained being occupied by an exaggeratingly large and obscene bed. Apart from this bed, there was only a single table and chair, as well as a small closet that looked like it could only contain a few items of clothing.

Everywhere in the room, loose pieces of clothing could be seen strewn all over on the floor or hanging n the arms of the chair and bed or in the hidden corners of the room. Most of these clothes were quite casual in design and could even be called a little skimpy. They obviously belonged to women and going by the designs of the clothes, only the most unsavory of women would wear something like that.

Apart from those types of clothing, there was only a single pair of men's leather boots that lay beside the bed that gave the room a certain kind of ambiance.

This was the Ndlovu Empire, the sovereign empire of the grand filament upper realm, one of the countless powerful upper realms that inhabited the known universe. The Ndlovu empire held reign over the entire upper realms and its thousands of star clusters and even in the entire known universe, they were a powerful force to be reckoned with.

Right now, this was the capital of the entire Ndlovu empire, planet Ndlovu, which was located at the heart of the grand filament upper realm.

After thousands of years of universal war known as the great desolation war, the ruling family of the Ndlovu empire, the Ndlovu royal family had finally vanquished all of its enemies, uprooting them from their homes worlds and seizing all their territories, and finally establishing their capital in the center of the upper realm until they had finally established a dynasty that had ruled unchallenged in the grand filament upper realm for thousands of years.

Right now, with the Ndlovu royal family as the core of the whole empire, many powerful factions and races had sworn loyalty to them to become the new generation nobles of the current dynasty ruling the upper realm together.

Although the Ndlovu royal family was not the oldest force in the universe, with the support of the resources of an entire upper realm that was in their full control, they were still a force to be reckoned with in the universe.

Right now, this small and cramped room was located in the vacation home of one of the noble families under the ruling of the Ndlovu empire.

The room was located on the basement floor of the entire castle complex and there was only one window at the top of the room through which the sunlight and a bit of fresh air could enter.

This vacation home was located in a very large city whose territory encompassed the surrounding 500 kilometers around. Such a large city was only but one of the many territories belonging to the Valerian noble family and it belonged to the eldest daughter of the noble family.

As the capital of the Ndlovu family, it was expected that not just any ordinary noble family qualified to own any territory on the whole planet, especially not one as large as this. Not to forget that this was only one of the territories under the Valerian noble family that belonged to the eldest daughter. This goes a long way to show just how powerful the Valerian noble family was and the kind of status they held in the entire Ndlovu empire.

Ironically, as much as the Valerian noble family was very powerful, it was actually a relatively new family that had only recently come into power for only twenty years.

Actually, the Valerian noble family had been just one of the many noble families that existed in the Ndlovu empire and they had been very low in status. If one were to compare them to the medieval era's system of ranking nobles, they would at most be ranked as a baron family and the poorest of barons at that.

Naturally, this kind of family did not have what it takes to occupy any territory in the capital of the Ndlovu empire. As a destitute baron noble family, they did not even have a single star system to call their territory, and they were only qualified to own a single planet as their territory. The only advantage that the valerian noble family had then been that the planet they controlled was a valuable resource planet that was relatively close to the capital of the Ndlovu empire.

Come to think of it, this was actually one of the reasons that had led to the rise of the valerian noble family, causing them to be the powerful family that they were now. As for what really led to the rise of the Valerian family, it had a lot to do with the oldest daughter of the current head of the Valerian family and a notorious criminal that had terrorized the Ndlovu empire twenty years ago.

As one of the few human empires that held control over an entire upper realm, the Ndlovu empire was run by powerful bloodline warriors and awakeners. In the Ndlovu empire, bloodline was everything, and it was only by having a powerful bloodline that one could even qualify to gain a noble status. That and performing great meritious service to the empire.

As a noble family, even if they were the poorest of them, the Valerian family was naturally a family that possessed a powerful bloodline. It was said that the Valerian family could be traced all the way back to the era of the great desolate war and that the patriarch of the Valerian family had even fought side by side with the founder of the Ndlovu empire.

Nobody knew exactly how accurate those legends were since nobody remembered but the fact that the Valerian family could hold a precious resource planet so close to the empire's capital even though they were so poor and destitute proved that there may have been some truth to the legends.

Over the years since the Valerian family had been in existence, other, more powerful noble families had coveted their planet, but for some reason, nobody had been able to snatch it from their hands. Still, if the Valerian family wanted to rise out of their previous position, it was clear that they needed more than just a valuable resource planet.

The current head of the valerian family was an ambitious man, and he was not willing to stay in his previous station any longer. He wished to fulfill the dreams of all the previous family heads before him and move his family's status upwards in the hierarchy of the empire.

Finally, his chance came when his eldest daughter was born a long time ago.

As a very old noble family, the bloodline of the Valerian family had been diluted until it became very thin, just barely meeting the requirements needed to maintain their status as a noble family. If not, they would have long been devoured by their enemies a long time ago. All that changed when the third child of the current head and his eldest daughter were born.

On that day, a massive phenomenon had appeared over the planet of the Valerian family.

It was the phantom of a mighty Valerian divine bird, which was the symbol of the Valerian noble family and from where their family had inherited their bloodline. The might of the phenomenon had been enough to shock the entire planet and the surrounding stars in the nearby galaxy.

After testing, it was proven that the bloodline of the eldest daughter was the purest ever recorded in the history of their family, with its purity even reaching the level of that of the royal family of the empire. Naturally, this news delighted the current head of the family, but at the same time, he was also worried.

On the one hand, the head of the family was happy because he saw this as the chance for him and his family to finally rise up.

With his daughter being born with such a pure bloodline, all he needed to do was wait for her to grow up, and she would naturally lead their family to greatness.

At the same time, the head of the family feared what his enemies would do should they find out about his daughter's pure bloodline.

Although the universe had a semblance of order, it was still a chaotic void where the weak were preyed upon by the strong. Without sufficient strength to protect his family, the head of the family feared that his daughter would be assassinated before she had the time to grow.

Because of this, although it pained him to do so, he hid his daughter away and prevented her from seeing the light of day. Fortunately, at the time she was born and the phantom of the divine Valerian bird appeared, it had caused a hidden vein of supreme minerals to be uprooted making it easy for the head of the family to disguise his daughter's birth therefore keeping her hidden and safe. It would only be years later, on a particular occasion, that she would once again appear in the open spreading shock to the whole Ndlovu empire.

Still, apart from this, there was one more critical element that led to the rise of the valerian noble family. This element was an incident that had taken place twenty years ago.

More than twenty years ago, the entire Ndlovu empire had been taken by storm when a notorious rapist had appeared.

For years, this rapist had run rampant in the territories of the Ndlovu empire, targeting the women of every noble family above fifteen years of age and raping them. Nobody knew why the rapist targeted only women belonging to noble families, but for a long time, none of them had been spared.

This had gone on for so long that the legends of the rapist had spread throughout the grand filament upper realm and even to other nearby upper realms. But there was something that had caused this incident to be widely talked about. That was when the rapist had targeted the women of the royal family and had even attempted to rape the queen of the current emperor of the Ndlovu empire.

This had caused the entire Ndlovu empire and the grand filament upper realm to go into an uproar.

Nobody could believe the guts and audacity of this rapist to actually set his sights on the Ndlovu royal family as well as the queen of the empire.

At once, a Realm-wide manhunt had begun for the rapist, and rewards were offered to anybody who could provide the head of the rapist or any information that could lead to his capture.

This was the chance that the head of the Valerian noble family had been waiting for.

It was finally time for his precious daughter, that had always been hidden from the rest of the universe, to finally appear once again.

Setting up a trap, the head of the Valerian noble family had used his eldest daughter and his proudest child as bait, sacrificing her to the hands of the rapist.

Immediately, the head of the family had ordered his eldest daughter to display her power to all and attract attention to herself so that she could also attract the attention of the rapist to herself. Then, on one fateful night when she was all alone, the rapist had fallen for the trap set up by the head of the family.

It was on that day that the rapist was finally captured and killed by the eldest daughter, thus opening the gates to the future of the valerian family.

With the rewards of the Ndlovu royal family and the emperor of the Ndlovu empire, the head of the Valerian family had used this opportunity to curry favor with the emperor and the royal family. Coupled with the strength of his eldest daughter, which was enough to rival the strongest royal guard commander under the emperor, it was natural that the Valerian family would grow stronger.

Now, the Valerian noble family was no longer as it was before and they were one of the strongest noble families in the entire Ndlovu and the entire grand filament upper realm.

Although the Valerian family may not be as powerful as some older noble families in the empire, and it military strength was actually quite weak compared to those noble families that had been in power for hundreds or thousands of years, with the help of the eldest daughter to hold the fort, nobody dared to antagonize them and the Valerian noble family could enjoy their current strength while steadily growing much stronger.

Unbeknownst to the entire world, a child had been conceived on that very night when the rapist had been captured and killed.

Hidden from the rest of the world, the destitute son of a powerful noblewoman and a notorious rapist was born.