After a full day in Asora, a month within the space-time orb, Alex finally made his reappearance from the orb's depths. He had decided to spend an entire day/month within the orb recovering, and familiarizing himself with his new abilities before returning to the spotlight; of course after a few days within it they allowed regular access to the orb so that those who were concerned could see Alex, and others could get back to their training. The first to see him were of course Yue, Tio, and Miledi in order to thank him for finally fulfilling the goal that their families and comrades had fought and died for so long ago, following them was the usual green bullet that's was Myuu as she thoroughly checked over her papa's well being, before scolding him for making everyone worry. As he listened to her lecture Alex couldn't help cocking an eyebrow at the spectators who were snickering lightly, silencing them immediately. After Myuu was the usual entourage of women who were also worried about him as it was unusual for Alex to immediately run away after a fight unless there was something wrong, but after many, many, hours of consoling they agreed Alex was feeling fine and that there was nothing to worry about anymore. With up to a month to rest, recover, and visit, no one was surprised that Alex was all business from the moment he reappeared, immediately saying to those gathered,
"Ok, now that Ehito's gone we can afford to relax a little, but there's still a fair amount of work to do, so let's get to it!"
"YEAH!" Everyone replied to Alex's declaration, before he continued,
"Rias, are you and your peerage ready to go soon?" Rias nodded before saying,
"We're all ready to go whenever you give the word and send us on our team way." Alex smiled while replying,
"Good, you're also getting Kuroka with you since she has experience with this, and remember to hurry since we don't know how long the divine realm will actually last." With one final confirmation from Rias, she then turned and started doing last minute checks with those going with her before departing. She and most of her peerage were going to explore and loot the divine realm of Ehito for any valuables or knowledge they could find before it eventually collapsed. Technically both the divine realm and all of the apostles were supposed to disappear/cease functioning once Ehito died, however due to Alex stealing almost all of his divine powers both were able to continue existing for the time being, and they intended to milk every moment before it vanished. After seeing Rias off Alex turned towards Serafall and asked,
"How is the new district for the Haulia coming along? It shouldn't be long before we finally have them relocate here." Serafall sighed before saying,
"It's going well, but I still don't understand why you changed up the location and design partway through, won't they feel isolated or something?" Alex lagged somewhat bitterly before explaining,
"Not really, those guys are mentally like middle schoolers to be honest. Everyone will thank us for separating them, and they'll probably see their new home as some kind of fortress of solitude or something..." Though Serafall looked confused at his explain action Alex sighed as he thought about the circumstances regarding the Haulia. At first he had intended to have a district made for them to live in that was a short distance from Asora for the sake of privacy while they trained, but after Hajime instilled their chuuni tendencies behind his back, Alex had to change his plans and arrange for an isolated mountain home, of course designed to look and feel like a traditional ninja village. They wouldn't be completely isolated though, due to the fact that there was plans to install a high speed subway linking every separate settlement they planned to establish in Asora, allowing those who were living away from the rest of them to quickly and easily travel from place to place. To continue the subject of those who were immigrating into Asora, Alex turned towards Yasaka and asked,
"Speaking of newcomers, how are the Dagon adapting to their new home?" Yasaka smiled elegantly at Alex's question, and replied,
"to put it bluntly, they love it. Though there was a fair amount of suspicion at first due to how much of an upgrade there was to their state of living, and the various benefits they've been receiving, they are all calmed down for the most part now and are happily adapting to their new lives. Why, I even had the chief of the Dagon's approach me and wholeheartedly apologize for the suspicion towards us when we first met." Alex thanked her for the hard work and turned towards the next person who was waiting, Noint.
"How are the apostles doing after witnessing the death of their creator?" Noint was silent for a moment before answering,
"They are doing ok for the most part but, if I may be honest, the death of Ehito has hit us all relatively hard, myself included. Thankfully with the help of the time difference of the space we have been in for the past day, they are starting to move on and see the sense in following you. There are a few who are having trouble adapting, but I will either convince them to follow your lead, or eliminate them if they don't." Alex sighed at the last part of her report, but didn't refute it as he said to her,
"Thank you Noint, I appreciate your help." Noint managed a small smile in response to Alex's praise, showing how far the relatively expressionless woman had come since the time she had first joined them. After going over a few more topics with the others, Alex finally turned his attention towards Hajime, and simply greeted him with a heavy stack of papers that he had drafted while relaxing in the space-time orb, neatly organized in various folders and binders.
"And what are these?" He demanded while Alex's smile widened.
"These, are all of the various projects I want you to start on for the time being. Though there is a small bit of haste for some of them, you have to break yourself trying to get them all done as quickly as possible. There are a few that I want you to finish before temporarily returning to earth though." Though there was a lot that Hajime wanted to say in response to Alex's demand, he stopped when he started looking through the heavy stack before him. At the very top of the list was a space-time orb set within the Misty Manor for the personal use of Alex and the other residents, but when he looked at some of the other ideas he was silent from sheer incredulity. Some of them were only small gadgets he was already thinking of creating at some point, while others were completely outrageous demands like creating an infinite power source, which honestly set his otaku/craftsmanship blood on fire at the thought of. Then he got to the last seven projects Alex wanted him to create, making him demand incredulously,
"What the hell is this?! You want me to make these?!" Alex wasn't peturbed by Hajime's reaction in the slightest as it was already expected, and he calmly replied,
"If you can't do it them I guess we'll have to give up on it until we find someone who can-"
"I never said I wouldn't do it! I just can't believe you want me to make them!" Hajime stated as Alex started to call his abilities as a craftsman into question. He then turned around to return to his own Space-time orb that he and Seekvaira made previously, before calling over his shoulder,
"And don't think I didn't realize that you were trying to use reverse psychology on me, I'm not that stupid." Though he was tempted to say a few things in response what Hajime said, alex left it at,
"Whatever you say Red Thunder Destroyer, whatever you say." hajime twitched noticeably at Alex's jibe, but ultimately ignored it and continued walking, though everyone could see him shaking slightly from being referred to by his second name. After sending Hajime off, Alex dispersed the group and turned towards Shizuku before saying,
"I'm going to return to the Heiligh kingdom for a little bit to meet with Liliana before leaving, do you want to spend some time with your classmates since we've got some time to relax now?" Shizuku was momentarily stunned at Alex's offer due to the fact that ever since she met him, they had always had something to do, or were training in preparation for something. After several minutes she nodded her head and replied,
"Yes, I think some time to relax with my classmates would do me some good." Alex smiled and said,
"Good, give a few minutes to prepare and we'll go." He then left to get a fairly surprising line up of people.
***
Liliana was sitting back in her office taking a moment after yet another hard day of running the kingdom. Though she wasn't next in line for the throne, with her brother being as young as he was, she was the next best candidate to step up and take charge during this time of change. As she relaxed though she noticed a letter sitting on her desk that brought up a series of negative feelings before she turned away from it. It was from the person that until recently she was convinced she'd spend the rest of her life with, Baius D. Hoelscher. He was the crown prince of the Hoelscher Empire due to his strength even though he wasn't the firstborn son of its Emperor, and also Lilliana's intended fiancé. It had been an unspoken fact that was well known within both courts, going back to before Liliana was even ten years old. At first she resigned herself to the fate of being Baius's plaything for the rest of her life, but now due to her moms wild ideas and the current state of the empire she couldn't help but hope there might be a way out of it, however it seemed as if Baius wasn't so willing to let her go. Liliana was still struggling on figuring out how to respond when one of her guards appeared and announced,
"Princess, the champion of Goddess Gabriel has appeared and is asking for you, and he also brought some "friends"." Liliana thanked the guard for letting her know and quickly prepped herself for meeting them, though she also wondered why he emphasized Alex's "friends" that came with him. She quickly found out when she made her way to the courtyard and saw what was waiting there for her.
"Hey Liliana, been a while." Alex called out nonchalantly, as if he wasn't standing right next to a giant and menacing looking dragon.
"H-hey..." She replied somewhat hesitantly, not knowing how to respond to the situation. Of course she had properly met and even spoken with Bova during her stay in Asora previously, but no one in her court had. At the moment everyone within the castle was getting into a state of alert as news of the dragon appearing made it way around. She then glanced over the rest of Alex's companions to make sure there was no more surprises for her or her people, and was glad to see that it was just Yue, Shia, Tio, Shizuku, Grayfia, and a small looking girl with black hair that was looking around curiously. Though she didn't recognize the girl, Liliana just assumed she was one of the many people she didn't get a chance to meet during her stay in Asora, and wondered if she was something of a daughter like Myuu to Alex. seeing her look at Ophis for a second, Alex brought the little girl forward with him and asked,
"Have you met Ophis yet?" Liliana shook her head and said to her,
"Hello, I'm Liliana. You can just call me Lili if you want though." Ophis nodded at Lilliana's introduction and repeated,
"Lili. I'm Ophis." As she didn't deem it important Ophis didn't mention any of her titles, so Liliana got to be blissfully unaware for a while longer that she was currently face to face with the God of dragons and infinity. After the introductions Alex said,
"I just stopped by to drop off Shizuku, and to ask you to spread the word." Liliana tilted her head slightly and asked,
"What word?" Alex smiled and stated in a voice that carried throughout the entire courtyard,
"The word that Ehito is dead!" There was a stunned silence as his words spread throughout the surroundings, before Liliana hesitantly asked,
"Ar-are you sure? Ehito is really dead?" Alex nodded and stated,
"I'll share the details during the conference in one month when the rest of the attendees are gathered, but until then I would like if you spread the word for me." Though it took her brain several seconds to process what Alex just said, Liliana finally got out,
"O-of course, but where are you going?" Since she also picked up that Alex said he was just dropping by, she was curious as to what he was doing. Alex smirked before responding,
"As of this moment there's still one race that isn't aware of what's going on, and I think it's long past due that I've visited them." As he finished speaking Alex turned to face his companions, and focused on a certain one. As even they themselves didn't know where Alex planned to go it took a few seconds for the girls to process what he meant, but when they realized he was looking at Tio, it was obvious. When she noticed it as well Liliana's breath caught in her throat as she whispered,
"The dragon race!"