Chapter 47 - 501-517

501 The Loser Always Pays It Big In Any War!

[Isn't this enough? I thought helping you is a big deal]

[We both know you won't get settled with this. Stop joking and tell me, what else do you want?]

[Well… I loved the deal we two had before. So this time, I'm asking for it to be done again]

[That training thing? I can secure this deal on their behalf]

[You got me wrong!] I evilly grinned, [this time I want from all the Selvator in all over the world to save my people and train them]

[This… Are you out of your mind? Do you think we are here to serve you?]

[Either this, or I'll keep doing what I'm good at… Killing and ruining your race plans here!]

Dude… I was the one in the position of power. Don't tell me it was too much. In my eyes, nothing was too much.

[I knew it! You are still a greedy bastard!]

[I'm not, I'm Hye!]

[Screw you!]

[Also I'd ask for a favour, a big one, at an appropriate time]

[A big favour? It must be something bad!]

[This isn't just for my sake. Don't forget, we two are tied together] I rolled my eyes when I read his response. This dude was still not knowing the full grasp of the situation here.

This fight… It wasn't only watched by other races, but their gods as well.

From the words of Sith, I got to know this monster was tied with a god. For such a god to make Sith nervous meant he was a very high grade and very formidable god.

Such a god wouldn't just close an eye over what happened here. He would do his work and see what exactly happened to lose such a scary being.

To see that someone from such a weak race managed to pull a feat not even that god managed to do before must be quite shocking. Even if he was such a mighty god, that didn't mean he wouldn't get a glimpse of fear of me.

So asking his race to make such a deal with me was the most logical move here. Or else he should order my kill.

But at such a current stage of apocalypse and with all my might and various forces, who would be foolish enough to order his people to stand against me?

I knew that they had removed the restraints over Fang. or else he wouldn't dare to contact me directly like this.

Removing the punishment wasn't enough. I wanted him to return to his race in a better position. Like this he would regain respect and fear from everyone else.

And like this I'd secure his future for good. I didn't want any useless schemes targeting my man. I wasn't that free to run and teach them a lesson every now and then.

If I didn't make sure to break their thorn for good, they would lay low and wait for their chance to come at me. And if that happened, it would be a move that I wouldn't be prepared for and might even cost me my life or great things at least.

I was in the position of power here. So why would I settle with half assed solutions? Either I crush them with my might, or crush them with my deal. They got no other escape route besides these two ahead of them.

If they were smart, they'd agree. Even if they worked as slaves for my race, they would still be close to me and would secure themselves from my harm.

Humans weren't the only race in the apocalypse. And getting first place was already taken by the Hectors. So it wouldn't make a difference if they replaced the first race with my humans.

At least they'd end up having great relations with humans, good bonds with the first race. Unlike the situation with Hectors, which was a race hostile to all, to them.

So this deal wasn't about giving up the race on the apocalypse, but to secure their second position and their future with the winning race.

Who would they choose? Me and my humans? Or those untrustworthy and all hostile and aggressive Hectors?

I closed the chat with Fang and returned to collect the rest of my loot. During these hours, the world looked too quiet and peaceful to tolerate.

So midway, I opened my profile and gave an order to all my monsters. I ordered them to spread around and take control of the entirety of Texas state.

As for the jumper, that dude kept nagging me during my fight about our deal. So I also gave them the order to follow his lead, and told him about it.

[Finally you are honouring your words! Fine! I'll start expanding my actions here]

That ungrateful bastard! Did he think I was a liar or someone who wouldn't honour his promises?

If not for his value, I'd prefer to go and smack his butt and teach him a proper lesson.

Right now I held no one in my eyes, not the jumper, not Hilary, not even the paragons. Just recalling the feeling of power and dominance I got when I had my dark blue glove made me place no one in my eyes.

Whoever saw himself better than me, better to rethink and reconsider. Ed? That jerk… I'd wait for a time and go to teach that bastard a lesson as well.

"You finally… Cleaned everything!" As I finished and returned to my chariot with the help of one dragon of mine, Isac was waiting for me up there with a shocking expression still on her face.

"What? I just did what I have to do," I said, commenting not only what I just did, but over the entire battle.

"You… Sigh! I never thought a day would come and that monster would be killed in such a way! Do you know how many worlds he devoured? Do you know how many worlds he turned into a dark realm?"

502 The Mysterious Spiritual Energy

"Yet it failed," I shrugged, "it's you who didn't trust my ability in doing so."

"No one in his sane mind would ever believe your words!" she rolled her eyes, as if I was a crazy human or something.

"I'm just a simple man," I shrugged before adding, "as you live by your code of honour, I also live by my code of will."

"Code of will… Interesting concept indeed," she gave me such an interesting look, "tell me more about yourself then."

"I just said I'm a simple dude, what else is there to say?" I escaped answering her question. But she was still persistent.

"You can't be a normal human. No, you can't be of any normal origins regardless of your race. Tell me, what's your secret?"

"Here and here," I pointed at my head and dick, making her face blush all of sudden. "Hahaha, just look at your face, hahaha!" she never saw this coming. And the look on her face was really priceless.

"Stop it, jerk!" she punched me weakly on the shoulder, making me feel a little unrest there.

"Ah, don't hit that point," I touched again that wound left by my technique. Damn! Would I turn my body into a world of such marks? Just like the race Sith spoke about?

It would give me a horrifying appearance. But that wasn't funny! What others would call me? The tattooed monster? Or the wounded freak?

Damn! I didn't want such bad names to stick to me! I had to find a solution for this technique later on.

"What are we going to do now?" just as I was getting panicked, she asked from the side. "Are we going to fight the races here?"

I looked at the back where she pointed. The land seemed much farther away than before. It seemed we drifted away during this battle.

"I already gave the order for my monsters to return and attack," I said in carefree words.

"I can tell that. But what about us? I mean, are we going to continue fighting?"

"Didn't you have enough of fighting?" I gave her a weird look, and she shook her head.

"I didn't want to fight anytime soon. But I was just asking."

"Then go and rest," I motioned towards the lower level, "I'll roam the world here and see if there is any help needed anywhere."

"Will you… Come down and rest?" she asked in a soft tone, one that told me different things about her intentions.

"Girl, go down there and rest," I directly declined such an invitation.

"I'm… A boy!" she blurted out, making me not know if I should laugh or cry.

"If you are a boy…" I moved a few steps forward, and she stepped back at the same time until she hit the side of my chariot. I stopped just an inch away, looking deeply in her eyes, "why are you inviting me down there to your room?"

"My… Who ever said anything about that?!" Despite her shout, her reddened face and eyes avoiding direct contact with mine told me all about what she really had in her mind.

"I'll tell you something," I held her chin. Damn! That male face was really breaking the moment, "I only get interested in beauties, strong and dominating girls."

"You… Are you sick here or what?" she pointed at her head, and I laughed.

"You still don't get it, don't you?" I said while laughing, "I only like such kind of girls as it feels quite satisfying to domineer them. It won't bring me any joy to just triumph over simple minded girls. I'm a hegemon, and only strong girls can satisfy me."

"Get away! I won't ever want to speak with you again!"

Without any reason for her to react this way, she shouted, pushed my hand off her chin, and ran directly towards the lower level.

"What… Did I say something wrong?!!" I stood puzzled in my place for a few minutes, not knowing what really went wrong here.

"Sigh! It's really a painful and tiresome task to try and get what these girls think about," I shook my head and resigned to my failure in knowing what stirred her up in such a way.

"Time to show my face to all of them out there," I turned to face the distant earth that looked like a thin dark brown line from my place.

And with an evil grin, I controlled my chariot and returned back to the ground.

The previous scene of the massive monsters roaming this part of the world vanished. There wasn't a single monster to be seen here.

I knew I lost a lot of monsters in this fight. And I didn't regret it. But who said I couldn't replenish what I lost?

As I grabbed all of them before, it was time for me to roam the world and build up the monster army once again.

With the disappearance of all the current problems off the map, I had no resistance left, no big fights to be fought.

After flying for one hour, I finally reached a dense spot with many monsters coming out from gates there.

It was a big city, and it was getting attacked fiercely with my boys.

"Good job," I started doing my first technique again, "but I'll take it from here."

And with it, my black threads appeared once more in this world. Unlike the last battle, the ones I had here were just a breeze in comparison.

To me, it felt like I was going on vacation or something.

"This energy…" I took out many bones as usual. But as I started to absorb their energy, something new appeared in my body.

Or it was always there since the end of that big battle, and I totally missed it.

"What is going on here with you?!" I felt curious about this, and started to watch in silence the changes occurring inside my meridians and dantian.

503 The Minute Black Spheres

I used to let the energy coming from my bones move through my meridians and dantian before it reached my left arm.

But just when this big amount of energy entered my body, something hidden there resonated with it.

It was the minute black spheres at my right arm. I totally forgot about these and thought they would have gone with the disappearance of my glove.

But it seemed this wasn't the case here.

I watched in interest what was going to happen. The black spheres were moving in a dormant state when the bone energy entered my body. Then like fire sniffed dried grass, they got stirred up and moved in a berserk way.

Yet they never left my right arm. I watched these miniscule black spheres pull the energy and absorb it, starting to shine slowly like they were little stars.

They didn't increase in size, and never roamed outside my arm. They just kept lying there while absorbing like madness the bone energy.

Weirdly enough, I felt that with all the bones I got out, and they weren't any small in amount, the energy getting inside my body wasn't enough to saturate the gluttony of these spheres.

Not even enough to let these shine enough. At some point, the absorption rate stabilised. The black spheres were dimly lit, giving me the impression that they wanted more.

I opened my eyes and what I saw surprised me. Above my right arm, some sort of a suction tornado appeared, sucking dry all the energy coming from my bones.

So my bones were turned to orbs of light, and they all entered through my right arm.

"More," that was what I felt when I saw this tornado. "I need to use more bones…"

I took out lots of bones, even pale gold grade bones as well. I wanted to see to what end these black spheres were going to absorb the bones' energy, and what they would end up like.

It was a strange thing indeed, one that I didn't expect to see. As soon as I took out more bones and surrounded them with my spiritual energy, the gush of energy intensified and that tornado got bigger and fiercer.

I even felt the gust of wind clashing strongly against my body. The size of this tornado was almost five metres in radius before. But now it got way close to twenty metres.

I closed my eyes and checked my right arm. I was first worried that these spheres would threaten my arm. However, that became groundless the more I examined these spheres.

They just got brighter, nothing much actually. I didn't feel any other changes but the intensity of the black light coming from these spheres getting stronger with each passing minute.

They were getting brighter, releasing such dark light accompanied with a bright silver lustre.

"There is no green in it," is what I noticed after ten minutes of observation. Green was now my colour, the colour of my energy.

Without it, I knew this energy didn't belong to me. So instead of watching in silence, I started to fight over the energy coming from the bones.

But this was a losing battle! The suction power of that tornado was something I couldn't fight against.

"More!" as I failed to overcome it in power, I planned to overcome it with quantity. I took out much more green and blue grade bones, letting these turn into orbs of light to be absorbed with that tornado.

And as I took so much this time, the gush of energy was much stronger than the ability of that tornado to handle.

At this moment, I moved to suck away energy from the jaws of this beast. I managed to secure almost one tenth of the entire energy, forming my own link to this energy.

Now I have secured this. So I closed my eyes again and started to control this energy. I made sure to cover this energy with my green energy, making it hard for the black spheres to take control over it.

As this energy entered my body, I hurriedly circulated it towards my dantian, bypassing my right arm. At this moment, the technique I was using with my left hand didn't matter.

I had to first solve this issue before growing up to be a big problem.

Having an alien and such rogue energy inside my body? An energy that was left from such domineering and threatening technique? No f*cking way I'd let that happen!

As I controlled part of the bones energy, and managed to circulate this through my dantian, the energy changed to be like mine, all dark green energy.

"Go there, now!" I moved this large amount of energy towards my right arm. And watched closely what would happen.

Once the energy entered my right arm, it was devoured by these black spheres. Just like what my dantian and meridians did to any alien energy, the dark spheres started to show a faint green lustre in them.

And when that happened, I could tell these spheres weren't all black. They gave me the impression of being dark blue, very dark blue in colour to appear black from the outer surface.

Or perhaps my green energy did this change? I didn't know. But being blue wasn't bad. After all, my glove was dark blue.

As I secured part of the bones' energy and maintained its route of circulation in my body, I was now able to ingest a stable flow of my energy towards these spheres.

The more time passed, the more energy that got absorbed by these black spheres, the darker the green lustre became.

I opened my eyes and started to replace the bones consumed during this process. The consumption rate of the bones was really scary. In the span of these ten minutes, almost half was gone!

I took more, much more, much much more to even form a small hill over my chariot. I didn't want to risk losing my energy flow I secured with my effort.

504 A New Dantian Is Formed

So I kept replacing the bones consumed in such a way until a couple of hours passed. During which, I didn't take care of anything happening in the real world.

There was no threat at all towards me in this world, not even a strong enemy to threaten my safety now. Even if those angels brought back their star weapon and slammed it over my head, I wouldn't get fazed.

With my chariot's high energy storage right now, it was nearly impossible to break through my shield.

So I focused totally on controlling what was going on inside my right arm. In my opinion, this was a ticking bomb that I had to solve.

Putting aside the task of replacing the lost monsters for now, I started to maintain the energy flow towards the black spheres for two more hours.

*Click!*

A weird sound like pressing a button or something came from the direction of my right arm. Then more sounds like this kept happening in a faint tone, together forming a loud chorus.

My right arm…the black spheres in there were getting a transformation. They weren't black right now. They shone in dim dark blue light mixed with dark green.

But with that series of sounds, the sphere seemed to show a change. Instead of just staying there, vibrating and moving slightly in place, they started to move faster and then slammed at each other.

Looking closely, these sounds came from the clash between these spheres. What should I do? Should I let them continue?

Even if they were clashing with each other, they never did that to my meridians. They seemed to treat my meridians in such respect or fear.

As long as they weren't causing me any harm, I wouldn't interfere. So I decided to stay silent and watch from the side, hopefully something good would come out of this.

Gradually things became clearer in my eyes, especially when the number of these spheres started to decrease while their sizes grew.

"They… Are merging in their own way!" I reached this conclusion after five minutes of watching. These spheres were merging, and that made their suction force getting fiercer.

The bones that would last before for ten minutes turned to dust in less than five! Their suction speed doubled, and with it I had to get busy again replenishing the loss.

I didn't want such a transformation to end midway. This might be quite dangerous, considering how fierce these black spheres were.

When they were minute, they were emitting such a dangerous vibe around them. And now as they got bigger, I knew they would be much more dangerous than before.

So I had to tread this with utmost care.

As these minute spheres turned much bigger, almost five times in size, they started to slowly stop moving. The noise coming from there died down and I knew this was about to get over.

But at this moment, I noticed something weird. A flash of faint blue and green light started to appear in the place of my elbow joint.

It seemed like bolts of lightning at first. But the slower the spheres moved, the more it appeared. It appeared in silence, vanished in silence, but slowly it started to come in regular rhythms.

And when the spheres stopped moving, they were surrounding the area of those flashes of lights, all centred around my elbow.

I didn't feel any discomfort. But when these spheres stopped moving, I felt a strange feeling. It was like a connection was generated there, and when I tried to check it out, that flash of lights appeared and didn't vanish anymore.

I could now see it clearly. It wasn't bolts of lightning with two colours, instead they were like fog in two colours, green and blue, both surrounding a black small fog in the middle.

As for the spheres, I felt a connection with them through miniscule thin hair-like threads. All the spheres remaining here were connected to this thing, and it was located at my right elbow.

"What's… Going on here?!" I slowly opened my eyes, thought about this. Unlike what I expected, Sith's voice didn't come, meaning either he was busy or this problem wasn't that hard to solve.

Before I could think of anything, I felt a thick sound at my right elbow before I saw a light shining faintly from my elbow.

It was green and blue light, reminding me of that thing inside my right arm. I closed my eyes again and inspected it. And then I started to get an inspiration of what was going on there.

What I saw was now more perfect than before, giving me the impression of having a small dantian in that part of my body. It was a weird dantain though, with three colours in it.

But as my main dantian, and my secondary dantian inside my shadow world, this one was connecting with the spheres around with thin threads like they were meridians.

And from there, thick green, blue, and black energy moved in slow pace to form a closed up circle between all this. That fog changed to form a small crystal like dantain, filled with the three coloured energy, seemingly moving in slow pace.

This… Was something weird! This thing was situated in what was before the main meridian of my right arm, just in the place of my elbow joint.

So the first thing I tried was to circulate my energy there. The bones' energy was still gushing in large amounts inside my body. So it was good to release them there.

But just like two separate systems existed next to each other, I felt the energy moving without any interruption through my arm, before returning back again. This was… Weird!

So I had now two separate dantians, without any established connection with them? One had my dark green energy, and the other had such three coloured energy that looked so dense and thick, so heavy to take almost half an hour to complete such a small circle?

Ahem… What was going here again?!!

505 One Thousand Humans Per Two Bones Price

I didn't know any clue about this. But what I was sure about was that the new dantian alongside the slightly bigger spheres weren't posing any threat to me.

As long as they were docile, I wouldn't rash and try anything stupid. I'd just keep an eye over this part, hopefully gathering up more clues later on.

"Let's go back then to catching monsters," as I got no news about this situation, I started to shift my attention towards the world around me.

As I appeared here and gave the order to my boys to scatter around, the world was now covered with dense layers of monsters.

So I moved all the energy coming from the bones towards my left arm and started to release a dense number of my threads.

Attacking those monsters came out of the blue for them. They controlled the big city down below, and seemingly were in a dormant state.

But when my threads came, they got stirred up. However, what could they do anyway? I took control over them, forced a contract before releasing my threads around to attack more monsters.

Like this I started to replenish my exhausted storage of monsters for almost twelve straight hours. After I spent all this time, I felt quite satisfied with this. And also there were two things I had to take care of.

[I got the deal you wanted!]

At last! After all this time, the Bringold higher ups and boss agreed to do the deal of exchanging humans with me.

[For how much?]

[Every ten thousand humans, you'll pay ten bones, the ones you used last] she sent, [and this price isn't negotiable!]

[Ok] Having to pay only one bone per thousand humans, wouldn't that bring me lots of humans at such a cheap price?

[But we can't guarantee their attitude or their strength. We will just move out and buy them for you. Also you have to know that you'll handle the full price of these humans]

Sh*t! I now knew why such a price looked so damn cheap!

They were taking these bones as their fees, not the total price of humans.

[How much will this cost me then?]

[Per ten thousand humans, you might need to add ten more bones]

This cheap? Were they playing a trick here or what?

And out of the blue it hit me. These greedy folks must have taken their time not to consider my offer, but to secure a cheap source of humans first.

Like this they would end up having bigger gains than before. But who cared? Weak humans? They wouldn't be as weak as my humans here, right?

[I want them all to sign a loyalty contract under my name] I sent my condition, [Also when can you deliver the first batch?]

[I can do it now if you wanted]

[Not now!] I looked around. I was in the middle of the enemy territory. This state wasn't yet under my control. [Wait for a day or so before delivering them]

[Should we move to bring more?]

[Bring as much as you can] I said before pausing for a second, [if the number was in millions, you will get one bone. But if it was in tens of millions, I'll reward you with one bone for every ten million]

I didn't want to play it small here. So I had to use such a way to force her to focus entirely on such a task. The more she got, the better.

I controlled an area able to hold a hundred million humans at least. Not to mention not all of them would stay there and breed.

I would also form armies and train them out of them. So the more, the better. And as things turned out here, I gained more lands needing humans to settle in.

As for this state, Texas, it was closer to Fang's territory than to mine. But who said I couldn't let my people inhabit Fang's lands?

After all that dude was now in my clutches. He couldn't say no to anything I'd ask for. It was better to move lots of fighters there to train and get better experience from dealing with Selvators.

So I'd have to first return to my capital, find suitable people to depend upon for this task. I needed people to scan and arrange the newly arrived humans, place them in teams, one to breed, one with special skills, and one with the ability to fight.

Also I needed to scatter them around and start rebuilding the damaged world here. All the cities, towns, and even counties here were all raised to the ground.

The rebuilding process was going to be a hard task to handle. So I thought about taking care of this.

I once worked in construction back in my days to secure a living. According to what I read through records, the world before the apocalypse held much importance to this rebuilding process.

I read stories about how such operations would turn nations wealthier. Even wars were ragged on to secure more work for such nations.

Destroying the human world and rebuilding it for the sake of money… What an absurd and stupid logic was that? What went in their heads to replace securing better lives for their people with war and destruction then rebuilding all this?

Damn stupid folks! It was no wonder the apocalypse hit earth at this point of time.

[You are so generous with me. What? Are you interested in having me as your girl?]

[I already have lots to keep me occupied all the time] I rolled my eyes. This wasn't the first time they tried to approach me.

What? Was she really interested in me? Or was she just trying to get to the better side of me, trying to get more bones. [Just work hard, the more results you secure for me the more bones you'll get]

[Ok, ok, I get it] she was acting like this for the bones indeed.

[I'll send you the contract to sign now!]

The next moment I got the contract and I signed it. Ok girl, go and show me how desperate you were for my bones.

506 No One Is Responding!

As for the second message, it came from none but Fang.

[They agreed] he sent, [Do you want to send a contract over to sign now?]

[Who is going to sign it with me?] I knew just using Fang wouldn't be enough. Such a deal was done on a higher level than what Fang could guarantee.

[The only paragon left here in our race] I didn't know why, but reading such a message made me feel the urge to laugh.

[Ok, let him sign it before sending it over to me] I paused before adding, [Dude, I did all I could to help you. The rest is all on your shoulders]

[Such a generous human being indeed!] I knew he was acting sarcastic here. [I'll do what I can. After all I'm now promoted]

[Became what?]

[A senator! Can you believe it?!]

A senator? Wasn't this the one rank below paragon? [Good! I'd be surprised it they made you a vice senator]

[I thought they'd make me one] he seemed to not yet grasp the full scale of this situation. [But Senators have lots of work to do. So… I might get myself busy during the next period]

[Don't try to get loose from me, I won't let you have such a way out] This jerk! What did he think I was? A charity sponsor or something?!!

[You… Who said I'd get away from you? I'm now deeply bound to you like I was your slave!]

[A nice and handsome slave you are] I laughed and the next moment a contract came without him saying a single word. It seemed he was irritated by what he ended up at.

But dude… You never would have any chance at all to even sniff the vice senator rank in your entire life! Be more grateful to your master and show your respect.

I didn't hurry to sign the contract before rereading it for almost ten times. I took my time even when he tried to rush me up.

[Ok, I signed it] but there was nothing wrong there, [By the way, additional to the humans your race will train, I'll fetch more humans for you to handle]

[F*ck! You are a bastard, you know that?]

[These humans will be special] I didn't explain more, [Just be sure to be ready to train much stronger humans than your men]

[I doubt it!]

[We'll see!]

I closed the chat with him while looking around. This part of the world was now controlled by my monster. Damn! I forgot to tell him about this place.

[Send forces to claim Texas. It's now under attack by my forces]

[Texas? Isn't it… Damn! You went this far already!]

[Just send forces to claim it]

[What about the places in between?] he asked and I realised Texas wasn't directly connected with his territory.

[Leave these to me. I'll start attacking them now]

[Why do I feel like this entire apocalypse is a bike ride for you? Tell me, do you ever feel afraid?]

Dude! Your race just used a terrifying being to scare the sh*t out of me! Of course I got afraid sometimes. But that didn't mean at other times, I wouldn't enjoy my hard earned strength and might.

[I wasn't born with a golden spoon in my mouth just like you guys]

[Says the devil himself!]

[Shut up and get your forces ready]

[They are. Did you forget? We were preparing to fight you]

[To death, and I saved your pathetic life. So thanks for your appreciation anyway]

[F*ck off!]

[Says the ungrateful bastard]

[Don't expect thanks from me!]

[I don't want words, I want actions. Repay what I did with performing better]

[Damn you! Doesn't your arrogance know a limit or what?]

[It's not my crime to be a domineering kiddo. You should feel blessed to come into the world where I was born!]

[F*ck you! I'm going to close this damn thing before I kill someone!]

I laughed over his reaction. It seemed he wasn't the only stressed one out there. I was sure this frustration was a common thing in his race at the moment.

But gradually they'd get used to such situations. Just seeing how far I brought my human race in such unjust circumstances made me feel more pride.

Who else did the same for my race? I doubted it! Even the three mighty kings and queens never had such moments before.

They struggled all the time to just secure a foothold for humans. Even Hilary, the one who once conquered this world, didn't have such moments… Right?

I might ask her one day, when she would be in a good mood.

Recalling her made me wonder about her current situation. It has been days since I heard any word from her.

[Hey girl, is this how you treat your man when he is away?] I sent, but weirdly enough she didn't respond as fast as I expected.

What? Don't tell me she was sleeping right now?

I started to send messages to my team. After all, they were supposed to be together.

But weirdly enough, not a single answer came. That made me feel more annoyed and worried over them.

It was my capital where they all resided. For a reason, all of them went silent and off the grid.

What happened out there?

"Time to work faster," I looked at the world around before turning East. I had to cover the lands here first. [Can you spare few troops, fast and capable ones, to go all the way East to my capital and see things there for me]

[What happened, bro?]

[I don't know, and that is something bad in itself]

[Ok, I'll send my fastest riders out there right now]

I knew I would travel there fast using my staff. But I had to do little work here before going back.

[Are you doing well on your own?]

[What? Planning to leave this place to me?]

[Sh*t seemed to happen back at our capital, so I had to return]

[Damn! What happened while I was away?]

Away my as*! That jumper thought so highly of himself, forgetting that he slept and rested for days without showing his face to the world.

507 A Really Hard To Deal With Fellow!

[I don't know yet, but no one is responding to any message]

[Let me try… Also can't you use your channel? Won't it show you what is happening out there?]

[Good point] I totally missed that. I hurriedly opened my channel and once I did, the notifications came pouring like water outrunning a fallen dam.

[Many gods are expressing their worries over your people]

[They say your people are surrounded by a grand army of monsters and alien race]

[Portals are opened and they gushed lots of forces around your capital, they said that your people have little chance at surviving this]

[The enemy is an alien race that came from another apocalypse according to few god's words]

[Many are complaining that a sealing artefact was used to cloud what's happening there]

[Your ultras are recommending that you need to hurry back!]

Damn! All this sh*it happened while I was away? An alien race? What did that even mean?

"Are they like Hectors?" I asked, while feeling much colder in this situation. Whoever did this, must have known I was away and targeted my back with fire.

That wasn't a simple move. Even the Selvators didn't get a glimpse of it.

[They say they saw them before in other worlds, mercenary race that works for a high price to do dirty stuff in the apocalypses]

[The gods who were following your people say that they are using a way to breach the shield covering up your capital]

[Many gods are asking for you to hurry back]

Oh! Mercenaries! That wasn't a new term for me. After all, I left many requests back at Albany city mercenary building to recruit a few of them.

Yet up till now I got zero response from any of them. And now my world was getting invaded in such a way by them. Cool!

A figure appeared in my mind the moment I thought about who was behind such a move. It was that damn hidden person who attacked my forces before using illusion.

That bastard… It was so damn hard to fight someone that I didn't even know anything about him!

But that wasn't bad news. Even when I saw the dark screens of my team, I wasn't worried.

After all they all were linked to me by contracts. They were fine. If any died, then their name would turn black.

So, a mercenary race, a fierce one by the words of my gods, came to visit my capital in such a way? This wasn't on the whim move. No f*cking way.

They came prepared, knew there was a shield to breach, a channel to shield, and a friendship connection to get severed.

All this couldn't be prepared so soon. I thought about the pissed off god that got that monster stripped away from him. But he would never move in such fast steps.

This was the work of that bastard! Trying to burn down my capital while I was busy fighting such a dreadful enemy… Indeed he selected a perfect time to do that.

That jerk… If he was brave enough he should show me his face. But I knew for sure he wouldn't! After all hiding like this made me more puzzled and left me unable to read through his mind.

Pretty fierce enemy indeed.

[No one is answering back! That's so weird!] At this moment, the jumper sent this message to me.

[I'll leave this place over to you] I sent again to the jumper, [I want you to move East, connect this place with the lands of Fang]

[That piece of sh*Is it still alive? Do you want me to kill him and control his lands and forces?]

[No] that bastard! I didn't want any bomb to explode in my face at this critical moment. [He is now back to being an ally. Also stay away from any Selvator, we got a deal with them]

[What deal?]

[Peace treaty…] I summed up the deal points with the Selvators without talking much about what made them sign such a contract.

[Damn you, Hye! What did they owe you to force them accept such a deal? Damn fierce! They won't be able to fight back anymore, and will only work to be our followers from now on!]

The jumper might be a jerk, getting on my nerves most of the time, but he was smart enough to read through such a deal.

In just a few moments, he read through my mind and knew what I wanted to do from such a deal.

[Anyway, can you handle things here?] I didn't want to waste my breath over speaking about that deal.

That jerk wasn't here when I risked my life to fight that scary monster and save the world. So I wasn't going to tell him anything about the deal, not for now at least.

[It's a piece of cake… But…]

[Don't worry about them, I'm going right now to help] I knew he paused for the sake of our friends. Even if he was a jerk, he wasn't a senseless jerk.

[I got more monsters here, I'll order them to follow you. Where are you now? I'll make every monster gather at your place now]

[I'm near the southern shore of Texas, at Houston]

[Got it!]

I started to send a general order for all my monsters. As I knew most were fighting right now, so I gave them the order to head to Houston once they finished fighting and killing the enemies in their current locations.

After doing that, I took out my staff and selected a bookmark in it.

[Sorry, the place you selected is currently sealed]

"What the f*ck?!!" I froze in front of such a message. Did that bastard also seal the area of my capital to prevent me from jumping over there?

Damn! That bastard! He was really meticulous and thought about everything.

But jerk… If I was unable to jump over my capital, I could simply jump to my second best city; Albany city.

"Let's go to Albany city then," I selected the saved bookmark of Albany, and the next moment a portal appeared in front of me.

"Damn! Even attacking here?!!" but the moment I got out, I saw a world of chaos and war all around. This city was preserved before, but now it was filled with thick tongues of smoke.

508 I Got You!

Damn! I didn't even get any notification about it getting attacked! Don't tell me he knew about the privilege of the city, and sealed this as well!

F*ck! I now wanted to meet this bastard more than ever.

"Come forth!" but first, I got to control the situation here. I thought about travelling from here to my capital. But this would have to be delayed for now.

I had to fight here first. And something told me this move here was predetermined. It was as if that bastard read through my mind.

*Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!* *Fwoosh!*

My grand army of soulers appeared to cover up a large distance of this city. I also summoned dragons, flying monsters, and also my fallen gods.

"Kill!" one simple order was given, and the next instant bloodbath appeared in this city.

My boys were fierce! The mercenary race was like my Bulltors, giant, with a gem in their chest. But unlike my Bulltors, these had two big arcing horns above their bald heads, with hands ending up in spear-like two fingers, acting like they were big scissors.

Their legs were slightly arched, making me think they were used to jumping and hopping like Kangaroos.

They looked fierce, and they were already fighting against the monsters in this city plus a small part of my forces stationed here.

But the situation looked bad actually before I appeared. I didn't know if I didn't show up, what would have happened here!

The defences of this city were mostly inactive. I didn't know the reason, was it a lack of manpower, or did that jerk use something else to paralyse my defensive towers here.

"Rise!" As I released my ground forces, it was time for me to take a better view over the entire battlefield. As I ascended high, high above the shield covering this city, I saw a frightening scene.

At least one hundred black portals appeared all over the place. They surrounded the city in a ten miles radius, gushing out armies upon armies of those mercenaries.

They didn't come alone as they had armies of monsters to back them up. These monsters were like bears, giant bears with sharp and long claws. And they got a single horn from their heads.

"This… It's bad!" I wasn't just thinking about the situation here. If such a thing was repeated back at my capital, and I doubted it would even be in such a scale as it would be much bigger, then my forces back there were on the verge of annihilation.

The biggest support here was the shield. But that shield was something broken by these forces easily. They passed it like the shield wasn't there at all.

But with my boy's sudden appearance, the tide was shifted entirely to my side. The hostile mercenary-monster combined forces inside the city were getting butchered with my boys.

The more they killed, the more came in to replenish the loss. This reminded me of the current quest situation somehow.

"Let's see deeper then," I activated my hawkeye skill and started zooming near these portals. Nothing much appeared there, nothing strange except for one…

"Damn! It's… It's you!!!" I saw someone the size of an adult human, cloaked all in black coat that looked like it was made out of fog.

Its edges were dissipating in thin air, while ending with orange sparkles like fire. It was a weird existence in the middle of all this. And as I looked at him, he seemed to notice my gaze, stopped whatever sh*He looked at me with a face covered in blackness.

Unlike the jumper, this dude was using black fog to cover up his face. No eyes even were present there. But for a reason, I was sure he was looking directly at me.

"Damn!" Just for a long moment, we two exchanged gazes as if we were shocked by each other's presence. But the next moment he turned around, and like my soulers moved, he flashed and floated over the ground, heading directly towards the nearest portal.

Damn! He was running away!

"Not a chance!"

I was finally able to steal a glimpse of him. How would I let him escape just like this? Without even thinking about it, I moved my chariot to flash and move with its highest speed, directly heading towards him.

Even if I was heading to the middle of all these enemies, I didn't care! The thought never even crossed my mind! All I did was to just take out my two daggers, and without any hesitation threw the short one towards that running bastard.

*Bang!*

Just one hit… I just needed one hit… And I got it!

I moved fast, but that bastard wasn't slow either. Once my chariot flashed, it felt like the entire world was running damn slow except for the two of us.

He accelerated towards the nearest portal, but his speed wasn't that much compared to mine. I caught up with him while he just passed one leg through the portal.

And before he would move half of his body through the portal, my dagger slammed heavily at his back. It shone brightly while exploding its grenades of illusion at the same moment.

This explosion seemed to push away all the fog defending and enveloping that bastard, letting the dagger pierce through his back. It was done! My dagger tasted his blood. And no matter where he went, I'd be able to always find him.

"We… Will meet again…" a deep voice filled with anger and hatred came from him. For a moment I didn't know what to say back. For a reason, that voice seemed a bit familiar.

It was someone I knew. But who was he?

"Who are you?" I shouted even when he was already gone. I wanted to know who he was, now more than ever.

*Roar!*

"Kill him!"

"On me!"

Just as I stood there in deep shock, I was jolted awake with such roars and loud shouts.

I turned around and realised I was standing in the middle of the grand army. My chariot slammed against the ground.

509 Going To The Capital

"F*ck off!" I was pissed off right now to tolerate such impudence. I just looked at my fallen gods here, and the next moment the real apocalypse came to these enemies.

In the span of a few minutes, a large piece of ground around me was cleared. Even the nearby portals were shattered.

They weren't like portals created by the system, or even the grand portal that Hector crazy paragon created. They were fragile, not enduring a few hits from my boys.

"March around," I was so pissed off at the moment. So instead of flying, I ordered those pulling my chariot to run around, taking me on a tour.

A blooded tour indeed it was! In the span of the next hour, I killed and smashed to pieces all the portals here. All the enemies were routed back, killed and hacked by my forces.

I even controlled a large part of them using my technique, and then gave them the order to kill their kin.

I was mad at this moment. My foe, my deadly enemy that caused all this trouble, was just in front of me and slipped away!

I knew he was so damn close to that damn portal! But if I knew before that these portals were fragile, I'd have to attack that portal and those next to it first before coming at that bastard!

If I did so, he wouldn't have escaped! But what was the benefit of regret? As for my frustration, it was cool to have such enemies here to kill and vent my anger over them.

As I controlled enough, I called back my forces and started to fly again. I went directly towards my capital, with all the wrath that could swarm the entire world.

Like I expected, the part between my capital and Albany city was void of any such attacks. That bastard seemed to just arrive a few minutes before I arrived there.

In less than half an hour, I passed through the lands before coming to see my capital.

The scene there was just as ugly as I expected.

Albany city was cornered by one hundred portals that gushed out large armies there.

But here? It was in the thousands! They stretched for a long distance, covering the entire world around my capital and a big area around it.

My capital was initially formed by the merge of three cities, covering up a large area from the start. So it wasn't a surprise to see such dense numbers of portals pouring endless armies of monsters and mercenaries to hit the capital.

And the situation inside was something more terrible than I thought. The grand shield that stood erect against all the attacks till now was useless!

All the forces came through it like it wasn't there. Inside, brutal fights expanded and covered every single inch inside.

Blood ran like rivers all over the place. Many corpses were thrown in pieces, with many humans lying dead.

This fight… It was really desperate for my forces here.

"See those black things?" I slowly raised my right arm and pointed at the dense portals stretching to the horizon, "destroy these son of b*tches first! Come forth!"

I first gave the order to the fallen gods to destroy the portals, then I summoned my soulers, dragons, and my flying monsters. "Go around, stabilise the capital," I pointed at the capital, saying these words in such cold blood.

Daring to burn down my capital? Daring to come and attack my base? Then let's see how you'll fare against my boys then.

"Come out!" I called my Bulltors and shield bearers, "Kill all, leave none alive!"

I was already on top of the portal region. I didn't need to move around for now. Just throwing a bomb and it will kill many enemies no matter who.

The fire of attacks came, and the brutal and deadly attacks of my fallen gods landed at these portals. Many shattered in the first waves of attack, letting the influx of hostile forces decrease for now.

With my sudden appearance, the situation here changed. The forces inside started to get killed with my dragons and flying monsters. As for my soulers, they passed like they owned these lands, killing anything that stood in their path without a hurdle.

Their number was already above one hundred thousand. Compared to the millions here, I knew in logic they would be crushed.

But the difference in might was in favour of my soulers. Perhaps any other race would face trouble against these mercenaries and horned monsters.

They looked much stronger than the current limit of the apocalypse. So facing them meant being under a disadvantage.

However my soulers were unique! They targeted the enemy souls, not caring about anything else.

If one attack wouldn't bring that enemy down, then a couple, dozen, even a hundred times would do it.

In return they looked invincible to any physical attacks. No matter what their foes tried, they wouldn't get even a single wound.

The only thing that could hurt them would be magic based attacks. But luckily that bastard only brought forces using brute strength to fight.

As my soulers paved the path to the inside of the city with dead corpses of their enemies, my fallen gods kept smashing portals in batches while my weapons kept firing and spreading chaos and death at forces outside the shield.

This fight was going to be controlled by me. Especially when I started my technique and released my black threads to control the enemies.

The more I controlled and bound with contracts, the more brutal this fight became. I didn't even wait to gather up big forces of the enemy side. Anyone got controlled by mine, would instantly get the order to attack the others and kill.

It was a total bloodbath, one that suited my wrath better. Such brutality suited what I was feeling right now.

As my boys smashed most of the portals here, I started to move my chariot slowly around. Luckily these portals were situated in a circle around the capital, spanning for one mile width, filled with densely packed portals.

510 Winning War

So a single wave of attack was able to destroy dozens of these. I started to move slowly while kiting the enemy side bit by bit.

The situation started to be slightly stabilised enough for me to use my hawk eye skill.

Just seeing the brutal and chaotic situation inside made me inwardly sigh. This blow… It wasn't any less than the illusion my forces got before.

Yet when I watched more, I noticed the presence of the Hector forces I claimed before. They were all led by Lily, and it was clear among all my forces; they were the most outstanding ones.

They fought brutally without much struggle like my humans, worked in such great teamwork to make me feel envious.

I wanted my humans to move and fight in such synchrony. I knew such team work wouldn't be acquired from a single day of training. They must have been honed since their early days in their lives to be fighters.

And what fierce fighters they were!

Sigh! Even the forces trained by Selvators and Berserkers didn't even come close.

Next to them were the forces of my recently acquired advanced humans and Bulltors. They were fighting aggressively, chaotically, yet causing deep impact on the entire battlefield.

If they got the same team work like these bunch of Hectors, they would be a really terrifying force.

So I had to place them with Hectors, make them learn from them. Also I had the deal with Selvators and Fang. Yet when seeing those Hectors, I could only sigh for the big difference between the two sides.

Gradually I started to see my team. Hilary was fiercely fighting, using the advantage of numbers and terrain inside the city for her favour alongside the emblems and castles.

I was sure if not for these, the fight here would be already over. From the shape of it, they must have been fighting for long hours.

Did that bastard wait until I finished from the monster to move? Did he expect me to fall there? Or did he wait until I'd lower my guard by the win, which was exactly what happened?

Damn! What a hard and annoying foe to deal with!

One day… One day he would slip and fall under my hands. And I swear this time I wouldn't let him escape or even survive!

[Are you alright?] I kept sending such messages to the team and Hilary. But no matter how I sent, no matter how much I killed, there was no response.

It seemed the thing that the bastard used to seal this place wasn't related to the portals. Even after the last portal fell after an entire day of fighting, I never got a response from any of them.

The fight kept going brutally inside and outside the capital during this time. The size of enemies here was simply too much. But I didn't stop recruiting them as much as I could.

In the end we won this fight, after paying a big price indeed. The price we paid was mostly before I arrived.

I stood high in the air, overseeing most of my capital and lands around it. The piles of corpses and rivers of blood that formed even lakes at many parts were enough evidence to tell about the course of this war.

But… It ended… At last!

"Boss! Boss! They came out of nowhere!" The first to come to me was the spearhead. He ran, shouted in such a way, while his face was covered in dirt and blood.

That dude did a great job during this fight. I saw him using his ability all the time, to the max, trying to downgrade the strength of the enemies around him and his forces.

Thanks to that, the losses of his side weren't that much. In fact his side kept fighting brutally thanks to his ability, overcoming their enemies and moving around like cavalry.

They helped in any situation and place that was overwhelmed with enemies. No matter how high or strong his foes were, with his ability they held no chance at all.

"Come on board," I lowered my chariot and landed it on the ground, "but let your remaining forces gather up the corpses. Humans will be properly buried. Others will get fired at their end."

"Right now?!!" Leo was the second to arrive, "we just… our forces…"

I knew what he wanted to say. The forces were all exhausted mentally and physically. But doing such a thing was a must. This would make them recall this day and such losses.

Fighting a bitter battle was common in such a stage of the apocalypse. And it looked like our recent battles were just as intense as this one.

So I feared for them to get used to it, get used to losing their friends and people. This wasn't something good for humans, getting used to such coldness and harshness wasn't bad, but not feeling anything towards it was bad.

Making them do it when they were this tired would let them link what happened here and carve it deeply in their minds. They would never forget what happened here, never forget the fall of their friends and people.

Humans… We should fight as hard as we could, and we should treasure the dead of ours like they were heroes.

Recalling such a thing all the time would drive them to work harder to get stronger.

"Just do it," I rolled my eyes. If they were tired, then I was also the same, or even much more than them.

I jumped from one brutal fight to another, not having even a single moment of rest.

"Listen to boss," Hilary came and hit the two on the back of their heads like she was reprimanding them, "don't delay any longer or else you'll end up with more work."

"Y… Yes, ma'am," the two said in such a tone that told me they suffered under her hands.

But that wasn't a thing for me to comment on.

511 The MIT Campus Losses

If she acted harsh with them, then it would be great. I needed someone to strictly rule over this bunch of chaotic teams I got.

"What took you so long? Didn't you miss me?" Once she came on board, she said these words in such a seductive way.

"I knew something was wrong when you didn't message me," I rolled my eyes before adding, "and you didn't send anything at all, like you totally forgot about me."

"Liar," she punched me in the chest before adding, "I sent you tons of messages, but you never answered!"

"I got nothing," I shrugged, raising my hands in surrender, "I believe there is a seal over this place, preventing anyone from getting in touch with each other."

"I know," she sighed, "we couldn't even connect to each other during this fight. So I had to let that spearhead move around with his forces to relay orders and help others in the fight."

"How big?" I paused while looking around. The size of the forces here was really smaller than ever.

I knew the big army of humans returned here before I went to fight that monster. So they must have arrived. And seeing such a small amount here made me feel more bitter.

"We… Lost a lot," she was smart to get what I meant, and she said it in such a powerless way.

"I see," I could only accept such a result. After all this attack came out of the blue, and it was good we had little forces behind.

"Also… they targeted MIT campus…" she said this, and I instantly turned to glare at her.

"What?!!" my eyes shone in such a dangerous light that made her retreat a couple of steps backwards. "And the campus?" I demanded for more info, and she could only answer with trembling lips.

"Something… Change in you…" she could only stutter while saying that. I motioned for her to continue, while trying to control my rage.

"They came first attacking the entire place. So I first distributed the forces around, taking advantage of the emblems and the defences we built so far," she started to explain in detail what happened, and I kept nodding.

"But we were shocked to see them pass through the shield for the first time. Thanks to that, we were overwhelmed and nothing worked except those emblems and castles."

"And?"

"I had to scatter my forces around and focus them over these places. Once we did that, I noticed a change in the movements of these enemies. They started to move a large group towards the direction of the MIT campus by the river."

"And?"

She paused for a long moment, and I had to speak and ask her to add more.

"Once I noticed that, I moved the spearhead back to the campus. He managed to defend it, and luckily there was a group of emblems and castles nearby to help as well."

"What about the losses?" I knew she wouldn't bring the matter to that campus without a reason. If they managed to defend it, then why would she tell me about it?

"Well… We didn't have time to…"

"Just tell me what you know!" I felt like she was hesitating and delaying telling me such grave news.

Without controlling myself, I shouted and made her body tremble faintly. "Sorry," I gently held her body and grabbed her for a deep hug. "I'm just… Nervous and mad about such news."

"I… It's just you emit a weird and dangerous vibe," I could feel her body shaking. Was I getting so fiercer? What changed?

Well… I got many things to consider actually, and I wasn't in the mood to think about any of it. I just wanted to know how big the losses here were, to just adjust myself to what would happen next.

I came here, selected this as my capital to surround and defend my MIT campus. Damn! I thought that the bastard's goal was to hit my forces and annihilate my capital.

But in fact he was targeting such a crown jewel and cornerstone of my entire plan. But how? How did he know about this?

I looked around, my team was the trustworthy dudes who knew about my plan.

Or was it one of the youths working on this project? Or what?

Damn this! This dude was getting much harder to deal with and even understand! But this time… The hit was really painful.

"Tell me… How much did we lose?" I couldn't ignore knowing the answer to this question.

"Almost more than half…" she paused, but I hugged her tighter to not stir up her fears again.

"Is that a final assessment?" I asked, and she shook her head slowly within my arms.

"Sigh! Ok, send those from that campus to see and assess the situation," I paused for a second before adding, "let them try and repair whatever they could. Hopefully we didn't lose important stuff here."

"Ok," she moved a little away before pausing, "damn! This blocking thing is really annoying!"

I got what she meant. I totally forgot there was a total blackout here.

"Ok, go and tell them in person," I said, "this mission is really important, you know it, right?"

"I… Know," she nodded before moving downstairs. I watched her return to the destroyed capital, before turning and decided to take a tour around to assess damage.

My capital… This hit taught me such a valuable lesson of not letting it undefended properly. Even with hundreds and even millions of forces, the capital didn't feel safe.

What would make it safe? Aside from me getting stationed here, I had to find another solution.

Even the mighty shield I depended upon was breached as if it was made of soap bubbles.

That was an alarm, a warning call for me to wake up. I was mighty, but that only applied to me and not the rest of my forces.

I got to work harder on my forces, not just myself!

512 [Bonus chapter] Going To Check Damage

To be frank… The damage this time was severe! The capital was saved before from damage even when I fought brutally against Hectors.

Someone preserved my capital back then, and now it got such damage that it pained my heart. I took a long and slow tour around, feeling how bad this was.

I… Was quite negligent. I got overconfident, arrogant perhaps, thinking that no one could even touch a single hair of me.

But I forgot in the middle of all this the wide gap between me and my forces. I was a real hegemony, but my weak point was and still is my strength.

As I returned, I went directly towards the MIT campus. The place where it overlooked the river with its ancient style building was mostly gone! Only part of it stood, while many buildings there were destroyed partially or even totally.

I kept this picture and engraved it deeply in my mind and soul. Just like I treated my boys and let them bury their comrades in arms, I descended from my chariot and decided to help here.

I had to always remember such loss. Last time I got hit by that bastard was when I was away fighting against that alien universe folks.

And this time I was away busy fighting against that brutal and savage monster. Each time I had no way to come and interfere. Each time I was so damn busy to handle anything else.

I had to learn my lessons. This enemy of mine would alway exploit weak points and moments like these.

The solution of always taking care of my things wouldn't work. I would face such desperate situations in the apocalypse, not to mention my plans to go to the golden quests.

I had to make my boys stronger, make them able to handle any kind of situation no matter what. My best general was hit during the illusion attack and was confined in my chariot to heal.

I couldn't just depend on that damn jumper! Besides, how did that bastard learn about all this? I felt like that bastard was seeing through everything, knowing what was happening like he was a real god.

Or was he someone who came back from time, just like myself? However the time I came from had no one like me.

Did he come from the current time future? Did he come from the world where I turned into an eternal legend? With records writing everything I passed through in the tiniest detail?

Damn! Who just was he?!

I had no intel but my dagger. I sent it through to get a taste of his blood. All I needed now was to call it back, then use it to guide me towards that bastard's place.

But I had no way to do it right now. My capital was raised to the ground in many zones, and I even lost lots of the equipment in this facility.

I had to assess everything. I had to put plans for the training future of my forces. Then I'd have time to go and venture after that son of b*tch.

I knew he would dispose of my dagger the moment he'd go out from that portal. So let him be, I'd just recall my dagger when I feel so and would look for that motherf*cker.

I wouldn't kill him fast. I'd first torture him like I never did before with anyone. After knowing his whole story, I'd decide if letting him live and serve me like a lowly dog was a better end for him or just death would be the resting end.

For a reason, I wanted to force him to live and serve. Such punishment would be enough for the likes of him.

As I moved in the rubbles, watching the damaged gears and the protruding electric wires and circuits like the belly of a beast got smashed with a mighty hit, I thought about something.

What did I ever do to him to hate me like this?

That… Was another mystery I had to get an answer to from him when I got my hands on that bastard.

"Lord!"

"Lord!"

"Lord is here!"

Just as I took a turn, I was met with many young faces. Looking at them, looking at these young and long ago promising faces with many things they planned for their lives, I got only to sigh.

The apocalypse left its mark deeply over them. Just a single look at any of them and anyone would get the feeling of pain, loss, anger, and regret.

They looked poor in my eyes, the same like anyone else in my human race in this damn apocalypse.

"At ease," I said while clenching my fists to control my disturbed thoughts, "what is the situation here?"

"Hye…" the voice of Hilary came from behind this group of hundreds before they made a way for her to come to me. "What are you doing here?"

She was whispering like my presence here wasn't legal or allowed or something.

"I gave the order for my boys to bury our dead," I said while looking at the young faces around, "and this is my part to never forget about such a defeat."

"Defeat… Hye, we won!" Hilary's tone and attitude told me that she didn't want me to speak in such a way. She even held my arm and tried to pull me aside.

However I resisted her move and simply freed my arm from her with a simple shrug. Even when I tried to be gentle with her, she retreated a couple of steps, looking at me in such a surprised way.

"We might have won in terms of military fight, but in terms of science, we lost," I said these words without any pain or regret, just stating the facts.

"We have lost many of our gears on the hand of an enemy who seemed to know what we were doing here."

"Are you implying that…"

"No," I firmly shook my head, interrupting what Hilary was about to say. She jumped to the simplest and easiest guess here, there was a traitor among us, someone who worked for that bastard.

513 Blame Me! Not You!

"He knows about all of our plans… In his own way," I looked around to make sure no one got the wrong idea here, "and our job is to keep moving forward and to achieve the goal we set for ourselves no matter what!"

"…"

Silence was what I got. And the first sound that came was the sound of me lifting a big rock over a half smashed device. "Come, take this away and start working on it," I said to the startled youths around.

"Hye… Since when… did you become such… Strong?!!" Hilary from the side was taken aback by what I did. And when she said it, I realised how big the rock I just lifted was.

It was in the weight of tons, even tens of tons actually. Yet I lifted it without even feeling any pressure or stress.

I used my arm, my right arm, to lift it. "It's a long story, for another time," I said to her before turning to others, "you are my Heaven kingdom's future scientists. You will work on what you know best, and leave such low work for me."

"L… Lord!" A few exclaimed in shock while others exchanged weird looks between themselves, and even few looked at Hilary..

And Hilary could only stare at me without blinking for a few seconds before sighing. "You heard your lord, go to work and don't disappoint him," she shouted, while giving me such a weird look full of questions.

Few youths came and grabbed that half smashed device away. I let the rock fall again before turning to another.

"Are you planning to do this alone?" Hilary stood on the side, "let me at least help you."

"No," I firmly declined, "I'm their lord, the one who gave them such dreams of happiness, peace, and prosperity. Such damage isn't supposed to be what they should experience."

"We are in the apocalypse," Hilary retorted back in defending me against my thoughts.

"If so then I shouldn't have talked too much about building my Heaven kingdom," I said while letting another rock rest slowly on the ground, "it's me who gave such a dream to them. And it's me who should shoulder the responsibilities of such a dream."

"You…"

"Don't try, I already accepted my own punishment," I said while going towards another rock to lift.

"Working as a worker is your punishment?!!"

"No, enduring the weight of this loss is my punishment," I said, "I'm not lifting rocks, I'm carrying all their worries and pains, shouldering them and helping them all overcome these…"

I let the youths take away another device before jumping to another rock, "This is my way of reflecting over what I did wrong here."

"You… Did nothing wrong! Hye, speaking like this makes my heart ache!"

"Let it be then," I shrugged, "after all we all are sharing the same fault here. It's us who should defend these kids and secure their future. It's us who should make sure what we dream of happens. Not to let our enemies overrun us and destroy what we held dear to us like this."

"…"

She knew speaking to me in such a state of mind was bad. So she decided to stand by in silence and watch without saying a single word.

In return I kept working hard over my own way of punishing myself. With each rock I lifted, with each device smashed and damaged, I engraved all these into my soul and mind.

I would never forget this moment, not ever forget how carelessness and arrogance would lead to such disaster.

Even if I crushed all the races in my world, the universe was so damn big to let me feel invincible or mighty. I had to know my real place in such a vast universe, and accept the presence of more formidable enemies lurking in the shadows.

Thanks to that bastard, I got to rethink my life's philosophy. I would deal with things differently from now on. Wouldn't just accept winning without thinking about my real place in the world.

I had to grow up and mature, not be that kid who came here with nothing and anything he achieved would make him excited and overjoyed.

I had to mature… To become the real pillar those weak and poor humans in this world and others needed.

"It's done," I said after a few hours of working. Once I finished lifting the last rock, I turned to see the faces around.

During the past hours, I kept working while lost in my thoughts. I didn't notice the gathering of my forces here. They stood in silence, watching their mightiest figure, their lord working like a poor little man, watching me lifting rocks and serving the youths of MIT campus.

"I'll leave this place to you," I didn't feel ashamed when everyone stood and watched. I was dealing with such loss in my own way, and it would be better for all of them to watch.

No matter who, no matter what anyone contributed to my kingdom or humanity, none was above punishment, not even their mighty lord, not even me!

"Gather everyone up," I went towards my chariot in the distance while saying this to Hilary, "also leave a word here, I want to know how big our losses are."

"Ok," Hilary seemed to be shaken from what I did, and seemed to stop arguing with me.

Anyway, I went to my chariot and rested on the roof of it. I waited for my team to arrive in groups, while Hilary came at last.

"Boss… Why did you… you know?" The spearhead was the first to openly talk about this matter.

"It's my way to punish myself."

"But… You did nothing wrong!" Isabella looked at others and they all nodded. "We… It's our fault! We failed to defend the city."

"And I was the one to blame here," Hilary sighed, standing in front of me as she added in firm tone, "I was the one who led our forces to fall into that enemy's trap."

514 Planning For Future

I gave her a long silent look before sighing. "If you, the one with such vast experience, fell in his trap, that means anyone else wouldn't have done any better."

"But…"

"You can't blame yourselves in such a way," I stood up, looked at everyone, "I did that as I'm the lord of the kingdom, the biggest figure in it. You… You are my trusted aides, my valiant generals, the real pillars I depend upon to build my kingdom on your shoulders."

"It's more reason for us to…"

I raised my hand in the face of Hilary to stop her. "Your part isn't to regret and blame yourselves, but to honestly analyse your shortcomings and learn your weaknesses. Knowing what caused all this and doing all your best to correct them is the best way to pay for this loss here."

I turned to Lily before adding, "I gathered all of you here not to speak about the past. What happened happened. Only a kid would cry over what passed. I gathered you all here to speak and plan about our future."

"Nice," Lily was covered in stains of blood and mud. I still recalled how valliant and mighty she fought alongside her people..

"As I told you before leaving here before, I planned to make you all train and get stronger. However…"

"Boss… Didn't you just say we need to reflect and work on our weak spots? We are weak, and we need to train. Please, don't take away such opportunities from us!"

It was Sara, and she looked startled by what I just said.

"In fact, I have good news," I knew my depressed look gave away another impression. But I really had good news for them.

I told them about the deal with Selvators in brief. I skipped what really happened for such a deal to happen and just focused on the training part.

I also said that I got a deal to get more humans, ones who belonged to other apocalypses.

"Are you… Going to buy all human slaves?!!!" but there was one here who recognised what I was speaking about, and it was Lily.

"You sure are well informed," I nodded, "I'm going to do exactly like that."

"But… You know that doing this will make others raise the price. This isn't going to be a good thing for you, for all of us."

"Wealth… Is the last thing I lack in this apocalypse," I was bragging about this. In fact with my bones, and stable income from all the dead bodies around, there was no way I'd not secure such a deal for a long time.

Even if it cost me ten times what I paid right now, it was still worth it. All races were strong and mighty not only because they were organised or had lots of powerhouses.

It was because they were together! Just looking at the finely scaled Lily made me sure of this. Her race decided to invade my apocalyptic world just to answer my actions towards their people.

What I got wasn't the cream crop of their race. I was sure whoever got into the net of the Bringold impact hunting teams were the weakest of the Hectors.

But even for the weakest, they'd prefer to wage a bigger war to secure their people. I wanted to be like them. I wanted my human race to be like these Hectors and many other mighty and scary races in this vast universe.

I want anyone thinking about harming my race anywhere in the universe to think thrice before doing it. My race, my humans, would turn into a red line that no one should trespass. And if they did, they should pay a very hefty price for that.

"I hope you know what you are doing," she blinked twice, showing care and concern for me.

"Hey, scaled girl, he is taken!" Just at this moment, a tigress jumped and hung her arms around my neck. When I heard what Hilary said, I recalled our debate about Lily from before.

Damn! This chick was targeting Lily. I looked at Lily, hoping she would act wise and say something nice.

"Who said so? Each time I saw, I found his fingers ringing!" damn! I was mistaken! Lily wasn't wise, wasn't wise at all!

"Humph, one day this will happen, you'll see," Hillary harrumphed, before leaning her head over my chest, "at least I got to taste him. Not just looking from far away and dreaming."

"Humph! We'll see about this," and Lily seemed to accept the challenge and issue another with her fierce eyes.

What brought me in between these two? What drifted the talk to this dark alley?

"Lily will lead the training of the elite forces," I said to end this useless confrontation, "as for the normal forces, they will move to the Selvator places. We will use them to train them, and those who become outstanding from them will have a chance to learn from Lily and her people."

"Why her?" Hilary got startled by my arrangement. But I'd accept any comment about anything else but this arrangement.

"As for the humans coming here, I need a team to be formed for welcoming and registering them," I turned to my team, who seemingly got themselves distanced from the fight between the two tigresses.

"You will seek for special talents and arrange them in teams," I started to organise things here, "we need construction teams, teams to help our scientists, teams to build up defences, and others to arrange the overall rebuilding process of the entire kingdom."

"So we are focusing on rebuilding?" Sara asked, "what about fighting? What about fighters?"

"We will seek for them as well," I nodded but I had to stress over this point, "but our top priority here is to build our kingdom, rebuild our destroyed cities and towns, prepare places for our people to live in and breed."

"Bre… Boss, what do you have in your mind?" the spearhead jumped when he heard me say this.

515 Is Karoline Dead?

"We need more humans," I rolled my eyes as this dirty minded person got it all right, "we lost a lot. Unlike other races, we lost most of our people in the beginning of all this."

When I said this, I focused on Lily who shrugged.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"What Hye said is true!"

And at this moment, a face came up from the direction of the stairs, grabbing everyone's attention.

Damn! At this moment, Isac came on board! I had to pray this girl would play her role as a boy much better than what she did before with the jumper.

Unlike the jumper, Hilary was a trained wardog who would sniff the scent of any tits from miles away!

"Who… Is he?" Hilary looked at me in a weird way, giving me the feeling she sniffed something..

Damn! Why was my luck with girls this bad? First was Karoline, then Hilary… Wait… "Where is Karoline?!" I suddenly recalled her, looking around but she was nowhere to be seen.

"This…" everyone seemed to get electrified when I asked this. I turned to Lily and she seemed like a cat who got caught while stealing fish.

"I… Last time I saw her was when we got to move to the frontlines… Does anyone else see her?" She turned and asked, but no one stepped in to help.

"So she is… Lost?!" I was surprised to hear that. Such a thing happened, and in such a battle… did that mean she… No way! She couldn't be dead!

"Can't you… Just…" the spearhead seemed to think about contacting her by messages.

"Damn fool! Did you forget? We can't get in contact with each other right now!" I rolled my eyes, "go, go out now! Spread the word, let everyone look for her. Pray she is alright!"

"As if she is your girl!" Hilary rolled her eyes, and I only glared in silence to her.

"I know… I know… She is part of the team, I got it!" she raised both hands in the air. But before leaving, she leant over and painted a soft and long kiss over my lips while moving her eyes in the direction of all watching Lily.

These two girls… They were just acting so childish even in such a situation.

I watched them disembark and go towards the ground, talking and leading their forces around to search.

This girl… She seemed to give me lots of trouble of late. What went wrong in her head?

If she fought, then many would have noticed her. But it seemed something went wrong and she skipped the entire fight, or most of the critical part at least.

I knew she wasn't dead. After all, her name was still there. I forgot to ask god's about this. The feedback of all channels were cut off and no one knew what even happened here.

So my best guess was that she was injured somewhere. But to be honest, I didn't truly believe in that.

The forces already buried the dead and took care of the wounded. So if she was wounded, she would have been found a long time ago.

Did she perhaps run away? Could this be what really happened?

I didn't jump to conclusions. But if she wasn't here, dead or alive, then there was no other explanation but that.

She ran away? What for? Sigh! Why did I get into such trouble when I felt hours ago I had nothing to shake me?

"She… Is nowhere to be seen!"

As I feared, after four hours of searching, the team returned with depressed heads and looked at me in such disgrace.

"Would she be…" Hilary stopped and I got what she wanted to say.

"She wasn't acting herself out of late," I sighed, "but that doesn't mean she is a traitor."

"Then…" Isabella paused, looked at Lily, "you dealt with her the most recently… Can you tell us anything that might help?"

"Sigh, I told him before… She looked weird, but she didn't take any bait. I sat up for her," Lily said in an annoying tone, "she didn't look normal, but she never did anything to make her be in any fault."

"She was smart," Hilary sighed, and I wasn't convinced with all this.

"If she was a bad person, she would have done anything in her power to demolish our work here," I expressed what I had in mind.

"What about working with that enemy of ours?" Sara asked in such an aggressive way.

"She can't be like this," Angelica stepped forward, defending Karoline in such an unexpected way, "she might be hurt, might be facing trouble at times, but she isn't a bad person. Come on guys, it's Karoline!"

She looked around, and I saw everyone lowering their heads when their eyes came in contact with hers.

"We will keep looking for her," I decisively said, "we will get to the bottom of this."

"Let's form teams to look out for her then," Hilary could only sigh and accept my decision.

"I'll lead them," in such an unexpected move, Alex proposed and moved forward to lead the search team.

"I'll come with you then," Leo who stood all silent this time, seemingly got infected from the calm and peaceful nature of his girl, couldn't stay silent and watch.

"Deal," I didn't want to delay any further. "I'll also assign dragons for you two to use," I added.

"Damn! I now envy you, dude!" The spearhead moved and patted his thick arm at Leo's weak back. Leo coughed and was pushed forward a couple of steps, looking back at the spearhead in such a blaming way.

"Alright," I said to conclude this, "go now and always keep me posted."

I waved my arm and a group of one hundred big dragons appeared. Their sudden appearance and line up made everyone feel the same as the spearhead.

"Follow these two all the time, and listen to their orders. Keep them safe!"

"Roar!"

516 I Learnt Designs

The dragons roared in such a fierce way while I motioned to the two lovers to get on their backs and start their search.

"But boss…" Leo paused before adding, "the message system is down!"

"I'll find a place outside of here as a base," this was also part of my future planning of my capital.

Just depending on the ancient building of Boston and the other two cities nearby was useless. I had to rebuild the entire place, take advantage of the empty zones outside, even adding more towns and a few cities around in my capital.

My capital must not be a normal city. It should be a fortress! One that would stand alone in front of anything and triumph.

"What about us?" Sara asked.

"Like I said," I sighed, throwing away Karoline's problem behind my back, "we need to arrange a team to welcome the new humans. Then you can select your elites to start training under Lily's instructions."

"I can't start like this," but Lily suddenly said, "I need a lot of things first."

"Anything you want just buy from the market, I'll handle all the fees" I got she might need resources, items for training, and even prepare a place for such a thing..

"But…"

She was about to argue but the next moment, her eyes went wide out of surprise. She just got one billion coins. "This is the advance payment… anything else just let me know and I'll cover any cost up."

She froze for a long moment before finally nodding in such a happy way. "It's enough as a start," she said and I grinned.

"And anything else you want, you can use the help of Bulltors and high humans."

"Are we going to use them as work labour now?!!" Hilary was already taking the opposite side of Lily.

"Do you have a better opinion?" I rolled my eyes and she seemed to get none.

"About the team…" Angelica stepped in to relieve this undesired tension, "who will deal with the incoming humans… We can use normal humans to do that, letting the elites train."

"Good point," the spearhead nodded.

"That's wrong!"

"Bad point!" the spearhead shook his head, making him gain a glaring look from me to shut the hell up.

"Why?" Angelica ignored the fat dude and focused on me instead.

"They lack the good and experienced eye to recognise the good from the bad," I said, "we need good people to lead them. Leaving things to such weak humans will bring us nothing but trouble!"

"Then I'll take the lead on this," Hilary hurriedly said, and Angelica followed: "Me too!"

"That's enough," the spearhead seemed to want to volunteer, but I cut the path over this lazy jerk by saying this. "The rest will go and prepare the training place with Lily."

"What about the reconstruction process?" Isac asked, attracting everyone's attention to her again.

"Who… Is he again?" Hilary seemed to grow fishy of him, pointing at Isac as if she was pointing at Lily.

"You can handle it," I said, ignoring the question of Hilary.

"Who is he again?" But Hilary wasn't ready to give up.

"I'm a Selvator race paragon," Isac said in such aloof and arrogant way that made me inwardly sigh.

"And what are you doing here?" Everyone instantly turned wary of Isac, looking at him like they were looking at an enemy.

"He… Is an ex-paragon," I had to step in to stop any bloodbath, "and now he is part of our team."

"Damn fierce, boss! Snatching a paragon? Damn cool!" the spearhead said in admiration while others looked at me in surprise.

Even Hilary looked surprised by this.

"I got… Him back at the illusion battle," I said in short explanation, "and now he is part of our team. He is called Isac, please treat him well."

"Sure dude, you are now a brother to me," the spearhead jumped as he slammed his heavy arm at Isac's back like what he did with Leo minutes ago.

But tactfully Isac stepped aside, escaping such incoming heavy blows without the need to do extra effort.

"Damn! You are good!" the spearhead prevented himself from falling while saying this in surprise.

"Let's get rolling boys, and girls," I said to end this conversation here. "Go now and start working. I'll summon the humans out there, so go down and gather up what you trust."

I was talking to Hilary and Angelica, and the two nodded. As the chariot was emptied from everyone else but Isac, I let my chariot fly away first before saying in sincere advice:

"If you don't end up dead in the hands of my chick, make sure your acting is flawless."

"I'm a perfect actor! I've trained for years to act like a man!"

"Yes, tell me about it!" I answered her with a roll of my eyes and a long sigh.

"What? I really trained hard!" she said in defence, and I couldn't help but comment:

"In singing and dancing? Yes, you trained damn hard to act like a man!"

"Don't belittle my higher ups arrangements! They never trained me in these things only! I also trained in party arrangements, fashion, decorations, and even etiquette!"

"…"

Right now I knew I was fighting a losing cause! Dammit! What went wrong in their heads when they planned her training? Was someone preparing her to be the wife of his son or something?

Damn those jerks!

"What?!" she crossed her arms, and just looking at her posture made me sigh.

"What's written must be seen!"

"Excuse me?"

"Nothing," I shrugged, deciding to drop such a cause and not think about it for now. Hilary got the secret of the jumper and didn't react fiercely towards it. I just hoped she would be generous and understanding to do the same with Isac.

"Have you worked before in something like this?" I asked her, tryng to get over her troublesome identity.

"I learnt designs," she said in pride.

517 The Poor Humans

"Cities designs?"

"Dresses designs," she blurted such a bomb and landed it over my head.

"Damn girl! We aren't talking about making a fashion brand! I want to rebuild my city and my entire kingdom!"

"Don't worry, they are both the same," she spoke in such confidence that left me not knowing what to say, "they both are similar, trust me. To do dresses, we need to draw designs first. And believe me, such things are really complicated and need lots of attention."

"O… Ok…" I just prayed she knew what she was doing. I didn't want my kingdom to end up in the design of a big bare shoulder dress or something.

What would it be called? The sexy dress kingdom? Or the bare shoulder kingdom? Damn! Why did I select her for such a task! Should I…

"Don't worry, I can handle it," she said in such confidence that made me sigh.

"Ok, but if you screwed up…".

"I will never screw up!"

"Yes, I know!" I looked at her while sighing again. This girl… Was she lost deep in her delusion to this extent? Damn!

"Fine," I resigned to her will. Even if she screwed up, I'd make sure for her to start small first before making anything big.

If she did good as she claimed, then I'd let her handle the rest. I really hoped for her to be the person she was claiming to be. Or else I'd have to start looking around.

I didn't stand there for much longer. The two girls came back with a group of a thousand people following them.

In fact the entire capital was now bustling with much activity from many teams.

I saw the big army of Bulltors and high humans going to a place over the other side of the river. Lily seemed to plan to use the other bank of the river to establish the training zone there.

As for the other forces, they were bustling with many movements. It seemed the team was selecting and organising things there, selecting those who would follow Lily and those who would go to the Fang's side.

As for me, I'd finish things here first. Bringing humans here was important. I'd first supervise over things and make sure nothing wrong would happen.

Also I needed to see how Isac would perform in her reconstructing task.

"You can go down stairs for now," I turned to her when the two girls approached.

"For what?" Isac seemed to read my thoughts, "don't worry, I can fool anyone!"

"Even blind people won't be fooled by you!" I smacked her on the head, "go down there and save both of us the trouble. Start working on your early sketches and show me something in one hour."

"Deal!" she answered my words with such challenging spirit and gazes before turning around and vanishing through the stairs.

Then in the next few minutes, Hilary and Angelica came up while the people following them stood in respect and silence down below.

"Where is that dude?" Once reaching up here, Hilary turned around and looked for Isac. What I was worried about happened, and this chick seemed to sniff something fishy about Isac.

"He… Is down stairs working on the sketches of the capital," I honestly answered, and my tone and sincerity fooled Hilary at last.

"Ok, where are our boys then?" Angelica asked, "I see no humans here."

"One second," I tested and it seemed this place wasn't covered up in such annoying seals.

I selected a place more than a mile outside the city. It was at the border where the portals were thickly aligned.

As I thought, that bastard only applied that seal on my capital inner zones. Was it his limit? Did he have to pay a price for that?

Lots of secrets were surrounding that dude.

[Can you send humans over] I sent the message to the green lady winged nymph.

[At last! I worked my best to grab all the humans I could. But you have to prepare your bones, I got above forty million here]

Forty million? That was almost double what I thought she and her impact would be able to gather in such a short time.

[Ok, I'll add a few more bones as a reward for your efforts] said and sent the bones enough to cover up fifty million. I also sent her an extra of ten bones.

[Damn! You seem pleased by this! I'll make sure to make you happy all the time. Just ask, and you'll be satisfied]

[Only for work, only work can please me] I rolled my eyes. She seemed to select the worst time to send such words over to me.

*Fwoosh!*

Yet the next moment, many portals opened around. Just with their appearance, a large number of humans appeared.

Just from the first look, anyone could tell how harsh their lives were! They were bare chested, even the ladies wore nothing on top. Only a short piece of dirty brown cloth covered their waist.

From the look on their faces, one could see misery and feel terrible for them.

"These…" Hilary and Angelica were taken aback by such a scene. I also felt bad about this. I never expected to see my humans in such status.

They were… Poor and pathetic! Was this how humans look like in the eyes of the entire universe? Was this how all the races here looked at us? Just pathetic and poor slaves who used to get nothing but harsh life and poor treatment?

Damn! Damn! Just looking at them gushing out in such a condition made the blood boil in my body.

"Hye… If you ever held me high in your heart, please don't stop saving those people," Hilary seemed to get a deep shock from what she saw, even speaking to me in such tone.

"Don't worry," I patted gently on her arms, "I won't stop, I won't close an eye over any human no matter who he or she came from."