As my gaze remains fixed on the silver contraption at the back of the room, where Ember is contained, I feel the mind inside the pod shift. In response, the link within my rising Emperor's Domain activates, bypassing the need for direct contact through my aura to enable telepathic messages.
"You've been quite busy since the B-Class exams. Our power has grown a substantial amount... While our stats and mana control are linked through our system pact, divine energy cannot be created nor destroyed. I must awaken my True Core alone, using an old technique I created."
There's a brief pause—less than half a second—before a pulse of weak divine energy ripples through the room. Ember's voice then vibrates through my mind at a rapid pace.
"You found yourself an amplifier too... how interesting."
I raise an eyebrow, replying through the link while my peripheral vision tracks the black cube slowly rotating around me.
"What is an amplifier?"
There's a much longer pause before Ember replies again.
"It is difficult to explain in these circumstances. I must keep my mind and body focused on compressing my core without harming your teammates or crippling my own core with too many movements before it's complete..."
Another pause, even longer than the first, follows before Ember continues.
"I have a few hundred yellow fragments of my own from the construct. I will add them to the room's cycle; it should be enough for me to finish in less than a month within this pod, which will be three days on the outside."
Our link grows silent for a moment before he speaks again.
"An amplifier is the result of an originator's failed ascension. This was before the era of demons and the system, and the ascension process was different. It is the echo of a dead soul that holds onto the mortal realm with a desire too strong to be broken by death alone. They cannot think, lie, act, or grow more than they already know, but often share incredible powers with those who share a common desire."
Ember's cryptic description doesn't tell me much more than I could have guessed, but the fact that he says they cannot lie makes me less hesitant to leave the cube floating around me. The mention of a different process of ascension raises an eyebrow.
I remember, in the statue's memories, beams of light all over the world, and its description of those beings ascending, though it didn't know how it died or have any memories before its death.
I reply quickly, "How do I use it? Or activate its powers?"
After no reply for a few more seconds, I assume Ember has fallen into his final state of concentration. I leave him with a final message.
"Well... the faster you awaken your core the better. The throne is opening its doors in four days."
As I turn around and pull out a teleport crystal, a final reply echoes through our link, slower this time.
"One day for us to train together will be more than enough. Focus on what you can do in the present. All amplifiers are unique. It will most likely take an absurd amount of divine energy to activate; it was a True Core holder in its past life, after all. I must focus now. See you soon."
Our link goes quiet, and I look around the room at my teammates, still cycling the divine energy in the air around them. They, too, are in total concentration.
I peer into their cores to see how far along they've come and notice that Maria has the most saturated core of all. At this rate, she'll complete her breakthrough even before Ember wakes up. Abby appears to be in a similar state, lagging by about 30%, but she maintains a constant ring of restoration below everyone in the bunker. Fisher and Lydia are absorbing far fewer yellow threads than I expected. At this rate, they won't awaken their yellow cores within four days. The natural talent barrier shows itself again.
At this thought, my perception expands through the city, across the dark continent, and further to Raven's nation and the eight great regions. They are the most powerful beings in all these lands, aside from a few exceptional order members who have been training since before we were even born. The only reason they seem lacking is that they're in a room full of true monsters.
I smirk, whispering to myself while crushing my teleport crystal, "Good work, you four. Stay at it. I'll return soon."
Disappearing in a flash of light, I think about how, once they awaken, I'll appoint them as my generals within my rising Emperor's Domain. The purple name tag of Arie floats in the back of my mind, as he is still deep within the abyss. I'd like to appoint him too.
However, these thoughts soon fade as more important work comes to mind. I materialize in the lobby of the Apex Region's Association headquarters and sift through my memories of my doubles, I realize Bri and Rodrigo have already begun mapping out the best locations to start my tour to strengthen the numbers within my rising Emperor's Domain.
I smile, connecting with them and my nearby double, and get to work.
—
Over the next two days, everything goes exactly as planned.
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Many residents of Palmyra migrate to a new settlement actively being built in the mountainous region where Sebastian, the True Core Order member, once stayed. With the help of mass teleportation crystal travel, this is done quickly. Some stay behind to wait the war out, but the majority wants to come to the mainland. With over sixty thousand people flooding into the area, the population quadruples. My doubles bring in large amounts of raw mana from the artificial mountains, seeding the air with enough ambient mana for faster natural MP recovery.
With this influx, trade routes connect many smaller native villages along the lakes' outer edges. Upon contact, I distribute resources, give a unifying speech, and project a larger-than-life illusion of the Flame Emperor to every village, gaining another 7,441 links of loyalty.
This is just the start.
As new roads connecting the Dark Continent and the eight great regions are built, I map out and plan to visit every village along these paths. I convey that the eight great regions and the Dark Continent will soon face a great war and need their support.
Knowledgeable merchants and hand selected Crimson Army members accompany me on my tours. When I move to the next scheduled location, they stay behind to explain details to those wanting more information about the coming events.
During the two days that pass, I visit 143 small villages throughout the Dark Continent and the eight great regions. Settlements with 1,000-20,000 citizens receive gifts of magic items and fresh food not available in certain regions, drawing crowds. I offer better housing, unlimited dungeon access, and free training from high-level hunters. I promise to connect them with trade routes that will boost local economies, even if they don't join me. In return, I only ask for their trust and loyalty; over 50% form links of loyalty with me on average, and my influence spreads.
Rumors begin circulating in nearby villages that I'll visit them next.
With merchants and army members accompanying me, I need a quick way back to the Crimson City. I create two public teleport platforms outside the Crimson Dome. Groups of trusted guides escort those curious to see this Crimson City I speak of.
Large-scale housing projects within the Crimson Dome are paying off, with thousands more entering, seeking opportunities.
At night, with no more cities to visit as most citizens sleep, I take time to train. I assist my double in transferring pure mana from the artificial mountains into my labyrinth. The higher floors have slow respawn rates, with 5 to 10 monsters per floor and up to 30 minute reset counters. Even so, each monster up here grants hundreds of billions to even trillions of MCP. So, I dungeon walk to all floors above the 80th to constantly farm large amounts of mana control.
After two nights of this, the labyrinth reaches 106 floors. The highest level monster I face is level 7599.
During my off time while waiting for monsters to respawn in the dead of night, I do a few side projects.
The first is siphoning a massive amount of the collected Qi from the sea floor into the Crimson Dome.
I find there isn't enough to make it larger, nor is there enough to create more. My initial plans of surrounding every major city in domes of their own seems a little too far fetched. I decide to make my home base stronger instead.
The Crimson Dome's Soul energy density increases by over 20x. I do not imbue any divine energy into it, as the aura would be very harmful to normal hunters. However, with this increased strength I'm confident most yellow cores would have trouble breaking through it even if they worked all day.
While resting and healing from the fatigue of draining my entire Soul energy Core multiple times, I do attempt to talk to the jet-black cube that now constantly rotates around me.
It never responds like it did before...
I even fly out in the dead zone areas of the desert and attempt to unleash the full power of my True Core to trigger some kind of activation.
All it does is continue to spin around me, and rotate in the opposite direction every time I touch it.
When my stealth skill is activated, it disappears too, and when I try to scan it, its as if the artifact isnt even there.
It is constantly on the back of my mind while I continue my tours, fulfilling the first stage of my plan. I have no more leads to new sources of divine power on this world, so as the sun rises, I prepare for the next major boost in potential strength I can get, mentally mapping the large-scale events scheduled in Solara, Valor City, and every capital city in the eight great regions today.
The first citywide event I have scheduled is in Vice City. It will have a dual purpose, notifying all of the contracted hunters of their leader's replacement, and being the first major city in the world that the Flame Emperor chooses to spread dominance through.
A few of the smaller surrounding cities were visited yesterday, so I'm positive whispers have spread already.
I stare down at my Rising Emperor's domain interface while hovering over the crimson city watching the links of loyalty rise slowly past half a million as word continues to spread and people prepare for their days.
The awakened I've formed links with in the smaller villages is low, under [Lv. 30] on average. So, the amount of stats I've gained access to in the last few days from over half a million links is about equal to the amount I gained from 60 thousand strong hunters on palmyra.
Still, it is a massive amount. My total stats that I can pull from has grown by over 40x since I began this venture on Palmyra, and this isn't even the final stage of my plan.
Today, I'm going mainstream with my goals.
The entirety of the Dark Continent and 8 Great Regions will soon hear my name.
As I close my status, preparing to check on Ember and my teammates' progress before I set off on my biggest tour yet, I feel a familiar sixteen wells of gravity hit my senses. The scouts from Central have returned, and from what I gathered while eavesdropping, they won't leave until they accurately assess Ember's core and return the data to the big three.
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Author's Note:
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