"Where is Savior?" Zagronan asked Rachel.
"Information regarding other hosts is classified!" she answered.
Zagronan knew Rachel wouldn't budge, so he searched the river of time. To his surprise, he couldn't find anything.
He would have been able to find something if Savior was rank 8, so this shows he reached rank 9.
Zagronan smirked. Even if Savior reaches rank 9, Zagronan isn't afraid of a fight; he is confident he can defeat Savior easily.
A Grandmaster in the concept of illusions is incomparable with any rank 9. Even against rank 10, they may have a slight chance of running with their life.
As for defeating rank 10 with only rank 9, it may happen in dream worlds, but not in reality! The difference between a fragment law and a complete law is beyond anything that can reached with only mastery realm alone.
"Let's just destroy everywhere until he shows up!" he thought.
He is sure Savior wouldn't just watch as he destroys everything.
...
Teleportation between continents is not possible, even for rank 9s. That is unless they create long-distance teleportation infrastructures.
Such infrastructures exist but are controlled by powerful rank 9 forces. Zagronan didn't want to deal with those forces, so he just decided to fly.
He started moving, and after a few days, he looked at the Red River, which was like before he destroyed it.
"Let's start," he grinned.
"Wait!" Rachel said.
"What?" he asked.
"Leave this continent. Savior placed some of his inventions here, and I want to see the result!" she said.
She already knew the NLE soul replacement method, but what Savior had done slightly differed from the database method. Even though it's a very low-level technique, and the help to her would be negligible, still, knowing it is better than not knowing.
Zagronan gritted his teeth and obeyed Rachel.
He always listened to Rachel, no matter what; obeying Rachel did not blunt his edges. Obeying Rachel was like complying with the world's laws; it was inevitable.
...
He left the Red River continent intact.
But there are many other continents in the world. One after another, he went on a frenzy and destroyed thousands of continents.
He only destroyed only weak continents so that he wouldn't upset rank 9 forces. Even though he is confident of winning, he doesn't want trouble for now.
There are countless weak continents to sharpen edges, so why attack strong continents?
Zagronan's edges sharpen better when he kills the weak. Fighting same-rank mages wouldn't really sharpen his edges.
This behavior is classic of demons; they always like to bully the weak and run from the strong.
Of course, it is despicable in the minds of most, but Zagronan, as a proud demon, wouldn't care what others think of him.
Even after he destroyed thousands of continents, Savior didn't show up.
Zagronan was genuinely surprised. He thought Savior would come to stop him.
He still believes Savior would eventually come to restore them.
So he kept watch of each continent, waiting for Savior to appear.
"Hey, Zag, you know that I wouldn't agree to you killing Savior, right?" she asked.
"Please, Rachel! I can make more children far better than him! Let me kill this brat!" he begged. He felt his edges would get rusty if he allowed Savior to live.
Rachel thought about it.
As Rachel #1, she could decide the fate of everyone here. She would allow Zag to kill Zag if she thought keeping Savior would cause more trouble than he is worth. She does not care about Savior; everything is about losses and gains.
As for the principle of not killing the host, she won't kill Zagronan; Savior was not her host; he was her incarnation's host. Killing Savior would not bring bad karma for the rank 13 evaluation.
But that all said, she still put her thumb on the scale in favor of Savior; hosts always receive some special treatment in their favor.
After a moment, she shook her head. "I want him alive! He has a lot of potential. You are not allowed to kill him!"
"Then, can I at least beat him up?" he asked, frustrated.
"No, just leave him alone! Go sharpen your edges destroying continents!" she suggested.
"He won't let me! He will repair all I destroy! No matter how much I sharpen, he will ruin it!"
Zagronan was frustrated.
If Savior repaired his destruction, his edges could not be sharpened.
Rachel rolled her eyes.
'Sharpening the edges' is just an excuse; he enjoys destroying things and is addicted to it. He wouldn't get weaker if he didn't 'sharpen his edges.'
She keeps quiet now because he is about to reach rank 10, but after he advances, she will no longer allow him to 'sharpen.'
'Sharpening edges' is an addition to destruction, and like any other addiction, it's very harmful, and it gets worse. He has to quit this addiction; otherwise, it gets worse and worse until he becomes a chaotic demon that only knows destruction.
At that time, he might not even obey Rachel.
Rachel began talking, "It seems you two can no longer live in the same world! I'm going to send him away soon. For now, you go and make preparations for rank 10. When he leaves, come and sharpen your whatever. Then, we reach rank 10," she said.
Zagronan reluctantly agreed.
...
Savior had a powerful concealment skill.
It was based on NLE and LE. The skill would keep him in a state between living and undead.
Is there a state between the living and the undead? The answer is no. One is either undead or living.
Hence, very few detection skills can detect such a weird state, like between living and undead. He took advantage of this and created a concealment spell that was one of his trump cards.
Still, if he was still rank 8, it wouldn't have worked against Zagronan.
He watched as Zagronan destroyed one continent after another.
Zag didn't just destroy; he tortured people with special cruelty just to lure Savior out.
It was so horrible that Savior couldn't even watch without crying.
Savior is actually not easy to cry; it's just that recently, the situation has been so horrifying that he cannot help but cry often.
But no matter what, He didn't come out.
He is brave and ready to risk his life to save people, but risking is one thing, and committing suicide is another.
Today's Zagronan is at the peak of rank 9, has the same main protagonist luck, and is much older and more experienced, along with many other rank 9 friends.
Savior stands no chance.
If he goes and dies, then nobody else is there to restore things. He is good but not dumb; He is waiting for an opportunity to go and restore things.
As for when this 'opportunity' arrives, he is not sure.
Before rank 10, Zagronan cannot remove records from the river of time, so Savior is not worried about the destroyed continents. No matter how much time passes, he can always resurrect everyone.
As for all the torture they suffer before death, Savior will resurrect them to the day before, so they will not remember anything.
In the meantime, Rachel will collect good rank 9 pills as preparation.
"It's time to go!" said Rachel.
"What are you talking about?" he asked in confusion.
"My higher-ups have decided that we should leave here!" she said.
"I don't want to leave! These people counted on me!" he pointed toward destroyed continents.
"Sorry, it's not your choice!" Rachel snapped her fingers and disappeared along with Savior.
...
Martha Lyons was the CEO of 'Prosperous Enterprise.'
Prosperous Enterprise was a corporation that ruled large parts of the Lyon continent.
This world is a rank 12 world run by Rachel. However, Rachel's presence is only in the shadows. On the surface, this is a rank 12 civilization named Corporation Civilization.
Rachel has many such worlds under her control. Most think she never makes any world; it is, in fact, false. She does create worlds, just not under her name. Many independent civilizations are secretly under her control.
The Prosperous Enterprise is a mega-corporation that controls everything in Lyon continent. It has many subsidiaries, such as Prosperous Mining, Prosperous Research, Prosperous General Government, etc.
In the Lyon continent, and Corporation Civilization in general, there is no independent 'government'; the corporation is everything one needs, at least according to Prosperous's Board of Governors.
Martha Lyons was chosen as the CEO just a century ago.
The Board of Governors chooses the CEO; as for who chooses the Board of Governors ...
Of course, the shareholders.
There are no noble families per se, but in practice, there are. The noble families are called senior members, those who own a good chunk of the shares.
There is no country, but there are big factions. The Prosperous Corporation has 9 factions, each representing one of the major shareholders. Those 9 individuals each hold more than one percent of the shares.
As for who owns the rest of the shares, they're owned mostly by other corporations.
There is one other corporation in the continent and many other corporations in other continents that control most of Prosperous's shares.
It is not unique to Prosperous; All corporations own each other's shares. It is a standard practice.
It has two main benefits.
First, it prevents wars. Why did Prosperous allow another corporation to remain in the continent, even though it was much larger and stronger? Of course, because Prosperous owns more than 45% of that corporation's shares, any attack is like attacking itself.
Second, one can buy influence. Because Prosperous owns that many shares, the other corporation on the continent is nearly a vessel, so there is no need to conquer. The other corporation still has a CEO and independent policies but will not go against Prosperous in a major way.
This way of governance was prevalent from so long ago that no one remembers.
In practice, it is not that different from other types of governments. The governing branch of Prosperous sets laws and policies holds a court of justice, etc. It doesn't do all alone; for example, it sets policies that Prosperous Mining suggests can increase mining.
Mines are a finite resource in some worlds, but mines grow like trees here. They are a renewable source.
Some people live well under it, but most are poor.
It used to be better, but it began to go downhill from the day Martha Lyons became CEO.
Many attributed the worsening situation to Martha being a woman.
Because the last 5 CEOs were men, many ordinary people blamed the new CEO's gender as the root of the problem.
The CEO is the talking head of the corporation and the one everyone blames if something goes wrong.
The general public wants to find problems with simple and visible stuff, like someone's gender or color.
The problem is not as simple as men hating women.
If the Last 5 CEOs were women, and under them, the situation was good, and as a man took over, everything nosedived, inevitably, some would point out the obvious difference.
Many simple people would just believe it.
The root of the problem is that most people are unwilling to dig deeper. They just point out the obvious distinction and consider it the issue.
Prosperous did care about the public option of regular people.
Even though ordinary people were minor shareholders, they formed groups that controlled a good percentage.
So, Prosperous couldn't just oppress ordinary people brutally.
Still, ordinary people had a minority of the shares. Rank 9s, and other corporations held the most shares, which were much more informed and knew that Martha's gender, or even her methods in general, had nothing to do with the worsening situation.
The Taxes increased under her, environmental regulations loosened, and disfavoured speech began to be restricted.
Prosperous has rank 9 protectors, so no matter how much normal people criticize, they can never seriously threaten the corporation.
So why did Prosperus restrict speech? Many intellectuals blamed the new CEO for being so thin-skinned, unable to tolerate criticism even from ordinary people who caused no threat to her, a mage with Rank 8 power.
...
Martha Lyons was meditating.
These days, the work pressure was enormous, so she meditated regularly.
Many consider her the reason for the current situation, but she feels it's unfair. She is doing whatever the board orders; she doesn't have control.
Increasing taxes and environmental regulations, restricting speech, etc, were all Board of Governors's doing.
She was only the public face of it.
Recently, Hype Corporation bought a significant share of Prosperus. Along with several other corporations, they teamed up and fired the previous CEO and hired her.
The matters of the Board of Governors were not public, so nobody knew what had happened; all they knew was that the CEO had changed, and everything got worse.
She did try to soften the blow of the changes, but her powers had limits.
Hype didn't want to fore two CEOs in a row, but they would do it if Martha disobeyed them too openly.
She can only work in margins, reduce the punishment for 'speech crimes,' try to clean the environment after the destruction the mining brings, try to reduce taxes in other areas, etc.
She was the reason people still had a life and were not starving.
But nobody saw it, and everyone blamed her.
It was very disheartening.
Still, as the CEO, it was her job to take the criticisms, so she steeled herself and tolerated it.
She sighed and opened her eyes!
She saw a man with long green hair standing and staring at her!