Jared is the great elder of Andrews sect.
Andrews sect used to be a mage academy, but they changed affiliation an unknown number of years ago.
In Andrews sect, the Great Elder is the absolute ruler, the highest-ranking cultivator, and the most powerful.
Everyone must obey his orders, no matter what they are.
Recently, there has been a conflict with another civilization. Neither is a member of Anti-Rachel, so the conflict escalated.
The cause of the conflict is an illusion world that appeared a while ago.
It's not big enough to attract the immediate attention of rank 12s, but it's not small enough to be ignored. Eventually, rank 12s come and take it over, but they will take millions of years to find it.
Even when rank 12s eventually find it, they would give a share to the previous owners; rank 12s don't just take over things.
Nearly all civilizations try to be peaceful because fights would increase space debris, and it has no benefit; it only wastes energy. For a tiny illusion world like this, it's best to avoid conflict.
The cost of destroying a rank 11 civilization is far more than the benefit of a minor illusion world.
Both Andrews and Fires civilizations claim the right to the illusion world. They both claim to be the first to discover it and have their agents around it.
Fires is a rank 11 civilization with an estimated 1000 complete laws. They have one main rank 11 world and twenty rank 10 worlds.
On the other hand, Andrews civilization has 1500 complete laws, with one rank 11 world and 150 rank 10 worlds.
Both are members of rank 12 civilizations, but very loosely.
Fire's civilization is a member of the Empire, a rank 12 civilization. The Empire is a collection of noble-style civilizations; the emperor herself ranks 12.
The Empire is so loose that the members are affiliated only in name; in practice, they may as well be separate. Only in disasters may members ask for help; though help is not free, they must pay.
If Fires tells about the illusion world to the Empire, then they come and take it over for themselves. They will not help Fires to take it.
The same is true about Andrews; they are affiliated with the Spiritual Sect, a loose rank 12 sect. The sect leader is rank 12, and like the Empire, the members only ask for help when it's an emergency and will have to pay.
In the universe, these types of relations are common.
...
Jared opened the letter.
Even though both sides are immortals, they still use traditional means such as letters.
He shook his head.
In it, Fires suggested a partnership: Fires would own 51%, and Andrews would own 49%.
Of course, that's unacceptable; the majority can control everything, so this, in effect, turns over control to Fires.
Andrew wrote back.
He suggested the opposite: 51% for Andrews and 49% for Fires.
He snapped his fingers and sent the letter directly to Fires. They had already set up lines of communication; otherwise, it would not have been easy to send a letter to Fires' world.
A few minutes later, another letter came.
He opened it and read it.
Jared sighed. He is pessimistic about a peaceful resolution.
In the letter, fires suggested a 'solution'.
The two would establish a corporation with five board members from each. The CEO would rotate every hundred thousand years; the first chairman would be from Fires. Everything has to be agreed upon by a supermajority of 7 votes.
It sounds fair on paper, but in Jared's view, it is not. Andrews already has control over most areas near the illusion world; they have 500 more complete laws and are much stronger.
Jared wrote another proposal: Andrews with five board seats and Fires with 4. He also removed the supermajority requirement. 5 to 4 votes would carry the day. He put in other stuff to satisfy Fires, like a 'constitution' that can only be changed by seven votes.
In the 'constitution,' he wrote transparency requirements to give assurance that Andrews wouldn't hide anything from Fires. The rest of the 'constitution' was a word salad, talking while not saying anything.
He wrote all this in detail in less than a second, then sent the letter.
He sent it and received the reply in less than a second.
Fires rejected his proposal, as expected.
In the letter, Fires proposed something Jared didn't expect.
He frowned.
"Universal claim court?" he thought of Anti-Rachel.
Anti-Rachel has set up several courts, and the Universal Claim Court specializes in disputes regarding situations like this.
They have an excellent reputation.
The court is available to all; one doesn't need to be a member to sue in the court; however, both sides must consent to its jurisdiction.
Still, Jared remains hesitant; giving this much control to a foreign alliance is upsetting. He wrote that he would consider it.
Then, he ordered his underlings to research the court as much as possible. They failed to find any negative news about it.
They asked many civilizations, some of which at least knew some other civilization that used the court.
Nobody complained of unfairness.
Jared accepted it; a conflict is inevitable without a mediator acceptable by both sides.
Eldes insisted on it; even though Jared hated it, he still chose to give the elders some face.
He is an absolute ruler, but when he faces unified opposition, he can only relent.
As a result, the Andrews civilization agreed. They would go to the Universal Claim Court.
...
The court system of Anti-Rachel is simple.
At its top is one Universal Supreme Court, which has the final say over all other courts. Under it, there are two general courts: the Internal Court, which only hears cases from members, and the Universal Court, which can hear from any party.
Internal courts would eventually be disbanded because the endgame of Anti-Rachel is to have the entire universe as members, so there is no need for universal and internal divisions.
The Universal Claim Court is a universal court responsible for disputes between civilizations arising from 'items of value.'
The illusion world is an 'item' with value.
...
U Court tokens are required to connect to the Universal Claim Court's virtual portal. Fortunately, they are available almost everywhere in the universe.
Both Andrews and Fires used their U Court tokens and connected.
The judge was a rank 11 mage.
Both sides presented their arguments and evidence. Needless to say, what they said was contradictory in many places. Both Fires and Andrews claimed to have found the illusion world first.
The judge was used to it. It happens in nearly all disputes.
So, she said, "If any of you want your testimony to be accepted, you must swear an oath to tell nothing but the truth."
This time, Andrews was hesitant.
Fires readily swore an oath and said all they had said before again, this time under oath.
On the other hand, Andrews wanted to pull away and leave the court. They were not going to swear an oath.
"You already gave this court jurisdiction; you cannot pull away," the judge warned.
Andrews took it seriously.
Nobody would dare to anger Anti-Rachel.
Still, they refused to swear an oath.
Ultimately, the judge ruled and gave 100% ownership to Fires!
The order was unappealable to Andrews.
Big disputes can be appealed, but small disputes like this one are final, with no appeals allowed.
Andrews became furious. They 'respectfully' exited the court portal and implicitly ignored the ruling.
Anti-Rachel is far away! They wouldn't notice. Would the vast Anti-Rachel trouble itself to send people to this tiny illusion world?
...
In the following months, Fires sent its agents time and time again to the illusion world, but Andrews refused to let them in.
Finally, after a few months, Fires sent a sealed official letter to Andrews. The Universal Claim Court ordered them to leave the illusion world and not extend any claim over it for 100,000 years.
After 100,000 years, the order expires, and they can invade it if they want.
In the end, Jared decided to negotiate with Fires directly.
He called to accept the previous deal: five board members from each side, with the first CEO from Fires.
Fires outright refused!
Andrew became furious and refused to leave the illusion world.
As a result, the court entered a contempt finding against Jared specifically.
The order aimed directly at him, not the whole Andrews civilization.
He regretted it after receiving the contempt finding. After the contempt order, he ordered Andrews' agents to abandon the illusion world. Then, he connected to the U court and tried to dissolve the contempt order.
The judge denied and disconnected the call, banning Andrew Civilization from the U court.
The elders of Andrews, who followed Jared's lead most of the time, began to waver.
There are 5 rank 11s in Andrews civilization. With 500 complete laws and the leader of the rank 11 world, Jared is the strongest.
The other four each have around 100 complete laws.
Eventually, every other rank 11 and 10 immortals of the entire Andrews civilization gathered and expressed their displeasure.
They demanded him to step down and allow another to become the Great Elder.
The recent incidents made them all dissatisfied.
Elders were always on the side of more compromise; after all, they knew Fires was the one who found the illusion world first, and Andrews later went and attacked Fires agents.
Jared's decisions, in their view, were going to lead to a war.
Jared is the new Great Elder; the previous elder was, unfortunately, killed by radiation from the great disaster.
Jared heard them all and refused firmly.
The situation began to turn ugly, so the four elders turned the heat down and left.
A month later, an agent from Anti-Rachel came.
He was terrifying, a rank 11 demon with a horrifying aura, indicating he possessed millions of complete laws.
...
"Zag, this mission is not about destroying Andrews; we are here only to arrest the leader, Jared," Rachel warned.
"Yeah, I know!" he nodded.
He is nominally part of a member civilization of Anti-Rachel. Of course, this 'member' is secretly controlled by Rachel.
Zagronan took this task for contribution points. The contribution points for such court enforcer jobs are good; he can buy many materials with them.
He knocked on the world.
The whole world shook! After all, this is a tiny world with less than 10,000 complete laws! Zagronan can destroy it with his pinky!
A few weak rank 11s came out, looking pale.
"Great Master! How can we help you?" one, looking middle-aged, asked.
Zagronan is now much more restrained. If he destroys the world, he does not get any contribution points and even loses a lot.
"Bring out Jared!" he said.
The four looked at each other and nodded. They went in, but Jared refused to come out!
Zagronan saw the elders hadn't returned, so he snapped his fingers.
Endless illusions came out and covered the whole 'tiny' rank-11 world. The costs of such spells are usually a lot, but with the infinite complete law of illusion, it costs almost nothing.
The whole world became transparent, and everything in it became visible to Zagronan.
The method he just used is the ultimate hack. At this moment, he can effectively take over control of the world.
With another snap, Jared appeared before him. He had silver hair and a beautiful face. But, his eyes were closed.
Zagronan placed him in deep illusions.
Zag took him and left without saying anything further.
This incident terrified all nearby civilizations.
The reputation of Anti-Rachel went up a lot. But, there were side effects. After this, many reminded themselves never to accept the Universal Court's jurisdiction if they were not truthful.