450-466

450 Assigning Tasks For Everyone

But when the two shouted at them, many started to follow what they said. Of course facing such a life and death decision made everyone on the edge. Just a single word of advice in such a way made many give up on the strong stance they decided upon and lean to my desire.

I had to admit, these two just stepped in at the right moment. Anyway, I looked at those kneeling races with cold eyes. As for those who didn't listen to my words, they ended up dying down there.

Out of the hundreds of thousands I got initially, I lost one tenth of them so far.

But that was a much better fate for them than what I initially used to do. I only kept those strong forces, and killed the rest.

Of course the amount of good races in each batch wasn't that high. If I ended up with ten percent, then I'd consider this a winning bargain.

"Stand erect," I shouted, "from now on, you are going to be distributed into five armies. Each army will listen to one of my leaders. Defying them means defying me, means death. You will follow them from now on, and I'll receive daily reports on your overall performance. Failing me will end up in your severe punishment. Trying to be smart will lead to not only your death, but risking to kill most of your race in my forces as punishment."

I stated the code of honour for them. They had to understand their new situation, and got to know their responsibilities and the consequences for breaking any of these rules.

Of course I also had to safeguard against any funny attempt for revolt. If anyone tried to act funny, their entire race here would pay the price.

Such a code would be repeated from now on on the ears of any new forces I'd get. For now I'd put on hold my desire for revenge, and act to make the best use of these forces to fight on my side.

"Five?" Hilary was the first to speak, "how are you going to arrange these forces on us then?"

She turned to me while crossing her arms. Others also looked up at me, and I simply explained:

"First this isn't the only batch of forces we will get," I started my explanation by saying this. Once they heard it, they got reassured and knew they would get reinforcements even if they didn't get part of this cake now.

"As for the current arrangements, I have to make something clear… You won't lead any forces on the battlefield. Your role is to just give orders, move your forces around like pieces on a chess board."

"This…"

"You all have to start opening your cultivation bases. Also you need to go to dungeons and learn skills. In addition to that, you can always be ready to be deployed at any critical zone once needed."

"How?" Isabella asked, "We will need much time to go to any place from the capital."

"Wrong," I shook my head before taking out the staff of mine, "we can use this and go through anywhere we want using the markings I saved during our flight."

I paused, while everyone gave me a weird look filled with surprise, "what? Do you think I just kept moving around without any backup plans? Anyway, this problem is fixed and you don't have to worry about it for now. Just think about how you'll arrange your forces, how to control them, and who will lead your forces when you are absent."

"That's… cool," Sara said, looking at everyone who just nodded. They knew they'd have to put extra work here, as they had to select trusted subordinates to lead the new big forces of them and also plan things out.

Frankly speaking… They were turning into true army leaders as I wanted them to be. Only by facing such situations would they end up developing their leadership skills and hone these.

As they started to walk in different directions, Hilary was the only one standing by my side.

"You know… That… dude down below has his forces crushed hard before," she said in a weird way. She seemed still struggling to speak about him after knowing his secret.

"I didn't forget about him," I said, before motioning my head towards the vast number of forces here, "but we need to wait for him to regain his true self. After that, I'll make sure he will take enough to form a big army."

"Ok," she paused, seemingly hesitating, "can't we use this as a chance to bring him back?"

"Letting him get busy with work?" I thought about it for a second, but didn't feel truly enthusiastic about it, "this… Will be hard. You know, at some point, people might need time and space for their own souls to heal."

"O… Ok," she wasn't convinced, but she didn't object. After all, she was still shocked by what she discovered about him.

So she seemed to trust my instincts about deciding what was best for him.

I knew he was going through a tough situation, one that would either turn him much fiercer and better, or crush him into shreds.

Hopefully it would end in the former not the latter.

"So, am I going to take any of these?" she asked as she knew by our numbers, not everyone was going to get part from here.

There were seven, if I excluded the jumper and myself for now. So there were two destined to be left without any forces.

"You will have to pass for now," I declared my decision, and before she would object, I added, "you are going to have a lot of important work at the capital."

"What work?"

"I'll depend on you for building up the kingdom," I said what I had in mind for her, "you will have to help me in revising my viewpoints and planning, add and modify as you might see fit, and also try to enforce these with me."

"This…" from the look on her face I knew she perfectly understood how big this was, "I never tried to establish a kingdom before. It's… just too tiring to do so."

"I know," I didn't deny such fact, "but together we can do it, right?"

"Hmm…" she nodded without saying much, while I knew she was going to do great in such regard.

451 [Bonus chapter] Revising Laws

"What do you have in mind?" as I offered my help, cutting on her any path to get away from this responsibility, she asked.

"I already have lots of information about the inner structure of any kingdom," I didn't hide this from her, "but what I know can only be applied to the big nations, one that has lots of people."

"We have land," she looked around before adding, "and we have a strong army to defend it."

"But we lack people."

"We can work and grab any human forces scattered at the areas under our allies control," she proposed, "also we can try and send rescue teams outside to the surrounding regions. Like this we can keep a steady flow of refugees."

"That will take time," I knew such a method might work, but it wasn't the thing we needed right now.

"Then?" She looked at me as if I already had a plan.

"Do you know about our humans getting captured and being sold off like slaves?" I suddenly asked, and from the calm look on her face I knew she was aware of this.

"You already told me about this before," she said, "so it's not a surprise or anything new. After all, you agreed to do a trade with the two friends of yours in exchange for rescuing humans."

"Yes."

"So you plan to keep doing this? It's the same as what I just said."

"It's not," I shook my head, "this time I'm going to buy off any human slave from the wide universe."

"This… will cost you a fortune!"

"Wealth isn't a problem," I knew using my large number of bones was giving me power even in the entire universe, "but you missed something."

"What?"

"I'm going to get humans, not just humans from Earth."

"You mean…"

"We will get humans from many other worlds," I explained fully my entire idea, "I don't have a way to find out where our humans were sent to. But in exchange for that, I'll target any human out there."

I raised a finger towards the sky before adding, "but dealing with those humans will be left over to you."

"Me? Why me?"

"I'd select that crazy dude, but as you can see… He isn't in any condition to do such a task for now."

She seemed to want to comment on my words about the jumper, yet she refrained from doing so. All I got was a long sigh. "So you are giving me the task of handling shattered souls and enraged people like them… What else?"

"We have to write the code of laws before doing all that," I said in a serious tone, "without the presence of such rules to organise the lives of our people, we will have trouble, lots of trouble."

"You can bind them using contracts, right?" she said in mockery, and I rolled my eyes in response. "What? You seem to have something with those loyalty binding contracts."

"They are my way to secure my life and yours," I gave her a reprimanding look before adding, "but that won't help. After all these contracts will bind them from defying me, not to organise their relation with each other, with our local humans."

"I got it," she said, "so you will tell me all the rules you know about and I'll write them down?"

"I don't need a writer," I hit her on the back of her head, "I need an advisor, not someone to just nod her head to whatever I say."

"Ouch, that hurt!" she faked it, and I could only inwardly sigh.

"Stop acting lazy," I rolled my eyes, "we have no time for such tricks."

"I'm not, you are so mean," she pursed her lips, making me not know if I should laugh or hit her on the head again.

"Anyway, here are the rules that I know…"

"Damn! Right to the point and straight for business! Can't you wait until we know what's going on here first?"

She looked around, but I didn't follow her trap.

"The first law…" I started narrating what I recalled from the records, and she resigned at last and listened. From time to time, she would interrupt me and say something useful.

Her experience came second to mine in such regard. But she had an advantage. She walked the path before from the start to control the entire world here.

So she had a better overall view over what would suit us better now and what wouldn't. That was the reason why I selected her for such a task and insisted on her participation in this.

Of course this was just a warming up session. Setting up laws was something important and all, but planning the kingdom's inner administrative structure was a nightmare.

That would be best left for when we reach the capital later on and stay there for a long time. For now, I had to wait and see what the current situation was.

As I was nagging her with all the laws I memorised, the other team members worked to do their tasks as well.

They had to arrange their forces, select capable personnel and make them leaders. Also they had to ask these to select trusted and capable people from those serving them to work as squad members and such.

In simple words, they were organising up their armies from just a vast collection of human fighters to be a well disciplined army that wouldn't pale to any regular army of any race here.

Besides they were looking for intel regarding the current overall situation of the entire territory of mine.

Seeing how deeply busy they were, also having a hard time in getting all this done, I knew it was becoming more stressful to establish our private net of communication and spies.

I solved the problem of going to any place by my staff. But we still lack eyes. It was suitable to use the people in our armies before for such a task.

But now this has become unlikely. Wars were getting fiercer and longer, and many occurred far away from our territories. So we had to find another way to deal with this.

452 List Of Highly Anticipated Rookies Across Universe

If we had enough people, I'd scatter a few at each town and city, turning these desolate places into thriving settlements of my human race once again.

Doing this would solve lots of problems, one of them was the communication and spying net. I could select a few to serve as my eyes everywhere, delivering reports on a daily basis about the current situation of the place they resided in.

Also I could start forming local teams to defend these settlements, helping in relieving the pressure over my big armies to scatter and defend, and would leave my armies free for securing borders and raging big wars against other races.

So it all came down again to this population problem. Just recalling what happened in the first few days of the apocalypse made my blood boil.

There was no other race who tasted such brutality and unfairness like my humans. Don't tell me Selvators or Dragons ended up cornered in subways, butchered like cattle by monsters.

The loss of my people in the early days of the apocalypse was immense and beyond imagination. To add more salt to the wound, this only happened to my race only.

Out of the six races in the apocalypse, humans were selected to be the weakest chain here. That wasn't fair! And I swore to change such a situation, even forcibly if needed.

"That's all for now," as I said what I knew, and she added her pieces, it was time to end this here.

"That's… Phew, a lot!" she gave such a deep sigh that made me grin.

"That's just the beginning."

"Beginning?!!! There are more?!!! No way!!!"

As if I was carrying a contagious disease, she hurried away from me and went to stand with Angelica.

Sigh! Did she think that by doing that she got herself out from this? Hahaha! Nice try girl.

[Can I ask for something?]

[Hye, do you think I only have you as a customer?]

[But you don't have anyone as generous as me, right?]

[Not even close!]

I knew that this green nymph lady was just trying to tease me. I was the only customer who could give her bones, and that placed me in such high regard in the eyes of the impact's higher ups.

[I want humans]

[Go look for them in your earth then]

[Why are you acting all funny all sudden? What? Did you close up a good deal already?]

[I'm going to, lol]

[Ah, you are seeing me as a fat sheep]

[No way, you are a fat valuable customer]

I couldn't help but laugh when I heard that. [Alright, let's close this deal, shall we?]

[You want humans, and of course you must be talking about those captured and sold as slaves ones, right?]

[Hmm… I want that, also I want something else]

[I knew, you won't just come and ask for something easy]

[Come on, as if I don't reward you handsomely after each deal]

[That's what I like about you]

[Oh, you like me?]

[Dude, if you don't have a girl, let me in]

[Hahaha, if you are tired of living then come. My girls will warmly welcome you, lol]

[You seem to underestimate the winged nymphs. If I want, no one can butt in or have a saying]

[Ok, ok, it's my life that I shall worry about here] I laughed.

[You have to act more aggressive with your girls]

[I'm already aggressive enough]

[I can tell]

[You didn't see anything to tell]

[Dude, stop showing me the gold if you plan to not share it with me]

[Hahaha, ok, ok, let's return to business]

[So what is your second special request?]

[I want humans, snatched from other ongoing apocalypses if possible]

[This…]

Her sudden pause meant that there were still ongoing apocalypses in the universe with the human race. And so I added my last piece:

[I don't want new apocalypses like mine, I need old apocalypses, ones that are going on for long years]

[You… Are aiming higher than what you shall do]

[I know what I'm doing]

[It's not the humans you shall worry about, but the races controlling their worlds]

[Let them come, the more the merrier]

[You…]

[I just faced off with Hectors, and I have to say… They are nothing much]

[What are you talking about? Hectors? THE HECTORS?!!!]

[They are nothing]

[Dude, don't brag like you are Hector… This is already a famous saying in the entire universe. Hectors are like royalties in the universe, you can't just walk around and speak like this about them]

[I killed three paragons already from them] I didn't know why she was acting so defensive about them, but I had the capital to back my words.

[…]

[They butted in my world without invitation, ended up losing big. They tried many times, and each time they lost. I didn't only kill paragons, I killed their elites, killed many of their forces, and even took lots of treasures out of them]

[What kind of treasure?]

[An artefact grade treasure]

[…]

[What?]

[Do you know that Hectors are one of the most vengeful races in the entire universe?]

[And?]

[Dude, once you step out from your limited apocalypse stage to the wide universe… Damn! Why are you acting like such a trouble magnet?]

[I'm not! And it's still too early to worry about such a step. I have to first dominate my apocalypse and win the brutal and long fights here]

[You will. After all you are ranked forty-ninth in the universal list of the most highly anticipated rookies in the entire universe]

[Oh, there is such a list? What is it about?] I never thought that such a thing existed.

[There is a grand impact of handling such a list. They monitor every single apocalypse going on, and forms a monthly base list of the most shocking news from all across the universe]

[And my name is there?]

[You are ranked forty-ninth, and that was just the ranking done one week ago. I believe the next ranking you will score higher]

453 The Uses Of My Bones

[Well, that's just a list]

[No, it's not! It's the list all the big forces here are looking for. You just don't get it yet, one day you'll know the true value of this]

[Let's wait for that day then. Now let's get back to business]

[I can help you in buying human slaves… But for getting humans from ongoing apocalypses…]

[I'm not asking for any fresh apocalypse, I want any human from any source]

[What? Are you planning to make a big sacrificial ritual to make an artefact?]

Her words were alien in my ears, but I had to not think about such a brutal thing.

[No, I just need humans]

[Fighters?]

[People to breed and give birth to kids]

[Ah… That will make things easier]

[Also fighters are welcomed as well]

[They aren't just pricey, but rare to find]

[Hectors have lots of strong humans]

[No one dares to snatch something from those maniacs]

[But you already got many of their folks]

[That's… it's just a thing that happened in a new apocalypse, something that wouldn't bring me any trouble. Besides, stop spreading such dangerous news around. This isn't going to end well for me or my impact]

She seemed scared, really scared from Hector. Of course I knew she wasn't scared of the weak version of them in my apocalypse, but of the mighty figures in such a formidable race.

[Ok, won't mention it… a lot]

[You… let's just end our talk here]

[Hey hey! I want my humans]

[You made me unsettled! Let me have a couple of weeks as a vacation then]

[I'll give you one special bone as a reward]

[Damn! Is it for real?]

Sigh! Her price was already known so she couldn't play such tricks on me.

[I'll give you a silver grade one, a very special one]

[That will make me feel much better]

[What about my humans?]

[Give me time, I'll see what I can do first. Send me the bone now, I want to marvel my eyes on it]

[What are you doing with all these bones anyway?] I sent the bone that I had tons from to her. But she didn't know that, and that made such a deal perfect for both of us.

[I use these in many things, but the most important is… I won't tell!]

Damn! She played me here!

[Are they used for something good?]

[Very good]

[Don't tell me it's to increase your beauty]

[Screw you! As if I ever needed such dirty tricks! I'm a star! I'm a beauty symbol in the entire universe!]

[Ok, ok, I'm in the wrong here] I had to stop this from going through this dark path, [But I need to know of the uses you have for my bones]

[What? Don't tell me you don't know how to use them!]

[If I do, then how come I throw them away like this?]

[Damn! And you want me to tell you? No way! Go away man, go away I'm busy]

[Wait… I won't change the price of our dealings]

[Empty promises, no use for such useless words]

Her firm stance made me more curious about my bones. I only used them as sources of energy, to use them in my cultivation.

But if there were other uses for them, I should know about them.

[I won't tell]

[Another silver bone, perhaps?]

[Make it two and I'll tell]

[Done]

I didn't hesitate to send her two more silver grade bones.

[Damn man! Your pocket knows no bottomline]

[Just tell me what you know]

[Well… I don't guarantee your words about our deals]

[We can sign a contract together about this]

[Hmm… That might work indeed. Ok, I'll send you one now]

This girl… She seemed to know a ground shaking secret of my bones that I wasn't aware of. Or else she wouldn't act in such a sceptical way towards this info.

In the next few minutes, she sent a contract over and I signed it.

[Now say what you know]

[Ok, the first use is for its immense energy. It has such a pure energy that can be used in fueling anything]

[I know about that already… What else?] don't tell me she did all that just for such info. If so, then I got my hopes elevated.

[There is more… Do you know that each bone holds part of the cultivation of its owner?]

[And?] girl, all this was old news for me.

[It's big! You can use some kind of a way and let anyone start cultivation! Even those weak and useless slaves are able to start cultivating]

Reading this made my eyes pop out! Damn! Damn! That… That was just big news for me!

What was the biggest obstacle for my forces? For my human race? We suck in terms of cultivation.

But if there was a way to deal with that, it would be great. Actually I depended on the Hector girl, Lily, and her knowledge and experience regarding this matter to do this.

But if there was another way to do it, I wouldn't just stand by and watch.

[What else?] Despite me getting on the edge here, I had to see what else she got.

Who knew, I might get something great next.

[Hmm… The bones can be used in certain way to strengthen the body of anyone, but this needs lots of conditions to be met]

[Like what?] I asked while my mind was still busy thinking about what she said earlier.

[Like having a cultivation base stronger and higher from the one who had the bone extracted from. Also the success ratio isn't that big, and depends on the mysterious knowledge of souls that not commonly known to public in our universe]

[Aha] I wasn't that enthusiastic about this, [But what's the benefit from doing this?]

[Benefit? Come on! You can't be joking like that! Having a bone added to your body will strengthen the part it gets attached to. Also it will make your cultivation stronger, make your physical body sturdier, and in one case we had one to develop extra thorn that held toxic properties]

[What?]

454 The Heaven Kingdom

[Yes, these bones can grant abilities, but it's needed for them to get attached first with your body successfully. Full integrated bones developed powers, special powers for people having them]

[Like… What? Toxins?] I muttered, thinking about what she just mentioned.

[Not only that! Many developed supernatural powers, like fire control or ice abilities. Others developed abilities that's so unreal! One managed to create portals and let us link worlds apart with each other. Dude, your bones are just like treasure trove, a very hot cake right now for many, many powerful forces and figures]

Damn! I wasn't amazed by her last words about the value of my bones in the entire universe. After all, I was just giving off the lowest grade bones out. What would she say if she saw the high grade ones I had?

[Anything else?]

[Do you still look for more? These are enough to shake anyone!]

[Do you have more? You know we are bound by a contract]

[Sigh! Ok… The last use we found is that by grinding the bones and sniff the powder, we can grant anyone a temporary state resembling the one that the bone came from]

[You mean like turning people strong like the bones' owners?]

[No… What I mean is that we can transform anyone to the same race the bone came from]

[The same race? You don't possibly mean…]

[Whoever uses the powder will turn into another race, act like them, and even wield the same powers as that race. In fact we tested it many times, and no one could tell the difference or catch such camouflage]

[Damn! How long can this continue?]

[For now it's just a few hours. But our big minds are working on a potion or a pill that can extend such duration for much longer]

Surely that was something worth investing in.

[Once done, I want the recipe]

[Keep dreaming]

[Either you give it to me or you can say goodbye to your precious bones]

[Dude! We have a contract!]

[It's about raising the price, not to accept any deal from you, right?]

[Don't be a jerk like this!]

[Give me the recipe, I'll pay the right price for it anyway]

[This…]

[Also I want more info regarding the bone merging thing and the cultivation opening process]

[Come on!]

[I'll pay bones for that!]

[These… do you know how much we paid to just get such info?]

[I doubt you did it for my bones]

[Well…] she hesitated, seemingly I guessed it right this time.

[I'll pay, you just name a price and send me everything you have]

[This… I have to get the approval of our boss about such trade]

[Why?] This was her first time since we got to deal heavily with each other to bring the name of her boss in any deal.

And it seemed weird.

[The bone merging thing isn't a big deal. It's done by my impacts in an attempt to make our forces stronger. We used many things before, even bones extracted from dead strong figures. But we never had such quality like yours before]

[Then what's the issue?]

[The cultivation opening part… After all we paid a hefty price to get this from the higher ups of Hectors]

[Hectors? Hectors do know that?] my eyes shone. If that was true, then I could just ask Lily about it and save me such hustle and save up my bones as well.

[Not any Hector, only the fiercest of them would know about such a secret]

[Not a common Hector would know?]

[No, this isn't something known to the public! The core of the technique used is only known to a handful of figures at that race. Also you have to ask for their help, as the process of executing it needs only Hectares to do it]

[Oh, I see]

[You are already at a big war with them. And you just said you killed paragons from their side. You can't have your way, sorry pal. I advise you against having such info. You won't do anything with it anyway]

[But I still want it] I didn't expose to her the fact about Lily and others.

Getting Hectares to work for me? That was an easy piece of cake honey. I already had many of them working under me. And I could also get more if I wanted to.

[It's your bones… But I have to warn you, even paying ten thousand bones won't be enough for this]

Ten thousand? I looked at my inventory filled with tons of these bones. [I'll try to secure the price then]

[Damn! You should do it as my boss isn't as patient and tolerant as me]

[Just get his approval and come to tell me the good news] I paused, [Also ask him to help in my human quest. In fact it would be better to let all the impact work on this]

[You are crazy! Do you think we are this free and jobless or what?]

[I have bones, lots of it]

[Oh… Let me see what I can do then]

[But this applies to the humans snatched from other apocalypses… Not the ones sold in the market]

[You are stingy!]

[I have lots of bones]

[Oh, my dear Hye… I'll see what I can do then]

I knew in front of my bones, she wouldn't refuse any request of mine.

But this… This was huge! I was depending upon Lily and her boys to help my boys start cultivating.

It seemed this plan was doomed to fail. She missed the last piece of the puzzle, the core of that technique.

And by obtaining it, I could now turn the dream of having all my people start cultivating into a reality.

My kingdom… It would be known not as the strongest or fiercest, but the one where humans would turn into gods!

I'd build a kingdom where humans would feel blessed to be there… A heaven for any human, a dream for all even for those who weren't born on my Earth.

The Heaven kingdom… That was such a nice name for my kingdom. I'd select it then.

455 [Bonus chapter] The Monster Attack Begins

Hilary kept herself away from me like she was scared or something. For the first time ever, I got to know what to use to stop this seduction demoness from getting so attached to me all the time.

As I had nothing else to do, I sent messages first to Fang and Wryly. Yet both simply ignored my messages, or perhaps they were busy.

[Whassup?] next I texted Lily. Before sending her away, I already added her as a friend.

[Great. I did what you asked me and she didn't respond at all]

[Interesting… How is she doing now?]

[Nothing much. She is just interested in whatever project you have here]

I was asking about Karoline. Before sending her away, I gave her a task to fake her plan to revolt and speak every now and then with her about this.

But it seemed such a move was slightly obvious for the all suspicious Karoline to fall for it.

However Lily said something interesting. "So she is interested in my weapon upgrade project? As if she didn't know what I was going to do… That's interesting!"

In fact, for Karoline to be interested in what my boys were doing told me a lot about how deeply wrong and different she was.

All of my team were familiar with what I was doing there. If she showed such interest that meant she knew nothing about it.

"Did she hit her head or something? I heard there were such bizarre diseases before the apocalypse happened… What were they called? Schizophrenia or something like that…"

I started thinking about a logical explanation for her weird behaviour. I knew there were lots of diseases and syndromes that would render anyone with impaired personality and deformed memory.

But as I recalled, such things came with confusion and doubt. Unlike the current Karoline who seemed so full of herself, seemingly knowing what she was doing.

[Keep a close eye on her all the time] I paused before adding, [I heard to allow races to have cultivation, just like my humans, you need a blueprint of a technique that ran into your race. Is that true?]

[It's true… I only know how to execute it, but I never got to see the full details about the technique… Wait, how did you know about that? It's a top secret of my race]

[I have my ways] I grinned, [So if I got you the technique, you can execute it, right?]

[Of course! But getting the technique is something harder than ascending heavens! No one has such access except for our higher ups]

[Leave this to me. I just want you to prepare for executing the technique]

[Well… If you are serious, then I will need lots of materials]

[Like what?]

[Energy things, things that can grant your humans lots of power to be used in opening their rudimentary dantians. Oh, you are a human as well. You aren't familiar with what I'm saying]

[No, I have already opened my cultivation base. Anyway, I'll try my best to prepare these things to you]

[You opened your dantian? Impressive! For someone from such a retarded race, you did a great feat]

[Watch your tongue lady, it's my race after all]

[Sorry, no ill intentions here. I'm just speaking facts]

[Ok, get ready. When I come, we will start]

[Sure. I might also need a few things that can be bought from the market. It's not a big deal to you, right?]

[If it's coins, then it's not a problem]

[Great… I'll arrange my boys then into groups to execute the technique. Once you are here we will start]

I closed the chat with her while thinking about the problem of Karoline. For unknown reasons, I felt she would cause great trouble later on.

"I should ask her to watch out from her then," I looked up at Hilary while muttering to myself.

"We are done!"

Just at this moment, all the team members came one by one while saying this. Once Angelica finished, she and Hilary came back together while whispering like they were in heated conversation.

I didn't want to butt in their talk. These two ladies were weirdly getting closer to each other and it felt dangerous to come closer to them at the moment.

"What did you get?" as everyone returned, I knew they finished arranging their forces lineup. Also they got to know more about what was happening right now in the world.

"It's… not that good boss," the spearhead was the first to speak. He sighed, while adding in a bitter tone, "many portals appeared and lots of strong looking monsters came from the. Ground monsters aren't the problem, but the aquatic and flying ones are."

"There are flying ones?" I asked just to make sure he didn't say it as a mistake.

But he and others nodded.

"Right now all the forces we left behind are entangled in brutal fights," Sara said, "my boys are using the emblems and castles to fight those monsters back. However they lost control over the rest of the cities and towns."

"Mine too!"

"It's the same with me."

"The grand army marching here is getting attacked by such monsters," Isabella added, "monsters marched out from the cities and towns they controlled and came to harass them."

"This…" I would accept losing lands for monsters for now. I also would accept losses from the forces stationed in the frontline towns and cities.

But letting my main army get attacked? That was out of the question.

*Zing!*

Just before I would say anything, a weird sound came from the direction of a far away town.

It seemed like a small sized town, not that big anyway. However the size of that portal was so big, making me feel the number of monsters coming out from it would be too much.

*Roar!* *Roar!* *Roar!*

Even before the portal would expand to its fullest, hordes of monsters gushed out from it. They looked like big dinosaurs, the ancient creatures that walked on my Earth a long time ago before my human race came here.

456 Going Back To Boston

Many had thick skin that was covered with thick layers of black discs, many had horns, but few had wings, and even few had fins like whales.

"They are here," Hilary stopped the talk with Angelica, looked at the direction of the portal like all of us and muttered in a serious tone, "this is way beyond what I expected. That bastard! He used the Rectopires to attack us this time."

"Rectopires?!"

"What is it?"

"Are they fierce?"

Many questions came asking about these monsters.

"They are hybrid monsters, made by combining the genes of dinosaurs and zombies," I said before turning to them as I added, "they are vicious, cruel, and blood thirsty like nothing else you'd ever see."

"An attack suited for a thirtish grade quest or something… Damn! He went too far this time," Hilary said in a bitter tone, making me know it was going to be hard.

I knew these monsters weren't something easy for my current forces to handle. They were like a plaque, leaving behind eggs in the flesh of those who they feasted upon, making them able to reproduce on a scaring scale.

It was a really tough situation at the moment.

"You will all return back to the capital," I didn't hesitate to make such a decision, "I'll go and bring the boys back."

"You don't want our help?" Hilary asked, and from her tone I felt her honest concern over me.

"Don't worry," I shrugged, "against me, even paragons will fall."

"But they are like locusts… fighting them is endless and tiring."

"We have no other option," I sighed, "you just go back, make sure to plan a good base for my heaven kingdom."

"Heaven kingdom?"

"What's that, boss?"

"Is it the name of our kingdom?"

"You already selected a name? Interesting!"

All gave their opinions about my name, and I simply waved at them. "It's a nice name and suits our kingdom. Let me drop you first at the capital. Make the army go towards the nearest big city and station there for now."

"Are you sure about it?" As I started flying towards the capital, everyone went to organise things with the big army. Hilary stood by my side while watching the ongoing destruction all over the world by these portals and monsters.

"You aren't capable of facing them yet," I said the bitter truth, "if I let you do it, you'll lose most of your forces."

"What about the human and Bulltor army you got from before?"

"They might help…" I paused as I thought about it, "but it's better for them to come here."

"For this?" she pointed around, "we can at least defend our closest region."

"At what cost?" I rolled my eyes, "don't be stubborn. You know these monsters grow stronger the more they kill and eat the flesh of their opponents."

"That's what makes them fierce."

"Don't worry, I have a plan," indeed I wasn't bluffing. If my enemy decided to use such a strong card to get rid of me, I had a way to deal with this.

Like any disaster in the apocalypse, I would always look for ways to turn these into blessings.

"I hope you know what you are doing," we aren't that far away from the capital to begin with. As we reached there, I saw lots of monsters stopped by my big shield surrounding the three cities, making it impossible for a single one to trespass.

They kept hammering fiercely against the shield with everything they got. Aquatic monsters even tried to sneak in using lakes and rivers here, but they failed.

My shield… It showed its supremacy at such times.

"Just station yourselves inside and work on exterminating these monsters," I was going straight for the shield, to be attacked by flying monsters.

They looked exactly like the ones on the ground, yet with big wings. Some had two, some had four, and many had six wings.

But they didn't pose any threat to me. Just a single use of a pulse wave attack was enough to push all of them off my path, letting me pass through the shield of my capital with ease.

Inside things looked hectic! All those in the city were stirred up, stood around as they held their weapons and didn't know what to do.

I stood high in the air, and with my presence I felt like a weird calmness prevailed over the world here.

"You need to start building defences," I turned to the team, "built a strong wall to support the shield, towers to attack the monsters from, and a big deep trench to isolate this capital from the rest of the world."

"Leave this to me," Hilary showed a rare moment of taking responsibility, "but what about… you know… Him?" She struggled to find the right word to speak about the jumper.

"I'll have him with me," I didn't trust leaving such mentally ill dude with them in such dire situations. "Just watch out for Karoline… She seems to be not the Karoline we used to know," in return I warned them about the hidden danger in the city.

"If she did anything funny, I'll kill her," out of the blue Hilary said such brutal words, leaving even me speechless for a long moment.

"Just be sure she won't make anything stupid," I said to the team, referring actually to my current chick, Hilary, rather than my past girl, Karoline.

They nodded, and I didn't know if they got what I really meant or not.

I didn't have much time to waste here. The entire territory of mine was not only threatened by these swarms of monsters, but the more they were left alone the much bigger and stronger they'd be.

So I landed my chariot and watched my little elite team disembark. Then I took off and went directly outside.

I was welcomed with another wave of flying monsters. This time they seemed to learn their lesson, as they used long ranged air pressured attacks, acting like my dragon breaths.

457 Going To Pittsburgh

"Do you think these little attacks can hurt me?" I snorted, letting all of these fall over my shield before calling my fallen gods.

"Destroy these flies," I lazily pointed my glaive towards the flying monsters, making my fallen gods burn them to shreds.

Many attacks also landed on the ground, taking a great deal of the monsters here.

If there was something nice about it, then it would be my soul count. In this quest, I was sure getting the needed quota to pay my debt for the higher up was possible.

I didn't plan on using my souls to expand my forces for now. I had another way to solve this problem, a far better way that would let me sleep at night in peace in the near future.

[Where is the army now?] as I got away and flew for a couple of hours, I sent this to Hilary, [Also how are things at your end?]

[You killed lots of them, and we used this chance to lead the few forces in the capital and crush the remaining monsters. But more just pop up with each minute, so we are kinda busy]

I knew this would be the case for the rest of the upcoming week. Continuous fighting against the seemingly endless flow of these monsters.

That was why depending over any of my current forces seemed illogical. No matter what, no matter how much I brought over here, my forces would always be pinned down to a town or city, fighting all the time to free it.

We wouldn't have peace until that damn week would end. So I didn't consider even using the souls of mine to summon my mighty fallen gods or dragons.

There was another way, a much better way to crush these monsters. But I had to wait until I arrived at my big army.

After all, the army was supposed to lie in the middle of my vast territory. As for the other two territories, Fang and Wryly, they had to come back first and try their best to defend theirs.

If they lost anything, I wouldn't compromise them or anything like that. Even extending the help to them would be conditioned by them telling me what their meetings were all about.

Luckily this stage of the apocalypse pressured all of us. So they were in such a tight spot to not have much free will to refuse telling me.

If they did, they would risk losing everything they got so far. And I'd just sit on the bank of my capital's river and watch them burn while eating meat and drinking water.

[They are in the west of Pennsylvania, at a city called Pittsburgh]

[Ok, tell them I'm going there now. What do you know about this city anyway?]

[A big city, one with three rivers]

She was smart to get my point from asking. [Damn! Why out of all the places we have to go will have rivers or lakes!]

[This is US baby, everything must be related to water]

I sighed. The presence of rivers meant the aquatic battles would be brutal and fierce. "It's time to get more of them," I seriously considered one of the good souls I had and never used so much before; krakens.

In water, krakens were the real lords. But that meant I had to summon many of them. Or else what I'd summon wouldn't help. "Also dragons can fight in water, but I might need them in air and ground," I thought before thinking again about my plan.

It was a good plan, but it needed time for me to execute it. "I'll first secure the city and safeguard my army. Then I'd go for my plan," I decided. After all, the battle was already going on between the two sides.

So my first priority was to relieve the burden off my forces, then I'd start doing what I intended.

I was already on the northern borders of Pennsylvania, crossing it from New York. so in less than forty minutes, I managed to spot Pittsburgh.

It was a decent sized city with three rivers crossing it from the middle. Seeing it from such high altitude made me realise how brutal the fight there was.

It was literally everywhere! Hordes of monsters kept coming from not only one portal, but three. It seemed the portal arrangement was related to the size of forces in a certain area.

My big army extended over several tens of miles around the city, making them unable to use the emblems to their advantage like other places.

But at least they got something on their backs to rely on. As for inside the city, it was a total mess!

So it wasn't that much as a backing for them.

As everything looked in such a mess, I had to first control the most stressful zone; the inside of the city.

I moved my chariot directly towards the city. "Kill those flies," but as before, I was welcomed with lots of flying monsters, those I left for my fallen gods to clear.

"Come out," and as my boys started their barrage of attack, I called forth my dragons and flying monsters as well. "Kill!" I pointed at the flying beasts and launched the attack order.

Then the sky was filled with painful roars that got rid of lots of those annoying flying monsters in a short time.

The flying monsters were causing lots of trouble all across this vast battlefield. But when I appeared and caused such a massacre, all of the scattered flying dudes came at me with determination.

"Keep them away," I decreased the speed of my chariot as I stopped over one of the three rivers inside the city.

Standing there made me realise how it was hard to kill these monsters. They were sly, coming out to grab my boys from the shore and drag them back to water to feast on them.

Of course that let the aquatic monsters be the fastest to evolve among all the rest.

458 The City Is Secured

Their size showed much improvement than the other monsters. Even some started to grow double fins.

They dominated waters, and it seemed to me killing them would be hard. After all, the three rivers extended way beyond the limits of this city, even beyond the vast battlefield.

So killing them wouldn't put an end to their threat. I had to summon my krakens and let them deal with them.

"Come out!" as I checked my current souls, I felt it was really impressive! I had over ten million souls so far, and that number was rapidly increasing with each passing minute.

This disaster was a blessing for someone like me. Ten million souls was enough to summon two thousand krakens.

That might seem like nothing much, but it was enough if I supported them with stats.

But the problem was how and where I should do that?

Taking them out one by one wouldn't help. Also if I threw them down the rivers, they'd lose a lot before even getting the chance to evolve.

"Come out!" as I thought about a solution, I instantly summoned my large army of soulers. I now had almost close to one hundred thousand of them. And it was time to let these lazy boys feed and fight.

"Go, clear this zone from any monster," I pointed at a place that wasn't so far away from the three rivers. The three rivers met at some point in the central area of the city. And I just selected a nearby location from that.

Taking control of this conjunction point was the first step here. Then expanding their activities through the entire rivers would come next.

I waited for my soulers to clear that area. They were like fire eating weed, nothing would stop them from killing and dominating this place.

Of course they had to attack these monsters dozens of times to kill them, but I already had too many of them. In the span of half an hour, the entire eastern zone to this conjunction of three rivers got cleared.

"Come out," I first summoned my krakens on the ground as I landed my chariot there. During this time, the aerial fight was almost over, of course with my boys winning every single battle.

I took hills of stat points as I added, "use them to get stronger… Come out!"

I wasn't done yet! If it was a water fight, then my Albany city monsters would shine.

[Sorry, your city is under attack right now. You are about to lose control and ownership of the city]

"Damn! I totally forgot about it!" I slapped my forehead before thinking about something. "Summon all the monsters in the city to defend the city."

[Are you sure?]

"Do it!"

[Done!]

The system sometimes made me feel like I was talking to a kid or something! Anyway, I wasn't able to use the help of my Albany city monsters. But at least I was able to secure the city for now.

One hundred thousand monsters was enough to crush any hostile foe. Even if they got killed, I could always summon them again.

"Go," I was now very impatient about getting rid of monsters inside the city to start out my plan. With my plan, not a single city or town would be in danger.

And the beauty of this is that I'd gain a much stronger army than ever! One that could keep evolving by killing and fighting with no limit.

Per my orders, and protected with the large army of soulers, my kraken army moved and went into the river.

Once reaching there, the surface of the river churned and showed fierce changes. It looked like mighty explosions occurred without pause, making the river surface disturb like never before.

Then the water got dyed red and green, giving me the impression a really brutal massacre was happening down there.

"See these monsters here and there?" as I got the burden of the water fight off my shoulders, it was time to replenish the consumed souls again, "go and exterminate them. Move outwards, make sure to leave none behind."

This time I let my soulers go alongside my flying monsters and dragons. The fight spread fast all across the city, adding more destruction and ruin to this place.

I rose up with my chariot and kept making tours. I helped with my chariot weapons, while my fallen gods acted like weapons of mass destruction.

"Aim out there, make sure to hit the areas around these three portals," the fight was intense between my forces and the monster, so it wasn't safe to let them release their ultimate freely.

I pointed at the three main sources of trouble here, the only places with no foothold of my forces. And then doomsday truly came over the heads of those monsters.

Explosions rang all the time while hills of dead bodies of monsters started to pile up in the city. My forces looked like they got their souls back, as they fought in such fierceness and aggressiveness to make me feel proud.

The mightiest of them were my superb humans and Bulltors. These two forces were enough to make any army of monsters crush and crumble in front of their mighty attacks.

I was quite sure that if not for these two here, my normal humans would end up losing big before my arrival.

"The city is cleared," I muttered in delight after a long hour of continuous fighting. Even with the deadly attacks of my fallen gods at these portals, monsters kept coming in large numbers.

"It's time for me to make my move," as the city was secured, it was safe to recall all my forces back. "Go back, go inside the city and fortify in it," I started flying around, shouting at all the forces on the ground.

As for the incoming monsters, I had a perfect way to deal with them.

I had to wait for another hour for all my forces to retreat. Even with my krakens, the water monsters kept gushing into the city, forcing me to spare half of the dragons and soulers to deal with them.

"Great, it's time to use my technique," as the last group retreated to the city and stayed around it in a one mile radius, it was time for me to use my technique.

These monsters… I'd control them using my technique, binding them all with contracts, and let them become part of my forces.

This was my plan, the plan to turn this disaster into a paradise that I'd hope to never reach an end.

459 Taking Control Of Monsters

I didn't delay anymore. Once I stabilised the situation in the city, I started to make my circle and held it from the centre.

"Go… Control everything and everyone," I said as if my technique had a will of its own or something.

At the same time, I took out many bones and started to absorb their energy. I didn't want to simply control a few hundreds or thousands, but the entire army here.

The densest place with these monsters was the areas around the three portals. These areas were getting devastated now by my fallen gods' brutal attacks.

"Stop the attack for now," as things reached this point and I released tons of my threads towards the enemies down below.

Things started chaotic at first. By the sudden stop of my fallen gods' attacks, the monsters gushed towards the city in huge numbers.

It looked threatening, and it looked like I was going to lose control over the city again. However there was something interesting.

"These monsters… They didn't even struggle to stop my threads…" that was the pleasant surprise I got when the first waves of threads came in contact with the monsters.

Controlling a single enemy before took a few minutes, but now it doesn't take a few seconds. Once the first batch of monsters got under my control, things started to grow much easier for me from this point.

Each monster released a gush of threads to the nearby ones. Like a tsunami washing away anything in its way, my threads started to expand in a fierce speed that even startled me.

The good thing was the energy consumption, it wasn't that bad like before. In fact I felt one of the reasons behind this hasty expansion of my threads returned to the big amount of energy I was gushing towards my technique.

I didn't feel any regret about consuming such a large amount of bones. As I saw it, I was going to take control of most of the monsters here soon.

And once the threads took control of the monsters around the city, part of it started to expand inside the city, controlling the aquatic monsters inside.

In less than ten minutes, this brutal fight turned to my favour. "Stop attacking!" I had to give this order as all the monsters nearby were under my control for now.

All that remained was the monsters coming from the three portals. I wanted to go and control them, but I first needed to do something.

"Buy!" without wasting any moment in thinking, I opened the market and selected the most basic and cheapest contracts and bought them in huge batches.

The number of monsters I controlled during the past fifteen minutes was really scary! Saying they were more than a million isn't an exaggeration. And there was still much more waiting to be controlled.

As I got these, I forced the controlled monsters to sign the contract with me. Of course they, normally, weren't able to sign any contract as they weren't sane enough to decide such a thing for themselves. But right now it was me who was in their heads, it was me who signed the contracts with myself.

Weird, right? But it was also amusing.

In the next half an hour, I turned all the monsters here into my loyal fighters. Then I released the threads, expanding these towards other monsters.

During this time, the monsters coming from the portals didn't stand idle and watched me doing this. They kept coming and fighting, yet to be stopped effectively by the combined forces of mine.

The frontline was formed by the monsters I controlled, aided by my soulers and flying monsters and dragons, with the help of my fallen gods and the attacks coming from my chariot, and lastly they were supported by the human army here.

Once I started to expand my threads, the situation kept turning to my favour. The monsters coming from the portals were controlled fast, even before they would reach close to my forces.

As a result, the size of my army kept growing on such a terrifying scale while the hostile monsters didn't have the chance to pose a threat to my forces again.

After one hour, the situation ended up like this: any single monster coming through any portal was instantly controlled, and then it would sign a loyal contract, turning into my dog for eternity.

This made the size of my force here grow to an unimaginable scale. I had to disperse them around, sending many to the nearby regions for help.

From this moment onward, this quest would be controlled by my new loyal dogs. And the great thing about it was the more they fought, the stronger they would become. That meant by the end of this quest, my forces would be a real powerhouse that could handle the defences of my kingdom efficiently and without the need to get help from me or anyone else.

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

However this paradise and dream didn't last long. In less than six hours, and after I controlled a sh*with a ton of monsters, the three portals paled all of sudden and started to fade away.

"Interesting," seeing this made me realise these portals were controlled by someone. And that person decided to close them and stop me from gaining strength.

"Do you think this will stop me? Humph! Quite pathetic!" I rolled my eyes when the last portal closed and no more monsters appeared again in front of me to control.

I didn't finish my technique. After all, the sheer size of energy running through my dantian and meridians was too much to handle.

I had to keep gushing these out towards the technique, creating more threads even if there was no target to control.

"Follow my chariot, let's roam and dominate these lands," as the well of dreams was closed here, I had to move on to the nearby cities and towns to replenish my forces.

460 The Portals Are Getting Closed Up

What happened here gave me an insight about something. If these portals were controlled by someone, then I'd force him to close every single one of them.

And during doing this, I'd end up gaining a much larger force that would leave me invincible by the end of this quest.

As such I moved at my highest speed towards the east. Starting from this place, my territory expanded into every direction. But as I recalled, there were lots of towns and cities in the eastern region.

The plan to increase my monster army and close the portals started officially right now.

Moving around towards a nearby portal didn't take much time. Also the monsters down below weren't that slow. They just had a lag of ten minutes or so to arrive at my chariot after stopping at the next town or a city.

The only drawback here was the inability of me to take them into my inventory. Like this I had to scatter them around, and wouldn't truly depend on their help if I ever needed them.

They would take much time to arrive at my location in any war. So if I didn't prepare them beforehand, depending on their help would be pointless.

But securing the kingdom using their great numbers and ferocity was enough for me. At least I could now recall all the scattered forces from all the cities and towns, even at the frontline.

I started this quest accepting the loss of many parts of my kingdom. That wasn't needed anymore. I could now exert full control over my kingdom without fearing or worrying about losing anything at all.

Each city and town I reached had brutal fights going on between the hostile monsters from one side, and my monsters and human forces from another.

But once I arrived, all this changed dramatically fast. Gradually I didn't need more than ten to fifteen minutes to take full control over the entire city or town and its surroundings.

As for the portals, that bastard seemed to focus on my movements. He didn't give me more than half an hour to control monsters before closing up the portals.

I realised he had to wait for half an hour to close any portal. As for risking to close all the nearby portals, that was something he seemed not to think about seriously yet.

If he did so, then gradually this quest would lose its meaning and threat over my kingdom. So he had to wait until I'd arrive at a town or a city before starting to close the portal there.

That gave me a great amount of monsters with each freed town or city. And with such fast control speed of my technique, I managed to cover up large spaces in a short time.

In less than ten hours, I managed to clear the entire towns and cities in Pennsylvania. Then I started to go north towards New York, then expanded towards the surrounding smaller states and lands.

The more I went north, the more brutal the fights became. It seemed whoever was controlling this started to accelerate his way of actions.

Instead of having a single portal at each town and city, it became normal for me to see three and even five portals at one place. That didn't make the losses of my forces slightly bigger, but it also made me take slightly longer time in controlling monsters and clearing the area.

Instead of taking ten minutes, I started to take longer, even taking half an hour up to one hour at some places.

"Scatter," that left me no option but to scatter my grand army of monsters around. The big human army following my chariot now paled in comparison to the seemingly endless army of monsters.

Instead of just making them follow me around like loyal dogs, it was better to scatter them around and act as vicious packs of wolves.

This helped a lot in accelerating the pace of controlling the lands, but it came at the price of losing a great part of the monsters I used to control and add to my forces.

However this also came with a good benefit. My monsters stopped growing stronger and fiercer in the last hours. After all, when they'd arrive, most of the fight would be over by my technique.

So scattering them around like this made them able to restore this advantage. They began to expand and became bigger, fiercer, and stronger.

The flying ones showed the highest rate of evolution. After all they were like predators with no equal. Next came the aquatic monsters, especially whenever we reached a town or a city with water surfaces like rivers and lakes.

The northern part of this continent seemed to be quite dense in such things. Many rivers and lakes appeared in almost every big city. That gave a great advantage for my aquatic monsters to evolve.

Gradually I started to grow numb about doing this. Repeatedly controlling monsters and forcing them to sign a loyalty contract with me became boring.

Yet I knew how important such a step was. Just in the past twenty hours, I managed to create a big army of monsters with different types to exceed thirty million so far.

Just scattering them around in an area of fifty up to one hundred miles left them crowded. The world started to be covered with these monsters. And that made me feel little satisfaction about what I was doing.

[What the hell are you doing exactly? I got many reports about weird things!]

Just as I was getting near Albany city, I got this message from Hilary.

[What? I'm busy right now so make it short]

[So you are really controlling those monsters? Is that for real?!]

[Who said I can't?] I laughed, [I can do whatever I want, right?]

[That bastard… He must be now regretting coming at you, hahahaha!]

I knew she was talking about her nemesis and enemy. But I had to admit, there was no evidence that he was the one behind all this.

[Anyway, whoever is controlling these portals is now rushing to close them up]

[I heard, and that's really weird]

461 Seeing Old Friends Again

[Weird? How so?]

[There should be no one in control of such a thing… Except for…]

She paused, and I felt like she was thinking about something unlikely.

[Who is it?] I didn't accept her silence or hesitation. I was curious to know more about the person who was playing a game of cat and mouse with me for many hours now.

[Angels didn't have such authority, not even that bastard]

[Even the higher ups can't?]

[It's indeed a higher up, but not from the angels]

[From Dragons? Selvators? Or perhaps the Hectors?] I stated the big names I was aware of and had a benefit of messing things up for me like this.

[Neither…]

[Then?]

[A much bigger higher up, one who can has access to the system]

[You don't possibly mean…] a name popped up in my mind at this moment.

[It's like what you guessed]

Damn! So I wasn't just fighting a normal race, but a system higher up! Thinking about this was really shocking, but when I thought about it, what she said made quite sense.

These portals didn't appear by the work of any race, but from the system. It was part of the quest, and to stop them one had to get access to the system.

Who else would be able to do that?

[But… Aren't they supposed to be fair and neutral?] This was a point that I didn't get.

[He didn't directly interfere, he is just making little trouble for you. Such a thing won't trigger any alarm in the system, right?]

I knew what she said was true. After all, what this bastard did was to just cut off the source of getting more monsters under control.

From one side he was acting against me, but from another angle he was just trying to make things balanced. It wasn't supposed for anyone to control monsters, or topple with the quests in such a way as I was doing.

Of course this was my personal strength, but he got an argument at least to defend against any possible accusations.

He… Was in the right even when he was doing something wrong.

[Don't think too much about it. After all we, humans, are just new to all this sh*t. Unlike other races here, this is our first apocalypse. For angels, as an example, they managed many worlds and triumphed lots of apocalypses to reach such a status of guides here]

[I… Got it] It was bitter to admit such a thing, but what she said was true indeed. We were just nothing in the eyes of those in power.

If I was just starting up and got to know a higher up, what about those old and scary folks of other races? Wouldn't they also have their friends and allies in the system higher up?

Thinking about this made me more wary. This apocalypse… It was heading downhill so damn fast!

[I'll keep what I'm doing then] but even when I realised how terrifying and authoritative my enemy here was, I didn't flinch.

[You should be, after all only strength matters in this cruel world]

Strangely enough, she shared the same opinion with me. I thought she was going to make me turn down this path, but she was smarter and much more courageous than I thought.

[Leave the capital and organise the inner territory for me. I'll give orders to the army to come back. From the look of things, you don't need any of them, right?]

[Do it] Indeed that was the case. With the astonishingly large number of monsters under my control right now, securing the entire kingdom's outer borders was a piece of cake for me.

So letting my human army return wasn't a problem. In fact in the last ten or more hours, I don't recall any fight they participated in at all.

As I closed the chat with her, I recalled the two bastards. They haven't sent me a single word since their meeting started.

[Hey, what's up?] I sent this to the two, and if I was speaking to a wall not a single answer came back.

"Cool… Keep me in wait, and I'll show you how you'd regret this later on…" I muttered in rage while closing this chat with them.

Dealing with the monsters in this apocalypse seemed like a piece of cake to me. But I knew I was an exception. For anyone else, dealing with such swarms of fierce monsters would be a nightmare.

I knew they'd come asking for help later on, but I wouldn't agree to help. They left without saying a single word, and left me in the dark for such a long time.

How long was it? A day? An entire day in the apocalypse passed by already without getting a single word from them.

"Go, let's go west," as I was feeling such anger, I decided to vent over these portals and monsters.

The west border of my kingdom wasn't that far away. But I decided to push the border much further. Using the help of monsters and portals here to expand my kingdom just seemed quite appropriate.

After that I'd head to the south. Taking lands from these two was also a sort of punishment for them.

When they'd return, they'd find many parts of their territory became mine. If they'd want a replacement, they could just go out there and fight for it.

Only if they gave me proper info about what happened and what all this secrecy was for, then I'd return parts of their lands to them.

Of course after paying a corresponding price for that as well.

The fight on the west frontier took almost ten hours. I expanded my territory all the way to control the entirety of Michigan and also Wisconsin. Then starting from there, I went south, cleansing anything and any foe I met.

Just going to Illinois made me meet old friends again. Dragons, Selvators, Berserkers, Illusionists, Succubi, and Hectors were all there fighting brutality against the monsters.

462 [Bonus chapter] He Finally Woke Up

All I did was to release my own monsters over all of them. And at the same time, I went to control new monsters from the surroundings.

Like before, with my arrival, and in half an hour all the portals would be closed. That made the fight end up between me and those races.

Controlling these cities and towns was easy now for me. Just take control of their gates either on the ground or under water, then clearing all the hostile forces there.

Like this I started a big massacre against these forces. To be fair, they were heavily burdened with the last big war losses with me.

So fighting so soon against me and having to clash against such fierce and evolved monsters left them no chance at all.

But that took more time than before. Taking control of big cities and towns took hours. Yet it was worth it.

I took another day to reach the southern coast, ending up at the coast of Mississippi.

Once reached there, I let my monsters scatter freely. I visited most of the places under my kingdom. And right now my territory expanded from the eastern coast all the way to an imaginary line extending from Wisconsin at north down to Mississippi at south.

I haven't visited Gang's territory yet. As for Wryly's forces, I just passed by them occasionally when I was up north.

"It's enough for now," seeing the endless million army of my monsters spreading all across my territory made me satisfied. "Time to go home."

I left for two days, and participated in such an unplanned fight for such a long time. I needed to rest, have my moment of peace, and see what my team was doing.

[Hey, you didn't respond to me yet] during the journey back, I had time to ask lady green nymph about what I asked her for.

All this time and not a single word from her. It was weird. She used to act swiftly and respond to me in a short time, not like this.

Two entire days passed already without getting a response back, weird indeed.

[I didn't get any response yet. Sorry about all that time, but my boss is still hesitant about making a decision]

[One hundred thousand bones]

[I beg your pardon?]

[I'm willing to pay one hundred thousand bones for each of the two secrets]

I hated being on the hold like this. I knew that the boss was weighing the trouble of telling me versus benefits. So I just had to give up such a big offer, one that would be crazy from him to turn it down.

[Are you sure? You know this is really an insane amount!]

[Just tell him that] I paused before adding, [Also tell him my time is precious. If I didn't get an answer during the next five hours, I'll start looking for other places to get such things from]

[No wait… Wait, be patient please. Why acting so rash?]

[I already waited long enough]

[Ok, ok, let me go and speak with him again] she paused before adding, [But promise me to wait for my answer. We dealt together for enough time to be considered friends, right? You shall be lenient towards friends]

[I am, but don't let me wait for much longer. I have limits to my patience]

[I swear things will turn out as you want. Just don't be haste and wait for my message]

Of course she got scared! Just thinking about losing me for other impacts was something risky. It wasn't just me going out there and asking for help from another impact, it was like me leaving the impact and looking for another to satisfy my needs.

Losing such a customer like me and over such a big and rich offer was something only crazy would do. So I knew she was going to convince him, and bring me the good news.

As I closed the chat with her, I did nothing but to relax on the roof of my chariot. I rested my head on the thick arm of a Gollam for an unknown period of time before a silhouette of someone appeared from the stairs.

It was a tall person with one arm. Just seeing him made me smile.

"Finally you woke up, you gave me a scare by all this time of rest," I said in welcome, while motioning for him to sit by my side.

"Sorry, but…" he paused and looking at that look of trouble on his face made me sigh inwardly.

"It's not that bad to serve me."

"Don't say it this way… Not when…" he lowered his head. I knew he was referring to the secret of him being a girl using camouflage to cover up her face and turn her into a man.

But for me, he would be a dude, just like another close person to me.

"I told you before, you aren't the first one with such a troublesome background… Just forget about this and tell me, how is your injury now?"

He lowered his head towards the root of his arm. That move was still fresh in my mind just like it happened now.

It wasn't that easy for someone to make such a decision, and he took it in such fierceness and decisiveness worthy of my admiration.

"It will take longer to heal," he said with a long sigh, "so don't expect much from me in the current time being."

"I don't plan to," I smiled, "but once I'm ready and you are, I promise you to be very busy with many tasks."

"What? Are you planning to work me to death or something?" he said in a fake panic, and I grinned evilly.

I knew such a courageous girl who decided to take such a hard path of being a man wouldn't get scared easily. Damn! She didn't even get scared when she severed her arm.

This girl… I was sure that nothing in the world would scare her, perhaps only death would do that.

463 Paragons' Sealed Strength

"As if you can say no if I asked for it," I winked, and his face blushed a little before he stuck out his tongue.

At this moment he was acting just like any normal girl would do. I didn't feel any speck of manhood from her, and that made me realise how our relation was growing.

Just at this moment, a picture surfaced in my mind, giving me a scare.

"By the way, keep this secret of yours to yourself," I hurriedly said and she nodded in obedience.

"I didn't want my secret to be known by anyone outside my race from the start."

"So only your people know about… This?"

Damn! That meant I had to find a way to shut Fang's talkative mouth so he wouldn't cause my death.

If my chick got a wimp about that, she wouldn't stop until she beat me to death. Damn! I had to find a way to hide this from her.

Wait… Why was I thinking in such a way? I looked at that handsome dude sitting next to me while his body showed a softness that would never belong to any man.

Damn! I wouldn't fall for her, right?

A thought popped into my mind at the moment. Why not ask for her to reveal her true face to me? Per Fang words, she was a piece of art, one of kind in beauty of their race.

"No!" I suddenly shook my head, straddling her.

"What?" she gave me a weird look, and I felt really weird at this moment.

"Ahem," I cleared my throat, trying to find anything to shift the topic to, "I plan to let you be responsible for training my humans," I said, while covering up my awkwardness by looking at the distance.

"What's that noise?" Just as I looked outside, she finally heard the ruckus happening outside.

I was controlling my chariot to fly at maximum speed. But right now we were supposed to be flying over Pennsylvania.

It was where everything started. I recalled leaving lots of monsters here to scatter around and dominate the place.

"What the heck… Is that?!!!" as she went to the edge of the chariot, she looked at the outside world and finally saw the swarms of monsters running down below.

I walked and stood by her side, to be met with a funny scene.

"Damn! Who told them to send spies here?" underneath my chariot, a large number of Dragon race fighters were running while my monsters were chasing after them.

"I suppose… The quest already started?" She turned to look at me and I nodded.

"Two days ago."

"Why not go and help them out?" she pointed at the group of dragons before adding, "after all we agreed upon a universal treaty peace in this quest before the next important quest would come."

"Peace treaty? And I wasn't invited?" I rolled my eyes before pointing down at the dragons and shouted, "listen up, leave everything you are idiotically doing and feast on these damn dragons' flesh!"

Even if the dragons were running from monsters, many of mine were doing something stupid. They were sightseeing, walking and running around like dogs going out for a walk or something.

But once they heard my voice, they stopped, raised their heads like their almighty was descending upon them, then roared.

"What are you doing?" she turned to me and blurted out in shock.

"Just be quiet and watch the fun," I evilly laughed while the sudden worldwide roars made the dragons running even pause out of deep shock and fear.

They were excused to feel so. After all, who would be courageous enough to stand on his own against my mighty and vicious monsters?

During the next hour, a big battle erupted. These dragons were really annoying. It seemed this big group of thousands weren't normal as each one held many worthy items in their inventories.

Flashes of lights appeared all the time, making this battle slightly longer than I expected. My boys down below were like a locus, eating up anything in their path.

But with all these treasures, many died and lots more got injured.

Yet in the end this group was annihilated.

"May I know why you did that?" She stood in front of me after all the noise from the bloody battle down below settled down. She crossed her arms around her chest, seemingly as if her boobs were there to stop her arms from directly being on top of her chest.

She even stood in a tilted posture, one that was famed for girls to take.

"You said it yourself, you got a peace treaty among yourselves. Yet it seemed that you forgot a single race out of this."

"This… Is because…" her face fell when she heard me, "only paragons of each race agreed with each other about this. Humans have no paragon!"

"Wrong!" I slowly shook my head, "my race has me, I'm their paragon."

"Who said that?"

"Me killing paragons of Hectors and Berserkers isn't enough? What? Do you want me to go on a spree and exterminate all of the paragons of all races here?"

I gave her a firm look, one that showed how mighty I was thinking of myself. I wasn't falsely boasting, I was really invincible!

If by killing paragons I wasn't valued as being one, then what else should I do to become one?

"You… You are just missing the point," she sighed after a long moment of silence, "paragons… We are weak! All of us are now in our weakest moments. You can't possibly compare yourself with us, not right now at least."

"Really?" Her words piqued my interest and ignited the fire of a fight inside my soul, "tell more then."

"We arrived here with limitations on all of us," she said in seemingly a regretful tone, "that was done to make sure everyone else has a chance to excel in this apocalypse. But in fact, our strength isn't even this close to a third of what we should be."

464 A Weird Meeting

"A third?" I raised one eyebrow, and she seemed to mistake me for being astonished, "that's not something to make any difference."

"You… Humph! Just wait… The fourth quest is going to be the paragon shining quest."

"Paragon shining? Are they gathering around a fire or something at night?" I said in mockery before laughing over her funny reaction.

"Don't be like this! We will regain our full power at that quest. All of us were working so damn hard to get our powers back."

"Quests only for you?" I got what she meant by saying this, and she nodded.

"I completed mine during the past quest, and many also did the same. Only a few are still struggling to keep up with us. If they missed the next quest, then they'd have to wait till quest nine."

"Hmm… I see," I said in fake seriousness, "but that doesn't have anything to do with you for now. You aren't a paragon anymore, right?"

"Thanks to someone," she punched me on the arm, making me feel a little stinging pain there.

"I did nothing," I acted innocent and she rolled her eyes in response.

"Yes, I can tell."

"Anyway, even with such an increase in power, they won't match me."

"Don't be like this."

"Like what?"

"Underestimating them… We… I mean they are paragons, mighty ones and not that weak."

"I'm not making that mistake," I shook my head, "I'm just all knowing about my individual strength."

"Arrogant."

"And I had all the reasons to be," I laughed.

"Seems like you two are having fun!"

Just at this moment, a voice came from my back. It was someone who I didn't see for such a long time.

"Who is he?"

"Who the hell are you?"

The two pointed at each other. And like any love rivals, they instantly recognised each other as an enemy.

Damn! These two… Sigh!

"He is the jumper, and he…" I paused as at this moment I realised I didn't know that paragon's name.

"I'm Isac, the paragon of the Selvator race," that dude introduced himself in such an arrogant way, "a jumper, huh? I met a couple of your kind before. All of you are arrogant and full of yourselves despite the fact that you are all cowards!"

"A dirty loser of such a race that held no candle in front of me doesn't have the right to speak," the jumper responded with as sharp words as Isac.

"Loser? Who the hell are you calling a loser?" But it seemed unlike the jumper, that Isac had weaker mental strength as he got stirred up with what the jumper said.

The jumper didn't directly answer. Instead that jerk calmly and slowly walked towards me, stood by my side while taking his time to watch the two of us from underneath his ugly mask of his.

"The fact that you are standing with such a bastard here means you already fell for his tricks and became one of his loyalty contract bound people, right Hye?"

"Who are you calling a bastard, jerk?" I rolled my eyes when I heard his words. Damn! It seemed he returned to his old self, with his sharp tongue that always targeted me.

"You are," the jumper was shameless to not feel any regret about what he called me, "don't tell me you don't do that? Everyone knows at least," he shrugged, as if this was something taken for granted.

"F*ck you!" I shifted my eyes towards Isac, "don't listen to him. He is just a jerk and always acts like that."

"Stop calling me that!" the jumper shouted, but I ignored him.

"I know his calibre very well, after all my first lover was a coward jumper who jumped and dumped me all here by myself," Isac said this about his past. Knowing his true identity made me realise the jumper he was speaking about was a male.

And strangely enough, these two were one way or another related to an old emotional trauma related to men. Don't tell me that Isac here decided to change her appearance from a girl to a boy because of such an incident?

"A loser is always a loser," the jumper snorted, saying such weird words to my ears.

"Go screw yourself," Isac didn't show any weakness but his tone was filled with immense rage.

So I had to step in and put an end to this nervous meeting.

"Speaking like you aren't a loser yourself."

"F*ck you!" The jumper shouted in rage, but he didn't continue pestering Isac for now. That dude was smart enough to know if he kept doing this in front of me, I'd expose his past as well.

"Anyway," I shifted the topic to something useful, "the two of you know each other now. He is going to lead our forces in hellish training, giving birth to great fighters."

"Aren't you tired from using outsiders to do that?" The jumper was still pissed off at what I just mentioned, "why not let me train them? I can guarantee strong and very experienced forces."

"You? A human and a coward jumper? No way you can be compared to even half of me!"

"Shut up! If not for that jerk here, I would have dumped this pathetic apocalypse a long time ago and jumped!"

"Oh, so he did such a great feat? Impressive Hye," Isac gave me a thumbs up, "I like you even more."

"Speaking about that…" the jumper seemed to recall something, "what the two of you were just doing when I came up here?"

"What do you mean?" I asked while the face of Isac turned slightly red. Damn! Get a better hold of yourself girl, or that predator here would sniff your true identity out like a seasoned dog.

"I just… It felt weird how the two of you were acting with each other," the jumper felt something was amiss here, but he failed to spot it, luckily.

"It's just your imagination," I rolled my eyes, "I'm all into girls, not interested in boys, dude!"

465 Finally He Responded!

"I know… That's why… Forget it," the jumper finally decided to drop the matter, letting me heave an inward sigh of relief.

"Now, Isac is going to lead our forces to train and you shall wait and watch and learn from the side."

"Me? Did you get your head hit or something?"

"Dude… I'm not the one who led my army into such a losing battle, ending up losing most of them."

Even if he wasn't in his right mind when he did that, it didn't negate what he did. And he committed such a grave mistake for sure.

"You…" the jumper knew he made such a grave mistake indeed. So even if he was insulted and enraged by what I said, he didn't have the gut to fight over me for this.

"Anyway, we are going home now," I moved my eyes before adding, "we are going to Boston."

"What are we going to do there?" The jumper seemed very annoyed by what I said so far, so he decided to go to the edge of the chariot. "Holy sh*t! What the hell is going on down there?"

He pointed down at the ground where it was covered with herdes of my boys. "Hye, since when do you leave such a monster infestation loose? Don't tell me… The next quest is up!"

"Didn't you get the notification yet?" I asked in doubt and he shrugged.

"I was sleeping most of the time."

"These are all his, can you believe that?" Isac pointed at me like he was pointing at a monster.

"Yes, I can believe that. Just stick around for a few more days and you'll know this dude is crazy… A crazy bastard!"

"Humph," I didn't take their words this time as an insult, and felt pride in what the jumper just admitted. "They are taking control of our lands."

"And the quest? What's all about this time? Monster invasion?" he asked and I nodded.

"It's about defending one's cities and lands against monsters," Isac explained, "we need to have at least half of the lands we initially owned before the start of the quest."

"What?!!" This was a little detail that I initially missed. And Isac nodded.

"Do you think it's just to protect one city or town? No pal, it's about protecting half of what you already own."

"Damn!" I cursed before suddenly laughing.

"What's wrong?" the two looked at each other in question before the jumper asked.

"Some dude was getting away with this quest it seems, and in the end he had to lose it bitterly and big, hahaha!" I said these words that the two wouldn't get, raised my head to the sky as I shouted, "thanks for your generous help. If not for that, I'd have forsaken more than half of my territory and would be punished in the end."

"Is he…Alright?" Isac pointed at his head and the jumper sighed.

"He is always like this, just get used to it and don't let his madness get to you."

"I see…"

"See what?" I looked at the two before laughing, "screw you two! If my chick was here, she would have laughed alongside me."

"Yes, she already got infected with your madness," the jumper pointed at his head in a way to express madness.

"It's just your ignorance, not my madness," I laughed. In fact I was right now in a very good mood.

Damn! Things worked out like that without knowing about it. I thought I was blessed with luck to get all these monsters to safeguard my kingdom.

But now I knew it was much better than this. I got saved by my luck, and that bastard, the system higher up and his friends, would end up crying over losing such a chance.

[I'm out… At last!]

Just as I was laughing and grinning, I got this sudden and long awaited message.

"Damn!" Once I read it, I hurried to one corner before responding: [What happened bro? Tell me all about it!]

[Just let me catch my breaths… It was really… Horrible!]

I didn't know why, but just hearing such words coming from such a strong and fierce Berserker made me realise how bad that meeting was.

Damn! Did they torture him? What about Fang? I opened my messages with that bastard, but there was news from him yet.

Don't tell me he was still inside that meeting! Or was he out already and didn't tell me like Wryly?

I knew Wryly was a kind man. So it was expected for him to send me once he got out. But that sly Selvator was another story.

[Damn man! You got us in a deep sh*t this time]

In ten minutes, Wryly finally sent that message.

[Sh*t? What happened? Tell me everything!]

[Sure, but where are you now? I have to warn you… The paragons of all races agreed to pay a bribe for one of those mighty ones to target you in this quest]

Reading his words left a touch of warmth in my heart. If I just had all my followers to be as kind and loyal as Wryly, life would be great.

[Don't worry about that, I already handled the situation]

[Phew! Thank God! The first thing I wanted to do was to get out as fast as possible and come and warn you about it]

[Thanks bro, you are the best brother I ever had] I honestly said. Comparing Wryly with the jerk, the jumper, or the sly bastard, Fang, made him the best brother I ever had.

[Is your land secure?] I knew I already got a good deal from his lands.

[I… Still don't know. But if they came at you, they will come at us as well]

[Don't worry, I've passed through your lands earlier and helped to some extent. I'll send more help to your aid]

[Thanks bro for that] I had to give him a reward for his good attitude. Unlike that bastard, Fang, Wryly contacted me the first moment he got out.

466 I'll Make Her My Girl Then!

He even didn't check over his lands yet. And doing that made his stature rise in my mind.

[Tell me then, what was that meeting all about?]

[Interrogation and trial] he sent such serious words, [My race paragons agreed to come together with such a thing. I also heard the other arrogant dude is facing the same, and even harsher, trial than mine]

[Is that true?] I wanted to know more about this messy situation, [Tell me, did you paragon stand by your side?]

[He did, and that made me get out unscathed at the end. Damn bro, they went through every single action we did. All the battles, decisions, and even the deals we two had… That was a nightmare!]

[They checked the deals?!] I had to be surprised by that. After all, each person's actions in the apocalypse were limited to his own free will.

But doing so would expose for sure the deal about exchanging humans with me in return for cities and portals. In addition to that, training my forces might place these two in a tight spot.

[They tried to come at me, saying these deals tarnished our race. However if not for my paragon's help, I'd have been screwed]

[That's… Good to hear] his paragon acted smart, knew what he should do better for his future benefits. [I hope the other dude is doing great as well]

[I… Seriously doubt that. After all our two races shared nothing similar about our codes of honour and laws]

[What do you mean?]

[We, Berserkers, always place great importance over fights. As long as we went through great battles and won, nothing can be blamed seriously on me. Unlike us, Selvators held much importance over their honour]

[I know that]

[So they will come at that arrogant bro and he is going to face it hard this time]

[Do you know if he is out or not?]

[I… Still know nothing. I just came out and get in touch with you the second I was out]

[Cool. Check over him for me. Who knows, they might have forbidden him from getting in touch with me]

[Possible, highly likely indeed. Leave this to me, I'll get in touch with him then return to you]

[Deal]

I closed the chat while feeling the pressure already from those paragons. I had to admit, this move came just in the worst time ever to try and create a wedge between me and these two.

I invested a lot in these two, and planned to do so for a much longer time. Losing them would end up bad for me indeed. "No, I won't lose them," I clenched my fists, knowing that I had to put more effort in the next weeks to make sure these two wouldn't lose much.

From the words of Wryly, I could tell that everything depended over their paragons. Wryly said it himself, if not for the support of his paragon, this situation would have ended much worse.

And his race was more lenient towards their rules. I gave Wryly great battles to fight in during our past relationship, and that helped him a lot.

But Selvators? I couldn't help but steal a look at Isac. That race wouldn't feel relaxed after what I did to their paragons.

Wait a moment… Damn! I recalled the last words I got from Fang before all this started. He warned me that this girl here had many fans, those who might cause me trouble.

Yet I never thought before that such trouble would come this fast, and in such a way.

Ok… Ok… If you aim at my boys, then it would be only fair for me to aim at your girl. Trying to force me to let her go? Damn! You messed everything up!

I never held any intention for her to be honest. However, that is going to change right now. I just had to wait for Wryly to return and tell me the news.

According to what happened to my Fang, I'd decide how to deal with Isac from now on.

Would I treat him as Isac? Or treat her like one of my girls? That would be decided soon enough.

"Is everything alright?" it seemed my gazes startled Isac, making him ask in doubt while coming to me with the jumper.

These two just stood there all the time without exchanging a single word. They saw each other as enemies or something, making me not know if I should laugh or cry.

In my eyes, the two were just two faces of the same coin. Why wouldn't they just get along with each other well?

"It's good… So far," I mysteriously said before adding, "things might go hectic from now on."

"What happened?" the jumper asked, and I had to bitterly smile as I pointed at Isac.

"It seems like he is stirring the hornet nest."

"M… Me?!!" Well, if he was trying to act surprised by this, then I had to give him an oscar award for such an outstanding performance.

"You snatched a paragon, and they had to respond for that," the jumper rolled his eyes, totally missing the point, "did you think Selvators are just cowards or piece of sh*t like Succubi and Illusionists?"

"My race is mightier indeed," Isac also missed the point, and I had to sigh when I saw that.

"It's just me being formidable, what's wrong in that?" I said in defence, "anyway, the paragons of all races are trying their best to target us."

"That's expected," Isac nodded, "the next quest is damn important for all of us. Letting you lose and threaten other paragons will bring all of the races great trouble."

"I can see that," I knew this was part of the reasons behind what happened, but it wasn't the sole reason indeed.

"So? Are we going to have a war?" the jumper asked and I had to shift my eyes outside.

"Dude, we already had it."

"Then?"

"They are targeting Fang and Wryly this time."