Chapter 614: New Target
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
From the very start, Conservation’s defeat had been set in stone the moment that she became bound to h.e.l.l.
I had also given her a chance to set past grudges aside. I had even given her part of my research materials and the right to reside in Yongye City, giving her a place to live. This was my way of showing my friendly intentions.
Actually, I wasn’t only showing friendly intentions towards Conservation herself. I had wanted to hold back for the sake of future relations.h.i.+ps. If I could get along well with Conservation, this would also help me in the future when negotiating with the undead Tark Republic.
According to my spies, the Tark Republic Senators didn’t actually have that much of a grudge against me. Even though Aso died because of me, the Senators felt that Aso’s death had been glorious. The Senators viewed death quite lightly with how they wanted to revive the ethereal concept of the Tark Republic. In fact, they even felt recognition towards me, their “junior” who managed to force the more senior Aso to kill himself.
“Only by accomplis.h.i.+ng so much can one be recognized as a ruler of undead—an Undead Emperor.”
Thanks to Aso’s final gift, I had discovered back at the Forest of Dreams that even ordinary high-level undead recognized me as an undead ruler. However, I was an “enemy ruler”. In fact, some undead even viewed me as Aso’s successor who deserved Aso’s inheritance.
This was how undead society was. Power level was viewed as more important than anything, and undead society was strictly ruled by the powerful. If Aso’s corpse ghoul disciple had survived but was unable to prove that he was stronger than me, then undead society still wouldn’t have given him any recognition.
I wasn’t hostile towards the undead. I was even impressed and sympathized with the Senators who reminisced about the past and wished to rebuild their country. However, personal feelings would be irrelevant when it came to compet.i.tion for survival s.p.a.ce that involved many countries and species. I wasn’t foolish enough to try and become a peace broker.
Right now, the undead armies and human kingdoms were busy killing each other. Neither side had any intention of stopping this war for the sake of survival s.p.a.ce. Only when both sides were no longer able to take the losses would I, “Aso’s successor”, “The newest and strongest Undead Emperor of this generation”, be able to stand up and act as a mediator.
“I can give you a new ‘dimension’ of your own. This land is rich and abundant with resources. It can be used to reconstruct your Tark Republic.”
Providing my Land of Spring as a new land for the undead would be my greatest show of sincerity. My sincerity was because I knew that Aso and the other undead wished to revive a country where the living and dead could coexist.
However, I also knew that the Undead Emperors currently had no interest in any land other than Eich’s mortal plane. The Undead Emperors would only possibly consider my sincere offer after they became convinced that they were unable to return to the mortal plane.
I voluntarily showed my sincerity, which naturally meant that I hoped for a friendly response. I had hoped for Conservation to become a bridge between myself and the other Undead Emperors. But, when she betrayed our contracts during a battle and allied herself with Lasnina to kill me, there was no longer any possibility of Conservation and myself ever getting along anymore.
I was no saint who was willing to turn the other cheek when slapped in the face. Neither was I the type who would intentionally step into the same pitfall twice. Now that my party members were all gathered, my first priority was to deal with this internal threat… If it came to it, I would simply negotiate with the other Undead Emperors instead. Perhaps they would be much easier to talk to than this insane woman.
In that case, since Conservation was no longer useful as a peace mediator with the Tark Republic, her only worth was now her personal value.
Kill her? That would be impossible. It would be far too difficult to completely kill a Main G.o.d level existence. Not to mention, high-level mages would have countless tricks for escaping death up their sleeve. It was likely that if her soulfire was extinguished here, it would be reignited in a new location.
Considering how her soul was now bound here, it was likely that her new physical body would revive here or be forcefully teleported to her soul’s location. However, there was still a chance that she might escape. I didn’t want to take this risk.
Even if she was reborn as nothing more than an ordinary skeleton soldier, an even more powerful Undead Emperor would return in less than a century. Even if I wasn’t scared of trouble, I would have to think for the sake of my descendants…
Wait, was I overthinking things? With my luck, it would be impossible to have descendants…
I… I would definitely have a wife and descendants! Even the world’s evil intentions wouldn’t be able to stop me! As last resort… I could always adopt a child!
Cough, cough, getting back on topic, in order to deal with someone truly troublesome like Conservation, the only practical method would be to seal her, just as how I sealed Lasnina, forcing her to sleep for several tens of thousands of years.
However, I would never let her go to sleep so easily before I made up for my own weaknesses.
Previously, I had offered to peacefully exchange magical information as equals, but now that she was trapped in my clutches, I would never rest until I forced her to reveal all her magical research results.
The final reason, fine, I admit that this reason was more than fifty percent that I had no guarantee of being able to seal a Main G.o.d. While the Seal of the Four Elements was incredibly strong, there were far too few Main G.o.ds out there. It would be impossible to ascertain if the Seal of the Four Elements could successfully seal a Main G.o.d.
The power of any seal would be like a lock. Making its design more advanced and the lock stronger would depend on the lock creator’s abilities and resources used.
In order to even semi-forever seal a Main G.o.d, I would need to prepare G.o.d Equipment of each element. That would be quite an investment, and I would also need to reach SemiG.o.d rank first.
From a certain standpoint, Main G.o.ds were truly troublesome. They were so difficult to truly kill, and would be a huge pain to deal with if one escaped. There was no perfect way of dealing with them.
However, in history there were only records of Main G.o.ds who died in battle. Not a single one had ever been captured alive before, especially by those of lower rank. While there was no good way to deal with Conservation, there also seemed to be no incorrect way.
“Let’s treat her like a top-level mage captive.”
Any mage with no mana would be useless. A contraption to drain a mage of their mana would also be quite easy to create. This was a common punishment device used in the Mage Country on criminal mages. A mana draining room plus mana draining tubes would cause any mage to be unable to maintain any mana whatsoever.
“…I won’t comment on the mana tubes, but isn’t that a dog chain on her neck? You even drew a terrible picture of a two-headed dog. Were you afraid of the dog getting lost?”
The magic sealing necklace Conservation wore had been specially created by Margaret. I happily added my Absolute Zero ice with many secrets into it, and since I was worried that Conservation would be depressed, I even drew my cutest dog Bastian on it. I was truly so kind, treating my captive so well!
“Look at her expression. She definitely wants to kill you at all costs. No, she probably wants to die together with you.”
“I’m used to it already. Everyone I locked away in prison before also had the same expression.”
As for all the other extremely effective dirty tactics I used against other prisoners, which was experience I gained from earning Fate Points while building my prison under my mansion, those tactics would be truly inhumane. Yet, Elisa was already preparing them… I suddenly felt that having Elisa around was also a good thing. At least she would help me out with many things.
Cough, cough, that was enough about Conservation. Time would prove everything.
“Our next target is Sun G.o.d Aloyo, who should currently be residing on the 372nd level of the Chaos Abyss.”
I hadn’t forgotten my original objective in coming down here to the Chaos Abyss. Although the demons and devils had interfered with me several times, completing my Myth-ranked weapons as quickly as possible and improving my power level to deal with future problems was the most important thing right now.
With so many years of acc.u.mulation, and the strongest bloodline I had ever possessed, I really looked forward to what power level I could achieve in the end.
“Aloyo? Who’s that?”
“The venerated Sun G.o.d wors.h.i.+ped by the ancient Xian Tribe. However, this tribe died out in a Holy War more than 20,000 years ago.”
What surprised me was that even though most people didn’t know Aloyo’s name, Margaret still knew this name. Was it that the Mage Country still had records of such an ancient time?
“There will always be records of anything that has existed before. This tribe is rather unique. Those eagle-headed Xian Tribe members were quite accomplished in history and astronomy. Our current constellation maps are improvements on their maps as the foundation. Also, they addressed the “eternal star” as “Aloyo” in their language, which I wouldn’t possibly forget.”
I had indeed forgotten that Margaret was probably the only one among us who was capable of some prophecy magic spells. Prophecy magic scammers loved to talk about astronomy more than anything, saying that a meteor represented some calamity, a black spot on the sun meant requiring blood sacrifice from ordinary people, and so on. At any rate, there were never prophecies about good things.
I suddenly felt like the stars were quite pitiful. Putting on some makeup or having a black spot meant they represented the end of the world? Even though they lived so many light years away, they were somehow responsible for destroying us?
People always blamed the stars for everything, But, were the stars really capable of expressing so much with just a few flashes of light? How wonderfully eloquent they had to be!
Right, didn’t it take a long time for light to arrive here from the stars? In that case, anyone watching the stars would be seeing light from many years in the past. Light from many years in the past was capable of prophesizing something completely unrelated? Just how ridiculous… cough, I meant amazing was that? Could it be that the stars themselves also had the ability to prophesize?
“…You’re biased. We Gold Elves were also skilled at prophesizing with the stars. This is an incredibly deep field of magic that requires extremely high talent. It’s something that you’ll never be able to touch in your lifetime. Besides, prophecies of disasters are made in order to avoid the worst possible result.”
Harloys seemed quite angry for some mysterious reason. Had I angered her somehow yet again?
“I was the one who prophesized the destruction of my own Gold Elf species. In the end, my prophecy was proved correct…”
Harloys’ voice kept decreasing in volume. No wonder she was such an unfortunate princess of a dead species. Her own prophecy of destruction had come true, and her own country was destroyed?
“…Didn’t you try to avoid the prophecy’s outcome?”
Harloys shook her head. However, she wasn’t referring to never having tried.
“All of our efforts made the prophecy happen even faster. Perhaps our efforts were also part of the prophecy itself. Ever since that day, I swore that I would never prophesize again.”
So Harloys would rather face a completely unknown future instead of facing a future with no hope apart from absolute destruction?
The silly cat seemed to be quite displeased as she jumped off my shoulder and went upstairs in her Gold Elf form.
I suddenly felt rather afraid. So, the number one jinxer in the world had always secretly been by my side? I felt quite fortunate that she hadn’t tried to make a prophecy out of boredom. And then, I suddenly felt like laughing out loud. I was no longer the number one jinxer!
“Does Aloyo have any special abilities that we need to watch out for?”
Little Red’s question brought me back to my senses. I shook my head regretfully at Little Red as she hugged an alcohol barrel while appearing slightly drunk.
“An ancient G.o.d is that easy to deal with?” Little Red had a look of astonishment. She had only been casually asking.
The next instant, I realized what was going on. It seemed that we hadn’t been on the same page.
“What? Easy to deal with? No, he’s incredibly difficult to deal with. If my guess is correct, he’ll probably be more difficult than even Conservation.”
Aloyo was an original G.o.d who had ascended through his own personal strength. He had also formerly been a Main G.o.d. Perhaps he had now been a hermit for countless generations, and was no longer well known, but it was unlikely that he would have lost much power.
A Main G.o.d level Sun G.o.d? One who had formerly been the highest G.o.d wors.h.i.+ped by an entire tribe? This would be no different from the G.o.d of Holy Light. Just thinking about it gave me a headache. I really hoped that I would be able to communicate with him and talk things out. If talking didn’t go well, we would at least need enough power to run away. This was also why I had my party practice against Conservation so much recently.
“Even if we can’t win, we have to at least be able to escape. Since he hasn’t fought for so many years already, he probably doesn’t enjoy fighting.”
[No, Aloyo was also once a War G.o.d. Of course he would love fighting, and when considering your typical luck, even if he no longer enjoys fighting… You’ll probably cause some trouble somehow that will antagonize him.]
“…So you were a jinxer as well! But, you’re so reasonable that I can’t counter you!”