Chapter 299: Finally Time (Patreon)

Mila

Demiplanes between universes formed when an active connection between two universes was maintained for a long time, on the order of thousands or millions of years, and the Astral Spirit Universe had two such universe-connecting demiplanes, one to the Prime Material and another to a larger universe ruled over by three demonic gods.

But, with complete control over a universe, these types of demiplanes were relatively easy to destroy.

For young demiplanes like the ones which connected to the Astral Spirit Universe for example, a B rank controlling one of the universes could destroy them in only several dozen years while an A rank, or someone with A rank power like Aalam, could destroy them almost instantly.

The difficult part was not the destruction, but taking over an entire universe.

At least for people other than Aalam.

With an Empyrean grade lord line skill and direct power over natural energy, taking over a universe the size of the Astral Spirit Universe only took Aalam a couple of days. He just had to teleport between the main population centers of the universe’s astral spirits, claim each as his Territory, and then take about a week expanding his control from those main nodes to the entire small universe.

With the universe under his control, he then broke both demiplanes and forcibly teleported the few billion demons living on various space stations throughout the universe to one place. Then he used the demonic language words Mila fed to him to order them all to swear allegiance or die.

Being demons, a few tried to attack him, flying through empty space to attempt to slice him in half with spears, but, when Aalam took all their attacks without any kind of defense and then wiped out all seventeen with a single Triforce Law Blast, completely atomizing the C ranks, the others all fell in line.

Leaving one clone behind to study the universe’s Laws, Aalam then left through a temporary portal to the Prime Material and quickly snuck into three other universes, all previously owned by the Undead, to take over them as well, gaining control over two more small universes, which the Primordial Humans called the Swamp Golem Universe and Lesser Material Universe 146, as well as one medium size universe, the Endless Light Universe.

Small universes like the Heavenly Soul Universe and the Astral Spirit Universe were generally between one and seven galaxy clusters in size, with only the biggest, like the Heavenly Soul Universe, having a single B rank mana concentration node, such as a material universe’s life planets. Medium size universes, on the other hand, were much bigger, between 8 and 49 galaxy clusters in size, and most had gods, making them nearly impossible to take over without divine level portals or an A rank portal and a really, really powerful A rank mortal like the Law Master before his ascension.

The Endless Light Universe, however, no longer had a god. An uncountable amount of undead had attacked it in the past through a then A rank portal to one of the Undead’s large size universes and the Endless Light Universe’s only divinity, a benevolent light and life aligned mother goddess, had sacrificed herself to change the universe to actively repel the power of undeath.

From historical records, it had been an attempt to save her universe’s population, trillions of dryad-like creatures who grew from trees, but it had only worked for a few billion years, and then the Undead had killed all of them.

The universe still repelled the power of undeath, however, so the Undead had allowed the power of its portals to wane, and, before Aalam’s attack, they only used it to create another small pathway into the Prime Material and as a connection point to three other small universes she and Aalam planned to take over in the coming years.

They didn’t have time immediately, however, as, with Aalam now technically the full inheritor of Camoran the Spirit Smith, there was nothing blocking the rest of their plans to start proceeding, and there were only a few days before the start of the Prime Material’s next round of apocalypse style integrations.

So, without delay and with Aalam’s help, Mila sent a clone into each of Aalam’s conquered universes to relieve his clones of the duty of watching for new temporary portals which could potentially allow the Primordial Humans, the Demons, or the Undead to take the universes back. Then she had one of her clones, along with Isaiah and most of the United Federation of Planet’s C ranks, wait for her husband’s return to the Heavenly Soul Universe in the main plaza of their B rank planet’s largest city.

Aalam, with his control over the Heavenly Soul Universe and the resulting ability to find and strengthen any temporary portals, then returned to the Prime Material and secretly combined with all his clones before landing in the plaza in front of everyone, a big smile on his face.

“The United Federation of Planets is still at war with the Primordial Humans faction of gods.” Aalam spoke to everyone, having learned to not be uncomfortable with such a crowd over the last 5,000+ years. “And so far we are winning, their losses huge and ours non-existent.”

Cheers went up from the C ranks and all their family members who were seeing them off, as well as the large crowd at the edges of the plaza to see the historic event in person.

“But, as we are now, they could still crush us if their gods managed to find us, so we need to grow stronger.”

There was more cheering.

“And I’ve just managed to secure our strongest a new place to train, a place where our C ranks and higher can more easily sublimate their souls under the pressure of a dead elder god’s skeleton.”

The cheering grew louder.

“Soon, we won’t have just 1,000 C ranks in our force, but 1,000 B ranks, and later we’ll have 1,000 A ranks instead.”

The cheering grew louder again but then completely stopped as Aalam caused his aura to show his full power, stunning most of the crowd.

“We will rise! We will protect our people! And we will make our original universe a better place to live!”

The cheering came back with a vengeance and Aalam waited a total of 10 seconds.

Then, with a large smile on his face, he, Mila’s clone, and all of the United Federation of Planets’ C ranks other than Mila’s main body were teleported through another temporary portal which had formed to the Prime Material and into Camoran the Spirit Smith’s hidden demiplane, where they appeared at the edges of the large subspace Aalam had shown her from his memories, the one with the absolutely massive dragon skeleton at the center.

There, she saw the Alchemist of the Deep Woods seemingly meditating much closer to the skeleton, though quite a bit further back from where Aalam had fallen unconscious in his second to last test, and she watched as Aalam used kinesis to stop Krysta from immediately forming a portal over to her mother, informing the woman out loud about how getting too close to the giant’s remains could possibly kill her.

Then, as expected, the divine artifacts showed up, all nine of them, and everyone from the Heavenly Soul Universe heard the pair of glasses, Truthfinder, ask, “How did you bring so many people in here? Master’s restrictions should be foolproof.”

“I’m not sure about foolproof.” Aalam grinned as he stepped forward, using his control over his surroundings to protect everyone behind him from the auras of the nine divine artifacts. “But I’ll figure that out in the future, given I am already recognized as the master of this place.”

Without another word, Aalam then waved his right hand and six of the artifacts—Truthfinder, the Endless Seal, Twilight Sun, Hellwater Moon, the Kiminary Armor, and the Vazifor Spear—all disappeared, the power of the divine artifact running the demiplane having activated.

Then the power of the artifact activated again to send Aalam’s next words to every subspace in the demiplane. “Now accept your punishment on your previous master’s behalf for not objectively running his inheritance competition. You’ll each stay inside one of those stupid boxes until I call for you.”

With a more calm expression, Aalam then bowed to the remaining three artifacts—Giantslayer, Thread Guider, and Thunder Crusher. “Thank you three for being objective. I hope we will work together well in the future.”

“Sure. Sure.” Giantslayer flew around Aalam’s head, looking excited, but its voice sounded a bit nervous. “But how long are they going to stay in there? Staying in those boxes is not fun.”

“I’m not fully sure.” Aalam looked thoughtful for a second as Giantslayer flew back to be next to the other two divine artifacts. “Probably a few tens of thousands of years, but not much more.”

“Only that short?” Thunder Crusher’s big booming voice sounded surprised.

“Yeah.” Aalam nodded. “Just until I am powerful enough to make sure they are not a danger to me or my subordinates.”

“Fair enough.” From its aura and what Mila could tell of its tone, Thread Guider seemed to think the punishment reasonable as well, which reduced the last of Mila’s fears.

“Okay then.” Aalam turned back to all the C ranks as the Alchemist of the Deep Woods walked over at the ridiculous speed only possible for an A rank. “Everyone, stay here and learn from my master and these ancient and learned divine artifacts on how to best train under the pressure of the previous Lord of all Monsters. Meanwhile, Vanar, Raven, Wen, it’s finally time.

“Over the next day, I’m going to break down your souls until you only have the power of G ranks, and then you’ll be able to join the next round of apocalypse style monster tutorials.” Aalam stepped forward a few steps and placed his right hand on Vanar’s left shoulder, looking over the crowd, especially at the C ranks who’d survived Earth’s apocalypse style integration. “And for all you old timers, prepare yourselves. In just a few years, my sister will be back!”

As Aalam and the three men disappeared, more cheers came from the crowd, everyone excited for a new training opportunity and many of the oldest members obviously also thrilled about Diana’s return, but, while Mila’s clone was also smiling, and she felt just as happy, she knew they’d only been lucky so far.

There was still a lot to do, and one mistake could result in their total annihilation.

Meanwhile, Aalam required a lot more Territory if he was going to upgrade his Emperor uniqueness before advancing to B rank and it would not be safe for him to claim it himself as his twelve clones were all about to undergo reincarnation as well, weakening him for the rest of C rank. So, as usual, Mila had a lot of work to do.