Chapter 281 Faction Building
Lara's eyes were basically scarlet at this time, and her hand lit up with flames of a purple color. She seemed like she was going to attack Dante in his moment of weakness, but despite her posture, she never actually made a move.
It was not from fear, but because of the spectators looking on. It was not conducive to her plans for her reputation to be any more negative than it already is. The killing of the students she could easily justify given what they had done, Dante had already recorded and uploaded enough evidence to the Central AI for the school.
That was what even brought her out here so quickly. Partly because Dante had grown so powerful so quickly and partly because she needed to be the one to resolve the situation, not Dante.
But as it was, it was obvious that Dante was using some sort of ability to try to resurrect his classmates who had been harmed by the seniors. If she interrupted such a thing, the consequences were not something she could easily bear.
Lara didn't leave any harsh words. She just fixed her expression and dispersed her power, glaring at Dante coldly before opening a portal and walking through it. Dante, who was working on the resurrections, furrowed his brow.
"Levi, just how many authorities does she have?"
"She only has one actually, which is control over all the elements in existence." Levi answered casually.
All element authorities… how overpowered.
Dante understood that if Lara had even slightly more control over her power, she could easily wipe not just him, but even Portia out. Such an unfair and insensible opponent was very troublesome to think of.
He completed the resurrection and watched calmly as his fellow classmates were restored to life, all 28 of them. Excluding the one fellow who escaped, everyone else had come back… but there was a problem.
"M-My superpower… it's gone!" Slessor cried out with shock.
The faces of the others changed as they tried to access their abilities but found that they could not feel it or access it. Immediately, they began to panic, for their superpowers had long become their very identities and what qualified them to stand in the upper echelon of the universe.
It was not so bad for the pure human since their status was already high, but this was a fatal drop from grace for the mixed breeds and especially the aliens. Just thinking about the cold treatment their family, friends, and faction might give them made them despair.
"Not necessarily gone," Dante stepped forward and said to the despairing students.
At this point, the students had long broken down, so factoring in Dante, who had miraculously brought them to life, anything he said seemed to be the song of the angels in their ears.
Before they could hound him, Dante raised a hand to stop their questions and worries. "I have been granted the right to establish a force in the universe for the protection of my faction, family, and especially to spelunk in the first gate."
"As such, I have many ways to grant you guys strength in terms of SDI and superpowers of various kinds. This is a special recruitment I will only do for those I like, so make sure to consider carefully-"
Before Dante could even give the terms and conditions, all 28 of the students - yes, even the guy who escaped and kept his superpower - hurriedly knelt down without hesitation, their eyes showing their desperation and fervency.
What left Dante speechless was that some of the onlookers stepped forward with shining eyes, hoping to join this recruitment wave. How he knew that this was genuine was the suddenness and the fact that the faction leaders who brought these guys along were shocked and furious.
However, it was wrong of Dante to be surprised. In the current universe, it was literally the case where factions took in those with superpowers and gave them basic nurturing and then used those superpowered people like servants to farm more superpower fruits.
No one literally gave out superpowers and the way to grow them in exchange for work. One had to have a superpower to qualify to even be a worker in the first place, and even then, the factions dared to be picky.
If Dante put out a recruitment order, more than half of the universe would rush to his gate to beg to enter his budding faction.
It was funny when you thought about the fact that Dante once planned to conquer this universe. He had thought up plans and worked hard to set up foundations for a future invasion and drawn-out war, but now he could literally snap his fingers and cause the majority of the universe to be his willing lackey.
It seemed redundant to say this, but it was an inescapable truth that this change was brought upon due to an increase in power. Power, raw power, was one of the only things that could change a situation so drastically in terms of difficulty.
Imagine how torturous it would be to live in a world where there was no extraordinary power, and the best one could do was go to the gym to bulk up!
"For now, I am only accepting these 28, specifically because we have some connection, and also because of the fate dealt to them. As for later recruitments, let's wait until I set up my corporation in a few days and advertise my wares." Dante smiled and nodded to everyone else thankfully.
There was no need to act arrogant and unapproachable, especially when that was not his nature. Besides, he only took in his former classmates because it would elevate his reputation in the universe and give him a lot of prospective followers and fans.
As for doing it out of the kindness of his heart, are you joking? Dante was admittedly soft-hearted about many things, but more than half of these guys had been spying on him maliciously when they still had powers, and the other half wished death upon him even in their sleep.
Dante also created a portal and told the 28 to walk through, which took them to the spaceport of the Eternal Academy. Unfortunately, his 9th rank space magic could not beat the scientific technology of spatial blockade, only Quantum Entanglement could.
As such, he commissioned a commercial ship to send the students to Planet Etonia.
That's right, as part of his compensation, the entire sector in which Planet Etonia was located was granted to him, with full rights and control of all its functions. Of course, all the officials and establishments within stayed and were still tied to the basic government system, but Dante could override and do what he wanted at any time.
Naturally, Dante was not the destructive type who would smash a working system down and rebuild it just because. He maintained everything mostly as it was, but he did plan to use Planet Etonia as a commercial base, so it was undergoing a lot of turmoil as questionable entities were relocated to other planets with compensation and the political structure was being shifted around.
As Dante had been busy working on Quantum Entanglement all this time, the one to handle this was naturally his lovely wife, Beatrice. She had been enthusiastic about him establishing a faction all this while, so you know she put her heart and soul into this.
Dante teleported directly to Etonia's new capital city, Avalon City. The former capital had been Ferris City, but it was changed by Beatrice since she first met Dante in that alleyway, a moment she called their fateful encounter.
That particular alley had been cleaned up and renamed as the alley of truth, and Beatrice had placed a lifelike statue of her holding up Dante by the neck when they first met, turning the alley into a popular tourist attraction for this sector and for many who were now crazy about Dante since he was the 'strongest' being on paper.
You know how crazy celebrity worship can be, so imagine it on the universal scale?
What left Dante speechless and red-faced was that Beatrice even added another statue in the middle of the street, which was now cordoned off, of Dante following behind her while staring at her ass.
This left Dante embarrassed because it meant that she had caught him as far back as then, and he thought he had been sneaky with it. When he arrived in Etonia, he landed in the new estate that Beatrice was building for them.
It covered about 1/5th of the entire city's landmass, and acted as their personal home in which every inch was reinforced and protected from outsiders. Huge walls mixed with antimatter were built to prevent prying eyes from seeing into the estate and their personal business, while 10 kilometers in all directions from the walls were an off-limits zone, patrolled by androids created by Dante but would soon be replaced with hellfire demons.
The actual office building for Dante's corp was located in the former center of the city and was built very tall and large. Even though Dante was the only one working there, the business was dealing with the top list goods and needed an aesthetic grandeur to match its status, Beatrice argued.
Like any husband, when the wife starts remodeling and renovating the house, Dante quietly supported her and scratched his head the whole time.
You know, as men, we were content with the barest minimum. Aesthetics were nice to look at, but we could go without it. However, anyone who had married or had a serious girlfriend living with them would admit that when their partners did their magic, it really was amazing to look at.
Dante was also amazed and pleased with what Beatrice had done when he arrived. The woman herself was radiant and full of passion, wearing her usual conservative attire but it couldn't hide her growing baby bump.
Portia was also here, but Augeus was tasked with handling all the matters for Dante and the Portinari clan in terms of their political revival and resurgence, so he was too busy to even sleep.
Meanwhile, Portia and Beatrice were having the time of their lives. Being able to freely direct and design like this with nothing stopping them fully released their feminine artistic tendencies.
For the first time, since they confessed their feelings for each other, Dante was actually unnoticed by Beatrice for a minute or two while she continually planned this and that with her mom.
Meanwhile, Dante was not even bothered or jealous. Instead, he got a full minute and slightly more to look at his beautiful wife being at the peak of her joy, her cheeks rosy from happiness and her lips sore from smiling and laughing so much.
His heart swelled with satisfaction and happiness, and he couldn't help but engrave this special sight in his heart. If he ever questioned himself in the future, if he ever faltered or doubted himself at any time…
He would remind himself of this moment, and it would be enough to make him stand up once more.
Beatrice eventually lifted her head and seemed to sniff the air. Her head turned to Dante, and her eyes lit up, as she abandoned what she was doing and rushed into his embrace. Dante had been craving the feeling of hugging her for a while, so he made sure to enjoy it for a good long while.
Portia noticed Dante and smiled with amusement, before walking over.
"How's everything? Did those students give you trouble?" Portia asked jokingly, as she knew that Dante was going to the school to 'collect his dues'.
Dante stroked Beatrice's soft purple hair and sighed. "A little bit more than that. I think something historic just happened a few minutes ago, and I'm not sure if I entirely like how it turned out."
With that, he sent them the details of the events firsthand from his recordings, making the faces of Beatrice and Portia change greatly.
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