Chapter 543: Rank Conferment
It was evident that not all the Demon Rulers were on friendly terms with each other. They had their factions, but they were usually wise enough to prioritize Gozon over their internal disputes 90% of the time.
Now, however, was one of the remaining 10%—a moment when personal grudges took precedence, as the issue at hand wasn’t significant enough to threaten the stability of their Interstellar Empire. As McEnda II noted, many who opposed Alvey did so simply because of his association with him.
He was the one they didn’t like, but they couldn’t take out their grudges on him since he was the strongest Gozonian in the Universe after his parents, so they resorted to petty methods like this.
There were two ’Supreme’ Demon Kings because Jamie was around, but if Jamie wasn’t, then McEnda II would hold that title alone. Even Malorum who was the Main Entity of the universe governing the Aspect of Destruction would be hard-pressed to win in a fight against him.
McEnda II gazed around at all the Demons present in the hall, before pointing at one particular Junior Demon Lord and asking.
"What Rank are you?"
"...Lower Fourth, your Excellency."
The man he questioned was one Alvey was very familiar with; it was the same father who had expelled him from their family when he was younger.
Hearing the man’s rank, McEnda II nodded and declared.
"I believe everyone present agrees with me when I say ’Alvey Sargon’ is the standout member of his generation.
Unfortunately, my silly son didn’t make the cut."
The man didn’t miss an opportunity to diss his son, gradually pushing the younger McEnda closer to the limit of his tolerance. McEnda II knew this, but he only grinned mischievously and continued speaking.
"Anyway, in accordance with our customs, the most exceptional member of the younger generation earns a standalone ’Upper Class’ Noble Rank.
I vote to make Alvey a ’Lower Third’."
Those familiar with Alvey’s background understood immediately what McEnda II had done—he had deliberately positioned Alvey’s rank a full level above his father’s.
"I vote ’Upper Third’."
Jamie added on right after McEnda II spoke and hearing him, Malorum frowned and spoke.
"That’s just you two being biased. I vote ’Upper Fourth’."
"Upper Fourth here as well."
Xagthor seconded Malorum’s vote, and soon, many others followed his bandwagon. Most of the Demon Rulers voted on Upper Fourth, while a few leaned towards ’Lower Fourth’ or ’Fifth’.
"How many Upper Fourths do we have?"
Jamie asked this and 37 hands were raised immediately. Seeing this, he shrugged and spoke.
"Well, last I checked, 37 is more than half of us so ’Upper Fourth’ takes the day."
Right after speaking, he activated his Race King authority and conjured a Seal of demonic energy with Gozon’s Insignia on it, along with a giant ’IV’ with an overscore above it.
He tossed the Seal to Alvey who caught it and spoke.
"The proper ceremony would happen during the second phase of the summit. For now, keep that on you."
Alvey silently bowed without betraying any emotions on his face, but only he knew how overjoyed he was internally.
With Alvey’s rank decided, the important matters with the Aramis group were settled so McEnda II decided to pose a question he’d forgotten to ask earlier.
"Yo, Arthur. When do you plan on going back to your home Universe? I need you to pass a message to your grandfather for me."
"I’m going back sometime in November. And he’s my great-grandfather. I’m the son of his son’s daughter."
All the Demon Rulers knew exactly who McEnda II and Arthur were talking about so there were no looks of confusion from their end.
Evan and some of the Demon Noble family heads were lost though.
"Didn’t you get here last October? That’s so short, it’s barely a year!"
"I’ve got people back at home who I need to get back to, and I don’t plan on following his footsteps and staying away for too long.
It ended up with his son hating his guts, after all."
Arthur shrugged as he replied, remembering that for the longest time, Diablo did NOT like his father who was absent throughout his early years.
"I’m very curious to meet his son. I’m also very curious about this concealment method of yours. It’s rather...excellent."
McEnda II’s statement caused a stir among the Demon Nobles present, revealing that even the Demon Rulers were unable to see through Arthur’s concealment.
Arthur, for his part, simply snapped his left index and ring fingers, but only Jamie realised it was a misdirection since the concealment ring was actually on his right hand.
None had Cosmic Superiority, so none of them noticed the cosmic energy coating his body get reabsorbed by the ring, which subsequently unveiled his true existence realm for everyone to see
The most stunned were Alvey and McEnda, who were taken aback to discover that Arthur was a Superior Sovereign.
The Demon Rulers were equally shocked, as their recent reports had classified Arthur as a Superior Legendary—barely a month prior.
"How the-? Weren’t you a Legendary not too long ago?"
"Yeah. I just became a Sovereign a little bit over two weeks ago."
"..."
There was a pin-drop silence in the entire Hall of Stars as everyone tried to process the absurdity they just heard. Even Jamie was dumbfounded for a moment before he burst out laughing in the next.
"Bahahahahaha!!! I guess the craziness runs in the blood, huh? 100 Levels in 2 weeks?
Even I took till I was 20 to hit Transcendence, but from the looks of it, you’d get there before you turn 18!
Maybe you might even beat my record and Exuviate before 25!"
"NO, NO, NO, NO...Arthur’s case doesn’t make yours any less ridiculous!!!
Transcendence at 20?! Exuviating at 25?! Are you even hearing yourself?! People take centuries to reach that level, you know?"
McEnda II felt the need to remind Jamie that he was still every bit of an anomaly as Arthur was and those who were hearing that Jamie became a Deity Realm existence at 25 for the first time had their jaws drop to the floor.
Even Arthur and Evan were surprised.
Arthur had seen people who took nearly 1000 years to become Half-Deity realm existences, and Jamie somehow pulled that off before he’d even lived 3 decades.
This was an example of Singularities getting stronger at speeds worthy of resentment.
Malorum ignored Jamie, having long since grown desensitised to his bullshit and questioned Arthur.
"How did you move up an entire realm in such a short time?"
Arthur couldn’t even voice out a word when the Demon Queen of Gravitas interjected.
"An entire realm? The boy’s Semi-Transcendent already! It wouldn’t take long for him to start having ’Undefined’ Stats."
When one exceeded all possible limits of power for an Existence Realm whilst not ascending to the next, their Stats and Levels became ’Undefined’ by the system since it lacked the parameters needed to measure such an extreme level of power within that realm.
After reaching Level 899, if Arthur got any stronger then that 899 would become ’Undefined’. So would his Stats as well.
Regarding Arthur’s situation, the Demon Queen of Gravitas pointed out something he himself wasn’t aware of.
"I’m not even gonna question how you were able to comprehend laws before Transcendence. What I wanna know is how you mutated your Pseudo-origin core!"
"Mutated what?"
Arthur looked puzzled, prompting the Demon Queen to raise an eyebrow.
"Why’re you acting confused? I’m talking about the mutated Gravity Pseudo-Origin core you have."
"...I have a Gravity Pseudo-Origin core?"
Arthur was genuinely bewildered, as he didn’t think the Core had already formed since he had not reached the 50% mark for Gravity and was still at 49%.
But given that she had a High-Rank Authority over the law, she couldn’t be mistaken—he did have a dormant Pseudo-Origin core, and it was inexplicably mutated.
An Origin Core was the source of one’s Authority within their soul, so him having one meant he already had a Pseudo-Authority of Gravity...it was just dormant and hadn’t awakened yet.
’Because it’s mutated, maybe?’
He guessed this ’mutation’ the Demon Queen spoke about was the cause but he wasn’t sure. Arthur had never heard about mutated cores before!
"...you actually don’t know?"
The Demon Queen realised Arthur was genuinely confused and it dawned on her that he was unaware about the Core until she just mentioned it.
Meanwhile, the rest of the Hall was too busy wondering if Singularities could bend balancing laws to the extent that they could make themselves comprehend Universal Laws before Transcendence.
"No, Singularities can NOT. The boy is a Progenitor. They’re exceptions to the rule."
Jamie spoke up to answer the unspoken question everyone had, so they didn’t get weird notions about Singularities.
"I’ve never had a Pseudo-Origin core form but not awaken immediately so I’m a bit lost here..."
Arthur’s little mutter entered their ears and all the Demon Rulers looked at him with raised brows. Even Alvey and McEnda III gave him incredulous stares and Arthur quickly realised he’d said something nonstandard again.
It appeared that Arthur’s immediate awakening of his Pseudo-Origin cores for Time and Destruction was uncommon; most individuals experienced a period where their soul adjusted to the new core before it fully awakened.
"Hold on, you guys can talk about all this after the Summit is over. We’ve taken too much time with this group.
Don’t forget we’re still just on the letter ’A’."
Malorum reminded all the Demon Rulers that they had over two dozen groups of Battlefront World Representatives waiting and his reminder made some of them frown.
"Fuck...my butt’s gonna hurt when we’re done with today."
"I know a good massage parlour. Got vouchers too."
When Jamie made this offer, the Demon Queen who complained about a sore behind jumped on it in a second.
"Ooh, gimme!"
While she was hounding Jamie for his vouchers, Malorum silently dismissed the Aramis group and they were escorted out of the Hall.
As they left, Evan couldn’t help but think that the Demon Rulers were not what he expected. He had been expecting an overly serious lot with cold demeanours, but only a few of them fit that bill.
Most of them gave off the vibes of an unhinged group of old friends.
