Chapter 876: Regent’s Report [Monthly Bonus 2]
Elaine silently rolled her eyes again, but made no move to get down, a quiet sign to everyone present that she actually liked being carried that way.
Suddenly, the Bluetooth device in Stelan’s ear beeped, and as he raised his hand to press it, a worried voice came through.
[My Lord! What happened? They started packing up all of a sudden!]
Stelan frowned, turning to Arthur as he spoke. "Arthur. There’s been a change in the situation. It’s related to that matter."
Arthur’s expression shifted immediately, a crease forming on his brow as he silently set Elaine down and nudged her toward Berlal.
"Stay with Berlal for a bit."
He then turned his gaze to the officials and godslayers who had come down from their offices in response to Stelan rushing out and Arthur’s unexpected return.
They all recognised Arthur immediately, most having worked with him when he was last here 47 years ago, and as he looked at them, they bowed silently.
Gesturing toward the friends he’d brought with him, Arthur began issuing orders.
"Give them rooms on the top floors of the East Tower."
Pointing specifically at Nicole, he added, "Put her on the same floor as me. I want someone to take them on a tour of the entire Complex. No area is off-limits. They can go wherever they want, whenever they want, however they want.
Do I make myself clear?"
The godslayers straightened and saluted. "Yes, sir!"
"Good."
Arthur stepped forward, pausing before turning back to Berlal. "Hey, Berlal, can you do me a favour and evaluate how I’m going to handle everything from now on?"
Berlal, who had been more focused on the building’s architecture than the events so far, turned toward him, raising a brow in curiosity. "Evaluate, you say?"
"Yes. Just evaluate," Arthur nodded.
"Alright, I can spare some time," Berlal responded positively, and from this, Stelan realised Arthur intended to let Berlal in on what was happening, something he didn’t exactly welcome since it involved planetary secrets.
"Arthur—"
"It’s pointless, Stelan," Arthur said, cutting him off. "Higher Dimensionals like her can see through your entire life in the blink of an eye if they want to."
With that, he headed toward the central elevator, gesturing for Stelan to follow. The man sighed and cast a glance that signalled the other godslayers to move quickly before following Arthur.
They went straight to the top floor of the West Tower, one of the two taller towers surrounded by the other six.
When they arrived, Stelan opened the doors to Arthur’s office using his palm print and retina scan, stepping into the wide office that had remained unused for decades but didn’t have a single speck of dust.
Arthur moved toward his desk while Stelan went straight to a drawer, pulling out a box filled with memory drives. They looked like computer hard drives, but were made not of chips but of magic power and knowledge law energy.
There were 9 in total, each summarising 5 years’ worth of information on godslayers and their affairs on Nienope, Shoisan, and their collaborations with the 72 Demon Kings of Gozon during Arthur’s absence.
Arthur picked them up and ran his magic power through them, absorbing the information stored within, and by the time he’d finished with the nine, Stelan had already created a memory gem containing the remaining 2 years he hadn’t yet stored in drives.
"Didn’t expect you to pick up the law of Knowledge," Arthur said, collecting the gem. At this, Stelan sat down on a chair opposite the desk and replied, "It’s necessary for tasks like this that come with an absent employer."
"You’re not gonna let that thing go, are you?" Arthur asked with a sigh, running his magic power through the crystal, and with it, he finally gained a full understanding of the current situation.
When he dropped the crystal, he pressed his fingers to his temple and sighed.
"When I took up the position of Planet Lord, I didn’t strip them of power," Arthur said. "After all, they’d helped you and the other godslayers when you were at your lowest, oppressed under divine rule and nearly driven to extinction before you even had the chance to be fully born. I left them with their forces and let them retain their influence over decisions concerning this planet.
And yet...!"
He slammed his fist on the table, took a deep breath to calm himself, and looked up at Stelan. "How many traitors do we have?"
"Six in the council," Stelan replied. "And it’s safe to assume everyone under those six is compromised."
In other words, six of Nienope’s councilmen, the former Generals who had once led the resistance armies against the divines that oppressed them for lacking divine factors, had now betrayed the planet they once bled for.
83 years ago, Arthur had established the first ’godslayer Lord’ title in the universe with the help of Jamie Westley, former Demon King of Gozon, who possessed the highest level of control over the Race Ruler System, having been the one who introduced it into the universe.
With Jamie’s help, Arthur had bypassed some requirements and created a Race Ruler title for the godslayers.
One of the requirements for the title was having a certain number of beings under one’s rule, and to meet that, Arthur became Planet Lord of Nienope and Shoisan, the High-Level world he’d obtained from the Demon Kings for godslayer race expansion.
However, taking the title of Planet Lord wasn’t without opposition.
The Generals of the Resistance Army, who had now become Councilmen, resisted, arguing it was unfair that a godslayer would take the Planet Lord’s Authority after the war when their own races had contributed to the fight, even more so than the godslayers.
Arthur had leveraged the fact that he was bringing Gozonian support to the aftermath of the World War to shut them down, since without him, Gozon would have no reason to assist Nienope and might even add it to their list of Battlefront Worlds to conquer.
Without his involvement, the Gozonian support would vanish, leaving the recovering world in a dire state after the war.
He had also established the Council System, taking reference from Aidos’ Council of Kings, giving seats to each of these Generals, and with those seats came the power to influence planetary decisions.
If enough votes aligned, they could even overturn some of his rulings entirely.
That had been the concession Arthur made at the time.
However, Arthur had been gone for decades, and before leaving, he modified his contract with the Gozonians by installing Stelan as his Regent, stating that in his absence, Stelan was to be treated as his representative.
The contract with Gozon’s 72 Demon Kings, however, was with the ’Progenitor godslayer,’ and their interest in the rest of the races on the planet was minimal.
They only cared about the potential fighting force against wars against divines across the universe that was the nascent godslayer race, and their allies in other anti-divine races like the Infernal Devils also wanted in on Gozon’s deal with the godslayers, so they could reap benefits when the time came.
All support from both Gozon and the Infernal Devils was concentrated solely on the godslayers, which strengthened their power and influence.
Naturally, Stelan’s influence grew as well, since he was the one leading them, and because Gozon directed all resources to ’Stelan, Regent of Nienope,’ not to the ’Council of Nienope.’
Stelan’s influence expanded even more over the following years, especially as he was not only famous on Nienope among the other races besides the godslayers, but also across other worlds.
Before meeting Arthur, Stelan had spent years responding to summons from other planets, traversing worlds and fighting in wars to gain strength.
By the time he met Arthur, he already held a Title recognised even on High-Level Gozonian Battlefront worlds.
Eventually, circumstances led Stelan to build his own faction within the council, composed of members who believed the godslayers would eventually become the supreme force on this planet due to Gozon’s backing and wanted to align themselves with him.
The second faction within the Council, besides them, consisted of moderates who avoided power struggles and focused on helping Nienope recover from the war and ensuring its prosperity.
The third faction was made up of conservatives, those who wanted to remain in power and prevent the godslayers from surpassing them. They also sought the resources and benefits the godslayers were receiving from Gozon, and to this end, had approached Gozon multiple times to negotiate a deal.
However, the 72 Demon Kings of Gozon paid them no attention.
These Demon Kings ruled entire galaxies and were far too busy to entertain every petition for a deal.
The only reason they focused on Nienope, located at the galaxy’s outer fringes, was because of Arthur, a descendant of Lucifer, whom all of Gozon owed for a past intervention in conflicts with other races that allowed them to maintain their current hegemony.
To the Demon Kings, the only person worth engaging with was Stelan, and that was solely because Arthur had appointed him as Regent.
If Arthur were present, the Demon Kings would barely acknowledge Stelan at all.
As Nienope’s power grew, bolstered by the commissioning of its Armies, especially its godslayers, by Gozon, the Council’s overall influence on the Interstellar Stage increased as well, though not equally.
The godslayers’ and Stelan’s faction was leagues ahead, leaving the conservatives struggling to keep up.
"Because of that, those fools decided to ingratiate themselves with the same bastards they fought against? It hasn’t even been a century since the war!" Arthur exclaimed, clicking his tongue.
Sighing again, he looked at Stelan. "So, which gods are using them?"
Stelan slid one of the files from the stacks on Arthur’s desk in front of him as he spoke. "A faction called the Kyrexi."
He opened the file and looked up at Arthur. "You know the Supreme god King and Queen, right?"
Arthur nodded. "Yeah, Artemisia’s father and Beatrix’s mother. What about them?"
"Well," Stelan said, "the Kyrexi sit right under them in this universe’s divine hierarchy, both in raw power and influence."
After the god Emperor, the most powerful of Valmone’s gods, came the Supreme god King and Queen, followed by the Kyrexi, whose power matched Gozon’s 72 Demon Kings and Aidos’ Council of Kings.
Unlike Gozon and Aidos, the Kyrexi made their home base in another Galaxy.
"Although not directly, the traitors have been working with the Kyrexi’s subordinates to sabotage Nienope’s operations and weaken the godslayers before we can rise."
"But they haven’t made any major moves yet because..." Arthur paused, scanning the memories he’d just absorbed, his eyebrow rising. "McEnda II sent his son?"
"Yes," Stelan replied. "I put tabs on the conservative faction after your last visit 47 years ago, when we noticed the early signs of rebellion.
In the process, I discovered they were attempting to leak vital information that could enable a successful attack on this planet, as well as the capture of several high-value godslayers, myself included."
