[A/N: This is the start of another book.]

I was worried that emotions would remove my rationality, make me weak, and slow me down. As things turned out, I just didn’t want to be separated from Thea. Once I solved that problem, well….

“Inspira will fall!” I declared. A soft green light from an amplification circle bounced off the gold-lined streets of Inspira, Goldenspire’s capital. It was a large city with towering Gothic architecture, with each building accented in gold and glimmering in the sun.

Above me, an army of wyverns circled, preventing interference as I walked through the city.

It hadn't been a month since I created an alliance with the Novena countries, and I was already celebrating my birthday—by conquering Goldenspire.

Ahem. In truth, I wanted to avoid bloodshed and prevent pillage and plunder. Therefore, I let the Mountain Roost wyverns take care of the archers and stalked through the city personally, dispatching any forces that wouldn't surrender.

In short, I was using trauma to shatter their will to fight—and it was working.

Mostly.

“Inspira and Hyga are encircled with heavy artillery and troops,” I informed a dozen soldiers turning the corner, each adorned with flashy gold and white armor. “This city has already fallen.”

They froze and trembled until one dared to speak.

“Do you really believe that we’d abandon our wives and children, you demon?!”

I stopped walking. “I won’t harm anyone, so long as they don’t attack me or my people.”

“Don’t give me that shit!” He spat on the ground. “You’re standing in front of soldiers that you killed a moment ago!”

The Mythril sword in my hand dripped with blood, glimmering purple in the bright city streets. Before me were bodies that I had killed with earth pike magic before my announcement.

“These people attacked me after I warned them of the consequences. Now they’re dead.”

I put my foot onto a Goldenspirian soldier’s golden helmet and crunched it under my heel.

“Tell me, gentlemen. Are you going to die for nothing like they did?”

The men looked behind me and saw nearly a hundred bodies strewn out, piked on earth magic, lanced with ice, or severed in half from my sword.

A soldier with quivering lips dropped his sword.

“What are you doing, Reelan?!” the enemy leader yelled.

“Shut up! There’s no point!” Reelan exclaimed. “I don’t want to die for nothing!”

“Smart man, Reelan!” I shouted. “Now, step to the side so I don’t accidentally hit you.”

“Don’t you dare fucking move, you—”

The leader turned to berate the deserter but stopped when an earth spike pierced his neck, sending him to his knees. All the soldiers froze and turned to me in a haze.

“You have five seconds to follow Reelan to that side street without weapons,” I said, pointing to my right. “Anyone who doesn’t leave will die a pointless death. 5… 4… 3….”

Half the soldiers dropped their swords and moved to the side. The other half were undecided.

“G-Give us a minute!”

I ignored their plea and sent a bolt of lightning crashing into the troops in a chain reaction, frying them, and walking forward with the same pace.

“Reap.”

A gust of golden wind circled through the air, whipping up in a frenzy and crashing into my chest. My body absorbed it like a black hole, and my eyes illuminated gold.

“You’re a demon! A demon!” One of the surrendered soldiers pointed at me on the side street, screaming and trembling.

I turned to him with a cold expression. “To save this world, I need to be stronger than all the rejects who fought for power alone. I’m not a demon for doing this—I’m stooping to your level.”

The soldiers watched in a haze as I walked away. However, their sighs of relief turned to anguish when Iska and a group of immortals entered the side street with shackles to lock them up.

With every step I took, the Goldenspirian troops became increasingly panicked.

I was an unstoppable monster who was taking Goldenspire by myself.

But even this wasn’t enough.

I wasn’t strong enough to fight Edikus.

He wasn’t strong enough to face the reincarnators in Antigua.

That means that the only reason this world is stable is because of a war of attrition between the archmages and the other reincarnators. They probably got comfortable like King Elio and stopped fighting to avoid mutually assured destruction.

Either way, it was disturbing.

This world is weak, and I don’t have much time to build it up.

“Artillery and heavy machinery,” I whispered. “We desperately need artillery and heavy machinery to prevent someone from doing this to Sundell in my absence.”

I stopped my muttering when I saw a massive golden cathedral with colossal spires and stained glass windows at the center. Part castle, part church, the Golden Cathedral was a wonder of Solstice architecture—and absurdly difficult to keep shining.

The guards in front of the gates trembled as I approached, telling me to stop.

“Move aside or die,” I ordered, approaching the large iron doors. “Only one person needs to die today, and you and your fallen comrades aren’t included.”

“D-Die!” A soldier rushed forward. I casually grabbed their spear, snapped it in half, stabbed one side into his neck, and then piked the other soldier that followed him in the eye.

Their comrades shook after the psychologically damaging demonstration. It was so unceremonious and devoid of passion or effort that they collapsed.

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Seeing that they weren’t resisting, I closed my eyes and channeled soul mana through my core.

It was manipulatable.

I never knew because the soul gate was closed.

“Soul mana manipulation might explain the vast power difference between the archwizards and normal mages,” I thought, feeling power welling in my fist. “It’s remarkable.”

BOOOOM!

I hit the iron door, and it flew off one of its hinges, crashing into a large group of soldiers waiting on the other side.

“Enough,” I commanded, releasing a suffocating wave of bloodlust as I walked through the door, making the soldiers collapse onto the red rug. “My guard can kill all of you. So wait for him if you want to die.”

With those words, I continued walking down the nave, the path to the main stage of the Church of Solara within the Golden Cathedral. 100-foot arched ceilings hung above me, streaming ambient light through the roof as I made it to the door behind the stage. While the main doors were to the side, the entry in the back was for King Aelius, so I imagined there was a special pathway for him.

I made it to the back of the golden stage, I lifted my foot to the maple door and push-kicked it, causing the wood to explode.

“I wish I didn’t have to destroy my castle to find this rat,” I growled, weaving through the hallways and ignoring the strange rooms that didn’t seem to serve a “religious” purpose.

After dispatching a group of soldiers protecting a specific door, I walked through it. “Stairs to a basement?” I hummed. “Let’s see what’s down there.”

I gritted my teeth when I got down there and found the room had golden tapestries leading to rooms with shackles on the wall. “What is this?” I narrowed my eyes. “A sex dungeon?”

Shutting my eyes, I took a deep breath. “Not my problem. I’m executing him anyway.”

As I made it to the end of the hall, I heard nervous guards shushing each other.

“After seeing this dungeon, I’m not in the mood for giving warnings,” I said, turning the hall and seeing men hauling carts of gold down a new flight of stairs. “You have three seconds to drop your weapons and announce your surrender. I'll massacre everyone that doesn't.”

Two wizards began casting from a side room as an ambush. However, I pulled the pin on a dynamite-based grenade and threw it into the room.

BOOM!

Figuring that they wouldn’t have died, I threw in another two as well.

BOOM! BOOM!

“Reap.”

A gust of golden wind burst from the room and swirled around me, entering my chest and turning my eyes bright golden.

“Your talented mages have already fallen outside, and the weak ones protecting you are now dead,” I warned the shaking troops. “So give up.”

Most of them dropped their weapons, running out of the way as I continued my descent, killing people that didn’t surrender.

At the bottom of the stairs, in the back of a hall with marble floors, ten troops stood in front of an elaborately carved door. The troops were vastly stronger than the rest, likely personal bodyguards.

I stopped and closed my eyes, listening for movement behind the door. When I did, my blood boiled. “He has women with him?”

“Shields up!” A soldier yelled, blocking off the hall like a phalanx. “Start casting.”

“Metal is conductive,” I scoffed. “That’s the reason that lightning magic is most coveted of all.”

I pulled my hand back. "O deus fulminis, cado de caelis et absolvo genus humanum a peccatis suis."

A bolt of blue electricity crashed into the leader’s shield, and the soldiers connected to him in a line lit up with vibrant electricity, dropping them to their knees.

I walked forward slowly, kicking the soldiers in the face or slicing them down with my sword.

“Reap.”

A massive torrent of golden light sucked into my chest, giving me a golden glow as I opened the door, revealing a massive bedroom adorned with gold and white silk, six women, treasures, and paintings of twisted description.

Priest Aelius paled when he saw me walk in, and he trembled, opening his mouth to yell for his guards only to smell the acrid stench of burnt flesh. He grabbed a redhead from his apparent harem, unsheathed a dagger, and put it against her neck. “Don’t move, or I’ll kill her!” he snarled.

I took a step forward. “That woman isn’t my problem. But if you do kill her, trust me, the things I’ll do to you will be beyond words.”

Priest Aelius trembled as I approached, realizing I was genuinely unconcerned whether the woman lived or died.

I wasn’t here to play the hero; considering that only a few hundred had died during the invasion, I would say that I’m plenty heroic—by war standards.

Priest Aelius threw the redhead to draw his sword. However, I dodged her falling body and shot forward, grabbed him by the collar, and lifted him up the wall.

“Y-You planned all of this, didn’t you, Demon?!” he snarled. “You set me up to attack you so you could steal Goldenspire from the start. You were the one that started the conflict, weren’t you?!”

“Yes, I was,” I grinned. “Thank you for your genuine villainy. I thought I’d have to spread assault allegations, rumors of a harem, and all other manners of slander to crush your reputation and legacy.”

I looked at the women in the room, cowering and hiding their barely clothed bodies.

“But you’ve made an honest man out of me,” I chuckled, my eyes icy and cold.

Priest Aelius’ face twisted. “You’ll burn under Solara’s wrath, heretic!”

I frowned. “You know, I’ve thought a lot about Solara. He’s a man that’s known for impartiality and associated with truth and protection. So it would make sense why Titus Roman would pray to him but not you.”

The priest’s face twisted. “Solara is not impartial, you swine! He’s the pinnacle of judgment, and he’ll—”

I choked Priest Aelius until his throat turned white and his face reddened.

“The problem with systemic religion is that it politicizes good beliefs, practices, and teachings,” I asserted. “And you’re the worst, false prophet.”

Priest Aelius fell unconscious, and I slung him over my shoulder, turning to the women. “As of this day, you’re all free and under the protection of the Everwood Empire. Powerful women will collect you shortly.”

After scanning the room for mana signatures, I looked around, clicked my tongue at the things I saw in his private chambers, and walked out of the room.

“W-Wait!”

The redhead that Priest Aelius took hostage ran after me. “Thank you so much!” she screamed, bowing fast and hard. “I’m forever in your debt!”

“Then pay me back by working at Lockheart Castle,” I said. “I’ll find you all suitable employment and house you with the maid staff. It may not be luxurious, but there will be food and board, fair pay, and protection. You’ll never be taken advantage of in my kingdom.”

Ignoring their emotional tears, I left with the man slung over my shoulder.

When I returned up the stairs, Leon met me, staring at Priest Aelius. “Is he alive?”

“Thanks to the patience and virtue bestowed upon me by Aphrodite, he is,” I deadpanned. “He even has his balls still. It’s a miracle.”

“You’re learning,” Leon smiled wryly. Then he turned, scanning the corpses and beat-up soldiers I left in the room with a slight smirk. “That or you released your pent-up energy before getting here.”

“I just did what was necessary,” I replied. Once we returned to the church, I looked around at the golden pillars and high-arched ceilings. “How do you like it?”

Leon frowned. “It’s hideous, and the amount of work that it would take to polish this place is absurd.”

“I’m glad you think so,” I chuckled. “You'll be melting all this gold and minting it over the next five years while you make renovations.”

Leon’s frown deepened. “Why are you sticking me with such a monumental job?”

“Why?” I asked with a slight smile. “It’s because this is your territory, of course. That would make this your castle after I leave next year.”

His eyes widened, and he turned to me with a stiff face. “Are you being serious?”

“Who else?” I asked. “You deserve your own territory. I’ll be supplying you with constant weapons and immortal troops to keep you and our family safe.”

Leon smiled strangely and ruffled my hair. “You know, now that you’ve been confirmed as a reincarnator, I feel a lot less weird obtaining territories from my son.”

I smiled slightly and nodded. “And I feel less weird giving orders to my father.”

“So you think of me as your father?” he asked.

“You are my father,” I replied. “Family is family. It’s decided at birth. You’ve treated me well, so I’ll always repay it in kind.”

“That’s my boy,” Leon smiled before turning back to the dead bodies. “Just remember to keep things light around Samuel and Eris.”

“I will,” I swore, taking a deep breath, continuing my exit.

Outside the doors of the Golden Cathedral, the Immortal Army stood alert, holding thousands of shackled troops at attention.

“We’ve officially taken Goldenspire!” I roared, triggering a violent wave of cheering. “Starting today, we’ll rebuild Bringla, become the leader of intercontinental trade, establish ourselves as the breadbasket of Novena, and change the world!”

GYAHHHHHHHHHH!

An azure dragon roared alongside my troops, creating a wave of battle cries that crushed the spirits of any who still stood against us.

A silver and black object jumped off Zenith’s back from a hundred feet up, trailed by a teal streak on top.

I reached out my hands, and Thea crashed into my arms, triggering a massive wave of cheering and excitement through the crowd. She was their Queen figure, and they respected her in kind.

“Hear me, Immortals!” I roared. “This is just the beginning! Within the next decade, we’ll be the strongest and most prosperous empire in history. So retain your pride as this world’s elite because we have a lot of work to do!”

I wasn’t exaggerating. Within the next five years, I will connect this world and put everything on the grid. While I’ll never get rid of violence, this world will never know darkness again.