Michael's triumphant return back to the Rageberg city was celebrated widely. The event was marked in history as one of the most glorious days for the human race. Different people in the city and the entire Rageberg kingdom celebrated.
Igor had sent the news about Michael's abilities and his ancestor's analysis on the very same day. The several races started their discussions on how they should treat this new overlord. The rise of a new immortal was not something uncommon and people had a fixed protocol for dealing with that. Someone becoming an immortal-slayer was rare but there were 5 of them forming a balance. Thus, while it would lead to great disturbances in the plane, even immortal-slayers could be suppressed. But Michael's level of power far exceeded that level. This was an overlord of the entire plane! Never in the history of the new races had such a figure appeared. The ancients also did not remember the previous overlords as they died in the great war. Thus, this was uncharted territory. The immortals of different races understood that they were insufficient in handling this situation. Thus, joint meetings were called in all the three empires.
The werebeasts, elves and light tower were the major forces in light empire. Thus, they came together to form a meeting almost the very next day. The discussions were held for the entire day. Karslon revealed his thoughts about how Michael was probably the disciple of some otherworldly expert and that was why he could attain his current realm. When the others heard this, they felt like this was the only valid explanation. After more discussions, they declared Michael Rageberg as the Guardian of the Empire. In terms of power, Michael eclipsed everyone in the empire and his assigned status matched his power. Michael was requested to become the Guardian of the Empire. The empire was giving him the highest political power in the empire - higher than the respective emperors of different races.
Originally, Michael was not interested in status symbols. He knew that only power reigned supreme in Aterna. But combat power had its own limitations. One tyrant ruler was different from a systematic one. Michael wanted to gather the entire plane behind him and political power was an important tool to do so. Thus, he agreed. Only a few days afterwards, a grand ceremony was announced in which the strongest expert of the plane, Michael Rageberg will accept his position as the Guardian of the light empire.
In only three months, this grand event was organized in the capital of the werebeast race. All races in the empire were invited to witness this event. This was an event the likes of which had never happened in the empire. Several races gathered at the werebeast capital. Michael went with his family and Ashley to the ceremony and publically took the position. He only spoke briefly after taking the position:
> Light Empire is my home. Humans have affinity to light arts. If the race is like one's close family, the Empire is like an extended family. While close families do have much greater trust and love, great things can only be achieved when the extended family all comes together to form a clan. Only then can monumentous things happen. The foreign invasion is not a prophecy but the future. If we are still loose like sand at the end of it, we will scatter into dust. Thus, I hope that from today onwards, the races can come together, form their understanding and set aside their differences.
After becoming the guardian of the empire, Michael took a few political steps that were quite revolutionary. He ordered the construction of 10 cities near the borders of the territory of respective races. These cities were not to be under any one race but were the private property of the Guardian - i.e. Michael. The cities were going to be open to all races and anyone irrespective of race or cultivation could come and turn this into a centre for unity. These cities were the first step to closer cultural exchange between the races.
The second thing he did was take all the smaller races together and order to form a new federation of small races. The weaker races in the empire, i.e. races except the elves, dwarves, barbarians, humans and werebeasts were all taken together as one federation forming a new political entity. Michael hired several scholars to form a committee that would decide the political structure of the entire federation - the division of territories and the like.
He also ordered for the scattered Barbarian tribes to gather and form a central power - Barbarian Alliance. Similarly, Michael formed this six-pronged structure as the six political entities of the empire.
Michael just announced these reforms were to be done. It was now up to the remaining races to fulfil his demands. Michael then held his engagement ceremony with Ashley under the ancestor's name. In Aterna, almost all races had ancient customs for marriage ceremonies. And it was ancestral law that only after coming of age could one be married. Michael was only 17 years old according to the plane's time. Thus, only the engagement ceremony was held. Meanwhile, Michael's orders were like a huge storm that blew through the empire. The construction of Guardian cities, redistribution of territory and establishment of the political system were all started at full speed.
The entire light empire was united completely under Michael's name. While internal discord was still there, in theory, the light empire was united. Most importantly, all the commoners in the entire Empire accepted Michael naturally. For those of tower - he was their member. For the elves - he was their son in law. For the beasts - he was the brother in arms of their prince. All in all, the important powers of the light empire gathered around him due to admiration, respect or fear.
Thus, there were no objections to his reforms. The entire empire emerged as a sleeping dragon and started undergoing a metamorphosis. The entire empire was being reforged and they did not seem to have the time to glance at their neighbours. But after it was finished, everyone knew that Michael would set his eyes on the other empires.
These situations caused the neutral empire and the dark empire to feel extreme pressure. Michael was at a stage where he could go against an entire empire by himself. He was simply unstoppable and invincible in the plane. The entire dark empire and neutral empire had to come together to deal with this potential foe. But they did not have any solutions. Even the god-beasts were silent. Michael did not engage in cultivation or sex after reaching the peak of power. But, he went all out in reforming the empire. The result was that in just a single year, the cities were constructed, the new territories were fixed and the new political system took shape. Two other important things happened in the year.
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One was the gamble made in Michael's name in the tournament. It later turned out that secretary Darif had made the bet and placed an outrageous amount on Michael's victory at Karslon's orders. According to the odds, Karslon was expecting a 1000-fold return. The amount calculated almost came up to be 70% of the entire money earned by the country with the event. Deducting the different costs, the elves did not have enough money to pay back!
But Karslon was completely adamant on getting back his earnings. He even used his status as Michael's teacher to scare the elven emperor! Finally, Nicholas had to bear the loss and provide compensation. But then, a royal decree was passed that made all gambling establishments illegal in the elven country!
Meanwhile, Karslon was a happy man. He would do a dance every now and then.
Haha! I am so smart! Who would have thought that my disciple who was a money-soaking pool could spew out gold!
The second thing was the rise of Moonflower race. Demitrus revealed a decree that changed the status of his entire race. It was Michael's blood decree that he gave many years ago. The impact of the decree was so profound that the moonflower race was declared as a specially reserved race in the federation. They were given one of the leadership positions despite the race having almost no power at all. Their share of resources was also increased tremendously. Most importantly, the other races like elves and werebeasts also started treating them with respect. All this happened with Michael's decree.
In the new system, there were emperors of the six different wings of the light empire and one position for the royal teacher. These were the seven most powerful political positions below the Guardian. The day to day politics was to be handled by the six emperors. The Guardian was a transcendental authority and his words were the law. The royal teacher, on the other hand, would not be involved in racial politics but would be the head of research and development of the empire. It was needless to say that the light tower was made the royal college and Karslon was named the royal teacher. The elven emperor Nicholas was still the emperor of the elven wing, the beast-emperor Kevin was the emperor of the werebeast wing. Michael's father Collins was the emperor of the human wing. The dwarven emperor Tyler was made the leader of the dwarven wing. An old and experienced immortal from a middle-tier race - Neophane was made the emperor of the small-race federation and a barbarian immortal - Al-Zakara was made the emperor of the Barbarian Alliance. These people took their respective positions and the entire empire was going to be managed by them in the future.
Below the emperors were officials and elders of each wing who were subordinates to the emperor. This was a way that made sure that the six emperors would not manage to go beyond the laws. After that, there was a head-elder committee. It consisted of 50 head-elders who were responsible for negating any power-abuse by the emperors. This committee was independent of the other races and could function independently. Many experienced elders from smaller races, light tower and other places were made the members of the committee.
Demitrus, who had been an unknown person was suddenly appointed as a head-elder as well. His own fate, as well as the fate of his entire race, changed based on a promise of 10 years ago.
Michael also revealed the existence of his shadow-eyes organization. He revealed publically about the organization and that his second knight Ambrose was the leader of this organization. The role of the shadow-eyes was to spy on the important people in the empire and look for any violations or nefarious plans. Once it was revealed, all the races shuddered in fear! It was a big blow to their confidence in thriving in the dark. Gradually, people came to know of the organization's skills leaving those in power constantly on their guard.
Revealing the existence of that organization caused people to hesitate when doing something illegal. The shadow-eyes actual manpower was very less but just the name and stories of the organization were enough to keep officials in line.
This organization was Michael's personal information network. No one knew the list of all its members except him. This was Michael's way of maintaining his control over the situation. By his nineteenth birthday, the entire light empire had been transformed into the kind of empire that Michael wanted. It was now centralized and the politics of the races had intermingled. This caused much more interaction between the races and gradually trade avenues opened up. This caused the guardian cities to become even more populous and they became the gathering centres of the different races. Michael himself worked tirelessly for the entire one and a half years.
After that, he started pressuring the remaining two empires. Michael himself was sufficient to cause enough deterrence. The dark empire and the neutral empire reacted to the pressure by declaring war and threatening to launch a two-pronged attack on the light empire. In response, Michael himself moved. And the result was clear. Several thousand soldiers were killed and many more were captured. Three immortals were slain and the military headquarters of both the empires fell in just a few hours. Michael's display was sufficient to make the empires understand the difference in power. They ultimately surrendered and decided to ask for diplomatic negotiations.
This was where the difference in political systems came into effect. The light empire had much better coordination of races and this gave them a significant advantage.
After just a few days of negotiations, the dark empire and the neutral empire agreed to provide full cooperation in case of invasion. This was done under a signed treaty. The neutral empires and the dark empires were to provide soldiers for training and army. These soldiers would naturally find themselves suppressed to lower positions. They all would be under the command of the devil-slayer division of the light army. In return, Michael would not attack their empires and would provide a helping hand in case they were attacked by foreign enemies.
This treaty practically placed both the empires in a disadvantageous position. But there was nothing they could do.
The three empires gathered around with him as the centre. The army building was started and the empires started pooling their energy and manpower together. It seemed as if they were preparing for the calamity. Which was perhaps true as well. The army started gathering and the experts began learning about the different abilities and weaknesses of other races. A multi-racial army was slowly trained with the devil-slayers at the helm.
The god-beasts did not show any movement and Michael did not pressure them either. They were extremely ancient and had shocking reserve powers. Michael was not at the level yet where the god-beasts would bow to him. But he had become the leader of the entire new races. It was like ascending to heavens with a single leap.
In just two years, things were on track and Michael could leave out the rest to his competent subordinates and trusted allies. Things no longer required his personal attention. Thus, he relaxed for a bit and started enjoying a laid back life. His coming of age ceremony was coming along and it was also going to be the day of his and Ashley's marriage. This was going to be the first huge event since the formation of the new light empire. And Michael had no problem in making it a huge event. After all, he was already a prominent leader. So, he had to do things the way a leader was supposed to do them.