Francis
“So, if nothing changes, that is the name list for the next War of the Chosen.” Francis Davies, the administrative head of Earth, finished the meeting of Earth’s congress, where the several dozen leaders of Earth’s administrative departments and political factions met to make decisions for the planet. “Are there any questions?”
“Yes.” Javier Garcia, ‘Earth’s Strongest Man’ and the son of the current Garcia Family head, began. "Why are there five commander spots left open? I understand the list otherwise, but my brother and Ezra Walker are both of about equal strength as several of the commanders, so I’d like to know why they weren’t chosen.”
Francis’s daughter was standing behind Li Dai-Zhao, the grandfather of Earth’s hidden second leader, so Francis noticed when Li Dai-Zhao looked to Diana Alvaro at the head of the table opposite himself, and saw the unspoken communication which passed between the two.
Extremely talented as a cultivator, Li Dai-Zhao had even been made one of the commanders of the War of the Chosen army, but Francis cared more about the fact his daughter had become the man’s apprentice. Dai-Zhao, who was now well into his nineties, looked to be a man in his mid-twenties due to the effects of increasing in rank, and he was the head of Earth’s intelligence force. Meanwhile, Francis’s daughter, Silvia, who looked about the same age despite being in her mid thirties, was now one of the main leaders of Earth’s external monitoring department, which analyzed news in the universe through Earth’s connection to the universal soul net.
Tall for a woman, with his brown hair and blue eyes and her mother’s looks, Silvia had awakened to a powerful uniqueness which boosted her Spirit by 200%. This, along with a racial ability which boosted her Spirit by a further 25% and a race which very, very heavily favored the Spirit stat, had allowed her to learn a skill from a special skill orb Dai-Zhao’s granddaughter had said was provided by the Heavenly Spark Soul King, Multi-Mind. And this in turn had allowed her to advance to a unique class on Earth, Thinker, which helped her be very, very good at her job and had made Francis extremely proud.
“Should we just tell them now?” Li Dai-Zhao asked Diana in nearly flawless Universal Common, the language everyone on Earth had been forced to start learning after the integration. “They’re going to find out during the War of the Chosen anyway.”
“Sure.” Diana, despite being queen of Earth, was wearing a pair of jeans and a T shirt, at least two levels more casual than anyone else in the room. “Mr. Li, please inform everyone of the relevant secrets.”
“Yes, Ma’am.” Li Dai-Zhao, who knew the importance of subtle social hierarchy even though Diana hated it, bowed slightly to the monarch. Then he turned to look at everyone else. “First, as everyone knows, her majesty was the general of a force in the last War of the Chosen. The general she replaced, one Brom Karendesh, has abandoned his previous force after they backstabbed his father and joined the main force of the Heavenly Spark Soul King, the United Federation of Planets. Currently, he is stronger than you, Mr. Garcia, so he will be taking one of the commander positions.”
“Wait,” Mr. Garcia interrupted. “United Federation of Planets? Like from Star Trek?”
“Yes.” Li Dai-Zhao impassively nodded.
Meanwhile, Diana glared at Javier, but he ignored her expression and continued his line of questioning. “The Heavenly Spark Soul King, a being who could supposedly single handedly destroy a B rank force, named his force after Star Trek?”
“No,” Diana almost growled. “I did.”
This made a lot more sense. Diana Alvaro had named her first Territory after a fictional kingdom from The Princess Bride, so of course she’d name an intergalactic force after another beloved fictional property, albeit translated into Universal Common, and everyone who knew her well knew not to question the names she chose.
“You have enough say with the Heavenly Spark Soul King to choose the name of his force?” Francis decided to help Javier by changing the topic away from the force’s name and back to the main matter at hand.
“Yes, she does.” Li Dai-Zhao continued with his perfectly calm tone, but the slight squinting of his eyes made everyone in the room who’d interacted with the man long enough know he was annoyed with them. “Her majesty practically raised the Heavenly Spark Soul King, so, to him, her opinion generally matters more than anyone else in the universe, let alone those of us from Earth.”
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There was only one person Diana Alvaro could be described as practically raising, someone who’d died during the month before the integration, but Li Dai-Zhao’s granddaughter had seemingly come back from the grave at the same time the Heavenly Spark Soul King had become known, so it wasn’t difficult to guess what Li Dai-Zhao was going to say next.
This didn’t make it any more believable, however.
“The Heavenly Spark Soul King is her majesty’s younger brother, Aalam Alvaro.
“He and everyone else who died during the month before the integration entered into a separate tutorial, where they were then reborn as monsters, and it took about a year for the Heavenly Spark Soul King, along with my granddaughter and an extremely powerful cultivator by the name of Isaiah Gale, to make it back to Earth.
“Sir Isaiah can fight evenly with her majesty, so he will be one of the commanders. And then another two commander spots are reserved for two inheriting disciples of a powerful A rank known as the Alchemist of the Deep Woods, the leader of a force called the Forest Cauldron, which has been providing training for Sir Isaiah and Lady Irena. This was part of a business deal which will provide most of the resources our army will use over the coming years.
“Finally, the last remaining commander spot will be taken by the Heavenly Spark Soul King himself, and it is because of him that we might actually have a chance to win.”
There was silence in the boardroom, and most, including Francis himself, had many, many questions.
* * *
Diana
Diana and Mila had decided revealing Aalam’s identity to those on Earth wasn’t something they could avoid, so they’d made every one of the higher ranks on Earth agree to a binding contract to not reveal any secrets a long time ago. Still, it was fun to see the shocked expressions on all their faces, and it was nice to finally have the biggest secret she’d been holding onto come out into the light.
Congratulations!
Your Law Pupa of Day has advanced to middle grade.
Your soul is affected by your understanding of Laws.
Magic +1536, Soul +1536
Magic is already at maximum.
Nascent/Primal Energy Converter ability activated.
Free stats +1536
Soul is already at maximum.
Nascent/Primal Energy Converter ability activated.
Free stats +1536
“Thank you, Mr. Li.” Growing excited but trying not to show it on her face, Diana rose from her seat. “I just advanced one of my Laws and need to go consolidate my foundation. I’ll leave you to answer everyone’s questions.”
Advancements were incredibly important, especially for her as sovereign of Earth, so it was a good excuse for her to leave, even with everyone in the room wanting to ask her questions. So, she stepped out onto the balcony of the conference room they were using, which was on the top floor of a skyscraper, and jumped over the railing, summoning out Helen, her yang spirit shaped like a winged horse. Then she merged with the spirit and flew off.
After nearly two decades since the tutorial, she’d finally advanced all six of her Law Pupae to middle grade, and this meant she could now gain the biggest benefit from being an apprentice of the Yin Yang Sage.
She flew to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, merged with Ajax, her miniature leviathan-shaped water spirit, and then dove down, traveling through the water all the way to the ocean floor. There she summoned Dioscuri, her twin-headed serpent yin spirit and started digging, taking about seven hours to finally find an area of rock about ten meters below the ocean floor which wasn’t made out of the normal E rank stone most of the planet had transformed into, but B rank rock instead.
The area of the B rank material was large, about 330 feet tall, 70 feet wide, and 70 feet deep, and it was filled with magic, so she couldn’t put it in any of the spatial storage devices she owned. Luckily, however, she was powerful, and Dioscuri was able to lift the rock up out of the ocean and into the air, then even fly with it all the way back to the Greek island of Zakynthos.
There she placed the rock off the beach of the compound located inside Earth’s enlightenment zone, and then she started attacking it, all eight of her spirits doing everything they could for a couple days.
At first, almost nothing happened, but the rock, while B rank, was mostly inferior or common grade, so it started breaking down eventually. And, by the time it was done, a huge effigy about the size of the Statue of Liberty was in place underwater within the enlightenment zone, one made of high grade A rank materials and fully colored.
It showed Nana Xara as a young woman, looking surprisingly young compared to her usual old grandmother image, with two large wings growing out of her back, one black and the other white. The statue was wearing a dress which seemed to somehow be made of water, with flames wrapped around it to form mystical sigils, and it seemed to be holding what felt like a ball of pure life in its right hand and a ball of pure death in its left.
Overall, the statue was a representation of the Yin Yang Sage’s Laws, Laws at the level of a deity, and the statue, which the Yin Yang Sage had hidden on Earth before her death, was a very, very high grade dao guide, which would make it much, much, much easier to advance in Laws of the life, death, light, darkness, fire, and water elements.
Nana Xara had wanted her to advance all her Laws to middle grade Law Pupae before making use of the statue, as she would otherwise be influenced to follow down the Yin Yang Sage’s Law path instead of her own, eventually becoming stuck. But now she could use it without much worry, and it would help her advance much faster, hopefully being able to keep up with her brother.