My airship swooped in from above, finishing off the monsters, chasing us, before passing over the wall into Purgatory. I enjoyed standing at the front of the airship, looking down at everyone else. I was their Emperor. Their protector. And to some, their demi-god.

It felt weird to think that I had arrived to this place almost 5,000 days ago. That was around 13.7 Earth years. Days were easier to deal with. Both for myself and others. It was a good way to separate Earth time and Systemic Land time. To get into the groove of a new place.

I was more excited than usual to return, since we were backed to the brim with crystals. I really wanted a portable store just for that reason. A total of 80 full packs of level 6 point crystals for myself filled the airship. For Michele she only had 20 packs filled with crafting crystals.

She was keeping the boss crystals with her and would be responsible for them. The danger with a using a spherical summoning device, was that it risked other people using the setup, but putting in the crystal was a pain. There had been design improvements, but it wasn’t a spur of the moment weapon if it wasn’t kept armed.

I did not put it beyond some idiot, trying to steal one and sitting around to charge the summoning. Keeping one primed was out of the question. Regardless, that was Michelle’s problem not mine.

Looking out over the city as we slowed down, it was nice to see the people looking up at the Crystal Vortex. There was only one person that rode around in a large airship, and that was me. I didn’t bother waving, but just smiled as several people waved up at me.

I promised myself this would never get old. Reaching the inner city, it was quite large. The inner wall was already six stories tall with the buildings being mostly four stories tall. The Imperial Palace was seven stories tall. That wasn’t cheap, but Clarissa clearly wanted to make a statement.

There were two airship ports. The public one which governors and elite teams could use. There were a total of four docking levels, for a total of 16 slots. Half of them were in use with airboats, or small airships. I would say about 6 of the 8 were governors flaunting their power and wealth. The remaining 2 were from level 4 elite grinding teams.

Then there was the Imperial Port, which was integrated into the Imperial Palace. The top of the docking port was for me and Clarissa. The top of the tower, was angled on opposite sides, for the eventual super large airships. I was not looking forward to funding that. She had a medium sized airship docked. The remaining places had military airships. I saw the new constructions had already gone through.

There was 1 large airship like mine, even if it didn’t feel that way, and 6 medium airships. That used up 7 of the 12 remaining slots. For now they would be kept open, until we expanded things again. The issue was the sheer cost to operate airships.

While they looked pretty, they were insanely expensive, especially the large ones with all the cannons that had to be purchased separately. A super large airship was going to be brutal. Especially if I wanted to get it pimped out with level 8 cannons.

It was tempting to say no, and go with something cheaper, but I wasn’t going to half ass my safety. Even it was going to be pissing away crystals, it was better to have them and not need them than need them and not have them. I couldn’t complain about not investing in the middle of a battle. That meant, my soul had to cry as so many crystals were dumped into flying about.

Captain Francis pulled us up to the tower without any issues, having done this loads of times. There was a minor locking mechanism that reached out and clamped down by someone in the tower itself. Another headache, was having someone man the airship tower. Or I could just jump across. The gangplank was extended.

I leapt off the middle deck, to where it connected with the first deck and walked off into the tower. An elevator ride later, I was inside the Imperial Palace. “Emperor Michael, welcome back,” Samantha said. Her afro wasn’t frizzing out at the moment, which means she wasn’t stressed.

“Samantha, anything I should know?” I asked her.

“Some small amounts of drama, but nothing serious from Clarissa’s side of things. However, there is a petition that has come up, independent of the governors, and has gained a bit of traction. Over 10,000 people signed the petition,” she said.

“They want elections or some other rubbish like that?” I asked.

“Religion,” she replied, and I let out of a sigh. I had been hoping for democracy complaints. It was a concession, that anyone who got 10,000 signatures could petition me directly. It had never happened before, and was meant as a pressure valve for the government. If something was bad enough, people could come to me to deal with it.

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“Fine. Let’s get this over with. The throne room ready?” I asked her.

“It is. Do you want to call people here?” she asked me.

“Up to them, if they want to show up. I am getting a shower, and my men need to unload the airship. So, give it two hours, then we can deal with this,” I said.

“Very well, I will make sure they are ready and to pass the message along,” she said. I should have never agreed to the signature thing. It was the problem with being a dictator, sometimes I made decisions that came back to annoy me.

I got a shower, that wasn’t cramped, and changed into my Emperor clothes. A nice looking shirt, in blue and gold, an overshirt, and pants. I sometimes wore an Eastern style robe, but I felt like today was pants day. Also, I was the Emperor. I could show up naked and everyone just had to accept it. Except Clarissa, who would tell me off after rolling her eyes at me.

It was tempting sometimes to see how far I could push, but that would be toying with people’s lives. Since I could kill anyone at a whim, I had to try and be mindful. With absolute power comes a lot of headaches. Still, I drew the line at my wardrobe and personal decisions. I was not going to have my clothing decided by committee. If I looked stupid, that was my choice.

Perhaps a committee to listen to petitions and deny them, so I didn’t have to deal with them. I let out a sigh as I made my way to the throne room, sipping a fruity concoction in a massive cup I walked into the throne room. “Announcing Emperor Michael,” a person said while I walked and sat on my throne. It was just a chair covered with the flag of Purgatory, but I didn’t want anything fancier. Only I was allowed to sit on the flag.

Several people bowed while I sipped on my drink, before putting it on a stand next to me. It was as big as my head, but I liked it that way, so I didn’t run out. “So, a petition, these signatures are legitimate?” I asked Samantha in a show of starting things. There was no set procedure, so I just had to wing it.

“Yes, Emperor Michael. There were a total of 12,000 and twenty notable names, including top grinders, shopkeepers, and three governors signing as citizens of your Empire,” Samantha replied.

“All right, and who is speaking on this issue. Only one person. I am not talking over things with that crowd. If any of them shout or speak out of turn execute them,” I said. Samantha turned towards the group, and they pushed one older woman forward.

“My name is Oliver, your grace,” he said with a head bow.

“Get him a chair, we are going to discuss this civilly. Your people can listen in, but my earlier threat stands. If they interrupt or make a noise, they will be executed,” I said while lifting up my drink to take another sip. Soon another chair was brought over and placed in front of my throne. Oliver sat down, since this would be going on for a while. And while I could make him stand, I wasn’t going to resort to petty tricks like that.

“Thank you, your grace,” he said as he sat on a chair that had been brought out. His people stood behind him, there were five, three women and two men. Samantha was listening in, several governors were in the throne room, having rushed over. Clarissa wasn’t here, but that was fine.

This was my headache to deal with. “Let’s get down to it. You are here about religion?” I asked.

“Yes, your grace. We are upset we can no longer worship in accordance with our faith,” he said. One of the men behind him was clearly Jewish. I forgot the name of the man from so long ago. He had died when the Divine Empress had wrecked the city after blowing a whole in my chest. A shame, he would have been decent to have here.

“You can worship, you just can’t create a building whose purpose is worship. There is a difference,” I replied a bit annoyed.

“My apologies your grace. But with the advent of the Power Church, we were hoping this matter would be reconsidered,” he replied. I nodded slowly at that. Well time to make a clear statement.

“Very well, just have your god give a visible sign of their power,” I replied. There was silence at that. The silence stretched on. “I am waiting.”

“God isn’t ours to command,” Oliver replied and I nodded at this.

“Indeed. And I would agree with you that God’s domain is the Earth. The Systemic Lands is the domain of the Almighty System. Its power is clearly evident in everything. The closer you look the more obvious it becomes. Where on Earth you could explain the sun through physics. The light source in the Systemic Lands cannot be explained in such a way,” I replied and shook my head.

“You are saying it is a matter of our deity’s power?” he asked with a frown.

“Indeed. I won’t question the existence of Earth god. But this isn’t Earth,” I said. He was clearly expecting a political argument not a theological one.

“God lives in each and everyone of us,” he countered.

“And you are allowed to worship as you deem fit. But you cannot proselytize. If you wish do so, then your god must move they exist here,” I said with a smile.

“What if your Almighty System is God?” he challenged. Now that was an interesting question. If he thought to stump me, he better think harder.

“Then they are alright with a name change. If you wish to submit your theological combination, then I would be happy to read through it and accept you into the Power Church, if you are interested in creating some kind of reconciliation. But the tenants laid out by myself and XLR8 are not changing,” I countered.

“That you are semi-divine?” he asked me, slightly challengingly.

“I am but a shepherd. Looking at your stats, you are only high combat level 2. That is frankly worthless. Your existence means absolutely nothing,” I said.

“You would say this about all your grinders?” he asked.

“If they complain, they can be replaced. When you kill a level 4 with your bare hands, then you will be interesting. Even the people behind you don’t have the stats. The governors listening in, some of them are better than others, but they all pale in comparison. And before you say I get strong through taxes, I spent the last period of time I was away from the capital grinding. I have been earning about 90 million per day. Which is more than I get in taxes daily,” I said. There was a long stretch of silence at my flex.