After a day of careful experimentation which consumes a lot of potions, Jonas's vitality finally disappeared.
As for Lacius, he has finally got a clue regarding the difference between someone at Level 1 and Level 2.
Yet, a mere clue isn't enough for him to create a method that will allow someone to reach Level 2 and increase his lifespan.
Without any more Peak Level 1 blessed he could use as experimental material, Lacius has become desperate.
The people he has sent to train still require a few more years before they can reach his current level. At that time, even if he hasn't died. Hars definitely can't last for that long.
After losing his family to Gratian and losing Yasu who's akin to his father figure, Lacius won't sit silently and watch his only remaining friend and relative die.
He has vowed to make sure Hars won't die. He also vowed to always live and continue his relative's existence, even if it's only in his memory. Even if he dies, he must make sure his name and the name of everyone he cared for shall be remembered for eternity.
He won't end up like Gratian who has lost under the unforgiving power of time!
***
While being burdened with heavy thoughts and spending several sleepless nights. Lacius made up his mind and prepared a plan which he immediately executed.
First, he sent several messengers to Yuma in the span of a month. The messages mainly talked about how he needed Yuma's help and hoped he could pay a visit to Winter City. But, all of the messages are being ignored by Yuma.
When he failed to get any reply, Lacius gathered all important people from the kingdom into his throne room.
Lacius commanded, "Enter a state of war preparation and gather the army within a month! Make the preparation just like when we're going to fight against the demon king!"
Hearing his command, some people became dissatisfied, while most were still unsure why Lacius suddenly ordered such a thing.
Yet, the mention of the demon king is enough to silence most of them.
Everyone who has survived that time still remembers the chaos that has ensued due to the existence of demons and demon king. Even those young nobles that never experienced that time fell silent and followed the order.
When everyone left the throne room to prepare for a war, Hars asked. "Your Majesty, did you receive a revelation from the creator?"
"No, I don't." Lacius said while shaking his head, "Also, there's no need to call me Your Majesty when no one is here."
Hars nodded and asked, "Then, did you sense the birth of the demon king from a report?"
"There is no demon king." Lacius sighed, "This time, we'll target the hero."
Hars frowned, "Won't that anger the creator? Previously, you have said that Yuma is extremely favored by the creator. Although I've never seen the creator, they must be extremely powerful for you to be wary of them."
Lacius tightly grabbed the armrest of his chair, "I am also desperate! Capturing Yuma will be our last chance for success. We're too old and don't have much time left!"
"I can only bet that the creator's favor on Yuma has waned after the demon king has finally been defeated and Yuma fell into degeneracy."
He smiled wryly, "I just hope the creator won't suddenly kill me even if I took the wrong bet."
Lacius then closed his eyes, "The creator can pull me high above the sky, and even travel to another world where the hero came from. Killing me will definitely be easy for them."
After mumbling, Lacius fell asleep while Hars stood silently and protected him.
***
Since the time Lacius released that order, he has been staying in the throne room, waiting for a warning or punishment sent by the creator.
Yet, even after the war preparation has been completed, Lacius hasn't received any warning.
This made him think of the creator's silence as agreement.
With everyone's full support, the war preparation has been completed in slightly less than a month.
Standing in front of a thousand-strong army, Lacius led them to gather on the outskirts of Winter City.
Under the pretext of training before the real battle, he ordered the army to prepare for combat while slowly leading them toward the place where Yuma lived.
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The army keeps on marching following the small intercity road for a few kilometers.
When they were close to Yuma's place, Lacius ordered them to take a turn and entered an area that was blocked by dense forest.
Some of the army's officers sensed something was wrong with the direction of their march and reminded Lacius, "Your Majesty, if we keep on following this path, we'll reach the hero's retirement place."
Lacius stared at them and replied, "Indeed. This time, our enemy is the previous hero. I want you to capture him or at least leave an intact corpse no matter what!"
Those officers became shocked upon hearing Lacius's real goal. One of them can't help but ask, "What about the demon king? Didn't we prepare this army to deal with the demon king?"
The other officers looked at the person asking that question like he was a moron. Meanwhile, Lacius just stared at that man for a moment.
Feeling the surrounding people's weird gaze, that officer quickly fell silent and slightly retreated.
After Lacius showed his real goal to the officers, the army kept marching without missing a beat.
It must be said that the money Lacius has spent to raise the military didn't come to waste.
Disregarding their shock and sudden change in target, those officers still decided to unilaterally follow Lacius's command.
As they keep on marching closer and closer to Yuma's house, their trace can't be hidden from Yuma anymore.
While Yuma happily tended the field with his wives and occasionally watched his children playing in the field. He saw several soldiers that had come forward from the wilderness and cut open a section of the forest near his house.
As more and more soldiers began to clear the wilderness around his fields, Yuma quickly sensed something wrong.
"Amelia, go bring the others and the kids to hide in the house." After telling one of his wives to gather the childrens and retreat back to the house, Yuma stood amidst the field while occasionally touching the sword Cedric had given him.
Soon, Yuma could see a huge army and a familiar face riding on a horse while hiding in the middle of the army.
"Lacius! What are you doing here?!" Yuma shouted at Lacius who stood amidst the soldiers.
Lacius immediately responded. "I need you, I want you to come with me."
"I don't care what you want to do, leave me out of it, I am already retired. Also, I am not interested in men, especially an old guy with one foot in the coffin like you. Maybe if you're a sexy woman or even a cute femboy, I'll be willing to consider whatever your offer is." Yuma answered while grabbing the sword on his waist even tighter.
Yuma has heard about Tsukiko's death. So, when he saw Lacius bringing an army to his house, he got an extremely bad feeling.
He is sure he hasn't caused anything that will place him on Lacius's hit list. He has even decided to start a life of exile and stay in the wilderness to make sure that Lacius, as the ruler of the Sacred Kingdom, won't see him as a threat.
While Yuma is thinking about the reason for Lacius's visit. Lacius's sight is focused on the house Yuma has created.
This time, Lacius is going to do anything to successfully capture Yuma alive. He won't let him die easily like Tsukiko.
After preparing a basic plan, Lacius commanded the army to attack Yuma.
Under the control of several officers, the army started their attack on Yuma.
From ranged blessed attack, to a melee battle, they tried their best to defeat Yuma while making sure he wasn't too heavily injured. But, they are simply underestimating the retired hero.
When he saw the army had attacked, Yuma swung his sword and summoned a burning sword that blocked the ranged attack from the army's blessed.
The ice element attacks immediately melted, Water element attacks immediately turned into vapor, earth spikes quickly chip and crack, while winds and fires are devoured by an even bigger flame that Yuma summoned.
Only lightning, light, and some rare element can force Lacius to evade.
Meanwhile, at the rear of the army, Lacius watched the fight while listening to Yuma's curses as he fought.
Seeing the army's casualties, Lacius didn't bat an eye and simply followed the plan he had just prepared.
He led several high level blessed and targeted the house where Yuma's wives and children were currently hiding.
Yuma saw it and tried to stop them. But, the army's attack quickly rose in intensity.
After some difficulties and receiving several light injuries, he barely escaped from the army's entanglement and dashed toward his house.
When he arrived, Yuma saw all of his wives and children being imprisoned by an earth ball Lacius had summoned.
Under Lacius and several other earth element blessed's control, the earth ball slowly rolled outside of his house.
From inside the ball, Yuma can hear several faint familiar voices. Those are the voices of his children and wives.
Although Yuma isn't sure what Lacius is planning by capturing his family, he immediately gets into action and prepares to release them first.
He utterly despised Lacius's dirty means and became even more unwilling to cooperate with whatever he planned.
Ignoring Lacius and several other blessed, Yuma observed the thickness of the earth wall and calculated the strength required to break it without injuring his family.
With a slash of his sword, a sea of flames appeared.
The flames immediately destroyed the house he had built while also injuring most of the blessed Lacius led.
Two of the blessed have subconsciously released a shield made of water, which immediately vaporized after being created. The vapor caused the messy situation to turn even more chaotic due to the mist that blocked eyesight.
Meanwhile, Yuma focused his sight on the earth ball.
After that slash of his, a hole has opened on the massive earth ball.
He saw three people who had been captured quickly take advantage of the chaos and mists that blocked the view to escape far away.
When his other wives and children prepared to escape, Yuma saw the hole quickly recovered.
On the side, Lacius and several earth element blessed have activated their power to fix the ball that imprisoned Yuma's family.
Yuma saw the ball that had been repaired and became irritated.
He activated his ability once more and used most of his remaining energy to summon a massive flame that was attached to his sword.
With a slash of his sword, an even bigger sea of flame from before appeared.
The moment that slash is released, the surrounding area is filled with scorching heat and charred smell.
When he saw that, Yuma knew he had messed up and released too much power.
He tried his best to retrieve the power. But, just like an arrow that has been shot, the flames ignored Yuma's attempt and directly caused the earth ball to explode.
With the earth ball's explosion, the smell of charred meat filled the area. Torn limbs and charred skulls flew around the place, as blood rained down and dyed the surrounding people with dark red color.
Just like the calm before a storm. Everyone silently watched the place where the earth ball that imprisoned Yuma's family previously was while in shock.
The small pit where the earth ball previously stood seems to have become the center of the world.
Yuma dropped the sword and stared at the pit in shock. His eyes widened to the point it looked like it'd fall out from the socket.
The fishy and burnt smell coming from his family's burnt corpses caused his ears to ring as Yuma fell into a trance.
Slowly raising his head toward Lacius's group, Yuma stared at them with bloodshot eyes.
Seeing Yuma's expression, the blessed around Lacius gripped their weapons while sweating.
All of them have seen the feat Yuma could do. Whether it's fighting against an army on his own, or the final attack that he has just done, he has made them doubt whether or not he is still a human.
Even if they knew he had spent most of his energy to release the last slash he made, Yuma's angry expression still made everyone turn tense.
While staring at everyone, Yuma suddenly bent forward and picked up the sword he had dropped.
Lacius knew the sword was something the creator had given Yuma, and it must have its own special ability. So, when he saw Yuma bend forward to pick it, Lacius created an earth spike that knocked the sword away.
Yuma ran toward the sword while Lacius quickly ordered the blessed around him to attack.
As he tried to save the remaining energy in his body, Yuma didn't use his ability to deal with the attacks. Instead, he only relied on his physical attributes that has increased upon reaching Level 2 and evaded them.
By the time he is close to the sword that has been knocked away, Yuma sees the earth below it open up and swallow the sword.
When he saw it had become impossible to retrieve his sword in a short time, Yuma decided to leave it be for now and dashed toward Lacius.
Lacius saw it and quickly gathered the blessed around him and made them activate their abilities.
Yuma knew Lacius loved to hide behind others while summoning thick earth walls to guard himself.
Instead of summoning a burst of flame that'll definitely be blocked by the enemy's blessed powers. Yuma condensed the flame he had summoned as much as possible and turned it into two bullet-like attacks that shot toward Lacius's heart.
The first fire bullet he created contained much more energy and was used to break the protection around Lacius. While the second one is the one he depends on to kill Lacius.
This is his last bet, as Yuma knows the energy inside his body has truly been exhausted.
Just like he expected, after the flame bullet passes through several walls of ice, waters, and a wall of chaotic wind currents, Lacius has somehow summoned four consecutive earth walls.
After piercing through three of the walls, the first flame exploded and caused the remaining wall to be shattered into pieces.
Before Lacius has any time to erect another earth wall, the second flame bullet passes through the place where the first flame has exploded and reaches him.
Seeing the small glowing red bullet, Lacius quickly evaded. But, his reaction time is a beat slower. Although the flame failed to hit his heart, it still came into contact with his left arm.
The moment that flame came into contact with his arm, it exploded and blew his whole arm away.
After staring at his left arm which has turned into a charred mess in disbelief. Lacius grabbed his mangled shoulder which still had a cracked bone pointing out of it. "Arghhhh!"
After screaming at the top of his lung, Lacius cursed in his mind 'Damn it! Why did everything go wrong? I just want to kidnap his family as a means to force Yuma to cooperate with my experiment. Why did he kill all of his family and then go insane?!'
"All of you, capture him! He should have already run out of power!" Lacius shouted while gritting his teeth to suppress the pain he felt.
The surrounding blessed felt a bit afraid of Yuma and only summoned some water toward Yuma and froze them to restrain him.
Yuma saw his legs had been enveloped in ice and punched at it several times.
Thanks to his enhanced physical strength, he successfully destroyed the ice after three punches. But, Yuma didn't become glad and instead stared at the blessed around Lacius.
When those blessed saw he hasn't used his blessed power to escape and only used his physical strength. They know Lacius's word is correct.
After heavily injuring Lacius, Yuma felt the anger in his heart had slightly subsided and he finally regained his senses.
The first thing Yuma does after regaining his senses is to run away before Lacius's army has the time to reorganize. But, the blessed around Lacius quickly surrounded him and attacked.
Although Yuma isn't sure why most of the attacks seem to be non-lethal. He ignored it for now and focused on avoiding those attacks while looking for a chance to escape.
The longer the battle lasted, the more anxious Yuma became.
After several minutes of dodging and looking for an opening to escape, he heard the army's marching sound.
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Yuma turned his head and saw the area around him had been encircled by Lacius's army. 'No wonder I felt those people arrived a bit late. It seems they're busy reorganizing the formation first to surround my house before slowly enclosing it.'
As he got distracted, the earth under his leg began to rise and swallowed half of his leg.
Meanwhile, another blessed shot a ball of water toward his torso, which was quickly frozen by another blessed.
With his physical strength exhausted and only a tiny bit of his energy has been recovered, Yuma finally got immobilized.
Feeling the cold on his torso, Yuma's mind somehow became extremely calm.
He felt there was something wrong since the battle started.
On the outside, Yuma looked expressionless and focused on Lacius. But internally, he has been thinking, 'Why did Lacius suddenly target me?'
While Yuma is standing still, a blessed with healing power is busy healing the wound on Lacius's shoulder.
Although they can't regrow his arm. The power of those blessed is enough to stop the bleeding and heal some of the burnt wounds.
Lacius stared at Yuma and told a random bless to forcefully feed Yuma with several bottles of potions.
Seeing Yuma's body had turned weak, Lacius ordered, "Bring him back to the palace."
Right after he said that Yuma felt his head turn heavy. Then, he suddenly fell down onto the floor.
Seeing that his potions were effective, Lacius nodded and prepared to ride his horse and return to Winter City with the army.
Giving a few potions to the blessed that rode a horse together with the unconscious Yuma, Lacius ordered him to feed Yuma with two different potions every ten minutes.
One of them is used to suppress energy, while the other is used to knock someone unconscious.
Although those potions usually can last for close to half an hour for someone at his level. But, Yuma's level is much higher than his, so Lacius felt Yuma might be much more resistant to the potions.
Suddenly, he paused and walked toward the place where he buried Yuma's sword. 'I almost forgot.'
Activating his blessed power, Lacius dug the sword and rode his horse.
During the journey back, Lacius slightly relaxed and counted his gain. 'This time, I successfully captured a living higher level blessed. After studying Yuma's body and energy, I should be close to finding the method to advance and regain my youth.'
Lacius turned his head to the rear and glanced at the unconscious Yuma tens of meters away in envy.
Even though he is already eighty years old, Yuma still looks like a middle aged man.
Lacius shook his head and began to think about the trouble that'll happen once he returned.
Those nobles will definitely pick some trouble with him after he tricked them into preparing the army by mentioning the demon king.
He sighed, 'How did I end up in this situation? I am the one giving them their authority to help me manage the kingdom, but they are slowly restricting my movements and control over the kingdom instead.'
Compared to when he just got the kingdom, where the kingdom is akin to a body with a single mind. The current kingdom is much more complicated, just like a body where all of the organs can think by themselves.
Lacius kinda misses the absolute authority he had before. But he knows those nobles he appointed have become a necessary part of the kingdom as it grows bigger and bigger.
While he is lost in thought, Lacius can feel heat waves coming from behind him.
Turning his head, he saw a fire cyclone had devoured some of the soldiers and horses.
The cyclone moved away from the road and spun toward the wilderness before exploding and burning the surrounding vegetation. In the center of that explosion, the vague silhouette of a human can be seen.
"Is that Yuma?!" Lacius saw the figure and became shocked, "How did he wake up and even capable of using his power?!"
Lacius shouted toward the surrounding blessed, "All soldiers and blessed with the wind element, go and cut off the tree and vegetation to stop the spreading flames. Water, ice, and earth element blessed, use your power to extinguish the flame! Those with divine strength, go and capture Yuma back here!"
After giving his command, Lacius cursed, 'Damn it! How did Yuma wake up? Did the blessed I asked to take care of him forget to feed him the potions? Or has the resistance of someone at Yuma's level greatly increased to the point of almost rendering my potion ineffective?'
By the time the flame has been extinguished, most of the blessed that has been sent to look for Yuma has returned.
But seeing they all hadn't found any trace of Yuma, Lacius's face turned livid.
With Yuma's escape, his loss from this battle is simply too great.
Not only will those nobles cause a lot of trouble, but he has lost an arm and even gained the animosity of a high leveled blessed.
***
Inside a forest filled with dense vegetation, Yuma has run away while doing whatever he can to remove his trace.
He never got the need to remove his trace during his adventure before. So, Yuma knows he is quite bad at it. Especially since some blessed have occasionally followed his trace and attacked him.
Luckily, after he faked his unconsciousness, he regained most of his energy.
After he lost and was forced to drink the potion Lacius made, Yuma could feel his consciousness turn heavy and the energy in his body became slightly unresponsive.
But after the bit of energy in his body circulated through his body once, Yuma felt the effect of that potion quickly diminishing.
With the combination of clues he has gathered, like the non-fatal attacks from Lacius's subordinates, and their attempt to capture his family to force him to surrender. Yuma guessed the main reason Lacius suddenly targeted him was probably to capture him alive.
Then, the effect of that potion he has just drank should be related to it.
Feeling the effect that caused his mind to feel heavy, Yuma decided to take a bet and fell down to the ground and turned 'unconscious'. Then, he waited until his energy recovered and quickly escaped.
'Luckily, I took the right bet.' Yuma slightly narrowed his eyes while running in the dense wilderness. 'Now I need to meet with my only remaining family. This time I vow to protect them and live far away from that accursed Winter City.'
Yuma took a deep breath while slightly slowing down. 'It seems they have stopped following me.'
'I truly want to meet with my family that has escaped. But I am afraid Lacius will try to capture them and force me to come out.' Yuma thought while looking at the surrounding forest.
'For now, I'll need to make Lacius busy so the three that escaped won't be captured. I guess burning the forest nearby Winter City should suffice.'
With that idea, he changed the direction he ran, and moved closer into Winter City.
Once Lacius's army returned to the Winter City, he ordered them to rest, while he returned to the palace.
This time instead of returning to the throne room, Lacius immediately entered his secret laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, Hars can be seen busy crafting a potion.
Sensing someone had entered the laboratory, Hars took a quick glance and his eyes immediately widened, "Your Majesty, what happened to your arm!"
Lacius ignored Hars's shout and instead pointed at the potion. "Focus your attention on the potions, don't waste any important material."
Hars took a deep breath to regain his composure and mechanically moved his hands.
Once the potion had been successfully created, Hars stored it in a glass bottle and placed it in a drawer. Then, he continued to question Lacius, "What happened to your arm? How did you lose it?"
"I underestimated Yuma, and his attack has pierced through all of my defense and successfully hit me," Lacius answered nonchalantly.
After he answered, Lacius tried to change the topic, "How many sleeping potions have you created?"
Hars saw Lacius's undisguised attempt at changing the topic and followed along, "I've created three potions while you left."
"What a pity, we won't have the chance to use it."
Hars asked, "Is the expedition a failure?"
Lacius nodded, "Yuma has escaped and I accidentally killed his family. I guess he will take revenge anytime soon."
Hars frowned and messaged his temple, "Once they hear about this news, they'll definitely cause a mess."
Lacius nodded, "that's right."
Hars suddenly said, "Your Majesty, unlike the hero's world where it has become a norm for the children from the royal family to become the next ruler. We still have no precedent of how the status of a king can be formally inherited."
He continued, "You have gained the title of king by killing the first king, and those nobles might even try to learn from what you've done and do the same thing. Which should be one of the reasons why they started to cause a lot of problems recently."
Lacius frowned, "What are you trying to say?"
Hars said bluntly, "You should marry and have children! Just say it's the will of god to have the kingdom to be ruled by your descendant. Even if those nobles don't believe it, this will still increase the difficulty for them to become a king and should make them a bit more cautious and cause less trouble."
Lacius fell silent and contemplated Hars's method.
Lacius felt most of what Hars said was right and that method was indeed feasible. Especially about mentioning it as an oracle from the creator god.
Even if the temple of the creator god that Tsukiko led has been destroyed, Lacius must say he is truly in awe of her method as many people still have faith in that religion.
A basic plan began to take form in Lacius's mind and he thought, 'By doing this, I should be able to push the focus of this mess away from me to my descendant or somewhere else. This will grant me more free time which I could use for doing experiments.'
'It's just… will the creator punish me for it?' Lacius wondered.
***
Inside the Divine Space, Cedric has long since spent most of his attention checking the Crystal Cube world and only occasionally went to study elven and dwarven anatomy.
He has overheard the conversation between Hars and Lacius and fell into contemplation.
What Hars said is right. Unlike on Earth where it's acknowledged that only the royal family can inherit the throne of a kingdom, the humans in the Crystal Cube world have never experienced the succession of a king through normal means.
Cedric feels this should be the side effect of his involvement in forcefully advancing the human civilization level from the Stone Age to what's basically the late Bronze Age. Then, the mess Lacius caused by starting a rebellion against Gratian further aggravated whatever the problem was.
Even with his low sociology knowledge, Cedric knew once Lacius died, the sacred kingdom would probably shatter into pieces.
At first, Gratian successfully integrated all human tribes and turned them into cities under his control due to the suppression on the technological level. Those tribes that still throw stones can't beat the copper weapons he taught Gratian to make.
As for Lacius, Cedric isn't too sure how he can stably become the king. But, it should have something to do with the chaos at that time where many city lords had just died, coupled with the support from the only remaining city lord, Yasu.
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But now, the situation is much more different. The kingdom has been created and there are several ambitious city lords and nobles that also have a certain level of armed forces.
Furthermore, some high ranking people still have records about how Lacius attained his throne. So, they'll most definitely learn from history and start a coup d'etat once Lacius shows too much weakness.
Actually, he doesn't care whether the Sacred Kingdom split into pieces or not.
But he is certain that if division indeed happens, a chaotic war will happen.
Furthermore, if it became a tradition to do a coup d'etat to change a ruler, Cedric can't imagine how much headache it would cause him.
So, even if Lacius doesn't agree to marry and have several children, Cedric will force him to do so.
Even if that means he will need to intervene, which might cause even bigger chaos.
He is actually unwilling to intervene for now. Mostly because he is curious whether his lack of intervention will cause a better result or not.
This is also why Cedric hadn't sent the continuation of the training method to Lacius, even though he finally knew that Lacius had done so many things just for the sake of discovering the method to reach Level 2.
***
Luckily, Lacius is determined enough to proceed with the plan he thought of.
Without a need for any push from Cedric, Lacius has spread the word of the god's oracle and begun collecting women as his wives and concubines.
Although many people feel a bit doubtful upon looking at Lacius's old age. With the help of potions he especially created, Lacius successfully caused more than ten women to become pregnant with his child.
Luckily, Lacius has always kept the existence of potions a secret. So, in the eyes of the people, what he has done is no less than a miracle.
The miracle of causing so many women to get pregnant at the same time while being at such an advanced age is enough to make the people believe that it's a will from the creator god.
After nine months of pregnancy and spending a lot of precious materials to create potions to nurture his wives and the child. Lacius's wives began to give birth and he immediately displayed his children to the public.
When the people saw the energetic babies that had many traits of Lacius, everyone cheered at the miracle of the god.
Having dozens of children at the same time and having all of them survive is a miracle in this era. But, Lacius easily achieved it by constantly feeding his wives some potions used to nurture the body.
'Luckily, I've invented this health nurturing potion while researching potions to extend lifespan. Although it took a lot of precious materials to make, and I can barely let all of my wives drink them once a month. But, I must say their effects are super effective.' Lacius thought while staring at the civilians and nobles.
Looking at the people shouting praises to the creator gods, Lacius felt a bit envious, 'Even after most of the temples in the Sacred Kingdom were destroyed and only some temples in other cities have been left, many people still remembered it.'
With the people's support, the nobles began to calm down and Lacius finally got more time to experiment.
But the stability doesn't last long.
A few days after Lacius's wives gave birth at the same time. Hars is busy at work due to the aftermath of several forest fires near Winter City that have gone out of control.
While talking with one of his subordinates if they have found a trace of Yuma, which he suspected to be the culprit. Hars suddenly fell unconscious.
Once Lacius left his laboratory, he heard about Hars's condition and quickly went to Hars's room.
Inside the room, there are two low leveled healers busy activating their blessed power.
Looking at Hars who has turned pale and seems to be ten years older, Lacius ignored the two healers and fed Hars with his most precious healing potion.
The two healers were shocked by Lacius's sudden movement and wanted to stop him.
But when they saw Hars's condition turn better after drinking the potion, they became shocked. They wanted to ask Lacius what he had just fed Hars with, but they fell silent upon looking at Lacius's gloomy expression.
Not daring to ask for any question, both of them went to silently continue their work.
Soon, Hars woke up with a cough.
When both healers saw Hars had woken up, they continued to activate their blessed power for several minutes to make sure his condition had stabilized, then quickly left the room.
Being in the same room with gloomy looking Lacius has given them heavy mental pressure.
Ignoring the two healers who leave the room as if they got a pardon, Lacius said, "You're getting too old."
"I know." Hars replied with a ragged breath while coughing several times, "I am already conceding to my fate."
Lacius's eyes narrowed.
He understood Hars meant he should let him go. But, Lacius is unwilling to see Hars die without a fight. "Please rest for now, I'll look for a way so you can live."
Lacius exited Hars's room and selected several trusted servants and guards to take care of Hars. He has also called granny Maude's only disciple to return to the palace and told her to take care of Hars.
After doing his best to extend Hars's life, Lacius sat in the empty throne room and began to look for countermeasures.
While biting his lips due to anxiety, Lacius finally decided to take an extreme approach.
Thanks to studying Tsukuko's corpse, he already has a feeling about the difference between those at Peak Level 1 and those at Level 2.
Right now, what's stopping him from reaching the next level is the lack of Peak Level 1 blessed as experimental materials.
While closing his eyes, Lacius thought, 'None of the blessed I sent to train will be able to reach my level anytime soon. So, I need to place my sight on ready made materials.'
He began to recall four blessed that should have also reached Peak Level 1 and prepared a plan to capture them.
Initially, he doesn't want to target them because all four of them are city lords with extensive influence on the kingdom.
Lacius knew for sure that once they went missing, their city would turn into a mess. Furthermore, none of them has earth or water elements.
Although he can use them to research the continuation of the water and earth training method that he has invented, it's definitely going to be much more inefficient compared to using the body of earth or water element blessed. But right now, he couldn't care about such a thing.
With Hars currently bedridden, Lacius feels he doesn't have much time to waste. So, he decided to take the easiest approach to capturing the city lords.
He sent several messengers and invited those city lords into the Winter City for an emergency meeting.
In the messages, he also added that he has a secret mission for them and they will not be able to return to their city within a short time. He added the extra messages to make those lords prepare the city for their long absence.
Lacius knew such a cursory excuse would only increase the suspicion of those lords and their subordinates.
Once he captures the city lords and uses them as material, sooner or later, their subordinates will definitely feel something wrong.
But, all Lacius needs is just a short moment of peace. So once he gets his hands on those four, he can focus his attention on research.
Anyway, once he failed to use the four city lords to find the method to reach the next level, he too wouldn't have much time left in the world.
With the mindset of a gambler that has nothing left to lose, Lacius patiently waited for the city lord to arrive while spending most of his time crafting potions.
He is so focused on crafting potions to the point he decreases the amount of daily audience with the nobles. But, those nobles simply took it as Lacius grieving over bedridden Hars.
Thanks to his hard work at doing alchemy for the last few days. When the first city lord arrived, Lacius's stock of sleeping potions and paralyzing potions had reached close to a hundred.
After greeting the middle aged city lord and asking a guard to take the city lord and his subordinates to a guest room in the palace, Lacius returned to the laboratory and continued crafting more potions.
Two days after the first city lord arrived, the last city lord finally arrived in Winter City.
Lacius gathered all four city lords into the throne room and said, "We'll have dinner in the evening. Then, I'll tell you the details of the mission during the dinner. But, anyone who heard about it must join the mission. So, only bring some of your subordinates to the dinner."
"After the dinner, all of you must immediately leave the city through a secret path to complete the mission."
"Why is it so complicated? A city lord frowned.
"That's just how important the secret mission is. None of the details of that mission can be leaked before it's completed." Lacius waved his hand, "Everyone must be tired, you can rest for now and I'll send a guard to guide you to the dining room before the sun sets."
Although the city lords are confused, they still follow Lacius's order and return to their guest room. Once they returned to their respective guest rooms, the city lord discussed with their subordinates and only took one or two of them to join the dinner.
When evening arrives, the city lord is led by a guard toward a room that Lacius has specially decorated for the dinner.
Upon entering the room, they're greeted by Lacius who has sat on the main seat, "Good evening everyone, please eat to your fill as the journey to the mission site will be long and exhausting. We'll talk after everyone finishes eating."
Lacius pointed at the long dining table and everyone's sight immediately focused on the food.
On the table, there are twenty dishes entirely made of magical beasts and plants.
Both the city lords and their subordinates are in awe at the extravagances of the dinner. Without much nonsense, all of the city lord's subordinates quickly sat and began eating with gusto.
When Lacius saw all of the people in the room had started eating, he smiled in relief and also started eating.
After quickly finishing the steak in front of him, Lacius immediately stopped eating and picked up his cup.
He quickly emptied the cup and said he was full and only watched everyone eat the food in front of him.
Watching everyone eating, Lacius thought. 'I've spiked a single dish with a bottle of paralyzing potion and a bottle of sleeping potion. Those portions should take effect around this time.'
'Just in case, let's drink another portion of antidote.' Lacius refilled his cup and slowly drank it.
While Lacius sips his antidote, one of the city lord's subordinates falls unconscious and everyone is surprised.
The nearest city lord quickly placed his finger in front of his subordinate's nose and slightly relaxed upon feeling he was still breathing.
Lacius saw the situation had turned tense and laughed, "It seems he got drunk. The drink you've been drinking is a new drink called wine that I got from Red Leaf City. It took me a lot of money to buy the best wine from the merchant group there."
When everyone heard it, they laughed along and continued to eat and drink.
Although only two city lords have truly drunk the wine Lacius mentioned. But, the other city lord has at least heard about the newly risen luxury commodity and about its intoxicating effect.
Soon, everyone began to turn unconscious one by one.
When a city lord who has tried wine saw almost everyone has become unconscious, he felt something wrong and slightly panicked.
Before he could do anything, Lacius's sleeping potion finally took effect on that city lord and he fell asleep.
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When Lacius saw everyone had fallen asleep, he activated his blessed power and created a hole under the rugs below the dining table.
The hole he created is just big enough for two people to enter at once.
After pushing aside the rug, Lacius began to throw the city lords and their subordinates into the hole.
"Losing one of my arms is pretty inconvenient." Lacius sighed while throwing the bodies into the hole. Once he was done, he cleaned the rug and jumped inside the hole while using his blessed power to close the hole.
After sliding downward for a few seconds, Lacius arrived at a secret underground laboratory he had just created.
On his foot, there are ten people, which are exactly the city lords and their subordinates.
After killing the six subordinates who had no use for him, Lacius fed the city lords with another bottle of paralyzing potions and sleeping potions. Then, he restrained them with a metal handcuff and took one of them to experiment with.
Lacius placed his right palm on the city lord's abdomen and started sending his energy following the earth element training method he had created.
After circulating the energy once, Lacius frowned, 'Just like what I expected, the difference in element has become an obstacle.'
From his experiment, Lacius already knew that every person has a small difference in their energy circulation pathway. This difference made every person's pathway to be unique.
Normally the difference is miniscule enough, so he can ignore it. But, when it comes to people at his current level. The difference in energy path, especially for those with different elements, is incredibly significant.
Lacius took several sheets of paper that had been invented by Tsukiko and began scribbling on them.
Most of the scribbles consisted of numbers and basic math that Tsukiko and Yuma had introduced, while some consisted of symbols Lacius had made himself.
After doing calculations to modify his earth element training method so it could flow smoothly inside the body of that city lord, Lacius placed his hand on the city lord's abdomen and infused his energy.
***
While Lacius spends his time experimenting, Cedric is sitting on the edge of his chair while munching on popcorn.
Initially, when he saw Lacius invited those city lords, Cedric had a sense of Deja Vu and wanted to stop him.
He still freshly remembers what happened when Gratian invited several city lords for dinner. At that time, most of the city lords and their families got killed, while Lacius got some sad backstory and started a rebellion.
Cedric has watched Lacius and knows his motive for inviting the city lords for dinner is definitely unclean. He dares bet 100 GP that Lacius is scheming against those city lords and most of them might even die.
When the news of the city lord's murder got out, history will repeat itself and another rebellion for revenge will begin. The Sacred Kingdom might even split into several kingdoms due to this rebellion.
But after thinking more about it, Cedric felt having the kingdom split up might not be a bad thing.
Cedric looked at the [Divine Intervention: Dream] that still had some energy and thought, 'As long as I intervene and warn every party involved before the battle intensifies and causes too much misery. Having the Sacred Kingdom split into several smaller kingdoms should be able to force the humans to fill whatever hole is left when I accidentally increased their civilization level from tribes into kingdoms.'
"Right now, Sacred Kingdom is basically a monopoly business without any rival," Cedric muttered while recalling how he had once seen someone mentioning that monopoly business will stifle innovation while scrolling the internet.
Cedric then continued to mumble, "Just like how monopoly stifles innovation, necessity is the mother of invention. To not fall from the other kingdom, the kingdoms should've tried their best to invent new rules, advance their technology, or even perfect their governance, education, and other systems."
Although he has a feeling he might be mixing two unrelated things, Cedric still praises himself, "I am so darn smart!"
With that idea, he began planning how he would warn the humans in the Crystal Cube world to not cause too much NE to appear while preparing to observe the situation in the Crystal Cube once again.
That's when the System decided to show up and raise its presence.
[Friendly reminder. Your 'Divine Intervention: Dream' doesn't have much energy. So, you need to word your warning as concisely as possible.]
"I know," Cedric replied. "Now, if you have nothing important to tell me, please shoo away before you start endorsing another product. I am already poor enough as is."
[How did you know the System is trying to ask you to buy another 'Divine Intervention: Dream'?]
Cedric ignored the System while munching on his popcorn. 'The System selling things reminds me of something.'
'Now that I already decided to intervene before the Sacred Kingdom's split. Should I buy a lifespan fruit or tell the continuation of the training method to Lacius? He has gone this far, and having such a genius die from old age will be a waste.'
'But my gut feeling said something extremely good would happen if I didn't intervene in Lacius's attempt to reach a higher level.' Cedric rubbed his chin and asked the System, "Hey, what do you think about this gut feeling I have?"
Just like he expected, the System has heard his internal monologue.
[The System doesn't know. It might be your subconsciousness warning you about information that you have gathered but simply ignored, or it might be something more metaphysical like the ability to sense fortune and avoid misfortune, or perhaps it's caused by something else.]
'That answer is pretty vague', Cedric rolled his eyes and asked another question, "So, should I follow this gut feeling?"
[The System isn't sure. But, just choose whatever you want and leave no regret.]
"Alright. Thanks for the not-so-helpful help." Cedric nodded and sent his mental power into the Crystal Cube world to continue observing.
***
In the Crystal Cube world, several days have already passed with Lacius spending all of his time in the library.
Around him, several stacks of papers are placed neatly while Lacius spends the most focus he has ever used since his birth.
In front of him, the last city lord is already on his last breath from all the experiments Lacius did to him.
Even when Lacius has been shoving the city lord with healing potions, he knows the city lord can only last through another one or two failures.
This time, he has great hope for the energy circulation method he has just modified, and the training method didn't betray him.
Its circulation is already 80% complete, yet there is still no sign of failure in the city lord's body.
Under heavy pressure and expectation, Lacius followed the method he had calculated and almost successfully completed an energy circle in the city lord's body.
But after he finished circulating the energy through 95% of the city lord's body, it suddenly turned erratic and the city lord started spewing blood and breathing his last.
Looking at the failure in front of him, Lacius began to throw aside the stack of paper around him while screaming.
"Argg! I FAIL!!!"
His scream resounded throughout the silent laboratory while Lacius lay on the stone floor and seemed to quickly age from despair.
After his failure at searching for a way to increase his level, Lacius slumped on the floor for a long time before slowly standing up.
As if losing his soul, he slowly exited the laboratory and walked randomly around the palace.
Along the way, many guards and servants greeted him. But, Lacius ignored all of them and continued to walk around as if that would help him to calm down.
Without realizing it, Lacius stood in front of the door to Hars's room and entered it.
Inside, Hars is currently awake while being healed by granny Maude's disciple, Rinya.
Hars looked at Lacius who seemed to be in a despondent mood and asked Rinya to leave the room.
With only the two of them inside, they fell into silence before Hars asked, "What's wrong, Your Majesty?"
"I failed! I failed! There is no longer hope! We are already out of time. There isn't enough time for more material to be ready before both of us run out of lifespan!" Lacius began to cry like a little child.
Seeing such a scene, Hars forced himself to wake up and patted Lacius on the back. "There is no need to cry."
He smiled and said, "You still have one last chance."
Lacius looked at Hars in confusion before he realized what Hars meant and opened his eyes wide.
"Use me, let me become a stepping stone for your goal," Hars said with a determined tone.
Lacius wanted to decline and quickly shook his head, but Hars clasped his hand. "I don't have much time. I know it, and you know it."
"But the training method is still incomplete!" Lacius said in a half cracked voice. "The chance of failure is too big!"
"Your Majesty, if you succeed, both of us will survive. I am willing to take that bet."
Lacius gritted his teeth, "You're my only relative in this world."
"You're wrong." Hars weakly laughed, "You still have your children and wives."
Lacius went silent.
"Is that the true reason why you asked me to give birth to children?" He looked at Hars upon the realization.
It took a long time for Lacius to think. But at last, he can only close his eyes before reopening them with a sad look. "Then, I'll start the experiment."
Hars smiled as Lacius began to teach him a training method he had calculated.
After teaching Hars more than 90% of the content, Lacius paused as a screen appeared in front of him.
[Sorry to cut into your intimate moment. But, I've seen all of your hard work and I felt your pure heart to pursue knowledge is worthy of a reward.]
[I shall reward you with 2 knowledge, please prepare papers and write down everything you saw. You only have a short time to copy it.]
"Ah?" Lacius paused and stared blankly.
Hars saw the surprised look on Lacius's face and asked," What happened, Your Majesty?"
"The creator just sent a revelation to me and said they wished to grant me a reward," Lacius said.
"Wait a moment, I need to bring some pens and papers." Lacius wasn't sure what's going on, but he still follows Cedric's command and brings several papers and pens stored in Hars's room.
He felt the creator god's reward might be able to flip his current situation.
***
In the Divine Space, Cedric has been listening to Lacius teaching Hars the training method he has created.
While listening, Cedric used his advanced calculation power to simulate the result of that training method. After several simulations, he found out it would result in another failure. So he decided to intervene and give Lacius the training method.
From the calculation, Cedric knew if Hars indeed used that training method, his old body wouldn't be able to survive the backlash and he'd instantly die.
The moment he decides to intervene in Lacius's attempt at increasing his lifespan, Cedric can feel the instinct that something good will happen begins to decrease until it almost disappears. "Sigh… It seems I still have a sense of conscience and pitied him. Or perhaps I simply disliked bad endings from happening."
Cedric rubbed his chin, "This sensation of preventing a bad ending from happening is also pretty good."
[What about those people Lacius used for his experiment? Don't you pity them?]
"Well, I indeed pity them. But they're just cannon fodder NPC after all. If it's a movie, they're basically a character without any name and only called 'experiment material 1' on the end credits." Cedric shrugged while preparing the continuation for the earth element and water element training method.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
After he had gathered the image he wanted to send, Cedric grabbed the [Divine Intervention: Images] from a nearby shelf and checked Lacius's situation. Once he saw Lacius had already finished preparing the pen and paper, Cedric sent the image he had prepared for him.
Just like when he shared the continuation of the training method with Alan, Cedric added some explanation that he created with [Divine Intervention: Word] into the image consisting of complicated energy circulation.
Thanks to the divine language that allows all creatures to comprehend it. Although initially, Lacius was a bit confused about how to read the diagram that Cedric has sent, he slowly understands it and becomes shocked.
"This is.. this is it! This is the method that'll allow me to reach a higher level!" Lacius madly copied the images into paper while double checking to make sure he didn't copy it wrong.
After scribbling on several papers, Lacius finally finished copying everything Cedric had sent and happily tested the reward he just got.
Meanwhile, after Cedric checked that Lacius had copied what he sent correctly. He felt a heart wrenching pain from the amount of GP he wasted to give Lacius the Level 2 continuation for the earth and water element training method.
To send both training methods, Cedric wasted 150 GP to purchase 1 [Divine Intervention: Word] and 2 [Divine Intervention: Image] after they ran out of energy midway.
Cedric felt this was such a massive loss and felt some regret after recalling something. "Damn it, I should've bought a [Basic System Screen] for Lacius to decrease the consumption of Divine Intervention items. But it'll be a waste to do so right now, especially when he is already at the end of his lifespan, and I don't have much to say to him in the near future."
"Wait a moment!" Cedric paused midway because he realized something. He knows that leveling from Level 1 to Level 2 can increase someone's lifespan. But, he didn't know the specific amount of lifespan that can be gained.
When he wanted to ask the System, it already pried his privacy and replied.
[As your world's power system is based on basic mana, the amount of lifespan that will be granted upon reaching Level 2 is 20 years.]
"That doesn't seem to be too long?" Cedric said without realizing that his sense of time has been screwed beyond repair.
After knowing Lacius can only live for around 20 more years, Cedric decides to push aside the plan to give Lacius a [Basic System Screen] for when he has a lot of things to say to Lacius. Otherwise, giving Lacius the system screen and not using it will be a waste.
Then, he continued to watch the situation in the Crystal Cube world and found Lacius was busy learning the training method together with Hars.
Once they finished, Lacius prepared to start circulating his energy when Cedric interrupted.
[Prepare to heal yourself in case of an accident.]
When Lacius saw the message, he picked several healing potions and told Rinya to wait outside of Hars's room so she could immediately enter and heal him when something went south.
With everything ready, he followed the training method Cedric gave him and circulated the energy inside his body.
Luckily, there was no accident and Lacius successfully circulated his energy following the method.
Seeing that the training method can indeed be used, Lacius quickly helped Hars and brought him into the river where many water elements blessed are currently training.
He also brought along Rinya and the two low leveled people blessed with healing power.
Upon arriving, Lacius urged Hars to start training while he guarded Hars together with Rinya and the two healers.
While Hars sat near the water, Lacius stood at attention and focused on Hars to prepare for the accident.
This lasted for a whole week before Lacius suddenly received another message from Cedric.
[Take this. In his current state, your subordinate's vitality isn't enough to reach the next level.]
Lacius then felt something falling and hit his head. He quickly grabbed it and looked at the peach like fruit in his hand.
When he recalled what the fruit was, Lacius's expression turned into one of surprise and he observed Hars's situation.
When Hars finished circulating the energy in his body once, Lacius brought the fruit he just received from Cedric, "Eat this fruit and continue to circulate your energy."
Hars has heard of the fruit from Lacius before and knows it's a divine item granted by the creator and has the power to increase a person's lifespan.
He didn't decline and quickly ate the fruit before continuing to circulate his energy to increase his life level.
After he ate the fruit, it took Hars another three weeks of consecutive training before he finally reached the next level.
Once he reached Level 2, Hars's body slowly turned younger.
Although the effect isn't immediate, it can be seen that the amount of wrinkles on Hars's body has decreased and his pale skin turned healthier.
Lacius looked at Hars who continuously turned younger until he looked like someone at fifty years old.
The surrounding people who saw that miraculous scene gasped in awe.
They knew the training method Hars used should be the same as the one Lacius had given them. But they never knew it could also make them regain their youth.
Lacius ignored everyone's looks and rode his horse together with Hars, Rinya, and the two healers.
This time, they rode the horse into the magic ore vein he had dug up.
During the journey, Lacius's expression seems to be more relaxed than usual. Even Rinya and the two healers can feel he is quite happy.
Once Lacius arrived at the magic ore vein, he immediately started training while Hars guarded him together with the healers.
Meanwhile, in the Divine Space, Cedric looked at Lacius and asked the System, "Do I need to give Lacius a [Lifespan Fruit] too?"
[There's no need. Lacius still has a lot more lifespan than Hars. Furthermore, a lot of Lacius's vitality was still retained in his body after drinking many potions that can nourish the body. At most, he'll take much longer to reach Level 2 from Peak Level 1 compared to someone younger.]
Cedric nodded and watched Lacius's situation with full attention.
If something is wrong with Lacius's energy circulation, he'll immediately notify Hars, Rinya, and the two healers to help Lacius. He doesn't want the case with Alan to repeat itself.
Cedric feels Alan's sudden death has become a mental scar for him.
Luckily, there is nothing wrong with Lacius and he successfully reached Lower Level 2 after slightly more than three weeks.
When he saw Lacius had turned younger and stopped training, Cedric slumped in his chair and created some cakes to celebrate.
"With this, the path to Level 2 has officially opened for the creatures in the Crystal Cube world. Although it can only be used by water and earth elements blessed for now. But, with Lacius's ability, it shouldn't be hard for him to create the training method for other elements if he wished to."
While happily eating his chocolate cake, Cedric muttered, "With the help I just gave him, it shouldn't be too hard to ask Lacius to continue working for me to create the training method for other elements. Once he finishes cleaning the aftermath of his messes, I'll ask him to start researching other element's training methods."
After more than three weeks of training, Lacius's level finally increased, and he turned younger.
Feeling the increase in his energy and vigor, Lacius exited the ore vein and rode his horse for fifteen minutes to test his strengthened blessing. He doesn't want to do it near the ore vein for fear that the vein that he has opened with difficulty will collapse because of an accident.
Controlling his energy, Lacius began to control the earth around him and easily summoned an earth pillar.
He checked the amount of energy spent and found out the amount of energy he consumed was slightly lower than what he usually spent to create a similar earth pillar before.
On the side, Hars also finally has time to try his strengthened ability and summon several streams of water that he controlled like a whip. Those whips aren't strong enough to cause much damage to the surrounding vegetation, but it shows that his control over the water he summoned has greatly increased.
They actually wanted to continue testing their strengthened blessed power. But, looking at Rinya and the two healers that followed behind them, the two decided to return to Winter City.
Now that the threat of death had been delayed, they needed to handle the aftermath of killing the city lords.
Lacius knew the dead city lord's force wouldn't immediately turn hostile because of the preparation he had done before he killed those city lords.
But it definitely won't last long.
Just like he expected, a few days after he returned to Winter City, some of the city lord's subordinates began to request an audience with him.
Lacius heard them urge him to tell where their city lords were. But, he calmly replied with nonsense to delay for more time.
After a whole month of replying to those people with nonsense. The city lord's subordinates finally returned to their respective city.
Lacius knows those people already feel something is wrong and will start to cause trouble for him soon. So, although on the outside he still worked as usual while occasionally spending time training. Lacius has secretly sent several people to report the condition in those cities to him.
While waiting for news about the city lords from the people he has sent, Lacius doesn't waste his time. Now that time is on his side, Lacius decided to use it to the fullest.
Except for training and managing the kingdom, he kept on gathering blessed with earth and water elements. The lack of experiment material before has almost caused him to go insane.
Luckily, the creator has taken pity on him and granted him the training method.
Still, Lacius won't push his hope for another miracle from the creator god. So, he needs to gather more blessed and force them to train and become suitable to be his experiment material.
As he has already gathered those that have awakened for a long time, most of the blessed he gathered this time consisted of recently awakened children and teenagers.
When Lacius saw the children that had awakened their blessed power, he suddenly recalled the time he talked with Yuma and Tsukiko not long after he allowed her to build the temple.
At that time, Yuma had begun his plan to retire but still occasionally told him to look after Tsukiko. He said that she was once a part of many cults and explained why those weird cults are dangerous.
'It seems Yuma has mentioned something about how most of the cults loved to brainwash children and make use of them.' Lacius rubbed his chin. 'I got the gist of what Yuma means by brainwashing. Maybe I need to try it on this batch of blessed?'
Lacius isn't sure how to do brainwashing, so he discusses it with Hars and decides to experiment on this batch of blessed.
Anyway, he has nothing to lose.
If this experiment succeeds, Lacius will gain a bunch of loyal blessed for his own use. This much force will be enough to slightly stabilize the situation when those city lords realize something and start a rebellion.
If he fails, then he'll just use them as material for an experiment.
Lacius went to discuss his idea with Hars and both of them prepared several plans which they immediately set in motion.
Now, except for training and managing the kingdom. Both of them also began their sociology experiment on how to brainwash a group of people.
Lacius's target is the earth element blessed that's currently training in the magic ore vein. While Hars targeted the water element blessed that's currently training in the river.
Just like that, a year calmly passes by.
In the Divine Space, Cedric sat on his chair and saw Lacius reading a report from the spy he had planted in the other cities.
After a whole year of subtly questioning Lacius, those cities seemed to get tired of asking and began to gather their armed forces to force Lacius to reveal the city lord's whereabouts. To fill the amount of soldiers, they began to forcefully conscript many healthy young men from among the populace.
Once gathered, those armies will be directly led by the city's respective substitute city lords. From how they still hadn't changed into a new city lord, it can be seen that those people still believed that their city lord had only gone missing.
Except for the four cities where the city lord has been killed by Lacius. Cedric also saw Lacius receiving a report regarding some people who wished to join in the fun and had prepared some war resources like weapons, armor, and food.
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To respond to those threats, Lacius began to mobilize his army and started gathering provisions and other resources.
As he saw that Lacius still needed some time to mobilize his army, Cedric decided to check the situation around Lacius, the substitute city lords, and also the people who wanted to join in the fun.
Especially the people that wanted to join the fun.
Just the city lord against Lacius is enough to put him on edge. If more people joined the battle, Cedric felt he might vomit blood if things went out of control.
Thanks to the report that he had peeked from Lacius, Cedric knew where to find those people.
He controlled his mental power and checked everyone on the list that had been reported to Lacius.
While checking, he also used Past Observation on several targets to see the reason why they purchased war resources at such a tense time.
The result makes him quite speechless. There are actually three kinds of people that joined in the fun and collected war resources.
The first one is those who felt something was wrong and wanted to guard themself. This part usually consisted of nobles or other city lords. Especially the city lord whose city is located between Winter City and the four city lord's cities.
The second one is those with a business mindset and wanted to get profit by raising price and stocking resources to resell.
Cedric must say this group of people are geniuses who know how to do business even though currency and trades have just been introduced in the world for less than a hundred years.
But this group of people is also the one that causes the most problems. Their whole trading games have caused the price throughout the Sacred Kingdom to fall into chaos.
If this goes on, many people will die in misery due to hunger because they can't buy food. At that time, the amount of NE in his world will definitely explode, and Cedric can't accept that.
Finally, the third group is what caused Cedric to truly become speechless.
This group consisted of three people, and their goal was revenge.
They wanted to avenge their great grandfather Gratian, the kind orphanage sisters, and the High Priestess Tsukiko.
The mention of Tsukiko and Gratian piqued Cedric's interest and he activated Past Observation several times and finally found Tsukiko's revenge plan.
When he saw that a few years ago Tsukiko had been gathering people who might be Gratian's child and hoped they'd cause trouble for Lacius once she died, Cedric became utterly speechless.
He doesn't know what to say except GG!
While others are playing chess, Tsukiko alone has been playing five dimensional chess with multiversal time travel. Even after her death, she still left some revenge plan that could cause the kingdom to collapse.
Retrieving his mental power, Cedric shook his head and threw away his distracted thought.
"Anyway, It's time for me to enter the stage!" Cedric took the [Divine Intervention: Dream] from nearby shelves and pushed his mental power inside to enter the familiar Dream Space.
"Let's go according to the plan I prepared." Once he possessed the body in the Dream Space, Cedric began to check the people he wanted to talk with and summoned them to the Dream Space.
After he made sure the people he wished to summon to the Dream Space were in a safe location, Cedric began to pull them into the Dream Space.
His targets are Lacius, the substitute city lords, the top merchants, and the so-called Gratian's descendants, which he hasn't checked whether or not they indeed are.
After all, this time he has something more important to do.
This is the most people he has ever pulled into [Divine Intervention: Dream]'s Dream Space, and Cedric felt excited.
He hopes the remaining energy in this [Divine Intervention: Dream] can allow him to show off once.
***
In the Crystal Cube world. Under Cedric's will, many people throughout the Sacred Kingdom began to fall asleep.
Their eyes began to turn heavy before they finally fell asleep in a weird position.
Once they wake up, some of these people will definitely have back pain or neck pain.
Among those people, Lacius who is currently busy checking reports from his subordinates suddenly felt his eyes turn heavy. He wanted to resist it. But, at last, it still failed.
Before falling asleep, Lacius can only use all the remaining energy he has to tell Hars to protect him.
Once he re-opened his eyes, Lacius found himself standing above a sea of clouds. Around him, faint mist calmly flowed as gentle golden light occasionally seeped through it and reached his face.
Looking at the scene that he hadn't seen for so long, Lacius felt a sense of nostalgia.
Soon, silhouettes began to appear around him.
When he thought there would only be two other silhouettes from people of other races like last time. The silhouette keeps on increasing until there are more than twenty people.
Lacius tries to see them but finds out their bodies are blocked by the mists and even the confused noises they released are distorted by the mists.
Even when he stood in front of the other party and touched them, he still failed to see through the mists obscuring their body.
Nevertheless, there is one thing he is sure of. "This time, all of the creatures that the creator has summoned are humans. Especially the humans from the Sacred Kingdom."
Although their voices are distorted, the language they speak is undeniably the language used in the Sacred Kingdoms language, instead of the weird language used by other races. Unless the creator grants everyone the ability to understand foreign languages, then the people here are humans.
Lacius calmly watched as those people noisy spoke in panic before a familiar silhouette appeared in front of everyone.
The figure is clad in a robe with a crown on their head. They sat on a throne while holding onto a scepter. On their waist, a beautifully crafted sword is sheathed.
Lacius quickly bowed and greeted the figure. "Lacius has met the creator."
The surrounding silhouette froze and the fastest among them quickly followed suit, "*** has met the creator."
Hearing the consecutive beeping sound that censored the names gave Lacius a headache. But, he ignored it and kept on staring at the figure in front of him.
Before all the silhouettes around him have the time to greet the creator. The creator's figure quickly enlarged. Even the throne, scepter, and other accessories on their body have been enlarged accordingly.
When the creator's body can barely be seen, everyone hears a loud sound that seems to reverberate into their soul.
"Don't cause misery or…"
Suddenly, lightning filled the space and the rumbling sound deafens everyone.
Along with it, the surrounding space seemed to crack and the beautiful clouds under everyone's feet began to lose their solidity which caused everyone to fall from the sky.
While falling, everyone seems to be able to see a scene of destruction just like the end of the world.