Badge in Azure

Saleen smiled and said, "I can't accept such a reasoning and I can't change that, so…"

Another elder rose and asked before the nobles settled from the fright of what just happened, "Your Highness, may I know if the Grukos will be continuing their rule?"

"I cannot guarantee any of that. At the very least, I won't be allowing anyone from Golden Plains to participate in the founding of the Fifth Dynasty. Lex will be the one to select the next emperor during her hundred-year reign."

That elder sat. He still had questions, but Saleen was no longer looking at him.

Yet another elder wanted to ask something, but he was afraid of being thrown off of the platform like the first elder who spoke. Saleen was being very clear with his actions—he would not allow anyone to get in his way. If there was anyone who intended to do so, Saleen would be very glad to get rid of them on the spot.

Saleen was hardly displeased or irked by anything. He had no affinity for any of those nobles. If it had not been for the need for them to keep the commoners calm, which would save him considerable time in his efforts to consolidate all powers found throughout the mainland, he would not have even bothered doing what he was doing.

In the perspective of mages, there were times where one would need to resort to tact to achieve one's goals, while other times, the best way to solve problems was sheer brute force instead.

"Alright, now that no one has any questions to ask, allow me elaborate on the matter," Saleen continued without a care. His voice reached the ears of every single noble through the use of magic speakers.

Not all of the nobles were against Saleen. No dynasty would last forever, and there were always some who wanted to join Saleen's side and to help with his efforts of bringing an end to the Qin Empire. Furthermore, Saleen allowed Lex to continue to reign for the next century, which meant that the Qin nobles would secure higher priorities and thus, gain more benefit.

Lex was hardly surprised. She had been harboring such thoughts for a long time. However, bringing such ideals to reality would have caused massive numbers of deaths and cost an astronomical amount of resources.

If the Fifth Dynasty were to be established, then her position as empress would indeed almost allow her to advance her mastery of the secret arts to the pinnacle during her hundred-year reign.

To Lex, the importance of her position as empress was only to further her training with the secret arts. She had been through a lot and had long given up on her status as a member of the Grukos, identifying herself as just a mage. Dealing with the people from Golden Plains took a massive toll on her, and she found such contests for power to be utterly pointless.

What Saleen did had completely robbed Golden Plains of any reason to intervene.

With the Qin Empire gone, then the surname of Grukos would no longer be equated to 'royalty'.

Safilos did not say anything and gradually calmed. Saleen's ways angered him, but he knew that once Lex was either dead or had given up the throne, the empire would no longer be able to reclaim its past glories.

It was no surprise why Master Merlin said that Lex was the one who would end the empire. That prophecy held true to the letter, without a slightest hint of exaggeration. Even if she were not the empress, Saleen would have ended the Qin Empire all the same and made her the empress of the Fifth Dynasty.

The first time he met Saleen at his elder brother's place, the mage was hardly worthy of notice. The same mage had grown powerful enough to decide the fate of Myers Mainland.

Saleen continued, "with the capital of the Fifth Dynasty located at Holy Rock City, I will, without a doubt, rebuild the city and make it a place that will never fall to another attack ever again, not even one from the gods. Now, ladies and gentlemen, I now offer you the opportunity to become nobles of the Fifth Dynasty. But, you all must understand that the Fifth Dynasty is, for the time being, under my control. Only those who contribute will be worthy of glory."

Many nobles felt the clinch. They knew that they would have to put everything their clans had at stake in order to fight alongside Saleen. However, they wondered if Saleen would hunt them down personally if they were to give up such an opportunity.

Saleen observed the expressions on some of the nobles' faces and smirked coldly. "Don't ask for too much. I'm only giving you such an opportunity because of Lex. One needs to pay a price equivalent to what one wants. Do you think that fostering a mage is easy? I'm setting up a magic academy so that your descendants can learn, and they will be tutored by esteemed masters of the magical arts. This is something that you won't be able to buy."

Safilos asked in a low voice, "I'd like to ask, Saleen, how will you take on the Nature Faith eventually?"

"I shall take the Lord of Glory's divine kingdom and make my weapon spirit into a God of Magic. The Nature Faith will cease to exist in the mainland, and all believers shall migrate."

"Is that your final objective?"

"I don't know." Saleen smirked. He actually had his own ideals—to bring Myers Mainland breaking through the limit of level 18. However, he had no idea of how he would achieve such a feat. The goddess had not been able to do so, nor did the insanely powerful emperors of the past.

However, even if he were to fail doing so, he was nonetheless compelled to see gods being eradicated from the plane.

"You don't know? You're taking apart an empire still, so…"

"But, Safilos, the empire wouldn't be around after the next century anyway. If I did not intervene, Myers would grow into something uncontrollable. Although she…"

Saleen did not continue. He knew that the goddess had no intentions of destroying the mainland. However, she was a god, and there was no way for her to halt her growth. She was capable of tapping into the power of the Source of the plane, and that was what made her so powerful. Although, it would have only been a matter of time before she sucked the Source dry.

Mages used such methods as a last resort to fight insurmountable odds, but gods would absorb such powers completely instead.

If a plane were to lose so much power of the Source, souls would have dwindled, which meant that lives would have gradually been lost, and the plane was no longer able to maintain its current state.

The only eventual outcome was the collapse of the plane.

If the goddess were a kind-hearted one, she may have considered making Myers Mainland her divine kingdom. Everyone would have become her believers, and such an outcome would have been postponed for the time being.

As a mage, however, Saleen knew that it was impossible for such a state to continue indefinitely. When a crystal wall system was filled with nothing but divine kingdoms and the gods ran out of planes to absorb, then it would have been time for the final war between the gods.

It would have resulted in the doomsday of the gods, and only one god would have emerged at the end of that final war, becoming a level 19 god and destroying the crystal wall system completely.

Safilos' expression was a glum one. He was determined to aid his brother ever since he learned what was happening around him, in order to make Qin into the strongest empire in the plane by spreading the spirit of Qin throughout the entire plane. He would have eventually united the plain under a single rule.

Yet, at the moment, the empire was about to be brought to an end, and he was unable to do anything to stop it.

Saleen had no intention of taking over. Saleen was a mage, and all he was trying to achieve was freeing the plane from the clutches of the gods, making the plane capable of existing longer. It was due to such concerns that ancient humans waged wars against divine kingdoms and went out to kill a great many powerful gods.

It was due to such wars that the crystal wall system managed to avoid utter ruin, achieving prosperity instead.

The emergence of many subcontinent planes proved that point. All of the planes evolved from barren planes or interdimensional spaces, after all. When the power of the Source absorbed by the gods was unleashed anew in their crystal wall system, the power was absorbed by the planes, giving birth to a great many living beings.

"Alright, I'm done elaborating my thoughts in general. The rest will be handed to our empress, Lex." Saleen's chair backed away for a bit, before Lex rose and spoke.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I have pondered long and hard regarding the existence of the Qin Empire, before coming to such a decision today. It is with great regret that I will not allow anyone to object. It is imperative that the Fifth Dynasty be established. Myers Mainland will face more enemies from here on out. The only power capable of truly overwhelming our enemies, is the Kingdom of Metatrin of Saleen. If that kingdom were to be lost one day, that would spell the beginning of the end for Myers Mainland."

Lex spoke calmly, and it was only then that everyone realized that things were indeed as stated.

Golden Plains and the greater clans all had a lot of power and resources that had yet to be brought to the fore, but all of that would be pointless when taking on divine armies, which existed in tens of billions.

Just how many mages would Golden Plains be able to gather anyway? Probably less than half of what was found in Metatrin City, no? And levels would have been all over the place, which would make armies hard to organize.

The greater clans all had two things in abundance—gold coins and human resources.

Yet none of them would have been able to compare to what divine kingdoms were capable of mustering.

Saleen was capable of summoning demons and had backup in massive, powerful material resources. He also had a massive number of mages at his disposal, as well as being capable of setting up magic nets, giving birth to a profession known as 'enchanter'.

If the mainland were to be entirely shrouded by magic nets, the plane would be transformed into a plane of magic. Anyone would be able to gain magical powers by simply believing in the God of Magic Net. Myers Mainland would grow extremely powerful.

It was totally normal for the nobles to have such thoughts, as they knew nothing about Saleen's final plan, after all.

Saleen intended to have Dante take over the Lord of Glory's divine kingdom. Myers Mainland was to annex all subcontinent planes found, and the annexation was to be carried out through fusion of planes.

Doing so would expand the landmass of Myers Mainland by tens, even hundreds, of times. By then, Myers Mainland would be an unmistakable main plane, and the amount of living beings the plane was capable of housing would far surpass divine kingdoms.

Only by then would Myers Mainland stand a chance at breaking the limit of level 18, which meant breaking through the limit of their crystal wall system.

Such endeavors sounded so insane that Saleen was unable to even bring himself to word it.

Doing so would make Myers Mainland the most brilliant place in the entire crystal wall system, and that would attract the attention of many powerful gods.

Saleen did not think that it would be all bad for such a scenario to happen. At the very least, there would be enough beings to feed the Goddess of Myers.

If the goddess were to perish in battle, then none of it would have anything to do with him.

After Lex was done putting the nobles at ease, Saleen went on to summon demons and began to distribute new clan badges to the nobles, as well as sealed letters and documents of reward, personally written by the empress.

None of the nobles had their positions elevated. In fact, some even had their positions reduced. However, none of the nobles had anything to say about it, as the ones who chose to not show at the hovering platform had lost everything.

The nobles would be reduced to commoners in a month, completely stripped of their privileges and perks.

Their initial frustration was turned into an act of laughing at the misfortune of others. Such was the nature of people—so long as there were those who were more downtrodden, people would have had little trouble accepting their current status.

Saleen left the event early and returned to Holy Rock City, just so to quell the riots taking place there. Many nobles deployed their troops, intending to seize the royal palace, as well as both houses. Saleen welcomed the course of action gleefully, as he initially had to wait a month before cleaning off those people, whom he deemed to be worthless.

It was better to eliminate those who were unable to adapt to changes to the course of history early, after all.