Chapter 124: Chapter 124: Announcement

Nitya 

Nitya Chakrabarti didn’t know how she felt about Diana taking the mysterious Heavenly Spark Soul King as her overlord, but she had to admit the trade off so far had been totally worth it. Diana alone had completely wiped out the Psionics in just a few days, followed almost immediately by the lizardmen who’d taken over more than half of Mongolia, and it seemed the reason was getting 100% of the rewards from destroying the Ice Giants, allowing her to gain a Legendary grade skill which completed her power set.

At the same time Diana was destroying those two forces, the woman who’d utterly terrified Ezra and James had apparently crippled every other invasion force, literally. Nitya herself had seen the shots of pure death energy coming out of seemingly nowhere and destroying the legs of at least a hundred of the most powerful flameborn, humanoid creatures made of living fire, and this had allowed her and her men to then easily kill them.

As a result of the two women’s actions, all the remaining invasion forces were beaten within a week of Diana’s acceptance of the Heavenly Spark Soul King, and that wasn’t even the truly impressive part. Within that same time period, every major power on Earth other than those powers which hadn’t actually established any Territory—such as the Chinese Communist Party and the European Union Allied Forces—had come to bend the knee to Diana, handing over their Territory in its entirety even though they seemed reluctant.

Now the leaders of those surrendered powers, as well as representatives of all but a few of Earth’s more middling forces, and quite a few individual talents from around the world as well, had all gathered in the main theater of the Sydney Opera House. They were all waiting to hear what Diana had to say, and Nitya was in the very back to help act as security.

“Welcome everyone.” A voice seemed to emanate from all sides, very obviously not from the room’s speakers, yet there was no obvious origin and Nitya couldn’t feel qi emanating from any one direction to cause the effect. The voice, female and pleasant, spoke English with a standard American accent, and it sounded like someone Nitya was almost certain was dead. “Thank you for coming, both those forced and those who came of their own free will. There are just a few announcements I’d like to make.

“First, while you are here, please act with the decorum of the guests you are. I know many of you have enmity with each other, but, while fighting will be permitted once the main section of this event is done, damage to the venue or any permanent damage to another human will be punished severely. Second, please save all questions until they are asked for. It won’t take very long. Finally, third.” Several rows in front of Nitya, a woman with long black hair appeared—Nitya not at the right angle to see her face—pointing what looked to be a gun made of greenish gray and purple metals at the head of one of the individual talent attendants. Then the gun silently emitted death element mana of a type Nitya recognized from the woman Ezra and James were scared of and the woman again faded from everyone’s senses. “While we won’t necessarily hunt down all invaders still on the planet, we won’t allow them to attend our high level meetings either.”

The woman’s gunshot had been very precise, barely damaging the man’s head at all, and Nitya, along with almost everyone else in the room, watched as the man’s skin slowly changed to purple and two other pairs of eyes formed on his forehead.

Then Diana, seemingly coming from nowhere, floated down to hover over the stage, skin alternately emanating or absorbing light to create a rather inhuman effect. This time her hair wasn’t going every which way, showing she’d gained quite a bit more control over her new skill, but just the act of being able to fly, something only about ten people on the planet could do, was already extremely impressive to the crowd.

“Earth, as most of you are aware, is a bit special in the universe.” Diana’s tone, emanating to the entire room through the use of her qi, was commanding and in control, Diana herself radiating more confidence than Nitya had ever seen from her. “The former testing ground of the Yin Yang Sage, a powerful A rank, every one of us is descended from her, her followers, or the talents of some of the forces she conquered, including those of over eight gods.

“As a result, the average citizen of Earth is just as talented as the most talented individual from most planets undergoing apocalypse style integrations, while most of you, the true talents of our planet, have the potential to at least become C ranks, yet it still took us over a year to end the invasions into our planet, and I had to personally act to end them. This was because our planet was divided and you lot were all more interested in grabbing your small pieces of the tiny pie that is Earth than actually working together to make the planet better for everyone.

“That will end now.

“Whether you like it or not, within a few weeks I will become sovereign of Earth. And, as a result, I will have control of who leaves Earth for at least the next 70 years.

“My intention is to use the population of Earth to found a new force rather than joining an existing one. Over the next 70 years, we will work together to make everyone more powerful and then establish ourselves as a true force in the Evolon Galaxy Cluster and potentially beyond.

“I ask that you join me, and I will let that be your choice, but please do know I will be using the stick just as much as the carrot.” The mana in the entire hall twisted, just like what normally happened when Diana was angry, but this time the effect was far more pronounced, as Diana was doing it intentionally. “Those who act against me will not have a good time.”

The mana twisting faded and Diana then landed on the stage, the effects of her fusion with her spirits fading to show just the normal short and cute Diana looking at everyone with a smile on her face. “Feel free to ask questions now.”

“Are you saying you plan to become Earth’s dictator?” The representative from what was left of the United States’ military asked angrily. The previously greatest force on the planet, their power had reduced drastically after most explosives, from gunpowder to nuclear bombs, were taken away by the System while everyone was in the tutorial, but they were still a large power and they’d been working closely with America’s Smith family to fight against the forces of the Daybreak Empire’s invasions.

“Yes.” Diana smiled warmly at the middle-aged man. “I have the power to kill every single human on Earth if I wanted to, so you sadly have to follow my whims or risk being destroyed.”

Nitya didn’t know where Diana had learned how to smile so sweetly while making such an absolute threat, but, after her previous display, it worked, and the man sat down.

Everyone else who had questions then all started raising their hands instead of calling out and Diana pointed at one of the talents of the Smith Family.

“You’re also from the United States. Are you planning on getting rid of civil liberties?”

“Excellent question.” Diana smiled at the young man and Nitya noticed him shiver, even though Diana’s smile this time was almost certainly genuine. “No. I quite like the types of freedoms we had in the west and I’ll keep them.

“The world isn’t like it was before, where power came from having a large group of people follow you. In the wider universe, the power of an organization is almost entirely dependent on its most powerful member, and for Earth that is me. I’m also fully aware of my level of talent compared to everyone else on Earth, and I have several unfair advantages you can’t access and I can’t give you, so I’m not afraid of others surpassing me.

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“As a result, I have no need to suppress speech, persecute minorities, or bow to the whims of powerful factions. In order to get more resources for myself and those at my level through the work of those below me, I will also naturally have the desire to raise all of Earth along with me, but, given my position, I don’t need to have an in group and an out group. I just need talents, no matter their race, gender, or any other form of identity. As a result, you can probably expect Earth to become far more of a meritocracy than ever before.

“But this is all pretty words at the moment, so please wait a month to see the policies start to be implemented.”

Diana then pointed at one of the powerful independent cultivators who’d come.

“I understand you’re very powerful, and you have a decent track record of giving good lives to the people of Florin, but why do you sound like you think no one will be stupid and try to go against you?” The cultivator was a middle aged woman. “I’m sorry if it is offensive, but it just sounds a little naïve.”

Nitya couldn’t imagine anyone in the room being willing to ask such a question after Diana’s display, but then she noticed the woman who’d asked looking toward Mr. Li in one of the box seats and she realized the woman was likely a plant. At the same time, she also noticed Mr. Li giving nervous looks to the head of the Krol Family of Poland who was glaring at him with murderous eyes, but she was more interested in Diana’s answer to the question.

“All the heads of the major forces as well as their main talents have agreed to become my slaves, albeit not by choice, so most of those who could plot against me are already under my control.” Diana looked at the man from the Smith Family. “I’m going to be a bit of a hypocrite when it comes to certain rules, only enforcing them against others, but I’ll upgrade all the slaves I have to servants within the next decade so long as they don’t act against me.”

Diana then called on Irena Krol, who’d raised her hand even while glaring at Mr. Li. “Ms. Krol.”

Irena Krol looked away from Mr. Li and bowed slightly to Diana. “I understand the actions of establishing absolute control. But that’s part of the stick you mentioned. What about the carrot?”

Diana smiled and Nitya could tell it was genuine. Irena Krol, like Nitya, was considered one of the five most powerful native humans, so she had more confidence than most of the other representatives in the room. She also probably had enough intelligence on Diana to know Diana generally responded well to frankness over any kind of double talk.

“Well, as you’ve all probably guessed a while ago, during the tutorial the spirit of the Yin Yang Sage took me and one other as an apprentice.” There were some soft mutterings in the room, most powers on Earth having suspected such a thing but surprised Diana was actually willing to say it out loud, and Diana waited for them to finish.

“This relationship allows me to seek out advice on cultivation and other questions, advice I can then share, and it also allows me to exchange rewards from the System for rewards of up to one grade higher from the Yin Yang Sage, which is one of the sources of my current power. There is no other way to access the wealth the Yin Yang Sage had when she was alive, as the System owns all of it, but some of the resources I can exchange for, such as cultivation techniques, are not one time use.

“There is also an individual called the Heavenly Spark Soul King, a very skilled D rank crafter the Yin Yang Sage helped advise in the past, who arrived on Earth with the intention of helping raise up the force created by the Yin Yang Sage’s apprentices in exchange for our force helping him once we gain more power.

“You can already see his effect on raising the affinity for all Laws for everyone in my Territory and anyone who becomes a servant of his will gain a boon with an even larger effect, which is one of the reasons I allowed him to become my overlord.

“Most important of all, however, he is a crafter and he’ll occasionally make us things when he’s not pondering on Laws, and I am sure you’ll all enjoy the first thing I’ve asked of him, which should be ready in a few months, a special soul network for Earth’s use which will cover the entire planet.”

A few members of the powerful families looked excited, especially Irena Krol, but most looked confused, and Diana explained.

“For those who don’t know, you can think of a soul network like a magical virtual reality based internet. Through its use, you’ll be able to participate in ranking battles to the death without actually risking your life, communicate with your friends in real time from the deepest of jungles or thousands of meters under the sea even when on opposite sides of the planet, and do normal internet things like sharing cat videos. Basically, it is an internet your soul can access and it will be the source of a lot of the meritocracy stuff I was mentioning before.”

Diana then called on another person, the head of the Garcia Clan from South America. “Mr. Garcia.”

“You mentioned another apprentice, and I have a guess as to who that is. What is to stop her from taking over instead?”

“Who’s to say I already haven’t.” The same voice from before came from everywhere in the hall again, but this time the source of the voice appeared on stage, one hand on Diana’s shoulder and Nitya almost stopped breathing. “The main reason, though, is that I don’t have a lord skill. Also, I need very different types of resources than Diana, and she’s much better at straight up killing things, so there isn’t any competition between us. Finally, as you might have noticed, I kind of hate the limelight.”

With that, Li Mila took a step and disappeared from everyone’s senses again, but Nitya was starting to grow angry and she was very much going to have a long talk with Diana, whether Diana wanted to or not.

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