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Chapter 496: Ma, I Caught Me A Big Fish!!

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Siva wasn’t in the mood to attend the Conclave.

Tonight was the gathering and supposedly, it was yesterday that the Asgardians should be meeting but because of the kidnapping incident which was heavily covered up by the Local Government, the supposed planned gathering of Asgardians didn’t happen.

It was supposed to be a day for them to enjoy but it became a day of rest for Volt and the rest.

Right now, it was early in the morning outside but Siva had lost all notion of enjoying such a rare kind of gathering.

His mind was poisoned by the thoughts of The Union making a move on his brother.

After the solo “baptism” of Stark, the deal “Mitra” and him had agreed upon was finally fulfilled.

Before leaving for the mission, Siva gave them a not-so-hard [side mission] of gathering supplies, potions, ammunitions, synthetic resources, and a few other specific resources Asgard needed.

Since they’ve already signed a contract perfectly stating that they’d basically become his Errand Runners in plain sight, might as well maximize the usage of this elite team of messengers.

For the sake of points, they’d do almost anything.

Now, Siva had returned to Asgard, sitting on the throne and thinking deep while waiting.

He had already sent the message to all of them outside in the real world and Siva chose not speak to anybody else as he sealed the Throne Room.

Leaning forward, elbows on his knees, Siva wore the “pontifex costume” he wore back then in the Walled City of Warjillis as he recorded a video that perfectly outlined his wrathful eyes while seated on the elevated golden throne.

Faint blue fog slowly drifts on his feet —the Mana slowly being gathered by the gathering formation.

The dimly lit Throne Room, adding that uniquely glowing faint blue fog added a sensation of cold anger and sinister intent as Siva’s every word and gesture, while not looking away on the camera in front him, he did accentuated the smoldering fury he kept in his heart.

When he finished recording, he heaved a sigh as he closed his eyes, lean back and massaged his nose bridge with his left hand out of habit. It was useless in the game world but for some reason, it makes him relaxed so he continued to the habit.

With a flash of light, Siva’s costume changed and he went back into wearing a red-themed garb with a scaled, edgy slender-feel presence in it.

—No.

Rather it being red-themed, the Fire Lord Set was a set of “clothes” with only the shin, vambrace, the collar of the body armor, and the edges of it, all being red and hard-looking. But the rest of the “clothes” were deep orange, golden yellow, and yes, different shades of colored red —to create the fiery feeling when looking at it. But all in all, it looked almost nothing different than Siva’s very own trademark “white polo and black slacks” attire since the Fire Lord Set… just plainly looked like a red-themed casual formal clothing.

Wearing it now like that while seated on his throne gave an even more modern “regal” feeling to him.

Siva lay there lazily, trying to calm his breathing as he thought about the next steps to do just before he heads out.

[Boss.]

Cortana broke the silence and Siva looked at the fox girl with a bushy red tail wrapped on her hips walking over his direction from the left side.

“What is it?” Siva asked and heaved a sigh.

This “fox girl” was actually the first [Vulpine] that’s to appear in the game and perhaps, now, there’re already an increasing number of them in the south because of its popularity in women.

Looking at her now wearing a “Summoner’s Garb” and walking towards him like a ramp model, Siva couldn’t help thinking of the possibilities of using her [Racial Ability] once they’re finished perfectly adjusting her fleshly body clone.

Until then, she had to rely on this WhiteTech body that can’t “feel” Mana to move around and be of better service for him.

[Testing finished sir. Mana Receptacle module tests indicate Liberty Drone upgrade parts were 100% perfectly in synched with our performance standards. No readjustments needed.]

“My Lord, this new Invention is very… surprising.”

Next to Cortana who appeared was Akhenaton who was one of the testers for the performance of the improvement part for the SS-Generator.

“What’s your input?” he asked his guardian.

“Frightening, sir. With this new performance part, the betterment of our defenses will be boosted by at least double.”

Siva felt delighted by this news.

The PNF is now [LVL-7] and has 28% progress in synchronizing the upgrade part for LVL-8. It has 30 production slots. After pausing all the other production items in the queue to focus only on this one important project, it only took them a little two hours of production time before he finished.

[Absolute Domain performance standards are the same, with the change focusing on detection of Mana Fluctuations in the atmosphere up to certain standards. Using Tiers as criteria to scale Mana-related data, my limit should be the end-border of the third-Tier of Mana Fluctuations.]

When Siva heard this news, he couldn’t help but to feel a bit surprised. He was expecting it to be at the lower scale. Tier-3 Mana Fluctuations means Cortana can perfectly [scan] border zone Tier-3 Magic Spells and below, perhaps even the lowest Tier-4 Spell Fluctuations are possible.

Regrettably, there are very few people in Asgard who can cast Tier-4 Spells so the test can only be conducted with the Tier-3 Mages of Asgard.

“Does that apply to the Barrier Spells as well?” It should be said that this was his main concern with this performance test.

To his delight, Cortana gave him a nod.

[Yes sir. Tier-3 Barrier Shield Magic Spells without any interruptions.]

Siva nodded as he took note of it. “Then what of the domain’s durability?”

It was a concern for Siva before that back in the Baal Mothership in Jeremiah, not only the Barrier Spell but also the extreme heat melted the NanoField of his Absolute Domain.

As such, for him to be able to protect the integrity of the Absolute Domain, he had to use hundreds of thousands of Plasma Smoke Screen Grenades.

What more, not only in heat, but perhaps also on cold conditions, there was a large chance that the NanoField would freeze as well. If that happens, then the Absolute Domain is crippled and Siva will lose at least 40% of his fighting capabilities.

After all, the Absolute Domain was his eyes, ears, and skin to everything within its area of influence.

It makes him feel more secure if he could become aware of anything happening within his immediate surroundings.

Calculating everything, in fact, Cortana makes up more than half of his fighting capabilities and all of his weaponized items are dependent on the area controlled by his Absolute Domain.

Siva knew that it was a weakness but he had no way of neutralizing this.

After all, his foundations in the Terroa are limited and rushed. It has only been around six or so months since he’d first entered the game. If he was given more time, he could have created his foundations a little firmer than he has now.

But time was the least thing on his side and every passing minute, his enemies are getting closer and closer to his weaknesses, especially now that The Union, the Blue Card Legion, and the Bloody Church are uniting against him alone. Would he, a single man, stand a chance against them all with no “Cortana” to help him?

As such, as much as possible, Siva was offsetting his weaknesses by overwhelming his opponents with technological advantages, covering his weak spots within the strong scales and hard shells of his overwhelming technological arsenal.

Cortana’s monstrous data-processing capability is his biggest asset and weakness and so, in order to emerge victorious, he had to seal his weakness using a blanket made up of a wide-area real-time information gathering capability, and then improve this asset by upgrading its obsolete parts.

In order to accomplish all of that, improving the [Absolute Domain] was foremost a must.

[Absolute Domain’s integrity is excellent. Although it wasn’t to the point of invincibility it is still a major improvement when compared to the former version which melts under 500 Kelvin.]

“In short, one Mana Stone, one Liberty Drone, is that it?”

[Precisely, sir.]

“What about future improvements?”

[You still have two more Mana Stones available for manufacturing but I think it’s not enough for what you have in mind. I only suggest that we proceed with visiting Laurasia, or we wait and rely on Lady Mohindra’s attempt to contact the Dragons for us.]

The reason why he wanted to go to the Dragons’ Territory is because of the possible existence of natural Mana Hotspots.

For Dragons, their [Magic] was embedded in their bloodlines and that external Mana Resources like Mana Wells, Stones, and Crystals, are nothing but house decorations for them.

For thousands of years, the Dragons and Terrans fought and while the Terrans outnumber Dragons in terms of population, they’re truly quite weaker if compared to the Dragons’ overall strength.

Even ten adult Terrans are weaker than a young 30-year old Elemental Dragon.

The only reason why Terrans can still fight equally with them for all these years is because of their “equipments” —Runes— which were all made of valuable Mana Materials such as Mana Stones and Mana Crystals.

While the Mana Resources in Terrafirma were still okay, they aren’t abundant to the point that every lost resource are replenished every tens or even hundreds of years.

Mana Materials were very rare and are all natural resources. Using them depletes their numbers. In the long run, even without the existence of the outside treats of the Demons, the Terrans are already at a steep decline in terms of resources; while the Dragons need a long time to repopulate so every Dragon that dies are hundreds of years of not one Dragon being born.

In a way, their war was a straight fall to self-ruin.

Dragons aren’t different from Terrans and in the past long forgotten, there were so many Terran-Dragon marriages that resulted to a prosperous civilization or two.

Right now, Siva was the only who can see this but will the proud Terrans listen to a mass murderer like him?

Siva also recognizes the fact that he cannot fight this war alone. He needed the Terrans’ and the Dragons’ help in fighting back against the invasion of the LAGRAM Armada nine months later, but he can’t unite them with the Bloody Church pointing a dagger on their throats.

There are so many things he had to consider that it gives him headaches.

So, while he can, he’ll multi-task as much so that he could maximize their limited remaining time.

One of the “agendas” on his list of tasks was the immediate provision of a Mana Receptacle for Cortana and right now, he’d just accomplished it.

“Visiting Laurasia is already on the agenda so we can only wait for it. Mohindra will be arranging the diplomatic visit on Laurasia and Terrafirma. When we do visit them, we will have to eliminate the moles the Bloody Church left behind on them.”

—this was only possible through him because the [Malevolent Aura] curse on his body could detect the existence of even the weakest acolytes that belonged to the Bloody Church.

“Cortana, send a message to all. I want to be kept updated on the smallest of updates on any Intel about the Bloody Church, The Union, or the Blue Card Legion’s movements.”

[Message Sent, sir.]

Siva heaved a short sigh.

“Akhenaton, I want you to increase the pressure on the training on the Monsters and Asgardians. I want them all improving by at least 3% everyday, can you do that?”

“I can sir. In fact, I’ve wanted to ask you for this a long time ago. I will train them the way I trained my soldiers back then.”

Siva smirked and nodded, “Then I’ll leave it to you to handle.”

Akhenaton gave a bow and was just about to leave when his expression perked up as he pauses for a moment and looking at a certain direction.

Siva wasn’t aware of this as he was now focused on how to relate Gabriel’s advice on how to use the nigh-unrestricted “rules” application of the Mini Realm into his equipment.

He already had an idea about it since he managed to create a prototype for the “Interspatial Artifact” that he already put on Akhenaton’s care.

Now, he wanted to apply the nigh-unlimited uses of these “rules” to improve the performance of the Liberty Drones. After all, just he, alone, being able to travel rapidly in 55m wasn’t enough if he wants to decimate and overwhelm the Demons nine months later. He wanted to become as free as a fish within the territory of Absolute Domain.

This was a problem he wanted solved as soon as possible.

[Boss.]

“Hm?” Siva, in the midst of his thoughts, was caught by surprise by this sudden call.

He followed Cortana’s prompt and looked over at Akhenaton who was still there beside him.

“Akhenaton, is there a problem?”

The man in question looked over at him and then said, “My Lord, right now, Maki is talking to Gats back in their base and confirming if he had indeed sided with the Bloody Church. It seems… they are in a heated discussion.”

Siva narrowed his eyes, “Is there a possibility of Maki spilling our secrets to him?”

“I am currently watching over his every words and actions but I don’t think he will. Gats, however, is denying the fact. He says that he wasn’t a part of any organization and is right now on a mission. Oh and Maki just said he wanted him to go back home so that he can protect Pando—ah! My Lord, Gats is on his way right no —No! He’s already here!”

Siva’s heart skipped a beat, throwing the Space-locking Pillars to Akhenaton and shouting: “Move it now! Seal the space and do not let the bastard escape our grasp!”

As soon as he spoke, they all vanished from the throne while Siva cursed in his heart.

—you won’t get away this time!

*****

With a flash of light, Gats appeared and Maki was beaming with a wide smile.

“A war is coming. We need all hands we can get to protect our race.” Maki was all smiles as he took a step to welcome their Guardian.

But then, after his fourth step, Maki’s expression sunk as he turned around.

Around that time, figures appeared with a flash of light and Akhenaton, Cortana, and Siva —wearing a red-themed formal attire— appeared in an open hostility towards his direction. No. Maki’s mind ran in a quantum-moment. They were here for Gats.

“Siva!” Maki blurted and Gats reacted fast to take out a T-Device and shouted.

“Mundus!”

Pressing the red button, there was a short flash of the expected light of teleportation but half an atom’s beat later, it stopped and his eyes went wide in surprise. The teleportation failed.

Siva’s voice rung coldly, “You’re not getting away this time! SEAL!!!”

The fabric of space rippled in front of him and a BM-Puppet appeared out of nowhere, flying in a straight line towards Gats and merging with his body, sealing movements in a series of clacking sounds of metal and joints.

The end figure of Gats after he was ‘trapped’ by the Sealing Puppet was him sticking his neck out, hands and feet stretched at the back, and down on his knees, staring in shock at Siva… then Maki with a look of blame and hate.

At least he can still talk, “You tricked me!”

“I didn’t know about any of this.” Maki said and he looked over at Siva. “What’s the meaning of this, Siva, explain yourself! Why are you trapping one of my people... and also in our own damned ship!”

Siva glanced over him once and then walked over at Gats, looking down at him.

He didn’t reply at Maki, “This must be our second formal meeting, Gats, it’s so fucking nice to meet you once again.”

Gats tried to struggle for freedom but the Sealing Puppet didn’t even budge as it ‘sealed’ his limbs at the extent that he couldn’t even move a single finger, much less bend an entire arm.

All he could do was, in fact, just talk.

“Release me, you bastard, what do you think you are doing to a delegate of the Terran-Human Alliance?!!”

Siva’s ears perked up and he looked at Maki. “So you didn’t tell him?” he then nodded. “Good! That is actually for the best. Trust me on this, Maki, I’ll reveal to you the reason why you shouldn’t trust the people calling themselves as [Players].”

Maki was aghast. At that moment, Galatea, who’s been silent all this time on a corner of the room, took a cautious stance at her own corner.

The air inside the Conference Room of the SS-Pandora was increasing in tension as sparks were flying in the air while they took their stances.

Siva didn’t waste time and gave an order, “Send a message to our dispatched units. The targets are connected to a place called [Mundus]!” Then he smiled as he crouched down and grabbed Gats’ by his hair. “And tell them we caught ourselves here a big fish.”

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They caught a large fish!!!

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