?


    The tree spoke in his mind and asked him. "Guntu, my boy. Is everything in ce? It doesn''t look like everything is in ce. There are only 10 of you here. Where are the rest? Don''t tell me you half-assed this."


    He nodded and replied. "No, ancestor. Everything is in ce. There are 90 others outside the city. They will apany us to reach the void..."


    Hadrick interrupted sharply, "Did you say 90? I asked for 1,000 guards and you bring me 100? It seems you don''t really care about me. You''re all grown up now so you don''t want to listen to me anymore. And you''re immortal so you don''t care if you die. I am not immortal. Poor me. I will be abducted on the way. I am sure of it."


    Guntu didn''t want to interrupt Hadrick but he couldn''t bear to listen to the tirade andmentations. They are also on a tight schedule so he interrupted.


    "We didn''t disregard your safety ancestor. We care a lot about your safety. We have 100 origin gods here. They will apany us outside the void where we will meet the remaining 900. We didn''t bring that many Origin gods to the ne so that we won''t draw attention. The 100 we brought has been noticed already. But no one will investigate us openly because of the death of the former child of the ne."


    Hadrick was pleased to hear that there are really 1000 origin gods meant to guard it. It has always been cowardly and cautious of everything. It wouldn''t move from here unless it is sure that nothing will harm it after leaving. So it pleased it to hear that theyplied with its request. But its pleased mood plummeted at the mention of Soverick''s death.


    Hadrick said angrily. "Which death? Soverick didn''t die like somemon street rat. He was murdered. His death was orchestrated right from the start. I was there when they came to ask him to attend thatpetition. They wanted him to attend so that they will kill him. It was all nned by the sage."


    Hadrick doesn''t believe the propaganda one bit. It was there when Soverick first refused to attend thepetition. It was there when people from the empire of the sage brought the invitation. Soverick refused them. Hadrick was there when they finally sent Salvini and some other geniuses from other Empires. It was then that Soverick agreed to attend. He went to thepetition just as they asked. But he didn''t return from it.


    What could be so special about a messypetition that he must attend? Could it be a coincidence that they begged Soverick to attend only for him to not return and the girl that came to convince him suddenly became the child of the ne? No. It couldn''t be a coincidence and Hadrick refuses to believe it is.


    Hadrick is also not one of the people that will blindly believe the lineage of the sage because of respect and blind faith. It has been alive before the first sage was even born. So it will say its piece of mind without holding back. And in this case, where Soverick is one of the few friends it has, it has a lot on its mind to say.


    Hadrick continued with slight agitation, "I mean we all saw what he did. We saw how well he could fight. Didn''t you see how he destroyed that dragon? Didn''t you see how he demolished those paragons? That''s just what we know about his strength. If I know Soverick and I believe that I do, then he must be hiding more of his strength. How can that weak little cross-eyed girl defeat him? It is all bullshit. It isplete and utter bullshit. They must take us for fools. They must believe we are idiots. I am no idiot and I won''t be treated like..."


    Guntu interrupted Hadrick again, "Please ancestor Hadrick, refrain from besmirching the sages and their lineage."


    "But they besmirched Soverick with this scandalous death. He didn''t even get to die with the honor he deserved. This is shameful. This is utterly andpletely..." Hadrick was about to resume its tirade.


    Guntu spoke up quickly, "We can''tin about what happened no matter how it happened. There are a lot of people who know that something is fishy with the way he died but we of all people can''tin."


    "Why not?" Hadricks asked.


    Guntu looked around shiftily. He said, "You know why."


    Hadrick snapped impatiently at him. "If I knew why I wouldn''t be asking you."


    "Fine." Guntu sighed before he continued. "Because the first sage gave Ancestor Ghastorix a world engine."


    Ancestor Ghastorix had long reached the requirements to be a world god. He has a supremew that is strong enough to resist thew matrix of the universe. He has also absorbed enough energy to liberate his existence from thew matrix. He has descended past thew matrix and found his life anchor. All he needed were the resources and tools to build a world.


    All Origin gods would like a realm heart but not everyone can get one. A realm heart will enable them to make the best world that they can but since they can''t get one, they have to make do with second-rate materials.


    Those second-rate materials are also expensive and some of them have to be crafted with special knowledge. After all, they are supposed to be the foundation of worlds. They can''t be ordinary materials. Most of them can only be bought from some world gods which adds anotheryer to the difficulty of acquiring them.


    Some Origin gods will decide to wait for the era of conquest so that they will have a chance at gaining the realm lord''s favor but that is a long shot. It is not certain to work out. A realm Lord is needed for the era of conquest but it is uncertain when the realm will gain a realm Lord or if it will ever gain a realm lord.