Chapter 943 - Bringer Of Misfortune
The two leaders stood their place with stress looking over their faces. They were terrified of Arthur, especially after killing their comrade in cold blood.
The old man wasn't that much beloved by many, including these two. For them, they weren't that much affected by the loss of such a dirty man.
However they were much terrified of Arthur's ability to kill without hesitation. Also that gigantic immortal standing by his side added more to this feeling.
"Don't worry," Arthur already noticed their fear, "I don't bore any ill towards the two of you."
"Thanks, esteemed emperor," the young man said fast while the lady only followed his suit and bowed her head.
"What's your name?" Arthur started his talk with them by trying to break this thick ice with them.
"I'm Fox," the young leader said.
"I'm Lara," the female leader said.
"Alright, I believe you two can be two fine leaders in the future," Arthur said and his words seemed vague to the two of them. "What? Did you think I will only capture this place?"
He wasn't expecting an answer from them, as he was just stating the obvious. From the look over their faces, Arthur realized they didn't fully grasp the weight of his words yet.
So he explained further.
"I came to this world with only a bunch of my followers, and now… Tsk, I have armies so vast and large to rival even those coming from the higher realms… Tell me, how come I had such power despite coming here with none?"
The two of them looked at him in hesitation before he nodded to encourage them to speak up their minds.
"We… heard a lot of… stories about you," Fox was careful in his words. A thing that didn't miss the keen eyes of Arthur.
"And?" Arthur calmly asked as this wasn't the answer he sought for.
"We know you come to bases like ours and take away all the people there and turn them into your armies," Lara said, but Arthur didn't agree with her.
Arthur shook his head slowly before correcting her:
"I take people and train those worthy to be raised into mages. As for others, they can either help in building my empire or expanding it."
The two didn't get what he said, and he didn't care about explaining these things to them. He wanted them to lead him towards other settlements and start training those selected mages into worthy soldiers.
Nara was doing a great job in training them already, but that wasn't logical nor practical. She held far important tasks in training her mecha units and expanding them.
As for the constantly expanding local forces, Arthur decided to hand this mission to these two for now.
"Those deemed worthy to become mages are allowed an opportunity to be nurtured in a very special place," Arthur slowly said, "but I lack leaders capable of organizing and supervising them. So, what do you think?"
This time his question was direct and his offer was clear. And yet the two of them seemed shocked to believe what he said.
"Us?" Fox pointed towards him and Lara before adding, "do you mean our people from this base?"
"Everyone else," Arthur slowly said, before revealing his true intentions to them, "I want you to tell me everything you know about the world here. Especially this part of the world. For now we won't be bothered by any dark forces. So I can easily amass any settlement and bring forth legions upon legions of mages to be trained by the two of you."
This time the two realized the privilege they had. Arthur's words were clear; they were going to be one of the strongest people in the empire.
After all, whoever controls the military always holds great power in his hands.
"What?" Arthur sneered when the two of them delayed in giving him the response he waited for, "don't tell me you aren't interested in my offer!"
"We pledge our allegiance to you, mighty emperor Willy."
Instantly the two of them knelt and even hit their heads to the ground while saying in unison. Arthur couldn't help but smile before waving his hands to make them stand up:
"Be at ease, I'm not that strict emperor after all," he laughed before seriously adding, "now… I want you to draw me a map of this world with all the bases and resources you know of. Ah, I want to ask you about something."
Arthur snapped his fingers and next thing appeared was a piece of the ore he harvested from the bases he captured before. "Do you know anything about this?"
"The holy ore?" Lara said in surprise before hurriedly adding, "please throw it away. It brings bad fortune to anyone holding it."
Arthur's eyebrows were raised instantly while Fox noticed his reaction. "Sir might not know this as you came from a different realm. However, here we know all about the bad fortune this ore brings to its wielder."
"Aha," Arthur held the rock in his palm while examining it in a more interesting light. "So an ore is called a holy ore and is branded as a bad omen sign by the people here… May I ask why you call it a holy ore then?"
Arthur didn't believe in what they said. For him, this ore was simply priceless. People here might have been fooled by lies, but he knew all about the truth regarding this ore.
This ore… was the key towards controlling the brutal fire of the purple liquid.
"We call it that because it appears from the sky," Fox explained before adding, "It comes out of nowhere from any part of land from heaven. So we consider it a holy ore. However…" he paused while not knowing how to say this.
But Lara stepped in as she firmly said while pointing at the ore:
"At places it first appears at, any living being will be crushed into oblivion. Legends spoke about purple fire, brutal fire that can't be seen by our eyes. This fire eats away everything in its path, ending up entire regions being barren and filled with death."
This time Arthur understood the reasons behind it being called holy and bad omen bringer at the same time.
However he didn't care about this. He only cared about the fire brought by this ore. He knew this ore could absorb the purple fire and limit it to certain places.
However if the ores falling here were pure, then how come they exploded once they hit the ground and released this purple fire?
"Where did it come from then?" This was the second question he thought of after hearing their words. After all he didn't believe in it coming from the heavens.
This ore was directly linked to the originals. It couldn't appear without any connection with them.
And at this moment, the prophecies he heard about from Deem and Gor resurfaces in his mind once again.. Everything seemed linked and connected, despite him not believing the prophecies so far.