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Chapter 244 - The Birth of a New Emperor (2)

In addition to that, when Henry had made Ten one of his people, he had promised him a brilliant and dazzling future which he referred to as ‘the future Gold King.’

As a way to keep his promise, Henry proposed Ten for the position of emperor.

“Who’s Ten?”

The only ones that knew Ten was Henry himself and the people who had come with him here. The commanders of the imperial army had no clue who this man was.

McDowell let out a laugh and asked with a hint of incredulity, “Henry... Are you serious?”

“Of course I’m serious. Instead of putting some incompetent guy on the throne because he’s someone’s blood relative or friend, wouldn’t it be better for me and for the people of the empire to appoint a capable individual, whom I’ve been keeping a close eye on for a long time, as the emperor?”

“Hahah, you crazy son a bitch!”

McDowell, Von, and Valhald had all laughed at first at Henry’s seemingly absurd proposal. However, now they were laughing because they realized Henry was absolutely right.

Failing one time had been enough for them. They had all tasted bitter failure in the past, and even if they wanted to do something about their failures, it was already too late. However, thanks to Henry, they could now make decisions without fearing that they would lose anything.

Thus, even if Henry proposed some random merchant or beggar for the throne, they had no reason to go against him.

Clap! Clap! Clap! Clap!

“Amazing, purely amazing. Sounds fantastic!”

Von sincerely praised Henry’s decision. After gaining approval from the Allied Powers, Henry turned to the commanders of the imperial army.

“How about it? Would you like to meet the person I’ve just suggested?”

“How great is he for you to recommend him so strongly?”

“He’s great if you think he’s great and he’s ordinary if you think he’s ordinary. But one thing will be certain: even if he changes his state of mind after holding the throne, I’ll still have the upper hand. Everything he does will be within my control.”

“If that’s the case, aren’t you essentially putting your puppet on the throne?”

Hearing this, Henry couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Think of it however you want, but know this: I have no greed for power, but I can do anything I want if I put my mind to it.”

Even though Henry’s wording wasn’t necessarily aggressive, there was a sharp warning to it akin to Summon Meteor. But overall, the conversation regarding the new emperor came to an end. Even if the imperial army commanders opposed Ten after seeing him in person, they had no moral or logical reason to go against Henry.

Henry then proceeded with the next item of discussion.

“Alright then. Since we have an idea of who’s going to be the next emperor... Let’s start talking about Arthus and the Chimeras that escaped.”

It was time to tackle the more pressing matter.

*

“KIAAA!”

The Chimera’s cry reverberated across the vast sky. Even though all Chimeras had different appearances, they were all grotesque and hard to describe with words.

All the Chimeras stood in place while rolling their eyes. They were standing upright as if their entire bodies had stiffened, just like well-trained hunting dogs.

An overwhelming stench of blood filled the air. Not too far away, corpses piled up, blood trickling from them into large puddles that would soon form rivers.

There were several mounds of them: some ordinary, some gruesomely maimed, some desiccated as if they were mummies.

These corpses served as fertilizer for the grebells, the Devil Fruits. Although the Chimeras and the corpses seemed to be scattered haphazardly, they were actually grouped in a pattern. In fact, when looking from above, they formed a massive magic circle.

At the heart of this magical circle stood an enormous cocoon, which seemed like that of the demonic spider beast Arachne had made using her black silk.

Two days had passed since the creation of the cocoon, and all that time, it constantly emanated a horribly putrid stench. At the same time, it pulsated with life, as if it had a beating heart.

Thud. Thud!

-Kirrr...

There were many Chimeras around the circle; Dracan had made efforts to create them close to the cocoon. Of course, there was also Grumpy, the gigantic Chimera. Grumpy waited silently and still as a giant statue with its eyes closed, waiting for its master’s orders.

Another day passed.

On the third day after its creation, the black cocoon started emanating bright rays of light from within. The rays eventually expanded until the entire cocoon was illuminated. Then, starting from the top, the cocoon started to crack as if a chick was breaking out of its egg.

Crack, crack.

With each crack, the light became brighter. After a while, the entire cocoon was covered in cracks, and once it seemed like it would split in half, all the Chimeras surrounding it bowed their heads in unison.

The glowing light engulfed the Chimeras along with the cracked cocoon, extending more and more and growing in intensity with each passing moment. Around thirty Chimeras were engulfed by the light.

As the light started to fade, the Chimeras had transformed into large, sturdy eggs, resembling the cocoon in the center. As the light disappeared almost completely, the cocoon in the center was no longer there.

Tap-

A foot emerged from where the cocoon had been, making a step forward. It was a human foot, but its toes were ink black. The rest of the foot wasn’t black, which made it seem like the toes had been submerged into deep darkness before coming back to light, thus resulting in a blackness evocative of the void.

Soon, the calves were revealed, then its knees, then its thighs. Although the lower body of this unknown creature resembled a human’s, the skin from its ankles up to its waist had an unusual black color, unlike any human. The black color gradually grew fainter as it went up to the upper-body area.

As it passed the abdominal area, the black gave way to a shade of purple, which in turn gave way to a beige color as it reached the neck. The peculiar beige color then extended across the creature’s face and arms.

Overall, the creature looked human, but its head was unnaturally oval and it had the face of a mysterious yet good-looking man.

The man emerged from the cocoon with his eyes closed. His skin was pure white, his nose pointed, and he had long silky hair, which had the same peculiar black shade as his legs.

The man fully came out of the cocoon.

Crack, crack.

Standing tall, the creature, or rather, the man cracked his neck and massaged his muscles like any other ordinary human, He then took a deep breath of fresh air.

“Ha...”

The mysterious man finally opened his eyes, revealing golden irises. At that moment, his long black hair bloomed into a pure white. As the man shook his head, a figure rather similar to him appeared in front of him.

It was none other than Arthus.

“Is it complete, Dracan?”

“Yes, Your Majesty.”

The man who cracked his way out of the cocoon was none other than the creator of Chimeras himself, Dracan Rotique.

Dracan had changed drastically. Before his transformation, he had an eerie appearance, being extremely tall with long hair, pale skin, and intimidating eyes. All those features brought a certain degree of hostility about him.

However, that ghostly Dracan was a relic of the past. The Dracan in front of Arthus had a certain beauty about him, although it was unnatural; it didn’t seem human.

Dracan snapped his fingers, summoning silk out of thin air, which wrapped around his purple and black body as clothing. The silk outfit resembled the design of the robes worn by nobles; Arthus was wearing one of a similar style as well.

“Fantastic.”

Arthus, with his silver hair, and Dracan, with his white hair, seemed similar but not similar at the same time. Yet, the two came together with a certain degree of harmony.

Fully dressed, Dracan stretched out, and as he did so, he experienced the same invigorating sensation as he had when he had become an Archmage. However, this sensation was a lot stronger; it was as if he had awakened the 7th-Circle. He could sense all kinds of mana in the air, intertwined with one another.

By consuming numerous grebells, Dracan had reached the 7th Circle that all wizards dreamed of. This historic moment was the third 7th-Circle awakening in the history of mankind.

Arthus genuinely congratulated Dracan on his awakening, causing him to be overwhelmed with emotion. From being a 5th-Circle wizard focusing on anthropology, he had become a 7th-Circle Archmage.

Dracan himself knew well how impressive his feat was; there was only one other Archmage from the old Magical Spire who had achieved this, namely the late Archmage, Henry Morris.

Arthus continued to express his admiration, “Congratulations, Dracan. You\'re now officially the third 7th-Circle wizard on the continent.”

Then Dracan responded with determination

“Hehe, I may be third in line, but I\'ll try my best to become the sole 7th-Circle wizard on the continent as quickly as possible.”

“I like that attitude. But these eggs... Are these your work?”

“Yes. There are thirty of them, to be precise. These carefully chosen Chimeras will undergo a complete transformation upon my awakening and turn into something nobody has ever seen before.”

“Thirty chimeras... They’re so many I don’t think I can remember all of their names.”

“No need to worry about names. They’ll fight each other as soon as they hatch.”

“You’re going to make them fight to see which are stronger even after they’ve evolved into better Chimeras?”

“Exactly. As You Majesty has suggested, thirty are too many."

The thirty Chimeras were the pinnacle of Dracan\'s anthropological endeavors. However, since he had evolved to a 7th-Circle Archmage, he felt he needed the Chimeras to evolve with him.

He had instilled into them a survival of the fittest instinct, which would grow stronger as they evolved, making them fight among themselves to the death after they hatched.

Arthus nodded as if he was satisfied with Dracan’s plans.

“Very good. As soon as the Chimera army is ready to go, we’ll proceed to capture the capital.”

“Yes, Your Majesty."

The complete army Arthus had been conceiving and preparing this whole time was on the verge of becoming reality, ready for action.