Chapter 40
Niobe rushes to the fallen Ruler and sees that his chest is still rising. She takes a better look and sees that he still looks the same as she remembers. He has a lions like mane for hair, a face that looks like a 40-year-old with a small beard and brown eyes with a pupil like cat, his body over two meters tall, full of muscles he gives a wild look and aura. She smiles and places her hand on his chest, then her aura helps his soul recover a little, but his body is still hurt—her aura doesn't help his physical body. So she makes her aura cover his entire body, and then she makes him fly near her. Slowly, they start to fly back to the city.
When they reach the city, Niobe sees the bustle of busy people, some helping the injured, some clearing debris, and some disposing of the monster bodies.
She lands and asks a soldier:
"Where is Ray? Tell him I found your City Ruler, and he is alive. He needs to come as soon as possible with a healing team."
The soldier saw the body of the City Ruler, but he thought he was dead. When he hears that he is alive and needs medical care, a smile appears on his face, and he runs as fast as he can to find Commander Ray.
When the soldier finds the Commander inside a building, the room filled with all the smaller commanding officers, he enters, looks at all of them, and they look towards him. When the Commander sees the soldier's tired, panting face, he thinks, 'new monsters have appeared or, worse, Devil Royalties'.
Then he asks:
"Calm yourself, soldier, and tell me quickly what the problem is?"
But he sees the soldier shaking his head left and right, as if saying no.
Then he hears him:
"No, no, there is no problem. Lady Niobe returned with our City Ruler, and he needs immediate medical care. BUT HE IS ALIVE!"
The soldier screams the last part, and then complete silence follows. Everyone just stares at him, their minds too shocked to react.
They all want to run out, but they hear a voice:
"Wait, first all of you go and search for the best doctors and medical devices that still work. Be sure to bring the best healers to him. You have five minutes."
Then they all run faster than they've ever run in their entire lives, wishing that their mothers had given birth to them with two extra legs, so they could run even faster.
Ray says to the soldier:
"Take me to him quickly."
Then they also run quickly to Niobe, and when they reach her, they see all the people already gathered around.
Ray says to them:
"Let the City Ruler breathe, make space."
The people start to back up, but they still remain nearby, looking at their Ruler with worried expressions.
Niobe looks at them and sees how they look at their City Ruler. She sees how loved Arthur is. She thinks, 'You did a good job, Arthur.'
Then she turns her head towards Ray and sees him with his brows furrowed, a worried look mixed with joy and relief.
Elliot comes next to her and says:
"Was he conscious when you found him? Did he tell you what happened?"
Niobe shakes her head left and right and says:
"No, he was almost at death's door when I found him. I think he fought with all he had. After killing the two Devil Royals, he tried to kill Krolok as well, but he was too wounded to manage that. Krolok was too weak and too scared to come near Arthur to fight him when the other Royals died. So Krolok ran back here and left Arthur to succumb slowly to his wounds."
Elliot nods and looks towards the people, he sees the worried looks on their faces. He thinks, 'He is a good Ruler.'
Then they see the medical team hurrying towards them. For now, they can take a relieved breath. They managed to save the Second Empire.
But suddenly, a chill runs down their backs. Niobe and Elliot look at one another and realize they both felt it.
Then they hear the people talking:
"Did you feel that just now? Like something is really wrong."
When Niobe and Elliot hear that even the other people felt something wrong, they know they need to prepare for the worst.
Back at the Fourth Empire, Ark also felt it. He turns his eyes towards the void of space, and his eyes glow for a second.
After a moment, he turns toward Kyle and Aurora and tells them:
"The Royals' planet is destroyed, almost everyone is dead. Only a few survived, only the strongest."
Then both turn their heads toward Ark and just look at him, their brains a little slow to process and react to the news. They had been talking about saving Earth and then going all the way to the Royals' planet and fighting alongside them. They hadn't even considered the possibility that the strongest fighters on the strongest and best-protected planet in the entire Laniakea Supercluster could lose so soon, let alone have the entire planet destroyed, with only a few remaining.
Aurora then recovers and her face changes to one of anger:
"How is that possible? The planet was protected by barriers made by the 10th-level Universe Master. Even if they are strong, they still shouldn't be able to do that."
Kyle looks at her and nods. He was also thinking the same and asks:
"Who did it? Because the Devils aren't strong enough."
Ark looks at him and at Aurora, then tells them:
"You are both on the right track. The Devils aren't strong enough. It was someone else, someone even higher than the Devils. In fact, they are the highest ones. They are called the...
'Sage Celestials.' They reside in the 1000th Dimension. They are the ones who are above all. At least, that's what they think. All that is happening is because of one of them."
Kyle looks shocked at Ark and asks:
"Why is someone so powerful down here? And how did he manage to stay here? Shouldn't he be rejected? We don't stand a chance against him if he wants to kill us all, and I mean the entire Universe."
Aurora, now also realizing the gravity of the situation, looks at Kyle and then at Ark, wondering why Kyle is looking at Ark as though he's the savior of them all.
Ark answers:
"You're right. Normally, someone from a higher dimension shouldn't be able to come down here. But the opposite is okay, someone from a lower dimension can go to the higher ones. And this Sage Celestial has a device that is on par with a Dimension Core. That means he uses this device to fool the core, making himself look like a being from the lower dimensions. But this device needs enormous levels of energy to keep him here, and he takes this energy from life. Now that the High One managed to feed the Dimension device with the Royals' planet, and there being mostly beings with strong life forces, we can safely assume he wants to implement the last step of his plan. And that means he will come to me."
Aurora then looks at Ark and asks:
"Why is he coming to you? What did you do to him?"
Ark looks at her and smiles:
"Well, let's just say that the last time I was in their dimension, I might've killed someone really important to them. They also want to stop me from achieving my plan of gathering the Dimension's cores. Because if I manage to do that, I will be able to go even further into the Darkness that lies beyond the wall of the 1000th Dimension. No one has managed to go further, not even them."
Aurora looks at him as if he's a crazy man, her face saying, 'What are you talking about, you crazy dude?'
But Kyle knows more and still asks further:
"When you went to their dimension, what do you mean by that? And who did you kill that made someone chase you all the way here?"
Ark then smiles and, for a moment, doesn't say anything. He's lost in thought but then wakes up and says:
"Well, when I was a little younger, like I said, those from the lower dimensions can go up, and I'm from a lower dimension. I was born on Earth. After I gained my powers, I got bored here, so I went up, then up again, and so on, until I reached the 1000th Dimension. When I got there, and I saw those stuck-up a**holes, the kind you couldn't reach their noses with even a ten-meter pole. And, being young and not knowing better, of course, I got into trouble with them. And I might've killed their... 'Princess'... who was said to be a real genius, one in a Trillion or something like that. Hehe."
"But I have a special constitution that allowed me to seal my powers even in the negatives, so I was able to come back here and make plans, to go back again."
"And what i told Melody, doesn't stand anymore, because the more time i spend with you all, the more i see that i am still a human, and that changes a lot of things. So that means, there will be a new plan."