Chương 523: Preparing for War

Please....save us....

Azure light flashed atop a blizzarding mountain peak. Not the tallest peak in Asora, but damn near close to it.

Though it was still the middle of the day, the dense clouds and impenetrable snowfall made it feel like night, making the flash of light even brighter as every one of the dozens of scaly beings turned towards the source, the sole humanoid present.

The source of light was his eyes, which had opened for the first time since he had sat down and begun meditating, now flashing with divine light as he looked around curiously.

"Drem Yol Lok." The eldest and largest of the dragons(wyverns) gathered said to the figure as they began to stir. "Have you Mindorann(comprehend) the words you wished, Dovah Thur(Dragon Overlord)?"

"No... Not entirely...." Alex said slowly. "I thought I heard something..."

The surrounding dragons looked at one another curiously when they heard that, as the only thing they had heard for the last several hours was the howling of the wind, and Alex's continued muttering of the words Drem Hah Zii(peace mind spirit).

After reviving Grant and viewing his memories, Alex had sent him to the hospital to be treated, both physically and mentally. He himself took to the mountain to meditate on those three words of power under the leader of the Greyeards, Paarthurnax.

The reason he had done so was to calm his mind and steady his spirit, so as not to react irrationally to what had happened to Grant. He would not go charging into an unknown world, against a foe he knew next to nothing about, that undoubtedly had support.

No.

Alex instead meditated on words to calm his mind and spirit, so that he could think rationally. He would plan, prepare, and when the time was right, destroy this Markus and raze everything he'd built to the ground.

<I didn't hear anything partner...> Ddraig said worriedly, referring to what Alex said he'd heard earlier.

The two of them were living within the same body. It was nearly impossible that Alex could've heard something he'd missed, even as they'd both meditated on this strange and interesting power.

"We neither, Dovah Thur." Paarthurnax said curiously.

Alex frowned at that, but quickly dismissed whatever it had been he'd thought he'd heard. There were more pressing matters to attend to.

Turning to the elderly dragon, Alex sincerely said to him, "thank you Paarthurnax, for teaching me to meditate on the Words of Power."

"Please, do not mind it Dovah Thur. Zu'u Zin, I am honored to help one of my Fron, my kin." Paarthurnax reassured Alex.

In his mind the two of them were not so different, as Paarthurnax had spent years fighting against his aggressive draconic nature by meditating on the Words of Power. Alex of course had just done something similar, using the same Words of Power Paarthurnax once used to suppress his rage in order to think clearly.

Nodding once in affirmation of the elderly dragon's concern, Alex turned his attention to the gathering taking place in their senate hall.

"Chimchar, let's go." Alex said while holding out his arm, which his Pokemon eagerly hopped up to in order to get out of the cold and snow.

With a thought the duo changed location, moving seamlessly through space as Alex stepped into the senate hall to meet with everyone who had gathered.

"-and then they also have the ability to....Alex?" Hajime uttered when he noticed Alex's entrance, pausing the presentation he was giving all of the gods and kingly figures who had gathered for Alex's meeting.

The presentation was apparently Hajime explaining to everyone just WHAT Kryptonians were after the story regarding Grant was spread. And they didn't like it one bit.

For once it didn't have anything to do with Hajime and his over the top power point presentations, but just how ridiculously broken Kryptonians were as a species.

With the right sun present, Kryptonians were naturally super strong, super fast, invulnerable, and had numerous other powers and abilities such as super hearing and X-Ray vision. They were born cheats and godly beings, capable to turning any regular Saiyan into paste without any discernible effort.

Grant was (now) living proof of that.

The worst part was that they weren't the prideful and battle crazy lunatics Saiyans were, meaning they were capable of cold and cruel calculation in the middle of combat. As Markus so coolly demonstrated.

But, there was one point where Saiyans reigned supreme, and that was that THEY were the natural born battlers. Beings with indomitable wills and unlimited potential, constantly striving to surpass their own limits on a daily basis while most Kryptonians stagnated.

However, based on Grant's memories, Markus had overcome that particular restriction through the Omnitrix. And now with Grant's DNA, Markus was able to strengthen himself further with their own potential added into the mix.

And if what he said about 'splicing' their DNAs together was true, then this will be the greatest real opponent Alex would face to date.

"So what now?" Anduin Wrynn, formerly of the Alliance, asked Alex curiously.

"Now, we prepare for war." Alex said, before an intensity entered his eyes. "We hone ourselves and add to our armies and weaponry. WHEN this Markus attacks, we'll be ready for him."

Azazel pondered Alex's idea for a second before saying, "it'll be risky, especially with all of the civilians living within Asora. But.....it might also be the best plan we have to get him away from his source of power."

Alex nodded as he stated, "that's what I want. Kryptonians have few weaknesses, chief amongst them being Kryptonite, that we can't get ahold of. So the more power we can take from him to begin with, the better."

"What about that strange sword? It sliced right through his cheek." Odin pointed out, prompting that particular scene to be projected for everyone to review.

"It's a Zanpakutō. We can't exactly mass produce them" Alex said plainly.

He had already considered using one after seeing they could cut through Kryptonian skin, but Grant's had been broken, and the only way for Alex to get one would be for him to use one of his shop purchases to buy one. And there was no way Alex would use one for a one-off like that.

Plus he already had Ascalon, so Alex was good on swords.

"I'll focus on Markus." Alex told them all suddenly, making everyone go silent as they looked at him curiously. He then continued, "I want all of you to prepare for whatever comes with him when he attacks. His army."

"He DID mention having Grant lead his armies if he joined him..." Vegeta Sr stated in contemplation.

Alex nodded slowly as he added, "we didn't see any signs of whatever support Markus has under him. Meaning we have absolutely no idea what'll come with him when he attacks.

"Sairaorg, I want you to make sure all of the peerages within Asora are upping their training. They, along with the Valkyries, are the only official army Asora has. Same goes for you Rossweise. I expect both groups to be working their hardest."

The duo nodded in affirmation as they promised to do just that, before Alex turned his attention to someone else. "Sona, we need all of our new residents up to speed on peerages, and for them to establish their own. Arrange for their classes with Athena."

Sona nodded in affirmation this time while the representatives of said new residents appeared confused from not learning what peerages were yet. But that's what Athena's classes were for.

"Hajime, I have a project that demands your utmost attention after we open gates to Tortus and Moka's worlds."

Even without Alex saying what the project was Hajime knew what he was talking about. They had been discussing it quite a bit, but there had been no rush until now.

"Francesca, Tracy, Altina." Alex said to a certain maid trio that weren't present, who then materialized out of the void as he summoned them.

"Yes master?" Altina asked as she bowed politely, her elven face a perfect facade that hid her deviancy under her maid outfit. And while Alex would normally want to play with her a bit, he focused on the serious matter at hand.

Instead, Alex snapped his fingers and the maid outfits the girls were wearing shimmered, before transforming into three beautiful gowns fit for royalty.

"From this moment on, the three of you are no longer maids." Alex told them seriously as they marveled at their new dresses, prompting them to look back up at him as Francesca asked fretfully,

"Are we being fired?!?"

Alex shook his head to the demon princess' concern, and stated, "we are preparing portals to open to Tortus. I am sending the three of you home to claim leadership of your respective kingdoms."

Silence met Alex's declaration as the three girls realized what he was doing.

Altina was the granddaughter of Ulfric Heipyst, grand elder of Verbergen, who's status made her own akin to that of their princess. Francesca was the daughter of the demon king, who had followed Ehito's subordinate God Alva until witnessing the might of Asora firsthand. Tracy meanwhile was the first princess of the Hoelscher empire.

While none of them were directly set to inherit the crown or titles from their fathers/grandfather, all three girls had become more than qualified to take over after their stay in Asora. Tracy especially should be able to take over her father's throne easily, as the Hoelscher empire was ruled by strength, not direct succession.

"I will not fail you, your majesty." Tracy declared as she saluted to Alex, as it was obvious what he wanted by them taking over their respective people.

While the other two were less sure, they similarly saluted while promising to do their best. Alex of course had complete faith in them doing as he requested, as they had all been groomed by Grayfia to be excellent, no matter what was required of them.

"Nyx." Alex then stated, summoning his first ever slave as the goddess of night and darkness appeared before everyone. Then, surprising her, Alex snapped his fingers and removed the slave mark from her body.

"From this moment on Nyx, you are no longer my slave. Instead you are NYX! Goddess of night and darkness!"

It was a redundant announcement, as Nyx was already a goddess, with or without Alex's say so. But to the goddess herself, it was a big change.

She was Alex's first ever slave. And while at first she had been angry and wanted to reject her position, she soon learned that it was the best thing that happened in her long, LONG, life.

Now however, she was free. As far as Nyx was concerned though, this only meant that she was now able to serve Alex in other ways. Now, she was free to build her influence not only in Asora, but also in each of the world's it was connected to. She was able to raise an entire following of dark followers devoted the Dragon Emperor.

"Of course! Your imperial majesty!" Nyx exclaimed as she curtsied to the man she would always consider her master. And as she did so, her maid uniform also changed like the three's before her, though it hadn't changed much as it matched her original gothic Lolita style of dress.

Smiling wryly at the change in attire, Nyx stepped back as she already began planning how to best spread her influence throughout Asora, and which people would receive her blessing.

But at that moment someone else stepped forward dressed in religious attire, one of the shrine maidens that Alex had brought from his most recent adventure.

"We shall also work to spread the Lord's word to all His faithful!"

Every eye turned towards the speaker, Yua, who had somehow completely taken over Alex's temple in the short time since she had arrived in Asora. She was now officially Alex's own High Priestess, and was already working to increase the amount of devoted followers he had.

"We shall redouble our training! All of our shrine maidens and Paladins shall devote every waking second to growing stronger for our Lord! For it is through His glory and benevolence-"

There was a collective groan as Yua continued on to sing praises about Alex and his greatness, while the man himself felt his eye twitch subtly.

...

Once the meeting was over Alex began making his rounds through Asora to check in on things. While they worked he had his own plans for what he'd be doing, but that would wait until the morning. Until then, Alex had to make sure things were going well in Asora.

His first stop was in the sealed space where he had moved the system of God, that he had taken over after his first visit to Heaven. Its influence was so great, that Alex had expanded it to encompass not only Asora, but each universe that Asora was connected to. Asora, Earthland, Spira, Universe Seven, and all the realms of the DXD world.

There, Alex found Hajime as he was studying the system.

"What happened to the gates?" Alex asked him.

"My drones are working on them. They should both be ready to open by morning. This however, will take me a bit of time..." Hajime answered, before going back to studying the structure of God's system.

"So can you do it?" Alex asked.

"Sure." Hajime readily said. "It'll take some time due to how intricate it'll have to be, but I'll do it."

Alex nodded slowly as he watched Hajime work, before a thought came to his mind and he added, "it doesn't have to encompass all the world's this system does, just Asora and those in it."

Hajime looked at him in surprise before a smile spread on his face. "That'll make it a lot easier actually. Show me what it is exactly that you want again."

Alex didn't say a word as he instead created a projection for Hajime to study.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Name:

Rank:

Race:

Age:

Titles:

Job:

Job History:

...

Vitality:

Mana:

Strength:

Agility:

Stamina:

Intelligence:

...

Passive Skills:

Active Skills:

Unique Skills:

Status:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What Alex was projecting was the original version of the system from the world of Lambda, from the series The Death Mage Who Doesn't Want a Fourth Time. It was the same system Alex and his peerage members had access to, though he had altered it slightly when he first acquired it.

Though he had stopped relying on it for quite some time, as well as most of his peerage members, Alex knew that the residents of Asora would benefit greatly from acquiring the system. This time however he was going to give them access to the original version of the system, which included the Ranks for monsters, and the attribute stats like strength and mana.

"I can't wait to see how this'll turn out. I also really want to see how my own status will look." Hajime said with a smirk.

He had seen his status back on Tortus with their cards, but with how differently this status system was set up Hajime couldn't help but to be curious.

So, he quickly took several pictures and notes of the system Alex wanted him to make, asking all the questions he could think of regarding how it was set up. The trickiest part would be the Job selection, but Alex explained that Hajime could make a type of machine that would sync with the system to change jobs when they needed.

Once that was done Alex took his leave, as he'd done all he could at the moment to help Hajime, leaving him to continue studying God's system by himself.

From there Alex made his way to the Academy, where he found Athena introducing a massive class of those who were qualified from Tamriel and Azeroth to obtain peerages of their own.

On top of that, Sona was also giving a special announcement to the oldest students who possessed peerages, telling them of his declaration that Asora was preparing for war. They wouldn't send the younger students into battle of course, but the older students aught to be more than capable of holding their own. That was even more the case when you considered how many Saiyans were in the Academy.

Speaking of the Saiyans, Alex's attention then drifted to planet Sadala that was floating up above Asora like a large moon, where former kings Vegeta Sr and Sadala were beating the Saiyans into shape. Even Caulifla and Sala were there as well with the former's bandit clan, helping to train the Saiyans similarly to his Shia helped 'train' them.

So needless to say the Saiyans of planet Sadala were going through hell at the moment.

Alex's next stop was his temple, or rather, what used to be his temple.

Instead of the massive megalithic structure that housed the dozens of statues of Alex, his wives, and the others that were considered to be the gods of Asora, the entire mountaintop had been renovated without Alex even noticing.

It was now a wide open plateau with the statues to be worshiped arrayed in a way that bordered the edges, with Alex's statue at the head of them. What made him pause though was that his statue was entirely different from before, being several times larger, entirely made of gold, and was completely naked while being anatomically correct.

But gathered below his statue, Alex could see hundreds of women dressed in shrine maiden outfits going through numerous different rhythms as they trained. Most trained with wooden swords, other's with staves, some with knives, and several were practicing different types of magic.

Meanwhile, at the base of the mountain, numerous new buildings had been erected that housed hundreds of men and women wearing thick plates of golden armor. They too were working tirelessly to strengthen themselves in the name of their new God, Alex.

They were Paladins. Holy warriors that fought in the name of their God. And just like the shrine maidens, there had been numerous Asorans who flocked to them from wanting to learn their style of fighting.

The numbers of both groups were composed not only of humans, but also numerous Devils, Youkai, Fallen Angels, Angels, Dagons, Ronso, Guado, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Draenei, Therianthropes, Vampires, Orcs, Trolls, Goblins, Tauren, Argonians, Khajiit, Pandarians, Saiyans, and Dracthyr.

It was a surprising gathering to be sure, but Alex supposed Yua had been busy since before they even moved to Asora, and the others were just fanatics of his to begin with.

Her voice was even echoing for all of them to hear as she sang praises in Alex's name, telling them all of the glory they worked towards by serving him.

The only problem as far as Alex was concerned, was that there was a disturbingly high amount of the Dragon Dick Dildos being acquired by the shrine maidens.

"Hah....." Sighing in exasperation, Alex decided it was a problem for another day since there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Alex then spent the rest of the day traveling not only around Asora, but also throughout the DXD realms, Earthland, Spira, and Universe Seven. And in each location the people there were preparing for war.

They didn't think they were going to be attacked at any second, as Alex believed that Markus hadn't had another reincarnator to use their portals, and he had used his own to kidnap Grant. And if that was the case, then they had at least a year until the attack came.

That time would be spent preparing and strengthening themselves for whatever Markus intended to throw at them.

And while Alex himself had plans for one way to prepare come morning, there was still one other thing he could do to prepare.

So, once night had fallen in Asora, and everyone began to retire for the night, Alex pulled out his rewards from completing the quest to help Saya survive the apocalypse.

"Summoning cards... Huh?" Alex muttered to himself in contemplation.

"Are they worth using right now?" Grayfia asked him cautiously.

She was one of the few members of Alex's harem present, the others all busy working on strengthening themselves in preparation for the coming war. Even women that stayed in the space-time orb like Mikan and Haruna were working, focusing on their cooking skills in order to be able to make food that would actually boost the abilities of those who ate it.

"Yeah! I mean, we don't know what'll appear!" Rikku exclaimed, having just gotten back from her own training session with Yuna and Paine.

"I know..." Alex said slowly, before adding, "but we also can't deny the possibility of them summoning powerful people who could help us."

"Or they could summon yet another enemy for you to face." Grayfia pointed out.

"I doubt that'll happen with mister 'Lucky Pervert' here." Paine stated dryly as she pointed at Alex.

"""..."""

Silence met her as everyone noted Paine's point, and how Alex's skill would probably prevent anything truly dangerous from appearing.... Unless it was something he could fuck....

With no one protesting using the summoning cards any longer, Alex held one up as it began to shimmer with an iridescent light.

Releasing the card, it floated forwards and touched the ground, where the light turned blindingly bright as it grew in size.

And then all of a sudden, the light vanished to reveal the figure the card had summoned in its place.

"Nya?" Meowed the small black cat that had appeared, it's most distinguishing feature being its piercing golden eyes.

"A cat?" Yuna asked curiously.

"Well...this one's a dud..." Grayfia uttered lowly, now feeling foolish for thinking the cards could summon a possible threat. Though, it did remind her of Kuroka somewhat.

"Nya?" The cat tilted its head curiously, before walking up to Alex and jumping up onto his shoulder, opposite the shoulder that a now unamused Chimchar was riding on.

"Are you gonna try another one?" Rikku asked curiously.

"Yeah..." Alex nodded slowly as he picked up the next card, which he could see the cat on his shoulder looking at curiously. "But I wonder if I can enhance them...?"

Since the last card was a dud, and he could only summon one person at a time with them, Alex was wondering if he was able to use Evolution magic to enhance them. Maybe make it to where he could either get a more powerful summon, or more than one at a time.

Normally Alex would ask Lauren about it, but she hadn't been answering him ever since Grant was attacked.

With Lauren's continuing silence, Alex could only try it out himself and see if it would work. So, Alex channeled Evolution magic into the card so that it began to shimmer differently than the one Alex used before, before he activated it and the light became even more blindingly bright.

And as the light began to die down, Alex was pleasantly surprised to see four figures standing there.

One was a young looking woman with Mage-like attire and brown hair, a blonde female knight with her hair in a ponytail, a girl with silvery long hair wearing a white and purple dress, and a blue haired figure who was standing before the rest of them.

And just as Alex began to recognize the women before him, the blue haired woman stepped forward while the knight and Mage looked around curiously. She then said to him,

"Greetings. I, am the goddess of water, Aqua!"