Chapter 47: Addressing The Populace

Zax not only thought about how to deceive the Godly Retribution, he also deliberated on how sentient it is.

‘Can The Almighty invest wholehearted attention to all Godly Retributions?’

His first deliberation was that he cannot possibly be the only person The Almighty smote with Godly Retribution. Although assuming the worse can help anticipate the unknown, in this case where Zax has to injure himself to a minimal degree, it will only thwart the purpose of his seclusion.

‘Iaura could not communicate with the Godly Retribution; she had to pray to The Almighty. And when The Almighty’s presence manifested in Niel’s soul in the form of a hand, it treated the portion of Godly Retribution as a tool that requires direct manipulation for each use... ‘

By now he gathered that the main purpose of his Godly Retribution is to obstruct his cultivation path, for it smote him after he evoked The Almighty’s name in an oath for violence toward the Luminous Church’s believers.

‘It’s not after my bodily refinement or my soul cultivation. Its sole aim is to prevent me from comprehending the sixth bottleneck and it reacts to closest I get to the last spark of light’.

This gave him an idea for how to take the last step, but that was another ordeal for after he will accomplish the half pace before it.

‘Comparing it to a sophisticated Artificial Intelligent, I’ll have to experiment to find the loophole in its code’. His expertise in coding was either very basic or very specific.

The analogy was so it will be easier for him to contemplate about, since in contrast to Godhood he was still a brat from the mundane.

Thus, Zax began to test the responses of the Godly Retribution, to look for its bottom line and how can he skim over just a half pace past it.

...

New Earth, El-Eden’s cave fourteen, the Historic Centre Of New Earth.

Inside a hall with hundreds of seats, cameras and Screens Supreme Ruler Ar Yen stood on a podium with a microphone’s light indicating that it is “On”.

Behind him was a small stage with thirty something distinguished figures, including current and former Supreme Rulers, prominent leaders of allied organizations to New Earth, as well as leaders of local organizations. In addition to them were beasts representing Valgarel and humans apart from the Supreme Rulers in exalted government position in Kingdom Earth.

“We are sealed”. Supreme Ruler Ar Yen, presenting himself in an official attire of dark blue suit, rather than his infamous training garments, broke the silence with the statement that everyone was expecting for.

The people and beast in human form sitting in front of him were patriarchs, matriarchs and tribe leaders in no meaningful administrative position, but in terms of cultivation level, some of them were not inferior to those who sat behind him.

As for the faces on the Screens, they belonged to those who could not leave their posts somewhere in New Earth, while the cameras broadcasted the assembly to anywhere with a Screen in New Earth.

“Forty one days after the Return To The Soil protocol was initiated, the formation seal to the pathway that connects New Earth to Ercas Mir had been completed”. Supreme Ruler Ar Yen was most was most suitable part of the orator. He spoke in a steady tone, brimming with dominance, confidence and innate awe.

His rise for prominence was certain from birth and his aptitude had testified for it from young age.

The sealing of New Earth was akin to making the blue sky an improbable dream again. The citizens of Kingdom Earth and the beasts of Valgarel, who for thousands of years were buried underground, just a short while ago, had this dream turn a reality and now it was taken with many not yet receiving a taste of it.

To disappoint the masses in such extremity needed someone with steeled heart and indisputable social standing. Any of the three Supreme Rulers could have done it, but Supreme Ruler Ar Yen volunteered for the job because unlike his predecessor, other Supreme Rulers, the veterans who survived the old wars of humanity and one particular member of the younger generation, he had never bared the communal emotional spectrum of his people.

“This by no means a permanent lockdown. In last the forty days, for safe execution of the recalling operations that brought back every citizen of New Earth and Valgarel, along many of our outside friends, from Ercas Mir, we divulge only bits and pieces of the cause for this situation. What you already know is that the past rulers of Ercas Mir, the so called ‘five powers’, are actually just branches of much larger entities that are, in this very moment, on their way to this planet. What we kept quiet about, until we were convinced in our ability to ensure the secure containment of New Earth, until now ... is that leading those entities are cultivators of magnitude that had never appeared before on this planet, experts who transcended the known mortal realms to Immortality!”