Dictator From Outer Space

“It’s quite a big branch for a tree.”

“Well, the main body of Yggdrasil is hundreds of kilometers up. The roots must be at least that big.”

Leobold and Arma looked at the branch of Yggdrasil that Valgard’s expedition team had discovered.

The so-called branch of the World Tree, also known as the Fragment, was glowing with a brilliant golden light and occupied an island.

What was surprising was that a new branch was sprouting on the adjacent island.

“Does Yggdrasil automatically create its own clones? What do you think?”

“According to the information collected from Elvrande, Yggdrasil cannot reproduce or graft. It only forms branches by its own will.”

“I guess it has to do that much to be worshipped as a god.”

The elves believed that ether came from this tree, but that was not true.

Ether came from the ether sun far away in space, and the exact ability of Yggdrasil had not been revealed yet.

It seemed insufficient to just store ether and make the surrounding soil fertile.

“It also stabilizes the atmosphere and temperature. For example, the temperature at the north and south ends of Elvrande is almost the same. The same goes for the floating continents.”

“That’s impressive, but it’s not enough…”

Leobold wanted to move the branch for research.

It seemed possible to move the whole island with the Settler, but he was worried about the impact on the floating continent.

It would be troublesome if the temperature suddenly dropped below zero and breathing became difficult without the branch.

“There’s no point in worrying. Let’s just move it.”

On the scene, Zigarion returned to his main body and flew with Lucia on his back.

—Hey, little witch. The lord wants to move that branch. What do you think?

—Easy. Just use the Settler…

—What’s a Settler?

—Oops. It’s nothing. Don’t worry about it.

—By the way, your shoulders are stiff. You need a massage.

Zigarion, who was talking in a threatening tone, was suddenly startled by a monster that popped out.

—What, what, what is that demon?

—That’s my main body. Isn’t it big and beautiful?

—Big and beautiful my ass! Isn’t that what humans call the Demon King?

Even Zigarion, who lacked knowledge, could recognize the demons and demon kings from another world.

The huge metal monster with several legs roaming around the floating continent could only be described as a demon king.

Lucia bit his skin hard.

—Didn’t you compliment me for being pretty and cool?

—It must be him who has bad eyes! How can you say that’s pretty… Aaah!

Then Zigarion started to be sucked into the floating continent.

Lucia’s main body used gravity magic to pull him in.

He could have easily escaped if he had reacted calmly, but he lacked experience and courage.

As a result, he became a dragon who was dangling in mid-air.

-Say it again, who am I?

—You’re obviously a demon king! A huge one! What do you think humans will say if they see you?

—…

Lucia suddenly ran out of words and let him go.

Her master Leobold and Arma were also worried about that part.

She would eventually grow up to be a demon king and destroy the surrounding civilization.

She was depressed by her fate that she might become her master’s enemy in the end.

Leobold, who was watching their antics through a satellite, paused his work and spoke to her.

“Lucia, are you okay?

—I’m fine, master.

“You don’t look fine at all. Don’t mind what Zigarion says.”

—But it’s true that I’m different from others. I’m a demon king who has been rejected by Asteria’s Ains since ancient times. I don’t know when I’ll show my true colors…

“Did I ever tell you what Lucia means to me?”

—Nope.

“Lucia was my lover.”

She was taken aback by his unexpected words.

She thought he had just picked a random name, but she was his lover.

Leobold spoke to her in a gentle tone as if he was talking to his original Lucia.

“She was also my teacher and my life partner. And she died by Plague Queen.”

—So I killed her in another dimension…

“No, it wasn’t you. That was a different entity.”

—But I can’t escape from my fate. I’ll end up becoming a monster anyway.

“Then change your fate. Just like I went back to the past and fought against Plague Queen, you can change your fate too. Have you ever thought about choosing to fight with me against Plague Queen?”

—-Master…

“I won’t lie and say I expected that when I named you. But I decided to trust you. So please trust me too. I won’t let you become like Plague Queen.”

Lucia was silent for a long time.

Then she seemed to make up her mind and said in a lively voice.

—I wasn’t with you when I was born, so I want to die with you when I die.

“Do you know how horrible that sounds depending on how you imagine it?”

—You wanted to meet the Prophet, right? I want to meet him too. Just grant me one wish.

“What wish?”

—I’ll tell you when we meet.

His consciousness was cut off there.

Lucia’s main body flew around the floating continent as if nothing had happened, and they started to bicker again.

Leobold felt the need to reveal the Settler to Zigarion.

‘Now that he’s seen Lucia’s main body, there’s no need to hide it…’

Zigarion was stupid, weak, and cowardly, but he was not a blabbermouth.

He had never spilled any secrets and had not been exposed as a dragon.

At least he had a tight mouth.

He didn’t seem to weigh even 1g from what he did normally.

Anyway, he couldn’t keep hiding the Settler since he couldn’t move Yggdrasil by ordinary means.

‘It’s a bit faster than planned, but it shouldn’t matter much.’

They were people who couldn’t get away from him since they came this far, like Valgard.

And someday he would have to reveal the Settler to the whole Asteria continent.

“Arma, remove the optical camouflage and install the blocker.”

「Yes, understood.」

The spaceship that boasted a mass of one million tons and a length of 700 meters revealed itself.

Zigarion was flying leisurely over the floating continent with Lucia on his back, and was shocked.

—What, what is that?

***

Zigarion had secretly been proud of being the last surviving dragon in Asteria and a huge creature.

In fact, there were not many objects in Asteria that exceeded 50 meters in length.

The only ones that were different in scale from him were Yggdrasil and airships, but the former was almost a divine being, so it was out of the question.

Naturally, the only thing that could compare with him was an airship, but he felt superior to them in every way.

—First of all, I weigh more than them! And they are too slow!

It was strange that he felt proud of his weight when he could have shown his superiority in various ways as a dragon.

Anyway, Zigarion was proud of being bigger than almost anything else.

But then, here came the Settler.

He almost fell when he saw the huge spaceship with living metal floating above him.

-What, what is that?

“That’s the ship I came on. I sailed across the sea of space and came here.”

—A ship? It doesn’t look like a ship at all. And why is it so ridiculously big? It’s an absurd size!

There was no need to explain that it had a supermassive particle accelerator built in and that’s why it was so big.

“Calm down and listen to me. Have you heard the rumor that I’m a hero from another world?”

—I heard it. It didn’t seem like many people believed it though.

“What if it’s true?”

—A hero from another world… So another world is a place where you need something like that?

It was not just big, but also had an overwhelming weight.

And he could feel a huge amount of ether from its bow.

To Zigarion, that ship felt like a monster hiding an enormous power.

He wondered what he had eaten wrong and found some leisure and flew around the Settler.

—That’s a ship? Damn, I can’t believe my eyes! This is crazy!

—Oh, be quiet! You’ve never seen anything like this?

—Never!

As they quarreled, the Settler activated its ether reverse field and quickly disappeared.

Zigarion tried to chase after it with his advantage in speed, but gave up when he saw it getting farther away.

—It’s incredibly fast. Where is that ship going anyway?

“I’m going to drop it off at Pirate Island. I’ll set up a lab there and do some research.”

—Lord, I suddenly want to ride that ship.

“I’ll let you ride it later, so give up for now. I have too much work to do.”

—You have to let me ride it, you have to!

“Okay, okay.”

He promised like a child and put his hand on the communication device that started to sparkle.

Valgard’s expedition team must have found something.

***

“Lord, I think we’ve found a fragment of God. A ship built by Gram Empire 200 years ago.”

“A ship from 200 years ago must be rotten.”

“No, it’s surprisingly intact. It looks much better than our fleet.”

“Really? Is it because of the fragment of God?”

“It looks like it could fly into the sky any moment. It’s just dusty.”

“Does it have a mind? Can you talk to it?”

“Wait a minute. We’re exploring the inside right now.”

Soon Valgard called again after finding something.

“We found the captain’s room. There’s a guy stuck there, but he seems crazy. It’s hard to talk to him.”

“Can’t you talk to him at all?”

“You’ll see if you come and listen, but he doesn’t make any sense. He’s rambling.”

—Then we have to bring it whole and talk to it.

“How do you do that?”

The island where the airship was stranded was not very big, so it seemed easy to move.

The Settler, which quickly went back and forth between the floating continent and Pirate Island, appeared above Valgard and Albion, who had returned the expedition team.

“Lord, I think I’m seeing something unbelievable.”

“It’s not unbelievable. It’s the ship I came on.”

“By Altema… So the rumor that you’re a hero from another world was true?”

“That’s right. You must have a lot of questions, but wait a minute. I’m going to move the island as it is.”

“This is really…”

Valgard shook his head and moved aside with Albion.

Soon after, the Settler activated its gravity crane and lifted the island, heading southeast.

Leobold explained what had happened, but it didn’t seem to make sense.

‘Well, his journey was too long and deep to explain in this short time.’

“…To be honest, I didn’t understand what you were saying. But one thing seems certain. Your conquest of Asteria was not a joke.”

“I only revealed this to Zigarion and you. I’d appreciate it if you kept it a secret for a while.”

“Of course. That’s natural. By the way, what kind of place is the world where only humans live?”

“Well, it depends on your perspective, but I think the world where people live is similar.”

“So it’s the same there too. I understand.”

“And there’s one thing I want to ask you… Do you know about Grakies?”

“Black Dragon Grakies. I know him well. He’s one of the few dragons I’ve fought personally.”

“I heard he uses black magic. What are his exact abilities?”

“Don’t tell me Grakies has resurrected. What happened?”

Leobold told him about the elf and Kairos.

He said in a hollow voice.

“Those bastard elves are not satisfied with slaughtering humans, they even try to defile the glory of the past. Leave it to me. I’ll take care of it myself.”

Valgard was inferior to Kairos in terms of ether heart output, but he was a type that covered it with his immense combat experience and gold dragon power.

On the other hand, Kairos was out of his mind and had to fight with his black magic blocked.

Also, Kairos’ Goliath was mediocre compared to Valgard’s Albion, which had an output of over 300E.

Arma guessed that Valgard would have a significant advantage in their fight.

But Leobold didn’t intend to kill him right away.

“According to the schedule, I’m the last one. So I’m going to be the hero who barely stopped him with a fatal wound.”

“Hah… That’s your style. I don’t like it, but I have nothing to say. But do you know this?”

“What?”

“The fragment of God you just took away. He was Cain, a god who deals with souls.”

“He deals with souls…”

“To be precise, he guides souls. That’s why people used to put a penny in the mouth of the dead. As a fare.”

“Where does he guide them?”

“Only Cain knows that.”

“I guess I have to ask him myself.”

“He’s completely crazy though.”

Anyway, Valgard continued to explore the floating continent and ended the conversation.

Leobold boarded a shuttle called by Arma and headed for Pirate Island.

The entire island of thousands of islands was covered with Settler’s ether reverse field, and a huge island was landing in the middle.

“Cool.”

The ship with the fragment of God was quite large for a ship built 200 years ago.

Of course, it was infinitely small compared to Settler or the island, but it looked like at least 5,000 tons.

‘It was true that Foltorn said that airships were much bigger in the past.’

Maybe his ancestor was involved in building this ship.

The shuttle dropped him on the deck and Arma led him to the captain’s room.

As soon as he entered the dusty captain’s room with old-fashioned decorations, a faint voice greeted him.

—You are… This is Rasa’s revelation…

“Who are you? What are you talking about?”

—I don’t see. I feel the power hidden in your chest…

「It seems to feel the relic of Prophet that Master absorbed.」

‘He must be a god.’

He had met quite a few people who noticed his power so far, but this was only the second time someone felt Prophet’s relic after Plague Queen.

Leobold decided to bluff.

“I am Rasa’s representative. I came to this land with his will.”

—Ooh, our creator! The true master of Asteria! I’ve been waiting for your representative!

“Tell me. Who are you? And how did you end up here?”

—My humble name is Cain… That’s what humans called me…

The humble confession of Cain’s whereabouts flowed out.

Leobold ignored everything else, but he clearly heard that the soul he guided was Yggdrasil.

The function of that huge tree was not to emit ether, but to store souls.

“So Yggdrasil is full of souls right now.”

-It’s not necessarily so… It’s because the elves used it…

“How? Why did the elves use it?”

-The souls gathered in Yggdrasil are almost like soulless lumps of energy… They don’t have much power either… But if you refine those souls in the Infinite Circuit, you can create a huge being… A god, as the Ains call it…

Leobold felt a shock as if someone hit the back of his head with a hammer.

They could make a god.

And the elves had used it.

‘The reason why Yggdrasil emits ether was a propaganda to make people believe that.’

At this point, he remembered one of the reasons why the Great War broke out.

The elves wanted to stop Asteria’s development to prevent Plague from evolving.

‘If that’s the case, there must be something on this land that Plague needs to evolve.’

He had no idea what it was at this point.

And Leobold didn’t agree with the elves either.

Humans were a race that had the potential to overcome Plague and reach far into space someday.

‘If Earth’s science and technology and Terra’s ether technology are combined, it would be possible.’

If they could transcend dimensions and time, wouldn’t they be able to travel faster than the speed of light?

If it weren’t for Plague, humans in the 22nd century would have done that.

He was lost in thought when Arma reported urgently.

「Master, Kairos has started his activity.」

Leobold looked up and saw the horribly destroyed palace, the wreckage of Goliath, and the corpses everywhere.

Kairos had left the borderland and attacked the human kingdom.

“It wasn’t an assassination, but pure destruction.”

「The Goliath he used was not Elvrande’s model, but Zium’s repaired one. He also cut off his ears, so you can’t tell his race by appearance.」

“So he wants to stop Asteria’s development like that…”

He would leave him alone for a while, but if he stepped into Vandus County, he would have to give up his life.

Then Cain said something curious.

-Hmm, there’s a branch of Yggdrasil nearby. It’s a clean branch with no souls. It will be a good resting place…

“Can branches store souls too?”

-Of course. If you accept my power, you can store any soul. Even if it’s not the original soul…

Maybe he could get the souls of the mad elf and the black dragon too.

Leobold looked at Kairos, who was running on a horned bird toward his next prey.

Now the continent would be sucked into an uncontrollable chaos.

-It’s not necessarily so… It’s because the elves used it…

“How? Why did the elves use it?”

-The souls gathered in Yggdrasil are almost like soulless lumps of energy… They don’t have much power either… But if you refine those souls in the Infinite Circuit, you can create a huge being… A god, as the Ains call it…

Leobold felt a shock as if someone hit the back of his head with a hammer.

They could make a god.

And the elves had used it.

‘The reason why Yggdrasil emits ether was a propaganda to make people believe that.’

At this point, he remembered one of the reasons why the Great War broke out.

The elves wanted to stop Asteria’s development to prevent Plague from evolving.

‘If that’s the case, there must be something on this land that Plague needs to evolve.’

He had no idea what it was at this point.

And Leobold didn’t agree with the elves either.

Humans were a race that had the potential to overcome Plague and reach far into space someday.

‘If Earth’s science and technology and Terra’s ether technology are combined, it would be possible.’

If they could transcend dimensions and time, wouldn’t they be able to travel faster than the speed of light?

If it weren’t for Plague, humans in the 22nd century would have done that.

He was lost in thought when Arma reported urgently.

「Master, Kairos has started his activity.」

Leobold looked up and saw the horribly destroyed palace, the wreckage of Goliath, and the corpses everywhere.

Kairos had left the borderland and attacked the human kingdom.

“It wasn’t an assassination, but pure destruction.”

「The Goliath he used was not Elvrande’s model, but Zium’s repaired one. He also cut off his ears, so you can’t tell his race by appearance.」

“So he wants to stop Asteria’s development like that…”

He would leave him alone for a while, but if he stepped into Vandus County, he would have to give up his life.

Then Cain said something curious.

-Hmm, there’s a branch of Yggdrasil nearby. It’s a clean branch with no souls. It will be a good resting place…

“Can branches store souls too?”

-Of course. If you accept my power, you can store any soul. Even if it’s not the original soul…

Maybe he could get the souls of the mad elf and the black dragon too.

Leobold looked at Kairos, who was running on a horned bird toward his next prey.

Now the continent would be sucked into an uncontrollable chaos.