Monarch of Darkness, Arsene

Orthis deep gold eyes seemed to darken at my words. The look of surprise at my identity had begun to fade, leaving only a regal mask."Lord Snow, why are you here?"

I chuckled, "To inform you of the coming storm, of course. And maybe save your son whom I\'ve been training."

Orthis expression only soured, but I continued nonetheless. "You see, the two Fallen Zantar and Balor are about to sacrifice this entire city to窶能"

"You\'ve proof of this?" He demanded.

"Are you willing to risk it?" I countered, intrigued by the premise. Orthis was no fool, that I was sure. I was sure he\'d felt something off by now in this city.

Aether\'s King lips curled downwards. "This isn\'t a game, Lord Snow; if you\'re wrong, you could risk a major incident both here and in Noctem. All realms would turn on you. We\'d be depleting millions窶能"

"Should I be wrong, Noctem will replenish resources lost in a span of seven Chaos Cycles," I assured, and he nodded. "How much of Aether was seized by the Horsman gates?"

"Seven percent," Valice answered. " And one major family. The Devaia\'s. Their daughter Lemuria Sol Devaia is currently leading the family. She just broke into High God. It seems she had quite a bounty. Rising from high god from Low."

A/N: Chapter 600+ first appearance

That name. I think I\'ve met that bitch before. That\'s right. She\'s that idiot who attacked Lilith and me before we entered the abyss. So her full name is Lemuria Sol Devaia. She\'s a good caster.

My smile deepened. " Well, shall we continue? Aside from the looming blade of Damocles over our heads, I think it\'s time we discuss trade and various other philanthropic conversations. Noctem and the Abyss would like to expand."

"Then you\'ll have to speak with me instead of my husband. I run all businesses in Aether. Trade is my weapon, and his politics my shield." Valice said, cutting in. " However, I don\'t wish to do business just yet. Not until we escape this窶能"

"When we leave, the Path to Iluthath will be open. That\'s the whole point of this enterprise." I explained, shaking my head. " We\'ll be so busy that I don\'t foresee us gathering again. We need this done before anything else can interfere. And I\'m not just talking about Aether. I\'m talking about the Overworld, Elysium, and all the others, including the Badlands. I definitely want them to trade with us."

Valice expression turned complex, "Arsene, if we do something like this, we\'ll need to create an organization that just trades that\'ll control how trade is done. It must be separate from all other powers to restrict corruption or political bias, which is practically impossible. It could very well backfire."

"It\'s necessary. And I suggest the Ilthad. Be a part of this." I said, narrowing my eyes to the king.

I didn\'t dare look at Valice, whose expression I was sure to have made contort into that of a demon.

"Political power is their strong suit, and while it\'s dangerous giving them so much power, we would really be restricting them to twelve planes, cutting their numbers to a staggering degree. Our realms are infinitely large, with all different types of politics running in and out. The Ilthad will be caught in the middle."

"We ought to kill the lot of them and wipe out their entire line from the fourth Heaven," Valice spat, fuming quite vividly. " They\'re too dangerous."

"And Iluthath isn\'t? From what I know, even higher-level beings haven\'t fully discovered all their secrets. Even Lords from the Origin realm have failed to grasp its depths. Do you think we have the luxury? There are beings there who are sure to challenge our rule. Trade amongst the twelve planes, especially the abyss, could be a game changer."

"This group we\'ll create needs rules: We\'ll gather the Twelve Plane representative and begin restrictions. It has to be a massive undertaking, and who better to perform such a thing than the Ilthad? I doubt we will be able to kill them even if we try. They\'re like cockroaches. Filthy infestations. You can never kill them all."

Valice narrowed her eyes. " If we are to do this, then I don\'t want an Ilthad running everything."

Like that\'ll matter; manipulation is a part of the game. I\'ve made Gods fall to their knees as a mortal; I\'m sure the ilthad could do the same.

"We\'ll hash out the details later." I explained, narrowing my eyes," For now, can we agree about the emergency migration? And if you\'ll be so kind, inform the other Planer Realms. I\'m sure Yornen has already acted."

Orthis returned to his seat, his long dark hair flowing over his shoulders as he fell into thought. "We\'ll need time to discuss this."

"I\'m sure you do," I said, pulling out an extra holocube and placed it on the table. "If you need to contact me, call." Sending Valice a smile, I turned to leave, vanishing as darkness swallowed me whole. I stepped out of the void within my room.

"Now then, all that\'s left is to speak to Jinx and wait for窶能" My holocube sounded.

Removing the cube from my soul, where I held most of my essential items, a hologram of Avar appeared.

"What is it?"

\'An entire factory is gone." She said, sending my heart into a flutter.

"What do you mean gone?"

"Did I not use the word right?" She curiously asked, tilting her head, infuriating me to no bounds.

"I mean, how could it be gone, and how come no one knows about it?"

Avar sighed. " Because a high-level officer helped in its possession. The items stolen were tier 3 machines and weapons, nothing major, but enough to kill a paragon."

"..."

My stomach dipped. " how could that not be major?" I forced myself to say, confused as to what constituted an emergency for Avar.

"There are eight tiers in my world. Tools above tier five are so heavily locked down it would take three Chaos Lords to break in, and even then, they\'ll still die trying to get out."

God damn, If I have a daughter, I\'m sending her to school in Genisis.

My heart almost left my body at Avar\'s words. But if I think about it now, tools or weapons have never been a thing in the Bed of Chaos. Most of them have always been low-level, but it seems we were just ignorant.