Chapter 1699: Preparation [4]

August and Cera were forced to spend a lot of time together in the coming days.

The others stopped by every once in a while to check their process and report on the collection of troops, but the two who gave the old fortress life again were none other than August and Cera.

They had easy access to information on the other participants, so they were able to somewhat form a strategy based on eliminating them.

But, the coming challenge wasn't just about eliminating the enemy. Actually, it was a little friendlier to weaker geniuses.

The main goal was to seize the other team's territory. While they inevitably needed to clash throughout the war, actually eliminating every genius on the other team wasn't a requirement to win.

August kept that in mind and kept the planning to how they were going to deal with individuals.

It was like hunting beasts. Every single one of those geniuses had their own kinks. Once their patterns were observed enough times, a strategy to defeat them could easily come into being.

People like Eris Noct and Wilhelm Liqua were definitely terrifying to encounter out of the blue. The fear factor they used to their advantage so well, however, was completely removed by August and Cera.

That was all that could possibly be done in the short amount of time they had.

After all, August still had to recruit five hundred troops.

The rest of the army was slowly filled by the forces from various clans to the expected degree. Even Raphael delivered on his promise, gathering over four hundred mercenaries who were absolutely loyal to him.

For what it was worth, the commoners also tried to contribute.

Those like Melania could only produce one or two reinforcements since they didn't have wild connections, but even Valerie brought over ten people from her clan to help.

August had to do his part.

Somehow, he had to find a way to bring hundreds of people together in a matter of weeks.

He had some connections, sure, but the main source of his resources was none other than Damien himself.

Was he to ask his father for help, or was it his turn to independently win over the people he needed?

August wanted to be independent. It was in his best interest to do as much as possible without asking for help, so he could prepare for the day when it was impossible for him to receive it.

Though he loved his father, he didn't want to be too reliant on him.

To live his own life and to make his father proud through his own achievements, August wanted to do everything on his own.

He just didn't have enough time.

The third stage was only a week later by the time August had the freedom to start recruiting.

He knew his father was busy, but he didn't have another choice but to ask for help.

And so, that was exactly what he did.

He called Damien through a device very purposefully modeled after a smartphone and hesitantly posed the request.

"Dad, can I ask for a favor?"

At this point in time, Damien had already left the Dragon Emperor's lair to start preparing for other things, so he was more than free to answer his son's call.

"Sure, what's up?" he said casually, a hint of curiosity in his tone.

"So, it's like this..."

August quickly explained the situation with the third stage, and Damien immediately understood what he wanted.

But, instead of giving an immediate answer, Damien asked another question.

"If you had the time, do you think you could do it on your own?"

"Absolutely," August responded without hesitation.

"Then..."

Damien smiled, though August couldn't see it.

"...prove it to me."

The world faded away around August.

Damien wasn't anywhere nearby, but that wasn't how his power worked anymore. As long as he knew what he wanted to do, he could do it with ease.

There would never come a day when Damien was averse to just giving August anything he wanted.

Hell, if August decided to give up right now and just ask for Arulion, Damien didn't mind dealing with its internal struggles personally and gifting it to him.

He didn't do it because he had an ambitious son. August's voice clearly portrayed his dissatisfaction at having to ask for anything at all. Since that was the case, Damien gave him the opportunity to earn it.

He had been sent into an imaginary world, sure, but whatever he achieved there would be reflected in reality.

Damien gave him a year in that world.

What he achieved there was up to him, but there was one thing Damien made sure of.

It wouldn't just be the number he needed.

As long as August could achieve something greater...

Every troop he recruited, and every connection he made, would follow him back to Arulion.

'If he really has some ambition...'

Damien's smile widened into a grin.

'...then he could come back from that place with an entire army of his own.'

That was how it began.

A single week in the outside world. A week when August Void suddenly vanished.

Nobody knew what he was doing or where he had gone, but they all had the same thought.

He would either return as a hero, return as a failure, or disappear like a coward.

There were no in-betweens.

***

It wasn't hard for Damien to create a world.

It actually came quite easily to him.

He was new at controlling Existence, but he was a veteran in the matters of stars.

As a Celestial himself, he had personally witnessed the creation of planets, stars, and the universe.

Perhaps it was still too early for him to birth an entire universe, but if it was just a single world...?

His three main World Cores from Apeiron, Earth, and the Cloud Plane were still present in his mind. They didn't talk nearly as often since they were busy managing many processes of the Sanctuary under Reva, the Universal Core Fragment's supervision, but he could still hear them occasionally.

And he could feel their presence just as well as he could when he first bound them.

Even if he didn't remember everything he'd learned, he could revisit them and relearn at any time.

Plus, it was actually easier than he thought to make a world as simple as those in the lower universe.

Damien birthed a World Core with its laws and its foundational elements. He established a heavenly order, and as the ingredients of life spawned one after another, he sped up time to give the world millions of years to develop.

There wasn't a need to create the complex minds of living beings or the biological processes that allowed every single individual to function. A process with that level of involvement and precision would burn even Damien's mind.

Those living beings were created on their own by the functioning world energy.

They developed sentience on their own, discovered mana on their own, and eventually rose to form their own societies, hierarchies, and power systems.

The world that August entered was entirely real and entirely illusionary at the same time.

He spent a year there, understanding that he was in a trial presented by his father.

As for what he'd accomplished before it came time for him to leave...

Well, that was to be seen, wasn't it?