Last part, Prósopsi continued to train with Aphrodite- using his full power, as well as starting to learn how to fly.

The training was cut off however, as Prósopsi remembered that he was already gone from his office for too long.

He was also not looking forward to the meetings he would have the next day. Speaking of which...

One day later, inside of the Hopian Government's conference center...

Founder and CEO of Fixed Reality Casino, Domino Afolabi's P.O.V.

"Don't worry- our politicians aren't really two-faced, they're about the same as what you've seen on TV." Head Commander Prósopsi tries to comfort me with a pat on the back, as me and him are walking through the glittery gold-carpeted, and white walled hallway of this government building. At least the art on the walls is nice...

"I see- right, yes that makes sense." Is all I say with a gulp as I fix the tie to the navy blue suit I'm wearing. If I screw this up, it'll have a HUGE effect on my business... and by that I mean not getting the support I need from the government for my life's work. And barely knowing what we'll be discussing sure ain't easing my anxiety here...

"Right, but Domino, um... it's what we'll be discussing, is what you should be worried about." Prósopsi says as he looks away from me- well fuck... this is gonna be fun isn't it?

"My Kings and my creators- please help me through this... I'll be able to help millions if they approve of my tech here. Please. Let it be written in Hesalo." I say a little prayer, closing my eyes as we reach the big doors, with beautiful dark spirals being cut into wood.

"The second I walk out of here, I'll either be devastated or the happiest I've ever been..."

Prósopsi opens the door to the dark candle-lit room, with a long table surrounded by people being in the center of it. Uhh- not what I was expecting... I've got a weird feeling that I've been thinking of this meeting the wrong way.

Prósopsi gestures for me to go ahead of him as everyone in the room stares at me, and so I quickly step inside... um... shit I can barely see where I have to sit, it's so dark in her-

"Second chair to the left." Prósopsi whispers to me which I subtly nod my head at- appreciate him not making a big deal out of it. And so I finally walk towards my seat.

"What the... wow, well I'm sure not complaining." I think to myself as I realize that all of the seats here are basically navy blue leather recliners. I try to slowly sit down- but due to my weight and age, I fall a bit less gratefully than I'd hoped for.

"Welp- one strike."

I don't start talking yet- I asked Prósopsi before, and he said that you should wait to be spoken to with these folks.

"It's a pleasure to meet you in person, Domino. In case you're confused about the... odd setting here, Head Commander Prósopsi argued with us to change the style of the room to suit your tastes. He said it would make you more comfortable- I hope he's right there, since barely being able to see is not ideal." President Arthur, leader of the Hopian Territory says which makes a few of the people here quietly laugh.

"I see, was wondering about that. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, this room is very nice- I'd say it even beats Fixed Reality's luxary dining rooms. Thank you, Prósopsi." I say, looking around to find him until I realize he's sitting right next to me with a smile.

"I was going to even have this be a full-course meal but, I have pla-"

"Enough, yes yes I'm sure that your meal plan would have been great. I get that you're trying to lighten the mood Head Commander, but we do not want the tone of this meeting to drastically fluctuate. So, Domino. To make sure that we're on the same page, please tell us about your "Soul Saver" machines." The President continues, and so I clear my throat and get ready to say the speech I've practiced hundreds of times.

"I'd be honored to. You see, the "Soul Saver" idea came to be when I realized how many people in this world were born into awful circumstances. Whether that be having no loving family, or being born into poverty as some examples. Of course- the government has their hands full, and can't save every last one of these people. But. With the Soul Saver? We can make that a reality, and not only do the right thing morally- but also economically." I start my speech, glancing around the room to see if anyone has any questions so far- none yet and so I keep the train going.

"What the "Soul Saver" does is pretty well in the name, I tried to make it simple despite how complex the tech is." I say- then glance down at the table to press the projecter button that I was told in advance would be there.

...

...

There we go- phew, looks like my slides got sent to the IT team properly yesterday. Thankfully, the first rectangular slide of my presentation is shown into the air in a blue hue- showing off one of my Soul Savers.

It still does kinda look like an electric chair, with the arm-locks and metal bowl that goes over the person's head being a part of the machine. But the glossy white paint on it, as well as the shape of the "dome" lowers that similarity down a tad.

Anyways, thankfully no one's laughing and so I continue, "This- is a Soul Saver. The person's arms are restrained in order to stop any potential injuries to the body, and their head will be secured by the appendage you can see above. Once the machine is is turned on- and the two priorly mentioned steps are completed, the person's soul will be transferred into one of our many simulations. Not the brain, but the soul itself. For example..." I say as I press the button again, going to the next slide.

I hear a few gasps as a beautiful, sunny forest is displayed onto the screen- along with a few people, or souls setting up a tent in it.

"As of now, we have 20 vastly different environments that people can be sent to- some of which are similar to the Hopian Continent, just in case anyone gets homesick." Two hands go up as I continue to click through the slides,

"Yes?" I ask and point to the well dressed woman with a pony-tail who raised her hand first.

"Will people be able to swap between these environments at will?" She asks- which kinda hurts, going right for the flaws.

"Good question- technically yes, it IS possible. But- the person has to request access for the swap a few months in advance. Sending a person to a new environment is much more difficult once their soul is already in our database, you see." I say- almost cringing as I say "database" since it sounds so cold.

The woman nods, and so I look to the other man who had his hand up.

"If a hacker with bad intentions were to gain control of your systems, hypothetically what is the, um, well worst thing they could do?" The man asks- which confuses me... a really weird question to be honest. Vague at least.

"Hmm. Well- I suppose the worst they could do is manually swap someone to a new environment. That should be about the worst. Turning off the simulation is pretty well impossible due to the extremely advanced cybersecurity, and "permissions" system we have in place. Every time a change is proposed to be made in the system- multiple senior members need to approve of it. And even for the highest ranking workers we have- even they need multiple approvals before they can change anything of importance." I respond, and the man continues,

"I assume that there is a feature for souls to be removed from the system? Are the same restrictions in place to prevent a hacker or an ill-intented person with access, to wrongfully delete a soul?" The man continues, and I quickly respond,

"Right, we have that in place for when a person wants to end their life and meet their makers. Since we can imagine no one'd ever want to be immortal, even if it is possible in our systems. As for your second question, yes, even more security checkpoints exist in regards to deletions actually." I respond, which the man nods at. Phew.

I look around again- no more questions. I continue after adjusting myself in my seat,

"The best part about this system however, as you may know, is the fact that souls don't need any real nutrition. But ironically- we have confirmed through our tech, that souls do still have the five senses. So if a person wants to enjoy a digital five star meal- they request it, and a few seconds later a plate, fork, and the sharpest knife possible'll be created in the simulation for them. Even a table could be if they were willin' to wait a bit longer." I explain with a smile, since that's one of my favourite parts about the Soul Saver.

It's like the same as developing a game, just adding in whatever the "players" want to play with. Course I've got no idea how they let people taste 1's and 0's in a system... amazing stuff, my workers are talented.

Regardless another hand goes up, and from the President this time- uh-oh. "Yes?" I respond.

"This all sounds excellent, however out of curiosity how do these "summons" work? Like with the forks and knives you mentioned." He asks as he rests his double chin on his hands- ha, I'll take an easy question.

"Ah great question sir- everyone'll have a sort of "phone" that will be attached to their soul. They can choose to keep it on their person, or they can say a command-word of choice to summon it into their hand, or to unsummon it. From there they can enter in whatever their hearts desire, just like on an internet browser. For the more advanced requests our scientists will manually add in what the people need. But for the smaller ones like candy- it's automatically done by the system." I say, then continue before the man can respond-

"One more thing. In the simulations, souls are definitely not translucent and untouchable- since we realized that would ruin the realism aspect of the environments. Hugs, kisses- everything that's possible in our world and more is possible in the Soul Saver environments." I say which the President raises his eyebrows and nods at- I think I'm doing ok!

"And to be sure- Prósopsi stated that you only understand this technology at the surface level correct?" The President says which brings down my mood a tad.

"Yes, but I'm trying to learn more about it on my freetime. But you're right- I'm no scientist, I mainly handle the funding of the project, and the business side of it as well of course. My Casino is the main priority, since it's what makes the money we need for the project, as well as the energy needed to run the Soul Savers. I came up with the concept, though." I say with a small frown as I scratch my head.

"Fair reasoning. Yes- you use people who gamble their lifes away as a power source if I'm not mistaken, correct?" The man says in a monotons voice, which catches me off guard and makes my heart jump-

"No, well- ok yes technically. They know full well what they're getting into when they decide to gamble their lifes to us though. And we do treat our... "residents" with class. But yes, my wife's grandma's Blessing lets her convert the energy of one's soul, into electrical energy. So she's constantly slowly draining our willing "resident's" energy, and filling our power supplies with it. It gives her purpose, you know- so she likes doing it for me as a job, and to support the cause. Bless her heart." I say with an awkward laugh.

"I see. And after she passes, we can take over the power generation aspect." The President says which I nod gratefully at, sad to think of her going though.

"Very good presentation Domino, I'm not sure it I speak for everyone but I find your project miraculous. Based on what I've seen of your project before and today's meeting, I am fully willing to fund- and support the Soul Saver." The President says which makes my eyes start to water, and Prósopsi lets out a small cheer for me.

"Thank you- my Kings and Creators- thank you! Those life's I've had to ruin and bankrupt to fund this project, the people I've had to keep locked away to power this project... it won't go to waste!" I think to myself with a bow- oh Gods, Dazzline should finally be happy with me now...

"You believe in the Five Kings, right Domino? They're an important factor as to why we're supporting your funding, so we found it best to discuss them, unfortunately. To make sure you know how important this project really is." The President asks, and suddenly everyone in the room seems to tense up for some reason. Anyways,

"That I do! I think they're the reason why I got to where I am today. In fact- I didn't mention this, but the Soul Saver should be able to redeem criminals even!" I say with a smile as I wipe the last leftover tears out of my eyes, the President just sighs though... huh? Oh no- did I fuck up?

"I'm sorry to say, but that's extremely unlikely. As you may have guessed, there are many things that the government knows- and hides from the public. The biggest secret being that- the Five Kings are certainly real- BUT. The scripture the public reads is... not fully accurate. The true scriptures have been hidden for thousands of years by the ruling parties." I gasp in joy, but get confused by the last bit.

"Wha- hold on- what?! Ok, OK OK OK- sorry just, wow... but... what did you mean by the first and last bit there?" I say as I try to catch my breath- it's not good for my heart to beat this fast but, holy shit they're real?! I mean, I had a lot of faith that they existed but- knowing 100% is just... wow. Can't even explain it.

"...I'm sorry Domino. But humans we're never "ungrateful" to the Five Kings like scripture states. Their unwillingness to love their creators never drove the Five Kings to suicide. The original "sacred" texts of the Five Kings were rewritten, in order to hopefully spare the future generations of people to a sentence of eternal hell. More specifically, they were rewritten in order to hopefully make society praise the Kings." The President says which makes me pause and raise an eyebrow, but I'm still too excited too respond.

"The simple truth is that humans were slaves to the Five Kings."

"H-huh?" Is all I can manage to ask... did I miss something?

"For example, the first generation of humans in our Territory did everything Hopian asked of them. They even worshipped him, and many died for his ludicrous causes as well. But they were too inefficient for his tastes, and so he murdered them, and created a new and "improved" generation of humans. And he repeated this process, over and over again." The man says which makes my jaw drop, but my confusion soon turns to anger-

"I know this is a lot, but please- Domino, just listen." Prósopsi says as he puts his hand on my shoulder- what- even he's buying this crap? Prósopsi doesn't lie normally, especially not to me... but... no- this is complete bullshit!

"As I was saying. Everytime Hopian made a new generation of humans however- they did become smarter like Hopian planned. But also with their improved intelligence- they started to slowly revolt against him. This came to be Hopian's downfall- as one day, the 23rd generation of humans were just barely able to overpower- and seal Hopian away, due to a mass-combination of Blessings. I'm sure you have many questions, Domino." The President has the balls finish-

"Sir- I'm sorry, but I'm not buying a single word coming out of your mouth. For one- explain why the great pillar Vega still gives out Blessings today, if the humans sealed Hopian away? And why would he give us Blessings if he thought we were so imperfect?!" I shout as I cross my arms- holding back the urge to say a bunch of nasty shit to this guy.

"Domino, calm yourself. As for your question- before the humans sealed Hopian away, every one of them had Blessings. This was because every human was made with part of his soul. And after Hopian's defeat- out of spite most likely, he transferred all of their Blessings to the pillar Vega. Humanity didn't know how to get these Blessings back for centuries." The man explains with a stern face... no one else in the room is going up against him...

Fucking hell. I trust the government, they've helped me so much but... but putting them over my own faith?

"C-can I have proof?" I ask, being meek instead of angry now... it scarily makes sense... in a way. From what I've read some lines of scripture did seem kind of cold. Like the parts about only helping those who praise the Five Kings, which I thought was just there due to the writings being so old... I don't know if that's even the case now...

"Yes. We can even show you video-evidence of what we've recorded, from when our scientists have used Blessings to view the world thousands of years into the past. The rest of the Five Kings except for Rosian are just as vile as Hopian, it seems. Dalkan and Cobran are worse, actually." The President says as I shove my face into my palms and try to hold back tears.

Prósopsi takes over, "I'm so sorry Domino- but the bad news doesn't end there. The reason why we chose to support and help build your project, is because the Five Kings... they aren't dead yet. Hopian's seal is breaking- and we've also sent some scientists over to the Dalkan Territory. They discovered that monthly, continental wide earthquakes are occuring there. And the origins of quakes- are right above Dalkan's seal. They're breaking free after all of this time." Prósopsi says which makes me laugh, as I cry at the ridiculousness of all of this-

"Why, please tell me why the fuck  you're telling me all of this?" Is all I ask- I don't care enough to filter myself now.

The President responds, "Because your technology will let us save the Hopian Territory- maybe even the world. The main reason for why those fat and sad registered citizens exist- is because we were already preparing to make technology that's similar to your Soul Savers. And so, we're hoping that the advanced chairs that every registered citizen has- will be compatable with your Soul Saver software."

"To sum things up Domino, we want to store every citizens soul in the Soul Saver environments. More specifically, before Hopian breaks free and most likely kills or enslaves all of us. You're going to be a hero with this invention- and we felt that you deserve to know just how much you're helping the world by doing this." Prósopsi says, but I'm still crying- fuck all of this... I wanted to be a hero, but not liks THIS.

"Haaaaaaaaaah... So, so what will we do with the people who don't get into the server on time? Just let Hopian kill them? My wife completely hates the idea of the Soul Savers- and since I'm assuming I can't tell anyone about this, she's so screwed..." I whimper.

"By all means- we're going to fight like hell against him, and the rest of the Kings too. We've already made an alliance with the Dalkan territory, to work together against whatever King breaks free first. That is, if negotiations fall through with the Kings... which, unfortunately is more than likely going to be the case." Prósopsi says in a stern tone... well... at least I can still hope that our original two universe-creating Gods are better off than the Kings...

"What're our odds of winning?" I force myself to ask Prósopsi as I try to stay strong... I need to know this for Dazzline. And for my kids- they WILL go in the Soul Savers, fuck Dazzline's beliefs on the machines.

"Assuming we have to fight? Not too great. 300 million humans, all with Blessings- just barely managed to take down Hopian thousands of years ago. There were only about 50,000 of them left after they won. We have far more weapons, and of course robots at our disposal today but- they don't exactly make up for Blessings. And even worse, I hate to say it but- there's a chance that King Metallica may off me before the Five Kings even wake up." Prósopsi gives me the grave rundown... just great.

"I'm... still not fully believing all of this. Not yet... I don't want to go to hell, man. Damn it. How long do we have, until they break free? And why can't we just build over the seals?" I ask, I hate that I'm "giving up" on my faith so damn easily... but I'm not taking any chances when it comes to my family's safety.

"You will believe us, once we show you the evidence. And about three to five years for Dalkan- five to seven for Hopian. We haven't had enough contact with the other territories to know for them, but we have had a few talks with the Trinian Territory. As for your second question- the material that the seals are made of are far, far stronger than anything we can make. As an example, Hopian's seal is the entire massive "stone" pillar that makes up the foundation of Vegahold Prison." The President explains... shit, so that's why it's so tall and wide.

I hate that this is starting to make some sense... and that I'm logical.

A/N: See you next time!