Last chapter, Domino Afolabi, owner of Fixed Reality Casino, presented his project called the "Soul Saver" to the leaders of the Hopian Continent.

He was overjoyed once they agreed to support his project, however that joy soon turned to despair after he was told about the truth to the Five Kings.

Ignoring the fact that his Soul Saver project would be able to save the Hopian Territory, Domino was left conflicted at what truth he should believe- that of his faith, or the government he's always trusted.

Meanwhile, in the center of the Hopian Continent...

Hopian's P.O.V.

"I'll miss seeing them think I was ever locked up..." I say to myself with a chuckle as I take a sip of my all natural green tea. With my other hand I close out of the tab on my quantum PC that was displaying Domino Afolabi's meeting with my territory's "leaders" just now, VIA one of my billions of micro-drones fashioned with cameras.

I hate the fact that I haven't assassinated Domino yet since his project is wrong... but- him using it will actually make my life easier, so I haven't intervened in the Soul "Saver"'s development quite yet. Of course I'll be confiscating the souls as soon as they enter their little digital "lands of paradise" however.

...

"I wonder if I'd be able to see Prósopsi leaving the building from up here... well it's more a matter of if I would be willing to sit here and wait for him to leave. And I don't believe he's worth THAT much of my time, so never mind." I think to myself as I stand up from my redwood desk, and walk towards the massive window in front of me to enjoy the view regardless.

I built this- or hired people to build this 100 story high luxary apartment building years ago. Which of course means that I have an astounding view from the top floor I'm currently living on. The "walls" all around me are made of reinforced tinted windows that are not see-through from the outside, since privacy is very important to me.

Of course I "breach" others privacy by constantly using my micro-drones to gather data, but it's not like my traitorous citizens deserve it anyways! ...Calm yourself Hopian, back to the present.

"Some fools call it gloomy, but if they could see this view... I'm sure they would appreciate my design." I think to myself as I admire the countless neon lights glowing in the cities below. Due to the constant darkness of my continent caused by my dome that surrounds it, the lights shine even brighter. It almost makes the ground itself look like the clear night-sky we used to naturally have here.

A fine continent, architecturally. But of course the corruption and crime taking place here isn't... ideal. Some places are filled with complete vermin. A shame but, that issue is not a major concern of mine at the moment. Once I go through with my plans, and formally reclaim this continent with my true identity- crime will no longer exist here.

I've actually been elected to lead the governmental party of my territory 212 times over the course of 3356 years, with a total of 40 different fake identities and personas. Some of the times I ran in office due to me missing my days as King. The other times I campaigned due to me realizing certain things needed to be built or fixed in this territory ASAP.

For example- the Hopian-Dome that surrounds this continent. Due to a poor president my continent had, emigration rates were soaring- which is why we needed the dome built to prevent people from leaving. And of course, I also knew that I was going to, successfully, take over the continent soon. And by building this dome, I've practically made this continent my playground for when that day comes.

Speaking of which... since Taylis isn't back yet, I'll entertain myself. I walk back towards my seat, and say "Command: Mine Detector". An instant later, my ear-implant recognizes the command- and a 25 by 25 3D board full of squares appears on my computer screen. My favourite game.

The rules are simple- use logic to determine the location of the bombs. I start to click away mindlessly, I doubt I'll beat my old record but that's not the point. The true reason I play this game is because of the necessary risks that one must take at points, it's training.

After all, sometimes I hesitate to act when the odds are too low for my liking... just like when I was defeated by my own creations 3567 years ago.

Fucking idiots! The generation of humans that beat me had so much potential. If they hadn't betrayed me, we could have colonized thousands of planets by now- we could have ended poverty and crime, ended all human suffering.

But just LOOK AT US NOW, thousands of human souls have been devoured by those disgusting shapeshifting aliens. Even now we're just feeding that cannibal our souls while it continues to destroy the rest of the universe.

It's so damn pathetic, I've even stooped so low as to work with one of the other aliens, in order to hopefully put an end to that pink monster. My lowlife Dad was too cowardly to kill that thing himself, so now I've been left to do his dirty work to save our world.

But no more. The shame will end once Dalkan breaks free. In just a few miniscule years, I'll no longer need to hide my existence from humanity- I'll be able to be praised by my people again in person. I'm tired of constantly using fake identities.

With the help of Prósopsi or Metallic- I'll even be able to unite the entire world in order to bring humanity to it's true glory. To bring us back to being at the top of the food chain like Habram intended, but failed miserably at.

...On that note, as much as I hate most of my people for betraying me years ago, they are in fact very capable- which is why I still want to use them. Quite crafty. That's why they defeated me, and I will admit- I did respect them a bit for outsmarting me, after all they're all my very own inventions.

Of course I never let them seal me away however- I ran when things looked unfavourable, and modified a loyal human's body to appear similar to mine. That is the person humanity locked away at the bottom of Vegahold Prison- and he no doubt died of starvation many, many years ago.

I've been using invisible robots made of Hesalo to chip away at "my" seal, ever since Dalkan started punching away at his. The reason being- I WANT the army to know that I'm coming. Mainly so that the Hopian Army can strengthen itself in preparation for me, since I've found that without a sense of urgency- my people can be fairly incompetent in improving themselves.

I'm hoping to take over the continent without any violence, but even if I end up having to take on the newly improved army- it shouldn't be much of an issue.

A plan that I love- and it's all thanks to that man, Maximillian, who got sealed away in my stead. I plan to build a statue of him once I rule this place under my true name. Out of respect for his courag-

"Shit- I meant left, stupid stupid mouse!" I curse, slamming my desk as I accidentally click on the last remaining bomb in my game- I knew it was one too...

I avoid the temptation to rewind the game. There's no rewind options in real life- or, well I suppose I technically do have that option but still. Even in a seemingly unimportant moment in life, for a man of my status, zoning out for a moment can be the difference between defeat and victory.

"Hey babe, sorry for being late- I'm home! You're ready to go right?" I hear my wife shout out from the front door- blegh, she always calls me "babe", such a stupid nickname. She only uses it because she likes seeing me flustered, I ignore it now because of that.

"It takes me 2.5 minutes on average to get ready, we have 10 minutes to get to Italso's Diner, and we can get there in 5 minutes. I'll be ready in time. You on the otherhand- why did you stay out on your patrol for longer than necessary? No way am I being less punctual than Prósopsi. Be quick and don't let this happen again." I respond with a sigh as I stand up from my chair, and walk past the King size bed behind me- towards my all-purpose dressing machine that's against the wall.

It's appearance is similar to a tall cylinder that's cut in two- and with it's insides being cut out as well, and instead replaced with a chair and open space above. My useful inventions aside my wife replies to my criticism,

"I know I'm late, sorry, I didn't want to leave those traumatized kids alone after they got robbed. But you're supposed to like me for my compassion..." My "superhero" wife who calls herself "Mrs. Magic" says with a fake cry from the washroom she just entered.

"I saw, and I do find your kindness very attractive. But this meeting takes priority over your patrols, I told you this yesterday so that you wouldn't get overly distracted by anyone today..." I explain as I take a seat on my dressing machine's chair, and my weight immediately turns the device on. This of course causes two robotic arms to start combing my wavy dyed navy blue hair for me.

...My wife Taylis doesn't reply to my last comment- and so I press a button on the side of the metal machine and open my mouth. This causes a highly advanced toothbrush to extend from my left, and a container of teeth whitening tooth paste to extend from my right. It starts to brush my teeth efficiently- the tongue too even.

"Mm!" I mumble as my comber pulls my head back and starts to spray gel into my beard, and so I slap the mechanical arm. This makes it retreat.

I enjoy grooming my beard myself, I don't know why I haven't taken that function off of this machine yet... then again I have more important matters to attend to than that.

"Hey Hopian- you know where my Hair Curler is?!" Mrs. Magic shouts to me and so I turn off the toothbrush early, and spit into an open hatch that's beneath my feet on the bottom of the machine. The impact of the spit causes the hatch to close and for the toothbrushing limbs to retract.

"Your hair is fine as is Taylis- you don't need it." I reply, I hid it before she came- no way is she making me late this time around. I don't understand how she's ever late in the first place, I wouldn't be surprised if she does it to get a reaction out of me... something I'll need to fix no doubt.

"Come on please? I want to look pretty, my hair got messed up on my patrol today, look!" She says with a pout as she stomps into our bedroom in her red dress and glossy high heels. She has her makeup on, as well as a beautiful pink-brown lipstick that matches her dark skin. Her hair is... a bit unorderly I suppose.

"You look beautiful. As for your hair curler, fine- you can use the one in the... phasemobile." I say with an eyeroll at that last bit, the "phasemobile" was certainly not named by me.

"Yes! It's been so long since we've used my baby. I'm ready except for my hair by the way- so look who's making us late now!" Taylis says as she points at my unclothed self- well unprofessionally clothed self, I'm still wearing pajamas of course.

But to prove her wrong, I maintain eye-contact with Taylis and smirk as I press a button to my right- causing two "limbs" to come out of the machine and take off my pants- which makes Taylis blush and start to laugh.

"Fishing for compliments too? I know you're big, stop being dumb- oh wow." She starts to say as she shakes her head in disapproval- then gets surprised as the clothes I loaded into the machine yesterday get ejected, and begin to get put onto me by at least eight different limbs.

With a few leg and arm raises- I go from looking like an uncivilized ape, to having the appearance of a King.

I take a step off of the machine's platform and turn around- looking at myself in the mirror attached to the back of it. My dark purple suit and dress pants match the color of my eyes, and my glossy black dress shoes are acceptable. Also, my buttoned up navy blue dress shirt is visible near the top of my chest and under my suit, along with my purple tie.

"Wow, handsome." Taylis says as she walks up behind me and wraps her arms around my shoulders- one perk of my height being slightly lower than average.

"Command 100-A." I call out- causing the window that's in front of my desk to slide up and open. For the more risky and revealing commands, I make code-words and memorize them- unlike for when I turn on a simple game for example.

Distaste aside, I step forward and take Taylis' hand and we start to walk by my desk. I stop as we arrive at where I left my pills- and so I grab my cup with leftover tea in it, using it to swallow down the pills.

If I'm going to make a better impression on Prósopsi, I'll need to force myself to be less judgemental (even if my judgement is deserved). Hence why I took those pills- they're filled with ingredients that are quite similar to those of the marijuana plant.

"Babe- seriously, shouldn't we get to the elevator now? What's u- ah!" My wife squeals as I start to run towards the open window as I pull her along with me, and she seems to get the idea as she jumps out of it with me.

"Exit Command 100-A. Command: AirStair: VC." I say as I pull my smiling wife into my arms and start carrying her bridal style. A moment later, two small jet-powered metal squares come flying down towards us from the "sky". They position themselves underneath my feet, and slow our descent until we're not falling at all.

That is until I jump off of the squares- and start to use them how they're intended to be, with one square at a time repositioning itself beneath one of my feet every six meters down. And so I have some efficient fun as I continuously jump down to each floating "step" at an impressive speed gained through experience, as well as through my cybernetic enhancements.

...

I keep a stern face as Taylis keeps on laughing and hugs me tightly, luckily I made her dress quite tight so that it wouldn't blow in the wind.

"Sub-Command: C-PM. Under and left." I shout after a bit more jumping, which causes the garage at the ground level of my apartment to slide open. A few seconds later, the black... "phasemobile" drives itself out of the garage, and positions itself underneath us and to the left.

"Always a show off, you'll probably have to fix your hair again too you know!" Taylis laughs as she digs her face into my neck, and I smirk as we're approaching the ground now.

"I have to prove I'm King somehow. Exit Command: AirStair." I call out- which causes the squares to fly up and away as me and Taylis start to freefall for a bit. That is until I stop our descent manually- by using the soul of the universe to control the gravity around us, allowing us to float a few inches above the ground.

I turn my powers off, causing me to touch the ground in which I let Taylis get down onto her feet again. Afterwards I walk towards the passenger door of the car, and open it for her. She steps inside, and so I walk towards the drivers side- and briefly smirk at the group of people near us who seem shocked by what I just did.

...Finally, I get into the dimly lit self-driving car as well.

"Command C-PM. XY: 'Italso's Diner'. Sound: Off. Hm..." I stumble as I forget how to activate the no-roads option command, I haven't used this vehicle in so long...

"Unconventional travel." My wife reminds me,

"I knew that. Unconventional Travel." I say- but the car doesn't start moving... Taylis starts to laugh at me, and I give her a glare...

"Kidding kidding, just wanted to see how prideful you were. You don't have to be embarrased about not knowing some random commands- it's not like you're Dalkan. The command's just Phase Travel." She finally says as I hide a slight blush and scoff.

"Not funny. Phase Travel." I say, continuing off of my last command- and finally the car starts to move after adjusting it's angle automatically.

"ETA?" I ask as we start to quietly phase through the houses and people in our direction, more specifically with the car driving in a straight line through any objects in our way so that we can reach Italso's Diner much faster. And of course the car is fitted with invisibility technology, which is activated autimatically once the phase travel command is initiated.

"Four minutes, 27 seconds." The implant in my ear replies to me.

Good, so now to fix our hair... and our potentially wrinkled clothes.

A few minutes later of robo-limb hair grooming, and beard grooming later...

🌃     🌃

"Hey Hopian. Who do you think would win? That pirate lady Adesia, or Amandeath with her second Blessing activated?" My wife asks one of her many who-would-win questions that she no doubt knows the answers to herself... but at least she's practicing disassociating from the criminals she hunts down.

A few years ago, my wife couldn't even bare to talk about the wicked people of this continent. But for our job- and especially hers where she's constantly surveilling every part of this continent using my micro-drones, that was unacceptable. So, she had to learn how to not get personally effected by the scum of the earth and her encounters with them. Thankfully she succeeded.

Anywho, I play along with her question regardless for my own entertainment, "Amandeath would defeat Adesia. If I recall correctly, Adesia's style of fighting relied on her slowly wittling down her enemies- flinging her flaming blood at her opponents to cause painful burns. Once Amandeath's second blessing activated, she could get as close as she needed to to put a bullet in that agile woman's head." I briefly explain as Taylis looks into my eyes with a smile.

"Even bloodlusted Adesia?" She asks, using a term from the internet...

"Gross. What you mean is an Adesia who's very angry, and willing to kill Amandeath. Yes even then I'd still bet on Amandeath. Would you?" I ask.

"Yep." She says bluntly as she looks away... I don't understand how these questions are entertaining for her. I suppose not understanding every part of your partner, is what makes relationships interesting however.

"Also... Hopian. I know you're my boss and all- and I'll always follow your lead. But, I have to say. The way you didn't guarantee to help Metallic and all yesterday, it kind of rubbed me the wrong way. We could have stopped Quilline from joining them there and then. A lot of people may get hurt because of them working together..." Taylis explains as she looks out of her window.

"I know. It must have been difficult for you to leave things like you did. But like you realized, that was a test for Metallic. Now we know that if I do work with him- I'll have to make him my slave, since he has no proper morals." I explain, but my wife doesn't seem any happier...

"I wasn't lying, when I told Prósopsi I would help him come up with solutions for this alliance." I explain, which does seem to make my wife a bit more pleased.

"That's good. Well... I'll just have to trust you I guess. You're more logical than I am." Taylis says which does make me feel a shred of guilt, even if I plan to prevent civilian casualties if possible.

After all, I will most likely have to stop Taylis from going after Quilline for a bit of time. Since if Quilline is taken out too early- then Metallic may not live long enough to use the Emperor form against Prósopsi.

I need to know who's more capable between the two. Both are fair options... I could make Metallic far stronger than Prósopsi, but he would be mindless. Or I could work with the more intelligent and cooperative, but weaker Prósopsi. He is training however... but still.

It's a tough call. Which is why I'll just make them fight and pick the survivor, that will tell me who my most efficient "companion" will be to help me save the world.

I suppose I shouldn't get too distracted on this right now however. After all, this dinner meeting with Prósopsi is just to get my wife into the army. As well as to get Prósopsi to know me better, so that when I finally reveal my true identity- he'll be more willing to work with me.

...

"I'm watching Seric. Nothing new." My wife says just before I'm about to ask- ha, she's almost like a real mindreader at this point.

"You always ask that question to break the silence." Taylis says which makes me a bit annoyed... but not enough to react. I metaphorically bite my tongue and reply,

"True. It's the smart thing to do though, knowing what we do now about that freak of nature..." I say, as I can finally see the sign to the restaurant in front of me.

A/N: Thanks for reading!