End of one Chapter (1)

After I had talked with Hela for some time, Grayfia arrived after approximately half an hour and similarly to Hela, she immediately hugged me, contrary to her usually stoic and cold facade.

Fortunately, we were here alone, so there was no problem with showing affection.

When Grayfia arrived, just at that time, Hela was telling me about the creation of a new position in the entire warmachine of the Chthonian Empire's military, which was termed as the Chief of Staff.

Basically, a person who had authority over all standard and even some of the non-standard military branches.

This was done because it was noted that sometimes the communication between various branches of the military was having problems; thus, it was decided that there was a need for a department that would oversee all of them.

And, of course, Hela nominated to the position of the Chief of Staff Arthur Pendragon because he was most suitable for the position.

Surprisingly, she managed somehow, together with Grayfia coerce Vali to be the new Lord Marshall Militant, which was shocking. I never thought I would see him getting any other position aside from the Commander of the Khaos Brigade.

This managed to increase the efficiency and coordination of the Imperial Army even further because previously, the coordination depended on various commanders and how they cooperated with each other.

Right now, the orders for each conquest were given straight from the Chief of Staff, who ordered who would fight with whom against whom.

With a clear chain of command and structure, which increased far higher efficiency with the conquests and also defense of the territories of the Chthonian Empire of the Baator.

Easy as that.

After that, Grayfia immediately turned to her official mode because she started reporting to me all of the things that happened during the ten years I was unconscious and, most importantly, the approximate time before all things were finished so we could launch the Project Universe.

"How long before we manage to digest everything from the Ancient Eternal Star Region?"

I asked, aware that with the exodus of the factions of the Ancient Eternal Star Region, the Chthonian Empire of the Baator obtained direct control over hundreds of planes that were once under the rule of the Hegemonial Races of the region.

Not only that but right now, even aside from the Ancient Eternal Star Region, there were a ton of places across the Astral Boundary Universe that were under the rule or influence of Tier 12 experts, which right now disappeared.

This meant many resources needed to be extracted, processed and used.

Of course, this would greatly enhance the overall strength of the Chthonian Empire of the Baator and also the Baator as a whole because even the wider populace of the Magical Beasts was increased with each ransacked plane.

"Centuries... even with all current industrial capabilities of the Empire, the territory we are directly controlling is enormous, not to talk about the planes which were directly don't control, but are without any significant backer and we could effortlessly take them. Right now, we are doing everything we can to move at 120%. We have approximate data that the living standards in the Empire will slowly double if not triple for commoners in the next two hundred years."

Right now, almost all of the resources that the Empire obtained were re-invested into the Military Sector of the Empire, and only so little went to the civilian sector.

Though this would soon change because even the nation itself couldn't handle all of that, so Senatorum Imperialis decided to open and sell some of the planes to the Noble Houses, merchants and rich commoners.

"That is understandable... we have time. Right now, we are in a weird period of peace, but soon enough, the Psionic Beacon will lure something into the Astral Boundary, which will destroy this Universe for all. Send down orders to cease for now unnecessary conflicts and focus on the defense of our territory and improvement."

I knew that this would be a time of peace, prosperity and improvement; even for me, I would need to search for opportunities somewhere else, probably in the other Universe.

Of course, there were some places, especially in the Shao Universe, where I had some matters to resolve.

Now that I have reached Tier 12, I can force my way into the Shao Universe and dispose of all the enemies that would hinder the Project Universe because I planned to use the Shao Universe as the founding material for the new Baatorian Universe, or rather how I was tempted to call it, ?!?.

"We will proceed slowly, but there are still many concerned about the Psionic Beacon and the possibility of invasion of the Astral Boundary Universe once more, like with the Hivemind."

Grayfia stated, and I could agree with her because this was also my biggest concern. It seems that I would need to deal with Mercurius far sooner than anticipated, but...

With my current powerup, I was strong enough to confront him head-on.

Of course, I was still reserved about that because Mercurius was slippery as a snake; while he wasn't a fighter, he was extremely powerful, not to mention he was very sneaky, always preferring to use schemes and plots to achieve his goals.

Yet, there the greatest scheme that Mercurius was plotting would soon become his own demise because the Tarot would gladly help me to use it to kill Mercurius if I could repair the Tarot.

So it would be most prudent to get things moving because I knew that soon Mercurius would start scheming against me in more intent and direct way in an attempt to kill me.

"The Psionic Beacon is hidden somewhere well, probably in some place where only he has access, but even if we destroy it, it would be technically useless because the signals have been already sent."

I stated because searching for the Psionic Beacon is useless, doing so would consume a lot of resources and effort and bring the Astral Boundary maximally only a few centuries of time; nothing significant would be achieved with that.