The Systemic Lands
Chapter 641: Day 5,197 – The Blessed Pope

“Emperor Michael, welcome,” Blessed Pope Emeritus the Third greeted at the airship port personally. I noted he had three Paladins around him, but they were clearly not trying to make any hostile movements towards me, with their weapons sheathed and their hands at their sides.

Checking the number of stats they had, they weren’t a threat to me as far as I could tell. They were slightly above my personal guard in terms of strength, but that just highlighted the massive difference in stats.

“Pope Emeritus,” I greeted him back politely. The man was not someone I liked. White robes and a fancy hat made me want to chuckle, since I was wearing casual short sleeves and shorts with combat boots.

“Please, just call me Emeritus, Emperor Michael,” he said with a smile. That was the fakest smile I had ever seen anyone put on. No one wanted me to visit in the slightest. Especially another nation. My very presence was a threat and a warning.

“Very well Emeritus. We are stopping to resupply before I continue on my journey. And I wanted to show the flag so to speak,” I said, making my intentions clear in regards to warning him. As for clearing the towers, he didn’t need to know that. I was actually impressed he had showed up to the airship port so fast. It still took him about a minute to get here after we docked, but he clearly took my presence very seriously.

“Of course. The hospitality of my city is yours to enjoy, for both you and your people. It is late, so I would offer you a room and dinner,” he said. I considered the offer. This man controlled the second largest nation in the Systemic Lands for the foreseeable future. He was clearly a schemer but killing him would create unneeded chaos.

While I wanted conflict to handle the population issue long term, it needed to be kept as manageable as possible. I also didn’t want to deal with unnecessary headaches. It would be good to give him a warning and show him that I had no concern for any plots before moving on. “I accept on behalf of the crew and myself.” I turned behind me. “Captain Francis, you can assign people as you see fit. Make sure people are on their best behavior,” I added at the end.

“Yes Emperor Michael,” he replied with a salute. It didn’t take long for five soldiers were trailing behind me. Michelle wanted to stay behind, while Captain Francis would be giving leave to the soldiers while restocking provisions. That meant I would be handling this conversation on my own.

“I heard there were problems to the East. Is there anything I can do to assist?” the Blessed Pope asked me as he led me towards his palace. I walked by his side without worry.

“Keep our proxy fight to the unclaimed cities,” I replied bluntly. If he made a move against any city controlled by my government then I would act directly.

“And the other nations left to the North?” he asked. He clearly wanted to be the only other nation, except for mine. He was opportunistic. I had no doubt if I died, he would swoop in. I was glad he was willing to speak clearly. I didn’t want to parse through double meanings and hidden statements.

“I have spoken to The Leader recently and will not be interfering in your war. How you two conduct is a matter between the two of you. As for the Indian Sultanate, I have not spoken with them, but I will be keeping the same distance,” I replied. I had been doing a lot of traveling to get towers. There were two more towers left on the West side of the Systemic Lands.

My total count of towers was now at now at eight. The next two would put me at ten total towers. “Don’t you worry that if you die, there will be war?” Blessed Pope Emeritus the Third asked me bluntly.

“Trying to figure out how much military might is behind be?” I asked back.

“It is interesting that you have supreme confidence in yourself, but it seems like your government would be unstable,” he answered. I shook my head at this.

“It is stable for the very fact that I am the strongest. I am surprised by your Paladins being willing to serve you,” I countered, and he just smiled back at me. I was tempted to just punch his face. It just felt very punchable for some reason, but I resisted. Instead I delivered a cutting remark.

At least people would have a comparison for me long term in how we both managed our respective nations. Emeritus focused on soft power and structure. I had no doubt he wasn’t inferior to Clarissa in any way and might even be superior.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

I focused on hard power instead. That kind of power didn’t desert me. It also meant that against hostile forces like the sphere I could do something, instead of being helpless.

“I am the supreme religious, moral, and political authority. To deviate from that would jeopardize everything. And there are systems put in place if anything does happen to me,” he countered back. “I heard that you lost over half your cities to an unknown attack.”

I considered how to respond to this challenge. It was an interesting question. I didn’t plan on sharing everything, but I could share some tidbits. He was clearly fishing for information while striking back on my capabilities as a ruler. It was honestly amusing. If the sphere had been in his nation, it would have no chance and wouldn’t be able to recover.

That was where my extreme popularity and strength played a role in terms of managing the crisis that had occurred. The caveat being that as long as I was alive things would remain stable. The moment I died or went missing for a very long period of time, things would become unstable. I knew Clarissa had plans, but they were but worse solutions compared to my very presence.

“Something from outside the Systemic Lands. An alien lifeform that is hostile to the System itself. I managed to defeat even if I suffered some serious injuries in the process,” I calmly replied. I could tell he was evaluating the comment about the alien, and me being injured. I knew he had some idea about my combat level. He could only imagine how difficult such a battle was. There was a moment of silence before Emeritus spoke once more.

“I notice you didn’t use the past tense or say that you killed it,” he said. I smiled at that statement. It had been on purpose. I was impressed he picked up on it. This kind of allusion was fun to use when you weren’t being subjected to it. But that was the benefit of being the stronger individual and leader in this discussion.

“It may still be alive. The mysteries of how things work in the Systemic Lands are deep and varied. You have only tapped the surface with summoning,” I countered, pointing out how far behind his nation was technologically and informationally. I was handling external threats while he was struggling to digest all the cities he had taken.

“Ah, summoning is such a useful thing to sweep large areas,” he replied. I could tell he was probably raging inside. But he didn’t dare offend me. It was honestly both sad and hilarious. If I was in his shoes, I would have been immensely frustrated. That was why I preferred the path of hard power, rather than having to bend my head to every idiot I had to talk to. And yes, I was the idiot in my own example, but I was toying with him in this conversation to an extent.

“And fails at the higher levels. That is why summoning is not the focus of our combat doctrine, like it is yours,” I countered. I referred to my forces as a whole. Since summoning was one part. But with all the different monster arenas and training schools, summoning skill was incredibly high on my side of the Systemic Lands. We had more than enough counters if his forces tried anything.

“I would not think of challenging your Empire. I was merely commenting on its usefulness to bring large low-level areas under control,” Emeritus replied.

“That is understandable. Swarm tactics are quite useful at the lower combat levels. But once you get far enough, you need raw power to break through a monster’s defenses,” I replied.

“I hate to press, but I am curious. Did you learn anything from this alien and what was its nature?” Emeritus asked clearly bringing the topic back around to something he wanted to know. I couldn’t blame him for that, everyone wanted to know more about this place.

“A sphere of energy, possibly a decoy to its true body. As for talking about things, it only commented on the fact that we were part of the Almighty System and it would target us for that,” I said. I used the word ‘us’ here to convey the fact that it was hostile to all human life. “There was an attempt to get more information, but beyond confirming the existence of the System and alien intelligence, there was little else.”

“And it is still alive. That is concerning. If something like that shows up here, I hope we can reach out for help,” Emeritus said. I considered that request before nodding.

“If it is an alien threat, then we all need to ally. If there is other information that comes up, I hope you would be willing to share like I have?” I asked him.

“Of course. While we might be leaders of separate nations, we are all God’s children stranded here,” he replied. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. We were trapped here by a powerful System with questionable intelligence. I didn’t mention how much my faith in the System had been damaged. Its Almighty title was in serious doubt at the moment.

We continued to chat as we were shown to a suite of rooms for myself and my guards. After that we were invited to dinner. I noted that Emeritus matched my numbers by bringing five of his Paladins to the dinner to match my five guards. We both sat in the middle of the table next to each other, while our people alternated seats on either side of us.

“Paladin John, Emperor Michael. I hope it isn’t too forward of me to ask for a spar against you, to see the difference in our abilities,” he asked. I considered that question and then shook my head.

“The fact you have to ask and can’t discern that, shows the massive gap between us. You are around high combat level four, possibly low combat level five. As for me, it isn’t even a contest. You aren’t within striking distance. If you can’t beat a level 7 monster, then there is no point,” I replied with a shrug.