This Lich Requests More Remuneration
Chapter 461 - 433: The Contest Across Time and Space

Chapter 461: Chapter 433: The Contest Across Time and Space

Price Laine had a long talk with Ange Watson, and the Young Emperor showed no airs about him, but instead displayed the demeanor of a wise ruler, which even surprised Ange Watson.

The Young Emperor used to behave so differently, how did he manage to run over his own people in fear on the battlefield?

Ange Watson couldn’t understand, and could only accept the Young Emperor’s own explanation—that people only grow up after experiencing life and death.

This was the explanation given by Price Laine, that his past self was crude, ignorant, arrogant, and cowardly, and it was not until he showed such disgrace on the battlefield that he began to deeply reflect and reform.

Therefore, Price Laine began to study, to research, to redefine his grand aspirations... Ange Watson felt there was nothing wrong with this explanation and gradually accepted it.

Once Price Laine returned to the Royal Palace via the Teleportation Circle, the expression on the Young Emperor’s face changed, becoming fierce and venomous.

"Damn the traitors, why didn’t Ange Watson just kill his whole family on the spot and bring their heads to me? Wouldn’t that have solved the problem?"

The Price Laine just now wasn’t himself, but rather an ancient remnant soul from the depths of the Magic Dragon Armament—Atros the Eternal.

The Young Emperor didn’t have such acting skills. Knowing that Allen wanted to rebel, he wished nothing more than to kill Allen’s entire family, and he couldn’t possibly show a friendly face to Allen’s older brother.

In the end, the Young Emperor simply surrendered his body to Atros, allowing the former Magic Dragon Tyrant to assume control and act on his behalf.

The result was perfect, Ange Watson didn’t seem to notice anything amiss.

Atros helplessly said to the Young Emperor, "You always think killing all your enemies will solve your problems, can’t you look at them from a higher perspective? Emperor, we are immortal, we are not like those mortals, we are beings of a higher order, almost deities!

"Deities can indeed kill mortals at will, but if all mortals were slain, who would build temples for them to be worshipped? If you can never understand this, then you will never grasp the Power of Time."

The Young Emperor calmed down a bit and asked, "Is that what you did with Ange Watson? Honestly, I know you used that power, but what exactly did you do?"

Atros explained, "If you must have me describe it... you can think of it as transferring his current fondness for us to his past. The past has a big impact on a person, like beautifying the sweet memories they once touched.

"I’m fine-tuning his feelings, not the specific memories, transferring the fondness he feels for us right now into his past, and then these feelings become more vague but also more powerful. He will think his admiration and loyalty to us have always been natural, making it much easier for us to control him."

The Young Emperor couldn’t help but say, "This sounds more and more bizarre, is this really the Power of Time? Is this how the Time Dragon normally uses its powers?"

The ability to reverse time was something the Young Emperor had tried and understood, but extracting emotions from a segment of time and inserting them into a person’s past memories?

This didn’t seem like the power of time anymore; was this truly not some sort of mental Charm? If the Magic Dragon Tyrant had this ability back in the day, how could the slaves have ever rebelled? They should be worshipping the Dragon Race as their creators.

Atros explained, "Of course not, the former Magic Dragon Tyrant never needed to resort to such petty tricks, but we now possess less than one percent of our former power, so naturally we must be more careful. You should also work harder, you’ve been slacking off again recently."

The Young Emperor replied impatiently, "I get it, but what’s the use of practicing Mage Hand all day long? I haven’t improved at all after such a long time, are you sure you’re not mistaken with the method?"

Complaining, the Young Emperor still obediently summoned the Mage Hand, beginning meticulous control over this glowing hand for his daily exercises. It was said that once he could control the Mage Hand to play a delicate piece of music, he could move on to the next part of his studies.

The Young Emperor was always impatient, and Atros always had only one reply, "We are immortal, and if you cannot even accept this blandness, immortality will be an eternal torment for you."

Left with no choice, the Young Emperor could only try his best to cultivate his inner self.

Whenever he became unbearably irritable, he would talk to Atros.

Today, just a few minutes into his practice, he couldn’t help but ask, "About what you said to Ange Watson, about building an Empire greater than Laine, were you serious?"

Atros answered, "It’s not about being serious or not, Your Majesty, isn’t that obvious? We are immortal; hence the Laine Empire is naturally eternal. An eternal Empire is bound to rule this Plane, right? It would be absurd if we were to worry about an Orc invasion thousands of years from now, that would be too lazy."

The Young Emperor paused, then said, "That makes sense, correct, we are immortal, we should naturally surpass Saint King Arthur, we should naturally unify this world."

"Exactly, we have to prevail over Arthur Laine," Atros echoed.

But there was one thing Atros didn’t say out loud—that the one to truly surpass Arthur would not be his descendant, but his nemesis.

Just like the villain in all stories, not a single one would willingly become a servant to another; Atros felt the same way.

After reawakening his own will, he began plotting his own future.

Atros had long since grown weary of this Young Emperor, who was selfish, foolish, greedy, without a hint of self-discipline or willpower, and had developed severe psychological disorders due to the distorted educational methods of the Laine Royalty over the years, cruelly lacking any empathy whatsoever.

Even the Magic Dragon Tyrant of the past was only brutal towards Foreign Races; the Time Dragon was quite affectionate towards its own kind. The Magic Dragon Tyrant had enslaved other races for the prosperity of the Dragon Race, not for himself.

But this Young Emperor was different; in his heart, there was only himself.

To him, humans, Empire, everything else paled in comparison to his own importance. Such extreme selfishness is not conducive to greatness.

Unfortunately, Atros still needed him for now.

But it wouldn’t be much longer. Today the Young Emperor was willing to hand over control of his body to Atros, and tomorrow, the day after, soon enough, the Young Emperor would grow accustomed to this sensation until one day, Atros would completely take control of everything.

Atros was very patient as he often said, for he was an immortal being, in no rush for the moment.

As for the threat posed by Allen and that Lich, Atros didn’t take it too seriously either.

In his view, Allen was just a naïve idealist, whose preaching might inspire many to follow, but what if Atros, controlling the Young Emperor, made concessions?

Wrong things could be amended, and if the past mistakes were corrected, on what grounds would Allen talk about division then?

After all, the supreme power of the Empire would still fall into the hands of the Royal Family.

Perhaps there would be some weakening, the office of the Supreme Decree might gain more power, but it didn’t matter.

Because time would smooth everything out, and Atros controlled time; with enough patience, he would gradually reclaim these powers and once again become the supreme Emperor.

This was his realization over more than seventeen hundred years.

The Magic Dragon Tyrant of the past was too anxious. Even if things looked bleak, why had it chosen to duel Arthur Laine? The lifespan of a human is barely a century, while a Time Dragon is eternal.

Had it secretly joined the surviving members of the Dragon Race and hidden for a while, wouldn’t everything have resolved itself after Arthur Laine’s death?

The Magic Dragon Tyrant of old held its pride in too high regard and didn’t understand the concept of lying low for a while.

Now, Atros would not repeat the mistake of the past; he indeed planned to unify the world, whether it was the Dragon Race or any other Race, he would rule over everything.

Atros couldn’t help but recall the scenes within the Memory Crystal; that sword that shone like the dawn was all too familiar. Wasn’t it Arthur Laine’s signature technique back in the day?

Compared to other Paladins, Arthur Laine never showed off, so his Holy Slash didn’t have much glittering brilliance, it was just plain as if it were a casual swing of his sword.

But on the battlefield back then, no dragon could withstand the glimmer of dawn from Arthur Laine.

Not even the Magic Dragon Tyrant, because it represented the ultimate form of Holy Light, the true dawn of hope, having touched the essence of the Lord of the Dawn himself.

This was also the reason why the Lord of the Dawn was especially fond of Arthur Laine, to the extent that he even tried to break the wager with the gods of the Dragon Race for his sake.

When Arthur Laine discovered he had contracted the Dragon Blood Curse and that his Soul was being eroded bit by bit, the Lord of the Dawn once sought him out for a talk. The Lord of the Dawn was willing to help him lift the curse and guide him into the Divine Realm.

But the price was that the gods of the Dragon Race would not need to remain restricted and could similarly help the Dragon Race lift their limits, returning to the mainland.

In the end, Arthur Laine refused and subsequently perished completely due to the Dragon Blood Curse.

And even though his Soul dispersed, he still left a contingency plan that resulted in the newly reborn Magic Dragon Tyrant dying at the hands of the Elven King.

At that time, Atros was but a naïve being, unaware of many past events; however, as his power recovered, he was able to probe into everything that happened along the river of time.

Everything from the past, now seen by the current Atros, and the more he knew, the more he couldn’t resist the urge to surpass Arthur Laine.

How could a mere human be greater than the Dragon Race?

Atros murmured to himself, "Arthur Laine, I do hope the one in that Memory Crystal is you. You would witness your Empire taken by me, and the world becoming my possession. If I could be reborn in this form, you should be able to as well, don’t disappoint me. Let us have another showdown, this time I will use your Empire to defeat you completely!"