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Ruler Vol 6 Chapter 1

Author: Anit666

Editor: Weasalopes

【3rd person’s POV】

Strong gusts of wind blew and brought sandstorms with them. The scorching hot rays of sun fell on the barren land, and nary a cloud was visible in the clear sky.

The dragon closed its eyelids to protect them from the sand particles and opened them after the sandstorm had passed.

Wherever its gaze went, it was always welcomed with sand. The sun was dispiritingly high and it hadn’t rained for quite a lot of time, so it was hot enough to melt bones. However, as someone belonging to the highest ranked species, this degree of heat was nothing more than a comfortable sauna for the dragon.

So it snuggled up closer on the top of the watchtower of this ruin which had once been a castle, and closed its eyes to sleep.

Suddenly, its senses picked up a presence. Judging by the mana signature, it was a human. He did not seem to be wary and was making his way towards the castle in a nonchalant manner, so either he did not know about the dragon, or was overconfident of his abilities and thought he could deal with it.

Of course, lowly presences such as this one wasn’t even worth a glance, so the dragon continued waiting for its descent into the dreamworld.

Some time passed, and the human finally arrived at the castle. By now the dragon was feeling drowsy and was about to fall asleep, so it didn’t bother to open its eyes for the human.

“Dragon!” The human suddenly shouted, seemingly addressing the dragon perched atop the tower. “I have come for the Princess!”

…What is he talking about? Instead of flying into rage over being woken up by an impertinent human, the dragon was simply confused.

It mused about how to deal with the human, but being a magnanimous being, it decided to handle the situation in a civilised way.

“Look around you.” It raised its head and looked at the tiny human. “This castle has been a ruin for millennia, while I took abode here only a few months ago. Clearly, there is no Princess here.” Satisfied with its response, the dragon lowered its head and closed its eyes.

However, it seemed the human wasn’t done yet. It walked closer and shouted again.

“But Shiggurath, you are my Princess.”

“Hueh?” The First Dragon, Shiggurath, groaned stupidly, and suddenly, with a poof she turned into her human form.

Just then, the human appeared in front of her, grabbed her waist and pulled her closer till their bodies were touching each other, and with a snap Shiggurath realised the identity of this man.

“How are you doing, baby?” Sam winked with a warm smile.

“W-w-w-w-w-what are you doing?!” Her face felt feverishly hot and for some reason, she couldn’t look him in the eyes. “U-unhand me at once!” She wriggled, and Sam let go of her.

“I see…” He sighed and his head drooped. “As I thought, you hate me. I’m sorry.” Tears collected at the edge of his eyes, and he turned around.

“Ah!” She panicked at his sullen reaction and embraced him from behind in her confusion.

“Shiggurath?” Sam mumbled in a meek voice.

By now, she was panicking so much over her bold yet inexplicable actions that she thought her heart would burst. Her eyes were swimming around and she couldn’t find her voice.

“…I-it’s not like I hate you…” She buried her face in his back and eked out in a small voice.

“Really?”

“Y-yeah…”

She couldn’t understand her own actions, but some part of her was clearly relieved to be with Sam.

He turned around and faced her. With one hand he returned her embrace and with the other he lifted her chin and looked into her eyes.

“Then what do you think of me?” He asked, sounding hopeful.

“That’s…” She blushed and averted her gaze. “D-don’t ask me something like that…”

“Then you can just show it to me.”

With his mutter Sam brought his face closer to hers until their breaths mixed into each other’s. It was only a moment later that Shiggurath realised what Sam was intending to do.

Wait wait wait wait wait! Her mind raced, and so did her heart.

“W-we can’t do this!” She exclaimed.

“Why not? Aren’t we partners?”

“We are not that kind of partners!”

“Then we simply have to become one.” He brought his lips even closer, and Shiggurath continued to panic.

For some reason this was her first time, and she was totally inexperienced in these matters, so it was only natural for her to be anxious, especially when Sam was being this aggressive.

Her body continued getting hotter and hotter and her eyes swam around. Her mind was in a disarray and she entered a state of delirium, until-

She opened her eyes.

A familiar white ceiling covered in crimson engravings greeted her. She blinked a few times, until her ragged breathing calmed down and she realised the situation she was in.

“Ah, it was just a dream…”

It had been a construct of her own mind. Sam hadn’t declared her his Princess, neither was he going to kiss her. She felt relieved, yet disappointed.

She shuddered; why was she disappointed? Because it was a dream? Because Sam wasn’t going to steal her lips?

As if…. She muttered in her heart.

It was impossible no matter how she looked at it. She couldn’t possibly look at him that way. This was probably the craziest dream she’d ever had.

Either way, she decided to keep this super embarrassing dream to herself. To think that her first slumber after Sam’s departure around 2 months ago would bring about such a result. She still couldn’t sleep without him.

As Shiggurath rolled around on her bed while trying to determine whether she should go back to sleep and risk continuing that dream, two men sat opposite each other in an extravagant room, their eyes locked into the air.

Bathed in the light from the chandelier above, they used every ounce of their acumen to determine the other party’s move.

Finally, one of them, the man with flowing silver hairs and azure eyes, made his move. According to his wishes, the piece hanging in the air moved diagonally up to the left.

“You are getting better.” The other man sighed in admiration.

“Still not as good as you, I suppose.” The King of Gods, Meteron Lockheart, sighed in disappointment as his move was countered flawlessly.

And so, he started racking his brains again to get out of his current predicament.

“Well, it won’t be long until you reach my level.”

“I find that hard to believe.” Meteron smiled sheepishly and continued thinking about his next move.

The King of Gods and that man were currently playing a game. In simple terms, it was 4^th dimensional chess with coordinates for both space and time. The board was replaced by a cube which was divided into 936 smaller cubes and a single large cubical space in the very centre.

Each side had 40 pieces, and the headpiece was the player itself. The pieces were created after the great figures of the past and the present, including the Adjudicators, the First Dragon and the Dragon Emperor, and even the Ten Asuras.

And finally, there was a Wild Piece that was activated upon meeting certain hidden random requirements. Upon entering the battlefield, the Wild Piece would move autonomously and attack both the sides in order to completely annihilate them, and defeating it was very difficult.

Needless to say, this Wild Piece was crafted after the Terror of this Universe, Samuel Hayden.

“If you can’t reach my level, then no one can.” The man chuckled.

“You exaggerate. Though, even if I can’t reach your level, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Meteron smirked and brought his ‘Daughter of Death’ to the edge of the centre battlefield.

The moment he did so, the entire cube started glowing with a red hue, and a vortex of black smoke appeared right in the centre of the stage. The smoke dissipated with a shockwave, and the Wild Piece made its appearance.

“Heh. So do I.” The man moved his ‘Severer of Fate’ to a corner of the cube and completed his formation.

Meteron and the man immediately formed a truce to bring down the Wild Piece, and they eventually succeeded at it. However, Meteron suffered much more losses than the man due to the latter’s formations and lost the game.

“So, my moves were seen through, huh.” He smiled bitterly.

“Well, keep working hard.” The stage of the game disappeared, and his expression suddenly turned serious. “Now, how is our Rabbit doing?”

In response, Meteron straightened his back as well.

“Samuel has done everything we expected him to do. He’s going down the path laid down for him.”

“I see.”

“That is to be expected, of course. Samuel’s future was set for him by none other than Einstein. He simply cannot escape his fate.”

“He’s an existence outside fate, remember?” The man furrowed his brows.

“Ah, my apologies, Sire.” Meteron courteously bowed his head. “Fate would be the wrong term, I suppose. Samuel cannot go down any other future, because no other future exists; there is only one future this Universe can follow.”

“That is true. But the problem isn’t Samuel; it’s Hargreave.”

“Surely, even he wouldn’t realise that their path has been set?”

“You grossly underestimate him.” The man sighed. “There is a reason why he is the creator of the System and the bringer of the First Miracle. He must have deduced what we’re doing and should be making plans to foil ours. And if he has Samuel with him, I daresay that their chances of victory aren’t zero.”

“0.00000000000000000001% is usually rounded off to just zero, you see.” Meteron chuckled.

“No, even that is too much. But again, that’s why I’m here.”

“Fair enough.” Meteron nodded in understanding.

Meteron knew that if it was the man in front of him, every single plan that Samuel and Jack could come through would be futile. The more they’ll struggle, the deeper they’ll fall into his trap until they’ll finally meet their doom.

In fact, if it was just killing them, then this man would have been done with it a long time ago. It was precisely because their goals were so different that they had to go through such troubles.

“Anyway, how is our Carrot doing?”

“Phiria seems to be coming around, but doesn’t she love Samuel? So-”

“It is precisely because Phiria and Samuel love each other more than anything else that they are incapable of making any other choice. They’ll do what needs to be done, and their actions would mark the beginning of the final act.”

“Ah, I see.” Meteron nodded and smiled. “Yes, you are right.”

There was a certain cunningness in Meteron’s smile, and the man was hit by an intense déjà vu. He had seen that smile somewhere, but he couldn’t remember where.

Meteron gazed at the man’s eyes for a moment, and sneered in his heart.

“Well, I do have a backup plan in case something goes wrong.”

“That poor soul, huh?”

“In a way she was responsible for Samuel’s current condition, so I wouldn’t exactly call her poor.”

“Until you found her and put her in that role.”

“I guess I cannot argue with that.” Meteron chuckled.

“You remain as perverse as ever.”

“You flatter me.”

“That wasn’t a compliment.” The man sighed. “Anyhow, you worry too much. As I said-”

“Yes. Yes, I know.” Meteron averted his gaze and looked at the scenery outside the window. “Phiria will make that choice.”

Won’t you, Phiria? He snickered in his heart.