That was a disaster

  I contemplated while looking at the pale blue sky of our dimension. At Least we tried , I thought trying to comfort myself, that was a huge reality check. I had an inkling that they would resist but I didn’t think they would do so as vehemently.

  “So what do we do now “ I asked my team

  ‘ We can either confront them , avoid them or persuade them “ Zhil replied

  So our options are the same, huh. Taking into account how well our little persuasion act just went , I probably couldn’t persuade them.

  “ we should avoid them “ I iterated to my friends

  “How” asked Oolia “Doesn't the gate reopen where you last left it”

  “That's correct , since I only did a 1/4th model the first time we’ll be able to open the gate again in 12 hours .Though this dimension is my biggest yet, because it is twice the size of the spatial gate at full power, so 10 meters.”

  After a small moment of silence Letothero asked me “Alioth i don't really understand your grand plan of world peace. But you do know that you’ll have to kill at some point right. The way things are looking, some point is going to be once the gate is available.

  With an air of smugness he continued his lecture. “ If you really want to do this, why not wait until You reach a rank where you actually have enough strength to start your project, all kingdoms are built upon bodies.”

  A rank where I had enough strength? What rank would that be exactly? Though modest, what I really meant was how much more killing it would be. If we tried to run then I put my team at risk for sake of my newly formed ideals. Though if i just kill the whole floor then what have i even learned . Glossing over my team a flash of their dead and dismembered bodies went through my mind. I couldn't live with that , i was more then willing to defend my team , but then

  AGHGHH my logic went in circles.

  Was there really no way to prevent such needless violence.

  “Alioth i believe the Demon is correct. You are only C rank if you were still D- rank then you wouldn’t have Leto therefore you wouldn't have the dimension that you are currently seeking in refuge in right now. I'm in full support of your dreams regardless of what direction you turn, but I cannot support such a child's swing at this. Do you really believe you will be able to keep and check citizens of your kingdom that are more powerful than you.”

  That was another good point. In my heart I kept flip flopping . I wouldn't put my friends in unnecessary danger but how could i avoid killing thousands. I couldn’t allow myself to look at denizens as resources ever again.

  “You can’t” a disturbed voice from the void whispered in my ear

  That jolted me wide awake as I turned around. A crown made of what looked like a red demon skull said to me .

  An intruder I cried out

  Not a second later the whole squad turned towards me. I wish I could've said they were battle ready but they were clearly just confused .

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  “Is that a floating crown “ Gabla asked

  “Calm down Child, don't you recognize your own benefactor. It's me Eldritch , the one who owns your soul”

  Eldritch?! How the hell did he manage to invade this spatial rift. This place wasn't as safe as i thought it was

  “Why are you here! And most importantly how”

  The floating piece of equipment before me didn’t have eyes nor eyebrows and thus it couldn’t make expressions. But I had the notion of a feeling that he had a sarcastic look on his face.

  “Child you never learn, do you .You sold your soul to a descent. It would be more odd if I didn't make an appearance once in a while , i'm like a landlord checking up on my property.”

  Pretentious jerk as always , but I could see the grounds for his reasoning.

  Sighing I accepted my fate “ So what brings someone from such a distinguished background such as yourself here “ I said, faking a bowing motion. This guy technically did own me , in a way.

  “I was watching from my domain and quite frankly it's sad to see you suffer like this. I can tell the

  Weaker way of thinking has taken hold of you again. I'm not here to tell you what to do with your life but I will tell you your struggle is pointless as you cannot remove suffering but tyrannize your way of thinking onto your subjects. You will only shift the paradigm and create new problems.”

  Great, now everybody's a critic. Still he offered me no alternative , so I completely ignored this suggestion. I wasn't going to let the way things operated now continue , i get it, I might have to get my hands dirty . My hands were already dirty , I'll have to bear with those sins for the rest of my life. I wasn’t stupid i can see that if this floor alone was offering this much resistance . I could visualize that higher ranking more competitive denizens would not submit willingly.

  “So why are you dressed up like a crown, got a thing for jewelry suddenly?

  “Child, you're not funny. This crown is going to save your ass. It's some of my old gear before I was sealed into some asscrack in the middle of nowhere. Once you wear it a full set activates, giving you a staff robe and ring. Thank me later , it's more of an investment than anything. I couldn’t allow my precious soul to get damaged.”

  Grabbing the airborne crown I felt its oddly dense and heavy intricate engravings.

  “Heavy is the head that wears the crown Alioth , the longer you take to make decisions the harder it gets for you, anyway tootles ” He said as the crown stopped being magically imbued , It felt even heavier than before strangely enough. I'm sure that means he only temporarily possessed the crown.

  “ He's right, Alioth you need to make decisions on more than just killing or sparing. To build a kingdom you need to manage food , shelter, morale , education ,city and much more. I believe it would be wise to advance in the ranking so that you can fully commit yourself to running your future kingdom. I would suggest talking to the avian people one last time and if not it would be best to eliminate them. I know it goes against your moral system but this way you can profit both ways. Either A you gain new citizens or B you gain experience to bolster your power leading you to gain new citizens in the future. If you’re serious about this, no loss is a small one.”

  Zhilsiza offered his guidance

  Stepping back inside myself, I thought things over. A few thousand denizens want to kill me.

  Mhhhh , The smartest option would be to kill them in groups , that gave me 100% experience , so i can use them to gain rank. Since they’re a few thousand S rank might even be in reach. That all depends on how hard the bell curve straddles after each rank up. So I had to commit more genocidal acts , in hopes of using my newly gained power to peacefully recruit citizens next floor. Still I wanted to talk with them just one more time , maybe they’ll be easier to convince,.. Oh yeah that would put my partners at risk.

  I think the solution consists of me bringing only Zhil to negotiate with me the last time , if they try anything fishy i dark impulse then skedaddle back into the dimension .I could order Leto through telepathy so nothing to worry about there. Oolia wasn't that proficient at fighting crowds, Gabla and Leto were basically useless. So they would be better suited to stay here.

  I explained my plan of bringing Zhil with me and they were ok with it. The only person who disapproved was of course Oolia. With a little reassurance they all accepted the plan. I was blessed to have such supportive friends. I have to remember this is all in order of a better world , so I had to consider it a necessary evil if you will.

  “Oki!” Gabla said while cheering me up “now that you're done with that we should discuss the role of each of us in the kingdom. It seems weird that I'm the only one in charge of rations. We should split the work in respect to our strengths. Also how are you going to make people join us when we don't have any housing or food set up .Actually we don't even have an economy . “

  Holy cow I could never even think of half of this stuff on my own. Gabla's attitude was always cute and mischievous but I could see that she was highly intelligent .I was the youngest here if we didn’t count Zhil who literally shared a consciousness with millennia year old dragons.

  “Gabla has this down better than I expected . I can be in charge of the military, that's more than likely my forte.”

  “I will join Oolia as another general “Zhilsiza gave his command

  Couldn’t really argue with the guy , all that was left was Leto .Considering he was solely responsible for the matain's of our whole dimension I chose to leave him out of affairs. I tried at least but he insisted

  “ I’ll be a teacher , with millions of years of life lived , i am best suited”

  Couldn't argue with him either. Really if he thought the role fit him why take apples from a horse's mouth.

  Now to the last thing that was bothering me. I looked down at the demon skull crown and fortified my mind for what was coming. Knowing Eldritch he was not one to play pranks on me , he said that it contained his old equipment from before he was sealed. Still you could never be too careful with a guy like that , for all i know it would turn me into some hulking abomination.

  Breath in, Breath out I put on the crown.