Chapter 215 – Simply

With the show of an absurd level of strength, everyone present realized that there was nothing they could do stop these robots. Just by looking, they could sense the powerful mana that flowed through them all. However, there was one detail that they picked up as well. 

'These really are robots. They have no souls.'

The Dark Knight couldn't pick up on any souls. After gaining the magical powers they did, humans naturally realized the existence of souls on their own, and that wasn't counting the mysterious Seeker program that infiltrated everyone's devices to give them valuable knowledge on the new mystical world. 

While normal people couldn't sense souls, the most powerful on Earth had begun to. However, none of them could sense anything of that nature among the robots present. Not even the Avatar who spoke to them had it, although, they weren't sure if that was because he was so powerful as to simply mask himself. 

None of that was of any consequence though. These robots were exceptionally powerful, so defiance wasn't an option unless they wanted to start a war. Knowing that, the Dark Knight put away his swords, as did the rest of the people present.

"Alright, Avatar."

"I'm glad you can understand. My king does not wish for conflict. In fact, even if you resisted and attempted to fight us, we would merely remove your hindrance from the area and continue. In this way, I can assure you that none of your lives are in danger."

"..."

The Dark Knight was silent. Although he was about to point out how awfully arrogant that was, the tens of millions of robots in the air made him choke on his words. Whoever this king was, he had the right to be so arrogant. 

"Hey, who is this king of yours?"

Suddenly, the girl in red armor, the vice captain who stood beside the Dark Knight, spoke up questioningly. The Avatar looked at her for a second before answering.

"The king does not yet wish for his identity to be disclosed, for the sake of the people he is close with. However, you will know soon."

The Avatar spoke cryptically. But as if his words just flew over the girl's head, she asked again.

"How soon?"

"...At the latest, the king descends upon this world in a month. In that time, he has much to do as he is moving an entire population across worlds."

"How big is this population?"

"A few hundred million."

"Wha...?"

Everyone's eyes went wide. Moving a few hundred million people across worlds? They couldn't even imagine how that could be done. 

"As I said, the king has much to do. Luckily though, you all will not be totally ignored. He has chosen me to be his emissary, so I will be accompanying you all in whatever you wish of me. Within limits of course. So, any more questions for me?"

"..."

Everyone was still silent, both attempting to comprehend the power of the king behind the emissary and coming up with questions to ask.

..........

......

Like that, several days pass, leading to the 10th day after the opening of the portal. 

In that time, the rest of the world had come to know about these new aliens. It naturally couldn't be kept hidden since massive cities were being erected, and after a few curious observers came and took some videos, the subject quickly went viral, stunning everyone. 

After that, tens of thousands of people were coming to see the new cities and aliens. They swarmed the area, but with the robot guardians, nobody was able to disturb the construction. Not even secret agents could try to sneakily infiltrate the place. They still stuck around though, documenting every movement with their devices. 

The first thing that stunned everyone was the cities. After only a week of construction, 5 separate cities covering many miles of land were almost entirely built. Each of them towered hundreds of meters into the sky, creating 5 new spires on the planet. They could compete with Earth's biggest cities already, and that was only after a week.

The cities covered a few tens of thousands of square miles when looked at as a whole, and naturally this took up a huge amount of space. During the process of building, anyone who was in the way was relocated. The robots had actually cleared out several small towns, displacing several thousand people. All of them were pissed, but when they were built and taken to new residences, as well a given copious amounts of money out of nowhere, they eventually accepted it. After all, the houses the robots built them were really nice. And it only took a day for them to have a new home. 

Even other installations were moved. Military bases? Gone. Observatories? Relocated. National reserves? They were reserved just for Dream! Nothing in the vicinity of the cities was kept, and not even the military could prevent the swarms of robots from removing them. 

That wasn't all though. On the 10th day, a massive object was suddenly flown to the city. It was actually a Tree!

This tree was the one within the Haven, and Dream had done much work to take it out. He had to cut all the roots and branches from the trunk and then fly the trunk over to the planet. As for the roots and branches left behind, they would be used as fuel for the Tree so it could regrow itself in its new home. 

And so, the trunk of the Tree was flown and placed inside a prebuilt container in the center city. The Tree alone stood over a thousand meters tall, and it was a historical sight to see it flying in the sky and expertly placed within a city. 

After that though, all the branches and roots were brought over and merged with the Tree. There were two people who actually helped with this process: Luna and Vythica, the elven Ancient. 

As Dream didn't want to waste time, he had these two go and help the Tree's growth. Luna had her [Revive] skill, and Vythica was the elven Ancient with a decent understanding of the Tree. With those two together along with the enchantments inside the Tree, they would be able to quickly direct its growth. 

So they did. The two flew down to the planet and up to the Tree. Although both of them were excited to be on a new planet and wanted to observe all the people below watching them, they suppressed the urge and took care of business. There would be much of that later. 

Going up to the Tree, both of them took chunks of branches and placed them against the trunk. The branches then melted into the bark, and the entire trunk glowed with bright cyan lines, activating the enchantments and the Tree's growth. 

Then, the Tree began to extend out. Roots started to grow into the ground, and the Trunk grew even taller. The growth was visible to the eye, but neither of the girls minded that and continued to merge the branches and roots waiting for them. 

They two spent an entire day doing this, expending lots of energy in the process. With Luna's exceptional powers though, neither of them got tired and were able to continue smoothly. 

And the result was a proper Tree. Thick roots dug hundreds of meters down into the ground and many miles outward to the buildings of each of the 4 cities, merging all the enchantments like in the Haven. The Tree also grew to over double its height, reaching nearly 3 thousand meters into the sky. Its branches then sprouted outward, creating the largest natural canopy and source of shade ever seen. Mysteriously though, the leaves were actually cyan and silver, just like the magical lines that ran up and down the trunk. 

All the thousands of earthling spectators down below were baffled by this sight, as was every single person who viewed the picture or videos online. Such a massive structure was never before seen, building or otherwise. The tree seemed to cast them all into an awakening, and people all around the world realized that big changes were coming. Whoever the aliens were, they were far more unfathomable than anyone ever thought. 

After that, the city continued to have its final touches finished, leading to the 20th day. 

On this day, Dream finally began ferrying people over. Tens of thousands of ships were loaded in the Haven, holding hundreds of thousands of people with their entire livelihoods. The first to be transported were people with businesses and luggage, and they took up the most space since they had lots of property to move. 

Once loaded, the people were flown into space, through the portal, and then down to Earth. The ships all descended onto the new cities, separating the people by race. Elf, dwarf, animal, and human were all put into each of the four cities built specifically for them.

Though, there were also many who were made aware of the central city and its significance. There, they would be able to meet the people of the new world, engaging in trade, communication, and more. While some were scared of the idea, many business owners rushed to be the first. They wanted to experience what this place had in store for them and adapt as quickly as possible, securing themselves and their families a top spot in their new world. 

Like that, everyone was taken where they wished to go and was assisted in their establishment by entourages of robots. There were literally billions at Dream's command, so he wanted to put them to use and help everyone get settled in their new home. 

Millions were brought to Earth every day, and surprisingly, they all adapted rather quickly. Having already gotten used to the bracelets and their directions, everyone was able to find their homes and know where to go to get food and other necessities. Dream had built the new cities very similar to the Haven with the same systems, so the people were all able to easily fall into place. 

This made things much easier and faster. While the business owners would have to adapt to the new place and the fact that there were now five cities instead of one, Dream was able to solve all information problems with the bracelets that all of them had. Besides, there was never the fear of going hungry or thirsty, so it wasn't difficult for people to simply wait a while as things settled down. 

.............

"Alright, I think that's everything."

Dream spoke while next to the portal. On one side was the Earth, and on the other side was the ruined world known as Kabaan. 

It was the 28th day after the portal opened. The place where the Haven used to be was now void of any previous signs of civilization, leaving a giant pit of dirt in the ground. Every single intelligent being was now on Earth. He was the only one who had never even crossed the portal. 

The Haven was moved, his factory cube was moved, the orbital railguns, the tree dome paradise, the particle accelerators, his satellites, the greenhouse for food, the mining facilities on the moon. Nothing was left behind.  

In fact, Dream had decided to take a bunch of the world's exotic species with him. He took exotic animals and plants that didn't exist on Earth and put them or their seeds in the greenhouse. With that, they would have exclusive products to use in trade with Earth as well as native food for the people in the cities. 

The mining teams on the moon were also moved to the moon outside of Earth to continue mining. His satellites were spread out over the atmosphere to gather data he really didn't need, the particle accelerators, as well as his factory, were all moved into a single place for easy access over the North American continent. Finally, the orbital railguns were placed over each side of the world. You know. Just in case. 

With all that, Dream had finally moved absolutely everything he had to Earth. The fruits of his development across a few years on another planet were brought home. 

Well, not absolutely everything. Dream, being the curious scientist he was, decided to leave a little something on the ruined planet. Where the Haven used to be was now a facility that held a million bots inside of it. These bots were equipped with plenty of fusion reactors, fuel, and infrastructure. 

Basically, he was going to leave behind a small population of bots to grow and develop by themselves, totally unchecked on this world. They had their orders and programming as well as the means to sustain themselves theoretically forever even if they didn't grow. But they would grow, and it was only a matter of how far. 

"Sometimes in the future, if I ever find the means to come back here, I wonder how much these guys will have developed."

[An interesting experiment indeed. All of them are immortal, and even if they somehow break down or deviate, they have the means to produce more bots with my programming. Although their magical abilities will likely quickly run out, they won't need it to develop. The mechanical foundation is there to carry them on for potentially millions of years. Hey, what if they turn this place into some kind of machine world?]

"That would be pretty cool. Though it's hard to see them going that far. I mean, they can't truly learn, and the chances of them deviating are low. I think they'll either expand their foundation over the planet, thus creating that machine world, or hit a rock along the way and somehow kill themselves. It's hard to tell where it will lead. Not that it matters anyway. The point is to just leave them be, so I will."

[Mm. Now, is it time to go?]

"...I think so."

Dream turned around and faced the portal. Luna and Iris were already on Earth within the city, taking care of business. The only one yet to cross over was him. 

"Having conflicted thoughts?"

Suddenly, a voice came from beside him. The bald man Carvatsch appeared next to him. 

Dream didn't mind the sudden appearance and shook his head.

"No. It's just been a long time. So many things have happened, and I'm not the same as I was when I left."

"The changes you underwent are indeed immense. From a simple human born of a simple world, to a seemingly all powerful being that could rule over entire worlds. You are a whale in a small pond."

"Yea, I am. And I don't regret anything. I would have done everything the same, probably. But... Hey, I have a question."

"I will answer to the best of my ability."

"You're powerful. Far more so than me. Although I don't know the extent of which, I have no trouble believing you could destroy a planet personally. To reach such a height from nothing. Going from a mortal to nothing short of a god...

"..."

"How do you... I guess, keep sight of who you are? Does becoming powerful require you to toss away who you were before? I know time may do that, but..."

"You're conflicted over who you might become in the future."

"Something like that. It's hard to put into words."

"Indeed, but I understand."

Corvatsch nodded, and after thinking for a second, spoke. 

"It's a fickle thing, what power does to an ego. The ones below us, mortals. They always believe that the ones so far above them are so unfathomably complex. They believe that our thoughts could never be understood, that the things we do are rooted in a grand scheme spanning all of time and space. But... from my experience, it's quite the opposite. 

Through the rise of power, we begin to lose the complexity. We begin to reduce ourselves. Only the most core qualities and aspects of a person can survive the rise of power to the highest heights. All the other aspects, the worries, the doubts, the interests in other modes of being, those are all thrown away. If they stay, one will only be held down by them as their power will be diverted toward those qualities. One must focus all their power down a specific path."

"But that in turn makes them narrow minded."

"Indeed. They throw away their mortal concerns, things like the love for their family, the lives of ones below them, and they focus exclusively on the path of power. After all, gaining power is the only focus of many. They have nothing else of value they can bring to themselves or the ones around them. But for those whose qualities consist of other things besides power, they became more devoted. Like you. You worry for the ones below you, you strive for knowledge, and you love the ones around you. When your love and drive for knowledge become more simple, what will happen?"

"...You love and learn simply?"

"Yes. Other concerns go away, and the capacity for following your heart increases. Your love strengthens, and your mind expands. So, if you are worried about your self changing, then you only need to look inward at who you are, and look back to see where you have come from. Ask yourself: Who am I, and what do I wish to become? If the answer does not satisfy you, then change your direction. If it does, then affirm yourself, and keep walking down your path. 

The level of power you are at is a turning point for many. It is a time where people must decide where they want to go, and why they want to live the way they do. This is reflected in your spiritual body, something you have already formed. Now I will ask you, are you satisfied with your self? Is the path you are walking now, and the reason you keep moving every day, leading toward a goal that aligns with who you wish to be?"

"..."

"No need to answer me. The answer is already within you. Now, if you have affirmed yourself, go and do what it is your heart wishes to do, and don't look back."

"...Alright. Thanks Corvatsch."

"Ah, no need to thank me. I only wish that you take care of a certain someone in the coming days."

"Take care of someone? Who is it?"

"You will know soon enough."

"...Okay. Then I'll be off."

With a nod, Dream flew through the portal, leaving behind the planet with the small establishment of bots. When he did, the worries and doubts in his mind disappeared, and he looked forward to his return home. 

When he went through the portal though, something unexpected happened.

[Alert! Individual has returned to his point of Origin.]

[Requisites have been met. Unlocking skills.]

[The Active Skill: [Summons From Another World] will be evolved.]