Chapter 349 Establishing A New Army
?The family spent a week together reunited, giving the various forces around the universe that had long been recruited but were busy 'repopulating' time to travel over using various battleships owned by Dante's corporation.
Antonia was much happier during this period of time, and so was Beatrice. Dante watched over them and mostly left them to fawn over each other, especially since Antonia was growing fast.
At the age of 3, she was already looking no different from a six-year-old and was much smarter than that. During the 6 months that Dante had spent with her, he had seen the occasional flicker of her physique awakening, as well as the myriad powers she inherited from him and Beatrice.
She wouldn't have much of a childhood anymore as a lot of responsibility would be thrown on her shoulder, if not for just the Eternal and Centralis universes, then for the entire multiverse that her own father would be managing on behalf of the creator.
However, this was a matter for later. Already, it had been put off long enough, so it was time to deal with the situation at hand. Dante and Beatrice took Antonia long to the corporation's military section, where things would go down.
Now obviously, it was near impossible to fit trillions and zillions of beings in one place to have a military speech and orientation. As such, all of this was going to occur through an Augmented Reality livestream for the new fighters on Dante's side.
Standing in the small rally square, dressed in their uniforms and already arranged in order, were the three original armies of the Superpowered, the Hellfire Demons, and the Martial Artists. At the front of the row were the 5 Deadly Sins; Harold, Lucian, Humphrey, Ricky, and Aisha, as well as the Gorgon, Slessor.
Within the part of space that only technology could access though, were all the other people who were semi-physically here in that they could access all 5 senses passively, but could not actively interact with the world.
When Dante appeared in front of the army, he did not adopt a stern demeanor, smiling casually. He nodded to everyone and began speaking right away.
"Hello everyone and welcome to what shall be a new force for the betterment of the entire multiverse. I'll start by explaining some things about the foundation of our universe." Dante began, immediately capturing the rapt attention of everyone with his words.
"However, the two new additions that we all treasure are actually akin to a sweet poison. Its framework is designed to drain the energy used to sustain the universes indefinitely for short term gains that are not replaced, causing a permanent loss."
Dante's eyes narrowed. "So in essence, ever since the Zero Gate and First Gate were created multiverse-wide, we have been on a timer to total extinction."
As expected, everyone began to panic internally as a sense of existential crisis of a great level befell them. They felt like the air was tough to breathe and the atmosphere around them was filled with a certain heaviness that weighed down on their bodies.
Antonia, who had been listening quietly seemed to understand some parts but did not understand others. However, the child also felt the weight of the problem and became anxious, clinging to her mother even tighter, causing Beatrice to comfort her gently.
"And this problem has an actually very simple solution. To simply capture the one causing this problem and reorganize the structure of the multiverse so that we can keep the benefits without the detriments." Dante spoke in a light tone, truly making it sound casual.
He then gestured to everyone before him. "That is why I need you. Your duty is to invade every other universe in existence and draw out one of the clones of Lara hiding there and pulling the strings so I capture them. Once I have all of them, the problem will be easily resolved."
Dante then beckoned to the side, where a bunch of androids warriors came out with an assortment of items. They were separated into five distinct groups, which each one being larger than the other.
Everyone looked to the items with curiosity, wondering what they were. They were all obscured by a thick orange lightthat seemed to make their very souls tremble with desire, but there was also an underlying feeling of wariness and danger.
"You must be wondering, as you all are, how can nearly a zillion of you from all around the universe possibly fit into one of my current three popular armies? There must not be enough superpowers, demon energy, or martial arts scrolls for all of you, right?"
Dante nodded to affirm his earlier words. "Well, you'd be right. I won't be incorporating those of you who just came into one of these three armies, but rather forming a new army based on my new title and power."
Immediately, Dante could almost taste the disappointment in the air. The denizens of the Eternal Universe had heard of the exploits of Dante's fabled army in the now-public First Gate, especially how they had torn through the Eternal Universe's enemies as well as defended their lands.
The reason why Dante's recruitment here could pull slightly over 50% of the known population of the universe was partly because of the reputation of these armies, apart from his own reputation of course.
Hearing that they wouldn't be shuffled into these armies, many couldn't help but feel disappointed, but none wanted to leave. After all, their burning curiosity towards the items Dante had brought forth and how he would use them to establish an army were at the forefront of their minds.