Chapter 1402 - Throne Room

Jake sat in meditation as he was suddenly woken up by the loud sound of something moving. Through his sphere, he saw that the huge door in the room had started opening, and a second later, the familiar projection of the Cyclops Majordomo popped into existence from the portal-like doorway.

The cyclops regarded Jake for a few moments before sighing. “You should have had time to study the material given to you, right? Wait, don’t answer; I’m just going to assume you have and live with the knowledge I did all I could to prepare you, and whatever happens next is entirely on you.”

Again, Jake couldn’t help but hope that somehow the final stage of this Central Domain scenario would involve being able to beat the damn Majordomo up for being such an asshole. Alas, as things were, he could only play along as he stood up, not even bothering to answer the cyclops.

That didn’t seem to bother the Majordomo at all as he motioned behind him. “Simply pass through this door, and you’ll join the others for the audience with the Abundant Emperor in the throne room. I’ll bring you all in together, so there might be a slight delay dependent on how fast one is to enter the gate. Which is to say that you standing there might keep others waiting.”

Suppressing his continued annoyance, Jake walked towards the gate, not being overly in a rush, nor being too slow. Soon enough, he walked through the glowing door into what was clearly a portal, appearing in a massive white void, which he could only guess was effectively a waiting room.

So he waited, and after another twenty or so seconds, Jake felt himself being transported elsewhere. The next thing he knew, Jake found himself standing within a massive hall that was naturally also cyclops-sized. He was standing with giant steps in front of him leading up to a gaudy throne, with everything made with overly intricate designs and way too much gold.

Pillars were placed down the hall, looking as decorative as they were functional, with a red carpet so thin it made the ground feel entirely flat running down the stairs from the throne, with Jake and the others standing on it.

Speaking of others, as expected, Jake was not alone for this audience. He was joined by nine other figures, a number he assumed wasn’t random but chosen quite purposefully by the system. It liked its top 10s, so it made sense that it would only send 10 to this stage.

As for who these ten were, surprisingly, Jake recognized every single person, save for one, as he scanned them.

The first one he saw was Golden Forest King, who he really wasn’t surprised to see. Jake knew the Unique Lifeform had gotten a lot stronger after evolving to B-grade, and honestly, he would have relentlessly bullied the poor guy if he had failed to get there.

Next was the Cerulean Demon Prince. Jake had met him before during this event, and honestly, everyone would predict him to make it there.

Then there was the Disciple of Lucenti, whom Jake remembered from the Nevermore afterparty. Back then, he hadn’t been entirely sure, but now he was, and he also had a feeling he should mentally rename this honestly quite majestic white stag the Chosen of Lucenti. He still reminded Jake of the Great White Stag he’d battled during his Tutorial, to the point that he wouldn’t even be surprised if they shared an Origin. Those deer did have Lucenti in their name back then. As for whether he was surprised to see the stag there... a little? Mainly due to a lack of information about the beast, though. Either way, the United Tribes had to be happy to have a member among the top ten for this side-event within the World Wonder.

Beside this stag, still a few hundred meters away, the Sword Saint stood, looking as relaxed and confident as ever. Again, Jake wasn’t surprised about this one. He was now the Chosen of the Primordial of Time, and Jake would have been super disappointed if he hadn’t made it there.

Next up was Aishalstromoz of the Regalflight. She was back in her humanoid form as she threw the white stag a smile. The two gave each other a nod of recognition, making Jake wonder if perhaps they knew each other. That, or they just recognized they were the only two beasts present. Either way, yeah, she wasn’t a surprise either. She had already been powerful in C-grade, and now as a full-fledged True Dragon, Aisha was undoubtedly far more powerful. Plus, she had a Path somewhat similar to the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord, so Jake felt kind of confident fighting her should it come down to it.

With the next one, Jake wouldn’t say he was surprised, but he wouldn’t have had anything against it if he hadn’t been there. Wintermaul, the ice elemental that was a little too chummy with Sylphie, had also qualified and was looking around the room, appearing a bit perplexed. Jake had a good idea who he was looking for, too, but she was just one of several he had expected to see.

Jake had expected someone from Valhal to show. He hadn’t expected that someone to be Warlord Davion of Valhal, whom Jake recalled had been one of Carmen’s party members in Nevermore. Instead, he thought Carmen would have been the one in the room. However, now that he felt the warrior’s aura, he could understand why he was there. He couldn’t say the same about the next person, though.

William? Yeah, that one definitely surprised Jake. How the fuck had the metal and karma mage made it to the throne room? Sure, Jake knew the guy was stronger than he let on, but he wasn’t that strong, was he? He definitely stood out like a sore thumb among all the others present. Then again, the more Jake thought about it, the more it seemed his presence did make some sense. Karmic magic was really fucky, and the antechambers had all been huge free-for-alls, so maybe he’d found some way to mess with people and just ensured he was the last survivor? He would definitely ask William later, but for now, Jake was more focused on the tenth and final person.

The Eastbound Monk.

Jake had never met this man before, only heard rumors, and now that they were in the same room... he didn’t get it? Out of everyone in the room, the one giving off the weakest aura was by far the Eastbound Monk, and Jake wouldn’t even have recognized him if he hadn’t seen a projection of how he looked before coming to the Central Domain.

Usually, Jake was pretty damn good at judging how powerful people were, even if they purposefully tried to hide it. He could feel that everyone else present was pretty strong, William included, but the Eastbound Monk felt weaker than even the average elite. Something that made Jake feel some genuine unease, because when he imagined fighting the monk he felt... unsure.

Something was whispering in the back of his mind to be careful, yet his other senses told him that the monk wasn’t dangerous in the slightest. Perhaps it had something to do with his utterly non-threatening aura. Everyone tended to leak some bloodlust or killing intent if their Paths even had a shred of killing in them, yet with the Eastbound Monk, there was nothing. Like a total pacifist who could never hurt a child, he stood there praying, looking upset more than anything while inside his own world of prayer. Hugely different from everyone else, who was either scouting their surroundings or checking out who else had made it to the room, Jake felt several presences scan him, and eyes lock on him.

The ten people in this room were definitely powerful, but it also made Jake realize just how brutal the antechambers had been. Where was Carmen? Sylphie? Dina? Casper? Lopas? Others from the C-grade Nevermore Leaderboards? He also knew several other factions had powerful people present, yet none of them had made it to this stage. Then again, should he be surprised, given how insane the antechamber culling had been? Going by how many geniuses had been slaughtered?

Shit, he’d taken out Azal and the Chosen of the Heartsoul Daolord himself, two people who no one would have been surprised to see present either. The only thing Azal could at least be a little happy about was that the Holy Church didn’t make it either, which was bonkers in itself. The largest faction in the multiverse had failed to have a single person in the top 10 for this event.

It should also be pointed out how crazy Earth was if it were considered a stand-alone faction. Four of those present in the throne room were from Earth, and if not for the culling leaving only ten alive for this stage, if just twenty would have made it, he reckoned at least two or three more would have been added to that number.

Another noteworthy observation was that half of those present were humans. Jake, the Sword Saint, William, Davion, and the Eastbound Monk were all of the human race, and while it was the most populous race in the multiverse, it was definitely an outlier that half of those making it to the end of an event like this were from the same race. Well, unless some cooperation or something like that was involved in why one got there.

Granted, it also played a role that some race-specific groups weren’t very involved. Jake hadn’t seen a single member of the Endless Empire despite knowing they were in the World of the Exalted Prima, and while he wasn’t sure whether the Automata were present, he hadn’t seen them either. There was also the Starborn who tended to do well in events, but given this one was limited to early B-grade, they didn’t have anyone low enough level to take part.

As Jake was in thought, considering semi-useless things, no one else spoke either. The Eastbound Monk was in silent prayer while everyone else considered who else was there, while generally being unsure what would happen next. They had all been teleported to the throne room, but nothing else had happened since, and more than a minute had already passed.

Jake also couldn’t see what else was going on, as the entire throne room was its own little dimension, with the only way in and out seemingly being two huge double doors. One behind them, which was more like a giant gate than any kind of door, and one off to the side in front of them, behind the throne. It wasn’t difficult to guess that the Abundant Emperor would be coming from that door; the question was when.

Also, yes, his desire to punch the Majordomo in the nose was only increasing by the second, as why the hell had the damn cyclopes rushed them all so much to get done when the Abundant Emperor clearly wasn’t ready to receive them either? Wait, why was Jake even taking this entire scenario seriously? It was clearly some kind of scripted event, and he could only assume that this waiting period was intended. Perhaps even some kind of test.

Given they had just gone through a grueling fight and had been fully healed, it wasn’t far-fetched to assume they would fight again, except Jake remembered the rules for the throne room, and one of them was definitely to avoid fighting. Spilling blood on the carpet would be poor etiquette, after all, even if it was already red.

One person who didn’t seem to have read the poster on how to act suddenly got very loud, though, as a voice echoed through the hall.

“Where is Miss Sylphie? Who has dared to raise a hand against her?” Wintermaul’s voice echoed through the throne room, full of anger, which only annoyed Jake, and based on the Sword Saint frowning and the Forest King slowly turning his head towards the ice elemental, they weren’t fans either.

Jake didn’t like Wintermaul, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t curious. Sylphie was strong. Very strong. He wouldn’t say she was quite at the same level as the King or the Sword Saint, who had both had a great growth spurt recently, but she wasn’t far behind. Though in truth, he was more curious who had taken down Lopas, as that sloth had seemed incredibly dangerous to Jake during their brief encounter.

Also, wait, where was Eron? Wasn’t that dude practically immortal? How hadn’t he managed to survive a free-for-all fight? The only explanation was that he hadn’t been part of this event or something, but Jake couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t have.

The room was quiet even after Wintermaul asked. No one showed any strong reaction to the question, and no one else was doing anything except the Eastbound Monk, who continued to hold his prayer beads and mumble to himself.

As Jake was trying to read everyone, he suddenly felt a telepathic poke from William to form a link, and as he did, he realized he wasn’t the only one on the line. The Sword Saint and King were also mentally connected through the karma mage, as the Unique Lifeform was the first to speak.

“I’m surprised to see you here, Heretic mage. Your karmic magic must be more powerful than I imagined. That, or you managed to somehow find yourself in an antechamber with complete weaklings.”

Jake concurred with those statements as William answered.

“I was fortunate that I found myself in a scenario where my skill set was enough. However, that’s not why I reached out,” William said, sounding a little tired, the reason for which became clear immediately. “I scanned the karmic traces on everyone here besides us four and have some insights. I estimate that Davion had the easiest antechamber of those I scanned, while the others, especially the Demon Prince and Wintermaul, had fairly difficult antechambers, given the depths of the karma left upon their souls.”

It seemed like a bad time to interrupt and ask about how the hell karmic depth or whatever worked mid-explanation, so Jake kept quiet, a part of him having already given up trying to comprehend the concept of karma, as the mage continued.

“Yet by far, the one who carries the most karma is the Eastbound Monk. It’s so heavy it’s nearly hard to comprehend. I recognize traces of the Sylphian Hawk, the newly appointed Ghost King from Earth, the Runemaiden, Lopas, and so many more... and I feel a profound sense of regret from him. A desire to repay the karmic debt.”

Yeah, Jake still didn’t at all understand how all that karma stuff worked, but he did understand that despite feeling like the weakest person in the room, the Eastbound Monk had killed some of the strongest people involved in this event. That in itself was already shocking, but what was more shocking was that he’d faced them together.

At least Sylphie and Carmen would have teamed up to face him, yet they had lost. While Jake believed he could also take both of them on at the same time, it sure as hell wouldn’t be easy.

“If we are to fight, I would advise caution,” the Sword Saint added. “In fact, while it may sound cowardly, it would be preferable if this stage does not include combat. An arena like this is far too chaotic. Even though I would love to fight the monk, this setting wouldn’t allow for a proper duel.”

Jake did agree with that one. The throne room was big, yes, but if the ten of them started fighting, it would quickly feel small, especially when people began using their stronger skills. It was inevitable that fights would spill into one another, resulting in a big free-for-all.

As Wintermaul was still looking around the room for who could have dared hurt Sylphie, something finally happened. After two and a half minutes, the door behind the throne swung open, and rather than reveal a portal, an entire back section of the throne room instantly appeared within Jake’s sphere as if it had spawned into existence.

Finally, Jake saw who he believed to be the Abundant Emperor, and as he did, his eyes opened wide in realization when he saw who else was there... because it appeared that, somehow, the number of Administrators who’d made it to this stage wasn’t ten but eleven.