System's POV

After a few hours, all the important matters had been addressed, and the meeting was adjourned.

Thirteen left for his room, where he opened a portal to the Domain of the Apocalypse, intending to check on Erasmus' progress.

After taking over King Astrion's body, the Death Lord had focused on extracting the King's soul for his memories, which would be their key to gaining the upper hand in their planned invasion.

The teenage boy proceeded to share the content of the earlier meeting with his former Host, after which they brainstormed on the most effective way to conquer the world of Artem with the least sacrifices.

In the end, they both agreed that Erasmus would push through with infiltrating the Royal Palace as the King of Artem and taking control of the military.

To make him more convincing, Thirteen convinced Azoh'Dar and the seven other Named Azothralls, who had decided to take control of their own destiny, to accompany Erasmus back to Artem.

With them around, any suspicions regarding Erasmus would be shot down. After all, the Azothralls were now a recognized strike force in the Artemian Armed Forces. It might be suspicious for the King to return alone, but if he had Azothralls as an escort, the setup would seem natural.

"Still, you slept longer than expected, Thirteen," Erasmus said. "Did you have a good dream?"

"… I guess," Thirteen replied, a hint of sadness in his voice.

Erasmus noticed this, but decided not to pry any deeper. Instead, he asked Thirteen another question.

"So, the Wanderers and the Jinns will no longer accompany you to Artem," Erasmus frowned. "Even if you have me and Cranky, you shouldn't underestimate the Artemians.

"After all, their technology is nothing to scoff at. In fact, they might even be more advanced than the Wanderers in this field. I hate to say this, but we truly lack manpower for the invasion."

Thirteen nodded in agreement. The weapons, armor, and artifacts the other side will use in the war were indeed a threat they couldn't ignore.

The Artemians might still be hiding more powerful weapons in their home world, which they couldn't bring over to Pangea.

Even a Celestial could get injured by Athena's beam attack from space, so they shouldn't approach this counterattack lightly.

"Don't worry about the manpower," Thirteen answered. "I will force—errr, recruit some Jinns from the Antares Continent to fight for us."

"Hahaha! I like the sound of that," Erasmus chuckled. "Do you need my help?"

"Yes," Thirteen replied. "Can you finish extracting King Astrion's memory in a week?"

"I'll do my best." Erasmus looked at the soul trembling in his hand. "This guy has a lot of secrets, and they piqued my interest. But I'll make sure to finish before we head to Antares."

They talked about a few more important matters before Thirteen returned to Pangea, planning to look for Mikhail next.

He could have talked to him right away after the meeting ended, but he wanted to talk to Erasmus first.

Finding Mikhail wasn't hard since Athena constantly monitored the location of Thirteen's family members.

With Rocky's help, they quickly reached Mikhail's coordinates—a small valley, six miles away from the city.

When they arrived, the teenage boy took some time to observe his brother, who was sitting under the shade of a tree, looking very happy and content.

Seated beside him were two young ladies, cuddling him from his left and right sides.

They were none other than Rianna, who was Shana's sister, and Siri, who had confessed her feelings to Mikhail and was planning to form a marriage alliance with the Leventis Family.

Thirteen had practically raised his brother when he was still in Pangea, teaching him how to fight, as well as to handle women.

He made sure his brother would not be easily swayed by women, specifically those who might take advantage of his strength and kindness.

But he had no complaints if Mikhail's partner was Rianna. She had fought alongside Thirteen in the past, and the young man was satisfied with her character.

As for Siri, Thirteen had an idea of who was backing her, so he decided to agree to a marriage alliance between her and Mikhail with one condition.

His brother must approve of it. Thirteen had no intention to ever force Mikhail into a marriage he wouldn't like.

Fortunately, Mikhail had a good impression of Siri, and Rianna was fine with Mikhail having a second wife.

However, she stressed that she would no longer accept a third wife, which Mikhail promised not to do.

A few minutes later, Thirteen asked Rocky to take him to the surface, dozens of meters away from his brother and his two lovers, so they wouldn't be too surprised when he appeared.

He made sure to walk slowly, giving the three an opportunity to sense his presence.

After seeing that his brother had come, Mikhail lightly tapped the two ladies beside him.

Rianna and Siri both stood up first, then extended their hands to help Mikhail stand up.

"Sorry for disturbing your quiet time," Thirteen said as soon as he climbed on top of the hill. "But I wanted to talk to Siri about the Antares Continent."

"What do you want to know?" Siri replied.

"I want to know the power structure between the three ruling factions who had taken over that continent," Thirteen stated. "I need some troops to invade Artem, and I decided to recruit them to my cause."

"Recruit?" Siri smirked, fully knowing that Zion's recruitment had a vastly different meaning from what everyone knew.

"Very well, I will tell you the power structure of Antares. As I said before, three ruling factions govern that place.

"The first one is the Astoria Faction, where I belong. When it comes to military might, we're just slightly stronger than the second faction, which is called the Blackfang Dominion.

"Their attempts to form a marriage alliance with our faction through me have been rather annoying as of late."

This was also the main reason why she had asked her mother to form a marriage alliance with Zion's family. She no longer wanted to be courted by the arrogant prince, who made her feel disgusted.

Mikhail held her hand and gave it a light squeeze, as if to reassure Siri that he was there to support her.

Thirteen gave his brother a thumbs up in his heart, believing that Mikhail learned to be more understanding of ladies because of the lessons that he had given him in the past.