Underworld, Baator, Anor Londo Capital, Imperial Palace – Sanctus Imperialis
“It is good to be home.”
I said as I entered the Sancus Imperialis, where Custodians already welcomed me under the leadership of Tribunes Belial and Phenex.
“Father, welcome home.”
Greeted me Sirzechs, whom I have noticed has got a lot stronger during past centuries, already reaching late stages of the Super Devil, really talented even if he didn’t train a lot as he was basically managing my little Empire.
“You have gotten stronger… good.”
I said as I nodded my head, and we entered the Sanctus Imperialis.
“Where is everyone?”
I asked my eldest son.
“Mother is in the garden, while Aunt Hela has reached Mighty Stage God a not long time ago and is currently training with her Divine Domains. Aunt Grayfia is attending to her duties as always. Hilda is currently stationed in Ishagard, and Sigmar has been given the order to pacify some advanced space-faring civilization in nearby Galaxy in Earth Plane as they have developed some interesting gene adjusting technology to produce a lot; of Mid-Class Genetic Warriors.”
Summarized Sirzechs as I was surprised that Earth Plane had some civilization that was this powerful that it required the attention of Legion.
“We have started looking for resources in other galaxies in the Earth Plane?”
I asked.
Last time it was decided that Baator would stop space exploration, as we have plundered all Milky Way Galaxy and our gains weren’t that good, as a proportion of precious ores was small from it.
“Yeh… Earth Plane has only several Galaxies, so Lord Admiral Orlock proposed it would be a waste to not at least explore them, and thus we started exploring them around a century ago. During that time, in some galaxy that was a bit far from the Milky Way, we found many precious resources, especially planets abundant with magical ores that would allow us exponentially increase our Fleets. Unfortunately, we have clashed with another powerful civilization that was exploring and is currently competing with us, called Evies, some mechanical life forms that have plenty of Mighty Stage Gods. If not for Aunt Hela, we would lose a lot, but she killed several of their high-ranking Mighty Stage Gods and even robbed their Divinities, so they are now more careful. Their technology is not as advanced as ours, so we have long reverse-engineered it and added it to our arsenal.”
At the same time, I was surprised and not still within my expectations.
“Have you met their leader? Melvazoa? Or leader of their enemies Spirit Gods Resetoras?”
I asked as Sirzechs wasn’t a bit surprised that I was already aware of them.
“We have not met them. Only some of their servants. Aunt Hela killed three Mighty Stage God Evies, namely Bebev Su, Gvardora, and Durmado, and their bodies are currently being researched by Architect so he could build himself a perfect Living Mechanical Body. Elder Azrael has successfully converted his path and reached Apocalypse-Class and slain some goddess called Chimune Chipaoti that serves Resetoras. They attempted to contact us and trick us into fighting Evies with them, but they just wanted to use Baator and our Empire for their squabble.”
So Azrael finally broke through and even escaped his fate. This would significantly enhance the power of the Baator in the future.
To Architect, I didn’t have a main consciousness with me, when I went to the Shao Universe, but rather a copy of it.
Fortunately, neither Spirit Gods nor Evies could move their full power, as it would then leave them vulnerable against each other, so that was exposed by our powerhouses and dealt them severe damages.
When Spirit Gods noticed that Hela had the power to kill three of Evie’s Mighty Stage Gods, it meant that they deemed her a threat and, together with her entire Baator. But they wanted to use my wife to fight Evies so she could kill as many of them as possible and be killed by Evies then, or Spirit Gods would kill them. Fortunately, Azrael broke through and killed those bastards from Spirit Gods.
In terms of combat prowess, Hela was far superior to Great Red and many average beings on the same level, as she was Innate God and had Innate Divinity over Death, War, and Slaughter.
“Good, very good. Now your time as Acting Emperor has ended, and you can return to your duty as Tribune of the Adeptus Custodes.”
Sirzechs bowed with a gleam as he was happy that he could spend his days leisurely without a deal with administrative duties and doing paperwork. It was like a heavenly sound to hear this from me.
“Also, call a meeting with all Lord Generals and Hela after she returns; we need to reform the military.”
As he departed, I went to find Venelana as Hela was training and Grayfia was working.
I planned to implement major military changes, mainly cutting down the size of the army. Current Imperialis Militarum had 1 billion soldiers; I planned to cut it down to 100 million and in the next thousand years to 10 million.
The reason was simple.
It was better to focus on quality than quantity.
Unfortunately, till now, the state of Baator didn’t really allow something like this.
When I ascended to the throne, the majority of Devils were either soldiers or in military-related occupations. Counted in, that all Nobles had private armies, numbering several million smallest, and when it all got together, overall, there were around 1 billion active soldiers in the Baator.
This was also a problem, as something like the demilitarization of soldiers cannot be done in bulk, as it would create great internal instability.
Thus, while Imperialis Militarum functioned in the form of Ten Armies, each numbering 100 million soldiers, only 10% of them were really cultivated to achieve High-Class. After the first demilitarization that would be carried out this year, I planned to carry out next after the next two hundred years and stabilize Imperialis Militarum at 10 Million, with each soldier being at least Grand-Class, which would be up to elite standards of the Astral Boundary mightiest factions.
