THE WORLD sea??h thё n?vel_Fire.ηet website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

    Destiny is not fixed in stone. Although the past repeats, people have the ability to make completely different decisions. However, those who have hardened their hearts will always repeat the same path. As it would happen today.

    The only forces still in battle were Phoenix and Kushiyama. They had fought for a long time, so Phoenix tried a strategy. While King Charis''s main force sent their wizards and dragons and knights from the north caves near the Eastern Continent, they sailed ships to sneak in from the south through the mountain pass.

    King Charis was a brave and charismatic leader. He always led his troops from the front. King Yama, on the other hand, was a coward. While his forces fought off superior forces quite well from the north, he was caught from behind and killed by a flank attack. It seemed like as before, the Council would fall to lack of leadership.

    But someone decided to make a choice. Since Jesus was among the few who had some charisma, and he knew the consequences if the Council should fall completely, he moved to have a vote to elect a new leader. The candidates were a man named Yosef Ben Yacob and a young woman named Maria Virginia. Maria Virginia had a strong Catholic base, while Yosef was popular among the Jews. Aside from that, Eponine Von Sanguine, a vamp appeared on the ballot. She only made public appearances in forested areas, at night, or on cloudy days. On a write-in, Jesus Christ also appeared on the ballot. Overwhelmingly, the public voted for him, because of his actions in town, but a rigged ballot caused him to lose. For a moment, it appeared Eponine was the leader, but an upset public declared fraud, and a recount was made.

    A careful observer noted that this was essentially a rigged ballot on both sides. While Eponine “won” by rigging the ballot, on Jesus’s side, Maria Virginia and Yosef Ben Yacob appeared to be Jesus''s parents. That is, even if he had not been wildly popular for healing the sick, helping the poor, and generally reducing the amount of misfortune suffered by the general populace as a result of King Yama’s misrule, if one of those two won, they would probably elect him. Given the corruption involved, a tie-breaking vote was cast, and Jesus won.

    And so it was that Jesus, who had been placed under imprisonment within the town of Kushiyama, was now its leader. His first act was to do... absolutely nothing. He declared that leaders liked to lord over their people, but he would start by serving and by listening to the public, and try to do away with any laws that made the people suffer. After abolishing King Yama''s taxes and lowering taxes in general, giving all public works to management of private companies, he next sent letters to members of the Council asking them to (1) abolish any currency that required a Mark in order to do business on grounds that it alienated customers, (2) end the current wars as soon as possible, and (3) to reconvene the Council and work on trying to set up its rules again.

    Of course, not all went smoothly. It was months of hard struggle, since those who enter in despotic systems usually have to fight their way out. There were protesters who said the election had been rigged, despite most districts within Kushiyama voting for Jesus. In particular, the vampire minority felt like they were underrepresented, since they had a huge population, despite the fact that they didn''t go outside to actually show up to vote. There were those who claimed there was some sort of conspiracy or collusion, and that Kushiyama was really working with Ghobli. When their nonsense fell on deaf ears, they turned to increasingly more extreme tactics. People increasingly claimed that Jesus hung out with the wrong sorts of people, and some claimed he had been around prostitutes and murderers. Some even had pictures of these meetings. And yet, Jesus was nonetheless popular with a wide variety of people. Failing this, they turned to claims that Jesus should be put on trial and stripped of his power. They tried to impeach his character. And many were giving false testimony against Him, but their testimony was not consistent. Failing this, they invented artificial crises and declared Jesus not up to the task. These people, these vampires, had seen the effects of a big centralized state, and thought it could care for them for life, never realizing that it could also give them suffering far more easily. Jesus was prepared to give them what they wanted as soon as they stopped fighting. And yet, their ignorance made them fight him.

    Failing to find any legal reason to remove him, they decided to try a coup. They were at their most violent, burning buildings and people, smashing old statues of people they never liked anyway. It was always like this. And yet, Jesus loved them too. They told themselves they were fine with the djinn, demons, and lizard people ruling in the place of the Council, as they have done throughout history. They certainly didn''t want Jesus to rule them. There was fighting in the streets, and people were hurt just for having certain hats or shirts that said they were in favor of Jesus. In other countries, such things weren''t happening because they either had accepted the Council''s way like Phoenix, or rejected it entirely. But in the months to come, there would be issues in such places also, as people struggled to go back to the way of the Council. It was a very tough road.

    It was easy to leave the Council, and turn to corrupt systems. But suddenly, one day, they put up no more fight. They had run out of other people''s money. The taxes were high, but nobody wanted to work, when working meant you had to get implanted with a tracking chip. It also helped that those trying to fight Jesus found their arrows turned into flowers, and their swords turned into coins for alms for the poor. It helped also that even those seeking handouts suddenly found themselves with jobs. As this process was going on, Jesus left to visit the Council.

    It was Jesus''s first official visit outside Kushiyama for centuries. Now it is true, he routinely appeared in Christmas Village, he was Mu''ad Dib in Qurac, and was the Aiken Master. He was also technically omnipresent. But according to the letter of the law, he had not technically been out until just now. He traveled by water across the sea to the island where the Anti-Government Council met. They had received the notice of King Yama''s death and Jesus''s ascension to the throne. The daimyo of Gruumi had been replaced along with Jesus, but all nations were represented. Hinata''s Elder, Lajila, met with Jesus and thanked him for appearing. She had seen how things had been without the Council. People were even afraid to leave their houses to spend money because it was unclear what the consequences of not having the Mark had been, and it was not publicly known which towns demanded this monetary system and which did not, aside from Phoenix who strongly declared they opposed it. Hinata''s tourism had suffered, and Ghobli''s market had taken a hit too.

    Everyone sat as she addressed the Council. “I call to order what remains of the Council,” she said with her face downturned, “I ask if you would join me in reforming this group.” She looked around the room. To her immediate left, King Charis and Queen Victoria sat as representatives of Phoenix. They had never left the Council, and raised their hand, silently confirming their vote. Across from her sat the guru of Shoten, a red-haired man who had apparently sat by and watched much of this town become covered with crossdressers and bishounen. He made it a policy to always abstain from voting, but here, they needed a unanimous vote. She sighed. To his right was the chief of Kirin, a blond woman in furs. Next to her was Zuran''s mayor, a man big enough to pick up Lajila with one hand. Jesus sat in King Yama''s spot. Right now, he appeared as a nine-year-old girl with purple hair and intense eyes. There was something interesting about this form Jesus had chosen, since she strongly resembled Tamashii. On the right end of the table, three people sat. The daimyo of Gruumi had also been replaced by some sexually ambiguous person. She had guessed it was a girl, until he said, “I approve of the Council rejoining.” Jesus said in a young girl''s voice, “I vote to follow the majority.” Next to Gruumi''s leader, was the king of Galaxia, an older man, who looked like the years had not been kind to him, and lately like the stress of constantly managing people after the Council had fallen had taken its toll. Galaxia had been one of the towns to approve the Mark system of currency, but it was becoming evident to him that he had made a horrible mistake. Before, he was able to make steady income through sales taxes, but with income taxes and constant tracking of people, he had to always watch others to make sure they didn''t revolt. And he actually wasn''t making much money anymore, because nobody wanted money so he couldn''t tax their income. He tried other taxes, but wound up finding that not only was everyone hoarding their money, but very few still had any. The houses fell apart, the people were in rags, all in the space of a few months without the Council. Galaxia''s mayor also voted to reinstate the Council. Next to him was the mayor of Ghobli, a greedy and devious man, interested only in making money. He spoke up, “For years, I have made a profit through trade and unscrupulous sales taxes. Even for me, they were a little much... And for years, the Council has made me rich through trade deals. But with the Council gone, I could only make money through war trade. War is profitable, yes, but your clients tend to die off. I too vote to reinstate the Council.”

    So far, Phoenix, Ghobli, Galaxia, maybe Kushiyama, and Gruumi had voted for the Council. Things were looking up, but there had yet to be a unanimous decision. The king and queen of Aquamundo cooled off in a makeshift water trough, before raising their hands. Next to me sat the chief exorcist of Goji, a woman with eyes of nearly the intensity of Jesus. She spoke, “For many years, I have kept watch over the world of spirits. I have purged, purified, and exorcised the dead from famine and disease. Yet these past few months, I have noticed a sharp rise in the amount of spirits that arrive, and most of them are close to becoming vengeful dead. I know not what this group opposed to the Council promises its members, since they have not contacted us. But I have seen them by their fruits. I strongly support the Council and encourage everyone to do the same. The Council was built as a necessary evil to prevent the return of the State.”

    In order to re-establish the Council, they needed a unanimous vote. In order to disband the Council, they needed at least 1/3 of the votes to be to abolish it, and all must be present. In between those two, a less than unanimous vote was a vote to reconvene at a later time. In the war-torn and poverty-stricken states left in the absence of the Council, this was nearly as disastrous as voting to abolish the Council. They could not spare much longer of misrule. Kirin, Zuran, Hinata, and Shoten had yet to vote. Hinata''s leader spoke, “Well, I have always been in favor of the Council, as without it, we would just be a tourist town. I vote to stay part of this system.” This decision was fairly obvious, actually. Kirin''s leader spoke next, “Likewise, we are a town in the middle of subarctic climate. We would be stranded without resources if not for cooperation with other states. And when the Council operates, it keeps us from being attacked or invaded by nearby Kushiyama. I also want the Council back.” Zuran''s leader raised his hand. It was up to Shoten, a nation whose leader in recent memory had always abstained from voting, in order to make the final call, since the decision must be unanimous.

    Shoten''s guru started, “I abs-” but was quickly interrupted by the others, expecting what he''d say. “Please,” Goji''s chief exorcist requested, “think about what you''re doing!” The guru of Shoten tried to speak again, “I abstain from voting normally, as I don''t like to side with one group or the other. But Jesus over there showed me another option. I vote with the winners.” Everyone cheered. It was unanimous.

    Since the Council had been set up again, Lajila as leader of it said, “Okay everyone, I know you people are excited and thankful to once again be able to do things, but this brings up a very good point. We have a backlog of administrative duties to take care of. Let''s see... abolishing the Mark system of money is the first order of business, and I will put this on rush executive order because it needs to be dealt with immediately. The economy is kinda bad right now, and we need to make sure farmers and merchants are able to deliver goods and sell them, and be paid for it properly.” She handed a note to be copied and delivered to one of her clerks. “Next. The Mark system also created a surveillance mess. Anyone in the world can now be tracked to even the most remote location. While this would be effective for resolving kidnapping, the fact that it is not attached to worn objects but to the body itself, represents gross invasion of property.” The members nodded vigorously, saying, “Amen!” Lajila continued, “It is my mission to remove and dispose of all such tracking devices within a year. As you know, Aquamundo has the best surgical equipment of any of the member states here, and Goji with its religious background has by far the best thaumaturgy experts. I propose that we send two-person teams to remove the object from inside the body and to perform healing after this. Are there any opposed?” None raised their hands. Gradually, surgeons would help people remove their chips, although the whole process wound up taking years to hunt everyone down. “I propose we set a maximum income tax of 10%, a tithe to be given voluntarily,” Goji''s exorcist suggested, “in the past, the Council had no income taxes, but some countries may want more or less services in their towns. Allowing them to pay what they want allows some things to be subsidized, while allowing other people the right to opt out.” At this, the entire Council erupted into argument. Some were of the mind that any income and property taxes were rapacious, and a sure way to have people revolt. Others liked the voluntary aspect of it, but here too there was disagreement since it wasn''t clear what would happen if some people didn''t pay for these subsidies but others did. Others believed that such subsidies were unnecessary, and in fact they were offered would one day make people indebted to big states. Still others used the “slippery slope” argument that allowing some income tax would start at 10% but might end closer to 80%.

    Both Jesus and the daimyo of Gruumi were new to the Council, but Jesus had a reputation for being good or perfect, which government leaders found insufferable. It was undeserved even while Jesus lived as a normal human, not someone who could become a little girl one moment and a 6 foot man in another. But Jesus had always put up with this. Even among Christians, they asked WWJD or “What Would Jesus Do?” You had to remember though, that flipping tables was one of the options. And so, they asked Jesus for input, testing him as many others had done. Jesus said, “Why do we need to directly be involved in this? How about we make these things private services, that people can pay someone for? And for the towns that don''t want it, won''t they just not pay?” They debated among themselves, and eventually arrived on exactly this, to make a private service funded by voluntary offering. For stuff like roads, private companies would only build what they paid into, so some roads might be delayed or unfinished. It seemed absurd to build three-quarters of a bridge though, so they proposed an idea. Those taken alive by the bounty offices would be able to work off their imprisonment by helping in construction projects. Since the bounty office was also privatized, this cost them nothing. Of course, it only worked for their human prisoners, as the creatures weren’t really much good at carrying out manual labor.

    As for the other expenses, the Council (unlike most governments) was not in the business of making money, but of saving money. And so it was that the spent the better part of the next hour figuring out how to fund such things until arriving on the notion that there should be a state-run black market of sorts that sold porn, drugs, and explosives to the public. Jesus wept. Well, not much. He''d come to expect this sort of thing.

    The Council debated well into the night, discussing resuming trade routes and figuring out what to do about the new discovery of underground technology. They had found not only new weapons (most of which they decided to put back, except for those which had other uses such as using explosives to mine/farm) but also improvements in medicine, construction, and especially agriculture. Jesus nixed the advances in medicine outright, except with regard to hygiene and plumbing, putting them in the same category as the most destructive weapons. This shocked much of the Council, which sought to justify this apparent lack of compassion. Jesus explained, “Long ago, medicine did indeed improve health of people. But it also kept people cruelly alive on life support, which caused a population increase and insurance mess. And then there was when the public began to consider killing innocent children for organs and stem cells. It is a good thing to have clean water and air, and this will indeed make people well, but the other stuff... not so much.” Jesus also mentioned the Phantom Virus, and everyone decided not to pursue too much medical intervention.

    Jesus on the other hand voted to support construction of roads, walls, bridges, and towers using the latest technology. Almost overnight, villages that before had been stone, brick, or wood became buildings and temples of dramatic artistic variety rivaling the Great Pyramids, Angkor Wat, and the City of Uruk; they also created skyscrapers of metal and glass, made buildings by 3D printing, and even grew cities in organic cultures. Construction and farming machines were built, gradually moving from fission-based uranium engines, to much cleaner equivalence engines. In terms of agriculture, the Council helped build multi-level garden cities and created domes capable of growing crops in any climate. They put one in Phoenix, another near Qurac, one near Aquamundo, and another near Kirin. Each one thrived despite what was all around them. As for the people who had taken power during the fall of the Council, once they lost legitimacy, regular townspeople in some cases took care of them, and in other cases they fought among each other.

    And so it was, that while Ambrosia''s group explored the Void, the New Earth gradually became a place where people were happy with life. Mostly. The Tao is balance, so there were still things to worry about. For instance, while the new technology was now free of pollution and was no longer used for war, the natural trade-off of technology is boredom. Some turned to artistic pursuits, others refused to use it or limited their usage. Those most affected by boredom begin to pick up strange desires.

    For instance, before transhumanism got banned by the Council for being creepy, people would deliberately amputate limbs so they could replace them with cybernetic ones. The Council quickly amended the laws to this, only allowing such replacements when one had an actual injury, and only when cloning technology was unavailable. Gene-splicing was also widely discouraged. The Council knew that chimera experiments were the cause of lizard people. The lizard people were genetically modified to have a resilient body, powers of illusion and darkness, eternal youth, super strength, and basically everything but a heart and soul. These were a group of beings that delighted in human sacrifice, who ran governments behind the scenes. The Council wanted no repeats of this, so this was one of those few rules they strictly enforced. Ditto for machine takeovers, which is why alchemy had replaced technology and robotics.

    And so, given extreme boredom, people turned to lewd behavior and various pastimes, from Mah Jong, to collectible trading cards, to even real gladiator tournaments. And so, all was well, because people turned to porn and whiskey. Or something like that.

    MICHAEL

    I felt the child inside me “kicking.” While we wandered the Realm of Void and faced strong creatures, I occasionally had to sit the fights out. It was okay, though. They were used to me saying arrogant things like, “The battle would be too easy if I helped.” The truth was, right now, if I tried to use even my physical powers, I would find myself greatly slowed in battle, thanks to carrying an extra life inside of me. And if I used my Script, it might go haywire.

    We had explored many of the towns in the Realm of Void, but I wanted to finish this quest before I delivered, especially since this land was not kind to existence, and I might have my child cease to exist or something along those lines. And so it was that I rather firmly suggested that we stop exploring all these towns, and finally head to Belial''s stronghold.