CHAPTER 386: CHAPTER 386: DEVELOPMENTS

Kael and N’bayé were the only two tier 5 beings in the whole lion population and from the looks of things, it would take a while for anyone to catch up.

For N’bayé, it was understandable, she was merely living up to her potential. Not to mention that her desire for knowledge and experiments required that she also have the strength to match.

Without her tier 5 power level, she might not have been able to create that Seal Extraction Rune.

She was younger than Chloe chronologically but much older than the rest. It was only right that she reached tier 5 first.

But Kael reached that stage almost at the same time that she did.

And just like everything else, Kael’s current power couldn’t be judged so easily.

Without Conqueror Mode, Kael could probably kill...well, nothing has been able to stand up to him.

Even if ten tier 5 chimera tigers were to fight Kael at the same time, the outcome would still be the same thing, defeat.

And that was just his individual strength. It was still unknown what Kael could do with the arkship.

The elephants would have been a good reason for Kael to test out the power of the arkship but it seemed like there would be some new development.

While managing the kingdom, Kael was still focused on increasing his strength. Alas, evolution wasn’t that easy.

Kael felt like he had hit a brick wall, he was barely advancing.

Chronologically, Kael had reached tier 5 in less than seven years, which was unprecedented in the history of the lion civilization.

And he was going straight for tier 6 right after, it was a bit unreasonable. If he really achieved it in such a short amount of time, Kael would have broken a few laws of the universe and the Anti-Primordial Coalition would be the least of his problems then.

According to Chloe, most tier 6 lions in heaven were over a hundred years old, and ninety-nine percent of lions would spend hundreds of years, if not thousands, with that power level before dying or evolving again.

In short, Kael may be special but he was most likely not going to enter tier 6 that easily, not unless he found a shortcut.

Tier 5 was the sweet spot between a city-leveler destroyer and a nation destroyer

For now, it was okay for Kael as no one on Eridoria could match up to him.

####

One year later.

After a series of events, meetings, and conflicts, a new caste had been formed.

The elephant caste.

It had taken a lot of convincing from Priya and those who worked for her.

Priya had discovered something quite interesting. It seemed the elephants didn’t necessarily know how much danger they were in by standing against Kael.

Their assumptions were based on the fact that Kael consistently held back against doing anything to all of them, so they thought he was just bluffing.

There was no need to prove them anything though. Priya made it clear that the kingdom was willing to tweak itself a bit to accommodate them.

After explaining the new voting system and the privilege that all caste leaders had of proposing rules, the elephants were interested in it.

All that remained was officially becoming a caste and selecting a new caste leader. That was a whole other source of conflict on its own.

Alas, Kael did not care who the current caste leader of any caste was. As soon as he found their respective Primordials, they would be replaced.

These ordinary caste leaders just had to be useful and functional for the time being.

The new caste leader was selected and Priya began implementing the voting system and its procedures.

Each caste leader now had the privilege of proposing a rule or they could propose the change to a rule. If the other caste leaders liked the rule, they would vote in favor of it.

And if the majority of caste leaders voted for it, the rule would be implemented.

There was a lot of drama and bureaucracy around this new voting system.

First, it was implied that only caste leaders had the power to propose rules and vote

This made the status of all caste leaders seem higher and more desirable.

There was a rising level of sycophants and flatterers around them, trying to please them and plead with them to push for some laws.

The game of politics was getting more refined as time passed.

The elephants were still troubled, although they were less likely to start a rebellion now.

The lions, not just Kael and his consorts, but the whole lion race on Eridoria, were keeping a close eye on them.

The elephants, as expected, began proposing all manner of rules to be implemented as soon as they got the chance. Some rules were reasonable and most of them were outright irrational.

Bribes flew here and there as the elephants tried to pay the caste leaders to vote on their rules.

Politics.

Unfortunately or fortunately, their rule to stop carnivores from eating wasn’t going to work.

Herbivores made up for the majority of caste leaders, and when they voted against the carnivores, they had won the majority by a slight margin.

Thankfully, Kael disregarded this rule and immediately created his own rule. No one was allowed to propose a rule that disrupted the food chain, which was what he proposed.

Out of fear, everyone voted in favor of that rule.

The herbivores felt that it was unfair since the lions and other predators were already at the top of the food chain, they wouldn’t want anything changing the status quo.

The elephant caste leader began to realize the extent of Kael’s power. Although it irritated her that Kael and the lions could not be held down by any law, she swallowed her annoyance.

She was too close to status and power now.

Meanwhile, the preparations for Operation Exodus had begun.

Only the strongest shall be saved.

This was a slogan that many end-time preachers had begun to shout.

No one knew when it started or who started saying it first, but it had the desired effect Kael wanted.

There was a frenzy of evolution as many creatures were rushing to get stronger.

It was now believed that a world-ending danger was coming and only the king could save everyone. However, the king would only save the strongest.

To be weak was a sin, a very big sin. Only the strong shall receive salvation.

A lot of trees and vegetation were being transported and grown in the chambers of the arkship. Other chambers were being prepared to accommodate different creatures long-term.

The artificial climates were being adjusted, the soil was being made fertile, and the borders of the chambers were assessed.

By now, the average creature on Eridoria could transform into a humanoid form. Most of them walked around and did a lot of activities in this humanoid form of theirs.

This naturally affected a lot of activities like hunting, tool making, building, and more. Thumbs made a lot of things easier and allowed for the manipulation of the physical world.

And speaking of tools, the arkship had come with a forge chamber, a place that had all the necessary equipment to make weapons and tools.

Kael wasn’t too sure what tools a lion would need. A lion’s body was already a weapon on its own.

Because there was no pressing need, he allowed the lions who were less busy to experiment with the Forge Chamber.

Surprisingly, they were able to produce some interesting artifacts.

Some created paw guards and bracelets which had a pleasing aesthetic.

Tail bracelets, mane combs, necklaces, nose rings, ear rings, back plates, and a few more designs were created according to the possible needs of the lions.

There were no handheld weapons like spears or swords. It wasn’t that they couldn’t be created, it was just that most lions would rather transform into their true form than use a weapon.

Their claws and fangs were generally sharper and far more deadly.

However, some specific lions were not completely against the idea of handheld weapons.

Metal lions and Magus lions were not completely against the idea of handheld weapons as long as it was practical.

Kael let them do what they wanted for now. The creation of these armaments reminded Kael of Jin the Purger, one of the previous Primordial Lions.

Jin had a very memorable appearance because of the black metal paw arm he had.

Kael wondered if that metal paw arm still existed or if it had been destroyed in the river of time.

No doubt, that Paw Arm had definitely added to Jin’s strength.

If it indeed still existed, Kael would love to find it.

He wasn’t so sure about cutting off one of his limbs just for it but it would be useful even if he just kept it.

####

Eridoria was in a state of rapid development. It felt like the blade of the grim reaper was silently hanging over the heads of every creature on the planet.

If anyone could see into the starry sky right now, they would be shocked by what they would witness billions of light years away

The endless void, yet the aura of destruction permeated through the nothingness.

A heavenly portal formed out of nowhere, stretching out with a diameter of more than a hundred kilometers.

Two massive wings flapped powerfully as a colossal dragon-lion hybrid flew out of a heavenly portal.