As Elysiana said, a pair of figures appeared out of the fog and approached. Kalli whimpered as her parents drew close. They stopped just out of arm’s reach.

“Thank the gods you’re alive!” Celestea exclaimed with a sad smile on her face. “We feared the worst when you vanished from Gaia.”

Tears trickled down Kalli’s face. “It’s not fair. I only just got you back.”

“I know, Sweetheart,” Charles said, taking a step closer. “Knowing you’re alive and happy means the world to us.”

“But I don’t want to lose you,” Kalli sobbed, reaching out for her father. “Can I visit you here?”

“That isn’t a good idea,” Celestea said softly. “This isn’t a place for the living.”

“She’s right,” Elysiana added. “The allure of the unknown is strong in this place. Every time you visit, you lose a piece of yourself.”

“What can we do?” I asked, looking to the goddess for answers.

She shrugged. “This is why I don’t like bringing people here. Eventually, you will be reunited. That is the way of things.”

“I don’t want to wait,” Kalli sobbed.

“I know, sweetheart,” Celestea said. “But you have to. We lived our lives. It’s time for you to live yours.”

“Live your best life,” I whispered the mantra so quietly that nobody should have heard.

Kalli heard me through our bond though, and she knew where it came from. She smiled through the pain and nodded. “I will, Mother. Just you watch.”

Before we left, I pulled Charles aside. “Excuse me, Sir. There’s something I need to ask you.”

“What?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. “I’ve already given my blessing for you to marry my daughter. What else is there?”

“The ring,” I replied in a low voice. “Do you know where it is?”

“Oh, that,” he said with a smile. “I sure do.”

Figuring out which planet to live on wasn’t as big of a deal as I thought it was going to be. Most of the magic doors were already in place, and our bedrooms became an inter-dimensional hub. There were three of them. Our old room in Celestea Castle on Gaia refused to let anyone else sleep there. Not even Shiv. We still had the bedroom Lavender assigned to us back at her house. We technically didn’t need that one but it was a convenient way to get to Earth when we didn’t feel like teleporting. The last room was the one I had shared with Marcelle and Ulli back on Origin. Kalli wanted to add another one on Scrap, but she’d lived with another family during her stay, so we decided to add a door in the Governor’s office.

ENTERING WORLD EDITOR MODE

NEW WORLD UNDER YOUR CONTROL DETECTED

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD ORIGIN TO YOUR EMPIRE? Y/N?

I expected the first one and quickly added the planet. It was strange adding a whole planet. The only thing I could think of was that they previously belonged to Merlin and had gone up for grabs. I quickly added Scrap and Gaia when they popped up. The next one surprised me.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD EARTH TO YOUR EMPIRE? Y/N?

I hesitated. Surely the governments on Earth would object to me claiming the whole planet for the Meltopian Empire. Would they even know? I clicked YES. I mean, why not, right?

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ADD POULDARIA TO YOUR EMPIRE? Y/N?

The name rang a bell but I couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before. Kalli remembered. Isn’t that Mr. McDuckenStein’s home world?

It went on like that for hours. Thousands of notifications crossed my vision as planets previously ruled over by my father presented themselves to me.

Do you think anyone on any of these planets will care that they are now part of the empire?

Kalli shrugged. I don’t know. It was different on Gaia. We only added towns when we were there. So of course, they knew.

The question soon answered itself when an attendant I didn’t know about introduced himself to me. He entered the throne room with an entourage.

“Greetings, My Lord. My name is Evander,” he said with a bow. “I was your father’s chief council. If you’ll permit me, I’d like to introduce you to some of the key people who run things here in the tower.”

Name

Evander Cevast

Class

Savante

Level

57

Affection Level

Loyal

“How come I’ve never heard of you?” I asked, looking past him at the long line of people. “Any of you?”

He flashed a smile that I found a little condescending. “It is our job to not stand out. We have been here the entire time.”

I looked over the crowd behind him but only recognized one of them. Achemes, the Chef, stood proudly in his white uniform near the back of the line. I heaved a sigh as I realized I was going to have to get to know quite a few people if I wanted to run an entire planet.

“Do you guys represent Scrap as well?” I asked, wondering how Merlin managed the other planet.

Evander shook his head. “The staff you see before you are responsible for operations here in the tower. Every city has its own internal government that answers directly to you. If you wish, I will handle the day-to-day affairs as I did for your father and report to you.”

“I have someone for that,” I replied, thinking of Marcelle. “I’d like you to report to her. As for the rest of you, keep doing what you’ve been doing. My goal is to disrupt as few things as possible.”

While it was still my goal to do away with the people ranking system, I didn’t want to announce that publicly until I had a viable alternative in place. For that I needed Viola.

“Very good, My Lord,” Evander said, clapping his hands. “Please have your chosen representative contact me and I’ll make sure she has everything she needs.”

Gaia was a hot mess. The planet had been thrown into disarray with so many royal deaths caused by Rasputin. With Kalli also presumed dead, Shiv had been made Queen. While she officially adopted the regal name Queen Celestea, we still called her Shiv. She liked it that way.

The Kingdom of Dabia was redefined as The Technocracy of Dabia run by President Administrator Zofia. Zofia liked when I suggested she was Supreme President Administrator Zofia until I pointed out that also made her the SPAZ of TOD.

The High House of Solitair was more or less back to normal with Maya back on the scene. While the majority of the citizens of the volcanic city had fled to other planets, it still housed most of the high levels on Gaia.

The new colony of ancients on Luna formalized their new government as the Elven Federation. It never dawned on me that the magical beings trapped for so many years beneath the machine in the Lunar castle were elves. On second glance, I did notice their ears were slightly pointier than usual. We encountered a problem when they started doing commerce with Gaia. They gained access through the portal in Celestea Castle. That meant all business from Luna passed through my bathroom. We corrected the problem by moving the Luna door to the newly established Lunar Embassy located just outside of the castle.

In fact, we established embassies for every sovereign nation on the planet. That included Celestea, Solitair, Dabia, Vestaria, Albion, and Meltopia. While I was still the emperor of Meltopia, it became the banner for all beastmen who lived on the continent. However, there were a pair of continents to the north between Dabia and Solitair.

One was covered in forest and was home to Mardella and Alariel. We’d visited them at their cabin, as well as the castle where Alariel’s grandmother did her dark experiments in the basement. While I heard there were other towns on the continent, I hadn’t been to any.

Albion was another unknown country. The first time I heard of it was when I saw the embassy. There, I discovered that the continent used to be nothing but ruins. That was until a man from Earth showed up. He called himself Alexander the Great. Some Humans and Several races of beastmen chose to migrate from Dabia and set up a nation with him. Albion was also known to have more dungeons than anywhere else on Gaia.

Back on Earth, Sylvia and Eddie were the most impacted by the loss of Lavender. Not only was she their teacher, but she also raised them. Considering both of them were still children, we decided the best thing to do was move Mrs. Hodgins into the house. That way they would at least have adult supervision. Eddie was approaching the age where he could start going to school. While he still spent time with his family, he’d come to call Lavender’s house home. That wasn’t about to change even with Lavender gone.

Sylvia’s situation was different. She was a newly trained fate. That meant a couple of things. First, she couldn’t attend school like normal awakened teens. There were no classes for her. The other thing was, she couldn’t go home to her family. If word got out that she had the gift, there would be no end to people trying to exploit her. Her family couldn’t live with her either.

“I know what will happen if I live with them,” she explained. “And I always want to remember them as the loving parents they were before I got my powers, not what they may become when they realize what I can do.”

I wanted to argue that parents weren’t like that, but I could only imagine the possible futures the kid could see. Being awakened also added the fact that she would likely outlive her family by several lifetimes. That was something I might have had to go through with my mom if she hadn’t ended up in the ring with my dad.

“What next?” Kalli whispered as she snuggled up next to me in bed.

We’d taken to talking out loud. We’d grown so used to talking in our heads all day that hearing each other’s voices when we were alone together somehow felt more intimate.

“I don’t know,” I replied. “We can do anything. What do you want to do?”

She sighed. “Well, there are so many things we are going to have to do. We’re responsible for hundreds of worlds now. That means we should probably go there. Also, we need to help Shiv get Celestea up and running.”

I laughed. “Those are things we have to do, but what do you want to do?”

Kalli frowned, shifting in my arms to look at me. “You know, I never put much thought into it. I mean, I know I want to be with you, to reunite when we were apart, but I never put much thought into what I want after that.”

“Do you want to have Sindra?” I asked, feeling a tinge of excitement at the suggestion.

Kalli’s face scrunched up in a scowl. “You just want to make her. Kids are a lot of work, and that isn’t even counting being pregnant. You know what, I do know what I want to do. Let’s get married. I want to throw a big party and invite all our friends. Maybe Joe and Wendy can get married too. They said they wanted to.”

I smiled. “Nothing will make me happier.”

It didn’t take long to find the jeweler that Charles told me about. He offered his condolences for the loss of Kalli’s parents the moment he saw me.

“Do you mind coming with me?” he asked, motioning toward a small shop behind him. “There is something the king asked me to make. I’m not sure if it was supposed to be a surprise.”

I allowed him to guide me into his shop, not telling him that I already knew what he made. He brought it out from the back, resting on a satin purple cushion.

Item:

Mana Diamond Engagement Ring

Components

Mana, Carbon, White Gold

Item Rank:

S

Item Level:

1

Item Owner:

Murphy

While I would have loved to surprise Kalli, there was no way to do so with our bond. Intense emotion flooded through me and I found myself crying as I held it up to the light.

“Is everything okay, My Lord?” He asked, looking nervous.

“No. I mean yes, everything is fine,” I spluttered. “We’re just…I mean, I’m just happy.”

He still looked confused when he offered me a smile. “Excellent. I wish the two of you every happiness. You deserve it.”

We showed Mom the ring first. Kalli and I visited her in the ring, ignoring Merlin in the other cell when he asked to see it too.

“I’m so happy for you both,” Mom said as she held Kalli’s hand. “I knew this day would come from the moment I met you.”

Kalli blushed. “Really?”

“Of course,” Mom replied, beaming at her. “He shows me a smile I’ve never seen when he talks about you. A man can’t smile like that for just anyone.”

I wondered if Merlin had a smile like that just for Mom. There was no way I was going to ask either of them. Before we left, Mom said her famous phrase. “Live your best lives, you two.”

“Don’t worry, Mom,” we replied. “We will.”