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Chapter 449: Contract with the Powerful

Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav

“We don’t have much time left. It’s time for you to make a choice. Please give me your answer.”

As the entire mortal plane sunk into utter chaos and winged messengers busily flitted around everywhere, Solo had already cursed his shameless companions countless times. It was as if all the other Gods felt that his Divine Concept included Messengers, which it didn’t.

“...I’m no God of Messengers! I’m clearly the Guardian God of Bards! I’m not a professional messenger! I’m the God of Art and Music, the muse for all artists and musicians!”

But from a certain standpoint, since he had been sent out on too many messenger and diplomacy tasks already, outsiders now saw Solo’s identity as being the personal messenger representing Ayer. Quite a few had actually forgotten his original job.

And right now, Solo was acting as a messenger yet again. He delivered his side’s proposal for the contract, but the side he was offering the contract to was rather hesitant.

Solo was currently negotiating with two behemoths that represented two major factions in Dragon World. Although the size of Solo’s incarnation was already gigantic, he was still nothing more than a tiny mosquito in front of these existences.

The more powerful a Titan was, the larger he or she would be. That was a trait of the Titans. And, compared to his fellow Titans, the Titan King was the largest one of them all. The fourth-ranked Titan, Yins, reached only up to his waist. Solo was nothing more than a tiny mosquito the size of his eyelash.

The Titan King’s ancient features and beautiful body were just like a perfect sculpture. His simple armor only covered the weakest parts on his body. Rather than calling what he wore defensive equipment, it looked more like decorative attire.

He stood there unmoving, as if he was a divine sculpture from the ancient generation. However, nobody would truly think that he was a sculpture, as thunder and windstorms swirled all around his body. Just the energy level of this alone far surpassed all so-called forbidden spells in the world. This furious thunder capable of destroying any city easily was actually quietly streaming around him, as if it was a quiet river stream. It showed no signs of power leakage whatsoever.

When faced with Solo’s question, the Titan King’s ancient and serious face appeared expressionless. However, the situation for the Titan King and his tribe was quite terrible at the moment. Everywhere around them, holes and cracks could be seen in the sky itself. The ground was constantly cracking as small pieces of mountains started floating in midair. The entire world was nearing total collapse around them.

“Lord Titan, you now know what Death God Ayer wishes for. Our time is limited, so please make your choice soon.”

That’s right, “Titan” was also the name of the Titan King. In their ancient language, the word “Titan” meant “the largest and strongest individual”. Evidently, Titan completely fit the meaning of the word “Titan”.

So as the first Titan, Titan naturally became his name. All the other Titans addressed Titan as “Eldest Brother”. He was the most ancient child of the earth, the oldest son of the Goddess of Order, and the strongest warrior of them all in the Supreme Immemorial generation.

To assess his current power level, despite the fact that being sealed away for so long would somewhat diminish his strength, he wouldn’t be any weaker than any so-called Main God of today as he was the strongest existence of his time. In fact, over the entire Titan species, if you only looked at combat strength, there would definitely be two or three that could reach the level of Main God.

Yep, the Titans would never fear the so-called Gods when it came to combat strength. In fact, there was even a saying that the Titans were the original models from which the ancient Gods were based on, that the Creator Goddess had used them as the model to create the first Gods.

The Titans all had their own unique natural talent abilities. These abilities were typically comparable with or even better than the Concepts that Gods had control over. But, compared to the varied number of Gods out there, the Titans’ greatest advantage was that they were exceedingly capable fighters. Yins, the fourth-ranked Titan, and Hatley, who wasn’t even in the top ten of Titans, had managed to use their incarnations to absolutely suppress the True Gods’ incarnations in the battle at Oak Town.

In the ancient legends, not only were Titans the most skilled artists and architects in all the planes, they were also the most powerful guardians for the Goddesses of Order and Chaos. The Titans fought against all sorts of demonic beasts from other dimensions, while the Gods were the masters of the dimensional laws. The Gods back then were just like civil officials that would rarely partake in actual physical fighting, which was the root cause behind why the Titans, who loved to fight on a daily basis, looked down on the Gods. How could a weak civil official in a high position possibly get along well with a warrior general who was constantly on the frontlines?

Ever since the ability to ascend to Godhood through power of belief appeared, powerful Gods, including Main Gods, started appearing more and more often. Yet back in the Supreme Immemorial generation, the Titans had relied purely on self-cultivation to achieve a combat strength which far surpassed the ancient Gods. And, they were unwilling to submit to the rule of those they viewed as weaker than themselves, which was why they finally rebelled against the Goddess of Order’s view of “Order”.

And even now, these Titans that had reached the peak through actual battles and self-cultivation would still look down on all the so-called Main Gods that obtained their powers through belief or the High Gods of today. And to be honest, if the Titans really fought against the True Gods of today, it would be difficult to say who would win and who would lose.

Finally, the entire Dragon World’s collapse and the Titans’ fear finally caused the Titan King to no longer be able to remain silent. His deeply booming voice was like thunder.

“Such a dirty scheme and such sly tactics aren’t Ayer’s style.”

Since he was willing to talk, that meant there was a chance at negotiation. Solo was delighted inside but didn’t allow that to be revealed in his expression.

“Yep, Boss Ayer’s personality is quite direct. He wouldn’t use such little tricks. Still, one of our younger brothers came up with this scheme. His reputation is just as black as his hands are. As long as the result goes well, he’s never afraid to get his hands dirty... Just think about it. As long as you promise to contract with us and agree to our conditions, won’t the end result be quite beneficial for you?”

Solo unhesitatingly sold out Roland as the mastermind of this scheme, although Roland wouldn’t have minded to begin with...

At this moment, Titan sunk into deep contemplation. As the leader of his entire tribe, he was no brawny musclehead like what he appeared to be. In fact, things were the opposite. In the ancient past, he even had a good relationship with the first generation of humans and was acquainted with Ayer as well.

The Titans had survived even until today and had never even once had an internal conflict amongst themselves despite having suffered numerous setbacks before. This was the best evidence that his leadership abilities were outstanding. This was something that couldn’t be achieved with power alone.

The gigantic Titan was quite wise as well. Titan was the one who had his juniors send out incarnations to act in the mortal plane, making preparations for after they broke free from their seal. And even while sealed, Titan came up with many plans for what to do after they all broke free. But unfortunately, not a single one of his plans was usable in this current situation.

Titan could sense that this dimension had already become severed from all other dimensions. It would still be possible to enter this dimension from other dimensions, but leaving here was now basically impossible. And, the dimension was also collapsing at a rate that was one thousand times faster than what Titan expected. He didn’t have much time to think at all.

Titan knew that it would be impossible for the Titans to leave this plane as they didn’t have dimensional coordinates for any other dimensions. Although it might still be possible for himself and a few of the strongest Titans to escape and survive in the void, all the other Titans and their bloodlines’ descendants would be doomed.

The entire Dragon World was collapsing. But due to the Titans’ protection, the land that they stood on didn’t appear to even shake one bit. Yet, everyone here knew that when Dragon World collapsed entirely, even if they still managed to survive the dimension’s collapse and maintain a simple ecosystem here, they would end up using up all their resources and supplies in the void.

Everyone knew that the Titans had no other path to survival now. And so, a devil took advantage of this opportunity and made them an offer with conditions that were impossible to refuse.

“Little lizard, what will you decide?”

This was actually a three-way negotiation that had reached a stalemate. Titan glanced over at the other faction that was in the same situation as him, even though this faction had been mortal enemies with his own just not long ago.

Supreme Immemorial Gold Dragon Loft was the ancestor of Immemorial Gold Dragon Halos, the council leader of Dragon City. Loft was one of the most ancient existences in all of Dragon World, who was large enough to cover an entire city. Yet, he was only the size of one of Titan’s hands.

The Titans had always looked down on the dragons. Even the Titans’ relatives, the giants, would dare to challenge the dragons, so how could the Titans of pure bloodline possibly respect the dragons?

The dragons wanted to be respected? Sure, but they would have to prove their power. They would have to invite the oldest dragons of all that had experienced the wars between Gods in the very first generation.

Perhaps Supreme Immemorial Gold Dragon Loft was indeed one of the eldest, most veteran, and most powerful existences among the dragons. Yet, when compared to Titan, the first Titan, the only difference would likely be if it took one or two attacks to kill him.

“Venerated God of Artists, I shall represent all of Dragon City in agreeing to your conditions.”

But, it was important to save face even if everyone knew who was superior. Loft pretended not to hear Titan’s words. Instead, Loft turned around and nodded directly at Solo, agreeing to the terms of the offered contract.

Since one of the three sides in this negotiation had now agreed to the conditions forced upon them, the remaining side would naturally become more disadvantaged.

“How wonderful. Dragons are indeed a wise and reasonable species.”

The handsome Solo smiled sunnily as he praised the dragons. He was delighted as he had now completed half of the task given to him.

“It’s just like what Roland said. The dragons will be completely shameless and submit when their lives are threatened.” That’s what the little brat is thinking right now.

A one-eyed Titan chuckled strangely as he said this out loud. His diamond-like single eye seemed to see through everything. This Titan was the ancestor of the Cyclops –”Agus the Mind Reader”.

Agus was even capable of mind reading the thoughts of a God’s incarnation. This was the best evidence of just how powerful and unreasonable the Titans’ natural talents were. Although Agus was chuckling as he stated Solo’s thoughts out loud, he immediately frowned right after because he mind read what Solo immediately thought out next.

“‘So what if you can read my mind? Refuse me if you dare. It’ll be quite fun to watch all of you starve to death in the void, idiot.’ You actually dare to laugh at us? I...”

Titan blocked Agus’ angry roaring. The Titan King knew that such anger would be meaningless, as the Ayer Faction had already seen through everything. Right now, the ones in “need of assistance” wasn’t the Ayer Faction. The Titans needed the Ayer Faction to save them!

Since both sides had completely different standing, how could this even be called a negotiation? This wasn’t a negotiation from the very start. It was pure extortion that was called negotiation only to help the extortion victims to save face. The Titans were being forced to agree to the Ayer Faction’s conditions if they wanted to live.

The Titans were never known to have good tempers. Yet, they weren’t idiots, either. Currently, the Titans’ imposing aura caused even Solo’s incarnation which possessed SemiGod strength to feel quite uncomfortable. He had a bitter expression as if he could barely stand the Titans’ pressure, which helped the Titans to save face. Right now, Solo was truly impressed with the foolhardy Roland who dared to even threaten and extort the Titans.

“Who cares if they have ridiculous combat strength that’s number one in the world? They lack the ability to act proactively, so I can control the situation however I like. Once they’re in my pitfall, they can only obediently become chess pieces under my command.”

Solo still recalled Roland’s words, and the one-eyed mind reading Titan obviously overheard this comment as well. However, Agus knew that telling his tribe about Roland’s thoughts would only make them all feel more awkward, so he could only vent his anger on the land that was now beginning to shake.

Agus viciously pounded the ground and even attempted to pull up the mountains and cause an earthquake like how he always would when he was angry. But, he only managed to thrash around a few times before the other Titans stopped him. Yet, Agus had already exposed the fact that the area under the Titans’ protection was already unstable. The Titans wouldn’t be able to maintain the small dimensional area under their protection for much longer.

An appropriate amount of forcefulness would actually sometimes be useful in helping negotiations to proceed. Although the Titans’ expressions worsened when it was exposed how bad of a situation they were in, at least they were smart enough to stop trying to save face and not waste time, the most precious resource of all.

“...Even if all of us are destroyed, we shall never submit to the weak. If Roland wishes to obtain our tribe’s recognition, at minimum he must be capable of defeating his enemies without our assistance to prove that he has the ability to become the master of this new dimension he is creating.”

Titan’s voice was quite low yet also forceful. This was his bottom line that he would refuse to budge on. If Ayer and Roland were unable to prove that they could successfully push back and defeat the forces of Order and Chaos, then Titan would refuse to board their sinking ship.

“That’s quite reasonable.”

This was also the end result that Roland had predicted. Solo nodded and reached out his hand, forming the light of a magical contract.

“As long as Roland obtains victory in the battle here and successfully creates the new dimension of Hell, the Titans shall become the Guardian Gods of the ‘Land of Spring’ and ‘Heaven’. The Titans shall protect the lives of these lands.”

Yep, this was the task that Roland had arranged for the Titans. They would protect (be architects of) the Land of Spring where lives would go to prepare for their next lives, as well as protect (be guardians of) a new Heaven where a portion of the Gods and good individuals would be sent to reside.

Only having Hell and the dead would be insufficient to create a truly independent and self-sufficient new world. According to the God of Law’s teachings, criminals would go to Hell to be punished for their crimes, so that meant the reverse was also true. Good individuals should go to Heaven to enjoy the rest of their lives after death. Just having Hell and torture would not be enough to establish a world.

“Replacing the Cycle of Reincarnation will naturally require a complete cycle of our own.”

The dimension of Dragon World, now Hell, was becoming severed from all other dimensions. Any living that entered this land of the dead would be unable to leave alive. That was why Roland created a temporary “Purgatory” which he named the “Land of Spring”– this was a location where the living would be able to remain alive. Souls that had atoned for their crimes would be able to re-enter the Cycle of Reincarnation here.

As for Heaven? Right now all that could be done was to send a few of the Ayer Faction Gods with nothing to do into Heaven. Roland’s Heaven would have nothing to do for a long time to come, but he figured he might as well write it down into the contract with the Titans.

“‘Yep, I’m extorting you. Since you’ve boarded my ship, you naturally need to work for me. What? You’re saying that you didn’t voluntarily board my ship? Sure, you can leave any time you want. The endless void welcomes you.’ My, Roland is such a terrible person,” Solo thought to himself.

But unfortunately for Agus the Mind Reader, he was infuriated beyond belief but had no way to vent. Agus even began to smash his head into the ground. As someone prone to bearing grudges, he etched the name Roland deep into his mind.

The contract with the dragons was quite similar to the contract with the Titans. Yet, the contract with the dragons had even harsher conditions for them. But, when considering the disparity in power between dragons and Titans, if it wasn’t for Roland’s interference, the Titans would have likely begun a slaughter of the dragons already. And so, the dragons could only smile and swallow down their aggrievances while signing such an unfair contract.

Solo finally heaved a sigh of relief at having completed the task given to him. That was when he saw meteors suddenly streaking through the sky, causing his heart to clench.

Although this represented that the Gods of the Ayer Faction had arrived, this also represented a complete break from the Order Faction as well as the fact that the grand scheme had entered the critical junction. Success or failure would all be determined here.

“It’s time.”