"Are you sure you’re an Earth Immortal?" asked the slave standing behind Z, watching in horror at the destruction he had wrought.
Before them was a scene of utter destruction and devastation. Before this, whenever they fought other immortals, they would only get victory or defeat. Never had they experienced the feeling of overwhelming domination. Now, having tasted such a victory for themselves, they felt no elation. Instead, they felt only fear.
Whoever this new slave was, he was not of an ordinary background - he could not be. For someone like him to join their slave army, it could mean only a few things, but all of those things ended with the rest of the slaves dead. Whether to hide the secret of Z’s participation, or because they were about to face greater foes, or because...
The watching slaves could not finish the thought. The only watched as Z turned around silently, yanking at the purple collar around his neck as if he was loosening a tie. Since they were slaves, and they were fighting a war, they were naturally chained.
Yet these chains and collars were far from normal. They gave the... they gave the Grand Conqueror full control over the slaves, allowing him to freeze or even cripple any one of the slaves with a single thought. But was that all? Far from it.
He could hear every thought that any of the slaves had, he could tell every intention that they harbored, and he could program the collar to react to certain conditions. For example, feeling even the slightest hint of anger or hate towards the Grand Conqueror would cause the collar to send paralysing, debilitating pain coursing through the slaves body regardless of the situation they were in.
If that happened in the middle of a fight, it was a death sentence.
The reasoning was pretty simple. The collars would either condition the slaves into being obedient, or it would dispose of them! Yet even death was not an escape, for once someone died wearing the collar, the collar would absorb the soul, waiting for the Grand Conqueror to collect.
Rumor had it that he tortured the souls to extract some kind of unique energy from them. But it was just a rumor - the slaves dared not verify it, because they’d probably have to do that with their souls!
"Of course I’m just an Earth Immortal," Z answered with a comforting smile, as if he wasn’t bothered by his situation at all. He had adapted surprisingly quickly, but it was clear that he hadn’t been subdued by the collar. Rather, he had extreme self control, and had managed to learn the rules of the place and gone along.
Yes, he had an initial bout of resistance, but that hadn’t lasted long.
The slave speaking to Z was about to speak again when he felt it - that familiar command from the collar telling him to kneel for the Grand Conqueror was coming!
Without any hesitation he kneeled, just in time for the Grand Conqueror to arrive, alongside his ever present entourage. Naturally they ignored everyone and went to Z. Before speaking a single word, one of the Grand Conqueror’s followers raised a large mace and slammed it across Z’s face, throwing him to the ground, his face bleeding.
"From now on, you will fight exclusively using weapons," spoke the Grand Conqueror, looking down at Z with indifference in his eyes. "You will use a different weapon in each battle, as well as the exclusive fighting techniques of King Zarek. Every time you return from battle without establishing a resonance with King Zarek’s lost legacy, you will be whipped, so better get at it quick."
The Grand Conqueror stared at Z a little longer, and could not help but remember his time in the Midnight Inn. Back then he hated it so much - hated all the lost potential that the Inn was wasting catering to guests instead of conquering lands and growing stronger.
Now, he stood above one of the most famous members of the Inn, and he could not help but feel like it was pathetic. He still dared not confront the Inn himself - he could not fight a Dao Lord. But he also no longer cared to do so.
Back then, he had hated the Inn because he himself was weak, and he took out his self hatred on the Inn. Ever since he received the Grand Conquest System, and subsequently conquered the starting realm, he no longer thought about others. Instead, he only focused on his own goals.
An unexpected benefit was that the starting realm, which he now ruled, had a flow of time considerably faster than most Mature realms. The drawback was that it peaked at the Heaven Immortal realm.
After leaving, he had already begun his conquest by attacking many other, smaller realms, and had also successfully broken through to the Celestial Immortal realm. He was slowly planting the seed of the empire that he would one day build, and hating the Midnight Inn served no purpose in pursuit of that goal.
Of course, when someone from the Humanoid Alliance came to him to work together against the Midnight Inn, he did not reject it either. On one hand, it was an opportunity to build an alliance with a stronger entity. On the other hand, it was the Humanoid Alliance itself who was responsible for keeping the Innkeeper from locating them, so he was playing a small part.
Besides, his role in this whole thing was quite small. He only needed to set the vessel on the right path.
As for the vessel...
He looked down at Z, whose name was no longer important.
"Oh, and you have ten years to become a Heaven Immortal. You don’t want to find out what will happen if you fail," he said, and then walked away, stepping on Z’s head as he did.
Throughout this entire exchange, Z felt not the slightest bit of anger towards the Grand Conqueror. He only felt the same exhaustion he felt when Lex used to give him extra work back at the Inn, as if he was reluctant to do any extra work.
After all, why should he feel any anger towards a dead man walking? His fate was sealed, he just didn’t know it yet.