CHAPTER 201: CHAPTER 197: NEW KINGDOM

The missing corpses that the hell raisers were looking for were conveniently in Blaze’s control. He had Fester drag them into the tunnel the rat had dug from where the Deca tribesmen recovered the corpses.

Since the ’disease’ was a part of Blaze, it was completely under his control and didn’t infect the tribesmen. Well, technically, they were infected, but the virus was in a dormant state.

If they ever tried to even think about betraying him or did anything he didn’t like, Blaze could reportedly activate it and kill them on the spot.

It’s a shame I didn’t evolve faster to unlock this power.

Although Blaze had left Earth in the past, he couldn’t help but wonder how much he could have achieved if only he could have created such diseases back then.

With a sigh, he focused back on the present. After all, creating a disease was one thing, but evolving it was another.

Despite being a part of him, the diseases couldn’t evolve like he did, a.k.a. by eating. Only by infecting more people would they encounter more complex and powerful immune systems, which in turn would force them to evolve.

While he didn’t lack Sadarlan to test the varied illnesses, he didn’t want to unleash an unknown disease into the world.

For that, tests were important, and as the history of Earth dictated, the tests must be conducted on rats. The first batch of rats had just arrived at his temple.

Blaze peeked into a small cage made of bones. Each cage carried three rodents, and there were a dozen cages before him.

"They look quite like you," Blaze said, stroking Fester’s head.

What he meant by the statement was that they looked strangely familiar to the rats on Earth. Only the Sadarlan rats were exclusively herbivores and had six legs instead of four, along with a spiky tail.

Obviously, these were living rodents, which he had instructed the tribe to capture along with other beasts.

He had formed a team to oversee the oil production as he didn’t like those lazy bastards sitting around all day. The men hunted, the women were busy with oil production, and the children, well, they were training for battle.

I didn’t want to do it, but it was the only way to keep their aggression in check. I can’t have them throwing a fit every time I get angry.

Blaze excitedly rubbed his hands, eager to have fun... at the expense of others’ lives, obviously.

It was time to extract the existing diseases and turn them ’super’!

***

A decade passed in the blink of an eye.

Naturally, a lot changed in those years. But the thing that changed the most was who dominated the continent.

The small tribal village, once called Deca, had risen to the heights that even the Solia kingdom couldn’t, and ironically, it was their own doing.

If they hadn’t targeted the Deca, they could have enjoyed themselves for a few more years, perhaps even two decades or more. Yet, those foolish, power-hungry idiots did the unthinkable.

They began a war.

Although they could have enjoyed a little more time, they were literally forced to start a war against the Deca tribe.

A young boy’s hand shot up.

"Yes, Kila?" the female teacher gently asked.

"Why did they attack us, teacher?" the boy asked in all innocence. "We never hurt anyone, so... why did they want to hurt us?"

"Good question, Kila," the teacher smiled and wrote a word on the board. "Does anyone know what this is?"

"Greed!"

The class exclaimed as if they were singing in a choir.

"Correct," the teacher smiled. "The leaders of the Solia kingdom were greedy people. Our Lord gave them plenty of chances to correct their ways, but they failed time and time again."

She continued, "The gods created this world for all of us to enjoy it equally. But the Solians thought the world was theirs, and they eliminated anyone whom they deemed unworthy of living alongside them."

"...they did that?"

The teacher nodded.

"Our tribe was one of those whom they didn’t want to live in their world, and they would have succeeded if—"

"Not for our lord!"

"Yes! Our Lord, the God of Decay, protected us. He manifested in a mortal form and punished those who were unjustly taking everything for themselves."

Blaze, who was watching the lesson through the eyes of one of his recent children, couldn’t help but admire the woman’s brainwashing skills.

Only these fanatics would hail me as a god.

While the first part of the woman’s teaching was correct, the latter half was a tale the tribe had collectively concocted.

The Solian kingdom didn’t attack them because they wanted to, but because Blaze had left them no choice. Every year, he would unleash a new plague upon them, forcing the kingdom to raze its city to the ground.

Not only did it hurt them, but it also hurt the reliable image they had crafted painstakingly over centuries.

The neighboring kingdoms, tribes, and even small villages stopped trading with them in fear of invoking ’Decay’s’ wrath on themselves.

Financially, they were cut off. The thousands of faiths they had invoked throughout the continent disappeared along with their influence.

Unable to take it anymore, they attacked the Deca tribe. But it was too late.

If they had struck the tribe before Blaze released all sorts of diseases upon them, then maybe they’d have had a chance to win. That was if he didn’t get involved.

But with his children, they squashed the kingdom with minimal losses. Ever since then, Solia had remained a kingdom solely in name. Their current status was even worse than how the Deca used to live: miserable lives struck with poverty and illness.

With their life expectancy reduced to a meagre twenty-two years, they would disappear eventually.

At the same time, the result of the battle empowered the entire continent’s faith in the God of Decay. People from various places gathered at Deca.

Some came seeking forgiveness, some sought asylum, and many craved alliances.

At first, the tribesmen were hesitant to let them in, which wasn’t surprising given their experience with outsiders. However, with their god’s guidance, they opened the doors.

However, the only reason he let them in was because he didn’t want incest to contaminate the delicately preserved gene pool since nearly all the children were his own.

He also left the administrative work to his capable adolescent children while he toyed around more with various viruses, diseases, and, of course, women who eagerly offered him their services.

Once again, Blaze didn’t shy away from such things as his children had proved themselves to be capable in all fields; he also wanted to create even more capable individuals.

Unfortunately, most of his experiments from before, including the baby he had painstakingly protected in its dead mother’s womb, failed. But Blaze paid no mind to them. He had achieved much greater results.

Just like that, a small Deca village had turned into a massive kingdom.

However, the kingdom’s true strength wasn’t their strange immunity to diseases, but oil and a procedure which only a few outsiders could even witness, let alone do it.

The process of creating superhumans.

It was shown to the outside world as a miracle of their god, but in reality, it was all thanks to the Collective. For now, only Blaze’s direct children, their mothers, and a few exceptional outsiders were ’blessed’. The rest could only yearn for it until they proved their blind loyalty to Blaze.

Naturally, all of it combined made the Deca kingdom a force in its own league.

However, with good things also came the bad.

Small criminals like thieves, pickpockets, assassins, and all sorts of people gathered there. Oh, and even prostitutes, though they were the only group under Blaze’s direct protection.

It was not because he wanted to enjoy more of their bodies, but because they were an excellent source of information. Using their bodies, they could get information out of people that they wouldn’t divulge even under intense torture.

But the worst were people wanting to steal the advancements from the Deca, while there were also those who, despite the Solia kingdom’s crushing defeat, still dared to raise their heads against the new kingdom.

Thankfully, Blaze’s countless children were capable enough to defend the Deca both inside and outside Blaze’s domain.

In fact, they were so successful that Blaze had almost completely disposed of the lab rats and was using the criminals for experiments instead.

It’s shaping up to be the perfect kingdom.

Blaze thought and left the boy’s mind, letting him study, as studying was the one thing even his godly self didn’t discard. It was a different thing that he was more into studying the effects of the horrific diseases he created these days.

Hm... I am getting bored more these days. Creating weirdly powered children isn’t as engaging as it used to be. Perhaps I should start another war and crush the Solians? Nah... better leave conquering the continent to the little ones.