Scarlett couldn’t help but feel excited. This was her first official task as a member of the Order of the Malefic Viper, and it wasn’t an insignificant one either.

With the opening of the ninety-third universe, many factions were naturally interested in establishing a presence on Earth. Many already had, but far more were looking for an opportunity, including those who never had a chance before now.

Surprisingly, the Order of the Malefic Viper technically didn’t have a presence on the planet. They didn’t explicitly control any territories, and there weren’t any headquarters or institutions associated with the faction. Yet, in the eyes of many, the entire planet already belonged to the Order, seeing as the Chosen of the Malefic Viper was the World Leader of Earth.

For the Order to expand their presence on Earth was a given, and Scarlett was all for it. One of her tasks was to escort the members of the Order to Earth and discuss with Miranda the terms of where they could settle.

Besides members of the Order, Scarlett was also to escort members of other factions, namely the Dragonflights, who had shown interest in having a more formal presence on Earth. Scarlett had been a bit surprised when she was informed they had been given permission by Miranda to travel to Earth with a fairly large delegation, but she definitely didn’t complain.

Over the last few years, she had been getting closer to members of the Dragonflights and was fully aware of why these organizations approached her. They knew getting to Lord Thayne directly was a tall order, and Meira was now the Chosen of Duskleaf and not someone they dared approach either. That left just herself, Irin, and Reika as potential targets for the Dragonflights to get an “in” with the Chosen. As a snake – a race closely related to dragons – she was the obvious target.

She had struggled with this in the beginning, but after a discussion with Draskil – the Malefic Dragonkin that some even believed to be the Chosen of the Malefic Viper for a time – she realized she should just embrace it. In his words:

“Kiss-assers are gonna try and get to you no matter what, so why not take advantage and at least get to know those trying to please you? Exploit them as much as they want to exploit you, and if you get lucky, you might even find a few people in there you genuinely get along with. Shit, I’ve expanded my harem three times over already just by not denying that the Chosen and I hung out for a while.”

Ignoring the last part, his words did carry some wisdom. Scarlett couldn’t change reality, only how she responded to it. And she had gained some actual friends during this time, having even gone to Nevermore with children of dragons.

Now, she was even getting credit from those she knew among the Dragonflights for allowing them to visit and get a presence on Earth, and Scarlett gladly took this credit as she saw no reason not to.

“My Lady, the members of the Emberflight should be here shortly, but I was informed they were running a little late,” a succubus informed her as Scarlett sat deep in thought within her way-too-big training chamber.

“Did the Lumenflight reach out?” Scarlett asked.

“Yes, they showed interest in being part of a second wave if possible. For now, they have too many other areas to focus on and not enough members to confidently expand,” the demon answered.

“Alright,” Scarlett nodded as she got up. She checked a token and saw it was only a short ten minutes till the universe would open up, and everyone was already meant to be gathered by now. Scarlett planned on being the last one to show up, as that was apparently what one was supposed to do, but she didn’t want to risk being late.

The succubus who had been assigned as Scarlett’s assistant during all this followed along, as she would also be one of the people going to Earth with them. The level restriction of 300 or below wasn’t very restricting, but it was one of the reasons Scarlett had been assigned the leader.

While there were a few strong people who would go to Earth, Scarlett would be the strongest among their group. She had already reached peak C-grade and only needed to overcome the final wall before her evolution to B-grade, something she was still working on slowly and steadily.

Teleporting once with the succubus, Scarlett arrived at a massive outdoor area with around five thousand people gathered of all races and internal factions of the Order. Vampires, dragonkin, scalekin of all sorts, humans, elves, dwarves, Risen, beastkin, and a lot of beasts or other monsters in human form. There were even a few members of the Altmar Empire and United Tribes mixed in.

Scarlett observed them and saw many were nervous about going to the planet ruled by the Chosen of the Malefic Viper. She was standing atop a raised podium overlooking the people gathered below on the large teleportation circle that had been prepared, and while she couldn’t detect the person, she knew a god was hidden somewhere, in charge of the actual teleportation through the void to ensure nothing went wrong.

“Nervous about going home?” a voice suddenly asked beside her as a familiar person had also arrived. It was the very same dragonkin who sometimes gave good and other times questionable advice.

[Malefic Dragonkin – lvl 312]

“No, not really, though I am looking forward to seeing how my old subordinates are doing,” Scarlett said with a smile. “Are you nervous about going there? To the homeworld of the Chosen?”

That’s right, Draskil had also decided he wanted to tag along to Earth. In truth, his status within the Order of the Malefic Viper surpassed Scarlett’s by a fair margin, but the dragonkin had insisted she become the official leader of this little trip, as not only was she a native of the planet, but because he seriously didn’t want to be in charge of anything. If a situation didn’t have to do with fighting or women, Draskil very rarely bothered getting involved.

“Depends, should I be nervous? Is it true that your planet has a lot of water?” the dragonkin asked, Scarlett fully aware of his extreme hydrophobia.

“It has, the majority of the surface is covered in it,” Scarlett answered honestly.

“Then why the fuck do you call it Earth?” the dragonkin complained. “Why not just call it Water if it has so much of it? That would be far more honest.”

“I’m not the one who named it,” Scarlett shrugged. “Though I have heard it has many other names, such as the Blue Planet, which I guess could be described as more accurate. Except there are planets which are effectively all water, so even that wouldn’t be very accurate.”

“Bah, such planets should be destroyed upon sight,” Draskil complained.

“Just don’t go and do something dumb on Earth,” Scarlett sighed, fully aware that fighting Draskil likely wouldn’t end well for her if it came down to it. While she was many levels higher than him, he was still considered a top-tier genius by the standards of the multiverse and someone far superior to herself. Not that she was too worried, as Earth had things that were far more threatening than she.

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“I’m not an idiot,” Draskil scoffed. “Though I do plan on seeing if I can pay the Void Mechanist a visit...”

“Just don’t antagonize him,” Scarlett shook her head as she remembered the pamphlet that those from the Order had been handed out about Earth. It was compiled with the help of natives from the planet, and Miranda had even chipped in with making it by including laws and norms of the planet.

One section of the information pamphlet was about notable figures on the planet. It talked about those not currently there, but also those who had stayed behind. Most notable was naturally Miranda, the Verdant Witch and de facto leader of the planet. She was the right hand of the Malefic One’s Chosen and the person he trusted the most, and that alone granted her an incredibly high status. Not to mention that she carried the Divine Blessing of the Witches of the Verdant Lagoon, with rumors that she was a Chosen candidate.

However, she was still considered a relatively approachable person as she had a very public role. The same could not be said for the Void Mechanist, who had a section primarily filled with warnings to not piss him off needlessly. He was the type of person that a lot of people didn’t really understand how he fit into the power structure of the planet, and Scarlett had to admit she was also perplexed.

He seemed entirely outside of the hierarchy. He had no official designations, no granted title, no nothing. By all accounts, he was just a guy who lived on Earth and preferred to be left alone while also being extremely powerful and respected by those with actual institutional power. The best way to describe him would be something like a reliable long-term contractor who wasn’t officially part of the leadership structure, yet was still often heavily involved in the matters of the planet.

But most importantly for those about to visit Earth, he was someone who could remove them from the surface of the planet if they annoyed him too much, and no one would do anything about it. In other words, he was someone to just leave the hell alone and, at most, admire his large metal dome from afar. At least for most... Scarlett had heard that a few of those from the Altmar Empire had plans to make contact with the Void Mechanist, and she could only wish them luck.

“Bets on if the Emberflight will make it?” Draskil asked after several moments of silence.

“I would assume they do, if only with a minute to spare,” Scarlett said. Sure, they said they would be late, but she still expected them to know that she wasn’t going to delay everyone just for one of the Dragonflights.

“Hey, you don’t know how bloody long Helen can take to get ready sometimes,” Draskil shrugged, though he did have a dumb smile when talking about the fellow dragonkin he had been aggressively pursuing for a few years. Scarlett wasn’t sure how much progress he’d actually made, but at least Helen seemed somewhat receptive.

Oh yeah, Helenstromoz, the red dragonkin that tried to get close to Jake once upon a time, would also go to Earth. Just as they talked about them, seven people teleported onto the platform, the dragonkin in question in the middle, looking a bit frazzled. Scarlett also had to recognize that Helen was one of the more powerful people going to Earth, barely making it below the level 300 cut-off.

[Dragonkin – lvl 298]

“I apologize we’re late, but there was a problem with a gift we had prepared,” Helen quickly explained by sending a telepathic message, and Scarlett just sent a quick acknowledgment in return as she didn’t have time to engage in a conversation here and now as she floated down and landed on the teleportation platform alongside Draskil and the succubus as she spoke loudly, infusing her voice with Willpower.

“Prepare yourselves; the teleportation shall begin shortly. For those teleporting between universes for the first time, be aware that the experience can be rather uncomfortable. For those who have teleported between universes before, be aware this will be a lot rougher than what you’re used to,” Scarlett spoke loudly, even putting a small joke in there. At least, she thought it was a joke.

Serious nods all around confirmed everyone was serious.

A few seconds passed, and despite seemingly nothing changing to Scarlett and all those standing on the platform, something did change. Mortals couldn’t detect it besides the most powerful among them, but all gods knew at that moment that the veil between universes had weakened.

At once, across the ninety-two first universes, countless teleportations activated at once. Resources capable of funding entire pantheons were expended in mere seconds as trillions upon trillions were teleported into the ninety-third universe at once, as a new era had begun.

Some planets would find themselves conquered by forces who got outside assistance. Others would solidify their power, while a few places were nearly unaffected, as the natives were too powerful or had limited all incoming teleportation enough for it not to be a problem. At least not for now.

Given enough time, the factions of old would claim the ninety-third universe the same way they had the ninety-two prior. Some would struggle, but in the end, the only choice most so-called “independent” planets had would be between subjugation or annihilation. The only way to survive was to either become part of a large faction... or find yourself under the influence of a faction that didn’t care to rule every planet under their purview with an iron fist.

They would all still know that this iron fist existed and had the power to smash their planet to smithereens should the “independent” faction prove themselves just a bit too problematic.

--

Miranda stood alongside Lillian, Arthur, the Sky Whale in humanoid form, members from the Noboru clan, and representatives from most large factions who had a presence on Earth.

The large teleportation circle prepared in the relatively empty section of the human-occupied section of the planet began to light up as it activated mere seconds after the universe opened up. This teleportation circle was placed on a raised stone platform to inscribe the complex runes that Neil, Scarlett’s snakes, and many others had worked on for the last few months.

It was barren land around them for thousands of kilometers, with nothing besides temporary buildings primarily constructed by earth mages surrounding the teleporter. These buildings were far worse than anything an actual Builder could make, but given they only had a hundred days to prepare everything, Miranda wasn’t particularly upset that the welcome that awaited most of those about to arrive wasn’t exactly a red carpet one.

And good thing there wasn’t a carpet anywhere in sight because it would have been quite nasty after what happened next. As several thousand figures appeared on the massive teleportation platform, about four out of five began to violently throw up, a few fainted, and there were even two who started screaming loudly.

Miranda couldn’t help but nod as she also remembered her first time teleporting to the first universe. Seeing as one side of the teleporter was a lot rougher than the other – which could only be expected as what was constructed at the Order had been made by a god – getting a bumpy ride was unavoidable.

Some of the new arrivals had handled matters pretty well, though. The more powerful people were able to suppress whatever discomfort they felt, while a few had experienced this type of teleportation several times before, including the two people who were leading this expedition.

“Hello, Scarlett, long time no see,” Miranda said as she floated over and landed on the platform while regarding the albino snake in humanoid form. Beside her, she saw a powerful-looking Malefic Dragonkin who observed her back to one side, with a succubus down on all fours throwing up on the other.

Scarlett looked at Miranda for a moment as the snake girl forgot all decorum for a moment as she jumped forward and gave the witch a big hug. “Miranda!”

Miranda could only smile and return the hug. “Silly girl... I’ve missed you too.”

She couldn’t help but remember the days she was teaching the far more powerful snake how to be more human-like, and while it wasn’t a particularly positive moment of her life back then, she now looked back at it fondly.

Also... it did help break the ice for what was about to come next, as Miranda had meetings galore prepared and more work on her plate than she could possibly finish in the short term. Not that she complained too much, as the experience points were good. It was so good that Jake had to be wary she wouldn’t evolve to B-grade before him.

“Greetings, my lady,” the Malefic Dragonkin greeted Miranda just as she and Scarlett disengaged from their hug. He held out his hand, motioning Miranda to give hers as he spoke again. “It would be my pleasure if Ms. Wells would join me for a one-on-one meeting to-“

“No,” Miranda just said, already knowing enough about Draskil to know what he was trying.

The dragonkin instantly retracted his hand and shrugged with a grin. “Worth a shot.”

“It really wasn’t,” Scarlett sighed.

“I would beg to differ,” Draskil doubled down.

“You know what? I changed my mind,” Miranda said with a big smile. “We should have a meeting just the two of us... have you ever gone scuba-diving before? An incredible experience after the system.”

Draskil looked confused for a moment until the succubus, who had been busy only moments ago throwing up, had gotten back up and seemingly sent a telepathic message to the Malefic Dragonkin, explaining what Miranda was talking about.

The dragonkin looked at Miranda and nodded. “Truly worthy of being called a witch in both class and temperament, and one of the only people who can handle the Chosen of the Malefic One.”