"Investigated is a strong word, don't you think?" Alex asked. "I merely went through a few public records. Nothing intrusive. Yet."
"In a place like this… you're nothing without power," Simon said. "In regular society, having extraordinary powers means nothing. But in a society where everyone not only has powers, but there are vast chasms between those powers, everything changes. Like it or not, there will be unfairness, and the weaker ones will eventually be oppressed by those with greater power and authority. I have simply adopted that mindset early on. It's not like you alone can micromanage the entire city. Not considering the pace at which the population is increasing."
Felicia had a weird expression on her face at Simon's words as she recalled the Gaia bracelet that her counterpart had told her about. If Apex wanted, he could indeed micromanage every single resident of this city to the point where even free will became a luxury. But she didn't say anything after seeing her master's amused smile.
"Bad place to be in mentally," Alex said. "You lose someone close to you during the initiation?"
"Not the initiation," Simon said. "Before that. Before you came in and consolidated magical society as a whole, my brother was kidnapped by a witch… I won't bore you with the details. But I saw firsthand how not a single person could do anything to her simply because her coven held a hotspot."
"I understand," Alex nodded. "My question is… Do you want power and influence, or do you want the security that comes with it?"
"Why does it matter?" Simon asked, frowning.
"It matters a lot," Alex said. "Power and influence require constant persistence and growth. If you embark on that path, you will be forced to spend every single day embroiled in power struggles. As for security… You just need to agree to my conditions."
"What if I want power and influence?"
"I'm afraid there will be a limit," Alex said. "Felicia here will be serving as a de facto leader of every guild that emerges in Apex City in the future. Both her abilities and my favor toward her are enough to let her remain in that position for a very long time. You, on the other hand, can only serve as the leader of one of many guilds. No matter your power, you will still have to answer to Felicia. Also, do you really enjoy that kind of work? You're forcing yourself because you believe that this is the best path forward."
"I have my sister-in-law and my nephew to take care of," Simon said. "I will not let anything happen to them."
"Then agree to my offer," Alex said. "You will be someone who answers only to me. That will be the case anyway. No matter how much power you accumulate, I will remain the supreme authority in this city. Even if you turn every single person here against me, I need only snap my fingers, and they will all be left powerless like lambs to the slaughter. And I will slaughter them."
"I would rather not test you on that," Simon said with a flat expression, not betraying his thoughts. "What are your conditions?"
"You have to serve as an announcer, commentator, and referee for the battles that take place in the colosseum," Alex said.
"…" Simon looked like he was expecting more and stayed silent for a few seconds before opening his mouth. "Is that it?"
"I'm not interested in your powers, my guy," Alex chortled. "Entities made entirely of energy aren't new to me. And while you are doubtlessly strong, that's all you have going for you. It's good enough to have you serve as the referee for some particularly intense colosseum battles."
"Why?"
"Come on, Wonder Man, do you really have to ask?" Alex asked. "I think you're a chill guy who got dealt a bad hand in life. Goodwill, pity, whatever you want to call it. Plus, you are strong enough to actually serve as the referee for colosseum battles."
"Is that really it?"
"What else? I might occasionally tell you to favor one contestant over the other, subtly hyping them up, but that's all there is to it. For some fights, you can help dictate the narrative for me."
"Okay," Simon nodded. "But I want to bring my family into Apex City."
"Consider it done," Alex said. "Go home and bring them into Apex City. They won't be restricted anymore. Hell, I'll even let them access Chaos energy."
The man had an emotional expression on his face and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Thank you, sir, for your grace."
"All right, go on. I have other things to deal with," Alex dismissed his gratitude and waved his hand, immediately teleporting him away.
"Master," Felicia immediately fell on her knees the moment Simon disappeared, lowering her head and addressing Alex respectfully.
"Good work, Fel. You did everything perfectly. I truly didn't expect you to handle him with such ease."
His praise made all of her previous grievances disappear into thin air as she smiled widely. "Thank you, master."
"Come here," Alex said, beckoning her over as Felicia's smile turned seductive. She promptly started crawling over to him, swaying her leather-clad ass with each step forward as her breasts swayed from side to side.
"I'm glad you liked the show, Master…" Within seconds, Felicia was upon him, kneeling between Alex's legs as she pulled out his cock and started blowing him.
"You remember what I told you a year ago, right? The training was bound to significantly increase your libido. I will never deny you, but don't let it consume you, okay?"
"I understand," she nodded, greedily licking his shaft all over.
"Come with me after this. I will announce your promotion," Alex said. "We can also take the opportunity to release the new progression system to the public. You can step down from your position as your guild's leader after that."
"Mm," she nodded, thoroughly engrossed in the task at hand.
Half an hour later, she had a skippy smile on her face as Alex let her go over to her guild to give them a heads-up about the announcement. At the same time, he summoned every single one of Apex City's citizens to the Colosseum with a buffer for ten minutes. While they wouldn't instantly be teleported there, they only had ten minutes to wrap up whatever they were doing before being forcefully teleported anyway.
What followed was a similar event as the first time that Apex City was established, where Alex appeared in the form of a massive projection in the center of the Colosseum, accompanied by Felicia, where he announced her new position as the First Cardinal. Before explaining her responsibilities, Alex explained the new progression system for everyone, giving brief overviews about the different levels that he and Felicia had established.
Level 0 Uninitiated: Newcomers
Level 1 Initiate: Consistent feedback to Source
Level 2 Priest: Feedback sufficient to support a new recruit and start generating own Chaos energy.
Level 3 Archon: Induced heart mutation that allows full self-sustenance.
Level 4 Cardinal: Mutated heart's Chaos energy generation can sustain others.
A book with a more thorough explanation and the method for progression was provided to everyone's personal cabins.
Then, he announced the guild system where everyone who became a ‹Priest› could establish their own guilds.
However, that was only available for the first ten guilds. From the eleventh guild onward, the leader would have to first get promoted to become a level three ‹Archon›. That sent the people for a roll. After all, they had seen the small privileges that Felicia's Thieves' Guild had received in the form of a regular Chaos Authority stipend, a private space in the city square, and more. This felt far more impactful to people than Felicia's announcement. Though things again took a turn when Alex announced that every guild would be under her purview.
Finally, he announced the expansion of Apex City's population. He was planning on directly introducing two million more people into the city over the next two days. Following that, he planned to send Felicia to one of Scarlet Angel's planets to start plundering that woman's magically inclined population. After all, unlike this Earth, almost everyone on the planets Scarlet Angel ruled was magically inclined after she altered reality to make it that way.
As for having Wanda do it for this planet as well, Alex had no interest in pointlessly wasting resources. He'd already asked her about it, and she would consume half of the current Source of Chaos to achieve that. Hearing that absurd estimate, Alex grew further assured that someone had to have been manipulating or supporting Scarlet Angel from the shadows. As powerful as Wanda and her variants were, they all had natural limits based on the amount of energy that they could utilize. The Wanda that had temporarily wiped out every mutant from the multiverse had a direct connection to the original Source of Chaos through the Chaos Dimension, which was immeasurably vaster than the one Alex's Wanda possessed.
***
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