“But you got lots of people like them, right? They can be sacrificed, and don’t blame them for fear for their lives and think even about such tiny details.”

“I see…” I got what he didn’t directly say. It seemed this issue ran for much longer than I thought.

Did they know a long time ago about the merge? About their race coming here? Or was it their race who tried to push them to betray me all this time?

Without the need to ask, they got lots of discussions among themselves about this. And it seemed they decided to leave Toramos behind, clarifying everything to me.

That meant they didn’t really want to betray me. But in the end they got to do it. After all this was their race.

This was all understandable by me, but not enough to let them have their own way.

“Lily, spread my orders,” I turned towards the all stupefied from all this weird and shocking talk, and added, “make all of our forces hunt those Hescos down.”

“No,” I shook my head, “just capture them. If they resisted, then yes, kill them.”

“They won’t resist,” Toramos tried to meddle in.

“If you want to help them, then send a message by your means and tell them to just surrender in peace. A single moment of resistance will end up for them getting massacred.”

“I… I will…”

I took out my cube, and Lily got a feeling about what I was going to do.

“Are you ready?” I calmly asked, and he paused for a few minutes before slowly nodding.

“They are going to surrender themselves. There is no need to send armies out there to…”

*Fwoosh!*

Before he’d even continue what he wanted to say, he ended up getting sucked inside my cube.

“Now… Can you tell me what the hell all this is about? What’s this madness!!!”

“First make sure everyone is looking for these Hescos,” I paused, “they must not be too far away.”

“You heard him, they are going to surrender.”

“No, they won’t,” Something told me only Toramos was there to surrender to me. As for others, they already selected their side.

If I was in Toramos shoes, I’d end up in a very tough situation, one that I’d not like to be in voluntarily.

He had his own race and friends on one side, and his desire to follow me on another. I could already guess a thing or two about his reasons.

After all, he wasn’t the first Hescos I met, or the first I gained his trust and loyalty.

Before I invaded the other worlds, I met a few Hescos paragons. And from there, I got to learn tons of things about how things truly were in that race.

It was… A bit of a nightmare!

Such worthy and capable kids were doomed from the moment of their birth. They didn’t just lose their chances in competing for a better life, or even select the lives they wanted, they got **loads of others who weren’t any worse than them.

Getting raised up in such an environment was quite toxic over anyone, quite negatively impacting any genius no matter what.

That was why Toramos did like other paragons of the Hescos I met before. Once he spotted a chance to free and extricate himself from all this hell, he didn’t hesitate to grasp the chance with all his might.

But he was the only smart dude out there. Others decided to defect, return to what they were all familiar with rather than risking things with someone alien to them like myself.

I could understand their reasons. They got a tough choice after all. But if they thought about things quite logically, then they’d end up just like Toramos.

After all, only a blind fool would miss seeing the golden chance here. I alone stood against a scary enemy, changed the fate of many races, and my strength here kept snowballing until it reached a terrifying scale.

Of course I couldn’t be compared to those ancient and formidable races like Hescos, yet. But it was obvious that after winning this ordeal, I’d be a shining star in the entire universe and beyond.

It was fortunate for anyone to meet me at such an early stage. Later on, it’d be much harder for anyone to join me and get a good rank in my entire army and kingdom.

As for the last words he just said, it was his last help towards his friends. He wanted to mislead me, to believe his friends were going to come back and join me.

That was all bull**! The ones who decided to defect and betray me wouldn’t even think twice and would never join me again.

So he wanted to delay their retreat, buy little time for them to safely get away, as his last help to his friends.

That was why I took him inside the cube first, before telling Lily everything. I didn’t want him to hold a grudge against me, wanting him to feel he truly helped his people with all his power before finally lowering his head and devoted his life for me with unwavering loyalty.

“It’s done,” Lily was quite impatient to hear my side of the story. So she made sure to get everything done in less than two minutes, turned to look at me as she crossed her arms, “now what? Tell me everything from A to Z!”

“It’s like this…” I knew I got to tell her about this, all this madness. After all, she was my right hand, the one I depended on to lead everyone here and back to my kingdom.

“Sh*t! Sh*t! Sh*t! Is this really happening? There is no more Earth?!!!”

“That’s what I was told,” I sighed, “and we got nothing to do about it. Let’s just do our best, win this entire thing out, and claim the new world.”