Just leaving my shining little gem back down there and standing up in front of such a dim and gloomy world made me feel a little angry.

Why was the apocalypse showing us such ugliness and brutality? If I got the chance, I’d love to have a world filled with lights, beauty, and music all over it.

“Ok, let’s work for that as a goal,” I said to myself before resuming the flight of my chariot towards Detroit.

It was a big city indeed, lying on the bank of one big lake. I didn’t know what was with this part of the continent, filled with many different sized lakes.

Just when I passed the Illinois border and headed to Michigan, I saw at least three big spaces of water at this place.

Anyway, I went towards the direction of Detroit, to be welcomed with a large stretch of army that even extended beyond the city.

Someone must have told them about the presence of tents in the market as all of them had big white and yellow coloured tents. It was a nice sight to see such a grand lining of tents organised in lines and extending around the city.

Of course my boys were inside the city. So I directly went towards the centre.

“Long live the lord!”

“Long live the lord!”

“Long live the lord!”

Just as I went near the city, flashing fast over the tent section, such earth shattering shouts came from down there without a warning.

I had to stop the chariot for a few seconds, looking around in daze before I noticed a group of people standing in the centre of these tents outside the city.

Looking closer using my hawk eye skill, they were my boys. And it seemed the spearhead was leading the chorus with everyone, shouting this greeting that gave me a pleasant surprise.

It felt so good to be appreciated for what you did by your people. I didn’t see any of them as my followers, but my people. They were the closest people to me, and a greeting like that to me felt just great.

“Let’s stir more adrenaline then,” I took out my pillar and used the shield skill in it. The Thundering Might skill roared and created a spectacular scene here, making everyone pause for a few minutes, watching the magic show unfolding, before the entire city and surroundings got under a protective shield.

“I should do that at all the key cities then,” using this pillar here for a show gave me a good idea about how I’d use it in the future.

I had to make sure this part of my kingdom would be tightly and well secured. Using the pillar shield skill to protect the main cities looked cool indeed.

Also if I managed to get time, I’d go and use the pillar’s skill over many close by cities and towns, aiming to let them all coalesce at one point in time and create a unified shield there.

It would be great if I could extend a thick shield from Michigan north down to Kentucky at south.

This way my west side of the kingdom would be secured and would relieve a lot of pressure over my boys.

But that needed lots of time for the shields to absorb energy from nature and fuse together. Anyway, I’d start doing this as a long term plan. A for now, I should depend on my armies and use the staff’s marking feature to my advantage.

“Long live our mighty lord!”

“Long live our mighty lord!”

“Long live our mighty lord!”

I got jolted awakened by the louder cheering that came from the ground at this moment. My boys seemed to like my shield, feeling more proud and getting hyped up.

Of course for people like them, who went to the border of death for a visit and returned back, they were acting very wild and active. It seemed the last battle against the combined army of races gave them more confidence and repaired their shattered souls and restored their self confidence.

It was good to see that indeed. I was worrying over nothing when I thought about their low morale and the psychological impacts of being in the illusion.

Recalling the illusion made me think about him. That dude was really a trouble for me right now, the jumper I meant.

Just thinking about what he experienced and led him to such a mental breakdown made me sigh. That dude was still sending me curses and threatening messages, promising he would kill me once he got out of his prison.

That wasn’t typical of him. And dealing with such shattered people wasn’t my specialty. I didn’t know what I should do, but for sure that dude here needed help.

“You are doing such a big welcome for me, interesting,” as I landed with my chariot at the wide space in the middle of all these tents, I said to all my boys and girls down there.

“Boss, this is my idea,” as I guessed, it was the spearhead’s idea, “are you happy with it?”

“It’s interesting indeed,” I laughed while heading down there.

Hilary was still… Well, sleepy from what the two of us just experienced. So I just descended down there alone, and decided to leave her to enjoy this rare moment of rest.

“Are you ok?”

The first to come to me was Angelica. This girl was asking in such care, yet her eyes kept twisting around me, as if she was looking for someone else.

“Don’t bother, she is sleeping,” I winked and her face froze for a second there before she hit me on the shoulder.

“That’s unfair! I asked for you first before she even arrived.”

“Asked? Girl, I’m not that kind of a man,” I rolled my eyes before motioning towards Alex, “and you got already someone to make you awake at night.”

“She… Humph, we broke already,” Karoline said before suddenly jumping and holding me by the arm, “what about the two of us? Play together and have some fun?”

“Scram,” I pushed her aside, making everyone else laugh.