Speed Is King

“Consider it seed investment.” Jul’Taras said sagely. “There are others who are richer than you-“

El’Taras scoffed loudly.

“There are others who ARE richer than you who don’t have the privilege nor the honor of throwing all of their wealth into the new Empire even though they would have definitely desperately wanted to do so if they knew about it.” Jul’Taras looked at her uncle levelly.

“The more you put in, the more you’ll get. You know that better than me, uncle.” Jul’Taras said patiently.

At that, however, El’Taras burst into a wide, wide smile.

“I’ve been waiting for you to say that. Of course I know that. But it’ll mean nothing if you and your little “Emperor” don’t hold to the same principle as I do.” El’Taras patted Jul’Taras shoulder affectionately and passed her a token.

Jul’Taras’ eyes widened slightly as she too burst into a very wide smile.

It was El’Taras’ personal token.

All of his wealth can be accessed from it. Each day, all of the Commission’s net profits flowed into various banks and holdings all over the universe, and all of it were linked by one single token.

The token to rule them all!

Jul’Taras received it with slightly trembling hands. It was light and cool to the touch.

“Let me grant you access.” El’Taras pointed at Jul’Taras, and immediately, the token warmed up in her hand.

“Finally, I get to verify if my investigations are correct. It was really hard tracing your money you know.” Jul’Taras grumbled to her uncle lightly as she eagerly delved into the token with her mind. “Let’s see, cash and cash equi… …”

… … …

… … …

… … …

… … …

For a full minute, Jul’Taras remained completely frozen while El’Taras’ lips curled slightly into a small smile.

It was the very first time he actually revealed his full wealth to anyone, and it was exactly the reaction he expected anyone, even Jul’Taras, to have.

In fact, if it was anybody else apart from Jul’Taras, they would probably have went huh?

The number was just too big to make sense!

Not for Jul’Taras, of course.

She knew exactly how much the number was. Her brain could process the number, after all, numbers are just numbers.

It was just that…

Her brain tried to understand just what sort of impact the numbers could have in real life, and it was finding difficulty doing that.

She blinked a few times.

Her mind thought of the most expensive endeavor and the most expensive variant of that endeavor, and then tripled it a couple of times in a row, and then tripled it again just to be safe, and she realized that she would have barely used a tiny fraction of that number!

El’Taras’ smile grew wider as he guessed what Jul’Taras was doing in her mind.

He chose that very moment to drop his next bombshell.

“That number… is last year’s figure. The cumulative number is this.” El’Taras pointed at Jul’Taras once more.

She was a person who rarely gave up. In fact, if she puts her mind to it, she was the stubbornest person she knew, and she knew a lot of people.

However, at that moment, she chose to give up.

Why bother? She already knew that she could put into motion all of her wildest and craziest plans, and she still would have barely scratched the surface of the mountain that was El’Taras wealth.

She didn’t need to know anything more than that.

Not yet, anyway.

“I assume you want the new Empire to be the head of the coalition that would dominate the entire known universe then? But even with such a lofty goal, this war chest is just too extravagant.” Jul’Taras sighed.

“Hahahaha. My dear Jules. You’re thinking far too small.” El’Taras laughed happily and rather half-excitedly like a little boy at the opportunity of finally being able to voice out his deepest and darkest ambition.

He glanced at Harold Sands, and said very grandly.

“Tell her, Director Sands. No, not Director. Commander in Chief Sands.”

All of them present there breathed in sharply.

Commander in Chief Sands?

“Ehm. I can’t believe we are divulging such top secret information to you guys. You’ve truly risen up in the ranks of the Universe…” Harold Sands sighed.

“The truth of the matter is, the Gaming Commission is gearing up for war. Has been, for many, many years.

For almost a hundred years now, we’ve discovered various clues about the existence of a part of the universe which we, as of now, have no access to.

And in that new universe, as we like to call it, the life forms control a different and more powerful type of energy, and they manipulate their energy in a far more advanced way than we do.

The energy that you see Elliot wielding is but a very unique combination of two energy types present in that new universe.

We believe that they are what passes for life and death energy over there.

We don’t know for certain how powerful Elliot actually is in comparison to the best fighters in that universe, but we believe that he should be somewhere in the middle.

And of course, the Ascendant Runes Jessica is working on is the unique and wonderful way these people from the new universe wield and manipulate their energies.

Together, Elliot and Jessica now are in possession of the only working samples we have of the complete power structure of the new universe.

And if we have samples… we can replicate them.”

At those words, Jul’Taras, Monkey King and Aunt Hills were completely stunned speechless!

But Harold Sands was not done.

“For the longest time, we’ve been gearing up for a defensive war. We’ve built up our forces slowly, and gave all we have to research and to look for those unique energy types and runes.

For the longest time… we were content. Worried, yes. But content to do all we can to defend ourselves.”

Harold Sands looked at Jul’Taras in the eye.

He knew that Jul’Taras didn’t need to hear the rest of his words.

But he said it anyway.

“We are not content anymore.” He said softly.