Max could not sleep in peace on his first night back home, as despite Asiva's best efforts to distract him, Max remained completely preoccupied with his thoughts.
For the entire night, Max did not utter a single word and kept staring into the distance.
His demeanour turned colder and colder as more time passed with him eventually beginning to emit a thin killing intent that frightened Asiva even though it wasn't directed at her.
Whatever Max thought of in the duration of the night was a silent resolve that seemed like an unshakeable promise.
It was only in the morning after, that Max began interacting with people again as the first thing he did was to visit Zippo in the infirmary.
The black dragon had taken a hit for him and Max appreciated his loyalty and competency.
Without him, Asiva could have been seriously injured and the baby could have died.
There wasn't a reward big enough for the meritorious deed he had performed, but even then Max made sure that Zippo was fairly compensated.
Not only did Max give him a large sum of money, he also agreed to Zippo's request of taking some time off after his recovery was complete to train and grow stronger.
Apparently, Zippo was not satisfied with how Angakok called him an ' ant ' and was able to suppress him so easily.
Zippo understood the fact that the current him was too weak to stand up to god level threats and problems and if he wanted to be the shadow guard of a family like the Rajput's, he needed to be much stronger.
For this reason, he wanted to take some time off after his recovery was complete and train, so that he could come back stronger.
Max, who understood his emotions readily agreed to his demands and assured him that he would provide him with any and all resources that the lordship could bear cost off for his training.
With that meeting done, Max resumed his administrative duties as the lord as currently there were two main issues that needed his immediate focus.
The first issue was regarding his personal life-
Asiva was pregnant and the people of Dombivli were already aware that it was his child.
With the war now over, the wedding was a necessity and needed to be planned on an urgent basis.
It did not reflect well on him to have a pregnant girlfriend who could potentially give birth to the next Lord of Dombivli and not give her the status of the Lady.
Max had always been intent on marrying Asiva some day, however, he had not expected it to be so soon.
Regardless, he was going to do right by her and marry her in a grand ceremony that was sure to make her happy.
The second and the more important issue was regarding the clan rankings and the upcoming dungeon event.
Only a few weeks remained till the ice dungeon of the progenitor opened in Ixtal and all clans were supposed to send representatives to participate in the dungeon raid.
The final rankings of the clans depended on this dungeon run as well as their contributions in the dimensional war.
The Bloodfall clan had already performed extremely well in the Dimensional war and performed countless meritorious deeds for the Vampire Society.
The territory was also more prosperous now than it was before with unemployment being low and the trade industry booming.
The Bloodfall clan, through its strategic development of Alchemy supportive infrastructure had become a key manufacturer of potion supplies during the war period and had reaped a big profit as a result.
Max, Sebastian, DarkSorrow and other key members of the Bloodfall army saw massive increases in strength after the dimensional war and the quality of the overall army had also improved significantly.
The Bloodfall army was now battle-tested, much more robust and tactically sound.
It was a few notches above the previous Kingsman army and was definitely building a name for itself.
Now if only the dungeon raid went smoothly as well, a final rank within top10 did not seem impossible to Max.
The rise of Bloodfall was inevitable and with the 100 billion gold coins that Regus was to pay him for losing the court case was going to be the perfect acceleration that Max needed to propel that growth to be faster.
The clan rankings this time around were particularly important because depending on the clan rankings the distribution of new territories was going to be made.
After the Dimensional war, the territories of the Savage King were now under Vampire rule and it was Regus's idea to distribute the rewards as per the final clan rankings.
It was a golden chance for Max to expand his territory and get a few new resource-rich planets to rule, a chance that could see him rise even higher in subsequent clan evaluations if done correctly.
With his aim set high at the Vampire Throne, Max understood perfectly that in order for him to eventually raise Bloodfall's ranking uptil number 1, he needed to make a string of strategic decisions and improve Bloodfall's strength over the next decade to come while also improving personal strength to be able to face Regus.
From here on out, it was a long road to the throne and Max needed to have the patience to traverse it without losing focus of the end goal.
And the first step in it was the upcoming dungeon event.
*************
( Meanwhile Rudra )
In his spare time when he was not teaching the kids combat or harvesting crops for dinner-
Rudra spent his time simulating a battle against the universal queen in his head.
He had taken a good look at the monstrosity of a form that the queen manifested herself as and although the two did not engage in actual combat, Rudra got an understanding of her build and strengths.
After countless simulations, if there was one thing Rudra was sure of, it was the fact that the queen had made herself the ultimate build.
It was next to impossible to throw her off-balance, or to force her to give an opening in her battle stance.
She had no blind spots, so it was impossible to ambush her.
Her natural defences were next to impenetrable, which meant that blunt force attacks were sure to cause little to no damage.
While her recovery abilities were unknown, it was logical to believe that they were endless and formidable.
Rudra believed that if she could manifest and create a body out of nowhere, then even if he managed to destroy one of her physical manifestations, what was to say she could just not manifest another?
Finally her offensive abilities were undoubtedly off the charts as despite the tier10 barrier, Rudra felt the power she manifested to try and crack the barrier and it was at least 10 times stronger than Regus's peak move.
Under such circumstances, Rudra acknowledged that the queen seemed to be an undefeatable opponent and that killing her would undoubtedly prove to be his biggest ever challenge, however, he was also confident that since he had many more years to plan his attack, he would undoubtedly come up with a strategy that would maximise the odds of him winning.