Chapter 840 The Gathering
( The council of monarch's monument )
The council of monarch's monument was strategically located as a free floating tower alongside the edges of the two oldest monarchies in the universe - The Kingdom of Death and The Kingdom Of Life.
It was pretty much at the centre of the universe and the commute time for every monarch to reach there was around 1.5 hours.
Naturally, the first ones to arrive at the monument were Beniogre and Hades who reached about 15 minutes after the announcement was made and they were followed by a plethora of tier6 paladins and death knights from their kingdoms.
With Shakuni himself not present in the building yet, the atmosphere was tense but bubbling with anticipation as while the monarchs were afraid of their powers being stripped down, the underlings were excited to meet the conqueror of the universe.
There were no words exchanged between Hades and Beniogre, only a solemn nod that expressed their seriousness over the matter.
The next one to come was Dracula alongside Ulrich and his other subordinates.
Having established a part-base within the Kingdom of Life, he was close by as well as his entry immediately put the paladins of life on high alert as they prepared to fight.
" Agh, darling you're here too, why am I not surprised? " Dracula said as the word ' Darling ' sounded extremely vile coming out of his mouth.
" Stand down, this is not a place to fight " Beniogre said as while she did not address Dracula directly, she ensured the survival of her troops.
" Ho, you're sensible, another second of them pointing their sword at me and all of them would have been dead " Dracula claimed as he took a monarch's seat across Beniogre and then winked at Hades who was staring at him.
"Joker," Hades commented as Dracula laughed out loud and bowed. He quite liked that acronym for himself.
Although Beniogre seemed to be calm on the surface, Dracula's presence in the room had made her extremely riled up, not only did she have her feet and stomach clenched, just looking at the man who vilely violated her all those years ago made her stomach roll in disgust.
The next ones to arrive were Max alongside Regus Aurelius and Vega as the other vampire lords soon followed suit.
Sharing a border with the Kingdom Of Life, they too were relatively close by and had arrived at the meeting 90 minutes before the start.
Almost immediately, Regus hid the Surya-Astra by storing it in his inventory as he glared holes into Dracula's eyes.
" Sit down boy, today's a celebration " Dracula said as he thoroughly enjoyed the look in Regus's eyes as he saw him.
That man hated him and Dracula wanted nothing less from his opponent.
" Stand down- today's not day to fight " Regus commanded as the rest of the vampire lord's lowered their weapons as Regus took his seat at the monarch table.
" Quite a brother you have there Max " Dracula commented as he took notice of Max's thickened aura and realised that the boy had been promoted as well.
Dracula distinctly remembered Max's strength the last time they met and using that as a frame of reference he was shocked as to how much the boy had improved in such a short time-frame.
' Impressive- ' he thought as his interest in Max reignited.
This time around, he wasn't interested in Max becoming his subordinate, but he rather wanted to see how far Max could progress as a warrior.
Perhaps, if he left the boy untouched, Dracula hoped that one day he could entertain him with a thrilling fight.
" Well, he's good, but I'm going to be better than him someday " Max said with pride as all eyes in the room turned towards him.
To become better than the conqueror of the universe? That was a lofty ambition to have-
Hades smiled as he looked at the other Rajput boy while Beniogre and Regus frowned.
Everyone in the room wanted to rubbish Max's claim and tell him to ' Keep Dreaming ' because none of them dared to dream as big as he did, however, none had the balls to rubbish his claim as anyone who knew him understood that he was special in his own way.
Although they did not think it was likely, deep down they knew that Max did have the potential to reach Rudra's heights or perhaps even surpass him.
The elven king entered next and immediately he was overjoyed to see Max as he said " SON IN LAW " and gave him a big hug.
Not only did he completely ignore all the monarch's present in the room, he also took his time chatting with Max leisurely before taking his seat in what was his clear contempt for everyone else in the room.
The angels arrived next and Max shared a long moment of eye-contact with Hazriel as she looked troubled for some reason.
With her looking even more beautiful then usual when in distress Max had an urge to become prince charming and solve all of he problems, but he knew that this building was not the right moment to make such advances.
For now he could only stand in silence, happy to have the opportunity to glance at her to his heart's content.
After the angels arrived the beast's, including Beast King Omar and following them came Mira, Rhea and the dragon's.
Max also shared a long stare-down with Mira who looked incredibly mature and refined today having dressed like a noble queen rather than a young teenager.
She immediately puffed up her cheeks in a cute way when Max looked at her expressing her disapproval of Max, but then gave him a bright smile showing that she was happy to see him.
Max smiled back, and it was a genuine smile as he found Mira's antics to be irresistibly cute as little butterflies flew in his stomach.
Thankfully, emperor Cervantez entered the hall next with Prince Aman and entourage as Max's attention was diverted to their presence.
The Won Knight's arrived next, followed closely by Neatwit, Master Of Chaos and Sir Jhonny accompanied by Naomi, Ruby and three young brats that Max recognised but failed to recognise at first glance.
" Oh- MAX! " Naomi said as she threw up hand and began waving as she saw him.
Max instantly chuckled and made his way to meet his sister-in-law after 12 long years as he shared a long and loving hug with her.
" Me too! " said Ruby as she joined in on the group hug as Max felt all warm and happy to see them after so long.
" Kids, greet your uncle Max " Naomi said as Max suddenly felt his heart come up to his throat when he heard the word 'Kids'
Last he remembered, these kids were asking him to win prices at local carnival and playing hide and seek in his palace, now Jake and Kartikeya were both taller than him and looked like they had physiques of Greek god's.
" Uncle Max " Jake said as he extended his hand for a polite hand-shake while Amy gave him an awkward hug.
When it was Kartikeya's turn however, he decided to enter a squeezing contest with Max as under the pretext of a friendly handshake he tried to see just how strong this uncle of his really was.
At first, Max entertained the boy and let him use all his strength, but once Kartikeya realised that it was no good and the mischief in his blue eyes faded, Max began to show a sliver of his true power as immediately Kartikeya yelped in pain.
" Nice grip " Max complimented as he slapped kartikeya on the back as Jake smacked him on the head.
Although Max was not the strongest in the Rajput family yet, he was not so weak that the kids could pick on him either.