They arrived quickly, and he sent them to begin construction on the new Angel Reincarnation Pool.
Nova had ascended to the early-stage of High God Tier during the campaign. The pool she'd build today would reach Level 9, one step higher than before. Once she hit the late-stage of High God Tier, it would be Level 9 and Haru would no longer need to spend Power Stones and Magic Crystals to level it up.
Caelith's role, on the other hand, was quieter but equally necessary. Without her work giving souls to the Angel Hearts, none of the hearts could become Angels at all. The two of them together were the engine that kept the Empire's numbers climbing.
…
The rewards arrived the moment he returned.
He'd been waiting three hours longer than necessary — if he'd known they wouldn't drop until he was back on the Endless Continent, he'd have come straight home.
The notification sequence ran:
[Congratulations to Kazehaya Haru, the Divine Emperor of the Aetherium Empire, for achieving first place in the Demon Slayer Tournament.]
[You have the following list of rewards. You can choose one of them:]
[1. A Random Divine Artifact (Weakest: Lower True God Tier Artifact / Strongest: Supreme God Tier artifact)]
[2. Random exclusive building connected to your initial troops (Angels)]
[3. Three bloodline evolution slots for your troops]
[4. Aetherium Empire's capital Angel City would level up once, becoming an advanced Imperial Capital.]
[Special Unique Reward: Imperial Heart—error. You already possess an empire-level territory'. Regenerating reward…]
[New Special Unique Reward: Eternal Monument. Extract?]
[Yes] [No]
He took the Eternal Monument first. A crack opened in the air and golden light poured out and then dimmed, resolving into a gray stone tablet roughly five meters tall and a meter thick. It hit the ground with a weight that felt larger than its size.
There was no text on it, just densely packed runes covering every surface—twisted, distorted characters that his eyes couldn't parse into meaning. He checked its status panel and was shocked.
…
Name: Eternal Monument.
.
.
.
…
'???'
'How does that even help?!'
He put this question to the GM.
[The Eternal Monument is a cosmic sacred object. The Divine Emperor can explore its mysteries by yourself.]
Not helpful at all. He turned to Celestia. She studied the tablet in silence for a moment, then her composure cracked, just slightly.
"My Lord. Some of these runes…" She paused, "They match the Divine Runes for the God Monarch Tier Divine Laws you gave me. They were the ones I used to comprehend my first God Monarch Tier Law."
Haru looked at the tablet again with different eyes, "You're saying this is a path to the God Monarch Tier?!"
"If I'm not mistaken, yes. Comprehending all the runes on this monument would be the path forward." She was visibly working to keep her voice steady, "It's not something I can confirm without more study, but the connection is definitely there."
He thought about this. He himself had no foundation for reading the runes as they were meaningless shapes to him. Putting the tablet in his own care would accomplish nothing.
"Take it." He said, "Study it and transfer whatever you comprehend to me."
"As you command, Lord Almighty." She took it carefully, the excitement in her expression not quite hidden.
The mechanics were worth noting. Celestia was currently a late-stage Supreme Goddess. She had one God Monarch Tier Law already comprehended from her time in the illusory Angel Realm, enough to give her the power of a pseudo God Queen once she became a peak Supreme Goddess. To comprehend a second law, she'd need to reach the peak first and the Eternal Monument was the map for what came after that.
"Use the Godheads we took from Tenebris." Haru said, "Hundreds of thousands of them. Whatever it takes, reach the peak."
Celestia bowed deeply.
…
The choice for the other reward was quite simple. He eliminated the upgrade to Angel City immediately. Once the war with the Light Empire concluded, he'd have more than enough materials to handle that himself. No need to spend a reward on something he could earn easily.
He eliminated the random equipment. The probability of getting a Supreme God Tier Artifact was attractive, but the floor was way too low for him to risk that with better options available.
That left two options: a random exclusive building connected to his initial troops, or three guaranteed bloodline evolution slots. The building was tempting as he had obtained the Astral City In the Beast Tide event when he chose this option.
If this one produced Luminarch, the Most Feared War Fortress of Angels, equipped with Throneblaze Cannons, capable of threatening Supreme Gods, it would be an extraordinary outcome, but random was still random. And three guaranteed evolution slots meant something different entirely.
The GM's bloodline evolution never failed. That was the key word: never. By contrast, the blueprints that Castle Lords used themselves had pitifully low success rates even at the highest grades. Lysandra, Mary, and the others had burned through countless evolution blueprints attempting to cross from sixteen wings to eighteen, and every attempt had failed.
Eighteen-Winged Angels had the growth potential to reach Supreme God Tier and with the Divine War approaching and the God King's Throne potentially emerging from the Pantheon, he needed more Supreme Gods, not a stronger war fortress.
He chose reward three.
[Please specify three troops for bloodline evolution.]
He tried Celestia first, on the chance that even the highest bloodline could somehow go further, but…
[Celestia, the Eighteen-Winged Seraphim, has reached the highest bloodline level of the Angel Race. Evolution unavailable.]
Haru nodded and moved on without a pause. He had expected.
"Then evolve Lysandra, Nova, and Eveline."
Three targets—a sixteen-winged Cherubim, an Angel of Creation, and a Sixteen-Winged Fallen Angel. These three have attempted further evolution through conventional blueprints and failed every time, but now, they'll finally succeed.
[Evolution targets locked. Evolving…]
Three columns of golden light descended from the sky simultaneously, each one forming a luminous sphere around its target. Lysandra, Nova, and Eveline disappeared into the light.
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