Lord Shadow - Chapter 2018 2018: Laughter of Joy

Sometimes, the truth is there but lightly touched, never to be elaborated while thoughts and views that align with the interest of the rulers, it is amplified, it is promoted so much so that the people would always votes against their own interest.

They think they are free.

They are free to choose twenty-four flavors of ice creams, but there is always only ruler.

A group or a faction having the most power.

In a capitalist society, it would be those who hold money.

After all of the public owned and public properties could no longer be sold, the one with the most money, the one with the most resources, simply would be the ruler of that country

They didn’t have to become President or holds any political power when they could just bribe the office and holds the lifeline of the country by exercising economic power

Azief learns this when he himself become the rulers. Laws…. are only for those people. Laws are for orders. It is not for justice. Hence, justice is always dispensed by him alone.

Is it right? Is it wrong? Most of the time he dispenses justice, according to may laws, he is wrong. But according to justice he is right. He could use the law, but he would never let himself be bound by the laws itself.

Laws are not always rights, and the rule of law has never been the rule of justice. Those who seeks justice would always find adversary from those on the side of the law. Sometimes the law would respect justice and included it.

But most of the time, laws are about order and not about justice.

Those who think the law is about justice does not understand the system of law that the rulers had created.

After all, this is a different world.

And this is a different kind of regime.

As for Katarina, her adherence to the law is simply because she has no problem with it.

If her brother dies, she probably would throw the law away no matter how much she respected it.

After all, Katarina never saw herself as the ruler of the Republic. Ironically enough, it is for this reason she is the perfect candidate for the High Chancellor.

Azief could not help think of this as he looks at Katarina. Katrina is unaware of this gaze as she looks at Azief and spoke

As long as you appear and judge the matter, this all could be stopped”

Azief look in the distance and nodded

“This is not the time yet. Not chaotic enough. More people should enter this land of all demons. More forces should come out. Now…it is too little”

Katarina think for a moment and nodded.

She knows what Azief is trying to do. He wanted more deaths.

Only then….it would matter.

Before she did not fully understand.

But as they were travelling through time and space to reach here, Azief has already explained all the things he has to explain and Katarina already has full knowledge of what Azief is trying to do

Yes, even though they teleported from Arturia to Pandemonium, it is not just a dislocation of space, it is also dislocation of time.

After all the size of the Earth is now supremely massive. From one end to the other, the time zone is different.

If its only space, time would already change

Right now, it is evening in Pandemonium. The sun is not yet setting but in a couple of hours, it would set.

If they fly from Arturia to pandemonium the time it would take for them to reach this place, if they are not caught up by storms, or some kind of interference and other obstacles, then with their maximum speed, they would reach here in three days.

But Azief basically cut a hole of time between Arturia and Pandemonium and arrived here. It is like connection two places, like folding a paper and you poke a hole and then you appear on the other side with no time loss.

That is also travelling through time and space. And in that moment, when they are in that space…the space between the fold, Azief explained things to her.

Katarina look at Azief and shakes her head.

“You ever expected that the world powers would not move easily and the other organization is also cautious? Isn’t that, right?”

Azief nodded

“Hirate has been laying low and while he did send his men to Arturia, he did not send it as aggressively in Pandemonium. And he did not even take the chance to instigate some things”

“Narleod is busy with his own stuff and I could understand if he did not want to participate. After all, his resentment has always bene on the World Government”

“For some reason, that person has never hated my actions. Even when I cut his hands, while there is fear and awe, there is no resentment or hatred”

As for the Republic…” Azief look at Katarina and smiles

“they do not move because of you”

“The Lotus Order on the other and is just crumbling. All of its main forces are disintegrated and scattered. They are barely holding on”

“The next time they appear, all of the old members of the Lotus Order might not be in that position anymore. If the Lotus Order is too incompetent, it would not be out of bounds for all of the world powers to either take over their powers or their influence or create another world power that would replace them”

“It is the others…like Order of Thinkers and the African Alliance that made me sigh”

“They might fear me, but they would surely see this an opportunity. And I know that they are only afraid I am there. If I am not there, they should develop some ambition. But they are…. perceptively quiet”

Azief could not help but sigh

“But the others are also quiet. It is really…. beyond my expectations”

“They are too afraid of you”

Katarina mutter but then she shakes her head

“no, it I not that they are too afraid. It is just that they have learned from their mistake. Before….it could be considered luck. But even Hirate had learned that you are not only a brute warrior and you know how to use your brain” she paused for a second and then added

“it is just that many of the problems you have…. most of them could easily be resolved with a fist”

Azief only smirks and then he laughed.

“So, they think it is my scheme”

“An unintentional byproduct of the past dealings with me”

Some of the things that happened in the past happened coincidentally.

Of course, now Azief knows that his fat and destiny is already written and many of them are hard to change, the nature of these coincidence changes in Azief eyes.

He could not die at that time, even if he wanted to.

Fate and destiny would find a way for him to not die.

Maybe some fortuitous encounter, maybe some kind of weird freaky weather maybe some kind of vision or images that inspires him to keep living.

It doesn’t matter.

At that time, fate and destiny have countless of different ways to make sure he lives even if he wanted to die

And now, that he is powerful enough to see life and death, even dying would not make him escape. He knows more than others, that a being of his realm, even when dying, they did not truly die.

Even more so when he is being watched by abstract entity like fate and destiny

“if you calm down and think about it….it really seems like a scheme. Wang Jian, Sasha and the other inside Pandemonium could not see it…. because they are too close to it. Others could see it because they are outsiders”

“though, it is not quite accurate to say that they saw it. It is more like clues or hints. Maybe some of them even have premonition like you and I would get when we are about to embark on something”

“of course, the things about premonitions are, sometimes you don’t know whether that premonition is trying to steer you forward, or to hold you back. Sometimes, when these premonitions came, I had to ponder. Is it telling me that it is a go… or is it a warning”?

Katarina sighed for a second and then said

“After months, they still hesitate. Once bitten, twice shy”

Azief nodded

“Still, we have to wait a bit more”

“where then?”

“My palace”

Smiling, he walks along the dilapidated roads walking toward the Palace. Behind him, the sun is slowly coming down

In a few hours, the sun would set and night would descend.

Katarina has many questions but she only shook her head and throws the fruit into the ground as she follows Azief

..

As the war is raging in Pandemonium, in a temple far away from this place of right and wrong, Erika suddenly woke up from her sleep. After meeting with Death Monarch, she had gone to sleep.

For a moment, she was sleeping and she dreams of things. Things she should not have been dreaming

Some are dreams of a forgotten future, and some are dreams that come from the Veil. And today, she dreams of something else

“The ripples of time have breached though many universes and realities. It would not be long before it would reach Earth. I need to warn Hirate and the other world leaders. Time Aberrations and time anomaly would increase”

In dreams, she learns

And today she learns Death Monarch did something that he should not have done.

But Erika is not angry.

Before, she would have.

Now, she only smiles.

“My plans had to change. But this also means Loki plans also needs to change. And Yewa Hafar, and those others that are hoping for a stale game…I think they too should change the way they view this game”

And she laughs. Even as sweats is falling from her backs and her forehead, she laughs like she never laughed before

A laughter of joy

…