Rentaro fell into a strange state at this moment.
Around him, there was no conference room, no Promoters or Initiators.
Only a raging sea of fire, crumbling architecture, heart-wrenching screams tearing through the sky, and Gastrea.
They were slaughtering everyone, right under his eyes.
"No... no..."
Rentaro muttered, and he saw Kisara in front of him.
Kisara was not in her current grown-up appearance, but as she was when she was a child that year. She was kneeling on the ground, crying uncontrollably. Behind her, a Gastrea noticed her and lunged forward.
"Kisara!"
Rentaro yelled, but his voice seemed stuck in his throat. His entire body was stiff like a statue, fundamentally unable to move an inch. He could only watch as Kisara was about to be torn to shreds.
The little girl in front of him suddenly shifted, from Kisara to Enju. It seemed it wasn't just one person, but all the people he wanted to protect.
"No... no... NO!"
Rentaro roared. Something inside him seemed to shatter.
"Rentaro!"
Bang!
He threw a punch.
Asahi was astonished, because in the moment he was about to crush everyone in the room into dust, someone had actually managed to escape the seemingly "absolute" suppression. In a desperate counterattack, that person threw a punch.
Although the resistance of this punch was only like turning a wooden stick into a block of steel when faced with the Dragon Claw—still easily crushed—for the Civil Security Officers gathered here, it was already a peak attack. It was comparable to the defensive strength of Kagetane's shield.
"Well, that's enough."
Of course, how could he kill everyone? But he had to make it look real, make the face-to-face confrontation with death authentic enough. For many people, empty threats were completely ineffective.
This counter-attacker coincidentally provided Asahi with an excuse to back down.
He withdrew his hand. At the same time, Rentaro collapsed like a soul-less person, his whole body trembling from both physical and mental exhaustion.
The others also snapped out of their fear. Everything that had just happened felt like a fleeting illusion, but the massive conference table in the middle of the room, shattered into void, presented a terrifying reality to everyone.
They had been but a hair's breadth from death.
"You are lucky that someone among you had the courage to swing a fist at me."
Asahi shook his head and laughed, his mockery clearly hitting the faces of the Civil Security Officers, yet absolutely no one dared to speak up in rebuttal.
Some also looked at Rentaro, who was being laboriously held up by Kisara like a dead body floating in the water. No one here was stupid; they could all clearly perceive what had just occurred. Even Kagetane, who hadn't paid attention to Rentaro before, now looked at him with different eyes.
After that, Asahi clasped his hands behind his back, casually allowing any Initiators to abandon their Promoters and join his faction. There was no argument, no hindrance, only silence. No matter how dissatisfied they were, they dared not show it.
"Very good."
Drawing in eighty percent of the Initiators present was beyond his expectations. It seemed the display of force just now not only had a deterrent effect but also attracted more participants.
And it wasn't just Initiators.
A Promoter bravely stepped forward, leading his Initiator right beside him.
"Sir... Sir!"
"Please allow me to follow you!"
With a tone filled with reverence, the Promoter knelt on one knee, one hand over his chest, his head bowed low, like a knight swearing allegiance to his king. The Initiator beside him quickly followed suit.
Asahi raised an eyebrow, observing this person more closely. He noticed the young man had blond hair and blue eyes. Although his facial features leaned towards East Asian, those characteristics clearly indicated he was European. His Initiator also shared similar features, including her normal eye color.
Furthermore, this type of ceremonial gesture was not common in Tokyo, or even Japan.
"Is she your sister?"
"Yes!"
It seemed to be a Promoter-Initiator sibling pair.
"Fine."
Asahi waved his hand, signaling for both of them to join the line behind him. The two siblings were overjoyed.
Having recruited all the members, he abruptly turned and prepared to leave, paying no mind to the ice-cold conference room.
"Wait!"
Kagetane, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke up, reaching out to stop him. This startled everyone, causing them to almost attack Kagetane.
"This lunatic!"
Almost everyone cursed Kagetane silently. At this moment, without exception, everyone just wanted to quickly send the Silver King away.
"Silver King, don't you want to know what this meeting was held for?"
On the screen, Seitenshi's expression changed, but Kagetane only laughed triumphantly, delightedly continuing:
"The Seven Stars Heritage has been lost outside. Once it's opened, all of Tokyo will be destroyed."
"And?"
"These people were summoned here to retrieve the Seven Stars Heritage, and I... I want it too!"
"Not interested."
Kagetane was speechless, his face beneath the mask seemingly shattering as Asahi led his Initiator group away without even looking back.
"Damn it! Silver King!"
He roared inwardly, then saw Seitenshi, with a serious expression, commanding the remaining Civil Security Officers, along with a reward of one billion yen—a colossal figure.
Immediately, the conference room dissolved into chaos. Kagetane knew he had lost the initiative, so he abandoned the fight and actively fled.
Everything that happened afterward had nothing to do with Asahi.
...
Silver King's Dominion.
Asahi stood high up, supervising the massive construction project gradually taking shape. He wanted to utilize this large, abandoned area to build a genuine, livable residential area, not just a temporary shelter.
The basics must include places to eat, sleep, rest, study, and receive medical treatment, followed by recreation and training facilities.
The labor force consisted entirely of robots. They didn't tire and didn't require wages; they could operate as long as they had enough energy.
He stood on the roof of a building, glancing at the young man behind him. The look of awe on the man's face before his plan had been fully captured by Asahi.
"What's your name?"
"I am Luke, sir."
"You're not from around here, are you?"
"Yes..."
Luke began to explain.
He was originally a survivor from Europe. Compared to Japan, the discrimination there was much more horrifying. In the early stages, under the pressure of the apocalypse and the collapse of government, society had reverted to a brutal, medieval-like chaos, reaching its extreme.
Cursed Children were even considered the devil's spawn, harbingers of the end of the world. Coincidentally, Cursed Children were all young girls, giving the agitated witch-hunting mobs even more basis for their fervor.
Luke still remembers vividly, even being haunted by, the scene of dozens of screaming children being thrown into the flames, with the burning cross illuminating the town center.
Thinking of that, his hand trembled slightly.
It was because of this that he fled with his sister all the way from Europe to here. He didn't want her to suffer that fate. In Tokyo, at least the title of Civil Security Officer could ensure a safe life for both of them.
"Very well."
"From now on, you will become my spokesperson. Go to the other outlying areas and recruit new people."
Asahi knew it was highly likely that there were still people who pitied these children and decided to take them in. However, the numbers wouldn't be too large because too many couldn't be sustained, and there was no place to live. These people were scattered throughout the Tokyo area, probably not even aware of each other's existence, so they didn't join forces.
Even if they did join forces, the upper echelon like the IISO would surely step in to suppress them. Faced with force, these people were truly weak and pitiable.
The Cursed Children, despite appearing marginalized, were actually "strategic resources" for the upper echelon. Cursed Children had contributed at least half of the effort to humanity's survival today.
Based on Luke's story, Asahi could completely imagine how much worse other areas were—a true living hell. This only strengthened his resolve to quickly push the unification of all forces in Tokyo. Once he gathered enough manpower, he could rapidly expand outward.