A Title I Couldn't Think Of

"I think the two of you may have misunderstood something. Angel City would not actively drive away anyone who had helped us, unless they committed an unforgivable crime."

The anger had vanished from Keisha's face, without leaving even a trace of embarrassment.

Carl could not help inwardly remarking on how quickly she changed her expression.

"Even if my teacher is Kiran, I still have no right to negotiate with gods... No, merely possessing a divine body means nothing. Only by relying on a powerful civilization can one truly gain a voice..."

At that moment, Carl, still weak and detached from worldly strife, realized a truth everyone understood.

With Carl's intelligence, a few words were enough for him to grasp certain things. Clearly, the Protoss were an immensely powerful civilization, so powerful that even the current angels did not dare offend them lightly.

Alarak and Gaius might hold high status among the Protoss, but they definitely were not the Protoss' supreme gods, and there should be quite a few figures on their level.

Even so, Keisha treated these two Protoss so courteously, which was enough to prove just how terrifying and mysterious the Protoss were.

What Carl did not know was that Alarak's own strength alone was worthy of Keisha's respect.

Gaius had extended an olive branch to Carl, and Carl was genuinely tempted. Others might not know, but how could he not know how anti-angel the things he was interested in were? He had to conduct every experiment in secret, severely slowing his research.

But...

"I appreciate your kindness, but I do not wish to leave Heavenly City."

Even if the angels could not tolerate Carl's research, he could not be certain whether the Protoss would accept his ideas either.

Not to mention Liang Bing was still here.

Left with no choice, Carl chose the first option. Though he could not be with Liang Bing all the time, as long as he remained in Merlot Heavenly Court, there would always be opportunities, would there not?

Keisha understood what Carl meant and nodded in satisfaction. Talent on Carl's level was not something she would let go of unless absolutely necessary. As for certain potentially evil experiments?

So long as Carl did not make them public, Keisha would not take any substantive action.

Keisha was not stubborn in the slightest.

Since Carl had made his position clear, there was no need for Keisha to remain. After all, there were still two distinguished guests watching. At the very least, she had to keep up appearances.

"Queen Keisha..."

At that moment, He Xi finally arrived, though the farce had already ended. She had missed a good show, although she might not have wanted to see it in the first place...

"Enough, He Xi. There is nothing more to deal with here."

Keisha walked out. "Lord Alarak, you may move freely around Heavenly City now. At this point, there is no need to go through all those formalities, is there?"

"Good. I deeply dislike those tedious and useless... rituals."

Unlike Gaius, Alarak had no interest in Carl. He had not even wanted to come to this damned Angel City in the first place. No matter how hard he thought, he could not understand what was so special about Carl that the Hierarch had taken notice of him.

In terms of science and technology, even the Tal'darim, notorious for plagiarism, possessed ample confidence and pride. What could a mere Carl possibly be capable of?

In terms of strength, forget a divine body. At this point, Carl had never even fought before. Any Protoss child could crush him to death.

Thus, Gao JianGuo did not particularly want to stay in this laboratory either. On a side note, the laboratory had been designed according to the proportions of a God River Body, making it somewhat cramped for Protoss over three meters tall. When Alarak straightened up, his head even touched the ceiling, making him unable to resist complaining that it was practically an anti-Protoss design.

After glancing at Carl, Alarak also left the laboratory.

There was only one place that interested him: the Angel Civilization's training grounds. Do not assume that because all angels were women, they were merely a decorative civilization. On the contrary, under Keisha's influence, the angels had practically evolved into a warlike race. They merely despised wars that slaughtered life wantonly, while advocating one-on-one duels.

The Old Angels who had lived from the Three Kings Era to the present were not too bad. Most had retired, and those who remained had gradually grown more subdued. The newer generation of angels, however, were usually selected from among the elites of the angels' subordinate civilizations and transformed. These people had already been exceptional, then suddenly became the strongest angels in the universe—at least, that was what they believed—resulting in each generation of angels becoming prouder than the last.

With Keisha holding the reins, their blind pride was concealed beneath their worship of her, so nothing would go wrong. But once something happened to Keisha, the angels would sooner or later be destroyed by their own arrogance, unless someone who could truly replace Keisha appeared.

Combat was commonplace in Angel Civilization, and Keisha was happy for her people to possess such spirited qualities. Angels were warlike but not bloodthirsty, beautiful and kind yet not weak. They upheld justice and maintained universal order. These were the angels Keisha wished to create.

An extreme idealism.

Alarak looked down on the angels' strength, but studying their fighting methods might prove useful someday. After all, even if the Protoss themselves had no use for them, they could still...

He Xi kept a close eye on Alarak. She had not forgotten that she had nearly died at his hands. If Gao JianGuo lost his mind and started a massacre in Heavenly City, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Soon, only Carl and Gaius remained in the laboratory.

"Mr. Gaius, I still have a great deal of work to do..."

What sort of person was Carl? The future God of Death who would shock the Known Universe. Even knowing that he had already displeased the Angel Queen, his mind remained fixed on his research. Seeing that Gaius showed no intention of leaving, he could only speak up to remind him.

"Hehehe..."

Gaius gave a sinister laugh. The initial sense of amiability vanished completely, replaced by endless chill.

Carl sensed that something was wrong. He had not... turned on the air conditioning, had he?

Which bastard had switched the auxiliary heating to cooling?

Just kidding. Gaius took out a necklace bearing a scarlet crystal. When he opened his palm, the crystal floated into the air, releasing a red glow that illuminated the entire laboratory. Then the light faded, and Gaius put the necklace away.

"You have been researching the void all along, have you not... Carl?"

Carl's heart tightened. The theory of the void had actually been proposed long before the fall of God River by its two greatest scientists, Ding Gehei and Kiran. However, the hypothesis was too bizarre to be accepted by mainstream God River science.

Later, Ding Gehei chose to perish alongside the God River galaxy, leaving only Kiran to seek proof of their theory. Afterward, Kiran and Keisha held a debate over whether unknown invisible lifeforms—void creatures—existed.

That was right, a debate, not a battle.

And the most damn terrifying part was that Keisha had won!

Of course, in Carl's eyes, his teacher could not possibly be wrong. The Known Universe simply understood too little about the void. Keisha denied its existence only because of her arrogance and ignorance.

Thus, Carl had always researched the void in secret. No one but himself knew.

Until today, when Gaius exposed it with a single sentence.