"What's going on?" Aeolos stepped out of his dormitory and looked up at the sky. Synapse appeared as it always did, with various dragons and flying beasts freely soaring between the floating cities.
However, Aeolos could clearly sense a difference in the atmosphere compared to before. The number of dragons flying in the sky had noticeably increased.
"Aeolos, how can you not know about such a big event?" At that moment, the door to the neighboring dormitory opened, and a dragon with purple scales gleaming under the sunlight slowly stepped out. It transformed its size and crouched beside Aeolos, joining him in gazing at the sky.
"What event? I don't know," Aeolos replied calmly, even with a true dragon by his side. It was no big deal to him—after all, he regularly attended classes with nearly a hundred dragons.
"The headmaster is preparing to establish an empire! He's going to formally declare himself emperor!" The amethyst dragon spoke with a hint of emotion. The establishment of the world's eleventh empire would undoubtedly have far-reaching consequences.
The ten existing empires on the main continent shared a common trait: their ruling classes possessed human bloodlines, though they also bore non-human characteristics. Behind each of these empires stood powerful non-human races, making them not purely human empires, though they publicly claimed to be.
This was because, in terms of overall strength among the races, humans undeniably held the top position in Erathia. Races stronger on average than humans were far fewer in number, while those with larger populations had less potential for development.
Muria, who possessed the blood of both Titans and Golden Dragons, had no human ties whatsoever. The empire he was establishing would be a true non-human empire, with non-humans ruling the upper echelons.
The humans living in this empire should count themselves lucky. Their future emperor had half Golden Dragon blood, and Golden Dragons were known for being relatively friendly toward humans.
If Muria were a pure-blood Titan, the humans in this empire would face harsher lives, as Titans treated all creatures equally without any bias. However, this very fairness would be the greatest injustice to humans because the ruling class would not be human. To many non-humans, humans were simply a tasty delicacy, often found on the menus of giant monsters.
Therefore, humans should be thankful that their ruler possessed Golden Dragon blood and retained human memories from his past life, making him more inclined to favor humans in governance.
The humans living on this land should be even more grateful that the chosen successor of this alien emperor, though devoid of any human blood, had spent his most formative years as a human during his education.
"So, it's about the founding of a nation!" Upon hearing the amethyst dragon's words, Aeolos's expression lit up with realization. "That explains why I've been seeing so many more dragons recently!"
"Because the headmaster wants to hold a grand founding ceremony. What could be more majestic than tens of thousands of dragons flying in formation across the sky?" The amethyst dragon chuckled.
"Tens of thousands of dragons flying together—that's beyond imagination!" Aeolos, following the dragon's words, envisioned the scene and felt a surge of excitement. He could barely imagine what such a spectacle would look like.
"You won't have to imagine for long; you'll see it for yourself soon!" The amethyst dragon laughed. "But I'm a bit unlucky—I won't be able to watch it myself!"
"Why not?" Aeolos asked, confused, but quickly realized, "Oh, I get it!"
"Because I'll be part of that grand display!" The amethyst dragon laughed. "I've already received the summons! As for you, you'll probably get a pretty good spot to watch from!"
"Let's hope so!" Aeolos smiled, a hint of anticipation in his eyes.
…
"What a truly unique founding ceremony!"
Aboard a floating ship cruising through the sky, Aeolos, dressed in a sharp military uniform, stood in the captain's room and sighed softly as he looked out at the scene. There was no blue sky or white clouds—his view was filled with massive floating ships. These cold, magical constructs of steel dominated his vision.
But Aeolos knew that what he was seeing was only a tiny fraction. He was currently part of the newly declared Synapse Empire's Thirteenth Sky Fleet, Ninth Scorpion Lion Squadron, where he was temporarily serving as commander of a fleet of 1,200 floating ships.
Indeed, just after his conversation with the amethyst dragon that day, Aeolos had received a summons and was honored to participate in the founding ceremony.
He wasn't clear on many details, but on the day the ceremony officially began, he had stayed aboard the ship, listening to the distant speech of Muria, who had now become the eleventh emperor on the continent.
The emperor's speech was brief, even short by most standards. After reading a speech of fewer than a thousand words, Muria immediately announced the core of the ceremony: a grand military parade!
The founding ceremony, no matter how elaborate the rituals or how long the speeches, was always just prelude. What people, and nations, cared about most was the military parade.
Muria's way of displaying strength was direct and overwhelming: he lifted the concealment spell on Synapse and gathered the majority of his forces with power levels at or above the Gold rank. These forces surrounded Synapse, now composed of 132 floating cities.
Synapse then began a grand tour of the entire continent, a process that would last three months, involving the largest scale of participants in the world's history.
Even the Orlando Empire, known for its dragon-blooded rulers, had never managed to gather 100,000 dragons for its founding ceremony, let alone one-twentieth of that number. But the newly established Synapse Empire had done just that, and dragons were only a part of the parade.
Surrounding Synapse were legions of giants, ten times as numerous as the dragons, each of whom possessed the strength to walk on air.
And these were just a small fraction. Muria also summoned the armies of warbeasts that he had cultivated over the years, some of which were terrifying creatures bestowed upon him by his grandfather.
These warbeasts, born for battle, were displayed to the entire world through the magic screens erected in every city, eliciting gasps of awe.
"Sigh, I thought I'd get a decent spot to watch from, but it looks like I'll have to wait until the parade ends to catch the recordings!" Aeolos let his thoughts wander. In truth, he was somewhat bored. The route of a floating ship was predetermined, leaving him little to do as commander.
As his thoughts drifted, he noticed a large diamond-shaped crystal, about the size of half a person, flying toward him from a distance. Inside was a rotating, translucent crystal eye, and beneath it were five smaller diamond-shaped crystals, arranged symmetrically. Runes powered the device, allowing it to resist gravity.
Seeing the unusual crystal eye approach, Aeolos quickly focused, straightening his posture and sitting up, looking as dutiful as possible.
The crystal eye floated directly in front of him, giving him a full minute of face time, before circling him twice for a 360-degree view. Then, it rapidly flew out of the captain's room.
"Phew!" Aeolos exhaled in relief. He knew exactly what that was—one of the miniature golems developed by Synapse's research institute.
These golems had no combat abilities. Their only function was to transmit everything they saw to specific magic screens.
In other words, Aeolos's every move had just been broadcast on the crystal screens across various cities as part of the founding ceremony.
"I hope I didn't mess anything up!" Aeolos took a deep breath, calming his nerves. Once he was sure he hadn't made any mistakes, his thoughts drifted again.
"Mom, Dad, and my sisters must be watching this ceremony too. There's no way they'd miss it. They probably saw me just now on the screen!"
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