Anthony’s figure appeared within his room. The moment he reappeared, he simply sighed and walked towards the balcony of his room as he gazed at the night sky. He wondered if he should go visit Lucian, Aaaninja, and Aura Nova now since he had nothing to do.

But after thinking about it for a while, he chose to forget about it. Since he was seeing them tomorrow, he would just do that then. Besides, it was already evening. There was little point in showing up now when they would all meet the following day anyway.

But still, he needed to inform Aaaninja and the rest that he was coming, as he didn’t want to teleport them abruptly like he had done two days ago. Anthony simply took out his phone and texted Aura Nova, who also had a phone. As for Aaaninja and Lucian, he didn’t know if those two even had phones or not, so he simply wrote a sentence on a piece of paper and teleported it towards them using Authority Of Severance.

Initially, he had planned for his subordinates to meet his friends prior to the big final battle, but it seemed that had gone down the drain. So, he would simply arrange for everyone to meet tomorrow without any more hiccups.

Of course, whether Aaaninja and the rest chose to be friends with Spectre and the others had nothing to do with him. He would simply introduce them, and that was all. He wasn’t going to force everyone to become one big friend group; that would simply be too immature. Besides, he was introducing everyone so they could survive whatever came when they answered the Calling together, after which they would all vanish into other Upper Galaxies. Once that happened, each of them would inevitably walk their own path.

’OP System, send a message to my subordinates about the meeting tomorrow, and inform them it’s about the Ascension and meeting my friends,’ Anthony communicated with the system.

[Ding]

[Affirmative, Host]

The system chimed.

Anthony nodded and turned around to return to his room and simply sleep until tomorrow, but at that exact moment, his system chimed again.

[Receiving a message from a subordinate system]

[The subordinates Vivian, Donna, and Evelyn are requesting your location]

The system reported.

Anthony arched an eyebrow, wondering what they needed to meet him for. After thinking about it for a moment, he walked onto the balcony and waved his hand, a table and drinks appearing in the middle of a few couches that were already in place.

With that, he granted the system permission. The moment he did, a portal tore open before him, and through it Vivian, Donna, and Evelyn stepped out in calm strides.

Anthony, who was already seated, simply smiled at their arrival as he spoke, "It’s been a while," clearly joking, as he had just met with them two days ago prior to the battle with the Demon King and God.

The girls simply smiled as they shook their heads, clearly understanding. They took their seats and picked up the drinks from the table. None of them seemed particularly tense despite the topic they had come to discuss.

"I know you ladies want to discuss something with me. If not, you wouldn’t be here," Anthony spoke as he leaned back into his seat. "I’m all ears," he added as he listened to what they had to say.

"Indeed, we want to discuss something with you," Donna stated as she sipped her drink.

Vivian, who always wore an ice-cold expression, finally spoke. "We wanted to talk about the Ascension in particular."

Donna, who was seated beside the two, then added, "We’ve come to inform you that we won’t be ascending at the moment." She smoothly followed up where Vivian stopped, as though they had practiced speaking after each other.

Hearing this, Anthony blinked in mild surprise as he stared at them for a moment without a word. Then it dawned on him. He hadn’t asked any of them if they wanted to ascend; he had simply assumed everyone was going to ascend without asking for their opinion, as though he were forcing them to ascend.

Then it also dawned on him that maybe some of his friends might want to stay for a few years before they left. After all, no one was particularly in a hurry, as it wasn’t like there was a time limit to answering the Calling to begin with. The opportunity would remain available regardless of when they chose to accept it.

"No problem. You don’t have to discuss anything with me. Informing me of your decisions is enough," Anthony replied calmly. After all, it wasn’t like he had a use for them in the Upper Galaxies, such as conquering Galaxies in his name.

"But I do have to ask why, though," he added, curious about their reasoning.

Donna smiled at Anthony’s words as she began to speak. "Nothing specific in particular... it’s just that we are twenty and are in no real rush to see what the other end has to offer, and we can always get there whenever we want." Her reasoning was grounded, as they didn’t need some grand explanation for why they didn’t want to ascend yet.

"I feel like there is a lot that can be done for the Blue Planet as a whole," Vivian spoke next. "I have plans in place to do a lot of things. I can’t just abandon them for now without proper systems in place." She smiled slightly before she continued, "Besides, I can’t leave the Guild, the orphanage homes, or the children. I’ve built them with my own two hands. I can’t just leave them immediately. I need to be satisfied with what I’ve done, then hand the work over to the next person before I ascend."

She explained calmly.

As for Evelyn, she said nothing at the moment and simply sipped her juice, as though she just wanted to delay her ascension because the other two were delaying theirs, which was perfectly fine with Anthony. He didn’t particularly need a reason from her. If she wanted to stay behind for now, then that was entirely her choice, and he would respect it just as he respected the decisions of Vivian and Donna.