One week later.

Over at another corner of the universe.

"You wouldn’t seem to understand," Kael’s clone stated calmly as his blonde mustache shivered above his tight lips, "I am the only salvation that you will ever have in this lifetime..."

He spoke with authority and confidence, gazing daringly at the giant flaming birds perched around him.

In the midst of all these blazing avians, the All-King stood there completely unscathed and without a single scratch on his body or a single burnt fabric on his clothes.

Thousands of Phoenixes surrounded him at this point, covering every mode of exit and escape for this clone.

"You killed Eleanor," One of the bigger Phoenixes exclaimed, roaring in the process and sending out a torrent of flames that burst into the orange sky.

The world shook and the ground began to melt.

Kael tilted his head slightly and looked at the ground. His two feet were dozens of meters off the ground and the molten magma flowed effortlessly under him.

"And I’ll kill you too..." Kael said calmly. He brought his arms and flexed them against his muscular chest, not backing down one single bit.

He might be the only lion on this infernal planet but he was more than enough to handle and even kill every single Phoenix on this planet.

"You...!" The new leader of the Phoenix, the one with the wrathful ancient voice, boiled with anger.

"Think carefully before making any stupid decision.

I might not be able to fully exterminate you, but I can definitely kill enough so that you never ascend from a state beyond the brink of extinction.

I dare you to try me!"

Kael’s brows furrowed and his golden irises shone intensely.

This wasn’t even arrogance; it was simply a statement of fact. Everything he did, every action, was to further his goals of ultimate conquest.

Killing these Phoenixes who had once allied with Ma’abu against him was not hard for him.

"Why?" Finally, after some thinking and sharing telepathic opinions with each other. The phoenixes who were each the size of mountains looked down at Kael with memories of their disgrace.

"You have use," Kael was straightforward, "It would be a waste of me letting you all wallow away in your sorrows as you try again and again to rise up, only to fail.

The Primordials of both the peacocks and the foxes are with me, under my protection. You would need the very specific support of a Divine Faction to wrench them away from my grasp.

You only have a few options to consider. Your birthday rate will forever be below average, none of you will ever become Immortals, and your powers will never be unique to just you.

You all, even after hundreds of millions of years, will still be remembered as the consequences of an era of depravity from the early ancestors of the foxes and the peacocks.

Tell me, what other ways do you have to prove your salvation if not to join me?

Or would you rather die?"

Kael asked back with calm ferocity that made the heads of the phoenixes reel back in silent shock.

The sound of fire crackling and the earth melting over and over again filled the air.

Kael had been here for a few days now. He had fought a little with some Phoenixes, establishing dominance but not actually showing his true strength.

He had been negotiating yesterday on more amicable terms and then realised that the phoenix had no intention of coming into his grand design peacefully.

So today, everyone was threatened with the possibility of Annihilation. If there was hope of them surrendering peacefully, it may have been allowed.

Alas, they tried to show their stubbiness so Kael must sit back down and show them who was in charge.

The Phoenix were only as important as Kael wanted them to be. In reality, no other faction cared about them beyond their collective might and the fact that they were able to hold their own as a cosmic faction despite having so few numbers.

Not only were they hunted down for their Phoenix Blood Juice, but they also had few numbers.

Most of the victories the Phoenixes had in the past were because they had formed temporary alliances with other larger cosmic factions.

The game was very hard for them.

Because of all their shortcomings, they were sidelined a lot. They didn’t know just how bad things were getting since the link escaped from Original Heaven.

They didn’t even know that there was a palace called Original Heaven. Hell, they didn’t even have an immortal at all.

"But if we do..." The leader of the Phoenix said. He took a step forward. His orange digits and obsidian black salons sank easily into the magma pools beneath him.

"You will not be forsaken," Kael said for the leader, "I have a way in which I can not just fix you all, but also help you become a legitimate race."

"Really?" The Phoenix leader asked as his yellow eyes opened wide.

The other phoenix elders also started discussing amongst themselves.

Establishing a legitimate race in the universe was very hard if not impossible because it came with a lot of technicalities that had to be bypassed.

Firstly, there was a very heavy reliance on the permission from the Law of Origin, not breaking the Rules of the Highest Will, and then the race had to be linked to one of the Laws.

It was absurd, but Kael had personal suggestions on how to handle that first technicality.

He had literally forced the formation of a star without permission from the Law of Origin and definitely without permission from the universe.

Kael couldn’t give a damn.

But, this would be the first time he was trying such a thing and he actually intended to try it also with the horses.

The Phoenix was useful to Kael to the extent that a needle was useful to a tailor. It didn’t matter as long as the cloth was sewn.

Thinking to this point, Kael raised his head, arrogance creating a halo around his head.

"Do not bother to make a decision, from now on, the Phoenix race shall answer to me and that is final.

Resist, I dare you..."

Kael still waited, but he was no longer waiting for them to make a decision. He waited for the first resistor so that he would use him or her as a scapegoat.

Unfortunately or fortunately, no one stepped forward to fight Kael and defend the honour of the Phoenix. It’s not like they were stupid and could not think beyond their ego.

They might not know a lot about the current affairs of the universe but they knew that Kael was strong enough to kill most of them. They could feel the pressure from his little humanoid form.

"If that is the case, then," Kael waved his hand, and a transparent screen appeared in front of every Phoenix on the planet. It was not a referral request or something like that.

These were all confirmations of their identity marks now being added to the Vassal Records. Kael didn’t even need the potential vassals to make a choice anymore, he could just directly force them to join and wait for who would resist.

This new update will be uploaded to every other lion very soon. This work will be easier for them too.

Kael could imagine a Lion Pride Leader making his consorts descend to a backwards planet with brutish inhabitants. Instead of going around, beating everyone who did not say yes to join the Vassal Records, they could just wait and see who resisted.

What a fantastic idea.

As expected, no one connected to the telepathic channel for this meeting dared to resist the system prompt.

At this time, Kael looked up. His vision pierced the veil of orange sky and witnessed the incoming mass of arkships.

"They keep on finding me," Kael muttered to himself, looking a bit bored, "It doesn’t matter, I’ll meet him later..."

Then, he shifted his gaze to the phoenix and the entire planet which was on the orbit line closest to their star.

Such a hot place, yet it was mostly used as a meeting space for the Phoenix. It was a shame that despite having so much talent for fire, they were not affiliated with any law related to it. They would have been very formidable.

This was something that Kael intended to fix as soon as possible. He had his own universe now, at least, he should be able to do whatever he wanted within it, albeit it was just a baby universe.

Seeing that he had gotten all that he wanted and would soon be on the receiving end of a very hostile Divine Faction, Kael snapped his fingers.

And then, all of a sudden, with a twist of space and time, all the Phoenixes who had now been added to the Vassal Records disappeared from the main universe.