Infinite Evolution Hunter - Chapter 145

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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145
A grand banquet was held to celebrate the founding day of the Exbrien Kingdom.
Douglas, having built the Exbrien Kingdom’s wealth alongside his First Brother, hosted the largest banquet since its founding to showcase the nation’s prosperity.
Numerous domestic nobles and royalty from neighboring kingdoms attended, and the Attendants and knights who came with them numbered in the thousands.
Douglas and Christine grew weary from congratulating countless guests and exchanging pleasantries, yet they persevered, smiling graciously through each interaction.
As the banquet progressed and the tension among Douglas and the other attendees began to ease—
An Attendant carrying food suddenly rushed at Douglas, a dagger concealed beneath his serving tray.
Douglas could not react to the attack from behind, but Christine, standing at an angle, saw the assassin.
Christine threw herself forward and shoved Douglas aside.
The assassin’s dagger pierced her chest instead.
Knights immediately subdued the assassin, but he bit down on poison hidden in his mouth and died, foaming at the lips.
“Christine! No! Priest! Where is the priest?!”
Douglas cried out in anguish.
Christine tried to lift her hand to Douglas’s cheek, but she lacked the strength.
Douglas grasped her hand and pressed it against his own face.
“The children… Please… I love you…”
Then all strength drained from Christine’s body.
“Noooo!!!”
I screamed, cradling my dead wife, my chest torn apart by unbearable anguish.
The shock of a world collapsing sent me into darkness. And once again, I saw the future.
Vaster information flooded my mind—more detailed, more extensive than before.
“Why! Why now!!!”
I awoke in my chamber and hurled a vase across the room, shattering furniture in my rage.
“Aaaahhhhh!!!”
My second child, barely one year old, cried out.
I lifted the child into my arms. I could not lose this one too.
“This time, I will not fail.”
The weakness that had defined me until now vanished, replaced entirely by fury.
The mastermind behind the assassination was Wiskecast, the southern nation threatened by the Exbrien Kingdom’s prosperity—Christine’s homeland. In the history before I changed it, that nation was conquered by my Second Brother.
Their plan was to kill me, kill my First Brother, and use Christine and the children to seize control of the Exbrien Kingdom.
I realized how naive—no, how foolish—I had been until now.
Having built the nation’s strength, I possessed sufficient wealth. I immediately raised an army and trampled my wife’s homeland.
“S-Son-in-law! Please, don’t do this!”
“Father-in-law? Where were you when you stabbed me in the back?”
“I-I’m sorry. I must have lost my mind! Ah, that man… that wretch orchestrated everything!”
The man calling himself my father-in-law blamed the Minister of State.
“Have you gone mad?! You insane king! Douglas, sir! I protested! I told this pig of a king to curb his greed!”
I felt sick. How could I have sought peace with such creatures?
“Kill them all.”
I commanded the knights, and their blades showed no mercy, slaughtering every royal and noble without hesitation.
“Now you must lead the nation.”
First Brother stepped down from the throne. He could no longer bear the weight of Exbrien as it grew too vast.
Douglas thought it was just as well.
He conquered and subjugated neighboring nations one by one that would become threats in the future.
Exbrien had transcended being merely the strongest nation in the northeast—it had become an empire. Even Beria, which had destroyed Exbrien in the past, was now a vassal state of Exbrien.
It took a full twenty years.
But misfortune found him again.
His eldest son was dead.
“He was ambushed by the Beastmen Alliance on his way back from his travels.”
“The Beastmen Alliance?”
The Beastmen Alliance? Such a thing did not exist in the future I had foreseen. Nor had my son’s death.
“It is that… Imperial Nobles have begun treating beastmen carelessly. In response, the Alliance was formed.”
“Treating them carelessly?”
“They enslaved them and forced them to fight, or released them on the Mountain for hunts.”
The Imperial Nobles I had empowered to strengthen my forces began committing acts that had no place in history. I had appointed them precisely because they were virtuous and capable, yet once they gained immense power and vested interests, they descended into depravity.
Racial supremacy had always existed. The long-lived elves skilled in magic, the dwarves blessed by fire and earth, and humans who controlled the largest territories maintained relatively decent relations. But the lower races like orcs and goblins, and the beastmen with weak influence, received poor treatment.
It was common sense that had hardened over centuries, and those without power could not resist. However, the excessive conduct of Imperial Nobles who had gained overwhelming strength cornered the beastmen and lower races into desperation.
I buried my son’s corpse and fell asleep drunk. I saw the future again. Visions always came after catastrophe struck, or when my own life was in danger. I no longer considered this ability a blessing. It was a demon’s curse.
In this new future I witnessed, the world endlessly warred. Conflict raged across every continent. Innocent people died.
I could not remain idle. I ruled neighboring nations with an iron grip and eradicated the greedy royalty, Imperial Nobles, and slave merchants of surrounding kingdoms.
Sacrifices were made, but compared to the devastation that would have occurred had I done nothing, they were mere dust.
On the road returning from the battlefield, I saved a dying child. There was no grand purpose—the child was there, within my reach, so I saved him.
As I suppressed the Imperial Nobles, assassination attempts never ceased, and I narrowly escaped death countless times.
Each time, I saw the future. In this latest vision, I saw that the child I had saved from the battlefield would one day become a Master. I found that child again, kept him at my side, and spared no resources in supporting him.
That child, Joshua, grew far faster than the future I had foreseen. He reached the rank of Master at a young age and wielded his blade without hesitation at my command.
With Joshua’s strength, conquest became far easier.
At last, I saw a future that pleased me. It was a vision of a prosperous Exbrien. I would live out my natural lifespan and die peacefully, while my second son would inherit an empire that flourished magnificently. The people were happy.
There were still relatively minor issues within the empire—discrimination based on class or race, the activities of dark mages—but the vast majority were content.
This was the finest future I had witnessed in decades. Douglas, who had fought without rest for so many years, was exhausted. I no longer wished to fight. I wanted to rest and be satisfied with what I had achieved.
I set everything aside and lay down to sleep with a peaceful heart for the first time in ages.
And I had a nightmare.
A dream of the world splitting open, of invaders from another realm pouring forth from the Gate.
Fortunately, the empire had the strength to repel them. Had the empire not built its power until now, it could never have stopped so many monsters. Douglas was pleased that his efforts had meaning.
But the problem was not the Gate. The lower races and beastmen, their rift now irreparably deep, crossed over to the Western Continent and formed an alliance. While the Gate demanded focus, the nations of both Eastern and Western Continents were too busy warring with each other.
And the invaders pouring from the Gate trampled every nation of Telus.
All intelligent life on Telus was either slain or captured and dragged away to another world, but that was not the end.
A small point appeared in the sky above Telus. That pinprick-sized point slowly began devouring the world. The hole grew larger, and its pace of consumption accelerated.
The hole swallowed everything—not just land and water, but light and space itself, as if resetting the world to its origin. Everything in this world was pulled into that ever-expanding void. The world vanished.
Douglas awoke from the nightmare, drenched in cold sweat.
This was no longer merely the empire’s problem.
I had to prevent the apocalypse. The Eastern and Western Continents could not afford to waste their strength fighting each other.
I needed to grow stronger. To protect Telus.
I sent peace envoys to the Western Continent and granted them everything they desired.
Until now I had turned a blind eye, but I executed the royal families, Imperial Nobles, and slave traders who had trafficked other races into bondage.
The Western Continent seemed to accept Douglas’s goodwill.
But then, rebellion erupted on the Eastern Continent. The family of an executed Imperial Noble formed a rebel army alongside Elves and Dwarves.
The Elves and Dwarves participated, indignant that inferior races and Beastmen dared to be treated as their equals.
The rift between East and West deepened.
No matter how hard I tried, peace was impossible. The chasm between the Eastern and Western Continents was like water and oil—they would never mix.
Fortunately, the stronger I made Exbrien, the more I could delay the apocalypse.
I had been right all along. Exbrien had to become stronger. This was no time to be choosy about methods.
I had aimed for peace with the Western Continent, but if that was impossible, I had no choice but to unify through force.
Humans, Elves, and Dwarves versus Beastmen and inferior races—the former possessed superior combat power and influence, and already held the Empire’s privileges, so I had no choice but to side with them.
I crushed all the inferior races and Beastmen of the Eastern Continent. Now only the Western Continent remained.
But the aging Douglas had little time left. Ten years? Could I even last five? What would become of this world when I died?
I needed to buy time.
I captured a dark mage named Franklin. He was a talented young man.
“You can use dark magic, can’t you?”
Franklin’s eyes darted about frantically. He had researched it alone in the Basement, making absolutely certain no one would discover it—how could the Emperor of the Empire possibly know?
“I’m not here to condemn you. I have one question: can you extend my life?”
Joshua pressed his sword against Franklin’s throat as he hesitated.
“I… if sacrifices are made, it’s possible.”
At last I had persuaded Franklin. I gave him death row inmates from the dungeons. Using their lives as sacrifices, I extended Douglas’s lifespan.
Now that I had bought more time, I needed to grow even stronger. To win the war, I needed more Masters.
I borrowed the power of dark magic once more.
I had Joshua’s clones implanted in young women.
But the success rate was extremely low. It seemed to be influenced by the host’s condition.
I needed more sacrifices. I captured Beastmen and inferior races to use as offerings.
After countless sacrifices and young women, I finally created clones nearly as powerful as Joshua.
With these powerful Masters reinforcing us, Douglas began his invasion of the Western Continent.
In the meantime, my last remaining son died. Douglas had continued extending his own lifespan so long that he outlived his son. I had tried to cast the life-extension spell on him as well, but he refused.
He was a child of upright character, taking after Christine.
After bidding my son farewell, I continued the war. Victory seemed imminent.
But then, inexplicably, one of our clones defected to the Western Continent. Our forces suffered devastating losses.
Joshua killed him, but the future had diverged greatly from what I remembered.
To prevent such incidents from recurring, I subjected the clones to intense brainwashing while they were still young and newly created.
Joshua served the Emperor with utmost devotion. The Emperor revealed to Joshua that he could see the future.
Though his loyalty had always been strong, learning of his lord’s grand purpose, his devotion became boundless.
Because of this unwavering support, Joshua permitted himself to shed his blood and allowed the will of his clones—his extensions, his children—to be stripped away.
Despite his aid, the apocalypse could only be delayed, not prevented. In fact, the doom I had managed to postpone was drawing ever closer.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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