"Mr. Jovian, what exactly were you thinking?"
"You killed thirty senators in one go. Thirty. A full thirty senators."
"Even Vought can't clean something like this up perfectly!"
Stillwell looked at Jovian, who had returned to the office to rest after neatly wiping out thirty senators, and her eyes were full of helpless frustration. What had happened today was simply too much. Even she had a headache from it.
For a moment, she almost missed Homelander. At the very least, he would not kill thirty senators just because a conversation went badly.
"They were just thirty insignificant nobodies. It's not a big problem."
Jovian looked over the file in his hand. After hearing Stillwell's words, his expression did not change in the slightest. He remained perfectly calm.
"Not a big problem? That was thirty senators. Thirty!"
Stillwell was speechless. There were only so many senators in the entire United States. Killing thirty of them at once and calling it a small matter was insane.
"Trust me. It really isn't a big problem."
The corner of Jovian's mouth lifted slightly. He clearly did not care about Stillwell's concern at all.
"Oh, right. Ezekiel is holding a religious convention in a few days, isn't he?"
Jovian casually tossed the file aside and turned toward Stillwell, as if he had only just remembered it.
"That's right. Ezekiel is holding a major gathering..."
"But what does that have to do with the mess you've made?"
Stillwell looked at Jovian in confusion.
"A great deal."
Jovian answered with just three words.
Stillwell stared at him in silence.
Those three words were not the answer she had expected, but with Jovian, they somehow still sounded perfectly natural. He loved speaking in riddles and keeping everyone guessing.
"You'll understand what it has to do with anything when the day comes."
Jovian had absolutely no intention of telling Stillwell what he was planning. His whole attitude said, something major is about to happen, but I'm not going to tell you what it is. Just know it's major.
Stillwell looked at Jovian and felt irritation burning inside her.
She had given up time she could have spent with her little darling just to help him deal with all this mess, and now he was talking to her in riddles.
It was infuriating.
"For now, just prepare yourself to welcome the new era."
Jovian gave the order to Stillwell.
"Sigh..."
"Yes, Mr. President."
In the end, Stillwell could only let out a helpless sigh.
Sometimes, what she wanted to do and what she did not want to do no longer mattered much. The moment she stepped into the whirlpool of power, she had already become a piece on someone else's board. How that piece moved was not decided by the piece itself, but by the hand moving it.
"Just keep working hard, Stillwell."
Jovian offered his bright little blessing to the Stillwell who was about to leave.
"Heh..."
Stillwell only smiled.
She said nothing, but somehow that single laugh said everything.
"Haha..."
Jovian watched the useful tool named Stillwell leave and chuckled softly without saying anything else.
Several days later, once the convention hosted by Ezekiel began, countless devout followers gathered for the event. They danced together. They sang together.
"Tell me! Who bestowed your gifts upon you?!"
Standing atop a massive stage with a microphone in hand, Ezekiel shouted toward the endless crowd below.
"Jovian! Jovian! Jovian!"
The countless faithful roared Jovian's name.
"That's right! It was the great divine lord Jovian, who negotiated with God for three days and three nights! In the end, his sincerity moved the Almighty himself, and God personally sent down the holy water that grants gifts!"
Ezekiel was a born performer, a born speaker. He had a gift for turning black into white and white into black. He was exactly the kind of man who could make a living with nothing but his mouth.
Before Jovian revealed Compound V, Ezekiel had lied to everyone, telling them he was one of the chosen and that only those chosen by God could possess such extraordinary power. But once Jovian made Compound V public and Ezekiel could no longer explain things away as divine gifts...
He did not panic at all.
He simply told his followers that Compound V had not existed in the beginning. It was the great divine lord Jovian—the righteous ruler, the god among men who would lead humanity forward—who had flown to Heaven and spoken with God for three days and three nights. In the end, moved by Jovian's determination, God had sent down holy water—Compound V.
As expected, that ridiculous story was mocked by plenty of atheists once it was announced.
But it also made certain fanatical believers trust Ezekiel even more. Whenever they praised Ezekiel, they often praised Jovian too, letting Jovian bask in the admiration of the masses.
"So every one of us must praise Jovian!"
Ezekiel shouted into the microphone.
"Jovian!"
"Jovian!"
"Jovian!"
The people shouted his name again and again.
Boom!
Right in the middle of the crowd's cheers, a figure suddenly appeared among the clouds.
"Everyone, look up! What is that?!"
Ezekiel seemed to have been waiting for Jovian all along. The instant Jovian's figure appeared above the crowd, Ezekiel began guiding everyone's eyes skyward.
There in the sky, a broad-shouldered man in a white-and-black combat suit slowly descended beneath the blazing sunlight.
"God!"
The crowd looked up and stretched out their hands toward Jovian, who glowed beneath the sun.
They could not even make out his face clearly...
But the face of a god was never something mere mortals were meant to see.
"My friends..."
The moment Jovian, looking like a god walking among men, landed on the stage, some of the most fanatical believers were already so overwhelmed that they fainted on the spot.
"Jovian really came!"
"Divine lord! Divine lord! Divine lord!"
The worshippers shouted at the top of their lungs, expressing their reverence for him.
"My friends, I came here today with a mission. Do you want to know what that mission is?"
Jovian smiled faintly at the crowd.
"We do!"
The believers shouted back, eager to hear what mission he carried.
"Good. Since you want to know, then I'll tell you."
"A few days ago, God summoned me to Heaven. He told me that from this day forward, I would rule Heaven in His place."
"From now on, bowing to God is no better than bowing to me. Praying to God is no better than praying to me."
Jovian raised his voice and addressed the countless followers below.
The instant he finished speaking, the entire place fell silent.
Everyone stared with wide eyes.
Even Ezekiel.
Inside, Ezekiel was panicking.
What the hell? Brother, you're bullshitting even harder than I am now. God handed Heaven over to you? That's way too much.
For once, Ezekiel genuinely had no idea how to smooth this over.
"Uh... what Mr. Jovian means is that after Mr. Jovian ascends to Heaven when his soul departs this world, God will appoint him as a six-winged seraph and allow him to rule Heaven in His stead."
Ezekiel's mind worked fast. He used every ounce of effort to patch up Jovian's absurd statement into something people might actually swallow.
"Oh!"
"As expected of Mr. Jovian!"
"As expected of our God-chosen President!"
"Jovian! Jovian! Jovian!"
People were strange.
They could accept that a man might gain authority over Heaven after death, once his soul had risen and met God.
But they could not accept that a living man already had the right to enter Heaven and rule it absolutely.
"Haha..."
"No. You misunderstood."
"I mean I have authority over Heaven right now."
"I have the right to decide who goes to Heaven and who goes to Hell."
"You do not have to wait until you die. Even while you're alive, I can take you to Heaven."
Jovian shook his head and repeated himself.
"Mr. Jovian, if you keep fooling around like this, even I won't be able to patch it up..."
Ezekiel stepped to Jovian's side and whispered quietly.
"Fooling around?"
"Are you joking?"
"You dare call the sacred task God personally gave me 'fooling around'?"
Jovian turned toward Ezekiel and raised his voice.
Ezekiel froze on the spot.
What was this even supposed to be anymore?
Heaven knew he had been trying to help Jovian the whole time.
"My friends! Look at me! Do you want to see Heaven?!"
Jovian ignored Ezekiel and looked out at the countless believers.
The crowd fell still after hearing his words. They looked at one another, confused, unsure whether Jovian was lying to them or speaking seriously.
"If you want to see what Heaven looks like, then kneel."
"I can show it to you right now."
Jovian's eyes were perfectly calm, empty of joy or sorrow.
For a human being, those eyes were strange.
Yet that utter lack of emotion gave him an air of divinity, making him truly seem like a great god before whom countless worshippers should bow.
As Jovian watched the sea of believers bend their waists and kneel, he swept both hands outward.
In the next instant, endless white light flooded the world.
Then every single person in the massive square vanished without a trace.
If not for the trash still scattered across the ground, no one would have guessed that only seconds earlier this place had been packed with worshippers of every kind, devout people who believed in God.
That state continued for about a full minute.
Then, as time slowly passed, the vanished crowd returned to the square, each person appearing right back where they had been.
But now, the returned crowd had none of its earlier disorder.
There was no noise.
No chaos.
Only one stunned believer after another, all standing there wide-eyed and speechless.
"Tell me... did you see Heaven?"
Jovian still stood atop the stage.
This time, there was a faint smile on his otherwise calm face.
Plop.
Plop, plop, plop.
The answer Jovian received was not solemn prayer, nor the reverent expressions of the faithful.
Instead, one believer after another dropped to their knees and began worshipping him.
"Mom... I saw Heaven!"
Among the people kneeling before Jovian, a teenage girl began to cry tears of happiness.
And more people were following her example by the second.
They were all crying.
They had seen Heaven while still alive.
This was a miracle.
"Tell me—who is the true hero?!"
"Who is the true god of this world?!"
Jovian's body slowly rose into the air and drifted out toward the crowd.
One believer after another stood up from where they had been kneeling, all of them reaching out, trying to touch this god walking among men.
And just like that, the god of the mortal world descended into it, surrounded by his endless followers.
As Jovian floated in the air, enjoying the worship of the faithful and savoring the results of his performance, everything he had done in that square was already being broadcast live across the world.
Countless people watched as Jovian made everyone in the square vanish in an instant.
Then, in the next instant, he brought them all back.
Eyes widened everywhere.
Some said it was CGI.
Some said it was stage magic.
Almost no one online believed Jovian had truly taken those people to Heaven.
Only the good are supposed to go to Heaven after death.
That was common belief.
God said the world would one day be led by a gentle soul.
Apparently, He had forgotten Jovian.
And now all of that had been shattered.
The new doctrine was simple: only those who obey Jovian's will, only those who act according to his command, could enter Heaven.
God was useless.
Jovian was the one who mattered.
"Manpower..."
Jovian looked at the frenzied devotion of the followers below and smiled.
As long as he secretly took control of this place, he could continuously supply the main world with a considerable number of troops in secret.
If someone eventually uncovered what he was doing, then he could simply go along with the story.
After all, what he had told these people was that everyone who vanished had gone to Heaven...
And once the time came, Jovian would be able to assemble a fleet.
Warships. Soldiers.
When all of those pieces came together, an invincible armada would be born.
The headache was that...
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