The aftermath was surprisingly orderly.
When you prove you can eat a divine messenger, people tend to listen to your zoning proposals.
I stood on the balcony of the Palace, watching the sun rise over the capital. The mood in the city had shifted from "impending doom" to "cautious optimism." The Church was in chaos, Malakor was in a dungeon awaiting a "performance review," and the Silver Paladins had been rebranded as the "Civil Engineering Corps."
The door behind me opened.
Empress Isabella walked out. She handed me a glass of wine.
"You put on quite a show," she said, leaning against the railing. "Eating a Seraphim? That’s going to be hard to top in the second act."
"I was hungry," I said, taking the glass. I took a sip. For the first time in weeks, I could actually taste the grapes. My bio-morphic integrity was locked at 100%. The Seraphim’s core was powering my disguise indefinitely.
"So," Isabella said, looking out at the city. "You control the System. You control the Church. You have the people’s love. What now, Duke?"
I looked at the horizon. The ticker tape in my vision was scrolling calmly with stock prices, mana futures, and approval ratings.
[Empire Stability: Rising.]
[Market Opportunity: High.]
"Now?" I smiled. It was a genuine smile. "Now we diversify. The agricultural sector is a mess, the education system is archaic, and don't get me started on the sanitation infrastructure."
I turned to her.
"I promised to fix this world, Isabella. I’m going to run this Empire like a Fortune 500 company."
Isabella laughed. She clinked her glass against mine.
"To the hostile takeover," she said.
"To the restructuring," I replied.
I looked at my reflection in the glass door. The monster was still there, deep down, a swirling mass of blue hunger and ambition. But on the surface?
On the surface, business was booming.
[End of Arc 1]
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