Contrary to back when he had conquered the Enki Imperium, this time, it was not a functioning empire spanning many worlds that he came across. While there had initially been one such governing body present, due to having had the horrendous luck of serving as the point of origin for a fair number of Heaven's Chosen, it had long since fallen apart.
There were of course still some pockets of resistance which held strong against these arrogant individuals, or had been ignored by them so far. Yet the primary reason as to why they had managed to survive intact for this long was that their enemies were far too occupied with fighting each other to bother with them.
This was the current state of the recently discovered cluster of worlds when Theodore and his Subordinates arrived there. Everyone but the maids and Kiran had been brought along, and he would take a supportive, backseat role this time. Of course, he would step up if anything unexpected were to occur, but otherwise, he would leave the stage to everyone else.
Eventually, his people would need to be able to handle minor matters like territorial expansions and resource acquisitions by themselves, therefore it was best that they grew used to it early. Whenever he became stronger, that would directly translate to an increase in power for all of them, so him focusing on further cultivation would only benefit them immensely.
It was even a bit unfair for Cheong Suhyeon, Vigdis and Navya to participate, as they had been extensively trained in matters like these in the past. Still, the most visually transparent amongst them wasn't exactly famous for her reliability.
As keeping everyone moving together as one was very inefficient, armed with Teleportation Array Disks, the Subordinates split into ten groups. The aforementioned three plus Satoru, Conrad and Kjartan's Fly Slave chose to venture out alone, whereas Xie Mei and Han Junqiao paired up. Lastly, Jules, Bogdan and Annis had one or two more guards join them on this endeavour, functioning as the squad leaders.
Theodore himself picked out a relatively central world, then patiently observed the current state of things via Kiran's network. He didn't even interfere with the place that he had chosen, concealing himself entirely and letting everything play out as if he had never come along to begin with.
Not every world that these ten groups went to proved to be troublesome. Kjartan and Bogdan's squad, for instance, faced no hurdles whatsoever whilst taking charge of them.
Well, the local powers weren't particularly happy to see them, but they also weren't foolish enough to turn themselves into punching bags for beings that they couldn't possibly confront at all. They had long since heard of the Heaven's Chosen and wouldn't risk earning their ire. Heck, one of these worlds had been plagued by one of them before. If they hadn't moved on to somewhere else, then they would still be suffering from their whims even today.
All of the other eight groups were met with battles and defiance. Whether it be the remaining native forces putting up a stubborn resistance or the notorious Heaven's Chosen defending their recently occupied territories, at the end of the day, blood was shed.
Yet absurdly enough, whenever any of the opposing fighters were defeated, they would be securely restrained instead of outright eliminated. This left all who witnessed it confused but also a bit hopeful. If they didn't get killed on the spot, then that meant that there was still a use for them, and even a chance for survival! Following that logic, many soldiers chose to surrender. Yet to their astonishment, once they did so, they weren't grouped up with the previous captives.
Unsurprisingly, Cheong Suhyeon was the fastest one to take care of the two worlds which she chose to visit. Activating her Let There Be Faith Talent alone already ensured that nobody would be capable of making any waves, no matter what they tried to do.
Despite her flock growing, though, she still made sure to leave those who had originally tried to oppose her tied up and ready to kiss life adieu. Maybe it was just her luck, but the pair of worlds which she had picked out were not home to any Heaven's Chosen, meaning that nothing even remotely out of the ordinary actually took place.
Xie Mei and Han Junqiao, on the other hand, were unfortunate–or rather, blessed–enough to run into a whole three of these folks at once! The trio had originally been at each other's throats, but the moment that they noticed the two of them encroaching upon their clash's vicinity, they temporarily put aside their differences and ganged up on them.
Perhaps they had thought that the pie which they were fighting over was already too small, therefore another two competitors entering the fray would be simply unacceptable, or there had been some other reason. But in the end, it didn't really matter–they were all incapacitated within a few moments. Although Xie Mei and Han Junqiao could still be considered to be greenhouse flowers, that was only in comparison to 'old monsters' like Named Family heirs–they had actually put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the past years.
On Vigdis' end, something surprising transpired. The Heaven's Chosen who she ran into surrendered before she even had a chance to exude any sort of pressure of reveal her cultivation stage. Without much difficulty, she quickly found out that this particular individual originated from one of the countless worlds near the territory of the Rún Family. So as soon as they spied her runic tattoos, they knew that they couldn't possibly be a match for her and had to lower their head if they wanted to have any hope of making it out of this mess relatively unscathed.
There was never actually any danger for the other groups either, much to the chagrin of Satoru, who had anticipated another fruitful training session. This couldn't be helped, though. Other than him, everyone else fully relied on the enhancement from Coattail Ascension, which turned them into Miniature Theodores in terms of Standard Attributes. That alone sufficed to make them practically invincible under regular circumstances.
Still, conquering and thoroughly scouring these worlds for useful finds wasn't all just about fighting power and battles. In actuality, it was considerably time-consuming of an undertaking. Taking into account that every single group had to do this whole song and dance at least twice, as they all had two worlds which they were responsible for at minimum, it dragged on quite a bit.
Nobody but Cheong Suhyeon could rapidly incorporate these worlds into their fold. Therefore, eventually, many of the groups began to send her invitations as soon as they realized that she had pretty much already finished her share of the workload. This would allow them to avoid the bothersome and painfully lengthy task of population control, instead letting them focus on picking up anything of value.
In the end, the flock-gathering saintess got around the most, by far. Nearly every single one of the almost two dozen worlds which they had targeted bore her footsteps. And even those last few would soon see the same happening to them–letting vast numbers of people lie around without a use was a pure waste, after all.
From the beginning of the operation until its very end, a total of four days passed, during which Theodore peacefully cultivated whilst always keeping an eye on the network. Thankfully, he was just being overly cautious–his presence never once remotely became necessary.
Heck, there wasn't even a single Heaven's Chosen from a Named Family present. Statistically speaking, this was to be expected, of course–his starting location was the one that was abnormal.
When it came to dealing with the captive 'geniuses', especially in regard to those who had displayed exceptional hostility towards his people and still treated them with contempt whilst bound, he did not show any mercy. Reaping their pitiful lives, however, did not bless him with anything worth mentioning.
The remaining half a dozen could be recruited to join him in the roles of both guards and maids. Amongst all of them, the young woman who had recognized Vigdis even requested to be assigned to her as her personal maid, which Theodore didn't object to. It would be up to his right-hand woman to decide on this matter herself, he wouldn't intervene.
Whilst the six newbies were unconscious due to the overwhelming improvement in Standard Attributes courtesy of his blessing, he personally visited every world which had already been combed through once more, checking if anything had been missed. Except for a few valuable materials located deep underground, though, everyone had done a remarkable job in gathering all that they could.
This caused him to sigh in relief–from what it looked like, he really could leave all of these matters to his people from now on. Well, at least during the rest of the first round. From the second round onwards, it was likely that the competition would see major changes, therefore he couldn't yet say anything for sure. Still, he would have to be either quite mad or desperate to send out his troops before he was reasonably certain of their success.
Having instructed Vigdis when it came to Array Formations many a time, and due to her own prior significant skill in the field, he was now comfortable leaving the setting up of Teleportation Arrays between the worlds of this cluster to her.
Naturally, if this place had been chosen to become a well-defended outpost and not just an already-conquered, ordinary part of his territory, then he would have personally got involved with the construction of the Arrays as well. But because it didn't really matter at all how secure it was, he could enjoy some days of relaxation.
Returning home with Cheong Suhyeon, Xie Mei and Han Junqiao in tow, he left the rest of the miscellaneous affairs to everyone else–chiefly Vigdis. The guards could also handle themselves properly. Under the lead of Conrad, they eliminated all potential dangers. Despite his prominent role amongst Theodore's forces, Satoru wasn't particularly talented when it came to being an authority figure, he was more so a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield.
Approximately two weeks later, everything was finally taken care of. Wiping some sweat off of her forehead, Vigdis showed a small, satisfied smile as she inspected the very last Array which she had just completed.
If she had only created regular old Teleportation Arrays, then it wouldn't have been such a challenge. However, having closely scrutinized lots of Theodore's works, she had begun to implement some aspects of them which she had thoroughly understood and comprehended. This served to–amongst other things–increase the speed of the spatiotemporal transportation, the efficiency of the Energy consumption, the stability of the whole formation, as well as adding a couple of safeguards that would automatically kick in should anything go awry.
'It's my best work to date.'
Feeling proud of herself as she could clearly see how much progress she had made, Vigdis let her eyes wander across her design a couple more times, then she pulled out her Teleportation Array Disk and returned to headquarters.
Running into Corinna on the way back to her room, she had a short chat about her newly recruited direct underling, inquiring about how her maid training came along. Even though the position sounded simple on paper, not everybody would magically know how to perform it properly–therefore, an introductory period which would allow them to familiarize themselves with it was necessary.
Finally plopping down on her bed a few minutes later, Vigdis closed her eyes and rested for a few hours. The mental strain of weeks of highly focused Array creation was nothing to scoff at, so even she had to recharge every once in a while.
When she awoke, any hints of exhaustion had disappeared. With newfound energy, she was ready to face what the future had in store for her.
'I wonder when Miss Dragon is going to get back to us. I hope she won't make me wait for too long.'
With a competitive spark flickering in her gaze, she soon resumed her cultivation, her breakthrough to the Dedication Realm imminent.