[Emperor POV] Year 5, Day 179 (About a week after Null got a dragon)

  The Emperor watched down from the airship viewing platform. Mountains flew past below. All that was left of his Empire—rocky mountains around the Great City at the top of the continent.

  It was still nice to actually look at things with his own eyes. Now that he was healthy again. Not like before. Not stuck in rooms due to deteriorating health. Not dying slowly while clinging to ancient enchantments.

  Over one more mountain, the desert border became visible. What was once Paradise—heart of his Empire. Now just wasteland. Desert. Emptiness and loss.

  On the mountainside, a small city appeared. When he'd last seen it, the place was much bigger. During Empire's height, this was the world's biggest military base. Heart of Imperial armies. Fortress and power center.

  Now just another slow border city next to desert. Reduced, forgotten, barely relevant.

  He still found it hard to believe their luck. If Paradise's destruction had extended bit more to the north, this would all be gone. Destroyed. He still remembered visiting the day after Paradise fell. Even seven thousand years couldn't remove that memory. In the closest areas, destruction and desert was only few hundred meters away from this city. So close. So lucky. So random.

  While now it looked like just another slow boring Empire city, massive underground storage was still fully active. Place where all divine weapons were stored once their power ran out. And where cryopods were located with elites of Imperial Legion. Preserved. Waiting. Ready if needed.

  [No wonder Head Mage selected this old and forgotten site as her base. If they can get what's here back to action, lot can be done. Plus it's next to desert where isekai come. Perfect location. Perfect resources. Perfect cover.]

  He wanted to curse her for all this theatrics. "Imperial Isekai Conference" indeed. But at least he knew the news had to be good. She liked making things theatrical when news was good, short and blunt when it wasn't. Drama meant success. Always had with her.

  Airship landed next to the mansion on the side of the city. Head Mage waited there.

  Everyone bowed and welcomed him with professional greetings and expected ceremony.

  But the Emperor lost focus. This mansion looked familiar. Very familiar. But he couldn't place why.

  Finally asked about it. "This place. I know it. But from when?"

  Head Mage smiled. "Oh, you remember. It was my residence here. You actually visited many times in the past. Long ago. Before everything."

  The Emperor felt lost. "How is it still standing? Looks same. Similar. Preserved."

  Head Mage explained. "Because I owned it all the time. Not directly. Through many layers. Shell companies. False names. Proxies. But enough to make sure it survived. Stayed same. Don't ask why initially—it just happened. Later maybe homesickness. Sentiment. Sometimes I visit it. Under so many layers of cover that even myself wouldn't say it's me." Small smile. "Paranoia has benefits. Preservation is one."

  The Emperor tried finding words. [Strange story. Convoluted layers of ownership. Typical of her though. Always planning ahead. Always hiding in complexity.]

  Nothing came. He just gestured with his hand—continue, move on, get to the point.

  They went inside. Until arrived to meeting room.

  Emperor. Head Mage. And four others in the room.

  Emperor knew two of them. No idea about the rest. Base commander—his main task guarding the underground area and protecting what remained. And the former head mage, before the real one returned. He'd clearly accepted his demotion, returned to position behind her, wanting to learn from his superior.

  The other two were unknowns. Clothing suggested mages. Researchers or specialists probably.

  [Small group. Intimate. Secretive. She doesn't trust many. Good. Neither do I.]

  Head Mage started. Professional. Direct. "Welcome to Imperial Isekai Conference."

  Emperor looked around room once more. [Only "interesting" thing is map of continent on wall. Circle marked in desert near Empire border. Some kind of site marking probably.]

  He decided to throw back a pun. Bit annoyed already by theatrics. "I've been to many conferences in my life. None were six people in small meeting room with single table, few chairs, and old map on wall."

  Head Mage smiled, clearly expecting this complaint. "Well, talent is hard to come by. Imperial Academy is not what it used to be. Invite more people and we'd dilute the expertise, waste time explaining basics. This is efficient."

  "Oh. Well, just start already."

  "First, let's talk about how this crazy Divine Child destroyed the isekai system."

  She walked to the map. Pointed at the desert. At Paradise's location. "Nobody knows how long this isekai summoning system has been running. Even dragons have no idea. When we asked about it, answers were something like 'probably more than hundred thousand years.' Vague. Ancient. Beyond normal comprehension."

  [I remember asking. Don't want to think about those annoying self-proclaimed gods any more than necessary. Makes me irritable.]

  Head Mage continued. "Under the area now known as Desert of Nothing—previously Paradise—there's massive interdimensional summoning diagram. Over very long time, probably millions of years, this system has been collecting waste and corruption. Think of it as pipe that clogs over time through gradual buildup."

  She paused. "And this crazy Divine Child literally blew himself up to cause secondary explosion. Made all the collected divine residue explode too. That's what destroyed Paradise, created the desert, ended the Empire."

  Emperor asked what mattered. "No danger of that happening again?"

  "Not for at least few million years, possibly never. This system is self-healing with automatic repair over time." She smiled slightly. "I have theory why it started collecting residue there at all."

  "What? Why?"

  "Someone in distant past tried to modify the system. Amateur work. Not successful."

  She explained further. "For example, it's historically known the system cycles. Sometimes only produces humans. Sometimes gives bodies based on soul compatibility. Last cycle change was around twelve thousand years ago. We found evidence of these racial tweaking efforts when system opened after Divine Child's explosion. Multiple modifications. All poorly done. All buggy."

  Pause. "Those changes caused the clogging. Created the buildup. Finally enabled Divine Child to blow everything up. Amateur work causing catastrophic failure."

  [Interesting. Kind of. Then again, ancient idiots breaking things they don't understand is universal constant.]

  Emperor asked the most important question. "Can we get it working? Can we start harvesting?"

  Head Mage smiled. "Yes. Theoretically we can re-enable it today. But we want to tweak it first. System is currently open and easy to modify. Once active, modifications become much harder, possibly impossible, definitely buggy. This is our opportunity. We don't waste it."

  She paused. Explaining carefully. "There were actually two major events. First, Divine Child's explosion seven thousand years ago. Turned system off for repairs. Changed it. But didn't fully open it for modification. Just dormant. Locked. Waiting."

  "But about five and half years ago, the one you searched for. The Isekai Protocol activation your oracles detected. Site 17 summoning." She gestured. "That wasn't normal summoning through active system. That was something forcing through mostly inactive system. Massive energy insertion. Violent dimensional breach."

  She continued. "Blew it fully open. Easy to modify now. Also fixed all the issues in one go. Complete repair. What would have taken five thousand years of automatic fixing? Done instantly. System would probably self-open in around century from now if we did nothing. One violent entry accomplished more than millennia of self-healing."

  "So that summoning we detected—the one from Site 17—that's what opened it? Fixed it?"

  "Unknowingly probably. Maybe pending summoning forced due to rare conditions? Don't really know why it happened." She shrugged. "But whatever caused it, no human survives being pushed through mostly inactive system like that. Would be squashed like bug. Crushed by dimensional pressure. That's why your search found nothing. Why oracle readings were contradictory. Why everything was messed up. Just death residue. Just dimensional trauma. No actual survivor."

  "Any chance something survived?"

  Head Mage actually thought about that. Considering. "If it was some kind of godly being? Even true dragon soul would end up squashed if pushed through with that much force. Dimensional pressure that extreme... nothing survives. But..." She paused. "This system is meant to summon humans. Only humans. There's not a single piece of evidence that anything else can come through it. Input race is locked. Fundamental. Can't be changed at that level."

  She waved dismissively. "So whatever forced through—if anything actually did—it's gone. Dead. Irrelevant. Just convenient accident that opened system for us. Lucky timing. Nothing more."

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Emperor nodded. Accepting. [Makes sense. Dead isekai or system malfunction. Either way, worked in our favor. System open. Modifications possible. That's what matters.]

  She continued. "After explosion that destroyed Paradise, safeguards turned system off for automatic repairing. It would have automatically turned on around five thousand years from now. But we can force activation early. With our modifications. Our improvements."

  Emperor asked. "What do you want to change?"

  Head Mage's smile turned super evil. Genuinely evil. The kind he recognized from millennia of working together. Plotting together. Conquering together.

  "First, we remove all the hacks in the system. Those caused massive loss in efficiency. Clean slate. Proper function. Second, we're splitting small part of the system for our personal private usage." She pointed to circle on map. In the desert. Near border. "That area. We use for our personal summonings. Nobody will ever know about it. Invisible. Hidden. Ours."

  She paused. "Rest we simply let operate normally. We may try to harvest a bit more from there if opportunity comes. But generally we let them walk. Let them be visible. Let dragons and everyone else focus on them while we work in shadows."

  Emperor smiled. [Genius if it works. Perfect if dragons take the bait. Everything hinges on them being distracted enough.]

  He asked. "So we won't have the same issues as before? Dragons snooping around asking why no isekai come anymore?"

  He remembered the proof. Still annoyed. "That mathematical proof they sent us. Three thousand years. Zero attempts at dragon binding. Statistical impossibility if isekai were actually arriving naturally. They knew. They suspected. Started asking questions we couldn't answer well."

  Head Mage nodded. "Exactly. No need to run those elegant lie campaigns anymore. The ones where we announced random heroic deeds as isekai accomplishments. Fake heroes, fictional victories, propaganda to maintain the myth that they still existed."

  She continued. "Or avoid complaints from the big gluttons—true dragons—asking why no snacks left in our territory."

  Pause. Bitter smile. "Of course there were none. We harvested everyone we found. So in the end we had to let some go deliberately. Hope they'd wander off to adventures and get eaten by dragons elsewhere."

  Another pause. "But one decided to stay and snoop instead. Started asking questions. Investigating. Looking into things. Ruined everything."

  Emperor felt anger rising. Old anger. Familiar anger. "Dragons are literally to blame for everything. If they wouldn't start making those questions, this annoying Divine Child would be harvested like everyone before him. Nothing like that would ever happen. We'd still have Paradise. Still have the Empire. Still have everything."

  [Damn dragons. Damn their curiosity. Damn their mathematical proofs. Damn everything about them.]

  "You said more efficiently?" Emperor pulled himself back. Focus on present. Focus on solutions. Not ancient rage.

  "Yes. Wanted to get there. Just wanted to talk first about the isekai themselves. Who will be summoned after we fix and change the system."

  She continued. Explaining.

  "First modification: racial selection. We removed forced templates. Now they get bodies matching their souls naturally. Maximum energy. No waste."

  She paused. Let Emperor process.

  "Second: starter bonuses. Removed. No free language. No free skills. They can buy those back later with their own power—but that wastes energy. Makes them weaker. Easier to farm."

  Then she made specifically evil face. Smile. The kind that promised suffering. "And we also modified starter mode significantly. Before, everyone got something they named 'game guide.' Instructions. Help. Guidance. Now it's so-called tutorial mission. But we're messing this mission up as much as possible."

  She explained. "Tutorial offers them way out of desert. Teleportation to designated area. And we selected designated area as dragon-ruled territories. So most probably off this continent within hours. Who wants to sit in endless desert when there's safe teleport to civilization? Versus months of normal travel if they even find way out. Plus this teleport uses some of their energy. Small cost. Seems reasonable. They take it."

  "So we get them off continent fast and visible. Force them to use divine power on useless tasks. Waste their energy. Burn through reserves. Dragons stay busy next few centuries hunting isekai that come to their direction—totally clueless of their fate. While we quietly harvest our private summonings in shadows."

  Emperor smiled. Understanding. "And same time we build up power while everyone who matters watches other direction. Perfect misdirection. Perfect cover."

  "Yes. Exactly. Tutorial mission will make sure they use power. What makes them tasty to dragons. While we want to farm power directly—need to get them before they use any if possible. Fresh. Untouched. Maximum value. Dragons want them when they already used it. Effects stored in body. Flavor. Preference. Different goals. Different timing. Works for us."

  "Can some avoid tutorial mission?"

  "In theory. But about half their divine power is locked until they complete certain things listed there. Plus we're still working with it. Making it as attractive as possible. So they'll actually engage. Want to do it. Mission itself is generated and we have no real control over specific content. But we can set parameters. Influence outcomes. Guide behavior."

  She added quickly. "Locked power doesn't matter to us. We can harvest everything instantly. Even locked portions. For the isekai themselves though—if they skip the mission, they'll get locked power released eventually. After timeout. Few years. So we get it now. They get it later if they survive. Works for us either way."

  Her smile turned particularly evil. "Oh, and we found one more feature. System had bonus quest slot. Originally meant for daemon lord scenarios—if summoning was response to daemon lord threat, quest given to defeat it with reward of more divine energy."

  She paused. Savoring this. "We modified this quest slot. Now everyone gets it. Bonus quest: bind a true dragon as mount or pet."

  Emperor blinked. "What?"

  "But we set the conditions hard. Nearly impossible. To get reward paid out, you don't just bind one. You need other dragons to accept it too. Through their champion system—three solo fights to death under rules dragons set. Impossible trials. No isekai has ever survived it. It's designed to kill them."

  She grinned. "But if anyone should actually succeed? Reward would be crazy big. Massive divine energy payout. So many will try for sure. Greed is large motivator. Especially for heroes who think they're special. Who think they're different. Who think they can win where others failed."

  Emperor stared. Then started laughing. "So you're sending them straight into dragon traps. Voluntarily. With divine energy as bait."

  "Exactly. Dragons get entertainment. Get test subjects. Get to kill heroes in creative ways. We get dragons distracted and happy. Everyone wins. Except isekai. But they don't matter."

  Emperor asked the question that mattered most. "The summon rate? How often?"

  Head Mage's smile widened. "This is where biggest win comes. Not only do they have perhaps 1.5 times more starter energy now. When before there were decades—sometimes century—between summonings, now... perhaps one every few years. It was simply how inefficient the system was before. Clogged. Broken. Slow. Fixed now. Clean. Fast. Productive."

  Emperor felt genuine shock. "Holy shit."

  [Every few years. Regular supply and steady harvests. Not waiting decades hoping. Not rationing divine power drops. Actually sustainable. Actually functional. This is everything—salvation, Empire restored, future secured.]

  Head Mage watched his reaction. Satisfaction showing. She'd saved best for last. Knew what this meant. What this promised.

  "It's actually even better."

  "Better? How?"

  "System responds to world events. Somehow. We don't really understand how. Most of it exists outside this plane. In Heaven maybe. Beyond our reach. But it stayed active all this time. While rest of system was dormant. While repairs happened. It kept listening. Kept working. Kept building backlog."

  She paused. Let weight build.

  "There's literally backlog of eighty summonings. Accumulated. Queued. Waiting. So when system re-enables, those all dump. Weeks. Perhaps even days. Eighty isekai. All at once. Flood. Avalanche. Everything we could ever need and more."

  Emperor's mind stopped. Eighty. The number refused to make sense.

  In his entire reign—thousands of years of active harvesting—he'd never gotten that many total. Each one precious. Each one rationed. Divided carefully. Never enough. Always scarcity.

  Now? Eighty. In days. Weeks at most.

  "Eighty," he repeated. Voice flat. Disbelieving. "So... forty for us? Half?"

  "Yes. Our private system gets half. But probably can get more from the other half too. If opportunities come. Won't get them all—others will notice and compete, plus many will teleport away for their tutorial adventures. But some. Maybe. We try at least."

  "When do you think we'll be ready?"

  "Probably six months. Need to finalize modifications. Test extensively. Make sure changes hold. Make sure nothing breaks when we activate. Can't afford failures. Can't afford another Divine Child. Can't risk another Paradise. One apocalypse was enough."

  Emperor asked the security question. Critical concern. "Can anyone find our secret summoning system? Our private area? Discovery risk assessment?"

  "System-wide? No. It's set up to summon one each time main system does. Piggyback. Shadow operation. Even if someone checks system—which people will do soon after activation—they'll never see our private summonings. System internals will be locked the moment it activates. Inspection impossible. Discovery unlikely. We're hidden in the noise. Camouflaged in chaos."

  She added. "And we have extensive plans for hiding the operation afterward. How to move them. How to process them. How to extract power without anyone noticing. Can go over those later. Multiple layers. Multiple failsafes. Professional paranoia applied."

  Emperor turned to commander of the base. "And Imperial Legion?"

  Commander responded professionally. "All is ready, Your Majesty. We need around five fresh isekai to make sufficient divine elixir for life extension. Restore full combat capability and return Legion to operational status. Then we can begin reconquest and restoration."

  Emperor smiled genuinely. First time in... he couldn't remember how long.

  [Soon. Empire will rise again. All that was lost can be taken back and more. Everything returns, everything restored. Finally. After seven thousand years of waiting. Finally.]

  After that, they used few more hours going over deeper details. Technical specifications. Magical theory. Operational planning. Security protocols.

  But Emperor was actually happy Head Mage gave intro first. Explained what mattered. Core concepts. Critical information.

  Most of the later technical details went over his head. [I'm decent mage. But I've done statecraft and management for millennia now. Rusty on complex magical theory. The basics are enough. Let the experts handle the deep expertise.]

  After the conference, Emperor and Head Mage sat alone with tea. Private. Just the two old friends finally.

  Emperor smiled. Almost grinned. "I want to see Regis and his colleagues' faces when they find out how we scammed them."

  Head Mage smiled back, serious but amused. "Hopefully they find out in Heaven after we kill every annoying lizard down here."

  She turned more serious. "But we should be careful around Dragon Kings and their armies. They won't go down without a fight."

  "Yes. They'll be main challenge again." Emperor's voice carried old frustration. Ancient memories. "Last time, dragons more or less stopped any Empire expansion. Everyone had learned to beg dragons for protection. What they were usually happy to provide. After some tribute. After proper sessions of bowing. Humiliation. Submission. Standard dragon procedure."

  Head Mage shifted topics. "But you should fix your relations with Syndicate."

  Emperor's face soured. "Rebels. Traitors."

  "I would say opportunists who saw weakness. But nevermind." Head Mage pushed forward professionally. "Banking, trade routes, industry—what they control would be very beneficial to our new Empire. Superweapons powered by divine energy can win battles, but for Empire we need more. Infrastructure, economy, systems. Syndicate has those."

  She continued. "Syndicate is largest tribute payer to dragons. They pay for stability, protection, and trade access dragons offer. If we can offer same stability, they'll switch fast. In the end, they're endless bag of greed mixed with strange philosophies. Practical, adaptable, loyal to profit over ideology."

  Emperor was well aware of rumors about Syndicate tributes to dragons. [As taxes to Empire, those would help. Lot. Massive revenue. Stable income. Everything we need to rebuild properly.]

  He asked. "What do you suggest?"

  "Season Event in Central. I bet you'd like the Dragon Race on last day. Or well, mostly wyverns. It's always very entertaining. Massive spectacle."

  She continued. "Basically end your self-declared isolation. Go there. Get to know them. You were always good at nice words and pleasantries when needed. Charm. Diplomacy. Making people think you care when really calculating advantages."

  Emperor thought about it. [From what I heard about this Dragon Race, it's more massive mayhem and public spectacle than actual competition. Entertainment for masses.]

  [But making first foreign visit after collapse of Empire to world financial capital? Not bad idea. Actually good idea. Show strength. Show recovery. Show we're back and relevant. Syndicate respects power. Respects presence. This could work.]

  "When?"

  "Less than month from now."

  Emperor nodded. "Fine. I'll go."

  They sat together. Drinking tea. Planning Empire's return. Planning dragons' downfall. Planning harvest of heroes who'd never see it coming.

  Necessary plans. Acceptable costs. Few sacrificed for many saved.

  The Empire would rise.

  Notice name Regis: Dragon King who will get POV chapters later.

  DizzyMiget, as a result of writing a review on ScribbleHub where this story is also cross-posted!

  Same offer extends to RoyalRoad readers: First 5 reviews get the option to provide a name to character(s) in the story. Just PM me after your review and we can work out the details!