System's POV - Chapter 1353

Chapter 1353: Thinking Far Ahead
After a heated debate, Paimon looked very frustrated. The three Majin Princes were clearly forcing her to put her army on the front lines to further weaken her.

Knowing that she couldn’t oppose the three of them, they made sure that by the time the battle was over, her faction would be on its last legs after as she would’ve lost more than half of her army.

After three hours of brainstorming, they all agreed to send their elite forces to Sahard’s Domain. Sahard was even looking forward to fighting against the Death Bat, who wiped out his forces in the Samara Desert.

If Thirteen were present in that meeting, he would have definitely given Paimon the award for Best Actress. Her acting was truly top-notch!

Her frustrated and resigned expression after the meeting was truly accurate. Even she felt proud because her acting was flawless.

“I’ll be taking my leave,” Paimon said as she walked away without a second glance. “I’ll meet you all in Sahard’s Domain.”

After she left, the three Majin Princes exchanged knowing smiles on their faces before proceeding to their secret meeting on how to divide Paimon’s domain among themselves after getting rid of the pesky Death Bat.

“What a stupid woman.” Valac laughed. “Did you see her look of defiance earlier?”

“Indeed, that was fun to watch.” Sahard nodded. “All her bravado disappeared at the end of the meeting. What a pity, I could have enjoyed it longer if we hadn’t adjourned our meeting so soon.”

Welkin smiled faintly but didn’t say anything else. He had long wanted to find an opportunity to take the fertile lands that belonged to Paimon and claim them as his own.

Now that a chance had come, he would definitely make sure that the majority of her army would be killed in the battle. When the time came, she would be incapable of raising any resistance while he took what he believed was rightfully his.

While this was happening, Thirteen and the Wanderers set up camp in the desert.

He wasn’t really too worried about the upcoming war between their forces and the three Majin Princes because he already had that part covered.

The thing he was thinking about the most was‌ how he would handle the mission that was given to them by The One.

He had no intention of facing off against the Celestial Army on Mount Olympus.

Doing so would be stupid and would only put them in the spotlight.

Although the God of Wanderers didn’t tell him the important details of the mission, Thirteen had a faint idea of what he needed to do.

This wasn’t his first time in Solterra.

In fact, when he was still with Cassiel (Erasmus), he had already gotten all the important information about the world of Pangea and Solterra.

All he needed to do was access his Soul Core to get the relevant information that he needed.

After triple-checking the information he gathered, Thirteen was more confident that leaving the Celestial Army alone was indeed the right choice.

Actually, in order to open the treasury that contained Pandora’s Treasures, one must have the seven keys.

These keys were scattered across the world, ensuring that they would not be easily found by those who wished to claim the power of divinity.

Of course, Thirteen knew that Zaphiel had countless allies helping him look for the other keys, but that wasn’t a big deal for him.

Thirteen’s plan was simple.

Out of those seven keys, he needed to get just one of them.

As long as he had one of the keys, the treasury would not open to anyone.

Still, that didn’t change the fact that he was pressed for time.

This was also why he personally asked Camazotz for help.

Cranky must focus on recovering, so only the Death Bat had the power to help him travel great distances.

He planned to defeat the Majin Princes first, then ask Paimon to take care of the Wanderers. Once everything was settled, he and Camazotz would head to one of the locations where one of the keys was being kept.

Their mission said that if they failed their first mission, the next missions would be harder.

But the difficulty primarily stemmed from the distance.

The locations of the other keys were very far from Mount Olympus, and getting to them was not only hard but “extremely hard”.

Even with Camazotz’s help, it would take them a week to go to the location of one of the keys.

‘Too bad, Dantanian is hard to find,’ Thirteen thought. ‘If he is here, we can go to those places after just a day or two of traveling.’

The Fiend of Many Faces could travel great distances with a single leap, several times faster than Camazotz at his peak performance.

“The nearest key is Mount Olympus,” Thirteen thought. “The next one is on Mount Parnassus, but it’s close to the territory of one of the Celestials. It might be taken already.”

Thirteen then glanced at the five other places he had written on the sand using his finger.

Fortunate Isles, Delphic Caves, The Island of Aeaea, Field of Asphodel, and Mount Ida.

After careful consideration, Thirteen set his sights on the Island of Aeaea.

It was a place that was quite far from the continent, and it would take great effort to reach it.

However, since it was the place where one of the keys was hidden, it meant that it wasn’t bereft of danger.

In fact, it was a very dangerous place.

The only reason Thirteen chose it was because he was sure that he would not fall into the illusions and temptations that surrounded the island.

Camazotz’s willpower had also been greatly strengthened, so going there would not pose a problem to the Death Bat.

His only concern was the Wanderers whom he would be leaving behind while he accomplished his mission.

‘I’ll leave Tiona’s clone with Derek so I can communicate with him directly,’ Thirteen thought. ‘I will also leave a hundred demons here. They could monitor what’s happening on this side of the continent and report to me.’

After finalizing his thoughts, the teenage boy held an emergency meeting with Roland, Derek, and the three Champions.

He told them what his plans were, but he didn’t tell them that he would be looking for one of the keys that would open the treasury of Pandora.

He only said that while they were going to continue their travel eastward, Thirteen and Camazotz would disrupt the movement of their enemies to give them ample time to raise their army.

In order to give them greater assurance, he decided to let the Desert King Snake, Sharak, and his subordinates ‌accompany them on their journey after they had finished dealing with the threat of the three Majin Princes.

Although Derek felt anxious about Zion leaving them, he understood that only the teenage boy could help delay the advance of the Celestial Army.

Thirteen also declared Roland as the new leader of the group, and everyone would have to listen to his orders while he was away.

The Hero was the most natural choice for the next leader since only he would be able to overcome the challenges that were needed to complete his Hero’s Journey.

Also, Thirteen was betting on Roland’s plot armor to keep him and the Wanderers safe during his absence.

After their meeting ended, Thirteen went inside Rocky’s mobile fortress before jumping to the Order of the Apocalypse, where Paimon was already waiting for his arrival.