"You will recruit those survivors and take them under your banner.
You will beco the Queen of those who Lost."
With those words, Sharnoth’s new journey started.
She thought it would be difficult to find such people. After all, survivors of a destroyed world must be so runaways trying to hide from the Universe. How was she supposed to find them?
This problem, however, was solved by Zylarith and her combined efforts. With nurous artifacts and relics in Zylarith’s possession, finding them wasn’t difficult, the problem was the recruitnt.
These people were highly paranoid and had no reason to join a completely unknown being. Sharnoth had to prove herself ti and ti again, and in the process, she made quite a lot of mistakes.
After all, till now, she only had the experience in leading the mindless beasts—beasts she could dominate and subdue with her strength. The sa, however, couldn’t be said for intelligent beings. While strength still mattered a lot, it wasn’t the only thing needed to rule them.
Of course, with Zylarith as her guide and constant failures that further strengthened his words, Sharnoth learned quickly.
"You are powerful, much more powerful than other Transcendents around you. You are powerful enough for people to want to follow you. Now, you just need to show it to them."
Zylarith lectured.
"Show it to them?"
Sharnoth tilted her head in confusion.
"Indeed.
These are called Visible Pillars of being a Leader.
Competence, Unshakable Conviction, Decisiveness, Charisma, and Vision.
Show them your power, show them how competent you are. This is what will attract their attention. Of course, this is only the first step. Attracting attention and making them follow you are two different matters.
Once you have shown them your competence, it is now ti to show them your conviction—a cause that you believe in.
In your case, you are to beco the Queen of those who Lost. You will beco the guide who will lead them back to their glory days. Under your banner, they will raise their heads with pride again.
Have a relentless will, the kind that outlasts exhaustion, defeat, and betrayal. Make it so they follow because you are still standing.
Learn to be a storyteller—the ability to refra suffering as ’sacrifice’ and failure as ’a lesson.’ People endure pain if it has aning.
Have an aura of inevitability around you. Make the people believe that your victory is fated, inevitable.
Make them have blind faith in you. Make them rely on you. Make it so they can never imagine a future without you, so much so that they are even willing to give their lives for you.
That is how you make people follow you."
Zylarith explained.
Of course, the process was slow. This wasn’t sothing one could learn through theory alone—real experience was needed. Sharnoth needed to understand people in general, then have an instinctive understanding of those around her in particular. There were several other factors that just couldn’t be put into words.
She started small.
It began with taking over a High-Level rcenary Party with fourteen rcenaries. She led them with strength and resourcefulness, making them believe her. There were tis she faltered—tis she abandoned her people and had to start from nothing once more.
Centuries passed just like that, and Sharnoth began getting the hang of things. As people under her command grew, she learned more.
Zylarith too started finding more and more people that t the criteria of becoming Sharnoth’s followers. The numbers continued to increase. Nux, who was watching everything, also recognized a few people Sharnoth had gathered—few that were still with her when she beca the Queen.
Sharnoth’s influence began to grow. Nux, however, wasn’t particularly interested in these developnts. He was more focused on the ti Sharnoth spent in strengthening her Law.
However, one interaction in particular attracted his attention.
It was the ti when Sharnoth had already broken through and beco an Eternal. Her command over the hundred thousand beings who followed her was absolute. And mind you, all hundred thousand of these beings were once a part of High-Level Worlds—their bloodline and potential were strong.
Her army could easily be compared to other High-Level Worlds. No, actually, they had an edge because of how diverse her people were.
At this point, Sharnoth’s fa had grown to a considerable degree. Even her story had beco popular.
People had begun calling her the Princess who rose from Chains, and the title attracted a lot of attention.
More and more people ca to her, wanting to be recruited.
Yes, she no longer needed to go around recruiting people, everything happened on its own now.
However,
This ti, she faced an issue with a race called Verani.
The Verani were an ancient, enigmatic race with silver-white eyes and translucent, glass-like skin that faintly glows under stress.
They weren’t particularly strong. In fact, these people were weak compared to other beings from High-Level Worlds. Even amongst Sharnoth’s followers, there were quite a few who could defeat the strongest Verani.
This was also the reason the Veranis fell—they were simply too weak and beca an easy target in this world.
But even then, Sharnoth wanted them because of how useful they were.
The Veranis possessed an instinctive sense of what "shouldn’t" be happening. They could not see the future or read minds, but they could feel when sothing was wrong—even if it defied logic or was undetectable by normal senses.
This was called True Intuition, and while their intuition wasn’t correct every ti and had no real authenticity, it could still be relied upon. At the very least, the Veranis could be used as advisors.
But when Sharnoth went to them, the current Verani leader, Vehrian Rahkul, he refused to follow her.
"Why?"
Sharnoth questioned.
"You should know that your people are weak. If things continue like this, you will be targeted again and might even face annihilation. I will give you protection in exchange for your services. Your people will have a safe place to live and thrive. Is that not what you desire?"
"It is indeed what I desire."
Vehrian nodded.
He then stared at Sharnoth and,
"But when I look at you, I only see inevitable destruction."
"Destruction...?"
"The forces that you are aligned with are not your true allies."
At those words, Sharnoth frowned. For the first ti in centuries, she felt sothing foreign stir in her—doubt.
And as if to put the final nail,
"Princess who rose from Chains,
You will Fall again."
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