1055 The Ceremony Begins
The day of coronation arrived faster than anyone was prepared for. The rays of suns reached Kiah, the new space city.
It's a small city spanning about a thousand square miles. But only small when considered for residential purposes. As it's built mainly for administration, Kiah was massive.
In Kiah, the palace grounds occupied an entire hundred square miles of area. Most of this land comprised of the beautiful forests and gardens surrounding the palace complex.
The palace complex was around ten square miles, sprawled with beautiful buildings, water fountains, precious gardens, administrative blocks, meeting halls and many more.
The complex was divided into three concentric circles. Each circle was encased by a special wall and had two large gates.
The outermost circle consisted of training grounds, combat halls, auditoriums, duel rings among others.
This would be where the palace guards would train, maintain security and train the special teams in the army.
All the level 9 military officials would report here and carry out meetings with their colleagues to draw up plans for the Human Empire.
If the planetary forces need help, they'd approach this section. Only if they fail would the matter reach the Emperor.
The middle circle consisted of all the administrative blocks. The most prominent among these were the nine crystalline blocks—one for each planet. There were also a block for the space cities.
This would be the brain of the Empire, drafting and implementing plans for the human civilization. The Sovereigns all had a quarter here and could stay here if they wished.
The inner circle was the smallest but also had the least structures. It had extremely rare flower gardens, very precious array of trees, sleek roads built from the best of stones and at the center of them all, the grand palace.
The grand palace was by a rare crystal found in the ruins. It looked absolutely stunning and majestic. With a pyramidal structure, it grew sharply smaller the higher one went.
The palace had nine floors, with the first floor consisting of hundreds of rooms and the ninth floor containing only one.
The first floor had the reception area, appointments lounge, and others. The second floor was the Throne Hall. The third had the special guest quarters.
The fourth had the gallery, museum and others. The fifth was the offices for the Emperor's direct staff and Emperor's own office.
The sixth was the servant quarters and the Imperial kitchen.
From the sixth floor onwards, no one else could enter without Emperor's direct permission.
The seventh was the entertainment floor consisting of the best facilities from across the planets.
The eighth floor consisted of around a dozen rooms, including resting, drawing, storeroom, and others.
The ninth floor had only one large bedroom.
When the first ray of sunlight touched the forest in the palace complex, the ceremony began.
The large gardens outside the walls slowly began to glow. First, it was the leaves, then the thin stems, finally entire plants began to glow with a soft light. As each garden was built of specific and special plants, each garden lit up with a different light.
Thousands of colorful little birds, believed to be auspicious by some traditions, flew from the forest and circled around the palace complex, singing melodious songs.
The flowers around the palace complex bloomed, releasing sweet fragrances.
Then the four main gates to the palace complex opened simultaneously.
Hundreds of artists entered the complex with their own activity. One gate welcomed the ethereal musicians, other saw the incoming of bards narrating age old tales.
Even though human race modernized so much, the cultural roots very much remained. Post-Blink, all earth cultures merged and evolved into something much more vibrant and dynamic. Each planet had its own signature culture which it contributed to the larger human culture.
As a result, the coronation began with the traditional music of old earth's east, energetic songs of old earth's south, mythical tales of old earth's north and the elegant dances of the old earth's west.
All of them happened at once in an orderly and harmonious manner.
Once they finished their performance, the artists stopped in four different training grounds in the outer circle.
The drones captured their performances and broadcasted it to the billions of humans who haven't even slept since last night.
Obviously, today was a public holiday and even the nastiest of bosses didn't dare to sneak some 'urgent work' to their employees.
As a result, more than forty billions watched the coronation in their homes with hope and wonder.
"We're the pride of yesterday,
Hope of today,
Promise of tomorrow.
Our spirit never yields,
Our hope never dies,
Our adventure never ends.
Peace to the motherland,
Salute to the brave hearts,
Glory to the human race."
Little boys and girls stood on the stage in colorful dresses and sang the glory song of the human race.
The viewers watching them got emotional and many started sobbing. After such a tragic war, this song hit them hard.
The children evacuated the stage and the next activity quickly began.
The top geniuses from the best academies stepped onto the stage and faced off each other in teams.
It was a coronation ceremony that originally was supposed to be all songs and roses. But Varian proposed a duel for the academy.
So it happened.
It was quick, intense and drew every viewer in.
The shortest duel tournament was also the most important in history of mankind.
Neptune won in the third year team, Earth in the second year and Mars in the first year.
Unsurprisingly, the main challengers of the duel were the same geniuses who fought in the solar banquet less than a year ago.
Winning in the coronation tournament should be a matter of great pride and joy.
The winners didn't rejoice. They just felt weird. The one coronated was the man who won against them by outsmarting them because he couldn't win them head on.
Just a few months ago, he was weaker than them. Now, he's the supreme leader of mankind.
'I wanted to fight him when we meet the next time.' Maissa Hall, one of the many who fought Varian in the solar banquet, shuddered.
'I invited him to fight in the frontlines of Neptune…he did. And overdid it.' Ashtarh, the brightest genius of Neptune, sighed.
They stood together along with their other team members of Neptune. Maissa joined Neptune's team since her cluster wasn't sending anyone else.
Besides them was the second year winners who were also staring blankly at the sky.
'He grew so fast, but Sarah?' Olivia stood with her team, wondering the meaning of life.
"The winners of the competition, you'll be personally awarded by the Emperor. And you can have a private conversation with His Majesty." Blue Flash, real name Alison, appeared in the training ground and informed.
The next activity quickly began and the ceremony continued.
Alison managed the event along with Richard.
Watching the splendid celebration that's continuing for hours, Alison sighed. "I never imagined this day would come. Uprooting Shadow Order with the help of Enigma was my biggest goal."
"No one imaged this day," Richard shook his head and glanced in the direction of the palace with a smile. "Except him."
