The Rise of the Black Plain

The Counter-Revolutionary Statute was something created to support royal families. A counter-response to rebellious acts, those things dangerous to regional stability.

But like any agreement, especially considering its own characteristics, this statute depended on spiritual crystals to function. 

Such a statute was not simple, without rules, where partner organizations would help one another solve their problems as if it were a favor.

It was not just any device used to please those in need!

After all, it was expensive to move troops around, especially those groups of Spiritual Kings, the regional experts.

Not only because those experts would need payments, supplies, etc., but because the organizations behind them could lose a lot by sending them away from their headquarters!

Imagine a royal family sending 10 of its Spiritual Kings to help solve a revolutionary threat in another state. If all or part of them died or suffered injuries that limited their ability to fight in the future, the losses of that organization would be huge!

That is, it was neither cheap nor easy to create Spiritual Kings, especially those of high rank. Consequently, the death or incapacitation of some specialists could mean massive financial losses for such organizations if they wanted to recover the lost expert.

And this bill needed to be paid by someone.

But naturally, these regional royal families already knew this from their experience with the Kain family, and they had thought of something to solve this problem.

That was a periodic payment of an emergency fee, something that the Carline family administered, which could be used to compensate the losses of the royal families in cases of significant losses. 

But was that enough?

It was impossible to know. After all, costs and losses during wars depended on many factors, such as the strength of the opponents and the duration of the conflict. 

On the other hand, when would a new revolution take place?

That was another thing impossible to know.

It could be tomorrow, in 10 years, in 10,000 years. At any moment, movements like these could happen, and the emergency fund needed to have a minimum reserve value to guarantee the families involved in solving such a problem.

And in this situation, completing the amount needed to have the minimum amount of funds sufficient for such a reserve was the responsibility of the royal family that had last invoked such a statute.

If King Brown went ahead with this, he would basically be putting his family in an unattractive position in which he might have to bear the costs of a major regional war in the future if they were unlucky.

But that was not all!

According to the statute, all the wealth of the rebels, excluding the territory itself, would have to be divided among the troops of the Counter-Revolutionary Army invoked by such a statute.

Hence, the cost of using such a device was not cheap, and King Brown wanted to avoid it if possible. But despite all this, he was aware that it was better to go into debt or have some losses than to lose part of his territory or be destroyed by Minos' forces.

He didn't believe that the organization behind the Black Plain could destroy him now, but what about in the future?

If such a place became independent, the variables would be endless!

And since it was not good to let a parasite grow in your body, he was willing to do whatever was necessary to eliminate the threats to his family!

With that, it didn't take long for those people in the royal hall to start talking about it, making plans, and thinking of strategies to solve such a problem.

Among them was the patriarch of the Miller family!

...

Several hours passed, and at this moment, the sun was rising over the horizon of the Maritime City.

At this instant, this city, which had previously been ravaged by war, was experiencing the tranquility of the beginning of the day, with the sea breeze typical of this area.

The sounds of the swaying trees' leaves, the small birds flying and singing through the area, brought the peaceful sounds to this partially destroyed place.

However, such sounds and atmospheric effects were much more noticeable at this moment, as not even a single citizen could be found nearby!

There were no beasts around this city, no carriages or living people walking the streets, talking at various points, working, something natural to see in places like this one.

But this was to be expected, after all, after the warnings of the Black Plain Army, not a single person had dared to stay in this place!

But not only because of this, but also because of specific incentives, let's say, that Minos' soldiers had given these people.

Thus, only the thousands of corpses resulting from the traps used by Minos' army the day before could be seen in the streets of this city.

Apart from this and the destroyed or damaged buildings, anyone passing by at this moment would see an abandoned place. However, with some souvenirs left behind in many residences, anyone passing by would understand that the local evacuation had taken place in a great hurry. 

After all, no one would move out of their residence, leaving fond memories of their own volition, such as the traditional paintings of ancestors, of significant family members.

Such an action was an obvious hint that the people in this place had not had much time to leave this town, or so many portraits would not have been abandoned here.

Anyway, if one were flying over this urban area now, one would see several ships slowly traveling south a few dozen kilometers from the local harbor.

At the same time, many carriages, spiritual beasts, and people could be seen dozens of kilometers east of this place, where the last groups that had left that city were.

Some smaller groups seemed to be going in different directions, some to the north, many others to the south.

But most were heading in the direction of Dry City, being escorted by the troops of the Black Plain Army.

In any case, in one of the many carriages that were heading back towards Dry City, Angela was inside that means of transportation alongside Barbara as they chatted and observed the lack of scenery in the surroundings.

"Do you know when we will have the figures regarding the population of the Maritime City that survived this conflict?" Angela asked Barbara since, despite the two's difference in status in the military, this Spiritual General had been in this organization much longer than her. 

So, one understood that organization more than the other!

Barbara then replied. "I think as soon as they get through the local immigration, we'll have the approximate numbers of that city's inhabitants who didn't die."

"But we'll never know the total numbers for sure since not all the survivors are going to Dry City, and we haven't had time to do that count."

"However, that will already give us a good estimate as to those people lost."

"I see..."

"What about the collecting teams? Were they able to recover the items of value left in that city by the survivors?" Angela asked about this important factor since many citizens had died, and their belongings were worth collecting when added up.

"Hmm, we collected what was left in the affected areas, but some of the population also managed to take several things with them."

"That's good. It wouldn't be good to leave resources in that place..."

"By the way, are we far away enough from there? When will we be finished with that?" She turned back and looked through the glass, where she could see from afar the sunrise over that area where Maritime City was located.

"That should happen in a few more moments..." Barbara commented as she looked in the same direction as Angela, anxious for what would happen next.

Their plan was simple. 

If they couldn't use the Maritime City, it would be better if no one else could!

Why have a place with such good infrastructure, a place that was not so difficult for enemies to build solid defenses, right in their backyard?

There was no need to complicate things like that.

And so, slowly, many small sources of light began to appear beneath that city, merging to form a giant ball of flame that completely covered the star that was rising on the horizon.

That was the end of the line for Maritime City, its own apocalypse!

With that, in the blink of an eye, a gigantic mushroom of gas and dust covered the whole area, following the expected consequences.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!