The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon hearing such a warning from one of his royal guards, Thomas' eyes gleamed with his murderous intent. 

"Bring it here." He said solemnly, curious and filled with hatred.

The Black Plain had already proven itself against the forces of this individual. As such, he could not help but feel irritated upon hearing the name of such a city.

And soon, while he was feeling irritated, a square wooden box with an edge of one meter was positioned right in front of where the royal throne stood. 

'Don't tell me that...' And promptly upon seeing that box that had no opening to be seen, the people in that place began to wonder what was going on.

But since this was a 'gift' from an enemy, most there were quick to wonder what would fit in that box...

'Those savages!' 

"Bastards!"

"The motherfucker had the nerve to send us that?" Then, finally, King Brown shouted in a fury, just at the moment when part of the box's lid had been removed, and he could see hair and blood through the gap.

As each of the people there frowned, the entire lid of that box was removed, revealing 16 heads piled up, with Otis' right on top.

As the people there could see the white eyes of those lifeless pieces of flesh, they noticed something in Otis' mouth.

"Those assholes!"

"Not only did they kill all those Silva family experts, but they also dared to send them to us!" Someone in that place said angrily, feeling great contempt for the forces of Dry City.

Even they would not do that to their enemies!

"Those bumpkins are a bunch of wild lunatics!"

"Your Majesty, we must eliminate those people in our future attack, or I fear we will continue to be humiliated!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! We must deal with these rebels with everything we have!" 

Several people in that hall voiced their opinions as they saw Thomas taking the envelope in Otis' mouth while that king had a terrible expression on his face.

There was no danger of them looking closely at this gift from Minos. Because, if there were some kind of trap there, the royal guards responsible for checking items would not have allowed that box to reach here.

As such, Thomas Brown was unconcerned about traps there and just did what he thought was best.

"Brat Stuart!"

And soon, the king began to roar in a fury, turning more and more red with rage as he read the message sent by Minos. 

'Invaders, leave the Black Plain, or soon it will be your heads in boxes like this one!'

'Take your chance now or regret it in the future!'

'Minos Stuart, the King of the Black Plain.'

"Ahhhhhh!" After reading that, Thomas Brown shook in anger, roaring like an animal as he crumpled and hurled that message away.

"Minos Stuart!" He shouted in hatred, letting his powerful aura escape and press down on that whole place.

"Your Majesty!"

"Your Majesty!"

And then, the people there tried to talk to this individual, realizing that such a person had been provoked to the limit by this gift from Minos.

'What was in that message?' Some of the weaker people there wondered about that, while the stronger ones tried to retrieve that message.

And after a while, finally, someone understood Thomas' out-of-bounds hatred.

"Tsk!"

'That rascal is truly arrogant!' A level 57 Spiritual King thought to himself as he finished reading young Stuart's words.

He then paced forward and told his king some good news to calm such an individual down. "Your Majesty, calm down. In no more than 15 days, the last representatives of the royal families of our region will arrive in our kingdom!"

"With that, we will be able to deal with that ungrateful traitor!"

"Then please calm your anger, Your Majesty. Save that for two weeks from now!" That leader of the local royal guard said this loudly, bringing Thomas' attention back to this place.

That king had never been so disrespected in his life!

And worse, all this had happened because of the son of one of the most loyal subordinates he had ever had!

Add this to all the trouble Minos had already caused him, and Thomas had almost lost his mind for a few moments because of his recently accumulated stress.

He then tried to breathe calmly, still very angry and with an ugly expression on his face. "Good." He said in a harsh tone. "Get everything ready and when the time comes, come and let me know in my cultivation room!"

"As you wish, Your Majesty!"

...

A few days later, in the Snow Kingdom...

In the capital of this state, three people were sitting around a table in an ordinary coffee shop in one of the most popular parts of this metropolis.

All three were relatively young, but while one looked a bit older than the couple next to him, those two looked like they had just entered the beginning of their adult lives.

But even though all of them appeared to be young, they were all already Spiritual Generals, two of them at the middle part of this stage and the last one at the final part.

And while their levels and appearances might seem disproportionate for this region, few would pay much attention to them at the moment.

Not because they were unremarkable, but because, besides fitting in well with the people of this place, the other customers in the establishment were focused on other matters at the moment!

Those three knew such a subject very well since they also had a copy of today's edition of the Night News!

"So, it finally happened..."

"Hmm, but that was much quicker than I had thought."

"In fact, I didn't imagine it would happen that way!" The young woman said to her two traveling companions in a low voice while she had a worried expression on her face.

"Yeah, it seems that a lot of things have happened in the six months we've been away..." The younger of the two men said this thoughtfully.

"Lee, Alison, don't worry about it. Whatever it is, Minos will handle it." The other person commented in a whispered tone. "Just worry about your mission in this kingdom!"

These were obviously the young Lee and Alison, accompanied by Peter, a group Minos had sent to the Snow Kingdom to buy beast tamers techniques and some spiritual beasts.

Such a group had arrived in this kingdom weeks ago and had already completed several parts of their mission in this state.

But there were still things left to be sorted out. So, they still had no plans to return to Dry City and were in this town, where a few minutes earlier, they had learned about Otis' execution.

As for their beast companion, that Feathered Serpent could not enter large cities, so she was waiting for them elsewhere.

Alison then said. "I know, but it's shocking to find out all this like that!"

"Master seems to have done so many things in the meantime, even taken revenge... But we've barely finished buying the techniques and the army beasts." Then, in admiration of Minos' ability to do so many things at once, she said that.

"Don't worry about that."

"We're not in a hurry, and none of you will make a difference in the fight for the time being." He told the truth without offending them but pointing out the obvious. "Let's solve our problems in this state and keep working on getting stronger."

"With that, in half a year or so, we can think about doing something regarding the problems in our territory!" 

"OK!" The two said, trying not to worry more than they should about their families, their city.

And Peter was right. They had their problems to deal with, things that had changed with the news they had come into contact with over the past few weeks.

Initially, one of Peter's goals was to find Maxwell. Still, now that so many things had happened outside of the army's plans, this Black Plain Army soldier no longer knew whether or not that was necessary.

But still, he was seeking information from that individual, and if he had the opportunity, he would try to bring Maxwell with him to the Black Plain.

Anyway, after they finished talking about that subject, Peter took one last look at the Night News edition before preparing to go back shopping with those two.

'Changes in the Black Plain, huh?' He read one of the headlines from that edition, one that was on the second page of that periodical that today had only information about that territory.

'Looks like the chaotic part of the war won't take long in starting!'