The Ancestors were all shaken. No matter how fast the others invaded, they believed that the Void Palace should at least be able to hold on for a few days, at least two or three on their own. In the best case scenario, and if the other Races had reservations of their own, even a few weeks wouldn't be impossible.
It couldn't be forgotten that the Void Palace was the protector of humanity against foreign races. They weren't just a random power, it could be said that if they weren't neutral, they would be the strongest power in the whole of the Human Domain. For them to have already lost a line of defense was ridiculous.
But then, it hit them like a ton of bricks.
To Leonel, the matters of the Cataclysm Zone were only less than a year ago, but to the people of the Human Domain, it was over 20 years ago and much of those matters had already long since settled down. Even for these Ancestors who had experienced so much life, 20 years was definitely not a short time by any stretch.
It had made them neglect a fact... the current Void Palace wasn't the same Void Palace of the past!
Not everyone had made it out of the Cataclysm Zone. In fact, the casualties were heavy. It had to be remembered that just a normal beast Leonel came across had almost taken his life, and before he left, he could already be considered to be better than most Galaxy Ranked disciples.
If just a single beast had put Leonel in that position, let alone the strength of that small village he had run into, what chance did many of the others stand?
But this was something that should only affect the disciples at and below the Galaxy Rank, right? Unfortunately, this wasn't even remotely the case.
After adjusting themselves, many had concluded what Leonel had. A rampaging Zone had trapped them all and now they would suffer the same fate as others that had failed to clear Sub Dimensional Zones. As such, many had thought that they would have to adjust themselves and live out the rest of their lives in this place.
They had tried to contact civilization, to become a part of their cities, and their culture... but just how many would have died in such an environment?
Leonel had only spent one day in a city before he practically became a slave to a noble family. The outcomes for the others would have been even worse.
Many wouldn't have even been able to make it to the city. They would have died in the forests before reaching it, they would have died at the hands of the villagers who couldn't enter the cities, and even if they made it to the city, they would have fallen from the chain bridge before they could cross it.
This was the cruel reality. Many didn't even have spectacular deaths, some even spawned directly into demon territory and were shredded to pieces by monsters one would only see in nightmares.
The true weight of the lives lost was hard to quantify only because those that had survived had come back in such a trickle, so many could hope that the rest were still on their way. However, with Leonel's return, that hope was dashed... but the Void Palace had taken advantage of the lag to not promote their losses as it would shake the Human Domain's resolve in their abilities.
But now, they were seeing those effects first hand. It didn't matter if they tried to control it now, the Void Palace wasn't even 50% as powerful as it used to be.
Many Void Elders had died, many Domain Ranked disciples vanished never to be seen again, and even more disciples beneath the Domain Rank that had died couldn't even be counted in numbers that could be visualized.
This delayed onset of the severity of the matter hit much harder than if they had been fully prepared.
Leonel stood in silence, watching the reactions of the Ancestors carefully. He had already guessed that this matter would happen, but even he was caught off guard by the sudden promotion of the Morales territory to the Eight Dimension.
That said... He had been prepared for a war to break out the instant the Heir Wars erupted, it was just that this was a much different war than the one he had been waiting for. Even so... war was war, was it not?
Leonel reached out a hand and suddenly snapped his fingers.
His second Starship, the much larger of the two, rumbled as the sound echoed. Under the shocked gazes of those present, the skies suddenly began to ripple.
One warrior after another appeared. At first, there were only thousands, but then there were tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions, then tens of millions.
By the time they had all appeared, there were billions of them. And, somehow, the Ancestors didn't sense them until Leonel had snapped his fingers.
"Board the ship," Leonel commanded coolly.
The billions of troops filed onto the Starship. Despite their numbers, the Starship didn't even begin to show any signs of being overloaded. In fact, it could probably house ten times more warriors with absolute ease.
The Morales Ancestors looked toward Leonel with an incredulous gaze.
"The rewards for winning the Heir Wars, can I have them please?" Leonel turned toward Ancestor Hito and asked.
Before Ancestor Issa could bring up her request again, Ancestor Hito actually waved a hand.
The Morales weren't easy to force into a corner. Long before the Heir Wars began, they had already forced those families to hand over the rewards, that way it would be impossible to back out in the final moment.
Leonel caught the spatial ring.
"If you want to use the Morales pools, you'll have to go there, though," Ancestor Hito said amiably.
Leonel smiled. "There'll be plenty of time. For now, I'm more eager to slaughter those that want to stand on my land."
The gaze of the Morales family flashed.
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