As Kyran predicted, the reinforcements from a nearby Armakea fort had sent a separate group to attack the Eidum's border. On the other hand, the group that traversed the ravine dealt with Achim and Nahir's forces without much trouble. They were able to subdue them without spilling too much blood.
Meanwhile, Kesiah and half of her forces dealt with the ones that attacked the Eidum's border. The enemy reinforcements were few in number, thus, they were taken captive in no time.
After that, their leaders were sent to meet with Kyran while the rest waited in the underground cell.
This time around, Kyran did not use Achim or Kesiah's presence to convince the enemy reinforcements' leaders to join their side. Instead, he had Gaham and Haji talked to them and explained the situation.
Unfortunately, most of the enemy officers refused to join. But since every knight in that fort agreed to join them, Kyran did not think it was a big loss.
Kyran now had an additional of ten knights, bringing their number to 175. If they assimilate every knight in the remaining twenty-five forts, they will pass through. There would be an addition of 502 knights in their ranks. Adding these two, the total would be 677, which could easily be considered three companies of knights. If he considered the low-ranked officers that might join them as well, the number would exceed three thousand.
But even then, this number was nothing compared to the King's forces, which was why Kyran had to convince the Magical Beast Community to side with them.
Once everything was settled, the Abbot, Achim, Kesiah, and Nahir discussed their next course of action.
Obviously, they would not stay in the borders forever. They had to continue forward even if they were outnumbered. Fortunately, no one was aware the border had fallen. They could use their enemies' unawareness to their advantage and amass their strength.
During their discussion, the question of whether they should keep the other forts after assimilating its forces came up. Having another fort with complete facilities and storage could prove useful to them, especially when they met with a company they could not defeat in one battle. They could retreat to the safety of the fort and regroup.
However, when they proposed the idea to Kyran, he rejected it at once, pointing out that they could not afford to spare manpower to guard and maintain the fort. Besides, they were not there to expand territories but to conquer Armakea as a whole.
Nahir insisted that leaving those forts unattended could become their bane. He gave a similar scenario to why Kyran did not want to leave the Eidum border unguarded. If the Armakea took a detour and avoided their forces, they could retake those forts and reinstate new command. And when their forces ended up unable to advance, they would not be able to retreat because the forts they left were retaken. Ultimately, they would end up trapped.
The others seemed to agree with Nahir's reasoning. But what Kyran said next silenced Nahir.
"Destroy the fort after taking what is needed. The Armakea will not try to retake and reinstate new ownership to a destroyed fort."
As for a route they could use to retreat for emergencies, Kyran preferred they make one themselves rather than using a fort that every Armakean Leader was familiar with.
After addressing the matter of the forts, the discussion then proceeded to which fort to target first.
Kyran did not participate in that discussion. He let Nahir and the rest decide their next target. No one persuaded him to stay since he had another urgent matter to attend to.
Negotiating with the Magical Beast Community.
Since the Abbot and Nahir knew Kyran was the silver humanoid dragon, they knew he was the only one among them who might have what it takes to negotiate with those lots. In case those magical beasts attacked him, the Abbot and Nahir would not be worried either. The Basilisk, Comodo, and Dryad were with him. They might not have what it took to take down the leaders of the Magical Beasts, but their strength was enough to keep other magical beasts at bay while Kyran dealt with the leaders.
Hopefully, there would not be any fight breaking out during the negotiation. The last thing they wanted was for the King of Armakea to get wind of the commotion in the Magical Beast Community and discover what they were up to. When that happened, their plan to amass military strength would be cut short, and an all-out war would break out.
Unbeknownst to the two men, Kyran had no plans to travel and meet the Magical Beasts' leaders personally. He had someone who could do that for him.
With that in mind, Kyran went inside the Void World to talk to Chrysanthemum.
Kyran let Chrysanthemum stay in one of the top rooms in the tower. The room did not have any doors, but the windows were wide open and overlooked the fields.
In the past, when the Solum Tribe was still staying in the Void World, they tended to those fields. After they left and continued to stay in the Human plane, Kyran's puppets took over that responsibility. There was not much use for those fields since there were few living that ventured in. But Kyran made sure the fields and even food reserves there were in stock for emergencies. At the same time, the work served as a way for his puppets to practice their motor skills.
Just by looking at the crops in the field, its sheer abundance would have no problem feeding several hundred people for a year. Unfortunately, those crops could not be taken out of the Void World. Apart from that, if one consumed them without properly filtering them during preparations and cooking, they would end up getting infected with Void energy.
The Void World may run with raw magic energy, but since it is created from Kyran's magic, the Void magic energy in there is quite potent.
The Solum Tribe did not have any problem consuming those crops simply because they were well-versed in the Alchemy and Healing. They knew how to filter unwanted substances in those crops and make edible foods out of them.
Kyran's puppets learned that method, which was why they could serve edible foods to the Abbot when he stayed there.
Chrysanthemum sat by the window and was looking out the field when Kyran appeared.
She sensed his arrival but did not turn to look. At the moment, she was still trying to absorb everything those strange puppets told her. To her, it felt surreal to hear from about her people, especially White Lily.
Chrysanthemum remembered how devastated she felt when she failed to enter the rift at which White Lily and the rest of the court entered. There was far too many things happening at that time and the destruction of the Spirit plane sped up, which resulted in numerous rifts appearing in close proximity.
Chrysanthemum could have easily entered the rift White Lily and the rest of the court had entered if not for another rift suddenly appearing close to them. The suction force that came from that rift was too strong for her and was taken in before she could even call out for help.
Ultimately, she ended up in Somuli with several other Spirits. But their existence there were not welcomed, and they were hunted for so many years. It even came to a point that their numbers were reduced to a mere hundred Spirits. Fortunately, a leader of an ancient beast tribe took them in. After that, their situation improved.
Or, so they thought.
After Chrysanthemum and the rest of the Spirits adapted to living with the beast tribe, and even birthed beasts with Spirit blood, or vice-versa, the complete beings saw them as a new threat. They were then called, Magical Beasts because the power a mixed beast and Spirit offspring wieled was far more powerful than any normal beasts.
But then the beast-likes came to their rescue as they believed they were similar in a way. And finally, after such a long grueling war, a treaty to protect both the beast-likes and Magical Beasts were made.
Soon, the Magical Beast Community was formed and Chrysanthemum and the magical beasts lived among themselves.
Their peace was short-lived however, when the Armakea came and proposed an alliance. Initially, the proposal sounded good, but when the Armakea declared their conquest to retake every lost technology in Somuli, Chrysanthemum and magical beasts were forced to assist them under the guise of being their allies.
Chrysanthemum and the other leaders felt their situation would never improve. But then they met Kesiah who insisted she wanted to usurp the King so she could build a better nation not only for her people but also the Magical Beasts. Unfortunately, half of the leaders had long lost interest in fighting and already succumb to their fate.
But Chrysanthemum did not want to give up, because she still had a wish she wanted to fulfill; find White Lily and the rest of their kind.
At long last, it seemed her wish would be fulfilled.
The joy Chrysanthemum felt could not be expressed in one word. And frankly, joy was not the only thing she felt, which was why she felt everything was surreal.
Kyran watched Chrysanthemum in silence for a while. His puppets reported her lack of reaction when they told her about White Lily and deemed she might not be receptive to his words. If he kept on the facade of being a silver humanoid dragon, that might change though.
However, after seeing her serene image while sitting by the window, Kyran felt otherwise.
With a sigh, he made a mental note to check his puppets programming. It wouldn't do for them to misjudge a person's thoughts simply because they did show indifference.
Putting the matter of his puppet's progamming aside, Kyran approached Chrysanthemum. Before he could speak however, she already started speaking.
"You need our cooperation to conquer Somuli, am I correct?"
Kyran raised his brows in surprise. For her to mention Somuli rather than Armakea suggested she had an in-depth understanding of the plane's current situation. Whether it was something she gathered from the Armakea, however, was something he wanted to know.
Or could it be…?
"You guys are the one feeding information to the Armakea about the outside."
Since Chrysanthemum was a Spirit from another plane, it would not be impossible for her to know about other planes. Kyran had been wondering why Armakea knew things they were not meant to know. It all made sense, if they got that information from someone who took refuge in their plane after theirs got destroyed.
"Correct."
Although Kyran said his piece not as a question, Chrysanthemum still thought it best to confirm it.
She then stood up and finally looked at him.
Looking at her up close, she really had some resemblance with White Lily.
Chrysanthemum smiled wryly and said, "Most beings falter just by our presence. Only those with higher standings from us can show indifference. Now that you are not wearing your silver armor, I don't sense that higher standing aura about you. Yet, you still remained indifferent before me. Who are you really?"
"White Lily's friend," Kyran replied with a slight smile. "Someone who can help you and the rest of your people reunite with them."
"So that is your offer in turn for our cooperation."
"More or less."
"Yet… in your conquest, there is no guarantee that my people will leave to see that day happen."
"Not true. I seek your cooperation, not the death of your people."
"What is the difference?"
"Conquering is not all about killing the opposition. If enough fear is instill to someone, it can make opposition surrender without a fight."
Chrysanthemum frowned at the implication of his words, "You want to use fear to force the Armakea King to surrender? Unfortunately, that man is fearless. And though he is already ill, he will not fall easily."
The 𝘮ost uptodat𝑒 novels are pub𝙡ished on fre(e)webno(v)el.𝒸𝑜𝘮