Like Niton, reports of crazed beasts came in Itrevezar, Solace, Quartez, Iris, and Ledemor.
Itrevezar
—-------
Klien Cavalli, the king of Itrevezar frowned as he received the reports.
"How did you know of this?"
Gilliard took to it. "Because we've been following a particular group that we believe orchestrated these incidents, which are of course, no incidents. Which is why we came here this early to establish an alliance"
Klien's eyes narrowed. His suspicions confirmed, he ignored the part about an alliance and said. "Do these people have a name?"
Gaga coughs to gain attention, letting Gilliard sit. "They do, that which we found after months of painstaking effort"
Klein simply nodded, annoyed. 'Get to the point!'
"As we discovered" Gaga turned his gaze to the guards encircling them. 'This group has penetrated almost every kingdom, they have spies in almost every gathering" he locked eyes with Klien. "So I will need a privacy to make sure they are not alarmed"
Klien laughed. "You can rest assured that no imposter exists among my personal guards. Feel free to speak"
Gaga shook his head. "I have to disagree. Whether or not the spy is here at this moment, what stops any of them being related to the spy, of which they leak details of our talk either intentionally or unintentionally" he stared Klien dead in the eye. "I will not take such risks"
"I admit your concerns are genuine" Klien replied. "But I have concerns of mine as well"
Gaga nodded. "I understand. To ease your concerns, I will have myself stay behind while my son brings you up to speed, after all, it takes one person to deliver a message"
Klein contemplated, then nodded. "Guards stay here. Gilliard follow me"
The two men walk a bit before coming to a stop in front of a door.
*Click* Klein opens it, he looks back. "So, what is-
His body came alive, his eyes glowed moving quickly to avoid the incoming strike.
A dagger pierced his palm.
"Hmm!" Klein's gaze turned cold. "What is the meaning of this?!" He intoned, enraged.
Gilliard stared, "Tch" clicking his tongue as he pressed the dagger in even more.
"I guess I'll pry the answer out of your skull when I'm through with you"
Gilliard snickered. "Don't bother. You'll be dead soon anyways"
Immediately after, a wave of fire covered the palace and screams echoed.
Klein's expression turned grave. He kicked Gilliard away to take out a spear coloured jade green and white from his space ring.
On cue, Gaga appeared beside him.
Now Klein was shaken. "What do both of you think you're doing?!" he hollered.
"Haha" Gilliard grinned, pulling out a sword and shield. "Isn't it obvious?"
Gaga already had his sword out but he didn't speak.
Klein calmed. "Have it your way" he attacked, as did the other two.
The clash blew the top of the palace to bits, and after, they took to the skies.
Gaga and Gilliard with fire affinity and Klein with wind affinity.
Their attacks reverberated while their ever expanding presence was crushing many below them.
But now was not the time to care about such matters, Klein received barrages of elemental and physical attacks from two Grandmasters, he didn't doubt that he'd survive, but he had to stop the attacks from destroying the city.
"Why are you doing this?!" he shouted, parrying another one of Gaga's sword strikes.
They gave no answer, and that only infuriated him more.
More importantly, with the presence they exuded, it's unlikely that nearby Grandmasters hadn't caught on. So why had no one arrived yet? Whatever.
'I'll just take care of this myself'
They fought intensely for five minutes before Klein noticed something was off.
'My mana…it's depleting too fast!'
But he didn't have time to readjust because the father and son duo didn't give him time.
Another minute passed and Klein felt himself reaching his limits far faster than he was supposed to.
'What is this?' he was thoroughly alarmed.
It didn't take long for Gilliard to notice it too.
He paused. "Took long enough"
"What did you do?"
Gilliard shrugged. "Let's be quick about this"
________
"Bastards!" Oakbear intoned. "I'm going to pound your heads into mush!"
Irazet smirked, the other stared.
Like Klein, Oakbear was ambushed and now he had a hole in his arm.
But that wasn't nearly enough to put him down, and Irazet knew so too.
"We are to finish this quickly"
They went at it.
With his halberd, Oakbears attacks were vicious, keen on decimating the enemy, he wasn't known to be a man with a lot of words.
__________
In Iris, Mervida had to fend off attackers of her own, Grandmasters who arrived claiming the usual lie-the forming an alliance-before attacking.
Their first attack failed, but they were relentless on the attacks that came after.
__________
Meanwhile, a majority of beasts had turned savage, spotting red hues and sharper claws and teeth, attacking not only towns and villages, but even cities now.
Their strength lay anywhere from A to F rank but most peculiar, the beasts rarely fought among each other despite their rabid behaviour, attacking only humans.
This formed a migrating stampede of beasts numbering thousands heading in one direction without any collision.
From the sky, they look like moving ink that covered the land.
The Beast Tide had already started, but most nations were unprepared.
The Emperor was deploying troops as fast as possible, what was an Empire without its people?
Masters engaged the stampede which had yet to grow much.
The beasts within all of Niton's beast regions combined would make for an insurmountable force, luckily it seemed it had not gotten to that point.
Avilla was the first to go under siege because their beast regions were closest.
It wouldn't have been bad because Jebas was stationed there, but he had to leave for other matters.
Niton's grandmasters lest the Emperor were on the move to the locations where they could feel the wavelength of other Grandmasters.
Something was going on.
___________
Scarred with wounds, Mervida struck brazenly every time, but the attackers were gaining the upper hand.
Things seemed to be heading sideways when a voice rang out.
"Sorry I'm late. Did I miss anything?"
It was Jebas, he was striding towards them.
Quickly, Iris distanced herself from the assailants.
"Now why don't we-
She interrupted him. "They are enemies. I felt demon energy from them!"
Words were no longer needed, Jebas attacked immediately, anyone or thing colluding with demons must be killed.
A minute later, the two retreated, they'd determined the mission a failure.
Jebas sought to chase them when Iris brought his attention to something else.
"Leave them, we need to reach the others"
"Can you still move?" he says, seeing her scarred body.
"How sweet of you. But I can take care of myself"
"Okay" Jebas took off. Leaving her speechless.
__________
Jebas reached Solace at breakneck speed only to meet Raven there-just arriving.
Both ran to the palace where the battle was taking place, with Jebas arriving first.
Unfortunately, they came too late, Oakbear lay had far more wounds than Iris, he was bleeding from all sides.
Of course, his assailants hadn't had it easy either, Irazet's arm was crushed while the other was bloodied as well.
Not bothering to ask who was who, Jebas and Raven went after Irazet and his partner.
As grandmasters, they had felt each other's presence, so Irazet knew they were coming.
His partner wanted to stay and finish off Oakbear once and for all, but Irazet held him back.
"He'll die either way. Let's go"
They took to their feet, running away with Jebas and Raven on their heels.
Raven lit up his staff with yellow light, and threw it, catching Irazet's partner in his Blindspot and breaking his rhythm.
Irazet didn't even think to stop and sped up faster, eventually losing them.
While annoyed, they had to make due with the one they managed to catch.
Already tired, the partner couldn't muster enough energy to retreat while still fighting two grandmasters.
It took over an hour, but they caught him.
He tried to eat something that Raven suspected would kill him.
Immediately they bound him with braces and a collar made of Silver iron and a mixture of Veprium and Auranium, thus sealing his mana usage.
With his mana usage sealed, he couldn't recover as fast anymore and could only struggle with only physical strength, but that was no problem holding him.
Itrevezar had a Nitonian guest of its own.
Getrahan was the guest, arriving with bang as he landed in the city. Alas, he was already too late.
As he saw Gaga and Gilliard running away, he tried to chase them, but speed was never his forte.
In that, they got away.
He reached the palace, but to his surprise, there was no body.
The Itrevezan king was nowhere to be seen.
Those master rank guards nearby told him what happened.
"His Majesty (Klein) fought honourably, but I do not know what trick they used"
"Meaning?"
"At some point, he was severely weakened, and then…" the man's voice broke.
What happened next was clear; he was killed.
"But where is his body?"
The man broke even more, murmuring "T-the enemies, they t-t-took it"
Getrahan's mind whirred. 'They took his body?'
A Beast Tide formed overnight and now this.
'No, maybe they caused the Beast Tide as a distraction?'
It was horrifying to think of. But from what Getrahan knew, nothing was off the table for those creatures.
Someone was planning a massive upheaval, one involving the whole continent-this much they knew.
Who, and why were the next big questions.
They chose Kingsmere as their rendezvous spot, and that's where Getrahan was headed.