When Leon stepped into the room, several pairs of eyes turned to him in surprise. Those who were surprised were not present the night before when Leon had been here, so they were naturally not expecting his strength to have undergone such a drastic change.
He looked around and met each of their eyes before turning away. Naturally, he did not owe them anything so he had little reason to act overly friendly with them. They were all here to defend their territories from the Demon Continent, as it should be. He was there for the same reason, and except for basic courtesy, he did not owe them anything.
Leon walked over to the central table with a map over it. He was the only one from the people he had come here with, as the trio from the Era of Gods had chosen to stay back. They did not want to join in on the planning.
"Welcome back, Leon." Richard said with a grin when Leon stopped on his left. "You remember this guy, the disgusting Vampire, right?" He pointed to the blond man on his left.
Leon turned to look at him and realized that he indeed recognized the man. It was the other person that had been chosen as one of the two A rank Chosen Ones in Divinity's Bout.
"Hello. Nice to meet you again." Moses reached out his pale hand to shake Leon's which Leon reciprocated.
Moses was a friendly acquaintance and had little history with Leon. The reason why Leon paid him more attention was because not only had they met once before, but Moses was also a friend of Richard, who Leon saw to be his own friend.
"Likewise." Leon nodded at him. Then he turned to look at the others at the table.
Leonidas was present, as was Yaika and Dion. One conspicuous face that Leon would not be forgetting anytime soon was that of Amelia Steelheart!
The powerful blonde woman glared not so subtly at Leon. Her gaze was fiery and resentful. She had mastered the element of Light and had a high level of proficiency with many types of magic that were regarded as 'good' and 'holy'. It was not a misconception to call her the mortal embodiment of Light!
However, her attempt at cleansing a lone Necromancer, and one that was an Undead, at that, had been squashed by several bugs that the Empire of Light could easily squash!
"Ahem!" A blond man with green eyes beside Amelia cleared his throat and elbowed the woman. He looked at Leon and smiled apologetically before turning back to the woman who was glaring at him now.
Leon simply turned away from them and tried to focus on what Leonidas was saying. He did not care about Amelia Steelheart anymore. Her strength was below his, meaning she posed little to no threat to him at this time. In fact, Leon felt that even before his race advancement, he stood a pretty good chance at beating her if he went all out. After all, her beloved Light and Holy magic did not pose a threat to him, as he was immune to the effects it would have on other Unholy beings.
"The Demons are trying to break down out flanks so that they can trap us in the center. I suggest..." Leonidas was droning on as he gestured at various portions of the map below.
"Excuse me." Leon suddenly cut Leonidas off.
"Yes, Leon?" The emperor paused and turned to Leon. As Leon was a powerful combatant and a very important person, Leonidas treated him very seriously.
"You see, I was thinking that we have drawn this war on for too long. It is really damaging to my territory. I want us to end it as soon as we can. For that, I am willing to put forth all my assets." Leon said respectfully.
"Your territory?" Amelia suddenly butted in with an incredulous look on her face. She turned to look at Leon, the air around her boiling with light.
"Yes, mine. Do you have a problem with that?" Leon asked. He had already expected this upon seeing her present for this meeting.
"YES!" Amelia blew her top. "Since when did the Desolate Lands belong to a vile creature like yourself?! This land belongs to the denizens of the Central Continent. It is only right that we split it up between ourselves!"
"Haha! You reek of hypocrisy! When the Demons first invaded, who stood against them? Do you know how far I went to halt their silent infiltration of the Central Continent? In fact, after the Great Shift, why did you people not move in to restore this land and set up proper defenses against spies from the Demon Continent? Instead, you sat down in your ivory towers while I fished out all the spies and destroyed their secret ports that could have given them an edge in this war. I have laid claim to this land and if you want, you can try and remove me." Leon easily popped the bubble of righteousness that she had blown up for herself.
What he said was right. When the Great Shift had come to an end, the Desolate Lands was left in a ruinous state. In fact, the smaller nations that had occupied this large territory had long since crumbled to nothing, while others merged with larger nations.
Even then, the hegemons of the Central Continent did not do anything particular about the ruinous state of the land in the south. Instead, they had just left it as it was. If they had tried to restore it, then they would need to mobilize a large amount of resources and manpower, which would weaken them and leave them open for their enemies to exploit. That way, everyone had strategically left this area to get restored on its own.
The representatives of the various kingdoms turned their faces away as they felt shame from Leon's blatant attack at their integrity.
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)