After hearing Minos explain how he met Maximillian and got the support of this level 99 Demigod, Bridget was shocked to the core.
But she didn't doubt Minos, as she couldn't find another explanation for this man getting the support of someone so strong and why such a person seemed to get along so well with the Church.
Her state had information about what was happening in the Evergreen Empire, so by connecting Minos' information with things she already knew, this princess understood his words as true.
"I don't know what to say... This seems so unreal." She muttered as she looked into Minos' brown eyes.
Minos smiled and said. "You can't imagine my shock when I released him... Anyway, this is the reality, and now Maximillian is among us again.
I cannot speak of his plans, for I do not know myself. All I can say is what I have heard through his story, but you must already know more than I do."
She nodded at him, figuring that if Maximillian followed his old plans, the continent would face hard times soon.
'No wonder the forces in the western region are moving! They knew what was happening before everyone else and are moving to protect themselves from Maximillian Flamen's expansionist interests!'
She looked at the ground as she thought, trying to understand the position of the Flowers Kingdom under these circumstances.
'We are not enemies of the Evergreen Empire, nor of the Church. We have good relations with those powers. But we are not part of their territory.' She wondered, fearing that Maximillian was going to target her family somehow. 'This is bad. I must warn my mother as soon as possible!'
"Very well, I'll leave Lady Ulva with you now. I hope you confirm those Soul Contracts as soon as possible." Bridget said as she nodded to the spiritual judge she had brought with her.
Right after saying those words, she left the imperial throne hall, going to send Minos' answers to Hannah Mcbride.
Minos and his people were not bothered by Bridget's agitated manner. Soon the emperor ordered his men to call back to the capital all the Spiritual Sages from the group of descendants of the Goddess of Life's family.
Minos had already signed the agreements with the Spiritual Saints of that group using high-level grade-3 spiritual judges, so the Spiritual Sages were the ones left for this.
...
While Bridget was sending her information to the Flowers Kingdom and Minos was moving forward with strengthening his forces, Gloria was at the Dry City Temple.
At this regional headquarters of the Spiritual Church, she was with her subordinates and faction allies receiving a group that had just arrived in Dry City from the Evergreen Empire.
After her subordinates used their connection with the women of the Flowers Kingdom, they managed to start conversations with medium and small factions of the Church.
Because of this, for the past few days, groups from the Evergreen Empire, Blackrock, and the Flaming Empire had been arriving in Dry City to negotiate with her.
Not all Church factions were in the Evergreen Empire. Some of them existed in smaller places like Blackrock.
Even though Blackrock and the Flaming Empire were areas already influenced by Minos, not all of the Church groups in those states were allied with Gloria and her husband's faction.
Because of this reality, there was still room for them to expand in these places!
Gloria had recently met people from two factions in these states and reached merger agreements with them.
According to these agreements, she would receive the members of these factions into her group and give relevant positions to the leaders of these factions, as well as guarantee resources and possibilities of ascension to them.
These were smaller factions than hers, so she had easily gotten these agreements.
But today, she was facing a group from the Evergreen Empire. This group was a bit stronger than her own, with low-level Spiritual Sages in charge of that faction.
As such, today's negotiation would not be as easy as the ones she had been through recently.
"Natives of the Evergreen Empire, welcome to my city. I hope the journey here has been comfortable." Gloria said to the people sitting on the other side of a long oval table, smiling.
The people in the group opposite Gloria smiled back at her while their leader, a blond, young-looking, level 83 man, said. "The trip was very pleasant, Matriarch Gloria Frost. The Black Plain Empire is well-organized and has beautiful scenery."
"Hmm, it gets easy to travel here with the current configuration of the continent, haha." A woman from that group said. "His Majesty has over half the continent under his influence, so there is virtually no opposition to those with interests favorable to him in those areas."
If all the domains of Minos and his allied states were counted, he had over 7 billion people on his side and just over 55% of the land in the Central Continent.
The Evergreen Empire bordered the Flaming Empire, so for these Church members who had left their state's capital, they had pretty much only traveled through the domains of Minos.
Thus, their journey to this city had been smooth and quick!
Gloria smiled at them and got right to the point of the conversation. "Hmm, I am pleased to hear that. Anyway, I would like to know more about your faction's interests. What do you aim to achieve? And more importantly, where would my faction come into your plans?"
Those people grew more serious at those words, and soon one of them answered Gloria's questions.
"Our interest is to become a high-level faction within the Church. Today we have average influence and have 30 Church posts on our side, as well as over a thousand members.
However, one day we want to reach hundreds of posts and numbers of members up to 10 times greater than today's."
"Through this, one day we will reach enough to be influential even in important decisions like choosing a new Supreme Pontiff." One of the two women in that group said.
They had no intention of one of them becoming the leader of the Church or of their faction choosing that leader. They were too far off the level to think about that and didn't have the support that Gloria had to think she could achieve such a thing.
Their goal was simpler, although some of them thought that if one day everything worked out, their descendants would have the chance to have that dream.
...
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