For what seemed like at least a full minute, the only sound that accompanied the swaying of the trees in the distance was the sound of the gasps and grunts of pain from King Curtis, king of one of the three parent kingdoms of Eventide World.
Eloise looked at Curtis' arm that had clearly been ripped off using brute force and without any care before turning her attention back to Bai Zemin.
"You..."
Although the Queen of the Pralan Kingdom wanted to say something, she swallowed her words as she realized that when Curtis attacked earlier no one had the intention of actually stopping him. Stopping a powerful mage like Curtis was something that if possible no one wanted to try, because an active magic skill from him was comparable to 4-5 attacks from Eloise herself; that's how powerful his magic was.
"Now that you guys have seen that I really am powerful and the rumors aren't false, how about we get straight to the point." Bai Zemin extended his right hand outward and the purple dagger that once belonged to the legendary Shadow Killer appeared as he pointed at the four kings and the queen. "If you're playing me for a fool, then you'd better stop now. Earlier was just a warning, but I won't give a second one."
Bai Zemin really wanted to avoid war if possible, at the end of the day, he was not a bloodthirsty lunatic and even less so considering that the other party had no real feud with him. Since the only reason he and they were enemies was because to achieve his goals Bai Zemin needed to get partial control of the other kingdoms, as long as the kings and queens agreed to fight by his side there was no need for meaningless bloodshed.
Eloise looked at the four kings, focusing mainly on King Curtis who was clearly both frightened and angry as he clutched his shoulder grimacing in pain.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64ce79d606107d003c23ea27", id: "pf-5140-1"})"Curtis, do you have something to say?" she asked in a dignified voice.
The King of Theles stared at her for a few seconds before turning to look not at Bai Zemin but at Seraphina.
"Second Princess of Gales, has your kingdom thought of the consequences of losing the protection of the boy at your side?"
Not only did the other three kings look at Seraphina waiting to see what kind of answer she would give but even Queen Eloise looked at her with interest. The question King Curtis had just asked was very valid and pointed to much further ahead in time.
Bai Zemin was here today, he might be here for the next 500 years or even 1000 years... However, what will happen once he falls? The wrath of the royal families of the kingdoms that were defeated or forced into submission will definitely be remembered for generations to come, and at some point in the future, one of the coming generations of the Gales Kingdom will surely have to face death in blood to escape what could be annihilation.
Seraphina's expression was slightly pale as she knew that Bai Zemin would return to his world sooner rather than later, however, she replied with conviction: "If Gales succeeds in becoming the kingdom that led all of humanity to defeat the leaders of the other races, including the Demon Lord, and gain true peace among us... then it will be up to each one's conscience to decide whether we are sinners or not."
The five looked at each other without saying anything after hearing the words of the Second Princess of Gales. As to what it was that they were thinking, probably only they knew their own thoughts and not that of others.
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "64cc9e79c7059f003e4ad4b0", id: "pf-5109-1"})"So, Bai Zemin," The Queen of the Pralan Kingdom looked at him with a serious expression and slowly asked, "Would you mind explaining what your goal is to do all this?"
Everyone turned to stare at him waiting for his answer.
Bai Zemin lowered his head and did not answer right away. He could not be completely honest as he had been with King Philip or Seraphina, after all, if these people knew that he would be leaving this world to return to his own soon then surely the royal family of Gales and perhaps the entire kingdom would face the wrath of 48 kingdoms including the parent kingdoms. Therefore, he needed to carefully consider his next words.
After a few seconds, he finally managed to organize his thoughts and said in a clear and honest voice: "My goal is very big, even if I share it with you, you will not understand it and all you will do is see me as a madman. All I can say for now is that what I seek is the good of humanity in general.... If my highest goal is ever achieved, then the level of deaths will be reduced to the lowest possible, everyone will be able to live prosperous lives without starving, a place where only those who truly deserve it will live rich lives while the rest will have to live their day to day lives for not daring to risk it for the general good."
Eloise looked at Bai Zemin, waiting to see if he would continue to say anything else, however, he simply remained silent as he stared at her. She sighed in disappointment and shook her head as she slowly said, "Don't blame me for what I'm about to say but.... everything you said sounds like the words of a edgy teenager who can't see the big picture of the world."
Bai Zemin was not offended at all, on the contrary, he nodded, "Please continue."
Seeing that at least he was someone reasonable, the Queen of Pralan nodded back and continued, "You speak of overall peace and status justice, it all sounds beautiful and perfect like a paradise, I do admit. However, after ruling for over 5 centuries, there is something I have come to realize that you will probably understand in time. Do you know what it is?"
window.pubfuturetag = window.pubfuturetag || [];window.pubfuturetag.push({unit: "663633fa8ebf7442f0652b33", id: "pf-8817-1"})He remained silent and waited patiently. She soon continued.
"Whenever the gift or misfortune known as intelligence exists, no matter if it is human or mutant beast, war will always occur either sooner or later. No matter the motive or reason, all living beings capable of reasoning for themselves feel good knowing that beneath their feet there is at least one life." Queen Eloise said with a complicated expression on her face. She pointed out: "Thanks to the so-called peace built by our ancestors we are able to avoid large-scale wars between humans, and in return, we use the lives of other living beings to level up and strengthen ourselves. Even if you really were able to build the peace you speak of, how are living beings supposed to level up without shedding blood?"
The words Queen Eloise said had a lot of logic in them, even Seraphina couldn't help but agree with the Queen of Pralan despite the fact that she was on Bai Zemin's side.
Indeed, Bai Zemin found himself in a dilemma as to how to reply. If he did not have to hold back everything could be resolved by revealing that he came from a world that had just experienced the apocalypse twice, a world that evolved from nothing to a stage 2 world in less than half a year. However, he couldn't say that.
In the end, all Bai Zemin could do was sigh and while looking at the sky he said in a low voice, "Your Majesty Eloise, total peace is naturally impossible; what I aspire to be is not a savior... I only want to build a safe place for my loved ones."
He lowered his head and looked at her with a complicated smile as he slowly said, "You all had the fortune to be born behind safe walls, but I wonder if you could really continue having fun in those stupid kingdom competitions you organize every 15 years if you knew that the next second you might be attacked by a flying beast... What happened with the demon race outside Bearcrest City, that was just a small event, a small war compared to what I want to avoid."
Eloise and the other kings frowned as they heard Bai Zemin's words. The five of them seemed to realize that the young man in front of them knew something that they did not after hearing those words. Unfortunately, none of them managed to recall that distant memory of events that occurred more than 4500 years ago and that they only learned about from the history books that recorded them.
King Curtis looked at Bai Zemin, his pale face was covered in sweat and one could see that even after drinking a potion earlier the pain was great enough to make him grunt occasionally.
He said slowly: "What happened in Bearcrest City was one of the bloodiest wars in history if we leave aside the two evolutions our world has gone through. Do you think such events happen often? In a war everyone is the loser, some more than others, but losers in the end. Do you think the demons will be able to make an attack of such magnitude soon? They will need at least 1000 years to recover from the loss of so many soul evolvers! They even lost a demon general and four others of the Third Order... You worry for nothing, peace seeker."
Everyone remained silent, Seraphina looked at Bai Zemin with worried eyes. She knew the truth so she understood the reasons why he said what he said or did what he did, however, it was difficult to conquer people's hearts while hiding things.
Bai Zemin subconsciously clenched his fist and a flash of frustration shone in his eyes. To prevent Seraphina's family from suffering in the future as much as Gales in general, he could not say everything and thus had no way to refute what the people in front of him was saying.
It seemed to be that war was inevitable. Bai Zemin knew that even if he had shown great power it was impossible for the five people before him to agree to follow him just because he was stronger than them at least individually; after all, they had their prides as kings and queen, as well as top powers of the world.
"At least, I gave it a try." He sighed and shook his head, ready to attack.
Since it was not possible to achieve peace with words, then it was better to eliminate possible future problems now. Besides, by eliminating four kings and a queen the capture of five kingdoms would be much easier in the future.
Seeing Bai Zemin get into position ready for combat, Seraphina jumped back and started channeling her Mana while looking at the five soul evolvers with a serious expression on her pretty face.
"Looks like you've run out of more lies to tell." The Queen of Pralan shook her head and sighed in disappointment, "Too bad, in the end, this is how things will end after all."
Several skills were silently activated to push everyone's abilities beyond normal for a relatively short period of time, mana began to flutter fiercely and the winds coming from the distance became stagnant.
Just as the two sides were about to clash, Lilith's voice rang in Bai Zemin's ears.
"I don't know whether to call you a walking disaster or a lucky one.... But it seems that at least for now you've won this match without a fight."
Before Bai Zemin could say anything, the earth began to rumble fiercely and the mana inside everyone's body slowly became thicker which made it difficult for even talents like them to control it.
Bai Zemin's eyes trembled as he remembered this phenomenon... he had experienced it twice before.
"Don't tell me..."
Lilith confirmed, "Em. Looks like this world finally managed to accumulate enough mana to break into the third stage after almost 5000 years of being in the second phase."
* * * * * * *
