**[In the Savannah region beyond the Kitsun Lord's territory]**
A middle-aged woman with red skin and blazing flames for hair rested her back against a large crystalized chair. She stared at a crumpled note, a grim look etched on her face.
"So you're saying that this note arrived through a fist-sized wasp? From the direction of the Kitsun Lord's territory at that?" She asked in a hoarse voice that didn't fit her small feminine body.
She had a voluptuous humanoid body, two long black horns jutting from her forehead, and a large tail with a morningstar at the tip growing out of her tailbone. However, the most intriguing feature about the middle-aged woman were the bloody-red leathery wings that adorned her back.
"The golden wasp had arrived from the Kitsun Lord's territory's direction, yes. But it traveled east to the neighboring Lord with two more notes attached to its stinger. Our strategists are guessing that the golden wasp will send the two notes to the other Lords living adjacent to the Kitsun Lord. However, we're not sure if the note can be trusted," A bulky man with one black horn and a morningstar tail said.
He was the Awakened whom the Golden Stinger Wasp had shot with an energy stinger. The note had been attached to the energy stinger, which was why the bulky Awakened traveled to their headquarters as quickly as possible to report to the Valyr Lordess.
"It has been a while since the Kitsun Lord tried to scheme with us Valyr. He doesn't possess enough strength to attack the combined force of us three neighboring Lords either. Just what is that bastard scheming?" The Valyr Lordess grumbled in anger, her blazing hair flaring up.
Her hands clenched the armrest tightly, nearly breaking it off. She only stopped as the sound of crackling crystals reached her ears.
"How high are the chances that a Lord was daring enough to leave his territory and invade the Kitsun Lord's territory?" The Valyr Lordess asked after a second of silence, "No. The more important fact is to find out how likely is it that an unknown group of invaders is strong enough to destroy three border settlements before the Kitsun Lord reacts? I heard rumors about the Kitsun Lord leaving the Origin Expanse to prepare for his ascension to a Higher Lifeform, but his subordinates are numerous enough to block most attacks…under normal circumstances."
It was already unlikely that some unknown Lord appeared in the Savannah region without the Valyr Lordess and the other Lords hearing about it. That either meant the information on the note were wrong, or the Lord came from another region. The Valyr Lordess was vaguely aware of the Zentika Empire and knew that they were more interested in the Untamed Jungle, and the Ice Mountains. They had to conquer a portion of the Untamed Jungle before freely entering the Savannah region.
That meant the unknown Lord was either from the Untamed Jungle or another region. Or he was lying?
Just as the bulky man was about to reveal some of the information the Valyr Scouts had collected over the last few hours, a young woman wearing a tight ruby armor set barged into the chamber. She was breathing heavily and gasped for air for several seconds. However, even the gasps for air couldn't hide her bright smile, and the excitement on her face.
"The Kix border settlement of the Kitsun Lord has been set on fire! I saw a pair of big Greater Eagles, a silver-furred Demi-human…and a group of Forest Elves leaving the Kix settlement with another humanoid and a Fire Elemental… If I'm not mistaken the Fire Elemental was the Elemental Empress!!" The young woman exclaimed in between several breaths.
Her vibrant smile met the stoic face of the Valyr Lordess.
"You 'saw' them? How did you even get close enough to them, Zira? You are not even supposed to be near the border region, let alone close enough to see anyone leaving the Kix settlement. Did you invade the Kitsun Lord's territory? How far did you go?!" The Lordess shouted, jumping up from her chair.
She stared intently at the young woman, whose smile turned even brighter than before. "Mother, I was just having fu-..."
"No, don't tell me. I don't want to know what trouble you're making…Little troublemaker…" The Valyr Lordess sighed deeply and sat down back on the chair. Even if it was already quite difficult to control a territory and manage it properly, raising a tomboyish and foolish daughter was even harder.
She thought it was a good idea to bring her to her territory once she manifested her War Rune instead of allowing her to become a foolish Lordess herself, but that plan didn't succeed. Instead of being raised as the future Lordess of her mother's territory, the young and foolish daughter turned into a carefree spirit.
She was not restricted by responsibilities and could thus go wherever she wanted to – basically.
"Mother, don't worry about me. I'm strong enough to eliminate most issues. Am I not already one of the strongest Valyries?" Zira asked pridefully.
"Either way, mom…This is amazing. I sensed so much chaos, death, and fire energy in the Kix settlement. We should strike now and expand our territory! Let's kill these disgusting Kitsun!"
The Valyr Lordess could only rub her temples in an attempt to not shout at her daughter. She couldn't listen to her daughter anymore. Even if her words were true, what if everything was a trap? The Kitsun Lord was known for his disgustingly crafty tricks.
There was only one point that attracted her attention.
"Are you sure that the Fire Elemental was the Elemental Empress and not just some High Elemental?" The Lordess asked again, her eyes moving from Zira to the bulky man.
Both the bulky Awakened and the Valyr Lordess knew how important the Elemental Empress was to the society of Elementals. Their research about the Kitsun Lord, Haro Ki, also resulted in definite results. Haro Ki and the Ki family of the Kitsun race were obsessed with their Elementals – especially the Elemental Empress and Emperors.
The Kitsun Lord would never allow his Elemental Empress to leave her hiding spot. Not for some petty tricks and neither for any other reason.
"Eh…I have never seen an Elemental Empress but you told me that the Elemental Empress has one main element and that she has minor control of most other elements," Zira said, not feeling so sure anymore, "She had a blazing body but some strands of her hair were of different color. I know that some Elementals with two elements exist, but the Elemental I saw must have control of at least 10 elements. That can only be the Empress, right?"
The bulky Awakened and the Valyr Lordess nodded their heads subconsciously. They had never heard of a High Elemental with more than three elements. It was even rare for the Elemental Empress to have control of more than 10 elements. One way or another, the Elemental Zira saw was a rare specimen, something the Kitsun Lord would never risk losing for some petty tricks.
"So it's true?" The Valyr Lordess mumbled, her gaze lingering on the crumpled note.
It had been more than two years since the Kitsun Lord and the three Lords bordering the neighboring territories in the Savannah region had entered a cold war. They stopped attacking each other, but focused on strengthening their military power. Instead of bashing each other mindlessly, it felt like all sides were trying to improve faster than the other to initiate an all-out attack.
Unfortunately, the population in the Kitsun Lord's territory expanded the fastest, creating an imbalance of power between the three bordering Lords and the Kitsun Lord. The only advantage of the Valyr and the two other Lords was that their Summons and Awakened were a lot stronger than the Kitsun.
Zira was the best example. She was strong enough to fight a dozen Tier-3 Awakened of the Kitsun race simultaneously. Her Soultrait might only be 1-Star, but she was considered a prodigy in terms of combat awareness and martial arts comprehension. Her innate potential was also strong, resulting in her War Rune advancing to Tier-3 before she turned 21 years old.
All while the Valyr Lordess doubted the course of actions and the truth of the crumpled note, similar scenarios happened in the headquarters of two more territories. The Lords held a meeting with everyone's gaze lingering on the crumpled notes on the table in front of them.
Everyone assumed that the note was most likely a trap created by the Kitsun Lord. But a trace of suspicion emerged in the hearts of the three Lords as the news of the Kix settlement reached them. The Lords sent out several scouts to reaffirm the news.
Receiving reaffirmation took a while. The scouts made sure not to clash with the scouts of the other Lords who sought affirmation about the Kix settlement as well. They collected as many pieces of information as possible and connected the dots to prepare a detailed report.
Once they were done, the scouts were just about to return to their own territory when they noticed something on their way back. Their curiosity triggered and their gut feelings telling them to make a detour, the scouts moved somewhere else before returning.
What they found shocked them greatly. They collected additional information while being dazed and returned home right after.
Still flabbergasted by the additional information they had collected, the scouts forwarded their detailed reports, which contained the additional information as well.
"The Xia settlement has been set ablaze," The report stated, stirring the hearts of the Lords and Awakened who'd been seeking to take revenge on the Kitsun Lord for years.
"The second border settlement has fallen."
"Our time to strike has come!"
