One month passed while Shang was training in isolation, and it was time for the old Assistant Supervisors to leave.
Just as Agon told Shang and Jerald, the Kings and Queens had a grand battle at the border between the Blackshadow Kingdom and Grandmountain Kingdom.
Many powerful Mages were present, but they could only watch as people far beyond their power fought with each other.
During that battle, the watching Mages came to a terrifying realization.
Their power actually didn't matter!
The power of the Kings was so great that not even ten Peak High Mages could make a difference in the fight!
This realization came when the most powerful Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom got involved.
Five Peak High Mages and ten Late High Mages had banded together to assault King Skythunder, but they had all been decimated by a single explosion of lightning.
Why had they been fighting the war?!
What was the point of the war when they were all helpless in front of these powerful leaders?!
Of course, the 15 Mages that had assaulted King Skythunder were actually just the ones that Koran would take with him to the outside world. They weren't actually dead.
First, Queen Blackshadow "killed" King Grandmountain.
Then, she was "killed" by King Magic Purity.
Queen Spirit Spring got involved and fought with King Magic Purity while King Skythunder attacked him from range.
After a grand battle, King Magic Purity decided to expend a lot of Mana to kill her.
That was when King Skythunder saw his chance and killed King Magic Purity.
King Skythunder had won.
But then, several spears of earth shot at him.
It was Zara Cliffer!
The spears completely obliterated his body, leaving nothing but bloody dust behind.
The watching Mages couldn't believe what they had just witnessed.
All the five leaders of the world had died!
What did that mean for the world?!
At that moment, Zara Cliffer shot forward and pocketed the valuable materials the leaders had dropped, but Yora Darksky did the same thing.
In the end, they both got about half.
This was a way to help the shrinking Grandmountain Kingdom and Blackshadow Kingdom to survive.
With these valuable materials, they could create more High Mages and Summoners.
Then, everyone immediately retreated to their own Kingdoms, and the news spread across Area 23.
All the Kings and Queens were dead!
For the next two weeks, no Kingdom would battle each other.
Too much had happened, and all the Kingdoms were embroiled in internal conflicts.
The only Kingdom spared by internal conflict was the Skythunder Kingdom.
The reason for that was that there were no contestants.
Jerald was the most powerful Mage, without a doubt, and no one could possibly fight over leadership with him.
As soon as King Skythunder died, Jerald immediately assumed command of the Kingdom.
But the other four Kingdoms had it far worse.
In the east, Fia Stormbright had to contest with two other Peak High Mages.
One of them wouldn't be an issue since it was just Rela Spirit Spring's plus one, and they were supposed to die to Fia Stormbright in a battle later, but the other Peak Mage was a problem.
Fia Stormbright might have gotten the position, but she also needed to show that she was the most powerful by assuming control of her Kingdom.
Luckily, her sister, Lira Stormbright, was helping her.
In the northwest, Zara Cliffer also had to contend with two Peak High Mages. One was Mrs. Flowing Blossom, Wilbur's plus one, and the other was the leader of the barbarian research department.
She would also have it difficult.
In the northeast, Yora Darksky had to contend with one Peak High Mage since Queen Blackshadow didn't have a plus one, but it also wouldn't be easy.
As for the Magic Purity Kingdom, things were complicated.
On one hand, the Magic Purity Kingdom had lost nearly all its very powerful Mages, leaving Charles Pendragon as the only Peak High Mage, but there was an issue.
Charles was the most powerful Mage, but there was literally no one supporting him.
His past conduct had made him appear incompetent to all the Mages in the Magic Purity Kingdom.
Yes, Charles was very powerful, but not even a single person believed that he could lead the Kingdom.
In their minds, Charles was more of a follower than a leader.
Additionally, it was public knowledge that Charles couldn't even use Mana Shield, which was seen by many as a curse.
Mana Shield and Mana Step were the two things every Mage had. They were in the very center of the entire Mage Path, and everything revolved around these two Spells.
Knowing these two Spells essentially meant being a Mage.
And Charles Pendragon was missing one of them.
So, was he actually a Mage?
Right now, four of the five Kingdoms had to deal with internal conflicts. All the powerful Mages wanted as much of the land as possible.
With no more Archmages present, they finally had a shot at becoming King!
A month passed.
And then, things changed rapidly!
During a debate between the two leading parties in the Spirit Spring Kingdom, something happened.
Fia Stormbright was arguing with the other Peak High Mage about how the Kingdom would be run while Lira Stormbright and the other High Mage's supporters looked on from the sidelines.
But during the debate, someone invaded the castle and attacked Fia's opponent.
Fia's opponent shouted at his supporters and Fia to help him. After all, this was an internal matter!
However, instead of helping him, Fia helped the invader.
But instead of attacking her opponent, Fia went over to her opponent's supporters and stopped them from attacking.
"Do you really think he can survive? The battle is already over!" she told them.
The High Mages were furious, but they didn't dare to do anything.
After all, they didn't want to die.
They knew the invader very well, and they knew that Fia's opponent would die very soon.
It was the new King of the new Kingdom in the south of the world.
It was King Storm of the Storm Kingdom!
The Skythunder Kingdom was no more, and a new Kingdom took its place.
Advisor Whirlwind had assumed control of the Kingdom, crowning himself as its new King, King Storm!
And King Storm was powerful!
In just five seconds, King Storm killed his opponent and landed behind Fia.
After that, Fia made her announcement.
She wouldn't become Queen Stormbright.
No, she would become Archduke Stormbright of the Storm Kingdom!
The Mages felt betrayed and protested, but Fia told them very clearly why she was doing this.
Yes, most of the truly powerful Mages of the Magic Purity Kingdom were dead, but their High Mages still outnumbered the Spirit Spring Kingdom's High Mages five to one!
With the recent revolution in the previous Skythunder Kingdom, the Storm Kingdom had also been weakened by a lot.
She announced publicly that the only reason why the Magic Purity Kingdom hadn't already destroyed the Spirit Spring Kingdom was that the previous Skythunder Kingdom had helped them so much.
Without the constant help of warriors and High Mages, the Spirit Spring Kingdom would have been destroyed over 50 years ago.
She told everyone that her priority was not the culture or the land. Her priority was not to keep the spirit of the Spirit Spring Kingdom alive.
No, her priority was the Kingdom's people and beasts.
The lives!
And she refused to sacrifice every living being in her Kingdom just to keep the culture and spirit of the Spirit Spring Kingdom alive.
Survival was the most important and the best way to survive for all the individual people and beasts was to join the Storm Kingdom.
And then, she announced that they would sacrifice 70% of their land and only keep the 30% bordering the Storm Kingdom.
Nobody was happy with that solution, but there was nothing they could do.
Fia, Lira, and Jerald would only defend the Kingdom for a week.
After that, they would only send forces to defend the new borders of the Storm Kingdom.
It was up to the individual to decide if they wanted to join the Storm Kingdom or not.
But that wasn't really a choice.
What could the previous Spirit Spring Kingdom do with only three Late High Mages?
Even though ten of the Magic Purity Kingdom's Late High Mages had died, they still had 15 of them left.
Now, the Spirit Spring Kingdom was in the same dilemma the western Skythunder Kingdom had been in.
But there was nothing they could do.
It was either move to the Storm Kingdom or die to the Magic Purity Kingdom.
At the same time, Zara Cliffer and Yora Darksky teamed up to get rid of their respective opponents.
Then, they also announced their fusion, but compared to the fusion of the previous Spirit Spring Kingdom and the Storm Kingdom, this fusion was much, much, much more difficult to pull off.
The internal warfare between people would continue for literal decades.
Meanwhile, the fusion between the Storm Kingdom and the remnants of the Spirit Spring Kingdom went relatively smoothly.
All the Late High Mages of the previous Spirit Spring Kingdom got a leadership position, surprisingly outnumbering the leaders of the Storm Kingdom.
After all, the Storm Kingdom only had a single Late High Mage, which was Sylvia Eternalfrost.
A lot of the new policies came from the people from the previous Spirit Spring Kingdom, making it much easier for Spiriters to live in the Kingdom.
And King Storm very rarely opposed their policies.
Because Jerald gave them so much freedom, the integration went rather smoothly.
The Skythunder Kingdom had a lot of Mages and a couple of warriors.
But the Storm Kingdom had a lot of warriors, a lot of Mages, and a lot of Spiriters.
The world was changing.
And Shang only continued swinging his sword in the Caves, not feeling any of the changes.
