Shang sat on top of a mountain.
Soon, the war would officially start.
At this moment, Shang was already inside the Zone he had been assigned to.
Shang had seen a couple of other Ancestral Mages in his Zone but not even a single other warrior.
On top of that, the number of Ancestral Mages in this Zone was not nearly as high as in other Zones.
How come?
Was this Zone unimportant?
No, the opposite, actually.
This was probably the most important Zone of the entire Lightning Manor.
This was the southeastern corner of the Lightning Manor, the only Zone that bordered three other Empires instead of one.
The Zone wasn't very big, only 100,000 kilometers wide and long, but it was extremely important.
Empires were only allowed to attack a territory that shared a border with their own territories.
At this moment, only a small part of the Zone bordered the Judgment Palace's territory, but if that small part got conquered by the Judgment Palace, they would gain access to more territories.
It was like infecting a corner square of a chessboard with a disease that could only affect bordering squares.
The disease could infect one square, then two at once, three at once, four at once, and so on.
Because of that, the Lightning Manor couldn't allow the Judgment Palace to even gain a single piece of territory.
That was why Shang and the strongest Ancestral Mages of every level were in this place.
This place alone had 20 Ancestral Mage Clouds, which was insane.
But due to that, there were also not many normal Ancestral Mages.
One had to remember that the number of normal Ancestral Mages is many times greater than the number of Cloud Ancestral Mages.
And since the war favored quality over quantity the higher the Realm was, there also was no need for many other Ancestral Mages in this place.
Shang had noticed that the levels of the Cloud Ancestral Mages around him were split evenly.
There were five Peak Ancestral Mages, five Late Ancestral Mages, five Mid Ancestral Mages, and five Early Ancestral Mages.
All of this had been brought here to defend from the Judgment Palace.
Naturally, based on the composition of the defensive forces, it was apparent that this would not be a normal war where two armies just clashed with each other.
Something like that was too chaotic and would allow for too much interference of irrelevant powers.
Additionally, the current and future powers of the Empire were supposed to be tested in this war.
The way this war would be fought was much more orderly.
Shang and the Ancestral Mages kept waiting in their Zones.
The Ancestral Mages were not quite confident in Shang's power or the Lightning Manor's plan, but they still followed orders.
"Two more hours," a Bolt supervising this territory told everyone.
Then, he looked at Shang. "I think you should plant your flag now, just to be sure."
Shang slowly stood up and flew towards the southeast.
He stopped above a thick and thriving forest filled with weaker beasts.
The area around Shang actually didn't have any valuable beasts or resources, making it economically unimportant, but that didn't matter.
What was important was the political value of an area.
And the political value of this area was extremely important.
In fact, it was the most important.
The length of the border the two Empires were sharing was only about 5,000 kilometers.
These 5,000 kilometers blocked an entire Empire from invading the Lightning Manor.
Shang stopped around 10,000 kilometers away from the border of the Judgment Palace.
He summoned a huge purple flag and rammed it into the ground.
The huge flag had a big six on it and a two stars above the six.
The six represented the Realm, and the stars represented the level inside that Realm.
This flag was something very important, and there were not many of them available in each Empire.
This was a Defender Flag, and there was only one flag per level, which came to five per Realm.
As soon as Shang put the flag into the ground, a barrier with a diameter of 5,000 kilometers appeared around him.
The barrier was transparent and didn't block anything yet.
But as soon as someone in the Early Sixth Realm entered, it would close.
This single barrier covered the entire border to the Judgment Palace.
If anyone from the Judgment Palace wanted to enter the Lightning Manor, they would need to pass through it.
And then, Shang just waited.
Right now, everything was calm, but in two hours, things would turn chaotic.
The other Ancestral Mages in the Zone were waiting in the center of the Zone.
Due to how the war was fought, they didn't need to wait near the borders.
Everyone waited for the start.
At this moment, all the Empires held their breath.
What would happen?
Would every Empire suddenly attack every other Empire?
Would no one attack immediately and just watch how things progressed?
Would there be a couple of skirmishes?
The next two hours for the longest two hours of everyone's life.
And when they were up…
Nothing happened.
The Empires just silently waited for anything to happen.
Well, that was for the southeastern half of Aterium.
While five of the Empires felt nothing, the four Empires in the center and northwest of Aterium certainly felt the start.
The Emperors were all angry with the Lightning Emperor, which was why they wanted to attack his Empire the most right now.
So, every other Empire saw nothing happen to their borders.
But the Lightning Manor…
DING! DING! DING! DING!
As soon as the two hours were up, one person after the other shot into the Lightning Empire across all their borders.
There was always only one person charging forward alone.
When the people of the Lightning Manor saw these people, they didn't attack immediately.
They had to wait.
One High Mage from the Twilight Dusk Empire stopped 500 kilometers into a Zone for High Mages of the Lightning Empire.
Then, that Mage took out a big flag in the shape of a cross and rammed it into the ground.
WHOOOM!
A barrier appeared with a diameter of 1,000 kilometers.
Just like Shang's barrier, this barrier was transparent and didn't block anyone yet.
The fluctuations of the barrier told everyone who saw it that the person in the middle of the barrier was a Mid High Mage.
DING! DING! DING!
Many other flags and barriers were planted into the ground along the Lightning Manor's borders.
All barriers showed the power of the person controlling the flag.
And they showed one more thing.
A timer.
It was a timer counting down from 60 minutes.
If the person controlling the flag was not in a fight and still alive when the timer reached zero, everything inside the barrier would be claimed by the attacking Empire.
A Bolt looked at the barriers that had been created in her Zone and looked at the warriors and Mages waiting behind her.
Then, she assigned fitting people for every barrier.
A Mid High Mage passed through the barrier the other Mid High Mage had created.
WHOOOM!
Immediately, the barrier closed and changed color.
These barriers and flags were designed by the Emperors, and as soon as they closed, it was impossible for any Spirit Sense to enter them.
That included Mage Kings and Mage Emperors.
Only Mana could pass through in order not to starve the people inside it.
The barrier would only turn transparent again when one of the two people died.
This was to keep the powers of the winning soldier secret from the other Empire.
Naturally, only people of the same level were allowed to attack a person inside a barrier.
And that was where Shang's flag differed from all the other flags.
Shang's flag was Defender Flag, which meant that he had the initiative.
Instead of having to wait for someone to create a barrier, he could set his own barrier.
If the Judgment Palace sent an extremely powerful Peak Ancestral Mage, Shang couldn't possibly kill them.
But as long as they only sent Early Ancestral Mages…
This was Shang's job.
He alone would block the forces of the Judgment Palace.
This was the most important position.
And naturally, the other Empires would take note of the defender.
Soon, everyone would know who Shang was.
