A month passed...
After Minos returned to Dry City, his forces came back to how they had been before the first time the sovereign went to the Flaming Empire.
The local forces spread out across this state, returning to protect some of the outer areas that had been sidelined in this most recent period.
At the same time, Minos and his wives were back fighting Abe's mercenaries, slowly improving the Black Plain's position against these terrorists due to their recent advances.
But this was not enough to change much about Minos and Abe's conflict.
So when the reinforcements from the Gray Clouds Sect finally began to arrive in this state, the local forces celebrated. But, simultaneously, the enemies felt the times getting more hostile.
Since the local sovereign's return, the Gray Clouds Sect had sent 30 Spirit Saints to the Black Plain. Of these individuals, 10 were people between the first three levels of the 8th stage, 15 between levels 74 and 76, and the rest were elders at levels 77, 78, and 79.
With this strength, although Minos did not immediately get a group as strong as that of mercenaries that had left Dry City, he did get a lot of power to strengthen himself!
Unlike those mercenaries, these were individuals loyal to Minos, much more willing to follow his orders to the letter and not betray him. At the same time, the Gray Clouds Sect paid them, so they would cost nothing to the Black Plain government coffers.
But not only experts were sent to Emperor Stuart's state. The sect of Oswald and now Minos had thousands of Spiritual Emperors.
In possession of this knowledge, Minos had asked for the initial sending of 2,000 of these individuals!
Because of this group, the trip of reinforcements had taken so long compared to the return of Minos and his family to Dry City.
In any case, now the local forces had been greatly strengthened, and Minos would go out on the counter-attack!
...
Boom!
"Ahhhhhhhhhh!"
Swooish!
"Attack!"
People shouted amid the sounds of explosions and remnant attacks passing on the outskirts of a forested area of the Black Plain, where two groups were facing each other.
"Charge!"
Ka-Boom!
Some artillery near the area, people using cannons and arrays, were mercilessly bombarding the surroundings, knowing that some enemies were hiding there.
The government of the Black Plain had built cities and forests in this previously desert region. So it would not be because of the current greenery that the men of the local army would not destroy the very terrain where part of the terrorists was hiding.
If they had built their territory once, they could do it a second time!
With that in mind, the soldiers in the middle of this raiding party activated their cannons toward that area.
Boom!
While they were punishing a part of that artificial forest, higher-level allies of those forces were fighting the members of Abe's terrorist group.
Pow!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
A level 73 Spiritual Saint from Abe's group took a powerful punch from his same-level opponent, feeling the weight in his stomach as his body flew backward.
"How can that be?" That individual felt his Soul Avatar succumb after such a blow and looked in a frightened manner at that brown-haired woman.
He had no way of recognizing that woman. After all, he was from the Western Empire, not the Flaming Empire.
But if he were from that other state, he would understand that he would be no match for Oswald's eldest daughter when he had the same level as her.
Besides having better techniques than most people, Maisie had inherited the powerful innate ability of her old father, an impressive will that could strengthen its user and weaken opponents.
Because of this, when she activated her innate ability and made her move, Maisie broke through that man's mental barriers before striking a powerful physical blow against him.
Such a thing had 'knocked out' that man's Soul Avatar, leaving him 'unprotected' against Maisie and her avatar.
Gray Clouds Art!
Maisie's Soul Avatar placed its hands on top of each other, and a tiny spark of light appeared between them. At the same time, the clouds in the surrounding area became darker and gathered around this avatar.
As Maisie's avatar's hands moved away from each other, a powerful blue ray appeared from the middle of the vortex of clouds that had appeared, heading towards the body of that Spiritual Saint.
Ka-Boom!
A thunderous sound reverberated through the surroundings, by which time such an individual had already been attacked.
In the blink of an eye, many people in the surrounding area looked in the direction of such a person and saw a charred but still living body, trembling in pain.
Even though he had survived such a powerful attack, he was not much better off than a dead man after being attacked by this ruthless woman!
With that, when such a person made a vertical move against his neck, using a small blade, he could do nothing to save himself.
Such an attack cut through the skies so fast that he only saw it being hurled towards him, and then such a thing pierced his body, hitting not only his flesh but also his soul.
Spiritual Saints did not depend entirely on their bodies to survive. Thus, to kill one of them, someone or something would have to be able to affect their soul.
But that was not so difficult to do. Even lower-level cultivators like Spiritual Kings could embed their attacks with Natural Laws capable of threatening the soul.
Therefore, a Spiritual Saint like Maisie did that very well and did not spare this opponent of hers from death!
"Ahhhh!" Such an individual let out his last sound of pain in this place that earlier was only the temporary camp of his group but now looked more like a battlefield.
Simultaneous to his death, several people from both groups were suffering in the surrounding area when a teleportation area suddenly appeared nearby, startling the mercenaries.
When one of the few observers from the group trying to escape saw this, he looked in fear toward the man in golden armor who had just arrived.
Then...
"Retreat!"
"Quick, run away! Minos Stuart is here!" He shouted before leaving his post, starting to run along with his superiors who were already leaving the area earlier.
"Minos?" Abe, who was coming to this place, heard this a few moments after noticing that his enemies had discovered one of his posts.
'How did this happen? Is it a coincidence that they attacked this place just when I came here to check on this group?' He paled at the thought of this, already flying to get away from there, along with his bodyguards.
'Damn it!
'Someone ratted me out!' He clenched his fists, understanding that this could only be the case, or Minos would not show up on the battlefield.
"Wynne, stay and delay Minos while I escape." He said to one of the stronger Spiritual Saints in his group, afraid to see that fellow in battle.
"OK!"
...
