Three days later...
After leaving the coastal region of the Grinia Empire, the group of Minos, Starclaw, and Nino was finally reaching the first point where they would stop to hire mercenaries.
But before doing so, their group was stopped at a small camp where the rest of Nino's group nearby had just arrived.
After Nino had communicated with his people earlier, several of these Longus family members had come to this place to join Minos' group.
Among them, the leader of the Minos-friendly faction was also there.
...
"Chosen one! It is a pleasure to meet you." The leader of that faction, level 86, said this in an emotional tone. "We have been waiting for you for a long time. We have heard many theories and stories about your arrival... But we have remained loyal to the ancestor's request and are here to help you."
Minos looked at that man who had large, beautiful red wings on his back and was kneeling bent in front of him, liking the positioning of these people.
Along with the leader of that faction, eight other mid-level Spiritual Sages between levels 84 and 86 were there to join his group.
"Fermo, stand up. You and your group don't need to behave like this now." Minos said to the leader of these half-breeds.
He had a smile on his face, for with these people, he could considerably raise the Black Plain Empire's strength once he returned to the Central Continent.
Minos had already placed seals on each of them, something he had spoken to these people moments ago when they appeared on the outskirts of his camp.
Since the leaders of the Longus family were rebelling against him, he needed this assurance.
Since these hybrids were loyal to him, they hadn't made it difficult and had all already received the Divine Seal of Minos.
"What do we do now?" One of the three women in that group asked Minos.
"Nino was guiding me to a mercenary group nearby. We will leave for that group at dawn to try to bring some powerful Sages to our side." Minos said, watching that 2.4 meters tall woman.
Hybrids were large by nature and grew taller as they grew stronger.
As high-level people, all those beings near Minos and Starclaw were quite large, even in their natural form.
"How many men does Your Majesty intend to hire?" Fermo Longus asked.
"From 10 to 20 high-level Sages. That should be enough for us to try to 'talk' with the current leaders of the Longus family."
The number of experts wasn't bad and added to the men and beasts their group had already gotten, they would have a number of Spiritual Sages roughly similar to the patriarch's faction.
However, they would still have no Demigods.
"How will we deal with the family leaders? Nino told me that Your Majesty wishes to fight and remove the strongest elders from power." A level 85 man with fish eyes and a lean body asked.
Minos said. "We cannot attack them head-on, much less fall into the trap they are setting for me.
But facing these low-level Demigods under the right conditions would not be as big a risk as you imagine.
However, before we talk more about this, answer me one thing. Do the leaders of the Longus family know about your movements?"
"Yes and no. They know we are favorable to the Chosen One. Still, they underestimate us, so they probably don't know everything we are doing." Someone over there said.
Fermo commented. "They probably know we are doing something, but that is all. You are the minority within the family, so our chances are not high."
They were not the minority because they were hybrids but because they were on the side of the chosen one. Some of the hybrids in this family were neutral, while others, among them the strongest, were in the patriarch's group.
As much as there were cracks in the relationship between hybrids and pure humans within this family, some of the beings similar to these in front of Minos believed that the entire family would benefit from them taking what belonged to Henricus Longus' chosen one.
As such, Fermo's group was unimpressive.
"Well then, we will use that against them," Minos said. "I want the part of your group in the Longus family headquarters to keep an eye on these stronger elders and try to find out what they are preparing for me.
In the meantime, we have to find a way for me to get into the headquarters without drawing the attention of my enemies.
If we can strike against them by surprise, we can demobilize part of their group and achieve our objectives with a minimum of bloodshed.
Dealing with Demigods is really difficult, but coordinated attacks have a lot of potential. Even with only Spiritual Sages on our side, we stand a chance against them."
Those people heard that and did not refute Minos' interest.
But he knew what was on some of those minds and said before anyone asked him. "About dialogue, we will not dialogue with people stronger than us and ill-intentioned. They will never listen to what we have to say. They would only do that if they were sure they had no chance of victory.
But I honestly would rather have a corpse of a Demigod than a Demigod not 100% committed to being on my side.
Besides, I cannot tolerate people who have endangered me like this patriarch Longus.
Do you know he threatened to inform the world about my Spatial Kingdom? If that happened while I don't become a Demigod, it would destroy the empire I created!
At that time, all the decades of planning and work I've done to create a force to defend this world would be lost."
They heard that, and even though they didn't like having to be on an assassination mission against their leaders, they couldn't disagree with the big mistake the patriarch had made.
The truth about Minos' wealth was really something complicated to talk about without provoking the hatred of that ruler.
In a way, it made more sense not to have these Demigods on his side than to run the risk of one of them talking about the Spatial Kingdom.
Fermo then said. "I only ask that Your Majesty not attack the weak and innocent. Many in the family are neutral about this and can be convinced to take our side."
"Hmm, we will see about that after dealing with the scum in the Longus family leadership," Minos said. "But don't worry, what remains of your family will flourish under my leadership.
That is, at least until the great threat predicted by your ancestor hits us. After that, I can guarantee nothing more."
