"If you decide that way, I hope King Carline is prepared to bend the knee!" Minos said thoughtfully, staring into that woman's eyes.
Minos was serious. He did not want to dominate the northern region of the Central Continent. Yet, anyone who stood against him now would pay high costs once he gained independence.
And since young Stuart did not doubt that he could achieve his short-term goals, he had made such a threat.
He preferred to have allies since, although he would have to share some of his gains, in relationships like that, the problems might be less than among relationships formed through force.
When both parties could profit together, without one threatening the other, it was much easier for both sides to work jointly for the greater good.
But in other types of relationships, such as those forced, the weaker side might flirt with dangerous ideals, perhaps sabotaging the other side, acting for the sake of the other's downfall.
Sometimes even self-sacrificing, merely to cause harm to the other!
And as Minos did not mind sharing some of his gains, he would much rather have allies than force the subordination of enemies.
In the case of the Gill family, things had worked out well until now, as this family was in danger of being exterminated by House Silva when they fled to Dry City.
So, with enemies in common and the growing tension due to the upcoming war of independence at that time, the Gills' affinity with Minos' organization had been significant to the point that relations between them were considerably harmonious.
But eventually, if Minos won that war and forced the surrender of enemies, followed by mandatory subordination, the relations between his forces and these others would be quite different from that case.
And Minos naturally knew this, which is why he preferred allies over subordinates.
However, he knew that his offer would not be readily accepted by that woman, much less King Carline.
After all, the situation of that organization could not be ignored!
It was easy for him, who had a lot of knowledge about cultivation and the Spiritual World and the extent of the Black Plain's potential, to assess what would be best for those people.
But did such individuals know that?
Aside from Minos' impressive strength, the Black Plain was still not significant, even considering the small high spiritual concentration food production.
Would there be an increase in food production in the future?
They had no way of knowing.
Would Minos be able to win the war by himself?
There was no way of knowing either. As much as this young man could try to kill each regional king, something that would end the war, those individuals could just hide!
And with such a large area, Minos could very well never find those people!
With that, the war could continue, and if the counter-revolutionary forces managed to devastate the Black Plain, the chances of them surviving the threat of Minos might not be small.
Anyway, there were many factors without answers, several indications that there was a possibility of victory and survival, considering only what Minos' enemies knew.
As such, it was tough for that woman to listen to Minos' offer and accept it.
"Humph!"
"If you are capable, just do it and don't talk nonsense!" She said, hoping that this might catch Minos' attention. However, as much as she was following her group's plans, this woman was genuinely furious with that young man, wanting to jump on him and beat him up.
'That bastard is quite audacious!'
'If we were at my family's headquarters, I doubt he would escape alive after saying such things...' She lamented, waiting for something.
"So, that's how it is..." Minos lamented as his two swords already appeared in his hands. "If that's the way it is, then we'll do it the hard way!"
After saying those words, Minos immediately activated his combat techniques together, intending to end the opponent's attempt to take him by surprise.
Those people might think they were fooling Minos. But, from the moment he had arrived in this area, he had felt spatial fluctuations coming from two directions, both getting closer and closer to him.
And as someone who had once fought an assassin from the Scourges of the Devil organization, Minos knew that there were two assassins in his vicinity, hiding their movements and spiritual fluctuations.
He obviously could not see them, as he was several levels below such individuals. But with his affinity with Spatial Laws, this young man knew perfectly well how to locate these sneaky beings who wanted to take him by surprise.
"You all disappoint me..." Minos said aloud while looking with contempt at those people.
Spatial Sword!
He then attacked in the directions of those two, who were already very close to him, almost ready to attack.
"Allying with those worms was the worst decision you made!" He said, just at the moment, that the powerful energy blades, more potent than what cultivators at the peak of level 59 could release, slashed toward those targets.
Swooish!
Swooish!
Crack!
And as microscopic cracks began to appear around young Stuart's sword blades, every single person in that place opened their eyes in shock.
As they felt the power of Minos' attack, they all, including the two assassins, realized that the power of those attacks was already more than 40% stronger than what they could unleash.
"Shit!"
"Had the sordid brat held back before?" James asked in terror, realizing that if Minos had attacked them with everything, they could have had more than just superficial injuries.
The attack in question still was not enough to kill them, as their defenses could absorb much of that. But the damage from being hit by such an offensive would be terrible!
And that was what those two assassins were thinking as they watched the attacks approaching them as if in slow motion.
'Damn it! What's happening? How can this damn thing identify us so easily?' One of them asked himself in despair, feeling the restrictive characteristics of the Spatial Sword, something terrible for him who was only a few moments meters away from Minos.
On the other hand, the other level 59 Spiritual King of that assassins' organization was almost pissing himself with fear. 'Disgrace!'
'Why does he know who we are? Why attack us before those three?' That individual wondered in nervousness, feeling the injustice of being attacked first.
Puff!
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"
"AHHHHH!"
"Damn you! Son of a bitch!"
"Ahhhhhh! My arm! He severed my right arm!"
Then the screams of terror from the two began, as they finally appeared in that place, being thrown further away from Minos as if they were potato sacks.
At the same time, the two individuals, who looked like walking corpses, were bleeding considerably through the target points of Minos' attack, from where people in the surroundings could see their insides.
One of them had had his right arm severed from his shoulder, something he had accomplished after using most of what he had to change his position and protect his body with that arm.
On the other hand, the remaining individual had suffered a severe blow that went from his chest to his abdomen.
That wound had opened a wide diagonal cut in that part of his body, piercing the armor and exposing the internal organs of his skinny body.
With that, both had been severely wounded, each screaming in pain as they grew paler and paler as they fell to the ground, while the blood from both of them splattered around the area.
But after making such an attack, Minos did not take it lightly by standing still. On the contrary, he immediately began to use the remaining energies of those two to begin his battle against the three enemies running around that area, shocked.
Explosive Steps!
"Today, I will kill at least one of you!" Minos coldly said as he addressed those three, especially the two he had faced before.
He had already spent a good deal of his energy in severely wounding those two assassins. So, it would be impossible for him to deal with these three people, even more so considering that they could try to escape at any moment.
Therefore, Minos was not aiming higher than he could. He would just do what was necessary to eliminate one of those three, which would be enough for today!
...
