The sun rose behind Void Palace, alighting a new day.
One might wonder how a sun and moon cycle worked in such a massive world, and the answer was both simple and complicated at the same time.
To put it simply, there were multiple sun and moon cycles in the Heavenly World.
Each cardinal region had multiple suns and moons that created their cycles. One could simply pass from one principality to the next and find day and night completely switching.
These suns and moons didn't orbit, of course. They weren't even true celestial bodies. They were manifestations of law that existed because of the natural state of the world. They would set and rise so naturally that nobody would ever question it, but in reality, they were akin to illusion.
It was just a matter of day and night. For the most part, it only really affected the common people.
Time remained constant, because practitioners didn't use the sun and moon to consider time. The Heavenly Order itself was the measure of time. The laws in the atmosphere would gradually grow and change, and that very change on a scale only a practitioner could ever realize was the true decider of time.
Nevertheless, the Brightmoon Principality had quite a large sun and moon pair, so it had one cycle that encompassed the whole place.
It wasn't a matter of nature, but a man-made convenience.
The Young Lord's Estate was particularly calm today. The servants went about their duties as usual, the guards did the same, with none missing from their patrol structure.
The mansion was peaceful, as were the fields outside filled with the sounds of training troops.
Damien casually sat in his room, reading through Persia's Compendium without a care in his mind.
For the next few days, he had time to relax, since the next part didn't need his interference.
Even the soldiers were taking some minor breaks in recent days, absorbing everything they'd learned in the past month.
It wasn't the Young Lord's Estate that was in a ruckus right now.
Instead, it was everywhere else in the Brightmoon Principality.
They were standing outside the main palace for all to see.
Sixteen stakes with sixteen heads impaled on them. Their eyes had been carved out, noses torn and tattered, and their mouths filled with blood in the stead of teeth.
Behind them was a stele made of pure obsidian, with words etched on its surface in blood.
[Here stand the heads of our traitors. Let them be a message to those who stand against Our Palace. Blood for blood, soul for soul. From the corpses of our enemies, Void Palace will rise.]
News spread instantaneously.
The entire Brightmoon Principality, the entirety of Void Palace, was aware of the crimes committed by those traitors within a day.
They sold information to the enemy, led allies to their deaths, embezzled the common people's money, and contributed to plans to dismantle and destroy the palace.
Their names were smeared, their influence was torn down, and they were left as scum in the eyes and hearts of all people.
It happened so fast that it couldn't be natural.
Naturally, that was because it wasn't.
This wasn't any ordinary execution.
This was a declaration of war.
This was the moment Void Palace declared its intention to rise.
The news would spread past the borders. It would be known to those who it concerned. The moment it did…
…chaos would envelop the Heavenly World.
It was a grand event, the most monumental thing that had happened to Void Palace in several thousands of years.
And it had been done without the knowledge of anyone in the palace.
***
"Brother, what do you think about this?"
Two men stood together. They were shirtless and covered in sweat, their swords down as they'd just finished a spar.
They were Dominic and Darius Void, Damien's two half-brothers.
"What do you mean? Are you talking about what our First did today?" Dominic responded, wiping the sweat off his brow.
"What else? The palace has been chaotic for the past few days. I can hardly walk around without running into someone who's talking about it!" Darius exclaimed.
"And what about it?"
Dominic seemed rather unconcerned, but Darius knew his brother better than that.
"What are you planning to do?"
Dominic glanced over, his expression unreadable.
He knew what Darius wanted.
There was no way he wouldn't know.
Their First Brother who they'd just met once and never saw again.
They'd been raised their entire lives in his shadow.
He was the one born for the Young Lord position. They were people without real status from birth, despite their talent and ability.
But they didn't mind it. From what they'd heard about their First Brother, he was far more worthy of the position than either of them. They didn't feel the need to compete against them, and instead used their freedom from responsibility to grow as they pleased.
However, when they met him, he didn't seem like everything they'd heard.
They couldn't see his aura, which was odd, but his gait wasn't like someone who'd lived as an expert.
So how was he going to do the job he was born for?
The decision they made was to observe before they acted. It was a lesson their mother ingrained in them since young.
And while they were starting to get disappointed with his inaction, the second he moved, he caused a storm.
"Void Palace is not ready for war right now, let alone our brother who just showed up and took up his position. There's no way this is a good decision right now."
Dominic didn't say anything, but he agreed to an extent.
He didn't think it was the time to act either.
But he also knew how timid Darius could be. He was powerful and he was domineering, but he had a tendency to be overly cautious about everything.
If his "overcautiousness" was manifesting like this…
"Have you seen this?"
Dominic finally spoke, withdrawing a piece of paper from his spatial ring.
"This is…"
Darius grabbed it and read the words written on it.
"...a recruitment notice?"
"Yes, it's a recruitment notice," Dominic confirmed.
"These have been spread across the entire territory over the last three days. From the poorest beggars to the wealthiest consortiums, everyone knows the news already."
Darius didn't know because he'd been cooped up in training. Even the news he knew came from rumors around the main palace that he heard in passing.
Therefore, he didn't know everything Dominic knew.
"The distribution method is unknown, but from what I can guess, this is First Brother's doing. Recruiting at this juncture, when the territory's been riled up by the previous event, means he probably has plans for the future as well."
'It may seem reckless, but I cannot see it as such. Our First Brother…he is not the man he appears to be.'
It wasn't an insult, it was the truth. There was more to Damien Void than the eye could see.
And Dominic wasn't resigned to staying in the dark.
"Darius, let's go to the recruitment."
"What do you plan to do?"
"Nothing much…"
A strange glint appeared in Dominic's eyes.
"I just wish to see how amazing our brother truly is."
