楼上的上瘾女士

The Emperor might have encouraged discourse once and even allowed the subsequent words by Creten to influence his decision but that was the limit of his accommodation.

He ordered them to leave and made it very clear that his decision in regards to the duel was final and as they walked out of the throne room, neither Tanya nor Creten was happy.

Creten was unhappy because he was clearly at a disadvantage and all the points he had previously brought up about how he would surpass Tanya were all in the future. He had no assurance of victory right now!

Tanya on the other hand was upset that she still had to prove herself but she was much more readily accepting of it all... And why not, she had even more of an advantage than her brother knew.

...

Not long after the two Imperial siblings left the Throne room to prepare for their duel the next day, a message came for the Emperor and as it was delivered, Amador\'s eyes widened in surprise all the while.

"What... Did you just say?" he asked and the messenger shook but could not stop doing his duty which was to deliver information to his Emperor.

"The Silvas have lost control of the Duchy. They have relinquished power to the Danes. It is the Danes that have now taken up the responsibility of searching the Duchy for Dystopian activity" the messenger said despite his fear, his voice remained stable all through his information delivery.

The Emperor\'s order to every single Duchy on the continent about the attack of the Dystopians and about all further actions to be taken was sent to the Silvas as well and they quickly turned it over to the proper authorities.

"How exactly did this happen?" The Emperor asked. He had interrupted the messenger and not given him time to complete the report.

"Well, the reply we received from the Duchy did not go very in-depth but there was mention of an invasion. A Dystopian invasion quite similar to the one we suffered as well." the messenger said.

"When was this invasion?" the Emperor asked.

"About noon today," the messenger said.

"So same as us." the Emperor\'s brows furrowed and it was clear that he was considering the possibility that the Danes had taken advantage of the attack.

What he did not understand though was how the Silvas seemed to have just accepted their fates.

Surely, a battle for power over a Duchy should not be over in a day and if it was, then there must be underlying factors.

There was just too much Amador did not know at the moment.

Had there been a battle for power going on for long before the Dystopian invasion or was this a sudden thing?

The Emperor was leaning more into it being sudden as he was sure he would have been reached out to by the Silvas had it been going on for a long time.

The Harons had a close enough relationship with the Silvas that Clement Silva could call to him for help in stopping an insurrection.

However, a sudden uprising and violent takeover that ended in a day made no sense.

"I need to know more," he said to the messenger who took it as the order that it was and backed out to get right to it.

Amador watched him leave and then took a deep breath before retrieving a circular talisman from his spatial ring.

The talisman floated in mid-air with the power of cosmic energy and runes shone around it before a projection appeared above.

The projection was that of Makena, the head of the Silver Moon sect who was finally available to answer the Emperor\'s call.

Makena mirrored the Emperor\'s somber expression as she said,

"I know why you have called"

"Of course you do. But your job is not to give me reports on past events, is it? Your job is to give predictions" Amador said.

Makena bowed,

"Your Majesty, I apologize for my uselessness. However, I did predict this. I have long informed you of the darkness looming over the Empire. A darkness looming over your reign.

Any attacks on the Empire are resulting from this darkness and I\'m afraid this is only the beginning."

"Is being grim and delivering bad news the only thing you are good for?" Amador asked.

"Well, there is some good news. I believe I can find the source of the darkness. I have begun to narrow it down and once I have the location, the source can be rooted out" Makena said.

Her words sounded to the Emperor like riddles. The root of darkness could be in many forms but Amador was leaning towards it being the location of the one in charge of the strange portal that could link the two Continents.

Whatever it turned out to be though, Amador knew finding the root of the darkness was a good thing and he could breathe a bit more easily with matters no longer being as dire as they had previously seemed.

***

Dystopian Continent...

The Devil Tribe...

The invasion was over and done with.

It had involved the use of multiple monsters and had also involved the death of a good number of Dystopian experts (especially the death of Dystopian Devil experts) but overall, it had been successful.

There was assurance that they had caused a lot of havoc and instigated a lot of terror while alerting their enemies to the fact that they now had the upper hand.

What the Dystopians, especially Elenor the Malignant, most noted was that their best advantage was not even the unprecedented transportation system but rather the obvious network that belonged to their ally, The Sapphirine Prince, in the Haron Empire.

The spokesperson for that network was none other than Sassy the Familiar who had now gotten a place in the Tribe.

Sassy was treated with respect as well as caution.

Everyone saw her for what she was; the eyes, ears, and mouth of the Sapphirine prince.

Before he went away, the Prince had made it clear that whatever Sassy said should be taken as what he had said personally.

Whatever plans went on and he was required to be present for (and there were quite a lot of such meetings and planning), Sassy was to be present and she would relay it all back to her master.

There were moments during meetings when Sassy would make an input she would claim had been from her master despite her not taking a single break to contact him.

All through the Invasion, Sassy was giving play-by-play details of ongoing events and being in charge of relaying to them in the Devil Tribe that there was a need for reinforcements.

In terms of strength, she was not to be trifled with and quickly showed herself to possess abilities that no member of the Serpent tribe could dare boast of having despite them being a ruling tribe.

Anyway, the same reason Sassy was respected was also why caution was always exercised whenever anyone was around her because whatever was discussed was guaranteed to get back to her master.

Elenor made sure Sassy was accommodated well in the Devil Tribe even going as far as to give her a residence.

Anyway, it was from Sassy that the Devils and all other Dystopians involved in the invasion learned just how.m much of an impact they had made and how much devastation they had left behind but Elenor was unhappy.

She felt played not by the Sapphirine Prince but by the other members of the ruling quad.

She had lost too many men and quickly made it known to the other three members of the council that she would not be sponsoring any more invasions of the Haron Continent if the other three did not surrender more numbers of experts compared to her.

"It\'s only fair," Elenor told them.

There was danger in being overzealous.

Elenor knew she would be in big trouble if she focused on the Haron Empire and ignored the three she shared the continent with.

She knew full well that they would waste no time stabbing her in the back in an attempt to take her territory.

Unlike the Haron Continent that was united (kinda) under one singular rule, the Dystopian continent rulership was divided and although it worked well enough as a system, it was still a system heavy on distrust.

In fact, what Elenor was suggesting was the reason the previous triad and now current quad ruling worked; Equal sacrifice.

In case of any battle, there is always a constant need for scrutiny to pick the very best option in which each of the four would only give up just as much as the others so as not to leave their base open.

Now, despite the losses, the Devil Tribe was very much still capable of defending their territory but they had done as much sacrificing as they would until the other three pitched in.

"Very well. We will take care of the next invasion. The Devil tribe need not participate at all" Said Dogroth.

The other two looked reluctantly in agreement and then, the head of the Pheonix clan, Alvira piped up,

"However, if we will be taking responsibility for the next attack, we will have to have our own meeting with this Prince fellow."

Elenor shrugged,

"Well he\'s away at the moment but if you can\'t wait, his representative should be willing to meet you all on her master\'s behalf"