Emeriss Silentborn stood on a tree branch of one of the largest trees in the Evergreen continent; the branch itself was as wide as a house that excluded the trunk that was probably as wide as a castle. Her guest today wouldn't care about where they met. Their meeting wouldn't be long; she had gathered the information they needed about the silent king and an old dream tablet from a long time ago. The other was Emeriss wished to give them information but it was likely that they already knew. She felt space distort next to her and as she turned to her right there was a flash of white light.
"Greetings Wei Shi Yerin." The other Monarch met her gaze and bowed, returning the greeting.
"Greetings Emeriss, please call me Yerin. No matter how long it's been hearing that name, it still feels weird." Emeriss gave a smile before she pulled out two dream tablets handing them over to Yerin. She placed them into her black robes.
"The first dream tablet shows the Silent Servants movements and the Silent King. Likely, the king will not awaken until after the tournament I suspect two years but it will likely move towards the place of its birth. The other dream tablet was a request from your husband."
"Thank you for this Emeriss, it will be of help and your wisdom is always welcome."
"I have one more thing to tell you however I feel you already know." Yerin's lips quirked up into a smile and at that, it looked like she did.
"They are going to try and make a move. The queen, the water snake, the self-proclaimed Goddess, and the lion's cub." She said with a smile still on her face. Emeriss nodded to her, they wouldn't want to say their names to not bring attention. Yerin laughed. "They think with your help and the help of the 8 man empire they will be able to take us. You're not one to get involved in war but the 8 man empire would be swayed depending on the tournament and they currently don't like us."
"I will tell you that they plan to have a meeting without the four of you and to use royal madra to stop him from listening in."
"They do not know him then. They plan to do something without him knowing they are making light of us because we chose not to interfere whilst we were still on Cradle." Yerin had paused for a moment, her red eyes now fixed on Emeriss with six red sword arms extending outwards. "You can give this warning to them. If they push us just as Shen and Sesh had done to Malice, Fury, and Northstrider. I and the others will not hesitate to destroy them." After she finished her sword arms unextended resting on her back.
"Let me ask you one final question, Yerin. Do you believe your children are strong enough to win this tournament?"
"Whilst others will focus on giving one Underlord all the resources they can and try to make them perfect. Our children since lowgold have been chucked into a new environment and learned from others. They also have to prove they are worthy of the rewards."
"Is there anything else you would like me to tell them or you wish to tell me," Emeriss asked?
"I have nothing left to say. RESTORE." Yerin bowed before she disappeared in a white light leaving Emeriss to stare out over her continent and think about their conversation. Suddenly thousands of miles away she felt something. Someone had manifested an icon. She could sense an everlasting flame from it when she looked for its manifester she sensed Blackflame. Wei Shi Lindon had manifested another Icon. Now she wondered how many he could manifest.
Hel Valhalla slammed the table. She currently sat in a room full of her advisors. They wouldn't be able to sense it but she had. Her older brothers looked at her. "What is it, little sister?" Fenrir was the oldest of the three siblings; he was a Herald and was feared by many; he had many scars that covered his body and he wore no robe, only bottom pants and a fur cloak covering his back.
"That bastard Blackflame has manifested another Icon." The whole room erupted into noise. Many of the senior figures in the room were older than her; she was only two hundred, making her one of the older Monarchs of this generation but not in terms of advancement.
"How is that possible?" One duke shouted.
"How many Icons does he have now?" Another man cried.
"Silence." It wasn't Helya that had spoken the command but her other older brother Jorm. She and Fenrir were able to use their willpower to shrug off the effect.
"Everyone leave, this does not change anything for now. I will speak with the other Monarchs but this will not likely change anything." Her advisors stood up and bowed to her before they all set off to leave. "Fenrir, bring Ymir to me. I wish to speak with her."
"As you wish." When Fenrir had left the room. She now stood in the empty room, the table stretching across the entire room with a map of Cradle. The map was colour coordinated to show the areas that each monarch controlled. The Evergreen continent was entirely green representing Emeriss however there was a patch of white representing the Silent Servants and their new monarch Raion Kabu. He was raised in Reigan Shen's land and then rose to replace him. He would be dead if the Arelius patriarch had any interest in taking over but it seemed he only wanted revenge against Reigan Shen.
On the Rosegold continent, almost three-quarters was light blue for the Arelius family and the remaining quarter was white representing Kabu, however most of that was from the territory where the Weeping dragon is.
The Ninecloud continent consists of two factions, Hel's faction also known as Niflheim, and The Ninecloud Court ruled by Sha Meira. Meira and Hel had got off to a bad start with the expansion of Niflheim however they both realized they had a common enemy of the Twin star clan and Akura clan.
Shortly after the alliance was made on the Ninecloud continent the two Monarchs were contacted by another Monarch Mizu Hebi. Mizu was a dragon that had survived Akura Malice and Northstrider. He was a sly dragon and was one that had ascended to Monarch after a confrontation with Akura Pride. Akura Mercy had almost killed him because of an injury he gave to Pride but had stopped allowing him to escape. This led him to have a deep hatred for the Akura clan and its allies. Mizu holds most of the ocean; he took control of the ocean tribes and the remaining dragons to create a dominant faction known as Kaiyo.
The Ashflame continent had two large areas of black and red representing the Twin Star clan and the two valleys that it held. The rest of the continent was purple for the Akura clan. There was no white Red moon hall that had retreated to the Rosegold continent after the defeat of the Bleeding Phoenix and the death of their sage.
Hel had finished looking over her map when she received a message through vital aura.
"Nothing changes."
Kai had spent most of the day recovering as he now walked with Kang to get food. They had veiled before returning due to Saeya wanting them to do it for a mission in the evening and as expected none of them had protested as it would mean points. Suddenly Kai's stomach growled.
"I heard Cassius opened his restaurant here so let's go there," Kang said
"Oh really, sure. Isn't there going to be a queue though? It's bound to be busy since it's the Underlords restaurant."
"I did see it earlier when we arrived back at the camp but I forgot to ask for tickets so maybe we can queue up and get in."
"How long was the queue earlier?"
"It was probably an hour wait."
"Well we have until it gets to nighttime and that won't be for another two maybe three hours so we might be lucky."
"Let's go then."
Kang led Kai to where he had seen a large tent set up. The tent was one the largest in the camp even having seats outside underneath a marquee. Kai and Kang walked past the entrance where Underlord Naru Jing Arelius stood at the entrance as the receptionist. She hadn't noticed them as they walked past and joined the back of the queue. Around them, there were a few murmurs from the lower-ranking individuals and a few that knew who they were.
"That mask. It has to be him." one person in a group in front whispered.
"Why wouldn't they just skip the queue though like his squadmates did." Another responded.
Squadmates? Kai thought. Were Keya, Joy and Asuna here. Kai looked at Kang, who would have heard as much as he had.
"Well, it looks like they are here but inside since I don't see them on an outside table." Suddenly from inside Kai felt an Underlords presence flare before settling down again. As Kai was about to move he saw Cassius Arelius escorting some truegolds outside the establishment. He couldn't help but laugh. Cassius then looked down the line making eye contact with Kai.
"Wei Shi Kai how nice to see you again and Jai Kang. Why don't you come down here." Cassius shouted to them. Kai felt sorry for all the people that had to wait in the queue as he walked past but he doubted anyone would call them out for it.
"Would you like us to take them away?" Kai asked
"Oh no, leave them. Your friend and sisters are sitting at a table already."
A few minutes earlier inside Cassius restaurant.
"Hey there ladies, It seems like you need some company." Some drunkards had unknowingly walked up to the three strongest Underladys in the Empire asking if they would like to have their company. Cassius had seen through their veil and had kept quiet about it so they could eat in peace but it seemed like they wanted. If they had seen Joy's face they would have run off but they hadn't.
"She already likes someone so please leave us alone," Keya asked nicely.
"And how could that man compare to me? Shelton Watt number one hundred and thirty-two ranked Truegold in the empire." The man chuckled. Asuna and Keya laughed at him. "Are you making light of me?'' The man shouted.
Keya wanted to unveil her spirit to just get them to piss off. She could also start to feel Asuna's sword arms extending when suddenly she noticed Cassius Arelius walking over.
"Excuse me, Sir, could you please sit down quietly or I will have to ask you to leave." Cassius had put on a friendly tone.
"Ha. And what is a mere waiter going to do about-'' The man was cut off by an Underlords spirit. Everyone had stopped eating and now stared at them. Before Cassius re-veiled himself. Keya knew the man was somewhat drunk but to not recognize the previous head of the Arelius family
"Leave now!" The man known as Shelton Watt and his friends ran for their lives. Cassius simply followed them out.
"Thanks. I don't know how much longer I could take." Joy said.
"Don't worry about it. It's the least we could do for our future Sister-in-law." Keya said with a smile. Joy's face immediately turned red from embarrassment.
"Shut up!" Joy shouted. Then suddenly a voice appeared behind Joy.
"Hey, ladies, what was all that fuss about?" As Keya noticed it was Kai Joy had turned around slamming her fist into his gut. She must have thought it was another person trying to hit on her. If Kai hadn't been Underlord all his ribs might have become broken. "What was that for?"
"You could have easily dodged that stop complaining," Keya said. At this point Joy had noticed who it was she immediately turned back around face buried in her hands.
"I'm sorry Kai I thought-"
"It's ok like Keya said I could have dodged but I decided not to. That way you could let out some frustration." He smiled brightly after saying that. He sat in the chair next to Joy with Kang sitting next to him instead of Asuna who still had her sword arms extended slightly. "Anyway, what were you guys here for without us?" The table shook slightly as Asuna pointed one of her sword arms at Kai.
"None of your business." Asuna said. Kai was one to drop things quickly instead of digging deeper so he stopped thereafter and they stayed chatting and eating until they were needed for their mission.
Kai, Kang, Joy, Asuna, and Keya all stood in front of Saeya and Xun. "The mission is simple: you are all on night patrol so that all the other squads can rest," Saeya said.
"Wait hold on Captain. That's the work of ten squads. Five Truegolds can't cover that much area." Xun questioned. Kai felt sorry for Xun. He was about to have a shock but how could he not have noticed. They all looked different and Kang who was normally just shorter than him was no taller than him.
"Oh yeah, I didn't tell you. They are all veiled and all five are Underlords." Xuns jaw looked like it was about to hit the floor. He then walked up to Kai and Kang staring at them.
"Five Underlords will do it but why have them veil?"
"Firstly if anyone knew that five underlords were patrolling they would never move or act. Secondly as previously mentioned it allows them to rest. Now, are there any more questions?"
"What if our veil slips?" Asuna asked.
"Well if that can't be helped then so be it. All Underlords have been informed now about you guys so hopefully, it won't be a problem. Just try to blend in. That is my final request." As Saeya said that she allowed them to discuss who would take what area.
"Ok so let's have Kang by the portal entrance to help the Skysworn squads that have to stay there. We will have Asuna by the entrance that we returned here from. Then the other three of us will just walk around by the tents and stalls stopping any fights or thieves." Kai exclaimed. After there were no protests from the group they all set off.