The Rise of the Black Plain

"I see..." Eliot sighed in disappointment. "But do you know what life was like in our region between 200 and 500 thousand years ago? In all our years, we have only encountered a few beings who knew how things on our continent were up to 200,000 years ago."

"Hmm, we were lucky enough to meet with a Diamond Monkey who was willing to talk about such information. But he didn't know about the period before that..." Nicole commented.

"Oh? A Diamond Monkey told you about that, huh?"

"Well, I don't know specific details regarding the northern region of this continent, as my tribe has spent most of its time outside this region." Lack began to speak while using his tail to throw many apples into his mouth.

"But from what we know, this region was almost as bad as it is today... However, back then, there was a greater number of Spiritual Kings than today, and there were more experts close to level 59."

"Is that true?" Abby's parents asked simultaneously.

"Yes, it is true. But it wasn't anything tremendous... For example, rarely would a Spiritual Emperor come or stay in this region. As for the possibility of people rising to this stage while living here, we don't know."

"That's because even if someone like that appeared around here, they would probably leave the region soon after. So, that's why there are no records of regional leaders at the 7th stage."

Gaia then complemented. "But even though resources back then were almost as scarce as they are today, even some individuals with Blue talent were able to reach 6th stage."

"Hmm, true. It's only in the last 250,000 years that people like that advancing to the 6th stage have become more and more scarce." Lack agreed.

"What about the Black Plain?"

"The Black Plain already had its current fame..."

...

While those people were talking about the past, some time passed, and by now, young Stuart had finished negotiating with Vivian.

Minos had offered similar advantages to the ones he had proposed to Mendy's family, only with some limitations. For example, the power behind Vivian could only send half of the number of people that the House Stokes could, with such an agreement. 

At the same time, House Hayes would also need to have their leaders sign Soul Contracts, which would last for 20 years. With that, they would be allies, just as the House Miller already was.

Consequently, both sides would need to help each other during this period.

Apart from this, they had talked about various technical details, things that Vivian would need to take to her father to analyze together with the elders of House Hayes. And if they agreed on such a thing, they could formalize this agreement in the same way that Minos was already doing with the Stokes family.

Anyway, Minos and Vivian finished negotiating this agreement when the sun was at its zenith.

At this moment, Minos and those two women were leaving the office where they were previously, heading towards his residence. This young man had invited them for lunch to continue the conversation since later he would not be able to entertain them.

But besides these two, the other people who had come with Vivian and her girlfriend were not with him at the moment. 

Of these individuals, Mendy had gone to meet Mirya, even before Minos and Vivian's negotiation had begun. She was very close to Viola's mother, and as such, she wished to see the current situation of her former bodyguard.

Several months had passed since that incident, and now she had found out from Minos that Mirya was almost completely healed. Because of this, Mendy had not bothered to continue with the rest of the group.

On the other hand, she would remain in Dry City until her father and the supreme elder of the Stokes family arrived in the City of Waters. So, she wasn't in a hurry to talk more with Minos!

At the same time as this, Vivian and Grace's bodyguards, who had not accompanied them in that negotiation, were getting to know Dry City a little better.

This group did not intend to stay here for long, as the family behind them was in a period of turmoil.

Given the difficult period their family was living and the potential of this negotiation to solve that problem, they did not want to take too long to return to headquarters!

As a result, those two were already taking advantage of the opportunity to get to know this city a little better in order to bring as much information back to the family as possible when they left in a day or two.

So, only those two women were accompanying Minos at this time.

...

"How are things with your family? Are you under a lot of pressure from the Chambers family?" Minos asked as he looked back and saw those two women accompanying him. 

And as they walked through the corridors of that mansion, heading towards one of the upper floors, Vivian was quick to answer young Stuart's question. "Uh, we're not doing well, but it's not the end of the world..."

"For now, even though the Chambers family is weaker than ours, they have received a lot of support from other powers outside our state."

"Because of this, neither side has an advantage, and we lose an equal amount of power..." She said vaguely, without giving numbers to young Stuart.

"Oh? So, that's how it is..." 

"Well, it won't take long for us to deal with the Chambers family... I plan to do it in the next six months, so you don't have to worry about it lasting much longer."

He knew that the Chambers family was only a medium-level power. Without outside help, they could not survive against a high-level family like House Hayes!

But if he acted in a certain way, he could give a fatal blow to that organization at a time when there were not so many allies around...

So, the situation could quickly change once he had the chance to put his plan into practice.

The Chambers family had a partnership with the Scourges of the Devil. But would such an organization continue sending Spiritual Kings to support this noble family in a war when the leading individuals of this organization were dead?

Probably not!

They might even seek revenge if the relationship between the parties is deeper... However, to act blindly for the good of a decadent organization would make no sense.

The changes would be more significant that such a group would retreat, for the time being, to take revenge at another time.

And of course, there was the possibility that the parties were not that close and that group of assassins did not even care about avenging the Chambers...

But one way or another, Minos was already intent on destroying the Scourges of the Devil in the future. So, the chances of him provoking that group would not interfere in this situation against the Chambers family!

"Uh, I hope you're right..." Vivian commented in a tone devoid of happiness as she looked at Minos complicatedly.

This woman had a mix of feelings in her being that confused her greatly, to the point that she didn't know how to deal with Minos.

This young man had crippled her younger brother. But on the other hand, he had done an action that had probably saved her own life and, more importantly, the life of her girlfriend, Grace!

And because of this, she felt pretty confused.

She obviously knew that Minos had only done this to Davy because that young man had been foolish enough to take Leroy's side. But still, there was a little resentment in her heart because of that...

But now, here was Minos, offering a deal that could save the Hayes family from losing even more members and that was even capable of making them stronger in the future!

"Sigh... Minos, can you tell me why you did that to Davy? You don't seem like a heartless person who hurts the innocent and acts cruelly senseless. Then how could you have acted that way with Davy?"

"Oh?" Minos turned to her in surprise. "Do you feel angry at me for that?"