The Rise of the Black Plain

"What? Pyke died?" Minos asked in shock, not expecting that one of his oldest and strongest soldiers had died while he was traveling through the region.

Abby nodded to him, still holding one of his hands. "Yes. Shortly before the Cohen family troops arrived in Yellow City, that post suffered a massive attack from our enemies."

"That day, Lieutenant Pyke fell on the battlefield while fighting for the Black Plain."

Upon hearing this, Minos closed his eyes, remembering the day he had met Pyke. "So, that's what happened..." He lamented in a low voice, feeling bad that this person who had been by his side for so many years had died so suddenly.

Many soldiers of the Black Plain Army had died since the beginning of the war of independence. However, as much as Minos mourned these losses, most of these individuals were people he barely knew.

Therefore, there was no way he could feel so bad about those deaths. However, Pyke was from his circle. He was one of the individuals Minos believed could play a significant role in the Black Plain after independence.

And upon discovering that man's downfall, Minos could not help but mourn.

"Sigh..."

"What happened to him after that? Did we at least get his body back?"

Dillian nodded in agreement. "At that time, within minutes of Pyke's fall, a group of the Cohen family arrived in that place."

"With that, they naturally eliminated the enemies, and the bodies of our soldiers and allies were brought to Dry City days later."

"We held a ceremony for him and the others at the Warriors' Monument and then cremated their bodies." Dillian cited this place that Minos had ordered built after the Collins family attacked the naval army base.

Hearing this, Minos thought about that place for a while and then said. "When the war is over, we will have a big ceremony to honor all the dead."

"Yes, I will not forget that, young master."

Minos then looked at Dillian and then into the eyes of his beautiful fiancée. "Has anyone else close to us fallen in that period?"

Abby shook her head negatively and said. "No, Lieutenant Pyke was the only one."

"Sigh..."

"Less bad."

"What about the current situation of our soldiers? How are the Elite Squad doing?"

Dillian then commented on that. "Well, young master, all the soldiers in this force that did not fall during these months have increased their strength by at least 1 level."

"With that, the number of Spiritual Kings in this group has increased from three to nine."

"Among them, Lieutenant Peter has reached level 50, Barbara to level 51, Robin to level 50, Viola to level 51..." He quoted several names that Minos knew, speaking of the nine Spiritual Kings on that team who have survived these past few months.

"As for the Spiritual Generals, some have only moved up one level, but several others have achieved two advances in that period."

"The casualty numbers among them were not significant either. Counting Pyke, only eight Elite Squad soldiers died these past few months."

"Oh? That's good."

After that, Abby did not take long to start informing her fiancé about the situation of other essential soldiers in the army. 

"During this period that you have been away, new soldiers have reached the 6th stage, but several have died in the war. Because of this, the current number of Spiritual Kings in the army is only at 30."

Dillian nodded in agreement, completing Abby's speech. "If it were not for the deaths of these individuals, today we would have 42 Spiritual Kings..."

"I see..." Minos said, feeling for the loss of so many people he had nurtured over the past decade.

"But we still had great results with our stronger soldiers," Abby said in a less negative tone. "In addition to myself and butler Dillian, several of the high-level Spiritual Kings in the army has managed to advance in that period."

Minos already knew about Abby and Dillian's advancements since he had already checked them. Abby was at level 53 and Dillian at level 56.

"Eda reached level 54 a few weeks ago. Elena and Ernest also reached that level recently. On the other hand, Eduard and Mirya have reached level 55."

"Finally, Grace reached level 53, and Emlyn reached level 57."

"Oh?" Minos said with a smile on his face, finding this new strength composition of his most essential soldiers quite interesting. 'Level 57, huh? I'll talk to her later.'

"It seems we are better off than I had imagined..." He said this as he considered Emlyn's strength.

By his estimation, that Nine-tailed Fox should already be as strong as a Spiritual Emperor of common origin, as should be the case with the descendants of the regional families that were coming from the empire.

Knowing that, he was naturally pleased with the progress of that spiritual beast, even considering that it had been away from the Spatial Kingdom for months.

"What about Celeste, Angela, and Regina?" He asked in curiosity.

Dillian then said. "None of them managed to advance in that period, young master."

"As you know, the ages of these three women, particularly Regina, are far beyond that of the rest of us. So, they are naturally in need of more time."

Abby nodded in agreement. "But I don't think it will take them much longer to advance. I recently saw that poison master, and she should get a breakthrough before you get to level 55."

"Well, that's not bad. They are powerful, and I already knew about this problem of their ages before I accepted them into my organization."

He then paused briefly, thinking about something, and then said. "Let's order all these Spiritual Kings above level 54 to leave Dry City immediately."

"I want them to turn the battlefield upside down and kill as many enemies as possible."

"Let's take the chance to show a little more power before this attempted peace negotiation!"

"OK." Those two said that simultaneously, without questioning Minos' decision.

They already knew that this young man's plans were going well, but giving the Carline families more reason to fear the Black Plain would not be bad.

That could scare such a family that had not yet communicated their decision, but also organizations from the Cromwell Kingdom and the Brown Kingdom, which also had the option of fleeing the war.

And thinking of the strength they now had and Minos' presence in Dry City, there was no reason for them to try to stop him from making that decision.

After that, Dillian quickly went on his way to settle this and other matters, while Abby stayed behind to continue the conversation with Minos.

They were not very interested in talking about the affairs of the Dry City government since Minos had decided to step away from that position as long as the war lasted. With that, the following matters they were to discuss were still war-related.

Abby then sat on Minos' lap after Dillian left and began to talk about the situation north of the Cromwell Kingdom and south of the Kingdom of the Waves. 

Minos already knew some information regarding this issue from the regional periodicals, but none of it compared to the information from his organization. So, he spent the next 20 minutes talking with Abby about this, understanding her decisions.

"You did well, Abby." Minos hugged her waist as he smiled, pleased that he had such a good fiancé. "That will give us justification for taking the territories of those two states without having to make those demands in the future."

"That's great!"

She then smiled sweetly, glad that her man was satisfied. "If it weren't for your decisions, I wouldn't have been able to do any of this."

"In any case, we will receive more support soon coming from Stone Island. So, we can begin to 'clean up' the Black Plain from the inside out and the outside in."

He nodded in agreement, looking at Abby's beautiful face. "At this rate, the war should be over before I reach level 55..."

"I hope so..." She looked at the ring on one of her fingers, longing for the day when she and Minos could relax and enjoy life a little more.

But as she did so, she suddenly saw her spatial ring and remembered a piece of information she had recently received from the army. "By the way, I have an update on a mission you passed on to the local mercenaries..."