The Rise of the Black Plain

A few days later...

After leaving the previous city, Minos' group traveled quickly to the vicinity of the capital of Vogel, where they were about to arrive at this time.

This state was not grand in size, and its capital was closer to the northern region than to its great enemy, the Flaming Empire.

With this, even considering the forests with high-level beasts in these areas, this group's journey from the Black Plain did not take longer than it should have.

The four humans and two beasts had fought several times during this period, but this had not been anything that could hinder their travel plans to the Vogel family headquarters city.

And in those days, Abby, who was already very close to a breakthrough before she even reached the crypt in the Kingdom of the Waves, had reached level 61 the day before!

Her talent had increased, and she was already close to a breakthrough. So, with the fights she had a chance to have these days, she had reached the same level as her husband.

As for the two beasts in this group, Maida was not as talented, so she did not have much expectation of advancing in the coming months. Kyla, on the other hand, had advanced just before leaving the Black Plain with her companions, so she needed a few more months of training to reach level 58.

Anyway, they were getting ready to pass through the border control of the capital, where several carriages and people on beasts like theirs were lined up in long lines.

There were all kinds of creatures in the vicinity, with humans between levels 45 and 55, close to the average power of this high-level kingdom.

"Let's go through that other line..." Gloria commented to the two beasts in her group, indicating one of the VIP entrances to this grand city.

"Are we going to use the Spiritual Church to our advantage?" Abby asked as she smiled at her harem sisters.

Minos then took something from his spatial rings and handed it to them. "Put those masks on. Let's hide our faces while we are in this place."

They wore hoods until then, and since they were the last in the line they had just left, no one had noticed them yet. Thus, to avoid being recognized by potential enemies, Minos had thought of this when he saw the royal family guards at that entrance post.

His three wives promptly obeyed his order and put on masks similar to his own, hiding their beautiful faces.

With that, soon, the two beasts arrived at the side of a particular entrance post, where only one carriage besides their group was passing at this moment.

"Oh? This smell..." A young man inside that carriage felt a unique scent coming from outside his means of transportation and felt interested in that Spiritual Emperor emanating such a thing.

He was an aristocrat who liked the smell of every 'flower,' but some emitted certain fragrances that showed their outstanding quality.

He had a theory that a woman with a distinctive scent had characteristics that were just as unique. As such, he could not contain his curiosity to see such a rarity.

As he stuck his head out the window on the right side of his carriage, he saw three women and a man standing on top of a black-furred tigress.

Unfortunately, each of them had a mask covering their face, and he could only tell the quality of their beauty just by their fairy hands and high-standard bodies.

"Hello, my name is Morton Wolf. Can I know from where the ladies came from?" He asked as he stepped out of his carriage, ignoring the guard about to attend to Minos' group.

Minos looked in the direction of that fellow and then gave a short, thick answer. "We are of the order of Iron Hearts from the Sacred Hill." He then showed a symbol of the Spiritual Church that he had received from Margot.

Upon hearing Minos' comment and seeing the symbol of the Spiritual Church, each guard in the surrounding area took a step back. At the same time, as the young man widened his eyes, one of his servants came to his rescue before he met his end.

"Iron Hearts?" He swallowed his saliva as he uttered the name of the order that formed the extermination groups of the Spiritual Church.

Every person who came from the headquarters of the Spiritual Church on Sacred Hill was feared because of their potential within that organization. But those from Iron Hearts were much worse, as they were the enforcers of this grand organization.

They not only punished, they judged, and also sentenced the punishments they imposed on rebels and enemies!

Therefore, when they heard from Minos that his group had this origin, the people in the surroundings trembled with fear of these dangerous beings.

Meanwhile, Gloria was surprised that Minos would say that name. 'I never mentioned that order to him... It seems my husband's knowledge of the Church is quite profound.'

"Sorry for the delay, Your Excellencies. You may enter now!" A guard said this as he opened one of the entrance gates to that city while the others in that area were still scared to death.

Gulp!

"Why are these people here?" One of the guards muttered to his closest colleague.

The colleague then replied. "I don't know. Maybe they are in training. Don't you see? One of them is much stronger than the others, and she wears the robes of the Church, but the other doesn't."

As Minos and his group moved off, the young man from before managed to get into his carriage after much difficulty and help from his servant.

'How could this be? Such a distinguished group came from such a dark place?'

Gulp!

'To make matters worse, from that guy's tone, he sounded angry!' Finally, he paled in fear and looked at his servant. "Let's go away! Let's return home!"

"What? What about the family business?"

"Screw it! That guy will kill me if I stay here. I'm sure!" He shouted in nervousness. "I didn't see his face, but I'm sure he looked at me like I was a dead animal!"

"To make matters worse, the family could get in trouble if we get involved with such dangerous people!"

...

Meanwhile, Minos and his group were quietly making their way into the interior of the outstanding capital of Vogel.

"Minos, what was that back there? Why did you say that?" Abby asked in curiosity since she was the only one who did not know about that information from the Spiritual Church.

Minos laughed and said. "I just scared that person a little. He was looking at my women, so I just took a few nights of sleep away from him, hehehe."

Gloria then explained to Abby. "Iron Hearts is the order that forms the members of the Church who are responsible for carrying out punishments, among other things."

"It was one of the groups in that order that wiped out that sect in Albano."

"Oh?" Abby gasped in surprise as Ruth looked at Minos and smiled beneath her mask.

This black-haired woman already knew about such a thing, so she had not questioned Minos about it. "But don't you think pretending to be part of such a powerful group is dangerous?"

"No," Minos said. "There aren't many in that order, and those people are too far from Church headquarters to do anything about it."

"Finally, we are visiting the local temple with our identities protected. So there's no danger."

"Sigh!" Gloria then said. "Anyway, don't go off saying such things easily. Next time, let's solve our problems without taking any major risks..."

"Hmmm." He nodded just as they were about to reach the central square of the capital, where the Spiritual Church temple and the royal palace were!

...