The Rise of the Black Plain

Minos moved towards the spot that had appeared in his mind's eye when he discovered it, crossing the space towards the altar.

As he did so, he felt something trying to hold him back, but he didn't retreat at the first sign of danger. Instead, he quickly activated his tenth technique, making all the energy trying to contain him disappear.

His three companions followed, realizing how terrible their leader's latest technique was, but also shocked at how easily he could detect things.

'Is this where the lost idol is?' The strongest woman in the group wondered, curious to know if the item they had been searching for so long had been found so quickly by Minos.

Even before they were sure if this place was really connected to their ancestor, the other two relatives of the Goddess of Life pondered why they had failed in their search.

'This place was covered with high-level arrays! It would be impossible for us to perceive this place!' The man thought to himself as he sensed this altar and the spatial distortion in what appeared to be a small lake in the center of the altar.

But when they reached this place, they all realized it wasn't as easy as they had thought.

"This isn't the place we were looking for," Minos muttered as he felt some auras approaching him. "But here is one of the idols of the Veora family!"

Minos easily identified the power of faith, concentrating on one of the three statues around the small lake where there was a spatial distortion.

Why was he sure this was one of the Veora family's items? It's because the moment he entered the area, he felt several auras of Demigods appearing around the capital and probing in that direction.

"This is one of the Veora Family's faith power collection points." He told his three companions. 

Before the three of them could say anything, while observing the underground cave where this altar was located, they saw several spatial distortions appear in the surroundings of this place of about 3,000 cubic meters of space.

Several mid-level Demigods emerged from these spatial distortions, which were obviously caused by teleportation items.

The strongest of them was at level 95, armed with a spear and clad in golden armor, similar to the other newly arrived experts.

They were obviously soldiers from Veora's Royal Guard!

"Invaders..." One of the strongest soldiers there was about to say something when he stopped and saw the tall, strong, brown-haired, level 90 man wearing a high-level grade-4 golden armor.

"His Majesty Minos Stuart!" The strongest man there recognized who this intruder was and couldn't help but open his mouth in surprise. "What are you doing here? How did you get here? And how did you manage to destroy our defenses?" He asked in a serious tone.

Minos observed the group of 15 Demigods between levels 94 and 95 around him, all well-armed with equipment equal to their power, all looking strangely in his direction.

Before he could say anything, the relatives of the Goddess of Life were recognized by some of those guards who had all the state's wanted in their memories.

They were three criminals who had bounties on their heads for betraying the kingdom and plotting against the royal family. How could these warriors not recognize the three standing right in front of them?

"You... You bastards! It's you! You're the bastards who stole our last idol!" A level 94 guard shouted as he pointed his weapon in the direction of the three Sages.

When the other guards, who hadn't recognized the three yet, heard this, they looked at them differently and quickly realized who they were.

"Minos Stuart, what are you doing with these criminals? Do you realize the crimes they have committed?" The level 95 Demigod glared at the emperor while keeping his men from doing anything.

Minos saw that there was no hiding and laughed. "Of course, I know about them. After all, they are my soldiers. But that doesn't matter. What matters here is what you have and what I want." He pointed toward the spatial distortion where the core of the faith absorber was located!

He said in a threatening tone. "Kindly hand over your faith power-gathering idol to me or face the consequences.

Everyone became a few degrees more serious, not liking Minos' intentions at all. Considering his current level and confident voice, Emperor Stuart must have been much stronger than before.

That was terrible, and these men immediately felt they were in danger!

"Your Majesty Minos Stuart, are you here to start a war with Veora? Are you really willing to throw everything up in the air and start a war when we should be preparing to deal with the aliens?" The leader of the guards of this place asked as he clenched his fingers on his spear tighter.

"There will be no war or conflict between us. At worst, there will be a fight." Minos said as he smiled. "But that's up to you, not me. Just give me your idols, and we'll be fine. I won't help my three subordinates take revenge on you."

The three Sages didn't even flinch when they heard this. It was impossible for Veora to just hand over their most valuable items to Minos!

Items that could collect the power of faith were not common. In the entire Central Continent, only four states were known to possess such items. Veora was not one of them, which justified the existence of this ancient state, even if it had such idols that were coveted by the strongest in the Spiritual World.

Only a small fraction of the world's population knew about the power of faith. Among them, an even smaller number of individuals knew which organizations might or might not have idols on their side.

So there was no way the kingdom would agree to give up what it had to Minos just because of his words!

The leader of this team looked at Minos differently, seeing that what seemed to be a promising ally for the future was actually an enemy of his people.

"If you want what we have, you'll have to fight for it, Minos Stuart! Now that you've declared your evil intentions against Veora forget about leaving this place altogether! Let's see what gave you the confidence to come to us with such ridiculous plans!"

Minos laughed even more when he heard that, enjoying the idea of fighting all those Demigods. "Very well. Show me what you know!"