The Rise of the Black Plain

After settling the matter of the Banished Crossfire with his group, Minos had the two sides shaking hands, and the sect master smiled as he shook Kendrick's hand.

"It's good to have you back, Kendrick." He said, knowing the young man in front of him had harbored some resentment towards him in the past years.

"Hmm." Kendrick just nodded and followed his father's wishes.

Minos saw everyone greeting each other and stopped next to Hollie and Lily, hugging them both and making them smile again after years of worry.

"You two have grown up well, huh? I'm looking forward to training with you. You're almost at my level, so we can train harder from now on."

The two girls swallowed their saliva upon hearing their father's comment, not knowing if this was necessarily a good thing.

"No..."

"There's no need to rush things..."

"Let's play together when I've recovered. Now let me speak to your mothers." Minos left the two and walked towards a nearby garden, with Gloria, Ruth and Abby following him.

"I'm glad you made it through the years of my absence. I was afraid that something dangerous had caught up with you." He sighed as he sat down on a stone bench, Gloria and Abby sitting next to him while Ruth remained standing.

"It wasn't easy. We had to carry out many missions, gather resources, take part in the political game of this sect and the problems of the war in the galaxy.

We barely survived it all." Ruth said sincerely, not wanting her husband to be away for so long again.

"I see... I'm sorry, but it was out of my control. I can't talk too much about what happened to me, but when I reach level 115, I'll go through a similar situation. So let's prepare ourselves first." He warned the three of them.

"This... Are you competing for an inheritance?" Abby asked, looking into her husband's eyes.

Minos hadn't even gone into detail with his wives, so they didn't know that he was competing for a place in the Upper Realm. They knew such heritages existed all over the universe, because Minos had already talked about it with them in the Spiritual World when he told them about the results they had got after destroying Irpoll and gathering information about the Upper Realm. But they didn't know about the legacy Minos was taking part in.

Minos smiled at Abby, indicating this was the case.

"Unfortunately, I can't tell you more, so as not to endanger you. In any case, we'll be much stronger by the time I reach level 115, and I hope we'll be in a solid position in Zocarro by then. Things shouldn't get too hectic for you in my future absence."

"I don't know. We have little luck with these things." Gloria smiled bitterly, indicating things were unlikely to go the way they wanted. "We always get into trouble."

The four of them laughed at Gloria's words, thinking how true they were.

"There will be enough time to prepare. At least this time, we'll have the chance to prepare well in advance and avoid being on warring planets." Abby muttered.

"I hope the bad luck of the three of you doesn't lead to a war on Zocarro." Ruth laughed as she made her good-humored comment.

They continued to talk alone while the children of Minos returned to their old quarters in the sect, and the rest of the group went to prepare for the start of their recovery.

The six Armhands who had sacrificed their Flashdrain parasites weren't too bad yet, but they would soon feel their strength diminishing. Before that happened, they wanted to take the time to prepare everything for their recovery, leaving the group to prepare for their absence and ordering the sect members not to disturb them.

Those who hadn't sacrificed anything because they weren't members of the Armhands yet wanted to start meditating right away to get stronger, so they didn't want to be bothered by the sect either.

Grisdi left Minos' group and joined his uncle, who was currently dealing with the men who had come with the group on the orders of the level 114 Sovereign. "Sovereign Kaith, good luck with His Excellency Minos Stuart's group. Do your best to help and protect them while they recover. We'll be waiting for warnings from you about their group."

"Hmm, don't worry. I know what I have to do. But what about Senior? What has he decided after allying himself with this group?" The sect leader asked.

"He went to The Blossom World to attack the planet. His Excellency Minos Stuart opened seven portals to the enemy planet." Said one man who had witnessed everything.

"Oh?"

"We won't hear from him for a while. Let's stay alert in case the enemies notice our momentary weakness."

"All right. Good luck on your way back."

The two sides said their goodbyes, with the group that had accompanied Minos there heading back to their post, while the members of Banished Crossfire stayed behind with Grisdi.

"What now?" One of the level 111 elders asked. "Return to your positions and correct the previous situation of Kendrick's group. Make everything go back to the way it was before Their Excellencies were kidnapped." He said before looking at his niece. "You must go back to Kendrick's side and ask for forgiveness for everything you've done in the past months, Grisdi. Commit yourself to him, no matter what it takes." He ordered, as the level 105 girl felt that there was no escaping her fate with the mad Kendrick.

"I just hope he doesn't put us in so much danger again. We've been attacked by mid-level and high-level groups from the 11th stage in The Blossom World. Even a level 112 corpse attacked us, almost killing our entire group." She told her uncle about one of her near-death experiences. "Level 112 corpse?" He frowned, not expecting Abby to have revived such strong beings in The Blossom World.

"Yes. But I wouldn't worry about these corpses. Most of them must have died from Minos Stuart's attack when we left here. I have to say, he's much more impressive than his son." She assessed what she had seen and couldn't help but shudder at the thought of Kendrick's father on the battlefield.

"Unlike Kendrick, he didn't give me any instability. He looks like he was born to fight on the battlefield."