“Got it. What do you want me to do?” Kexell asked.
“Protect our base here. There are no powerhouses here except for the native allies that we’ve made of this battlefield. Ultimately, they are not as strong, and their powers are limited, so if your spying result is right, they might do two things.”
“First, they would start a hunt to kill you, or second, they would attack Earth’s base. Maybe they’d do both, one by one.”
“If they destroy the base here, the Phase 1 event will rule us out as the losers and wipe out half of the population of my world.”
Almond narrowed his eyes. “That shouldn’t happen. I’m also going to give you a spirit device that will connect you to me while I am in the Labyrinth, so if there’s any attack, inform me.”
“Our priority is keeping ourselves safe. Only then will we be able to get your revenge.”
“Got it,” Kexell nodded as darkness burst around him while he forcefully turned the atmospheric mana into his domain, exerting his will to empower it.
“I can’t kill them, but they also can’t kill me. As of now, I am the undying fortress of this base,” Kexell said before loudly roaring.
Almond grinned. “Awesome.”
…
Almond returned to the Labyrinth and resumed the grand party’s expedition of clearing as many floors as possible within seventeen hours, but not without Almond giving them a hell of challenges.
On the other hand, Kexell’s spying was correct because the Dragon Kings and Dragon Emperor had visited the Eldoren Planet’s base after finalizing a meeting by secretly talking in the Battlefield Hub.
Eldoren Planet’s base in the Battlefield was a giant tree stretching roughly 2000 meters high, with the base intricately built throughout this giant tree.
At the very top branches was the Midnight royal palace, where the Midnight Empire’s giant symbol was carved.
Below it were four more palaces at different heights, belonging to the other four Empires.
These five empires had different types of elves in the majority—Dark Elves, Forest Elves, Lunar Elves, Sun Elves, and Star Elves.
Midnight Empire was a Dark Elves majority empire with multiple variants of dark elves, and it wasn’t always the strongest.
All Empires had ruled Eldoren Planet at different periods in their history, and this time, it was the Midnight Empire that was strongest, with the strongest emperor who was also the Arcane Champion—Zanathriel Umbraaris Midnight, generally called Umbral Emperor by the masses.
Inside the Midnight Empire’s Palace, the Umbral Emperor sat at a large table with four other Emperors, facing the Dragon Emperor and his entourage.
“As I understand, you want our help to kill the Arcane Champion of your world?” the Umbral Emperor calmly spoke.
Across him, twenty meters away, a golden-beared middle-aged man with shimmering semi-scales appearing on his bare shoulders sat. He nodded in response and said, “Killing him will benefit everyone because he is an unbound disaster. He is unpredictable because his curses are multitude, and they activate differently. The more we hurt him, the stronger he gets.”
“And he never dies. At least, not at our hands.”
Umbral Emperor glanced at the side where there was nothing and said, “It seems that you can get a partner now.”
Suddenly, a strange metallic device with a big eye appeared, looking at them.
From it, a familiar voice rang out, belonging to none other than Neo Elvergarde.
“That dragon indeed feels more troublesome than the Earth’s Arcane Champion. Earth is already losing, and we can seal their defeat in the next event by suppressing them jointly. Their battlefield points are far behind us, so the priority should be Kexell the Cursed Vagabond.”
“If he gets stronger, it could get more troublesome.”
Dragon Emperor was surprised, but he immediately voiced out, “It appears that this gentleman controlling that eye understands the threat.”
“We are all enemies, but there’s no harm in working together. I’ve proposed the same to Earth’s Arcane Champion, but if he agrees to that, I will try to finish him off, though he will escape given his space elemental mastery.”
“Space…” Umbral Emperor muttered. Looking at the Dragon Emperor, he said, “I am not getting enough reason to join hands with you two. Since you both wish to eliminate the Dragon, do so without me.”
“I’m afraid that’s not a good decision,” Neo spoke as the metallic eye glinted. “I might join hands with Earth and eliminate you first.”
The atmosphere in the hall suddenly turned tense.
The cyber metallic eye and Umbral Emperor looked at each other, and an arc of spark, almost ethereal, flickered and clashed, causing everyone in the hall to be pressurized, including the Dragon Emperor.
“Do you think just because I am not joining hands with you now meant I won’t join hands with Earth and that Dragon? You are already at a disadvantage, Neo Elvergarden,” the Umbral Emperor narrowed his eyes. “You are someone who would betray your allies easily.”
“Then don’t get betrayed. We are enemies, not allies, and this is just a temporary alliance to eliminate some subjects. It could be Kexell or you. I don’t need feelings or loyalty. I want logic and results. I will side with the party that brings a satisfactory result that will make my world win this event.”
Silence.
The words were sound and true.
But this also made the Dragon Emperor and Umbral Emperor more cautious of Neo Elvergarde.
“It looks like it will be interesting to fight with you-” the Umbral Emperor smiled,”-after eliminating the so-called disaster dragon and Earth out of the battlefield of the mightiest.”
“So, will you join hands?”
“Tell me your plan,” the Umbral Emperor said. “And I suppose your priority is the cursed dragon, right?”
“Indeed.”
“I can suppress Kexell to a certain extent,” Dragon Emperor said. “With the artifact I have, I can weaken his curse power.”
“Perfect,” Neo said. “The next event is starting in seventeen hours. Once we eliminate Earth from it, we can begin our hunt on the Battlefield as that Dragon has nowhere else to go.”