Hearing Admiral Rudra’s words, the atmosphere became tense again.
“How about this? We will return half of your people for now and the other half later.” Augaran said with a weak smile. “That’s the best we can do.”
“Otherwise…” He paused, a cold glint passing in his eyes. “Things might really get chaotic, which we do not desire.”
“Bring them here,” Almond nodded.
‘I am really not feeling good about this,’ Lily relayed internally, her right hand’s index finger twitching. ‘I don’t want to get into their pace.’
‘If you are feeling that, then we indeed have to do something,’ Admiral Rudra said.
‘Yes,’ Almond also agreed. ‘Let them bring half of our people here. We’ll find out more once they are here.’
From the table, the chief commander stood up and entered a portal that Augaran created.
“Anyway, why don’t you call more powerhouses from your clan in the meantime? The battle will be between ten of you and ten of ours, after all. Oh, and I apologize for not relaying this with the message,” Augaran apologetically said. “We didn’t know which way we should resolve this until just ten minutes ago when a judge agreed to come here.”
‘They are lying.’ Lily’s fist clenched.
Suddenly, a golden portal appeared with a powerful aura, even more powerful than the other two Supreme Emperors.
A bald man looking in his forties, wearing a luxurious robe and a bracelet of mystical beads on his wrist that gave off a mystical and powerful aura, indicating that it was a rather high-tiered artifact.
“It looks like all players haven’t arrived here, haha. No problem, we shall spend some time with your clan’s special wine.”
He sat down at the empty head chair, nodding at the Supreme Emperors to his left before turning his head to look at Almond, Lily, and Admiral Rudra to the right side of the table.
“Pleased to meet you, talented young ones. I am Garoya of Golden Sky, here to preside over the battle to resolve the issue between you two.”
Almond could feel this guy was as powerful as the top Supreme Emperors he had seen at the Griminion Tide but weaker than the top five.
“If that’s the case, then why don’t we fully disclose how everything happened?” Lily raised her eyebrows. “Inviting us here, making us follow their whims and things without any details of the conflict, is not how it’s done.”
“Indeed. What exactly happened? How did it start?” Almond asked.
But a second after Almond asked, the chief commander emerged from the portal, bringing with him the people.
Admiral Rudra, Almond, and Lily looked at them.
“Boss…”
“Leader…”
The members of Mad Nuts walked out with dispirited expressions.
However, none of them were Grim Breakers.
“As you can see, they are safe and sound,” Augaran said with a smile.
‘Where are the others? What happened to them?’ Almond asked the members of Mad Nuts.
‘We don’t know, boss. We were placed separately.’
‘Yeah, we’ve never seen them after the conflict.’
Hearing that, the trio frowned.
‘They are fucking with us!’ Lily wanted to snap. ‘There’s something wrong. And it’s bad! I just know it.’
“What’s the meaning of this?” Almond coldly looked at the Supreme Emperors of the Darton clan and stood up.
Lily and Admiral Rudra also stood up, their auras surging.
“What happened?” Garoya blinked, confused by the sudden rise of tension.
“You’ve kept Regalons separate from other members of the faction,” Admiral Rudra narrowed his eyes. “Are we supposed to think that’s normal? That you are not doing anything to them?”
“Come on, Mr. Rudra,” Augaran dryly chuckled. “We’ve kept them separate precisely because they are members of the House of Regalon. They are special, so of course, we’ll treat them specially.”
“It clearly looks like they are worried for their family, and that’s fair,” Garoya said with a calm nod. “Please make an oath that you haven’t done anything bad to them and reassure them. Otherwise, I will have to take their side and demand that you release their people before the battle.”
“Fine,” the female Supreme Emperor flatly said while internally sneering. ‘We’ve done nothing to them so far, but it’s not our fault if something happens to them later.’
The two Supreme Emperors and the three Immortal Emperors took an oath.
Almond and Admiral Rudra felt relief, but Lily only got more irritated as her Vibe Meter was clearly indicating something bad because it was clear these people were lying, and that meant they had planned something.
‘Al, we can’t continue. They have planned something bad, and if we let them control our pace…’
Almond and Admiral Rudra frowned. If Lily still felt like that after their oath, then they indeed shouldn’t let things go as they planned.
“Anyway, where are the rest of your people?” Garoya blinked. “The battle is supposed to be ten versus ten.”
“They are here,” Almond flatly said as he waved his hand, and suddenly, seven powerful auras appeared behind the trio.
“T-This…”
“What?”
Everyone was startled.
“Let’s start right away,” Admiral Rudra said as his aura surged, adorning his Regalon Spirit Armament as he smashed his fist. “There’s no point in wasting any more time.”
“Where’s the battlefield?” Lily asked.
“You are really impatient,” Augaran chuckled, his eyes on the seven exotic powerhouses behind them. “And I must say, this was very unexpected.”
‘Seven Immortal Emperors?! And four of them are at the peak in terms of foundational stats!’ Chief Commander was shocked.
‘Those two are the summons he displayed during the Griminion Tide battle. Who knew he had more of such powerful summons?!’
‘Humph! Merely summons can’t be more powerful than our Immortal Emperors.’
‘But they are quite powerful, seniors… I don’t think I can win against that draconian-winged powerhouse with a huge blade. I’ve seen him fight in the video. On top of maximum stats, he actually has an Ascent-rank Mastery of the Lava element, not to mention the Abilities they’ve displayed.’
‘According to the analysis done and posted by the experts, the one with the huge blade touched the Ability Power of Omicron rank at full power, while the female summon touched Epsilon despite her weaker stats, indicating that she possesses quite a powerful Ability Tree.’
“Please,” Augaran said, gesturing at an empty ground as a big portal appeared. “Let’s head to the battlefield as you wish and wrap this up fast.”
“You all return first,” Almond waved his hand as he sent the members of Mad Nuts back to the Academy grounds with long-range teleportation before he walked towards the portal with the rest of the group trailing behind.
“Let’s finish this fast.”