Soon, the three of them were near a pier at the edge of the Elvin Island. Tens of massive ships spread along the coast, filled to the brim with young elves.
Dyon’s features noticeably saddened when he noticed older elves as well. He couldn’t help but think of Little Lyla and her parents.
Dyon sighed. ‘The young see this as a way to prove themselves… The old see this as a way to survive…’
However, it seemed Dyon was oblivious to the effect his arrival had on everyone around him. They had all witnessed or heard of the boy who saved their kingdom from ruin. But, he was different now… Maybe he seemed more human when he wore sweat pants… But, now? Especially beside their princess and a warrior whose blood lust made them shiver? His presence was otherworldly.
“Arios,” Dyon called, “how did it go?”
Arios nodded. “Everything is ready for when you want to move. They’ve also learned the same command code as the main army. I’ve also distributed all of the array plate filled spatial rings to them as well. Although, I didn’t organize them the way you did.”
The array plate filled spatial rings were actually something Dyon had given to the main army as well. He was at a point where he could inscribe hundreds of peak practitioner arrays in minutes. Making hundreds of thousands of array plates to supply an army was only a matter of money to Dyon. Plus, not only did he not lack the money, those array plates made some very interesting formations possible…
Dyon shook his head. “That’s fine. They’re a much smaller unit. When the time comes, I’ll do it myself.”
“Dyon! Over here!” .
Dyon looked over from Arios to find Zaltarish and his elder sister calling to him. Smiling he headed over.
“Campaign Head. Zaltarish.” Dyon greeted them amiably.
Akash smiled. Her appearance was truly domineering. Cropped black armor, a large singular shoulder guard, all brought together perfectly by the two short spears and sword on her back.
‘Double sided spear? Interesting.’ Dyon immediately realized those ‘short’ spears were meant to be connected.
“This ship here,” Akash said, pointing to a ship slightly larger than the rest. “Is where the leaders will be. We’ll have to hurry. Our scouts have reason to believe our opponents may be attacking our key towers soon…”
Suddenly Dyon thought of something. “Do universes usually not have names?”
Akash nodded. “We normally name them by the clans or sects we’re dealing with. It makes it better for understanding exactly what we’re dealing with and when. From my limited knowledge, very few universes have earned the right to have their own name.”
Akash looked around for a moment, a bit confused. “Did your army already board? Princess Alexandria told me that you wouldn’t be needing me to assign troops under your lead.”
Dyon smiled. “Since you’re the head commander, there’s no problem with telling you. My and Ri’s army are within this spatial ring.”
Dyon pointed to an inconspicuous ring on his finger. No one ever noticed it, and that was the point. He had been layering it with more and more powerful concealment arrays since he got it.
Akash froze. “A ring able to hold living things?…”
The amount of possibilities that brought were endless. In fact, if a universe had access to such a thing, why would they need to negotiate? They could directly bypass the gate rules, piling their ring with high level experts, and exit the other side before releasing them.
If either universe had access to such a thing, conquering key towers would become moot.
Dyon smiled. He had once assumed this ring was at the Spiritual level. But, the more he researched and learned, the less and less likely that became… he even concluded that such a ring was impossible for a clan at the level of the Celestial Deer Sect to create. Which could only mean they inherited it from something… something that might have to do with their destruction.
As such, when Dyon told Akash this, he had already discreetly placed an array within her. Should she ever want to tell anyone about this, she would not only fail, but she would also alert Dyon as well. This was a test. A test to see whether or not there were elves he could trust aside from Ri and Little Lyla. A test he thought he might as well give to Zaltarish as well.
Akash nodded, immediately understanding Dyon’s intent. “Alright. It’s best if you bring them out when we enter the ship, since this is a secret you’d like to keep.”
Although Akash had thought of the possibility of Dyon simply taking the Elves within the ring and storming to the other side of the gate, it simply didn’t make sense.
For one, to get to the other side wasn’t so simple to begin with. Someone had to bring you there, and that required more power than the Elvin younger generation had. As a second point, even if they managed to sneak there, what would happen on the other side? The negotiation protected new clans entering into a universe, but, entering one secretly obviously didn’t have that built in insurance. Would they continue to run from gate to gate? Ridiculous. They’d have to find a place to settle eventually. Living in a ring for the rest of your life didn’t sound appealing at all.
Akash was about to turn to lead them, but she stopped, remembering something.
“This is the ranking tracker,” Akash handed what looked like an array plate to him. “The array transcribes itself within you to monitor you actions in battle. You can turn it off and on as you please. And, it’s always off when outside of a gate. I was told that you wanted it registered under the name Demon Sage, so, I did that for you as well.
“As for what it tracks and how it tracks it, I’ll leave that up to the princess to explain. There are quite a few facets.”
Dyon nodded, accepting the plate. He didn’t like the idea of all of his actions being monitored, especially when it came to the secrets he wanted to hide. But, a master level plate would never be able to do something he didn’t want it to do.
He immediately modified the concealment array on his ring to appear completely invisible by the standards of the ranking tracker. Satisfied with that, he turned to Ri.
“Were you not going to have one?”
Ri shook her head. “Aren’t I just one of your Vice Commanders, why would I need one?”
Dyon smiled. “Just one of? If we had to describe what you were, it’d be best to say half my heart.”
Ri rolled her eyes. “Stop being so cheesy, you already have me. Save your lines for Big Sister Madeleine, something tells me your voice is exactly what she wants to hear right now.”
Arios chuckled while Zaltarish seemed to be diligently studying Dyon.
Dyon could only pout as Ri grabbed his hand, pulling him along as they walked to the ship.
Akash laughed to herself, seemingly the only one who noticed Ri trying to hold herself back from smiling.
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