Claus was sitting in his study, reading through some papers, when someone knocked the door.
"Come in!" – Claus replied furrowing his eyebrows. He knew that he wouldn't be disturbed if the issue was not serious.
"Master Claus, Armani Empo has requested an Audience with you, he said you have invested him." – A man in a butler's outfit walked into the office, politely bowed to Claus and delivered the message.
[Armani Empo!? Why would he come here at a time like this, and why he said I invited him here!?] – Claus started to think, he was confused when he heard the butler's words. It was a time when they had to keep quite as much as possible. Any form of their interaction might have aroused the suspicion of CIA. He thought that something important might have come up with their clients and that is the reason he has come.
"Ok, I am personally going to meet him!" – Claus replied with a serious expression on his face.
Claus just have exited the room when another butler delivered the news that the Emperor is coming over and that the vice-captain Anna Katenda was the one who informed them about the Emperor's intention.
"No…Impossible…It can't be!" – Claus started to panic because he immediately assumed the worst scenario possible, where they have been found out.
Both Claus and Armani were nervous for the last month the least. The more the day would come closer for them to do the job, the more nervous they would become. Claus would become nervous because he knew the amount of money involved in the job. Armani would become nervous because he knew what kind of object was involved.
Calming down a few seconds later, Claus thought everything over. It most luckily was just a coincidence, but to make sure no mishaps would happen, he planned to send Armani away after some small casual talk, because no matter what Armani wanted it was by no means comparable to the possibility of the Emperor finding out their plans.
"You listen to me well, you never told me the piece of news yet. I will go and meet Armani first, after a few minutes of our talk you are to come to us and deliver the news. Do you understand!?" – Claus spoke to the second butler in an arrogant way. That natural since in the aristocratic society status was everything.
"Yes, master!" – the butler bowed to Claus again before going off somewhere.
"Let's go"- Claus ordered the first butler as he started to move.
Claus was in the palace jost for only a little over two months, therefore he didn't have enough time to plant too many of his own people in the place, but he did successfully plant a few and the butlers were of those people.
Claus hurriedly went towards gates, where Armani has already entered the palace's territory and understanding the fact that Claus was a cultivator of the middle Manifestation Stage, his speed was very impressive. The speed was boosted by an additional fact that his inborn spirit monster was a speed type of the cat family.
Claus met with Armani after a short while. Armani was equally surprised to see Claus personally coming to meet him, especially when so many people were around. In the letter, Claus has said that the matter has to be discussed secretly, so he assumed that he would wait for him at his study, where no one would be present.
"I welcome you in the name of prince Julius, senior Armani Empo. What would bring you to our humble abode!?" – Claus was speaking in such a way that showed his ignorance regarding his visit, which in turn made Armani to immediately make a conclusion that the letter was not written by Claus and he didn't have any idea, why has Armani come to this place.
At the same time as Claus finished speaking, the gates through which Armani and his servants came inside the prince's domain, shut with a loud creaking sound.
Immediately after that the felt 4 extremely terrifying monster energies coming their way.
"Claus, it is an ambush, we have been found out!" – Armani instantly understood their situation due to his rich experience of dealing with important matters.
"Quickly, go for the gates, if we don't leave as soon as possible, only death awaits us!" – Armani shouted hurriedly and started to make a strange hand gesture. He made hand lock crossing the fingers of both hands, a second later he clapped them after separating the hands, after that he hit the ground with his palms. A moment later a huge Blue Monster appeared out of nowhere. It was about 20 tall, had yellow moustaches and eyebrows. It's huge sharp teeth together with long sharp claws and scary face, made the beast look very intimidating. Armani stood right between its legs. The beast lied down to a side to let him get to its back.
A few seconds later even more beast started to appear. 4 more additional beasts of smaller sizes varying between 10-15 meters appeared. All of the 5 beasts were very different in the way they looked, the animal families they originated from and so on. The beasts were different due to the fact them being inborn spirit Monsters. An Inborn spirit Monster was a representation of a human's nature from whom this is originated from, for example Armani's inborn spirit monster was called Monster of Trade, which represented his desire to be a merchant.
The Inborn Spirit Monsters all a had special trait, which would mostly decide if the Monster cultivator had potential or not. Armani's monster of trade had a trait that allowed it to increase in physical or magical power depending on the amount of money Armani was wishing to sacrifice. Currently Armani sacrificed everything he got on hand and his space rings to increase the Monster's vitality.
Claus on the other hand, had a cat type Inborn Spirit Monster whose main trait was speed which represented his desire for fast career progress and his adaptivity. The special trait of the Monster was nine lives which it could use to immediately cure deathly wounds and even come back after it's death, which showed Claus's ability to complete his given task no matter how many times he failed.
The special treats of the inborn spirit Monsters were the strongest weapons of the monster cultivators, but the usage of the traits would lead to extreme drainage of their monster Energy.
There were 5 stages to the cultivation of monster energy. First stage - the Monster Embryo Stage, The second stage – The Monster Core Cultivation Stage, the third stage – Soul Fusion Stage, fourth stage – Manifestation Stage and fifth stage – Tribulation stage. Each one whole stage was further divided into initial, middle and upper phases. After the tribulation stage if one had an inborn spirit monster of required potential and talent to comprehend and master one area of natural laws, the monster cultivator would be ablt to reach the legendary Immortal Stage and move on to the Immortal Realm.
Both Inborn Spirit Monsters and Monster Cultivators stages were increased independently, but the difference between their stages couldn't be greater than one phase. It was a common knowledge that no matter how hard someone trained to achieve a higher stage when the inborn monster was lacking in cultivation phase, no one has ever succeeded.
The monster cultivators themselves as well as the inborn spirit monsters had limitis to what stage they could achieve. The maximum stage someone together with his inborn spirit monster could reach was fixed depending on the Monster Core they form during the monster Core Cultivation stage. Therefore, it was the most important stage for cultivation and the cultivation was to be taken at a slow pace.
While Armani and his side were manifesting their inborn spirit monsters, the oppressive monster energies they felt were getting closer and closer at an incredible speed. The killing intent could be felt to such a degree that the cultivators who had cultivation lower than soul fusion stage started to feel how their bodies are pierced by millions of needles, they started to hallucinate and see how they are torn to piece's time and a time again.
Armani's side moved as fast as they could, soon however, they couldn't help but stop their rush. In front of them, blocking their path to gates, was standing a beautiful blond woman. She had a face as pure as a white jade, her blond hair reaching to her waist was slowly floating a bit due to the wind, but for the onlookers it felt as if the hair was harmonically dancing. Behind the woman stood a huge bird that looked like an eagle. The bird was pure white in colour and not a trace of black could be seen on it's feathers.
"Vice-Captain Anna Katenda, how should we be understanding this situation!?" – Armani spoke in a demanding tone as if he was utterly confused by what was happening. Armani knew who the woman was and was very familiar with her character, the same way as her inborn spirit monster snow eagle was white, she too had a naïve personality. It was said that the special trait of her Snow Eagle was to turn black to the extend, that Anna Katenda's character would get angry.
"The Emperor decreed. Arrest Armani Empo, Claus Careliy and people connected to them for suspicion of poisoning the prince. Do not resist, or you won't like the consequences." – Anna Katenda spoke in a calm but commanding voice. If someone were to closely look at the Eagle behind her, they would see that right beside the eyes of the eagle, some feathers turned black.
It turned out that she was not as calm as she appeared on the outside, and was really angry. The reason for was that Armani was a suspect for the incident with prince Julius, whose character everyone loved and she was not an exception.