Mane looked at his father with a bemused expression and watched as the older man carefully folded the large cloak and placed it on the chair.
"So how was it?" Mane asked with a smile. He asked his father to take on the role of the beloved hero of the Western Empire and bane to the Dark Kingdom – Hidden Cloak.
The Dark God Seth was working alongside the Dark Sword. Since Seth had already revealed that he had warriors who had escaped the confines of this world's strength system, the Dark Kingdom wouldn't hide their power any longer. And since the Eastern Empire was yet to declare a full blown war, it was possible that they didn't have enough personnel. They would need an awful lot of soldiers to start a war with the three other empires. That's where the Dark Kingdom comes in. The Dark Kingdom was specialized in kidnapping and brainwashing young talents into the Dark Sword's puppet. Alexis and Mane had anticipated that the attacks led by the Dark kingdom would rise exponentially in the next few months. So they needed to be ready for them.
Mane was powerful but his power was limited. He didn't have his father's ability to ignore the laws of the world and fly; he didn't have his father's extreme speed; and he wasn't a Spiritual Emperor like his father. So he decided to do what he thought was best. He asked his father to be Hidden Cloak. Each of the members of the Silver Wolves, with the exception of Selina and Fred who had only joined recently, had taken the mantle of Hidden Cloak at one point in their lives. But none of them were powerful enough to handle and entire empire on their own. Usually they would be stationed at vantage points – checkpoints in the empire – for convenience. But they were all busy now. It was best to have only one person do the job.
"You were right" Ray sighed as he plopped down on the sofa. "They are going after the unnamed villages" Ray picked an apple from the tray and bit a huge chunk off it.
"They wouldn't want to alert the empire so it is only logical that they pick the unknown areas" Mane nodded his head. It wasn't strange that the Dark Kingdom was going after villages. They were usually so daring that they infiltrated the cities and took people out without getting apprehended. But they couldn't do that now. They wanted to quickly get new talent without being seen. It would take the empire some time to realize what was happening at the edges of its borders – which was where most of these villages were situated. By the time the Empire was aware of this, they would have long completed their mission.
"They are clearly in a rush" Ray spoke with certainty. He picked another apple and began to munch on it.
"Yeah" Mane only replied with one word. His father was right. So many attacks were orchestrated in just a day. And all the targets belonged to villages at the border of the Western Empire. The Dark Kingdom wanted things to be done quickly and efficiently. They couldn't leave any margin for error. Unfortunately for them, the Absolute Queen had been prepared for this and put countermeasures in place before she left– her son, Mane. Although he was just one person, he was only following her orders. Besides, he was an intelligent boy himself. If something wasn't quite right he would be able to read the situation and make the right call.
"What about the barrier?" Mane enquired. His father couldn't fly all over the place each day just to stop the Dark Kingdom. The main idea behind his heroics today was to allow the people to witness the flying hero who was protecting their empire. The people needed to idolize Hidden Cloak even more than they did before. They had to think him invincible and infallible. His father would only play this role for a few more days. But it wasn't the permanent solution. The Dark Kingdom would keep on coming until they had what they wanted. So they came up with a better solution.
"It's already done" Ray answered before throwing a small apple into his mouth. The idea was to have Ray erect a barrier that would cover the entire Western Empire. The barrier would protect the people in it, but it wouldn't allow anyone to leave the empire either. Ray could open up the barrier whenever he wanted, but only he knew the areas one could leave and enter through. It wouldn't be long before the citizens realized that they couldn't leave the empire. By then complaints would be made and the news would reach the Emperor. Fortunately Abelard was aware of the plan and had already informed his father. The Emperor would then inform the people that it was their 'god' Hidden Cloak who had done this. And it was meant to protect them from the war to come. But that wouldn't happen today or tomorrow. It would take some time for the scouts to realize that they couldn't leave the empire. By the time they do, the nobles would have relinquished their command over their armies.
"The Northern Empire would also be safe. But I don't know about the Southern Empire" Alexis was a scholar and had the power to cloud the minds of many on a large scale. She wasn't a spiritualist, but she was well versed in rune arts. So she had the ability to create a barrier. Coupled with her abilities as a Scholar Empress, she could create a barrier that would cloud the senses of all who weren't invited into the Empire. They wouldn't even know what was going on.
Unfortunately, the couple couldn't be in two places at the same time. They wouldn't be able to stop the Dark Kingdom's atrocious actions in the Southern Empire. Indra was there, but his mission was slightly different. His mission was to coerce the nobles and the royal family there into preparing for war. He was also tasked with protecting the people, but he wouldn't focus on protecting them individually. His focus would be protecting the Empire as a whole.
"Abe sent a message this morning" Mane changed the subject quickly. He had chosen to largely ignore the Southern Empire and focus on the Western and Northern Empires because of his own selfishness. He lived in the Western Empire – the Kingdom of Neces to be exact. Abelard was part of the Western Empire's royal family and Selina and Frederick had ties here. The twins belonged to the Northern Empire. But he didn't really know anyone in the Southern Empire so he had chosen to concentrate his forces in the other empires. It was true that he had sent them a god, but he did that for his own selfish interests. He sent the god to push them into submission, not to provide them with security.
"Any progress?" Ray asked with interest. He could smell the stench of Mane's guilt and wasn't willing to dwell on the topic any longer.
"Yes. More than 15% of the nobles have agreed to fund the war. Of these almost all of them are willing to push their men into battle" Mane replied
"That's faster than we thought" Ray was surprised that things were proceeding so smoothly.
"Abe threatened them" Mane stated with a smile. Abe didn't want to waste any time so he resorted to using his power to force the nobles into submission. It was only a matter of time before all of them relinquished their control over their forces.
"That could be dangerous" Ray furrowed his brows. He knew how dangerous it was to force someone to do something he/she didn't want to do. This method could backfire. Some of the nobles could betray them.
"Yes" Mane agreed. "But right now we don't have much of a choice" Mane sighed