"And do you understand that I'm not your friend??" Oroz, one of the Dragonkin assigned to guard the gates to Tower City was having trouble with some late arrivals, the city was expected to leave when the sun rose over the horizon.
"Oroz, we have orders. Collar all suspicious peoples, we can sort it out when we're on the other side of the Void. Besides, we still have teams out looking for families. We have to wait. The Emperor has already said he would not be leaving before the Sun rose. My bet is that he's found himself in the arms of Miss Nara." Justin, was Oroz's close friend, they had both survived experimentation and come to Shiyan.
"Don't lump me with into a conversation about the Emperor's love life, I don't want to speculate.. Life is good, why complicate it with rumor." Oroz watched the road and waited. "There are too many people coming, and we are bound to leave without someone at this rate."
"Yup." Justin walked up to the man who had just arrived with sixty others. All of them were soaked in sweat, it was likely that they had been walking throughout the night perhaps longer.
"Collars?" One of the arrivals asked what they were for.
"Collars are for suspicious people, if we think you're suspicious, you put it on or you don't enter." Justin and Oroz both crossed their arms.
Someone started arguing, a gun was fired.
"Stupid Humans." Oroz swiped his tail across the busload of people. They scattered and dropped like wet rags from his tail when he stopped. "Put these on, before I incinerate you. You'll be lucky enough to come to Shiyan, but you're prisoners or corpses now.. your choice." A pile of Collars fell to the ground. "Pick them up and put them on." His voice left no room for discussion on the matter.
Justin pulled a street lamp sized metal pole from his ring and planted it near the City entrance.
"Lock them to this pole, if they get out of hand... Just incinerate them." Justin had enough of the soft handed pandering to criminals, they were a problem, they should have been thanking him for his act of mercy but still they harped and whined.
"The Emperor said to avoid killing humans while we are here, but he didn't say no. okay. If they get out of control one more time, they die." Oroz looked at the group who had been stripped of everything except underwear. "We are not going to allow you to play with our lives or interests, interrupt my thoughts again and I will take the only things you have left.. your lives."
"Hey look.. its Mercedes and Horus. They look like they are in a hurry." In the distant cloud cover of the jungle, two figures could be seen holding a large net.
Inside was a bus.
"A bus?" Oroz laughed but it was practical.
"At least they are comfortable." Justin let Mercedes and Horus through the main gate, the aerial shield ensured that no one could arrive undetected.
"THAT'S ALL OF THEM!" Mercedes landed inside of the gate. "Get everyone inside, I have orders to inform the Emperor when we've returned. QU. Can you leave the Pagoda yet?"
"Its like 3am." Justin understood that she had orders, but it was the middle of the night. "Are you certain you're the last group?"
"Yes. We had the longest mission, collecting VIPs." Mercedes seemed proud of herself.
"VIP's? Who's in there?" Justin tried to look through the tint on the bus, but it was blacked out.
Horus laughed. "We don't have time for this, orders. Mercedes, lets go. Emperor Zao wants this parked on the Arena Floor of the Pagoda. Lets go. He didn't want to land at the gates, everyone on board would want off. "See you all on the other side."
They flew to the pagoda.
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Opening his eyes, he looked to the woman in his arms, her shoulder exposed, Wu Hai kissed it gently. "Good morning my love. I'm going to start preparations, you should get some clothes on and join me when you're ready." Wu Hai was about to get up, but Kuzunoha had grabbed something below the sheets.
"You sure?" She smiled and turned over. Her slender frame was gently wrapped, exposing her legs.
He gulped. 'I could wait a bit longer' He shook it off, kissed her and strapped his pants. "Too much is riding on this. But if ever there was something that could stall me, its you." He picked up the sheets and took a peek. "mmm..." he dropped them like a parachute and started to kiss on her backside.
Slapping her in the ass, he tightened his belt and found the rest of his clothes. "I'm sure." Wu Hai took out the Token, he teleported to the Front gate.
'Nice, it worked' He put the token away, it was faster to move around in the Tower with the Token, but now that the Tower had expanded, it was a Tower City. he would have instant access to all the people inside the City.. it was another somewhat broken mechanic to the world and spell craft.
""Qu."" Wu Hai called for Qu's avatar.
"Yes, Emperor." Standing outside of the Tower, Qu looked back. For the first time he was seeing his vessel, he felt strange. "This is much more than I ever expected to happen to me. What is it that I can do for you?"
Wu Hai asked, "Are all the teams we sent out back?"
"Yes, the last arrived in the early morning. They are on the Arena floor." Qu was excited, so much was happening, he could feel the millions of people gathered in the City, each of them and their beating hearts, the blood coursing through their veins.
"Okay. Release the Beasts." Wu Hai pulled the Token out and summoned the four beasts from the Zao City Siege that had survived. The Chains that dragged on them were cut free. The Zao Clan wasn't worried, they had been quite difficult to feed. One by one, he landed on their backs and teleported away. Two were dropped in Siberia, the other two were dropped in Canada.
"Mated Pairs.. Behemoths, Emperor. Are you certain you wanted to do this?" Qu asked, unprepared for the answers that had come next.
"Canada and Russia were co-conspirators in the Bombing, they will lose almost all of their forestry and mining industry, the new homes of the Behemoths. I've found all the details, but we don't have time to wait for the action to start. These are my parting gifts to the world." Zao Wu Hai walked out of the gate and focused on the Tower City Token.
It started to shrink, about five minutes later it had shrunk down to a manageable size. The Emperor stored it away and sat on a pillar of Obsidian. He carved five words into its face the night before. 'THE ESPER EMPEROR WAS HERE'
His focus was about as good as it could get, he drank a Mana potion. "Here we go." Wu Hai pulled the dragon egg sized crystal from the ring and sat it in his lap. A Darkness Ring turned to a teleportation circle, his energies poured into the Egg. Then, he placed his hand on the spellwork.
The dust in the area collapsed.
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