"Heather must be here. They actually brought her out of that fortress for something like this. If we can take her out of the picture the light alliance will be weakened by a great deal."
"No matter how lax their security got, Heather would never be able to enter the barrier without their consent and none of their leaders are dumb enough to send her in here without a dozen deities to escort her."
"So Heather is still outside and someone else entered with her help. What could their motive in doing so be?"
"I couldn't care less about any of that. Even if one of the lead figures of the light alliance entered, we could take them on with no problems. But with Heather still outside..."
"The time we have to build our defenses will be cut short. What do you plan to do now, your Majesty?"
"What can I do? We will have to speed up all our plans as much as possible. After you are done checking in on everyone I'd like for you to go up to the surface and if possible eliminate whoever entered."
"What should I do about my identity? We don't have control of the surface world yet and are branded as criminals."
"Before we left the surface world I felt the old fox's presence. Tell the others, we will abandon all plans to stage a takeover of the government. Building some underground forces like your ravens should suffice. All efforts are to be concentrated on conquering the mundane lower realms. As soon as that is accomplished, we will take on the seven greater and then the four major lower realms."
"Understood, your Majesty."
"You came from the realm that is presumably the base of the Solar Empire, how is it going?"
"I have subdued the sole god of the realm and if you tell him that Raven sent you, he should obey your words. I also have influence over one of the princes while another one is closely connected to the god."
"That makes things easier then. We're is the gate to the realm Aurelia is currently in?"
"There is no such gate. I came to that world through a spatial tear caused by the realm's reaction to feelings from the god I mentioned before. The tear leads to the desert realm where Red and Rose are based. Aurelia and I established an open gate between those two realms."
"You were quite productive. That kind of progress will take a lot of pressure off our shoulders. Anything else you would like to talk about?"
"If I meet the old fox while I'm on the surface, how should I act?"
"Stay passive. If he can handle the intruder, let him. If not then swoop in and deal with it. Try to minimize contact for the time being. Once the intruder is dealt with, find me again."
Her Majesty stood up and motioned for me to follow her. We walked through the camp and came to a large tent erected in the most prominent part of the camp. The tent looked like it was set up to be permanent and many crude drawing of primal beasts were painted on it.
As we approached, there was much murmuring going through the crowd. Before we entered the tent, we were greeted by Diana and another woman. That lady looked like a true monster. She was more than two meters tall and her bulging muscles shone in the sunlight. A wild cascade of fiery red hair flowed over her shoulder and down her back. Both ladies bowed before her Majesty.
"This is Abel, he is my left hand and his orders are to be regarded as if they were my own words. Abel, this is Irma, the chieftain of the Helion tribe. You already know Diana. Now that you have been introduced to the most important figures you can return to your own plans."
After being excused by her Majesty, I lightly bowed to the chieftains and took my leave. With Heather here, we didn't have the luxury of taking things slow anymore. Growing our own forces with the usual time and care we liked to invest into them was now impossible.
I didn't bother to leave the camp and directly opened a small gate back to the desert realm. I arrived close to Blossom oasis and as I stepped out of the spatial gate, saw that since I had left the oasis had grown exponentially.
I could feel the presence of at least a dozen rank one archmages within the oasis. They must have had some breakthroughs recently.
I flew towards the treehouse and expanded my mind to find the others. Red was far away since I couldn't detect him but Rose was in her Garden.
"You're back! How did it go?"
"We've got some problems. Where are Red and Aurelia?"
"I'm not sure about Aurelia, but Red is clearing out one of the ruins. We want to produce some high-quality fertilizer so we need materials."
"When will he be back?"
"I'm not sure. Should I try to contact him?"
"Please do. I'll go look for Aurelia."
"How serious is it?"
"Heather is outside her Majesty's barrier and she already managed to let an individual enter."
"I see."
Rose hurried off and I moved over to the gate connecting to the grey merchant guild in Saitala. The bunny people guarding the gate recognized me and let me pass without any questions.
As soon as I passed through the gate I expanded my mind to see if Aurelia was within the building. And indeed she was. I stormed up into her office and found her looking over a map with a frown. As I entered rather abruptly, she looked up and her frown deepened.
"Can it wait? I have a war between multiple kingdoms on my hands and I'm not prepared to deal with all this!"
"Direct orders from her Majesty. Let's meet up with Red and Rose then I'll tell you everything. I'm sure your problem here will be much easier to solve after this talk."
"Orders that can solve my headaches? I'm all ears!"