"Where am I?" Max woke up, and looked around. He was in bed, when he tried to move. Max felt pain running through his entire body. He waited for anyone to enter the room. 'The last thing I remember is the explosion of the golem's core' Some time later, the servant walked into the room he was in. When the servant saw he was awake, he ran away. Then a few minutes later, Luke walked into the room.
"How are you feeling? Can you tell what happened?" He sat down on the chair that was next to the bed.
"Well, it hurts like hell. And Sela probably told you everything, but to summarise…"
....
"It will be troublesome. Do you think it was a special case?" Max nodded.
"Yeah, I didn't hear about core exploding, but I have an idea for you." Luke had a curious look on his face.
"What idea?"
"Send letters to priests of the God of Wisdom, and to priests of the Goddess of Creation." Luke shook Max hand.
"Of course. If they get information about some new type of golem, and maybe new knowledge, they will help in exploration. And because they don't care about riches, all of that will be mine." Luke laughed." Okay, you are my guest. I will provide you with medical care. Your injuries weren't that severe, but it will take a while for them to heal"
....
"What is the reason that you Queen of Phoenix Kingdom, and you King of Dragon Kingdom, came to visit the council." The lion beast man asked. He was head of the council. Elizabeth took cube, and throw it on the ground. It changed to flat disk. A moment later, the disk started to glow.
"What is that?" When lion beast man asked this question, a hologram appeared, of a young man sitting on the chair.
"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Jax. Fiancé of the Queen of Phoenix Kingdom, so de facto, also the king of Phoenix Kingdom." Jax hologram waited, a few moments, for the council to quiet down. When hologram saw that everyone was quiet, it continued." We came here to propose a deal."
"What kind of deal?" Lion beast man asked.
"In exchange for allowing me to use resources of your country. I" Members of the council started to yell.
"Shameless human. Who do you think you are?" Yelled one. He was a member of the harpy race.
"Do you think we will give you our resources?" Asked the member of medusa race.
"Quiet everyone!" The head of the council yelled. When everyone calmed down, he gestured for Jax's hologram to continue.
"Thank you. As I was saying, in exchange for using your resources, pact of help between our countries and non-aggression, and getting slaves from your species. I will give you access to my technology. My farming tools, automatic miners. I will also take care of the orphans and many more things." The council was in uproar. 'For your own sake, accept that deal.' Malcolm hoped they will agree. A few minutes later, the head of the council spoke.
"As you see, members disagreed with you. What do you want to add?" Hologram smiled.
"I want the entire council to agree, but if you disagree, that's your choice. If someone wants to make a deal with me, raise your hand." The council was made similar to parliament in most countries. Elizabeth and Malcolm were able to see that, 30 hands were raised. 'Each of them are small, and poor countries.' Elizabeth noticed. Hologram nodded with satisfaction. 'The old, powerful members of the council have too much pride in them. They don't see the bigger picture, and only their pride and status is important. The poor countries understand, that we can help them.'
"Alright, we will visit, each country that raised their hands, in next days. We will go from the nearest to the furthest. Is that okay with you?" Members, who agreed, nodded. 'He said that to make them feel, he will visit them, because of the geographical reasons, than because what he thinks about them. This will cause them to think, he respects all of them' Malcolm nodded.
"That was all I wanted to say to the council." Hologram said, and after that disk became the box again, which Elizabeth picked. They bid farewell, and exited the council. They entered the carriage. Elizabeth took the box and placed it, on her wrist. After that, the boxed covered her entire forearm. In the middle of it, a glass panel appeared. Elizabeth started to touch, and change the view of things.
"How are you able to use it, so efficiently?" They have that box only for a week. Malcolm only knows how to make a hologram. Which is to just place it on the floor.
"I have my ways. I think he made it, so I can have easy access to every function. You probably would need to touch it several times. I need to just think what I want." Elizabeth replied.
"It's must be nice to have Jax as your husband." Malcolm said. He as a descendant of the dragon was greedy, and wanted something like this, but he knew, that Jax will only give something like that, when he wants. A few minutes later, a 3D hologram of the terrain appeared. She then touched it twice, and a glowing, moving dot appeared on the screen.
"What is that glowing dot?" Malcolm asked. Elizabeth smiled proudly.
"It's us. That dot is showing our current location in real time." After that, Elizabeth saw red coloured dots are approaching. She snorted, at this. Malcolm face, become serious.
"Enemies?" Elizabeth nodded.
"Several km behind us, but are approaching. Well, thanks to that, we have an excuse to attack them." Malcolm nodded.
"We must do it quickly. Otherwise, we will be forced to use 'that'" Elizabeth paled.
"You are right, if 'that' thing will be used, the damage will be enormous. The good news are that, they are faster than us, so we don't need to pretend that our horses are getting weak." Elizabeth put a hand into her chest, and pulled out a staff. It was made from red coloured crystal, that pulsed with red light, as if it was a blood. It had an inscription of phoenixes inscribed on it surface, that looked as if they were living. On one end, there was a flower bud, that was made from translucent crystal and inside was a flame. It was phoenix staff, that is passed from queen to queen. Only woman with royal blood inside their veins, that is acknowledged by the previous queen and the staff, can wield it. Malcolm also put his hand into his chest, and pulled out a longsword. The blade of the sword, was made from the highest quality metal, and had countless inscription in the middle. The handle looked like a dragon. The pommel was the back of the dragon, and the guard was in the shape of a dragon head. The sword looked that the blade was coming from the dragon mouth. This was dragon edge. This sword was also passed down in the royal family. The same as with the phoenix staff. Person must be accepted by it.
"Remember, we don't kill them. Jax left us soul capturing boxes." Malcolm nodded.
...
"What is the plan, boss?" The camouflaged beast man asked.
"We steal that box they have. We can't defeat them, but we will be able to steal it. That thing is something, that can lead us to that guy. If he can create that box, imagine what will happen if we capture him." Boss replied. Although powerful members didn't want to have accepted Jax's deal, they still lusted for Jax's inventions. The group numbered 20 members. Each of them were at the level of grandmaster knight or archmage. They travelled on foot, but thanks to being a beastman they can easily rival Elizabeth and Malcolm in carriage horses. They were few minutes away from the carriage.
....
"Did you take the blood that Jax left for you?" Elizabeth asked.
"Yeah. My strength increased by a lot." Malcolm replied. Compared to non-visible changes in appearance when Elizabeth took phoenix blood. Malcolm's eyes became shiner, and his hair darker, after he took dragon blood. Elizabeth smiled, but her smile was that of the demon.
"They are close. Should we show them, why we are one of the strongest people in the entire world?" She asked innocently. Malcolm felt shivers. When Elizabeth was on the battlefield, his country army was burned alive, not even ash remained. He was a young man then, but sometimes the screams of people begging for mercy, while being burned by inextinguishable phoenix fire still hunt him. Fortunately, the war between countries were because of their fathers. Elizabeth didn't hold a grudge against him, or vice versa. Malcolm wanted to say something, but then they heard footsteps. They nodded at each other, and jumped from the carriage.