The Rise of the Black Plain

Upon hearing Minos' question and seeing this emperor looking in his direction, Abe was silent for a moment, noticing that such a person knew his identity.

So far, he had hidden as best he could, acted carefully, and attacked within the parameters expected of a terrorist.

But still, Minos had found out his identity.

'So this is the reason for the reactions of this state have changed in the last few weeks...' He realized the motivation behind the change in the local situation that had caused him to have to adjust his plans.

It was not originally in his plans to openly attack Dry City with this group, as he seemed to be intending to do now. No, he wanted to attack this state bit by bit, erode the power structures that Minos had developed, and make this person feel despair.

Eventually, he and his troops would attack Dry City firmly by surprise, and he finishes his revenge by killing Minos.

But with Minos' previous orders that took the strongest soldiers, allies, and nobles of the Black Plain out of the farthest areas of this state, Abe was forced to change as well.

To him, it would not do any good to destroy non-essential structures on the Black Plain, kill replaceable people, or not cause Minos' despair. Thus, after weeks of practically wasting his time without success, he began to follow the plan he preferred, to attack this place head-on, using his forces.

He knew that Minos had his means, but the forces he had gathered were not weak!

Hell, he felt that if he wanted to, he could even attack Vogel or Flaming Empire organizations with his group. Then it would not be the poor Minos Stuart who would scare him!

Because of this, Abe was not afraid to openly attack this place, following a much riskier plan than his previous one.

Had the enemies prepared themselves to deal with them? They had also prepared themselves to deal with the enemies!

"So you know who I am..." Abe finally said something, taking off his mask since he no longer needed to hide. "Well, you attacked my house for no reason, so now I am returning the 'gift' to you."

"No reason?" Minos laughed as he closed his eyes. "I think you gave me plenty of reasons when you sent Spiritual Saints to kill me when we didn't even know each other."

"What kind of coward sends experts of that level to deal with a Spiritual King?" He asked, pointing at that level 72 individual.

"Bastard!" Abe clenched his fists in anger.

To him, he had every right to end an insect's life in the northern region to achieve his ambitions. But the said insect had dared to attack him and, to make matters worse, had harmed him immensely.

He could not bear that offense!

"Minos, I will kill you!" He threatened, as his mercenaries noticed his great hatred for Emperor Stuart by the tone of his voice.

Minos then said. "Are you going to kill me? With just that?" He laughed. "I have my own means of dealing with all of you."

The people in Abe's group fully understood what Minos was talking about since, in addition to having studied what this emperor had done in Vogel, they could feel what was in his belt.

The Black Hole Bomb was no ordinary weapon and had a terrifying energy concentrated in a small region of space. So all those individuals could sense what Minos had as a card up his sleeve to come face to face with him.

"Don't try to scare us. If you use this, all your men and this whole area will be destroyed." Abe said with a confident smile on his face. "Minos, I know you don't dare to self-destruct to defeat me!"

"Then don't try to threaten me with that shit!"

"Are you sure about that?" Minos looked seriously at that individual.

But neither Abe nor his men were frightened. Everyone there had studied Minos' known acts in recent years. Thus, they were pretty sure he would not use something like that in the center of his territory.

By doing something like this, even if he got results, they would be so catastrophic that it would be hard to judge whether he would gain or lose by it.

At the same time, these people knew that Minos had almost no control over that thing, which was another guarantee that Emperor Stuart had the black hole to scare them at most.

'That thing he used in my city is scary, but as long as one is careful not to go near it, there is no danger.' Abe remembered the black hole he saw years ago.

Abe then answered Minos' question with an order. "Stop this futile resistance and fall quietly. As an act of mercy, I will ensure that your death is painless."

"Humph!"

"I say the same to you. Put down your weapons and accept your deaths here and now. Or the future that awaits you is worse than you expect." Minos said as he took the mirrored orb at his waist and stepped forward.

Abe also stepped forward from his men but said nothing to Minos. "Watch out for that thing. Otherwise, as long as you don't get too close to that thing, it won't be able to do much against you."

"Then just follow the original plan carefully."

"Yes, boss!" The many mercenaries responded in excitement, feeling eager to learn about the abilities of the Black Plain's imperial family.

They had heard many stories about the demon Minos, so many of these Spiritual Saints anticipated seeing this fellow in action.

The groups began to fly against each other, with Minos' men following alongside his wives to attack the weaker ones in that area.

Meanwhile, this emperor was flying towards the strongest of the enemies while removing his black hole from the array in which it was stored.

Seeing Minos doing this, Abe looked strange, realizing that his opponent did indeed not want to use the Black Hole Bomb but was also not going to fight as expected.

'Trying to scare us with the fusion of your techniques?' Abe thought about it as he looked at the strongest of his mercenaries there, who were already starting to watch out for the event horizon of that thing.

"Minos, that won't work against us." He laughed. "You think I don't remember what you did in my city? I came prepared, man."

"Did you really?" Minos laughed before he began to use Chaotic Gravity and Devouring Art simultaneously to control his grandiose black hole.

As he began to do so, all the Spiritual Saints in the area, who, unlike their fellow Spiritual Emperors, were not yet fighting, focused their attention on how that region of space was changing.

Subtly, Minos' black hole began to move under his commands, causing each Spiritual Saint to feel chills in their souls.

From what they were beginning to feel, Minos could control that thing to change its rules!

And even if that was modest, such a thing was already totally different from what they had prepared for!

"Oh, shit!"

...