The Rise of the Black Plain

After hearing Alina, the mother of this young woman that Minos had met when he was leaving the Dry City for the first time, understood what her daughter had to do.

"I see. Well, I hope you perform excellently. But my daughter, don't try more than you can. Our life is already good here in the Dry City."

"Hmm, it's okay, Mom. But I will try my best! I think I have a good chance of passing the selection."

And so, the pair of mother and daughter followed that long street, full of residential buildings, until they reached a place where there was a food market.

The two continued to talk about other things, minor information typical in everyday life in this city.

...

And so, time passed quickly, and six days had passed since the Minos group's invasion of the Chambers family base.

In the time that had passed, the three Spiritual Kings had begun to make their investigations in that region of the Cromwell Kingdom, following the clues left by those persecutors from before.

Several of them had left that base alive, but most had gone their separate ways.

That ended up making difficult the action of those Spiritual Kings. And even after days running after these people, they had not managed to achieve any results.

But that wasn't weird. As much as they were stronger than Kevin's pursuers, those individuals already knew they would be tracked unless they did something about it.

And that's what happened. Most had left as few clues as possible and followed escapes routes that would make it difficult to track every one of them.

They would not immediately go to their territories, as this was already the expected attitude. As a result, even though they intended to return to their respective bases, most of them sought refuge elsewhere until the dust settled and they could return home.

However, not all of them thought that way...

One of these people was heading straight for her own territory, not careful to make detours and stop to hide...

And such a thing had not gone unnoticed!

One of the Spiritual Kings was already on the trail left by that person, being the first good clue he had found since the beginning of this investigation.

"Looks like someone's got a lot of hurry, huh..." A tall, muscular man, thought to himself as he studied a clue left in the middle of the forest he was.

Roy, who had been left in charge of investigating Kevin's pursuers who had fled the west, was now getting close to one of them for the first time.

After days of investigation, he had only gotten superficial things, which led nowhere. However, following a specific clue he had found one day ago, he was finally 'sniffing out' something!

"Looks like I'm not far from you!" He muttered in a low voice just before he got up and climbed into that great spiritual beast that was with him there.

'Let's find out what happened in that place...'

...

As things slowly developed for Roy, in another part of the Cromwell Kingdom, not far from the City of Waters, Minos' group was slowly arriving at this place.

They had traveled swiftly across the long north of the Cromwell Kingdom and were now close to the border, from where they could finally reach the Black Plain territory.

However, they could not continue their journey much longer. At this point, the group had already covered hundreds of kilometers without rest, and it was time for them to stop.

But not only that, by now, it had wholly darkened in the vicinity of the City of Waters, from where they were just a few minutes away.

The weather was cold, windy, and at some points on the horizon, someone could even see the snow slowly forming on the peaks of mountains near that place.

And as he watched this from inside his carriage, Minos smiled slightly and thought to himself. 'Good thing the Black Plain is at low altitudes, unlike this place... It would be a problem if we had to deal with the snow.'

That was a fact. There was practically no snow in the Black Plain at any time of year, even in winter, when temperatures were lower. Of course, the altitude of the terrain partly helped that factor, but that wasn't all.

With the proximity of the spiritual root of its territory, the city of Minos had a specific 'protection' generated by this being. And even though it had been functioning abnormally for a very long time, the spiritual root still managed to affect the region's climate.

There was an interesting effect that was caused by spiritual roots. That's because, in most of this world, places with more significant amounts of energy used to have more unstable climatic and geological dynamics.

However, in areas close to spiritual roots, as in the case of the Dry City, a particular effect on the climate was generally not seen, which were low temperatures.

It was almost as if the root was trying to regulate the surrounding atmospheric temperature, exchanging heat with the environment.

'Spiritual roots can release heat to the environment. After all, they are practically rivers of magma...' Minos thought about it as he remembered the information inherited from the memories of Henricus Longus.

In fact, these beings that are so crucial to the world, if looked at with the naked eye, would look like entirely red roots, as if they were living magma itself!

Anyway, while Minos was thinking how the spiritual root of that region kept Dry City temperatures near an ideal level for agriculture, Abby, who was standing in front of him, said something. "We are getting close to the City of Waters. What do you want to do? Are we going to camp here nearby, or are we going to spend the night there?"

Hearing this, Minos put his thoughts aside and answered her. "Well, it's not convenient for so many people to pass through that place. So, even if we were separated, it still wouldn't be good."

He closed his eyes for a second and then said. "Most of our group should stay here and set up camp until dawn. But if you two want, we can go find a hotel in this town."

"Hmm, this is good. I need a nice hot shower. I haven't slept in a proper bed for days!" The beautiful blue-haired young woman said this wearily as she looked at Minos and Eda.

Eda just smiled at that. It was usual for a young noblewoman like Abby not to like this stressful travel routine that Minos and company had been doing.

After all, they weren't just traveling. They were running away from whoever was going to investigate that previous matter!

As for Minos' suggestion to spend the night in this town in front of where they were, that was something that wouldn't hurt, as long as it was done only by them.

Minos' group had many people, and many of them still looked pretty bad, even though they'd had almost a week of rest and good condition. However, each of them still sported a pitiful appearance.

And given the number they were in, it could draw unnecessary attention if they entered the City of Waters.

As for the army soldiers coming from the Dry City, they were all used to camping during trips, unlike Abby...

So, to avoid trouble, Minos soon ordered everyone to stop at a sheltered place in the woods, not far from the city ruled by Mirya.

They soon set up a temporary camp to rest and cultivate for the next few hours before finally leaving the Cromwell Kingdom.

As they had no intention of entering the City of Waters, there was no need to pass through the border checkpoint of that place. When they were ready to leave, they could just bypass this city ahead!

And soon, a carriage with Minos, Abby, and Eda followed the path to the southern entrance to that town while a soldier did the work of coachman.

"Where do you two want to stay? Maybe you want to stop and eat or something?" Minos asked both of them as he looked at the lights of that city through the glass window of his carriage.

"I don't want to go out to eat. Let's just find a hotel." Abby replied, opening her mouth slightly as she yawned.

'Hehe, alright. It's time for me to see an old acquaintance...'