His slightly long hair was neatly combed. His dark hair and equally black eyes made this emissary from the Abyss Plane look extremely mysterious.
His face was similar to that of a human, but his complexion was much paler. He was slightly taller, standing at more than 1.9 meters tall. However, this emissary did not look cumbersome. Instead, his body proportions were perfect. His slender hands were clean and full of strength, and his knuckles were slightly protruding. He wore a black robe of a style that had never been seen before in the continent. It was enshrouded in faint magical waves, and one could tell at a glance that it was not an ordinary item. A short sword hung on his waist. The decorations on it were unusually gorgeous, and it was obvious that it was an ornament that showed his identity and status, similar to the swords of knights.
After walking out of the portal, this emissary from the Abyss Plane did not say anything. Instead, he looked at the white sky and the surrounding snowy land, took a deep breath, and narrowed his eyes slightly as if he was savoring some delicious food. After the breath had circulated in his chest, he slowly exhaled the white breath, and immediately turned around to walk towards the six elders of the Undead Council who had different expressions on their faces.
"Helinus Koch, emissary from the Abyss Plane." His accent was fluent in the common human language, but it was slightly awkward. "I'm very pleased to speak with the powerful beings of this continent face to face. On behalf of the three Lords of the Abyss, I express my gratitude to all of you."
Then, he made a saluting gesture, which looked somewhat similar to the human nobility's salute.
The elders of the Undead Council stood up politely, but there were differences in their speed. Leoric, Kratos, and Shavi's movements were swift, while the assassin Davion and the knight Kostra were a step slower. The dragon grand mage Nois was the slowest to get up, and he looked at the emissary with an unfriendly gaze.
The emissary did not have any superfluous words to say about the attitude of the elders. He smiled gracefully, and then sat on the chair that Nois had casually made out of elements for him. The chair looked unusually ordinary, and it was almost unadorned compared to the chairs of the six elders.
This did not affect the emissary's mood. Ever since he stepped out of the door, he had been smiling. His smile did not seem fake at all, nor was it a formal flattering smile. In short, his smile seemed to come from the bottom of his heart. Just the white snowy mountains around him made him very happy.
The temperature around him was not pleasant. Although it was summer, the temperature here in the northernmost part of the continent was ten degrees below zero. But this did not affect the emissary's good mood. The first thing he did was to show respect and obedience to Leoric. In short, this emissary was very shrewd. The elders did not feel any arrogance and conceit of the legendary abyssal demons from him. The abyssal race that was rumored to be difficult to get along with seemed to be completely different from the ones in history.
Of course, this was just an example. No one knew what the real abyssal race was like. Since he was an emissary, the three monarchs of the abyss must have picked a very suitable and smooth character to take on. So far, this emissary was very competent.
"Your Majesty Leoric, is it alright for me to address you that way?"
"Yes."
Leoric nodded unwaveringly, his eyes fixed on the emissary. Helinas did not doubt that he was the most powerful of the six.
"The Crown of Judgement has already revealed your identity. Even in the Abyssal Plane, your name is still as resounding as ever."
"The Abyss can still hear news from this continent?"
"Dimensional portals can not only be opened by holy relics, and there are many demonic relics in the Abyss. It is not difficult to obtain some information."
Helinus smiled as he explained. "But seeing your crown, I would like to say something that might interest you."
"Say it, don't waste so much time."
Nois was still leaning against the back of his chair. He did not even spare a glance at the level nine emissary, as if he did not care at all.
Helinus didn't show any disrespect to the grand mage, merely smiling submissively. "The Abyss continent seems to have maintained some sort of connection with this continent, and in recent years — I mean the past hundred years — it seems that some fragments of sacred relics that don't belong to the Abyss continent have been found in our place."
"Holy relic shards?"
Shavi looked up at Helinus, her fingers twitching slightly.
"The three Sovereigns are certain that these aren't originally from the Abyss Continent, but they aren't complete Divine Artifacts. They seem to be fragments — such as your Crown of Judgement. I believe that you might know more than I do."
"There is no need to discuss this question now."
Leoric interrupted the topic, waving his hand to indicate that Shavi did not have to rush for an answer. "Let's talk about your conditions for coming to this continent."
"The army of the Abyss is enough to flatten this continent, but I believe that none of you are interested in ruling a barren continent. So for the conquered land, on behalf of the three monarchs behind me, I propose that we each take what we need, and decide the ownership of the land according to the area occupied by each army. What do you think?"
This was as good as not saying anything, but Leoric understood that this was the beginning of a long tug-of-war.
"But before we begin the negotiations, I have something to ask all of you."
Helinus sat up straight and continued, "Does the carcass of a Black Dragon have any special meaning to everyone here?"
※ ※ ※
Oditore's condition had stabilized recently. Sith's court had disposed of the corpses of the undead in a few weeks, and the entire city wall had regained its defensive capabilities. At this moment, the imperial capital, Celias, was still abnormally quiet. Only Henry's daily reports about the infighting among the rebels. It seemed that these guys had begun to fight among themselves because they could not divide the spoils equally.
This was not a good sign for the rebels. It was easy to conquer a country, but difficult to defend it. A city that had just been conquered could immediately change allegiance because of a wrong decision. Marquis Barton and Count Garland understood this, but the selfishness of the nobles prevented them from considering the bigger picture. In fact, the entire aristocratic class of the empire had been corrupted beyond recognition. In terms of values and morality, most of these nobles no longer had a sense of honor. Their so-called honor had become a symbol of vanity. Who had the more property, who had the more luxurious carriage, and who dressed more stylishly?
These retarded and meaningless things seemed to have become the question that the nobles considered every day. As for spiritual nobility … they felt that it was more realistic to spend every night with a noble lady.
Flora had been staying in Pajal Palace in Sith's court recently. She seemed to be rather cold to Garland. In fact, Garland knew very well that ever since Garland's request was tactfully rejected, the Queen had not spoken to him a second time … or rather, met him a second time.
There were probably only a lot of people who would refuse a Ruler's request — — and there were probably only a lot of people who would refuse Flora's request to marry him.
…
Southeast of the continent, the Red Dragon Territory.
Gentle light shone from top to bottom of the giant, hollow mountain. Occasionally, a superior dragon would fly past, but their figures looked very small.
In the stone room at the top, Carolina was walking hurriedly, attracting the curious gazes of the other dragons. Come to think of it, they had never seen Carolina with such an expression before. It was as if there was something very urgent that troubled her. This superior dragon was running towards the stone room where her mother was, ignoring the curious and surprised gazes around her.
When the door made of pure elements opened automatically when she arrived, Carolina walked in without hesitation. In the spacious room, Evelyn Carolina, the leader of the red dragons, seemed to be waiting for her daughter who had been frowning all this time.
"Laney, don't be too hasty. Being in a hurry will cause us to overlook many things."
Evelyn's voice was very calm, as if she already knew what her daughter was worried about. As she spoke, Carolina also calmed down a lot. When she looked up at her mother again, she had already regained her usual calmness.
Deep in everyone's heart, there was a harbor that allowed them to quickly calm down. Here, Carolina was no different from returning to the harbor that allowed her to completely open up her heart. She knew her mother very well, and when she thought of her mother's strength and her strong heart, she calmed down quite a bit.
"Mother, I'm back."
Like before, Carolina hugged her mother gently. For this journey that felt like dozens of years, Carolina had learned much more than before.
"Did you find the answer to your question?"
Evelyn waved her hand and helped her daughter to sit on an armchair.
"Mother, I realized that my questions are more than my answers." Carolina sighed. "And a lot more."
"This means that the things you have to come into contact with are beyond what you can accept. But for the dragon race, accepting more things is also a way to increase your strength," Evelyn said calmly.
Evelyn said calmly, but Carolina did not really understand her words. "What is power?"