762 War at the door
Central District--Safe City of the Great Serpent Empire--
"Boss, we have found another 700 energy pearls hidden in one of the palaces in Autumn Hyena City, and the inspection is still ongoing!!" A soldier quickly entered a hall with open doors and shouted his report, then left as soon as he finished.
A few minutes later, another person came in, "General, my team has found 500 energy pearls, and tons of energy stones too!" Then he returned to where he came from
This hall, where everyone was coming to report, did not seem to be designated for the office of a specific leader, nor was there a meeting about what was happening today... The hall had only 5 people in it, each one of them doing something different.
One of them was lying on a sofa, resting his eyes and placing his hand on his forehead, another was reading a children's book about teaching reading and writing the Nihari language, and the remaining three were just moving around boredly.
"How much have we gathered so far?" One of them asked without much interest.
"Hmm, I think 70 thousand energy pearls, a little more or less..." another person replied as he threw a ball towards the wall and waited til it bounced back to him.
After the Battle of the South, in which they lost about 50 Emperors and a large number of ships, the five generals agreed that the forces of the Great Serpent Empire would return to the central region until the correspondence ship returned from the Poison Rock Planet, only then would they have all the coordinates of the most vital locations to the enemy and they would be able to strike them where it hurts.
What will they do while waiting? They agreed on two things... The first was to launch small attacks on the north, east, west, and south in order to further test their strength and to tell their neighbors that they were still here, and the second was to fortify the central region and make it completely theirs and begin the process of exhausting it of anything useful.
The first one didn't go very well... The ships they sent to attack the southern and eastern regions were easily intercepted. Even though they chose random areas to attack with the intention of just spreading chaos, they would still be detected every time and then several dozen Emperors would appear from those small space portals and stop them immediately and force them to retreat.
As for the raids that they sent towards the north, their report was the strangest of them all. 5 raids were sent through 5 different places to strike what could be struck and return quickly, but they all came back saying that they spent the entire raid fighting beasts on the Grand Line. They said that they felt that the beasts were hungry for years and that they were the last piece of meat in the world! ...They couldn't even enter the northern region's territory until today.
As for the raids on the western region, the results were more direct, no one returned.
After receiving heavy damage, the five generals realized that skirmishes here would be of no use, and since they did not have the courage to start a full war on one of the regions, they decided to stick with the second option, which was to collect the pearls and impose their control over the central region temporarily.
And this is what's happening now...
The five fleets began a combing operation for all cities, villages, settlements, and abandoned excavation areas in the central region, on the condition that 80% of them remain in their safe city all the time ready for war if there is anything new.
Within a few days, they were able to collect tens of thousands of pearls and a large number of minerals that are treated as rare even on their nine planets, in addition to cultivation techniques, weapons, and ancient herbs. During this research, which targeted only inhabited areas, they found treasures that exceeded what they collected from their other nine planets over ten thousand years, so many that they got tired of the reports that came to them every few minutes!
"Hey Dirit, didn't you say that support would arrive in two months? It's been more than two months.." General Sully asked annoyed. He was undoubtedly the most annoyed by this boring situation. In his view, every day that passes without fighting is a wasted day without achievements.
"Maybe they're waiting to bring some support?" Dirit looked towards the general closest to him
Parrs shook his head, "No way, the Marshals must be fighting over the 31st Fleet as its release approaches, they won't send us anything."
"Does this mean that we will continue fighting alone even after the coordinates report comes?" Sully quickly stood up, "If that's true, then we should start right now. Let's choose any random area and hit them with everything we have!!"
"Didn't we talk about this before? The eastern region is the only direction we might have a chance against, but you are the one stopping us. You hype up that Truth Chosen too much." General Molad spoke boredly
"So what next? Are we going to stay facing each other like this forever?!" General Sully kicked the sofa he was sitting on, destroying it.
The rest of the generals sighed and turned their backs to him. This was not the first time he lost his mind like this... They knew that they had enough power to invade any of the four regions, but the fear was that the rest of the regions would raid them from behind. It would be better for them to wait for the coordinates to arrive and attack in precise operations.
"General, there is a report!!" Another soldier entered as usual
"Can't you see we're busy? Get lost!!" General Sully waved angrily, the last thing he wanted to hear was a report about finding more pearls to be added to the rest of the inventory in the ships.
But that soldier was General Molad's subordinate, so he ignored Sully and looked at his captain, "General, there is something happening in the sky, a strange energy field appeared out of nowhere!"
"Huh? What do you mean by an energy field?" The general turned around and asked in surprise
"Report!! General Jaike, two strange individuals have appeared in front of the city gate."
"Hmm?" General Jaike raised his eyebrows and then took a few steps until he reached the window, "Hey, who are you? Do you want to die?!"
There were already two people roaming in front of the city gate, one of them wearing distinctive golden armor inlaid with black pieces and holding a completely black halberd, while the other was a woman wearing golden armor in the shape of a long dress, holding a thin black sword and a shining ice crown on top of her head. They were the Supreme General of the True Beginning Empire and his deputy, Caesar and Victoria.
Caesar slowly moved his head, observing the city for a few more seconds, then returned to focusing his gaze on the palace, smiling, "Should I inaugurate, or will you take this honor?"
"This honor belongs to the Supreme General alone." Victoria's eyes sparkled. She had been longing for this moment since the invaders first arrived.
"Good... Then let's get started, hahaha!" Caesar raised his black halberd, a sea of black flames formed around him, then with a *Shwalaa* Caesar headed towards the hall where the five generals were staying.
"You are courting death!!" General Jaike grabbed his weapon and jumped out, in his view, for someone two levels weaker than him to dare to attack him like this was pure madness.
The rest of the generals quickly approached the window to see what was happening outside
"Hmph, idiot..." Victoria shook her head as she watched the confrontation, then raised her hand, "Crush them."
*Vroom* *Vroom* *Vroom*
Dozens of space portals opened on Earth and in the middle of the sky.
"This…" General Sully took a step back, he didn't know what his response should be…
Will he go out and lead what's left of his fleet to confront those hordes emerging from the space portals?
Or does he go to extinguish his colleague from that black flame that is eating him alive...