Chapter 977: The four escorts
...Robin would have undoubtedly sent news of his occupation of those planets to Pythor, but only after they were completely occupied and defenses were set up, and this is to prevent Pythor from even thinking about returning to fight for them, this is technically what Pythor is also doing in the central and western regions of Nihari.
The first expected reaction of someone like Pythor would be to get angry and send part of his army to at least two planets... If he did this then Robin should have sent more forces to hold those planets to force Pythor's men into request support and open several major battlefields and spread the Great Serpent's army, and thus be able to return to Planet Nihari, or if they don't get support then he forces them to retreat and thus keep the nine planets for himself as a pressure card.
But in the end, occupying and defending these planets is not the goal, but the means to the next step...
"What?! Father, what are you saying? Are you really going to the City of Hope for the so called negotiation? It's clearly a trap!" Theo lost his usual composure, and even Richard frowned slightly, "What are we supposed to get out of that meeting anyway? Do you think he'll simply hand us Nihari and we give him his nine planets? Then what, everyone would just go back to what they were doing before and forget about the tens, no, BILLIONS of deaths that happened between us in the past year alone? Father, you can't be serious! If I told this to a little kid he'd tell me I was joking, we've reached the point of no return!"
"I know, of course, I know, we wouldn't get any deal out of this." Robin's smile deepened, "Pythor is a tough guy who doesn't like to appear weaker than anyone, it shows in all his choices, he might actually be willing to negotiate, he'll probably offer to leave me the southern region of Nihari in exchange for me returning all his planets to him, the fact that he wants to wait until support comes and he has more control over Nihari before the meeting starts only reinforces that idea, but I won't agree, what am I going to do with one or two regions while he's just a few steps away from me? And most importantly, he knows I won't agree."
"Then why go through all the trouble?" Richard frowned
Robin looked away for a moment, "To sound more convincing, of course! ...In that meeting, Pythor will try to kill me."
"...Is that okay?" Richard looked at his older brother Theo, his father smiled at the mention of the attempted murder as if he hoped it would happen.
"That depends." But the one who answered was Robin who put his hands behind his back and took a few steps forward, "I have full confidence in my strength and that I can bring down Pythor without using all of my cards, so I want to put myself in this position, I wanted to be alone with him after completely controlling his nine planets, the only problem I faced was how to send the meeting request to Pythor in a way that would make him not suspect my intentions, for someone like me who is victorious and has a firm grip on all those planets, I would have no reason to negotiate with him, but... haha I can't believe he took this step on my behalf!"
"Doesn't that mean he's confident too?" Billy quickly interjected, "Robin, you're overconfident, don't forget that he's a ten thousand year old planetary emperor, someone with knowledge and experience from the middle planetary belt, and we don't know what else he has! Don't go alone, you don't know how powerful that person is and what he's planning for you!"
"That's right, especially since what he's calling you to is the City of Hope, their current stronghold, if you go alone then definitely Pythor won't be alone, his entourage will be everywhere in the city, maybe all of his 300 imperial guards will be there!" Theo furrowed, "If a fight starts under these circumstances, you won't be alone with him, he'll be the one to surround you!"
"I'll come with you." Richard took a step forward, killing intent burning in his heart, "If he tries to use an army to surround us inside the city, I'll use the city to surround them!"
"...Alright then," Robin nodded with a smile, it was a pleasure to involve his son in his affairs! Billy nodded and then looked at Robin, "You should at least take Caesar and Sakaar too, and it's best if you find a way to take the rest of the generals and a few warlords!!"
Robin laughed, "Can you imagine the warlords coming out of the portal of the City of Hope? What kind of negotiations would that be? The battle would start immediately and everyone would disperse." Robin shook his head, "But Richard, Caesar, and Sakaar are okay... The three of them can engage large numbers at the same time, they will be enough if a battle breaks out, the rest of the generals are busy with their own assigned planets, and even if they join us it won't make a difference."
He then looked at Theo, "Take Richard to Caesar, tell him to send him to the largest battlefields on The Poison Rock Planet in the coming period to gather as much life force as possible, then you should take over from Caesar the command of the forces on Poison Rock Planet and send them both to me on the seventh day."
"...Yes." Theo nodded, a bit of gloom and helplessness showing on his normally emotionless face, but he patted his little brother on the shoulder anyway, "Let's go, you're going to have a long week."
After they left, Robin's eyes turned back to Billy, "Can you go to Nihari for me? Call Sakaar and Amon, I need to explain to them what's going to happen, and you stay there to manage the portal affairs until they return."
"Not a problem!" Billy also used the Jura City Portal and quickly disappeared, leaving Robin alone behind.
In the middle of the city where there was no breath but Robin's, he raised his face to the sky and closed his eyes... Smiling.
His plan was to force Pythor into a life or death battle with him without trying to escape, this meant that he would have to put himself in a weak position willingly until the negotiation day, Pythor needed to think that he had a chance or everything would come down to nothing. But the thing is, he wasn't afraid of this situation, rather... Excited!!
*Baaam*
At this moment, with a crashing sound, something huge descended in front of Robin. "Hmm?" Robin opened his eyes to see a large shadow blocking the sun from him, and then he heard a voice, "I was eavesdropping, I want to go with you to that negotiation meeting, I have some unfinished business with them."
Robin's smile grew, he knew immediately that his mission had become even more exciting... that large shadow was Hulak.