While everyone was experiencing a tough battle during the invasion, this peculiar group of three individuals were having a very casual time.
With Bravo guarding them, they could steamroll through any enemy inside Stronghold. No one in the Body Formation realm stood against the Unity Clone, which Zion and Fudge definitely took advantage of.
Thanks to their luck (or Michael’s misfortune), they stumbled upon the treasure room that actually contained the Key.
It was guarded by a few high-level Ersatz soldiers. Three in the 6th stage, two in the 7th stage, and one in the 8th stage.
With such a tough group of opponents, this should have posed a pretty tough situation with the group. Zion was a mortal and Fudge was only in the 3rd stage, leaving Bravo as their only fighter.
In no circumstances could Bravo lose against this group, but there was always a chance for Zion to become a casualty in the struggle.
So, the safest option for them was to send out Bravo to kill every single one of the guards before the other two could enter the treasure room.
But that’s not what they did.
Fudge, in his ever so chaos-filled mind, found it a good idea to simply incapacitate these Ersatz guards instead of killing them.
With Bravo’s insurmountable strength, he achieved that goal and defeated the guards without killing them... leading to the current situation they were now in.
This was what Michael saw when he switched his perspective to the Mini Drone following closely behind the motley group of three.
Fudge, Zion, and Bravo faced the Ersatz soldiers who were holding up their arms in surrender.
"That mischievous little prick," Michael exasperatedly sighed.
He immediately descended into his shadows and teleported himself in the treasure room before something happened.
As soon as he ascended, he immediately faced the group with a disappointed face.
"Master!"
"Bro Mike!"
He nudged his head to the elephant in the room.
"What’s with them?" he asked, tapping his foot on the ground.
"Master, they’re—"
"Fudge, I don’t want to hear your excuse. I told you to not risk—"
But before he could even finish his sentence, he suddenly heard movement from the Ersatz soldiers.
He raised his guard, but realized that they never attacked.
Instead, the captive soldiers bowed even deeper towards Michael, their foreheads bumping the ground itself.
"Are you the overlord?" they asked him.
Michael was utterly confused. "The what now?"
"The overlord!" one of the soldiers shouted. "Lord Fudge has told us about you. We have been instructed to greet you with the utmost respect!"
Lord Fudge?
These Ersatz soldiers... these high-level Ersatz soldiers... were actually treating Fudge as if he was their leader.
Michael massaged his headache.
"Master, I have enlightened these misguided individuals to the truth!"
"The truth..."
"Yes, the truth! The truth of Reborn shall set everyone free!"
Somehow, this mischievous little violet slime was able to undo all the brainwashing mindset that the Ersatz instilled into these people... and replaced it with an entirely new one centered on Reborn.
Michael didn’t know if that was good or not.
"We have seen the light! FOR REBORN!" shouted one of the guards, which was quickly echoed by the others.
This was something Michael completely neglected. For Fudge, realms in cultivation didn’t matter when it came to conniving, scheming, and brainwashing. The little slime was simply uncontrollable.
"Master, you have to hear what they have to say. This Ersatz group has a lot of schemes and plans!"
Michael looked at the converted Ersatz guards, who nodded their heads.
One of them crawled forwards and began leaking information out of his mouth.
Here’s the gist.
By pure chance, this Stronghold’s Platinum leader, the pony-tailed dual sword guy, found out about the Thunderfoot’s ability to produce GodForge pieces.
Immediately, he arranged for a robbery, which succeeded.
Now, he was in possession of the Key. But he didn’t know what to do with it since he didn’t know exactly what it did.
So, in a bid for a promotion to finally ascend past his Platinum level and reach Emerald, he contacted his superiors about the Key and offered to give it to them.
His superiors then sent in the other Platinum leader, the ribbon woman, to retrieve the Key so that they could test its veracity, which explained why she was there.
"This female Platinum leader. Is her Stronghold also somewhere in New Sparta?"
They all nodded their heads. "She is a part of the conspiracy that is intended for the Beastfolks."
This caught Michael’s attention.
"Conspiracy?"
Michael listened intently on this very critical new information.
And by the end of it, he was very shocked, to say the least.
As it turned out, the Ersatz had big plans for New Sparta. He didn’t know what, but he knew that they were making their moves.
Starting with the Lunar Celebrations and the Archery Tournament.
And when he checked in on the shadows he left behind on the Colosseum, his guesses were proven correct.
...
...
...
Back at the colosseum, the entire audience and spectators were in complete and utter shock.
And for once, it wasn’t because of Sheina and her impossible Maugnetism.
It was because of the other semi-finals game currently happening.
The Crimsonaire Werewolf Tribe against the Conglomerate representative of the Oscorpe company.
Now, the Crimsonaires weren’t exactly the weakest of the twelve Werewolf tribes, but they certainly weren’t one of the favorites.
In fact, it seemed that they reached the semi-finals through pure luck of the draw. Their opponents were always on the lower side of the bracket.
But now that they were up against an actual conglomerate, everyone thought they’d immediately be outmatched.
However, that was not what happened.
The Crimsonaire’s Archer, a human ally hailing from an unknown company, unexpectedly came out on top. And in convincing fashion to boot.
The man defeated the Conglomerate Archer in complete record time. Hence, the complete and utter shock from everyone’s faces.
How this was achieved, no one knew.
But Michael knew. According to their converted Ersatz soldier, this unknown Archer was actually one of their own!