'Man, they sure are going to town,' Kyle thought as he felt the chaotic Ether in the atmosphere.
While he wasn't anywhere close to the actual battles, he could feel how restless the Ether was today.
'Wonder how the battle is going.'
'Yeah, well, not my problem.'
Kyle had been sitting here for a while, just feeling the Ether.
It was kind of interesting to feel the usually calm Ether being this chaotic.
By now, Kyle had become a Peak Expert, and his Ether Sense had improved tremendously.
He could sense things from several kilometers away.
'Oh? That's a lot of Metal Ether,' Kyle thought as he felt a ton of Metal Ether rushing through the air. 'Did the Chief advance?'
Yet, just a couple of seconds later, Kyle felt a ton of Light Ether washing over the world.
'Was that the General of Skysand? He's really strong if I feel this much of his Ether from such a distance.'
But then, Kyle's eyes widened when he felt an intense wave of Darkness and Light Ether wash over the world.
It was almost like the world was split into light and darkness.
'That's… a lot,' he thought. 'Doesn't the First Advisor of Winterfire have a Darkness Affinity? Is he fighting the General?'
However, just a couple of seconds later, the Ether of the world calmed down.
It was still a bit restless, but those were just the earlier waves of Ether doing their thing.
There were no new waves of Ether traveling across the world.
'Guess the battle's over,' he thought. 'Weird that the General and the First Advisor would be the ones who dealt the last attacks. You would think it would be the kings or the Chief as the new Transcendent.'
Kyle waited for a couple more minutes just to see if the battle was actually over.
And yes, sure enough, no new intense waves of Ether had appeared.
'Well, guess it's over. No idea how it ended, though.'
'Anyway, time to get back to work,' he thought as he stood up.
Yet, just before Kyle returned to his comprehension, he felt somebody approaching.
When he felt the Ether around that person, his eyes widened in surprise.
He knew this person!
But why were they here?
Were they just on their way through?
Kyle saw the person dashing right towards Forest Haven Cradle.
Then, he noticed that they had noticed him.
From a distance, the two of them were looking at each other.
"Kyle!" Selene shouted with urgency.
"Sup?" Kyle asked.
Right now, Selene looked disheveled and panicked.
For some seconds, Selene just looked at Kyle in shock.
Then, she sighed and looked at the ground in relief. "You're still alive," she whispered.
"I mean, yeah," Kyle answered. "I wasn't part of the fight."
The next moment, Selene's eyes turned urgent again. "Quick! We have to flee to the World Peak!"
Kyle blinked a couple of times. "What? Why?"
"No time to explain! Quick! We have to go!" she shouted.
Kyle scratched the back of his head as Selene charged towards the west.
Selene was moving at quite a high velocity.
Within an instant, Kyle appeared beside her, almost like he had teleported.
"So, what's going on?" Kyle asked as he casually ran beside the sprinting Selene.
"We're too slow!" Selene shouted before she jumped onto Kyle's back without shame. "You're faster!"
Kyle blinked a couple of times in shock.
That was a bit… inappropriate?
"That urgent?" Kyle asked.
Selen gritted her teeth in frustration as she saw Kyle's lack of urgency.
"King Skysand is dead!"
"The Skysand Kingdom doesn't exist anymore!"
"The Winterfire King- oooohhhh!"
Selene's words turned into shouts as Kyle suddenly quadrupled their speed.
"Continue," Kyle spoke calmly with a serious voice.
Naturally, when he had heard Selene's words, he had also become nervous.
King Skysand was dead?
That's… bad…
Selene looked around in wonder and shock as she saw the world around them zooming past.
How was Kyle this fast?!
"Continue!" Kyle said with more urgency.
Now, it was Selene who wasn't urgent enough.
Selene shook her head.
"King Skysand is dead, and the Winterfire Kingdom is purging the loyalists!"
"They know that you exist, but they don't know how powerful you are exactly! The Transcendents will not come for you, but they will send their most powerful people!"
Kyle knew that even their most powerful people wouldn't be a danger to him, but they were not the actual danger.
When Kyle inevitably killed his assassins, King Winterfire might arrive personally.
"I got here via the land bridge that's under construction," Selene said. "I had to charge over the ocean. It was risky, but I survived, luckily."
"What exactly happened during the battle?" Kyle asked.
Selene told Kyle about their plan.
The Crown Prince and the Chief would advance almost simultaneously.
They expected that one of them would be killed, depending on which Ether Essence the enemy looked at first.
The Crown Prince died, and the Chief advanced.
Then, the Champion and the Chief killed the Second Advisor of Winterfire.
But then, everything had changed.
The Winterfire Kingdom had also created a new Transcendent while the Skysand Kingdom was making its own.
They had used one of their safe Ether Essences, which was why the Skysand Kingdom didn't notice.
The new Transcendent attacked the General of Skysand together with the First Advisor of Winterfire.
Sadly, the General of Skysand died.
The Champion and the Chief arrived moments later.
Now, it was two against two.
But at that point, the Champion unveiled a secret.
He had also become more powerful.
His power no longer relied on metal's composition but also on all its properties.
He had reached the same power as the kings.
The Winterfire Kingdom would lose.
And then…
His Holiness had attacked them.
The Duke of the Divine Duchy.
He had joined the Winterfire Kingdom.
His Holiness had become more powerful and had recovered a lot of his Karma.
In fact, His Holiness was about as powerful as King Winterfire.
It was over.
The Skysand Kingdom couldn't win the fight.
The battle became desperate.
And then, the Twilight Duchess had appeared and had put an end to all the fighting.
She was fine with some death, but this battle would result in over half of all Transcendents dying, which was not what she wanted.
Of course, the Winterfire Kingdom was not fine with this.
They were just about to win, and now, the Twilight Duchess intervened?!
The Twilight Duchess was not unreasonable, and she directed one question at one person.
The Champion of Skysand.
And the question was…
"Why did you not unveil your true power before?"
The answer was simple.
"Because I wanted to make my own Duchy with my son."
In short, the two of them had planned to abandon the Skysand Kingdom after it was strong enough to survive on its own.
They didn't want to end the Winterfire Kingdom, but they also didn't want to be the reason for the Skysand Kingdom's downfall.
They just wanted to do their own thing.
When the Twilight Duchess heard that, she made a decision.
The Champion and the Chief would receive the World Peak and could make their Duchy there, but they were not allowed to join the conflict.
However, they had to change the name a bit.
With their combined power, the two of them had the power of a kingdom.
Because of that, they were allowed to create a kingdom, not a Duchy.
Yet, the new power of the Winterfire Kingdom was also much greater.
They had two Transcendents with the power of kings and two other ones.
The judgment was made.
The Winterfire Kingdom would become the Winterfire Empire.
The Champion and the Chief left for the World Peak.
King Skysand would have to fight on his own…
Against his Holiness, King Winterfire, the First Advisor of Winterfire, and the new Transcendent.
The end was clear.
The Skysand Kingdom was no more.
It was time for the Winterfire Empire to control the world.
Kyle listened to all of this with shock.
'That means I don't have to pay Theodor back anymore!'
'Lucky!'
tg://resolv?domain=StrongestHammerGod
The author's patreon. If he gets more than 1000€ per month, he will increase the number of words in the chapter.