Amongst the Bengari women, there was one who was staring right at Varon without bothering to hide her hostility, and Varon did his best to make sure he didn’t meet her eyes! She was the most beautiful of all the women there, and she had a strip of golden armor covering her chest and a black skirt plated with gold around her waist. The woman had a sword on her hip, and behind her was a long spear as well as a shield. There was a silver band around her head, along with two silver bands on her hands! The bands all had an intricate design of a falcon in the front that showed that this woman was the leader of the warriors present! This woman was known as Diane, and she was the Queen of the Bengari as well as the strongest warrior in their race! Varon closed his eyes and let out a sigh to calm himself as he noticed Diane constantly staring at him, and he refused to fall for her obvious provocation! Diane was the one person that Varon did not want to get involved with! As the strongest member of the Bengari, Diane was the one who would have gotten the title of Overlord if Rubik hadn’t received it, and even back during the Period of Lawlessness, there wasn’t a single Machina that didn’t feel the hatred and hostility that Diane had for their race after the title was given to Rubik.
But now that the Machina didn’t have the Overlord backing them anymore, and their once great world was now a thing of the past, they could no longer ignore the open hostility shown by the Bengari! Varon felt like he was going to suffocate just from the intense stare that Diane was directing towards him! The only saving grace at this moment was the fact that this was a neutral zone, and Varon thanked his god for the small mercy!
’Once this trial is finished, we’ll have to hurry back home. I can’t risk running into Diane anywhere outside this Neutral Zone.’
Varon nodded to himself as he made this decision, and he could still feel Diane’s stare boring into him with intensity! Varon knew that it was only a matter of time before Diane came over to confront them, and he decided that if that happened, he would get Sexes out of here quickly so they didn’t get into a fight! Even though this was a neutral zone, there was still a part of Varon that felt like he was in enemy territory just by sitting amongst all these people. The Machina might have been the rulers of the Sixth domain for centuries, but that does not mean they had made many allies! The Machina had been very secretive, secluded, and antagonistic towards many of the worlds around them, and this meant that they had a lot of enemies in the Primordial Expanse who either looked down on them or outright hated them! So now that the Machina had suffered such a massive blow, there was literally no one they could turn to for help! Varon knew better than anyone that the Machina were truly alone! Varon was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts as the doors to the large Trial Hall opened up and murmurs immediately filled the room.
"That’s him! The Immortal King."
"He’s here! Can you feel that power!? He has to be a TITAN Rank III at least! In fact, I think he’s almost a PRIMORDIAL!"
"I hear he had an entire legion of TITAN Rank monsters!"
"Do you think they’ll give him a prison sentence?"
"No way, do you really think they can send a TITAN Rank III to prison? And besides, didn’t you hear about what really happened in Machina?"
"They say the Blood Angel of the Battlefield, Gillian, was the real mastermind behind the attacks. If you ask me, I think the Immortal King might go free."
"No way that happens. I think he’s going to prison."
"Want to bet on it. I have a thousand gold coins here that says Jason walks free."
"Alright, I’ll take that bet."
Standing at the door of the Hall of Heroes, Jason allowed his calm gaze to sweep over the gathered people. There were multiple interworld creatures with different appearances in the hall, and Jason could easily identify many of them since they were creatures that Jason had run into during his journey across the Primordial Expanse! The creatures were murmuring amongst themselves while looking at Jason like he was some sort of tourist attraction, and Jason just ignored them all as he made his way into the hall with Gina and Riyala. At one side of the hall, Jason could see the Bengari warrior women looking at him with narrowed eyes, and Jason’s gaze landed on Diane.
’That should be the leader. She’s strong. Maybe around low-level TITAN Rank III. The guards around her are also TITAN Rank I’s. Not bad.’
Jason’s eyes narrowed as he sensed Diane’s power level, and just from looking at her, Jason could already tell that Diane was a very stubborn woman who was used to being in charge. Jason was already used to Hesabeth’s prideful nature, and he had accepted that this was just the sort of person Hesabeth was, but unlike Hesabeth, there was a more aggressive aura around Diane. Hesabeth was the sort of person who would first try to convince you with words before threatening you into doing what she wanted, but Diane seemed like someone who would just go straight into using force to make you do what she wanted! Diane was surrounded by three other Bengari warrior women; they had taken up an entire section of the hall just for themselves, and they were glaring at anyone who dared to come close to them. Diane was staring back at Jason with a fire burning in her eyes, and Jason could feel Diane measuring his power just like he had been measuring her own! But Jason didn’t care about Diane’s attempts to intimidate him, and he just looked away in disinterest and turned to the two people sitting a few seats away from the Bengari.
Sexes and Varon, the two Machina survivors who had come to the hearing, were looking at Jason like Jason was the devil himself, and Jason couldn’t really blame them at all for acting so hostile towards him! Jason turned towards Riyala, and he told her to go take a seat with her guards. Riyala nodded with a smile, and Jason grinned as he leaned down and kissed her. Riyala went up to her toes and deepened the kiss for a few more seconds before she finally pulled back. Riyala went to hug Gina, and then she waved as she went off with Talum, Gruwen and Stella. Once Riyala left, Jason and Gina began making their way up to the main stage, and the people who were just standing around all quickly made way to allow Jason to pass through! But as Jason was passing beside the two Machina who had come to watch the trial, Jason could feel the tension in the air growing even thicker as the Machina became more agitated! Jason stopped and glanced to his right to look at the Machina, and Sexes immediately let out an enraged roar as he charged to his feet!
"You murderer!"
Sexes pulled back his fist, like he was about to attack Jason, but Varon quickly charged forward and grabbed his comrade before things could get out of hand!
"Let go of me, Varon! I can’t stand it! How dare he look at us after everything he’s done! I’ll kill this murderer!"