Pushing the Vessels at maximum speed, Prince StoneTooth’s fleet arrived on the outer edges of his Kingdom. They stopped briefly only to refill their reserves of mana and to gather information about what has been happening within the kingdom since the Prince’s departure. They also dropped off information about the events his fleet had witnessed as well as the more than likely accurate speculations that they had made.

The Earthlings on every vessel were shown images of the planets they passed and the many wonders of society.

Unlike on Earth, the Kingdom didn’t need to destroy the forests and natural ecosystems in order to increase construction of buildings. Instead, after the many wars on the Kingdom’s first planet, they researched and developed methods of creating floating islands. Their goal was to allow the planets to heal themselves and undo all the damages that the various races had done to them. Though each of these islands came in various sizes, each one was capable of holding vast amounts of heavy loads.

To the people from Earth, these planets were something they had never expected to see. Vast metropolises floating overhead while herds of large animals ran below them, living their normal life. It was beautiful and serene, yet also a modern fantasy. Like the entire planet was a wilderness preserve and people lived above it.

There wasn’t even a problem with the sunlight being blocked by the floating islands. Hundreds of small shards of mirror-like crystals covered the bottom of the islands. These crystals took small amounts of mana and as long as they were connected to a light source they would reflect it at 500% power. In order to connect these shards on the bottom of the islands to a light source, large clear crystal pillars went from the surface of the floating islands down to central points underneath where light was then refracted to each of the small shards. It was an expensive project to make, but once it was finished it would never need to be replaced unless something intentionally damaged the system. It had long ago become a requirement in the Kingdom.

The major benefit to these islands was the natural production of mana which could be harnessed and stored for later use. Planets normally produce a significant quantity of mana, but that amount can be increased by increasing the natural world’s state. In other words, large forests, numerous animals and a large variety of species significantly improved the Kingdom’s daily mana production allowing the stored amounts to increase to a point where their Dark Vessels could go out into deep space for long periods of time.

While the Earthlings were gawking and applauding the Kingdom’s ingenuity and beauty, Prince StoneTooth was reading the planet’s historical reports to catch up with current events in the Kingdom.

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While he was gone, other short range expeditions had been very successful. The Kingdom had seventeen new member worlds join in the two years that he had been away, while roughly another thirty planets had made a good amicable first contact. There was even one planet that had sent out ships and made first contact with the Kingdom, rather than await for Dark Vessel’s to come to them.

But it wasn’t all good news.

Four member planets had been consumed by World Eaters. In an attempt to divert the World Eaters the Kingdom had lost 20% of its entire fleet. Thousands of ships were lost and billions of crew were eaten by the Jzanna.

Just a couple of days before the Prince’s return, every planet was given a message to relay to the people. The Kingdom would no longer allow the Jzanna to be the sole aggressors. The Kingdom would take the fight to the World Eaters and kill them.

For Three days the member worlds cheered on their heroes.

Prince StoneTooth dropped off a package of information at every planet they passed, but he made sure the world leaders swore that they would not yet reveal the information to the public. They were allowed to view it and if he were to fall before he reached the capital then they were given the discretion to share it with others as long as they also were sworn to secrecy.

During his communications with each of the world leaders he could see them begin skimming the contents of his own reports. Each one paled as they realized the implications of such information. Then dawning horror covered their faces when they remembered the fleet that had just been launched. The fleet that was going to kill World Eaters. The fleet that their own world was cheering and celebrating for.

As his fleet was leaving the system, moving further into the inner sanctums of the Kingdom, he was receiving word that scouts were being sent to monitor local asteroid roads and new shipments of raw materials were being sent along with him.

Impressive recordings of Kohn’s suit brought new hope to them, along with the potential of being able to gather resources from off planet. Even other world colonization was being reconsidered after the Earthlings mentioned ideas of terraforming planets. Prince StoneTooth even went so far as to hear the stories and ideas of this process from each of the Earthlings on his ship because he was so intrigued by the prospect.

By the time that his fleet had reached the Kingdom’s capital it had swollen in size from just under twenty Dark Vessels to over ninety vessels. While none of the ones that had joined were military vessels, they were all of various sizes including one that was nearly twice as large as a standard Dark Vessel. They were loaded down with supplies including raw materials, processed metals and colossal abundance of mana reserves.

It wasn’t just the Earthlings suit that had impressed the leader of each world though. Recordings of something Kohn had called ‘mana blueprints’ had been sent to each leader and excited everyone that saw them. More than a few of the Earthlings had apparently understood what he was trying to create and joined in with suggestions and one very fat Earthling was a great source of architectural tips.

Even Prince StoneTooth was excited to see the first of the prototypes, but right now he was more worried about what his father, the King would say to him.

[Prince StoneTooth. King StoneTooth demands your presence immediately.]