Two days later in the Realm of Monsters…

“HOW DID THIS HAPPEN!” A thunderous roar broke out in a hall, a bulky, muscular goblin slammed the table with his fist, creating webs of cracks on the stone. The same ancient-looking goblin grOwled back from the other side of the table, “Those humans were expecting us! I don’t know how, but they knew exactly where and when we going to attack! We’re unlucky this time.”

The other chieftains in the room mumbled in agreement. “Unlucky? That’s what the great goblin mage would say? You incompetent fool!” The bulky goblin sneered. The ancient goblin’s eyes glowed red and his wrinkled hand twitched. “Enough…” A soft voice spread throughout the room, but its was laced with heavy authority, silencing the two goblins immediately.

A lean goblin sitting at the end of the table sat up, breathing deeply. “What do we know of the humans?” He was the Goblin Lord Zafar, one of the 4 goblin lords in the world of monsters. “Our spies in the Beast Kingdom managed to gather information of the humans on the realm of Earth.” Lord Zafar frowned, “How are the Beasts faring in the invasion?”

“They have conquered the area around their portal, and have already gathered sufficient information of the foreign realm.” Zafar snorted, “Very well then, what did you gather?”

The ancient goblin then lifted a hand, and a parchment appeared in his hand. “Our enemy is the human kingdom of Jiron, its king is one of the most powerful people in the human realm. They have successfully repelled our army and have set up a stronghold at the portal, our scouts show an army of 50 thousand humans in the fortress.” A quiet muscular goblin draped with a hood scoffed, “So few? Why haven’t we reclaimed the portal yet?”

The ancient goblin shook his head, “I’m afraid its not that easy, according to the intel, each of those soldiers could kill our foot soldiers effortlessly. Only a hob or a mage would stop them in their tracks.” The hooded goblin was still then asked, “What of the generals and captains?”

“We do not know much of the captains and generals, but there is one we have to be careful of.” The ancient goblin pulled up a crystal and conjured a ball of light, facing the ball and light to the wall. A screen emerged on the wall, playing the perspective of something flying.

“I sent one of my pets out the portal, to survey the situation there. But what I found was this…” From the screen, its sight moved downwards, watching a battle between a goblin and a masked human.

The burly goblin muttered under his breath, “That’s Jahar…” The human held his sword with both hands before swinging it down in the span of three seconds…

The goblins watched Jahar’s split body drop to the side. At that moment the screen went dark, and the ancient goblin sighed. “That was all I could record before my pet died.” The goblin chiefs in the room were silent, the death of their comrade left a bitter taste in their mouth. Lord Zafar laced his fingers together, “Was that the king?” The ancient goblin shook his head with a pained expression, “That was only one of his generals. The king has the power of lightning and wind, a rare element. That general has an element we have never seen before…”

“It seems we do not have enough information on the enemy, do not engage in any combat against the humans, I have a bad feeling about them…”

Suddenly…

“My lord!” a goblin knight fell down the ground, heaving and coughing with sweat glistening on his forehead. Zafar threw the goblin a cup, and the latter drank the substance inside in one go. The goblin breathed out in relief then his expression became serious, “My Lord the Beasts and Undeads have waged war against us!”

The goblins in the room rose, all startled at the news. Zafar himself widened his eyes in surprise, before asking the knight to continue. “The Goblin King Karral has ordered all goblin lords to the battle.” Zafar frowned, “Why is this so sudden?” “I do not know either my lord.”

Zafar held his chin, pondering for a second before turning to the chieftains, “You heard the message, ready your troops, we march to the capital.” The chieftains roared. “GUWOOOHHHH!!!”

>>>

A day ago…

Han Ling handed a letter to a goblin, shaking with fear, eyes darting left and right, looking for a way out. The black mask looked down, freezing purple eyes bored into the goblin, causing a wet splotch to appear in its pants. “Deliver this to your boss, he’ll understand what to do.”

The goblin nodded frantically, its eyes trembling. Han Ling’s tone then dropped a notch lower, “He’ll get his reward when he completes the job.” The goblin snatched the letter from Han Ling’s hand and darted out the door immediately.

Once the goblin disappeared from view, Han Ling pulled up a map. “If the plan goes right, we’ll have some breathing room for a while.” He glanced at two red circles drawn on the map, one was an outer rim unnamed village, and the other is the Temple of Green Light.

There were two simple goals in this plan, to get the three empires to start a civil war. It would give Jiron time to gather allies and strength. The second was to damage as much of the Realm of monsters as possible.

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The portal to Earth was a catalyst of sorts, the new lands would provide abundant resources and would fuel their growth. However, it was a double-edged sword, with new lands, the empires will have their sights on the other empires and would gather artifacts for war. In fact the war that will break out between the three empires occurred 2 years from now. But Han Ling needed to bring it much earlier.

Han Ling tasked the Goblin gang to attack an outer rim village where the son of a powerful Beast Lord resides, a death of a Beast Lord’s son wouldn’t cause war, but… if the son died in a gruesome way and blamed on the Goblin Empire, that would cause quite a lot of spite. Even then it wouldn’t be enough, so Han Ling deliberately spread rumours that the goblins have the Beast God’s Fang in their possession.

In fact, the goblins really do have the Beast God’s Fang, just that they kept it an absolute secret. But with this secret, it’ll give some hate between the two sides.

Then there was the Temple of Green Light, containing the Bead of Lich, a sacred item for the liches. Han Ling made a pit stop there and left some bodies of goblins, making it seem like they attacked the temple.

Luckily, Han Ling managed to find a group of goblins to take the blame, and soon enough, the Undead and Beast empire was at war with the Goblin empire. With this Han Ling can now continue with his plans…

>>>

Narukami sat at the end of the table, his normal jovial expression was nowhere to be seen. “How many did you say there were?” Silent Death had a solemn expression on her face, “Nearly 12 million goblins are gathering at their capital of Karrel, dozens of chieftains have gathered there along with their 4 lords.”

Narukami’s held back the despair he felt, “Is there any way for us to fight back?”

“Its 12 million goblins sir… not to even mention the chieftains and lords. It’ll be a massacre…” Silent Death lowered her head, clearly depressed at the news. Narukami let out a loud sigh, mind numbing as a slow cascading wave of despair crashed down on everyone at the table.

Then a voice sounded…

“How come everyone looks so down?”

Narukami raised his head at the source of the voice, finding a man with a blank mask walking into the room. Silent Death gave Han Ling a run down of the situation, which the latter only mused out loud, “12 million… that’s much better than I expected…” Narukami frowned at that comment, “What do you mean by that, Blood Mask?”

Han Ling turned to Narukami, curiosity in his tone, “You don’t know what they’re gathering for?” Narukami’s frown deepened, “Aren’t they going to attack us?” Han Ling was silent for a while, then let out a laugh that surprised everyone. “The news should arrive by now…”

Right on time, an assassin burst into the room, kneeling on one foot as he spoke in a quick precise voice. “My Lord! We have gathered new intelligence! The Undead empire has gathered its six thousand liches for war, the Lich King has personally moved as well. The Beast empire has also gathered its forces, preparing for war, all 27 Beast Lords are participating as well.”

The room was silent from the news, Narukami’s eyes widened considerably before he glanced at Han Ling, “What is the meaning of this?”

Han Ling’s eyes glittered, “The Undead and Beast empire has waged war against the Goblin Empire.”

A palpable string of relieved sighs exploded in the room, nearly all the captains were smiling in relief. Narukami himself had his jovial smile returned to him, “What a relief…” Then he paused and glanced at Han Ling, seeing an expectant look on his face. Then it hit him…

“Blood Mask.” “Hm?” “By any chance… were you the one who caused this war?” Han Ling’s expression of surprise was masked but his eyes widened slightly, and Narukami caught that movement. His expression then turned sombre, “To be able to cause a civil war between three great empires on your own… You’re a scary person…”

Han Ling just shrugged, “It had to be done, or the goblins will wipe us out. We need time to shore up our strengths and to gain allies.” Narukami tilted his head, “Allies?”

Han Ling gave the Lightning Emperor a look of disappointment, then sighed, “Not all of the monsters are our enemies, we just need to find the one willing to fight the empires.”

“So, you’re going to go look for them?” “I’ve already found them, all I need to do is recruit them.” Narukami raised an eyebrow, ‘You’re quick…” “Its either speed of death,” Han Ling stood, “I’ve bought Jiron around a few weeks of time, but we have to use this time to shore up our strength.” He dropped a map in front of Narukami, “The red circles on the map indicate the human shelters that are in this realm.”

“Humans in the realm of monsters?” Han Ling nodded, “Just like Earth, other worlds have integrated themselves into the Realm of Monsters, and humans have created shelters away from the monsters, once you find them, train them, they would be helpful in the upcoming war.”

With that Han Ling blinked away. Narukami let out a breath of relief, a smile latching onto his lips, “It’s a good thing he’s so reliable.”

>>>

“You want me to go with you? Just the two of us?” Gentle Sun and Han Ling stood in the light of the camp, with Iron Heart and the others watching in trepidation at the sides. “I will say this again, I require you sun powers, where I’m going will be dangerous without Amaterasu’s blessing.”

“S-Still! Why can’t the others come along?” “They aren’t strong enough.” Han Ling’s cold tongue made the other flinch, but they knew he was right. Just 2 weeks ago, they were around the same strength, but after seeing Han Ling cleave a high levelled goblin chieftain in half made them realize the gap between Blood Mask and Dragon’s Fall.

“B-B-But I’m also weak!” “As I have said, your sun powers will be advantageous.” Han Ling was calm, his tones had no hesitation, eyes cold and unmoving. Gentle Sun turned away from those eyes, clearly red in the face. “H-How long will we take?” “I have already travelled to that area, all I need is to blink there. The entire trip might just take a couple of hours if it goes well.”

Gentle Sun glanced at her teammates, only to see them grin, saying to go and wishing the two of them a wonderful time together. Gentle Sun’s face flushed even redder and the fury in her eyes reflected the heat she was giving to the two guys in her group.

After toasting the two guys nearly to a crisp, Gentle Sun decided to go with Han Ling, on the condition that he doesn’t do anything indecent. Han Ling tilted his head with a frown at that demand but agreed nonetheless.

Soon enough, Han Ling and Gentle Sun burst into purple light and the mage threw up a couple of times before weakly standing up. “N-Never ask me to do that again…” Han Ling shrugged, his head raised and gazing at the tip of a humongous mountain.

“Mount Omine…”

Han Ling muttered under his breath, he walked forward, and started the scale to the top….