“So this is the mine, huh?” Jordon asked with a hint of surprise as he followed Ace through the air.

He didn’t need Ace to say anything; he could sense the incredible fluctuations of energy coming from beneath the ground.

“Yeah,” Ace nodded before he turned to Amira’s father. “What do you think? Do you reckon you’d be able to create a cave below without damaging the mine to allow my people to excavate the gems?”

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Emperor Jordon snorted with an exaggerated roll of his eyes. “I may not quite be able to compare to a little freak like you, but I’m still a peak sai…”

Before he could finish his sentence, both his and Ace’s heads snapped back after sensing a powerful aura rapidly flying in their direction.

Though he was still several kilometres away, on a clear day like today, the eyes of Ace and Jordon were able to lock on to the figure approaching, causing a small frown to manifest on each of their faces.

Just as Ace was preparing to take action, he sensed something that caused his eyes to widen with a hint of surprise.

‘Law of the Earth – Profound Mystery of Strength,’ Ace immediately guessed as he felt the earth seem to lend its power to the dark-skinned Emperor beside him, causing the muscles in his legs and arms to swell.

“You stay here,” Jordon said coldly as he locked in on his target, summoning a pair of twin battle hammers from his storage ring. “I’ll deal with him!”

Ace was slightly surprised by Jordon’s change in demeanour. Usually, the Rohault Emperor was the picture of composure and stability. This was the first time he’d sensed him show his killing intent. Still, when he remembered the man’s longstanding problem with the O’Brien Empire, he understood, after all, it was them who essentially ruined his big brother’s future, preventing Aiden from ever being able to become a saint.

Though also a peak saint, Lanke’s soul wasn’t as strong as Jordon’s or Ace’s. As such, he was discovered long before he discovered them.

His eyes constricted slightly when he sensed a powerful aura shooting towards him. “Jordon Rohault…”

The moment he identified his attacker, Lanke didn’t think twice before turning tail to run away. Unfortunately, whilst Lanke, as a warrior who focused on the laws of the wind, would ordinarily be the more agile of the two, when it came to travelling in a straight line, it was the Emperor who came out on top in a competition of speed.

The power coursing through Jordon’s body when he took action allowed him to move like a meteor as he shot through the skies, appearing above Lanke in what may as well have been the blink of an eye.

Ace watched in awe as the space around Jordon’s hammer rippled, as though it wanted to break free of the spatial constraints of their Yulan Plane.

Jordon’s hammer tore straight through Lanke’s body, only for Lanke’s body to shimmer out of existence. Still, Jordon didn’t seem surprised as ten identical Lanke’s appeared around him. Instead, he used the momentum of his first attack to skillfully carry him towards another of the doppelgangers.

Lanke’s eyes flickered slightly as he looked down toward Ace, but sensing the might of the man essentially bulldozing his way through his clones, he immediately turned tail and ran, with each of his clones flying in opposite directions. “Marnur was right… About everything.”

Jordon had just destroyed the fourth doppelganger when he watched the other six flee in different directions. He briefly considered chasing one more but quickly disregarded that option.

Although he was exceedingly fast when moving in a straight line, that was only when he had a solid platform to launch himself off; otherwise, he was a level or two slower than the War God’s 22nd disciple.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

And more importantly, even if he was confident in chasing down one more clone, he had no idea which clone was real and which was fake.

“This might be a bit of a problem,” Jordon sighed when he sensed Ace near.

“It’s fine; it’s just a mine.” Ace shrugged. “If we can keep it, we’ll keep it; if not, then we won’t. But before their forces can rearrange themselves, I wanna try and mine as much as possible.”

“You really are an odd one,” Jordon said after taking a second look at his brother’s only disciple. “Most people in your situation wouldn’t be able to keep so calm.”

“What’s the point of getting so worked up?” Ace shrugged. “Our plans never included the ownership of the mine in the first place. It’d obviously help our cause if we could claim it for ourselves, but if we can’t, then we’ll just continue with our original plan.

Either way, no one will stop us from forming our Empire in the future.”

“Haha, well said!” Jordon nodded appreciatively. “Still, I’d hate to allow those bastards of the O’Brien Army to grow any stronger. How about some reinforcements from my Rohault Empire.”

“Are you sure?” Ace asked. “You know that chances are it won’t just be the O’Brien Army who set their sights on the mine. If you send reinforcements from your Empire, you’d likely be antagonising the Radiant Church, Yulan Empire, and potentially the Cult of Darkness as well.”

Although Ace didn’t have much interest in politics, it didn’t mean he didn’t understand it. He knew that with the Yulan and O’Brien Empire having forged an alliance, chances are, both forces will come together when attempting to pressure them to give up the mine.

And with the Church having made some sort of deal with the Yulan Empire, there was a good chance that they would be involved as well.

And although the Cult had seemingly pulled out, when they inevitably received word about the magicite mine, they wouldn’t be able to stay away either.

As far as Ace was concerned, retaining ownership was near impossible, unless he went out to fight as well. Unfortunately, although he was technically still a mortal, in the eyes of the rest of the world, he was now considered a saint-level expert.

The second he stepped foot onto the battlefield, their enemies would all undoubtedly send their saints as well.

“Don’t underestimate us, brat! My Rohault Empire has never been afraid of getting into a bit of trouble,” Jordon snorted disdainfully. “Plus, these last couple of years of peace have been particularly draining for the soldiers of my army. They’re all starting to get a bit antsy.”

Hearing that, Ace couldn’t help but think back to the impressive martial spirit of the Rohault soldiers. A hint of a grin hung on his face as he nodded. “Fine, we’ll drive those bastards back and split the profits between us.”

.

.

.

At the same time, back in the O’Brien territory of the Anarchic Lands, Lanke, who had just hurried back, immediately took General Marnur and went to explain his findings to his senior brothers.

“You’re sure?” Fain asked. “Ace found a magicite mine?”

“Positive,” Lanke nodded solemnly. “And with those Rohault bastards there as well, it won’t be easy to pry it from them on our own.”

“True,” Fain nodded pensively. “It’s a shame the Rohault Empire’s involved as well. If it was just Ace, we might’ve been able to find a way to force Ace’s hand into forcing him to hand over ownership.

All we can do is tell our new allies and offer them an equal split.”

“I’m not sure that’ll be enough,” General Marnur, who had been entirely silent until now, added respectfully.

“Who are you to be interjecting in a conversation between us saints?” Byrius snorted, a cold and disdainful light flickering across his eyes.

“Byrius, that’s enough! Without the General’s insights, we’d still be completely unaware of what Ace had found,” Fain snapped back at his irritable junior brother. “General, please go on. I’d like to hear your thoughts on the matter.”

“Yes, Milord,” Marnur nodded respectfully, still cautious about Byrius’ presence, not wanting to say or do anything that would get himself killed. “I think it’d be in our best interest to involve not only the Yulan Empire but even the Radiant Church and the Cult of Darkness.”

“Are you stupid?” Byrius barked. “If we do that, we’d have to lessen our cut by even more.”

Fain coldly glanced at Byrius, causing him to settle down. Still, he didn’t say anything as he too was of the same belief, but he understood that Marnur wouldn’t make such a suggestion for no reason.

“I understand that Milords,” Marnur replied feebly. “But Ace and Linley have already shown that they have a connection to one another. Although I can’t confirm the strength of their relationship, it’d be in our best interest to assume that Linley’s Baruch Duchy would also be providing support to Ace’s territory.

If I’m wrong, I get that we would’ve lowered our cut for no reason, but if I’m right, and we choose not to include the church and the cult, the chances of us being able to seize ownership of the mine with just ours and the Yulan Empire’s forces here in the region, is slim to none.

After all, the Baruch Duchy has five supreme warriors with the strength of a peak ninth-rank expert, as well as that necromancer – Zassler.”

As Marnur finished his explanation, whether it was Fain or the explosive Byrius, neither said anything immediately, as they both understood that the General was right, again.

“Okay, we’ll do it your way,” Fain nodded slowly before turning to his junior brother. “Lanke, you go and tell the delegates from the church and the cult to hurry over; I’ll fetch those from the Yulan Empire.”