Luke and Lala continued running past the village and continued moving to the east.

Going to Millef after what had happened last night was out of the question.

Even though Lala was from another nation, she roughly knew her way around this region that was to the east of the Forest of N’Gool.

Luke also had a map with him, and there were even wooden signs here and there along the road, pointing to other cities.

“We will be going to Naiccos. It is the second largest city in the Exul Empire, and is not that far away from Millef.”

Luke nodded to what Lala had said.

“Good idea. We can plan our next move from there.”

They continued running along the road, and had almost made it to Naiccos by late afternoon.

The pair was currently running up a hill, and when they reached the top of it, Luke could see a large city residing within a valley, surrounded by hills on all sides.

“Woah…”

He couldn’t help but gasp out.

The city was at least three times the size of Millef.

Calling this city a fortress would be an understatement.

It had beautifully decorated walls, made out of fine stone, which were around 25 meters tall.

The walls enveloped the city forming a perfect octagon shape.

In the interior of the city, another smaller set of octagon walls separated the outer city from the inner city.

‘This place… This is an excellent opportunity to get even stronger!’

Lala smiled at Luke’s reaction.

“There is a detachment of the Water Temple embassy in Naiccos. They should be able to help us once we tell them about what had happened.”

Luke scratched his head.

“Why would there be an embassy detachment here, instead of just staying together with the embassy in the capital? It seems a bit counter-productive.”

“Well, about that…”

Lala wore a bitter smile on her face.

“Mildly said, the Water Temple is not what it used to be. Our influence had weakened over the years… We are trying to regain that influence, not only in the Exul Empire, but in other major nations as well. By having detachments of the embassy in other major cities, we speed up that process.”

“Are there any other embassies or embassy detachments in Naiccos?”

“The Temple ones? No. Although there are political embassies from some of the smaller nations.”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

“Smaller nations? I thought that there were only the five nations, each represented by its respective Temple.”

Lala shook her head.

“If only politics were that simple. The majority of those smaller nations are free cities or neutral trading hubs. Nations just in name.”

Luke nodded.

“So that’s how it is…”

While they were chatting, Luke and Lala had already arrived at the city’s gates.

There was a line in front of the gate, reminding Luke of Millef.

“Do all cities regulate the entrants like this?”

Luke asked Lala.

“Mm, not all of them, only the bigger cities. In other countries the rules also vary.”

Luke nodded in response.

The gate itself appeared to be slightly bigger than the one in Millef.

‘Time-wise, this city is around 4 hours away from Millef. And that’s with my newly improved speed.’

There were also guards stationed at the gate, but they didn’t appear to be soldiers.

They were wearing robes and light garments, which wouldn’t really provide any physical protection.

But Luke knew they didn’t need such a thing.

‘These guys are all elementalists.’

They were emanating a pressure that was easily sensed by Luke.

The waves of mana felt as if they were piercing his chest.

‘Are they intentionally letting off that much pressure?’

Lala, as if being able to read Luke’s expression, answered.

“These guards are all elementalists. They constantly use their mana to pressure the people and dissuade them from even thinking of committing a crime.”

She then smiled.

“Of course, if you’re also an elementalist, this much pressure shouldn’t amount to much.”

Luke nodded as small beads of sweat started forming on his forehead.

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‘Easy for you to say. You’re not on the level of a child like me.’

There were more than twenty guards around the gate.

If there were only a couple of guards, Luke was sure that the pressure wouldn’t have amounted to much.

After waiting in line for some time, Luke and Lala were now facing the guards that regulated entry into the town.

Lala whispered to Luke.

“Let me handle this.”

Before even waiting for his confirmation, Lala stepped in front of Luke.

Luke chuckled at this.

“I am Lala, a priest of the Water Temple. I have business with the Water Temple embassy detachment.”

The guard nodded and flipped the pages of the book he was holding.

He then shook his head.

“We didn’t receive a message about such a meeting.”

Lala snorted.

“Of course you haven’t. I am here on an urgent trip.”

The guard sighed.

“I understand, but there’s a procedure to be followed when it’s a matter of political visits. Such visits need to be reported and logged in advance.”

He tapped his quill on the leather book.

“But there was no report of such a visit. Thus, you don’t have a valid reason for entry.”

Lala pouted.

“Don’t you see my robes? I am obviously a Water Temple priest!”

The guard snorted and shook his head.

“For all I know, you may have killed an actual priest, and stole the robe…”

Lala smiled.

“I didn’t want to use this, but it looks like I have no other choice.”

Lala reached her hand into her robe and pulled out a neatly folded piece of paper.

She unfolded the paper and showed it to the guard.

Once the guard had read the contents of the paper, he gulped and his eyes almost popped out of his skull.

The guard bowed down 90 degrees.

“I-I am very sorry! Please proceed and forget about this foolishness of mine, miss!”

Luke raised an eyebrow.

‘Just what was on that paper?’

Lala gently smiled at Luke and motioned to him with her hand that he should follow her.

Luke obeyed and followed her lead.

And so, they entered the city of Naiccos.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The city of Naiccos was originally the imperial capital of the Exul Empire, a thousand years ago.

It wasn’t situated just in the valley, but its walls towered above the hills surrounding the valley as well.

Many emperors and kings were crowned in Naiccos, and many more of them were born and raised in Naiccos.

It was the definite [Royal City] of the whole continent.

The Exul Empire – the Wind Temple.

The Kingdom of Istorial – the Water Temple.

The Steel Republic – the Metal Temple.

The Dwarven Union of Svarog – the Fire Temple.

The People’s Republic of Geb – the Earth Temple.

These five major nations had maintained the balance of power for hundreds of years, and each one of them had their areas of expertise.

The Exul Empire was the all-rounder, but focused mainly on manipulating the weather using their powerful wind elementals, preventing the most devastating storms and typhoons.

The Kingdom of Istorial used their water elementals to alleviate droughts and water shortages across the country.

The Steel Republic could rapidly construct buildings of high quality using the metal elemental.

The dwarves of the Svarog Union used their fire elementals to forge the highest quality weapons and armor, in combination with the rare ores which could only be found deep underground, below their territories.

Finally, the People’s Republic of Geb used their earth elementals to fertilize the farmlands, and develop a highly advanced agriculture technology, making sure that all of their population was well-fed and taken care of, regardless of social status.

As centuries went by, the balance of power shifted over to one of the nations in particular – the Exul Empire.

The other four major powers on the continent disliked this newfound hegemony of the Exul Empire.

Whether it was high quality labor force, elementals, clothing or artifacts, they could all be found within the Exul Empire.

And as time marched on, their technology kept getting more and more advanced, allowing them to utilize the abundance of high-quality resources.

They were also the largest of the five nations by territory.

But all great things must, sooner or later, come to an end.

The other four nations could no longer suppress their desire to put the Exul Empire back in its place, and to restore the frail balance of power that had previously existed between the five nations.

They secretly signed a coalition between the four of them to launch an attack against the Exul Empire, with the goal of crippling its seemingly unending rapid growth.

It was the bloodiest war that the continent had ever seen.

The dwarven weapons and armor, the massive amounts of food provided by the Gebs, the water provided by the Istorials and the rapid construction of buildings required for the war effort, enabled by the Steel Republic.

They were a force to be reckoned with, and the outcome of the war seemed to be obvious.

The Exul Empire was also lacking in war-ready manpower, being outnumbered 3:1.

But to everyone’s surprise and dismay, the Exul Empire not only held on, but also pushed back the four nations’ combined military power.

What they lacked in quantity, was supplemented by the quality of their troops and their pre-planning.

The Temple priests were the main fighting power of each nation, but not the only force that could be used in a war.

The Coalition was ignorant of the spy network that the Exul Empire had built across the continent over the years.

It spread out like a spider web, from civilian to military organizations, across all of the nations.

The Exul Empire knew of their enemies’ plan, and was more than prepared for war.

Their elite priests’ fighting power, combined with the spies’ sabotage, allowed them to wage easy and one-sided battles.

Wherever the priests of the Wind Temple appeared, death followed.

No one was spared.

Elementalists and regular people alike, including women and children.

It was the reality of an all-out war.

Many atrocities were committed by both sides.

But after a few years, hundreds of thousands of dead priests, and tens of millions of dead civilians, the war came to a stalemate.

The Exul Empire’s advance had come to a halt.

This was a war of attrition, which both sides knew.

The Exul Empire would either get a quick victory, or suffer a slow defeat.

And with the Empire unable to advance any further, it was now just a matter of time.

The war continued and the Empire was slowly getting pushed back, village by village, city by city.

The Coalition was regaining their lost territory, and after a dozen years, they had reclaimed all of it.

Another dozen years later, the battlefield had moved into the core of the Empire.

The Coalition’s forces were inside of the once glorious city of Naiccos, tearing it apart.

Once towering over the hills, the city was reduced to the valley which used to be at its center.

More than half of the city now consisted of rubble and ash.

The Coalition more than repaid the grievances inflicted to them by the Empire.

Soon, everyone grew sick and tired of this war.

After two dozen years of fighting, and more than a hundred million dead on both sides combined, the war could finally be brought to an end with the fall of the Exul Empire.

The terms of the peace-deal were very harsh on the Exul Empire to say the least, with them losing almost half of its territory, with the addition of several other limitations.

To name a few, the number of the priests they could recruit and train in the Wind Temple became very small, and the allowed budget for the purpose of researching new technologies also became basically non-existent.

But, as centuries went on, these limitations were slowly being stripped from the Empire from within, one by one, and so, the Empire was rapidly catching up to its neighbors.

And once they catch up, no one will be able to predict what’s going to happen.