General Hargreaves carried on, "Now, onto the agenda. The first part of this meeting, we'll be sharing the key events that had unfolded all over the Central Continent to each of the 4 major Kingdoms. This is to give us a clearer picture to what we're going to face in the future.
Subsequently, a special presentation from our guest attendee, Kai Veridian, will be made to inform us of the details of our enemies' operations, which we have already shared with our allies Cameron, Miran and the Sylph Kingdom.
Finally, we shall be allocating roles and responsibilities in our operations to counter the advance of the Chaos Legion. Now, let's start off with Baron Marcus, Head of the Crimson Sentinels, who shall be sharing with us the events that had unfolded in the Sylph Kingdom as well as Cameron."
Baron Marcus cleared his throat before speaking, "I'll start with the Sylph Kingdom, since things are still relatively peaceful there. From our connections with the Sylph Rangers, we've learnt that so far the damage caused by the Chaos Legion is minimal, with no loss of territory thus far.
As compared to the other kingdoms, the Sylph Kingdom appears to be the least affected, as though the enemy is seeking to keep the country intact. Such behaviour is rather peculiar and we shall continue to put tabs on it with the help of the Head of the Rangers, Princess Charissa. Consequently, no request for reinforcement had been made so far."
Kai heaved a sigh of relief when he heard that his foster mother was doing fine. He was naturally saddened when his foster mother had to leave just after he had returned, but on hindsight, it was for the best as the Sylph Kingdom really needed her services.
Moreover, Kai was impressed with Sylph King Azir's foresight, as it was only days after he had recalled his sister that the Chaos Legion attacked, giving her ample time to prepare herself. Adeline's father was truly a wise man after all, his ability to see into the future essential for his Kingdom's survival.
Baron Marcus resumed, "As for Cameron, apart from the attacks from the Chaos Legion, namely the forces of the Chaos General of Greed, Jiro, whose identity we'd confirmed thanks to Kai's vital information, tragedy has struck the royal family, or more precisely, Princess Fujika.
Princess Fujika is actually one of 4 children of the mysterious patriarch of the infamous Blood Moon Clan, Zed. In addition, prior to her coronation as Princess of Cameron, she was a senior executive of Night Wing and partook in the attack on Zion Academy, though she only knocked out a member of the teaching staff before fleeing towards Cameron."
Memories began to flash past Kai's eyes as he began to connect the dots. 3 years ago, when Adeline and he were involved in defending Zion Academy from Night Wing's incursion, Kai recalled witnessing a female ninja disappearing into thin air upon making eye contact with her, leaving behind an unconscious but unhurt Professor Zane. That person was most likely Princess Fujika.
Baron Marcus continued, "Even though Princess Fujika had officially married into the Cameron Royal Family as wife of Crown Prince Arthur, the Blood Moon Clan remained unaffiliated with Cameron, as it continued to operate its shady business of assassination while remaining effectively neutral.
However, that all changed with an internal revolution within the Blood Moon Clan, as the eldest son, Kenzo, inspired a coup against his own father, who had lost the support of his clansmen over the past 2 years.
Normally, such internal politics should not concern Cameron or us, but when Kenzo had pledged allegiance to the Chaos Legion, more specifically to Jiro of Greed, I believe we ought to be concerned with this incident and its repercussions on the state of affairs in the Central Continent.
As a result, Prince Arthur had formally requested our assistance in dealing with the insurgent Blood Moon Clan for 2 reasons. One, Cameron forces are currently tied down by their need to resist the forces of the Chaos General of Greed, which has been surprisingly large, excluding the Blood Moon Clan.
Two, Prince Arthur had voiced his concerns against his wife's participation in the operation against the Blood Moon Clan. After all, we've received news that in the midst of the coup, the former patriarch of the Blood Moon Clan, Zed, had lost his life to keep his family safe. Currently, as we speak, Princess Fujika's mother is still in a comatose state from her severe injuries while her 2 younger brothers are nursing moderate injuries as well.
Afraid that his wife would act impulsively if she were to participate in the operation to counter the Blood Moon Clan's advances, Prince Arthur has hence requested for a small elite team from our side to assist them. I would give more details on the mission during our discussion on our operations against the Chaos Legion. That's all from me."
A wave of sympathy swept over Kai as he heard the tragedy of the Blood Moon Clan. Even though Princess Fujika was once an enemy of his during Night Wing's incursion, he couldn't help but feel sorry for her loss. After all, given that she had left Professor Zane relatively unharmed, it spoke great volumes of Princess Fujika's gentle character where she avoided killing unless necessary.
In addition, Kai had a great deal of respect for Zed, Princess Fujika's father, despite never meeting him once. Even though Zed was a notorious assassin who was supposed to be cold-blooded, the fact that he offered his life for the safety of his family had earned him Kai's respect, for Kai believed that a true man was epitomised by his love for his family.
A pity that Kai had already been given a task by Goddess Amaterasu, otherwise, he'd volunteered to participate in this mission. Kai's thoughts were disrupted as the next speaker, the Head of Black Ops, Steven, prepared to give his presentation on the state of affairs in Miran and Nirvania.
Steven exhaled slowly before speaking, "Okay, regarding Miran, despite their supposedly dwindling military influence on the Central Continent since the end of the 3rd Holy War with the defeat of the 5 Pillars, Miran has surprisingly been holding well against the advances of the Chaos Legion which are spearheaded by the forces of the Chaos General of Sloth from Kai's information.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
This can be attributed to the rise of a new superpower faction within Miran which looked set to replace the now defunct 5 Pillars. They call themselves the 4 Banners of Revolution, and it seemed that their history dates well before the start of the 3rd Holy War, when they were actually leaders of a revolutionary force seeking to overthrow the Miran monarchy before the 3rd Holy War.
Even though this is supposed to be big news, we've only heard of this now as the old Miran monarchy had successfully kept this incident under wraps, not to mention that the revolution was limited to Myro alone. The 4 Banners were supposedly defeated by the 5 Pillars and the revolution was seemingly quashed right before Miran declared war on Nirvania, triggering the 3rd Holy War.
After the 3rd Holy War had ended, Miran was undergoing a series of constitutional reforms, which included a new royal family and government. Amidst all these rapid changes, the 4 Banners, who were imprisoned, were swiftly forgotten by almost everyone in Miran, except the current leader of the Miran Armed Forces, Marshal Garrithos, who was a retired general prior to the start of the 3rd Holy War.
Formidable as the 4 Banners might be, they were still considered the most heinous prisoners in Miran's history, so Marshal Garrithos couldn't release them on a whim despite his position. However, the opportunity came knocking when the Chaos Legion launched attacks on Miran territories.
Miran's army had been heavily weakened since the end of the 3rd Holy War, and hence, they fared poorly against the first wave of attacks from the Chaos Legion, losing a substantial amount of territory in the south. Marshal Garrithos jumped at the opportunity to release the 4 Banners, stating that their strength was necessary to maintain Miran's sovereignty against the common foe which was the Chaos Legion.
The new royal family gave its permission to pardon the crimes of the 4 Banners in return for their loyalty and soon enough, the 4 Banners were back on the frontline, this time against the Chaos Legion.
The 4 Banners were not only strong as individuals, their release also prompted the resurgence of the revolutionaries who had served under them. After all, only the 4 Banners were captured by Myro then, with the revolutionaries going into hiding ever since their imprisonment.
As the revolutionaries were loyal to solely the 4 Banners for reasons unknown, even after the collapse of the old Miran monarchy, none of them joined the Miran Armed Forces despite witnessing the constitutional changes they had been fighting for.
This was all part of Marshal Garrithos' plan; he knew that releasing the 4 Banners meant more than releasing 4 powerful individuals but obtaining a formidable army as well which would prove pivotal against the Chaos Legion. With the help of the 4 Banners and the revolutionaries under their wing, the Chaos Legion were swiftly pushed back and they are currently locked in a bitter stalemate, awaiting the final showdown.
As a result, Miran too, like the Sylph Kingdom, had not made any formal requests for assistance, on the contrary, the new Miran King even proclaimed that Miran would be the first country to rid itself off the influence of the Chaos Legion, volunteering to assist other countries on the Central Continent when it had finished."
King Stormfury stroked his beard as he quipped, "Ho, Sylvester made such a bold declaration? It's been only 2 years since he took the throne as a young distant relative of the old monarchy and he's already so ambitious. I can't believe he's the same shy man I spoke to when I was deciding on the new monarch of Miran.
Sylvester has certainly grown to be more confident since the last time we met, but he's a man I trust to keep Miran on the right track, since above all, he values peace and prosperity of the Central Continent."
Steven nodded in agreement before resuming, "Now, back to the state of affairs of our country, it's clear from the large-scale assaults and Kai's information that Nirvania is deemed as the greatest threat to the Chaos Legion, with attacks coming from literally everywhere. This is not surprising considering that after our victory over Miran in the 3rd Holy War, despite our heavy losses, we're still recognised as the foremost dominant power on the Central Continent.
In addition, we're also the chief broker of the Alliance between all 4 Kingdoms on the Central Continent, essentially making us the cohesive factor that keeps all 4 Kingdoms united against a common foe. Conversely, remove us from the equation and the Alliance would fall apart in no time, causing the entire Central Continent to descend into chaos which is the aim of the Chaos Legion.
So far, thanks to our extensive preparations over the past 2 years, despite the fiercer-than-expected assaults, we've been holding our ground decently, only losing a few non-essential territories. Of course, as King Stormfury loves to say, every citizen is important so we would definitely fight tooth and nail to reclaim our territories.
However, amidst the relative peace throughout our lands, there has been one city which had received a rude shock, and though it's not lost to the enemy, it is currently extremely vulnerable, considering the fact that it had been the work of one person. That city is Targon, duchy of the Lightning Saint Ray and his wife, Princess Nicolette."
Kai gulped anxiously as Steven continued, "A few days ago, a single person, rumoured to be a female Celestial who had supposedly "fallen" as evident in her amputated wings, had arrived suddenly on the walls of Targon before unleashing indiscriminate destruction without warning, killing many and leaving a trail of rubble in her wake.
Despite the Lightning Saint's intervention which led to an extremely fierce battle, the fallen Celestial emerged victorious, leaving the Lightning Saint in a near death state. Not only did she defeat one of our esteemed 10 Saints, it was said that she did it while remaining free of injury.
Fortunately, before she could wreck further havoc and claim the life of our dear Saint, reports stated that a mysterious and powerful individual intervened, though that was where the reports ended, citing that Princess Nicolette had demanded that the identity of that individual be kept secret even from her own father, King Stormfury.
Nonetheless, what's worrying is that the fallen Celestial is still out there, and during her attack on Targon, she declared that she was one of the so-called "5 Mythical Guardians" serving under a Lord Lucius, who we know now is the Chaos General of Pride and probable leader of the Chaos Legion.
Therefore, if we assume each of the 5 Mythical Guardians are as strong as this individual, whose power clearly exceeds that of Sage tier, we can conclude that the forces of the Chaos General of Pride, whose base location is still currently unknown, would pose the greatest threat to not only Nirvania, but all of Central Continent. That's not even factoring the strength of Lucius himself, who's probably far stronger than his aides. That's all from me for now."
Everyone in the room remained deathly silent, as they struggled to absorb the reality of the situation at hand. To think that now they had to deal with the 5 Mythical Guardians on top of the already formidable 7 Chaos Generals, the situation was looking increasingly hopeless.
As for Kai, he felt choked by fear, as it was simply unfathomable that his Master could be humiliated to such an extent, being brought to a near-death state without inflicting any injury of note to his opponent. Now, Kai began to doubt his own ability to complete Goddess Amaterasu's task. What if he had encountered one of the 5 Mythical Guardians there? Would he stand a chance?
Kai's doubts were dispelled by a gentle voice, which served to assuage everyone's fears as well, "Let's not worry too much about a foe we had not met, but at the same time, we shouldn't be content with ignorance. Instead, let us perceive this piece of news as a reminder that there's still so much room for us all to grow, to transcend our limits and gain the strength required to protect our loved ones. Kai, if you would, please."
It was King Stormfury, and his words instantly roused the fighting spirit of everyone present, raising their confidence to confront the looming threat head-on. Kai felt his own spirit being uplifted by the King's gentle yet evoking words, as he drew in a deep breath before making his way to the podium where Steven was currently vacating.
The King had done the first step of regaining everyone's courage, now it was his turn to build on that courage and show everyone that there was light amidst the seemingly overwhelming darkness.