The Rise of the Black Plain

In the Spatial Kingdom of the Spiritual Church...

Abby had lived in this place since the aliens from Irpoll began attacking the Central Continent about a year and a half ago.

Since then, there have been many battles between the continent's forces, and Abby has been forced to fight twice, once bringing back 10th-stage warriors and once bringing Willow back to the world of the living.

These two actions of hers had greatly helped the forces of the spirit world. As more time passed since the start of the war, the effects of Abby's technique fusion became more permanent.

Previously, she had been able to return level 100 experts to the world of the living for a few tens of seconds. Today, with her almost at level 94, she could keep someone like Willow alive for more than 1.5 minutes.

That might not seem like much, but it was enough support for Callie, Aurae, and Vico to get themselves out of danger or even take decisive action against their opponents.

When Abby had resurrected the last level 100 corpse from her world, Willow had helped to seriously injure one of the Gods coming from Irpoll to the Spiritual World.

That had been four months ago, and there had been no other high-level combat on the continent since then.

This central land part of the Spiritual World had had to deal with attacks from 10th-stage beings, but Abby hadn't been involved in most of them.

She had used up most of her cards and was saving herself for a more important battle for her people.

Unless one of the three remaining gods of the spirit world fell or the continent suffered a significant attack, she didn't intend to move in the short term.

So she was in position in case something worse happened to her land, ready to use the last corpses she had at her disposal.

Many beings from this planet have died in the last nearly four years of this civilization's problems with Irpoll. But the aliens from this other place were very different from those from The Adamant Land. They rarely left the bodies of their enemies whole, which had greatly hindered the native forces' plans to reuse their warriors with Abby's fusion. Therefore, the former headquarters of the Spiritual Church currently held the last 500 corpses for Abby to use in an emergency situation.

Once she used them, she would no longer be able to resurrect high-level Demigods to help her forces!

Anyway, at that moment, she was meditating in the place where the leader of the church used to be, where there was a huge altar in a majestic temple decorated with gold and silver items.

Next to her was Emlyn, who had come to this place with her months ago, but also Minos' mother, Maisie, who was currently at level 91.

Neither of them were there to fight. They were not yet part of the main forces in the fight against the aliens and would not get involved unless it was absolutely necessary or their lives were in danger.

The two of them were there to advise Abby, to keep an eye on what was happening in this area of Evergreen, and to alert the Empress if anything arose that required her attention.

From time to time, one of them would go outside the Spatial Kingdom to check on the situation in the former capital of Evergreen, a place that was no longer the city of millions that it once was, but a large domain of the Black Plain Empire, where specialists kept the continent completely under human control.

...

At a certain time of day, Maisie left the Church Spatial Kingdom and returned to the city that had been abandoned by more than 90% of its population.

This place once was home to millions upon millions of people. However, since the Ice Age and the War of the Worlds struck at the same time, those who survived until this area joined the Black Plain Empire left and migrated to the core of the Minos State.

The core of the Black Plains Empire was currently the richest and most powerful on the entire continent, with more than 500 million people living there.

Meanwhile, this vast deserted area was now commanded by a few thousand soldiers of the mighty Black Plain Army.

Minos' army now had more than 50 million soldiers scattered across almost the entire central continent.

In this city, some of those thousands of soldiers, many of them weak, were only there to maintain the defenses of this place and provide basic services. Meanwhile, some powerful warriors were in position, waiting for a problematic signal to act.

Feeling the tension of the city, Maisie soon found herself in the old Imperial Palace, a place that had seen the end of the old Evergreen family in the last century.

The family line no longer existed, and its headquarters served as one of the main posts for the Imperial forces to keep watch over the area.

Arriving there, Maisie met one of the observers and heard.

"Irpoll's ships are stopped where they were, Your Grace. There is no sign of them attacking us at the moment." Said the high-ranking demigod, one of the few remaining members of this planet's native forces.

"Why are they standing still? Are they waiting for reinforcements?" she asked as she examined a device created from the technology of the Mechanic Empire.

The technological level of the native forces of the Spiritual World had not improved much since Minos had left. However, his forces had improved their mastery of the technologies of The Adamant Land and even acquired new technologies in the little over a decade of war.

The high-ranking Demigod sighed and said. "It could be. It could also be the Ice Age. It's tough to navigate in the current weather conditions.

Sigh... We're fortunate, Your Grace. We'd all be dead by now if it weren't for the Ice Age. The only thing keeping Irpoll from wiping us out is this."

"Don't you think Callie could protect us from them?" She asked as she looked at the sea.

"She can only do that because of the Ice Age. Without the extreme phenomena of this climatic disaster, Her Excellency wouldn't be able to do half of what she's capable of...

One day, the world's climate will change. It shouldn't be long now that the worst of the Ice Age is over. By then, we'll be completely defenseless." He warned Maisie.

The Ice Age was already half over. Unlike the previous eras of extreme weather that the Spirit World had experienced and suffered for thousands upon thousands of years, the current calamity was coming to an end after only a few decades.

According to the elves, the Ice Age would be over in six years at the most!

Maisie was aware of this and sighed in concern.

"I know. I never thought I'd say this, but it's a shame it's coming to an end. But I hope we can improve our chances a little more before the worst happens."