Since Vincent wasn't with the group, Annete used her ring to create a portal with the defensive array of the city, Aurora wasn't skilled enough in law space to bring anyone above the Half Emperor realm and while Thea could use her spear to move, the array would have gotten in her way, so the queen was the one to excel her authority to move.
A couple of seconds later they appeared outside the Duchess's mansion, after making sure they weren't followed or anything, they entered the mansion and went to the conference room while the security head Mina went to prepare food for the group.
In the meantime, the queen took out two blue keys from her spatial ring and handed one to Aurora, while she held onto the other one, at the same time she took out a mirror plate with a lock.
"Senior Aurora, if you please".
Aurora nodded and accepted the key, the same person couldn't use the two keys, but one could designate someone to act on their behalf, in this case Vincent gave Aurora the right to act as his representative.
Daimon was a bit perplexed at the large number of security measures that the queen implemented for this mirror plate, but it made sense since this seemed to be a line she used only to discuss the most private matters with Vincent.
Annete and Aurora both inserted the keys in the locket and the mirror plate was safely unlocked, but that wasn't all, since this was Annete's plate she let a drop of her blood fall on it and even used her voice at an specific frequency as a secondary verification.
Only then the transmission started, it was both image and sound, and what could be seen floating above the mirror plate which worked as a projection was another conference room similar to the one in which Daimon and the others were right now.
The difference is that there were only five people in total there including Vincent who was sitting at the head seat, all of them were wearing uniforms of the army and all of them were in their middle thirties, looking a bit younger than Dominic the main general of the neo noble faction.
Vincent took the initiative to present both parties, starting by his side since they were the newcomers to the alliance.
"These four are my most successful students in the army, four of the ten generals of the army, from right to left, Richard, Gerry, Chazz and Eliot, the four who are in charge of defending the east and west aquatic territories of the kingdom".
Daimon was surprised that Vincent had the support of four generals, out of the then, the other four are related and sponsored by the noble houses including one of the two who were at the middle stage of the Stellar realm, the remaining two were from the neo noble faction, which Dominic the other general in the middle stage lead along with the last general.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtBefore the queen could say anything, Daimon took the initiative to ask.
"Are they representing themselves, or the armies behind them?".
The queen and Thea smiled upon hearing Daimon's question, one liked cunning people and the other was simply happy that her newly appointed general was outstanding in a lot of fields.
On the other side, the question wasn't taken in such a good way though, one of the four generals frowned before saying.
"I know teacher Vincent will never recognize anyone who isn't worthy, but don't you think you should introduce yourself and explain why are you siding with that filthy beas...".
Before the guy could finish speaking Daimon smirked.
"I don't have time to play around or be "tested" by you guys, in case old Vincent hasn't told you, let me be clear, I'm not from Neptune so I don't care about what kind of story you might have, accept the conditions or get lost, I can always recruit more people, when the world is coming to an end, I bet there will be a lot of voluntaries".
Daimon wasn't attacking them out of nowhere, since the moment the transmission started, he noticed that two of the generals didn't seem to look convinced after seeing him, what he couldn't stand is that the sole cause of that, is because Thea was with them.
These guys didn't seem to realize the situation they were in, though their prowess was good, in this case their high realm was useless, they couldn't participate in the Global Raid anyway, he wasn't going to order them around, but if they didn't show respect, then they needed to be reminded of who was in charge.
Vincent chuckled but he didn't interfere, many people in the army had some resentment towards the magic beasts of the Maelstrom Sea, which is not wrong as they have lost friends and family due to that.
But Daimon isn't interested in their pasts, this regarded the security of Aisha and the girls, if these guys were to do something stupid for a petty revenge, they could put their lives at risk, and he wasn't going to allow it, so it was better to be clear from the beginning.
"In case you think you are special let me break that bubble, no one past the middle stage of the Lord realm will be able to enter the real stage that will decide this planet's future, and the strongest in that range is me, in fact even if all the other "candidates" join hands, I'm sure I will still come out as the winner".
The first two generals who remained neutral before, turned to see Vincent and their eyes widened a bit when they saw him nodding, Vincent is someone who values honor and responsibility, he will never lie over something as important as this.
"We have the full support of our immediate subordinates, combined it should be around two peak Half Stellar rank officials, four middle stage ones and eight early stage ones, as well as a bunch of mortal level captains, those are the ones in which we can trust, the soldiers are too many to tell", said one of the two generals, one who had a scar on the left side of his face.
The other two sighed and then explained what they had to offer, since Vincent, Aurora and the queen didn't reprimand the silver haired youth, it meant he had the capital to talk in such a grand manner, Vincent only told them he came from another galaxy, but he didn't disclose Daimon's status or backing by Daimon's petition.
"Very well, now that it has been settled, I'll stay here for the rest of the day while the rest of the officials are brought to sign the contract and return at night... also I'm investigating something that might be related to those creatures, so be prepared in case you receive a call from me", said Vincent before the transmission ended.
"As expected from this Empress's general, you handled those guys pretty well hahaha!", Thea approached Daimon from behind and patted his shoulder happy with how he put the generals in their place.
Even Aurora had to admit that Daimon had enough presence to talk in such a way with the generals, it's clear his formation was everything but normal.
"Changing the subject a bit, I got you a nice deal, the Minister generously chose to donate his two emblems and the three-colored water that comes out of the lake this year, so you can use the prize to enter his treasury and see if there is something interesting, if there isn't I suggest you to choose more of the three-colored water~", said the queen.
Daimon felt a bit of pity for the Minister, he was tricked and didn't notice it at all.
"Speaking of the Minister, what do you think he has planned for the fourth round, tomorrow the teams are going to fight so wouldn't he be revealing the strengths of the four favorites to us?", asked Yvonne.
Based on the personality of the Minister, he will give his grandson every advantage possible, in an underhanded way, so it didn't make sense for him to give Daimon a chance to study Walford's strengths and weaknesses.
"He did it so that it seems as if he is rewarding us, but in reality he used the first three rounds to "train" his grandson's team for the fourth one", said Aisha.
Annete curiously looked at Aisha, others normally wouldn't be able to come to such a conclusion, which made her frown a bit, since that perspective is too strange for a member of the younger generation.
Naturally she had no way to know that while Aisha could be considered young in her two hundred years back then, she was still a peak level Archmage who went through her fair share of life and death situations, while strategy isn't her strong point like Erin, she can't be tricked easily.
"That's right, the Minister prepared the stages to showoff his grandson and the members of his family, without revealing their combat strength as there was no need to it, in fact I can assure you the captains of the teams won't be fighting tomorrow", concluded Annete.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmDaimon had more or less the same idea, in the first round the one who outstood the most was the strategist, which for Walford's team was one of the twin princes, the attention was directed to him, and the captain was unconsciously ignored as it just acted as a mean of transportation, it was made on purpose, though he had to feed the public's curiosity with the revelation that his family now had mages, he tricked the spectators.
In the second round once again personal strength was omitted, since even the glassed old man stated that a peak Arch rank screamed in pain while a ten year old endured a minute without any problem.
So everyone assumed it was random though that wasn't the case, the spirit showdown was intense though, but it was just a show to entertain the public.
And if what Annete said was right, then tomorrow the captains won't be participating, so that they can take Daimon by surprise in the fourth round, while also using the experience they had gained to be at advantage, since seeing something isn't as good as experiencing it.
"What a cunning bastard, it doesn't matter though, because if he bothered this much to prepare the stage for his grandson, that means the fourth round will most likely be a combination of the first three rounds, and if that is the case then it's going to be easy to win for us", said Daimon.
He hasn't been lazing around, everything that happened he thoroughly inspected it with his infinity eyes, not to mention he had already selected who will be the strategist, the vice-captain and the scholar in his team, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Now that they had dealt with the urgent matters, they enjoyed a nice lunch and then went to rest, the queen, Aurora and the Duchess had things to do, so they left while Thea was left behind to defend the fort.
That being said nothing really happened for the rest of the day and they spent the rest of the day planning for when it was their turn to participate, who will be taking care of what and who will be facing who in case it was needed.
After that they went to sleep or that was what Daimon pretended to do, but he was instead dragged to that same dream in which he appeared at the sea, strangely enough he appeared where he left, in the middle of that forgotten battlefield filled with corpses and with the mountain-sized black skull.
Daimon saw the black emblem come out of his pocket and then soar into the sky, which unlike normally it was clouded.
"Oh come on, what do you want to show me this time you little thing", mumbled Daimon.
His eyes widened a bit when the clouds were suddenly dispersed, or it would be more accurate to say the were pushed aside due to something huge which was falling from the sky.
It was another corpse, but this one was different, it was the full body with the exception of the head, and it seemed to be some kind of bird type magic beast, but that wasn't everything, but the beginning of a "rain" of corpses falling from the sky.
Which remembered Daimon the fact that the skies of Neptune were sealed, if he supposed this sea was Neptune back at its origins, that would mean there was a battle at the sea and another at the skies, the problem is that he hasn't seen who was battling the creatures and all those strange magic beasts, which from Daimon's point of view weren't normal, their bodies lifeless gray and had some parts that looked rotten.
"I wonder which side are you allied with?", asked Daimon as he grabbed the emblem and slightly applied pressure onto it.
The emblem has helped him a couple of times, and honestly he was inclined to think whoever made it was an ally, or at least an enemy of those creatures who were his enemies too.
The problem is that so far it has only showed him these enemies, instead of showing who defeated them.