The Rise of the Black Plain

"Stop!" A scream erupted from inside one of the Gill family group's carriages, causing all the people on the escort to stop the movement of their beasts immediately.

Simultaneously with that, all the guards outside those carriages began to look in the direction of that scream. Meanwhile, people inside most of those carriages were slowly looking out of the windows, with curious eyes, interested in discovering the reason for this.

And it wasn't long before Lionel, and those other two men left the most luxurious carriage of the group. The Spiritual King, the one who had given that order earlier, then spoke again. "Let's set up a temporary camp in this place."

"We are already only 10 kilometers away from the Dry City, and we probably won't have a chance to do that if we keep traveling forward." He said while he had a calm expression on his face.

This Spiritual King, Winston, had lived for some centuries in this vast world. And he had spent most of that time as just a subordinate of the Gill family. Because of that, and also because of his own careful nature, this man was unwilling to go directly to the Dry City without even taking a few precautions.

Thus, this man had given the order for the group to stop at this location.

The Dry City had improved very quickly, and there were many unanswered questions in the mind of this experienced cultivator. Consequently, this man could not help but be somewhat insecure about acting without further preparation!

"Mr. Winston, is there truly a need for this?" One of the strongest Spiritual Generals in that group asked. At the same time, many others nodded, indicating they wanted to know the same.

Upon hearing and seeing this, the leader of the group, Russ, frowned and said. "There is no need for speech. We are not in a hurry, and I also agree with Winston's decision... Even if there is no need for it, we won't lose anything."

"On the contrary, we will be able to learn about the enemy forces before we act, allowing us to eliminate them without giving them a chance to flee!"  He said as he clenched his fist tightly and smiled forcefully.

In fact, he wouldn't mind attacking the Dry City at once. But Winston's idea wasn't bad either, and it could still make dominating the other side much easier. After all, acting on the situation without prior preparation was an excellent way to leave loose ends behind...

On the other hand, the day had just started a few hours ago, but attacks like what they wanted to do would always be more interesting to do at night. Hence, they could use that remaining time to send out some groups to investigate the basics of this new Dry City!

The plan was perfect!

Consequently, Russ hadn't bothered trying to change the way they acted. Doing it according to Winston's plan would do the same for this noble member of the Gill family.

After hearing Russ' voice, all those subordinates put their questions aside and soon began to prepare the temporary camp.

At the same time, Winston turned to Lionel and said. "Choose some of the weakest guards in our group to investigate that town. Make them..."

After that, Lionel kept all of that Spiritual King's instructions in his mind and proceeded to resolve this matter as soon as possible.

'Hehehe, I want to see how that brat will be surprised when we act!'

...

A few moments before...

In the Dry City's defensive tower, there was a checkpoint on the top floor of this building, from which a group of soldiers constantly guarded the surroundings of the local dome.

Obviously, with construction as tall as this is and with the many concerns the army had, Minos had not wasted the potential of such a place.

In fact, he had previously ordered that this tower needed to be designed to serve as a mechanism for defensive arrays to act together and as a lookout post!

Given its height of more than 100 meters of this tower, the 5th stage soldiers on guard could see tens of kilometers away from the outer limit of the local wall!

That was an essential defensive factor for this city, as the response time could be significantly diminished by it. After all, it would always be quicker to act before your enemies were already at your door.

Anyway, thinking about it all, Minos had ordered the construction of this place in the defensive tower, as well as the 24-hour watch of this place made by Sergeants.

As such, at this time, there were 12 soldiers of that rank there on the highest floor of the tower, guarding the surroundings of the dome.

They were sitting in different places, separated from each other by similar distances. Otherwise, in the middle of that space, relatively small in radius, there was a hole through which a long ladder passed.

From this location, soldiers from this post could come and go from there. On the other floor of this tower, just below this post, was the central control of the defensive arrays.

Finally, those soldiers were now watching the surroundings. Some of them did this with the naked eye, while some of them used specific equipment to check for possible problems from time to time.

In front of each of them were these spiritual arrays specially made for their activity, that is, observation from a distance. Some could be placed close to the eyes, while others were like transparent lenses, which showed colored outlines here and there.

"Is there anything on your side, Olivia?" A woman asked in a low voice to the soldier on her left.

Hearing this, Olivia continued to look in the same direction as before while answering her colleague. "No, the same as always. Some beasts are heading towards the agricultural fields. Still, I've already seen that one of the local mercenary groups is already going to solve this."

"And on your side?"

"I don't see any problems either. Just a group with two chariots and four spiritual beasts heading east... They must be heading toward the Maritime City."

But as this group talked about their usual routine, something suddenly caught the attention of one of these observers.

"I think I see something weird." One of them commented a little louder than they usually spoke to each other. At the same time, he got up from his chair and used one of those objects in front of him.

"People, I see a group of several carriages, with dozens of people approaching us from the east side of the wall!"

Upon hearing this, the other people standing there turned towards the soldier who had said this while their expressions became solemn. They then left their posts for a moment and approached that side, already using their special equipment to see into the distance.

"That's bad, there seems to be a symbol on those carriages, but I can't identify it!" One of them screamed in surprise, seeing a slight black blur on the doors of those carriages.

"Hmm, this seems to be a noble power group!"

"Turn on the alert!" Someone yelled as they approached that hole in the stairs and looked down.

"What? Are you serious?" A scream came from downstairs.

Upon hearing this, someone immediately responded. "Yes, it's a problem on the east side!"

Woop! Woop!

...

Woop! Woop!

"Oh?" A soldier on duty at the east wall entrance post exclaimed as he rose from his chair and looked around.

"It looks like we will have problems..." Another soldier commented in a worried tone before she got up from her chair and prepared to leave.

Finally, those people who were at that post did not take long, and soon they had fastened their armors and started to descend the stairs of that post.

'Ahh, I hope it's just a false alarm...' Someone thought apprehensively.

...

Woop! Woop!

Simultaneously, alarm sounds rang at the army headquarters as well as the local government mansion.

Noticing this, Minos, who was reading a pile of papers in his office, quickly turned his head and then looked back towards the glass wall that faced the front of that mansion.

'This hasn't happened in a long time... Who will it be this time?' He wondered a moment before rising and leaving that spot.

As he passed his office reception, he glanced at Mia and said quickly before continuing on his way. "Call Mendy Stokes, tell her I want her to accompany me...."