Meanwhile, at the Gehenna Border, Alyssa stared angrily down at two envoys from the Roaring Flame Empire in her own military camp. They were bruised all over; their clothes in a disarray. Her beautiful face twisted in seething anger.
"You lost the tributes to be sent out to the Timber Deity Empire for our secret alliance?" Alyssa said calmly. Yet her charming eyes betrayed her true emotion for they were full of fury, like two orbs of fire burned where her eyes were supposed to be.
The two envoys felt desperately hopeless. They understood that they could be sentenced to death for losing the tributes.
"Princess Alyssa," one of them pleaded. "We did not intend to lose the tributes. A four-star spirit-manipulated beast attacked us out of nowhere and took out one of us who carried the tributes. It is hard to tell at this point if he is still alive or not," he explained.
"Why did you fail to protect the tributes? Why wasn't someone with higher power sent to deliver the tributes? If a manipulator at the Supernal Stage was sent then this would not have happened!" Alyssa shouted with great annoyance. Among the tributes was a treasure map. The possibility of someone else finding that treasure map represented a huge loss and risk for both of their empires.
The two envoys kept their silence. The Roaring Flame Empire was but a medium country compared to Timber Deity Empire which was a powerful one. And thus, they were unable to send a manipulator at the Supernal Stage even if they wanted to. The alliance was made hastily given the circumstances. The Roaring Flame Empire took the situation into consideration and immediately sent three envoys above the Heavenly Stage to complete the task as soon as possible.
And a team made up of three spirit manipulators above the Heavenly Stage was more than capable to handle any situation that might arise at the Gehenna Border. But no one expected the situation where a four-star Demonic Devouring Boa ambushed the group. If it was an ordinary four-star spirit-manipulated beast, three spirit manipulators above the Heavenly Stage could get rid of it easily. But the beast that attacked them was Demonic Devouring Boa that was known
sed his eyebrows and silently moved out of his cave to find out what caused the noise. Numerous torches lined the trail in the valley. And they were all heading toward his direction!
"Why are there troops here this late in the evening?" Rocky wondered.
He paused and signaled Uriah and little Rubygon to stay and be silent. He then went out towards a boulder along the valley. He made a few silent leaps, lowered his head behind the boulder and studied the approaching troops.
The light of the torches revealed the uniforms and ornaments of the soldiers to be ones that did not belong to either the northern sky military camp or to the other camps of the Crimson Dragon Group. The wood carved emblem embroidered on their clothes clearly implied that they were troops from another country. It was obvious that there was something wrong since they were within the northern sky military camp's territory.
'Are they on a covert mission?' Rocky thought as his eyes squinted.
Unexpectedly, Rocky sensed the presence of spirit manipulators. He checked carefully and found more spirit manipulators behind the troops. They were above the Earthly Stage and more than one was at least at the Heavenly Stage. It became obvious to Rocky that this was a powerful group of soldiers and this estimate came mostly from the spirit manipulators that were present in the group.
'It appears that something unexpected and unfriendly will happen very soon!' Rocky thought.