𝑜𝒱𝓛xt.𝐂𝞸𝗆

Now that the Flying Citadel was safe in Daimon’s inventory, the group was led towards the mass of land ahead by Aurora who had casted a light barrier around them, just in case.

According to Shirel’s father, the mass of land on front of them was safe for them to reunite because it belongs to his family, he simply sent the residents to an “expedition” trial, and offered a prize to motivate them.

After that, he himself encircled the city to prevent anyone to spy on them, he was going to meet with public enemies of the Bone Sea after all, son in that sense the old Skelefiend was trustable.

But one can never be too wary, in case he turns out to worry more about the old enmities than his daughter, Daimon will take out the Flying Citadel to cause a commotion and then, they will retire if needed.

“That is the Patella Peninsula, the mansion of the city lord is at the east side, that blue colored tall building that can be seen from afar”, said Shirel as she pointed at a five-story building.

The place for the meeting was decided beforehand, but to Daimon’s surprise the architectonic style of the Skelefiends was quite different compared to the one of the either the Mermen or the Elemental Seas.

At least in this so-called Porter city, there was no castle or mansion, but tall multiple level buildings that were built for the important places.

Guided by Aurora the group entered the aerial space of the city, they didn’t have any problem so that meant Shirel’s father fulfilled his promise and temporarily deactivated the barrier.

Still Aurora didn’t cancel her optic illusion spell until they had arrived at the entrance of the tall blue building, the moment they became visible, the door opened and they were welcomed with the sight of an old man with slightly gray skin and white hair, moustache and beard, the most distinctive characteristic Daimon noticed was that his eyes were completely white, as if he had no pupil, but he didn’t seem to be blind, maybe it was a race trait.

The old man looked older than Vincent and at the same time, he didn’t have a war-like aura around him, but a calm experienced one, though his expression was serious it didn’t look imposing.

Especially because it was easy for Daimon to see the huge relief that the old man felt when he saw Shirel being in a good condition.

He knew that Horrorclaw tried to kidnap the princesses of the Clear Water kingdom as well as the princess of the Light Palace with Blackbeard and Sting’s help, and it was a well-known fact that the queen of the Mermen Sea and the Matriarch of the Light Palace are protective when it comes to their sister and granddaughter respectively.

So, the moment he got to know Shirel was captured he could imagine the fate that awaited his daughter, he would have gone to the Mermen Sea if not for the fact that they received a message that demanded Horrorclaw to personally go if they didn’t want Shirel to be publicly executed.

Naturally he immediately went to meet Horrorclaw but the latter refused saying it was a trap, and that now that the arrow had left the bow there was nothing to discuss, Horrorclaw even told him that if he dared to leave the Bone Sea, he will be declared a traitor and then Horrorclaw will provoke the Mermen Sea so that they kill Shirel.

Unfortunately, the old man has been retired from the public scene for a really long time, so he had no way to communicate with the Mermen Sea, in fact the only one who “officially” had a way to contact the Mermen Sea was Horrorclaw so any messages had to go through him, the old man had his hands tied essentially.

That was until he received a call directly by her daughter saying that the Mermen Sea was willing to negotiate with him, and that led to the current situation.

Daimon and the others were led by the old man to the main hall of the building, which again took those who were new to Skelefiend culture as it wasn’t a throne room but something more similar to a conference room, with a large table and many chairs.

Anyway, the questions regarding that could wait, first, the old man looked at Aurora who was the strongest in the group and placed his hand on his chest as he did a basic noble greet by slightly lowering his head.

“Armando Spokel greets the Matriarch of the Light Palace and her companions, it’s a shame that out first meeting is under these circumstances…”, the old man doubted for a couple of seconds, but ultimately, he couldn’t stop himself from saying.

“I know this means nothing, but I truly didn’t know about Horrorclaw’s plan, as I was in seclusion, the array placed on our deity’s statue was linked to me, so when it was burned, I suffered backslash, I didn’t think that Horrorclaw would be crazy enough to go at war after all the sacrifices that took us to reach this semi peaceful state, and what’s worse he involved my daughter in his stupidities”, said the old man as he sighed.

Shirel lowered her head, she didn’t dare to look at her father directly, it’s not like Horrocalw forced her to go, but she was convinced by him, now she realized she was tricked, what Horrorclaw wanted were the troops that were loyal to her family, though he retired when she was captured, it was only to publicly show support, not to mention he had a bigger chance of losing than winning, considering how things were going back then, since they didn’t take Thea appearing into account.

Not to mention the princesses were safe, they basically suffered a huge defeat so when Horrorclaw saw the chance to delegate the blame to Shirel since she was captured, he did so without hesitation, in other words she became his scapegoat and now her father had to pay for her mistakes.

Daimon who has been bothered by something, entered the conversation to say.

“As far as I understand your influence in this sea isn’t smaller than Horrorclaw’s, so if you didn’t want war, then, why didn’t you prohibit it publicly, it sounds too convenient that you weren’t involved at all, now that we have your daughter in our hands?”.

The old man turned to see the origin of such a sharp and accurate comment, just to see a masked silver haired youth, who didn’t even flinch after being gazed at by him, though he isn’t actively trying to show off, Armando is till a Maximum Stellar ranked, one that isn’t worse compared to Abaris, in fact this old man might be as strong as Vincent.

Still Armando didn’t get angry, and instead he answered to the silver haired youth, because Aurora not saying anything when he talked, meant the sole male in the group held a special position, not mention he could also notice the strong light mana coming from Daimon.

“It’s not like I didn’t want to do it, but I can’t, certainly for internal affairs my authority surpasses Horrorclaw, but when it comes to battle and anything related to fighting, he has the higher ground”.

“Also, the members of the Bone lineages fully support him and their number is bigger compared to us from the Flesh lineages, even if we were to follow the old tradition and make the citizens vote, the result will be against us anyway, the only reason as to why Horroclaw showed respect to me was because he was weaker and he needed the members of the Flesh lineage, as only us can use magic among Skelefiends”.

Daimon raised an eyebrow behind his mask, he has noticed some concepts that come from modern society, democracy is one of them, on the other hand, it could be that the old man just wanted to trick them, but that didn’t seem to be the case.

Daimon was also interested in the fact that the Skelefiends seemed to divide themselves into two separate subspecies, which made him decide that the old man could be more useful than what he expected.

“Well, that being the case, now it’s your chance to change that, in exchange for your daughter’s life, the condition is that you join us to fight Horrorclaw and his allies, pretty easy right”, said Daimon as he leaned back on the chair.

The old man more or less expected this, so he wasn’t surprised by the petition, what surprised him was that a member of the young generation was the one leading a negotiation, where two Maximum Stellar ranked were involved.

“Can you represent the king of the Mermen Sea and the Shaman of the Elemental Sea when you say this, we have a blood feud that goes back in time to a moment that was erased from the books of history, little friend, do you have that authority”.

“He can’t speak for the White, but he has the support of the Valas family, as well as the support of the Mermen Queen, not to mention the Trident Marshal as well”, Mellie stepped in for Daimon as she and Daphne showed the tokens of authority of their sister and mother respectively.

“The same applies for us, the Light Palace and all its subordinated sects fully back him up, as he was declared the young master of the Light Palace publicly yesterday”, Jasmine also interfered in the conversation, earing thumbs up from Aurora who gave her, her token of authority as she knew it will come to this.

“He is also this Empress’s newly appointed general, so you can count me in for the fun”, added Thea.

Armando was surprised of what he heard, big forces from three out of the four seas supported the silver haired youth who was talking to him a moment ago, individually the faction formed here was stronger than anyone else, just because they had two Maximum Stellar ranked already.

‘If I were to join then… three Maximum Stellar ranks under the same flag, at least five high stage and dozens of middle and early stages, it’s outrageous’, thought Armando, but what amazed him the most was the fact that he never expected people from different seas to work together like this.

“Ah, I nearly forgot to mention it, but he has the right to speak, because he is the one who captured your daughter and frustrated Horrorclaw’s plan, forcing him to retreat in disgrace”, said Aurora.

Armando was in awe, no one knew how was Shirel captured, because only the queen and the others knew that it was Daimon’s doing, so publicly everyone believed it was some of Vincent’s subordinates that were lucky.

The old man looked at his daughter and then he seemed to have taken a decision, as he turned to see Daimon.

“I’ll join, but I want the contract that I’m pretty sure I’ll have sign, to stipulate that you won’t harm my daughter, also you have to tell me what we are facing, because it’s hard to believe that Horrorclaw suddenly got braver just with those pirates as his allies”, he said.

Daimon shrugged.

“She’ll also be signing the contract, so if she tries to do something funny, she’ll die, the same applies to you and all of your subordinates, but if you aren’t thinking on betrayal then there is nothing to be afraid of”.

The old man’s eyes glowed, the young man in front of him left no space for breaches in the contract he mentioned, others would have been intoxicated over the thought of having a Maximum Stellar ranked as a subordinate, it wouldn’t be weird for them to forget about the one who acted as the bridge for their success, in this case Shirel.

Now that the two parties have reached an agreement, Daimon turned to see Thea and then said.

“Miss Thea if can you do the honors, please”.

The Empress happily nodded and then one of her pupils became red, she confirmed that Armando wasn’t in a contract that prevented him from attacking the Bone Sea, probably Horrorclaw never in his life imagined the day would come when the easy going and calm old man that didn’t even fall for his provocations, to attack him so he never pursued a contract regarding that.

“He’s clean, I can do the contract but, unlike the others he will have to be directly under me or it won’t work”, the difference in rank was too big for Thea’s ability to ignore it.

Daimon nodded and the contract proceeded without any troubles, only then Shirel was released from the restrictions and the first thing Armando did was hug her.

“I don’t want to interrupt but we have a lot of things to do, and a couple need your influence in this place”, said Daimon.

Armando bitterly smiled but he agreed with Daimon, besides his daughter needed some rest after being at the verge of a mental collapse earlier.

“Very well, we can start whenever you want…”, the old man suddenly realized he didn’t know the name of the silver haired youth.

Daimon of course noticed the predicament, so he took the initiative to introduce himself.

“You can call me Daimon”.

The old man nodded and then he told Shirel to go and take a rest, while he stayed behind as he had a lot of catch up to do.