“Doing this will help only to attract her eyes over here. It’s better if you started shifting all of your activities towards the opposite direction, gradually building up fame and strength before clashing up with her.”

“This…” it wasn’t in my nature to do things in such a way. Lowering my head so the storm would pass? Seeking safety by acting like a stray dog?

No! This wasn’t me!

I’d like to stand tall and might against the storm, crushing it with my own might.

She was strong, so I gave her that. But who said she was without enemies as well? Having me would be an easy foe for her to crush, but who said her armies were all free and had nothing else to do.

“Thanks,” I said while turning back to my chariot.

“Lord, what are you planning to do? Seriously! This is going to open the gates of hell on all of us!” Tom chased after me from behind, shouting in such a scared tone.

“Dude, don’t mistake it… Gates of hell already opened the moment I came here,” I said it in such a serious tone, “in the world of hegemony, one had to be one or else he’d end up getting eaten up by many others.”

I left him in daze while I boarded my chariot. My land wasn’t that strong, my forces weren’t that mighty, but I would never allow for such a rich harvest to go to another lord.

One hundred territories? Damn! Wasn’t that enough to advance my territory to blue? Or even pale gold grade?

This was just one grade apart from Berry’s land! Not to mention the sudden spike in the number of my forces that I could summon.

Trying to come at me? Let her try! I knew that I got my hands full with many things later on, but that wasn’t going to stop me.

Having such a nightmarish enemy just nearby was a constant threat, one that I’d rather solve soon than postpone it for later.

“Come forth!” and as I decided, I called back Lucas, “you’ll lead your army and move towards that direction.”

I pointed towards the direction of that grand battle. It wasn’t that far from here, mostly one up to two hours with the army regular marching speed.

For me, it would take half an hour, up to an hour most.

And that was one of the main reasons for me to act this time.

This battle… That army of my unexpected big foe was just close by to mine. My fame was already spreading like thunder, and it would mostly spread to the ears of Berry anytime soon.

As she had an active army here, it was better to take it by surprise and annihilate such an army. At the same time, I’d get a good grasp of how strong she and her forces were.

How special was it? Were they troubled? Or were they just acting based on fame?

And above all, I got to establish my fame too. I wanted Berry to think thrice before coming at me, knowing that I was trouble and getting at me would come with a great cost for her.

So I instantly started moving towards that huge battle. A good general was the one to grasp all the details about the current battle, especially when there were too many forces joining the play.

It took me roughly forty minutes before arriving at the place where all this started; the three territories that made a triangular formation together.

But unlike how I left this place before, it was now covered in densely packed soldiers, all fighting against each other in such a mess.

I paused, moved my eyes over the battleground that stretched for tens of miles in all directions. That… How was this fight exactly?!!

It took me almost five minutes to get a general grasp of the current situation. The mystery was solved when I kept watching the forces that were dressed all in black from head to toe.

These folks were really similar to my soulers. Like my soulers, they kept flashing through anyone and anything, able to cross large distances in mere breaths.

Yet unlike my soulers, they weren’t able to assault the target’s soul. They could only pass through them like they were passing through thin air, then appear behind the target and fight.

Seeing that made me realise how such a messy situation reached such a scale. So the army of Berry landed on their foes, got mixed with them and started such war all over the place.

Well, it wasn’t a usual tactic of wars that one would see everyday. For a moment there, it gave me a sense of street fights, but happening on a larger scale.

“Come forth!” if this was left to develop further, then all the forces of these lords would be annihilated mostly before my army would arrive here.

And even if my army came, such unique talent of that Reaper army of Berry wasn’t something normal soldiers would fight against.

The only thing I’d have to counter such scary foe was my soulers. They could pass through anything and anyone, killing those who passed through in the process.

In theory, they were the natural nemesis of those Reapers. Reapers had to pass through anyone, appear and try to kill them. If they were met with a hard to kill enemy, then they’d start dancing, flashing through him and keep attacking from different angles and in such fierceness and speed that were enough to take that enemy down.

I didn’t know if this came at what cost, but it was an effective strategy indeed.

The only thing that stood between the Reapers and claiming victory here was a simple and ironic fact; their numbers weren’t that great compared to their foes.

One hundred lords were fighting here with everything they got… This wasn’t something small. The scale of this battle alone was enough to cover up almost a hundred mile area, or even more.