Of course, that might also have had something to do with the fact that he himself was a Wizard. After all, he was fairly conscious about protecting the interests of his own class.
"Envoy of the Fire Worship Empire — Sake! Greetings to His Excellency the Chancellor of the Federation!"
Leading the delegation was a fire giant over a dozen meters tall, like a flame demon out of mythology. He bowed low, inclining his head before such a diminutive figure that the scene looked utterly absurd — yet no one present could laugh.
Because Red Eye merely standing there was like an eternal mountain and sky, something one could only look up at.
"Furthermore... our Empire formally condemns Chancellor Red Eye for the wanton killing of our delegation members!" Sake's next words turned the atmosphere on the scene tense in an instant.
"Condemns?" Red Eye let out a soft chuckle. "Anything else?"
"The Chancellor must also take responsibility for this incident and submit her resignation! Otherwise, the Sacred Festival Day — which represents the Fire Feather Clan's jubilation — shall become the starting point of war between our two sides!"
"What?" The crowd erupted in commotion. Even Leylin's pupils contracted — he hadn't expected that the Fire Worship Empire had come here to declare war outright!
Just think about Red Eye's temperament and you'd know — asking him to apologize and resign? Was that even possible?
The moment the envoy's words left his mouth, Leylin felt a chill run through his body, as though he were being watched by some primordial beast.
It was the aura unconsciously radiating from a powerhouse, brimming with a sense of danger.
"Is that so?" Red Eye's eyes narrowed slightly, and the fire elemental giant opposite him stumbled back several steps. A terrifying wave of energy that had crossed the boundary of the Stars surged forth from his body.
This delegation member who had come forward was actually a Star Rank powerhouse as well. And it wasn't just him — the several fire elementals behind him had all swelled dramatically in size, radiating formidable waves of energy.
"Just you handful of Stars? That's not nearly enough!" Red Eye's half-lidded eyes opened slightly, as though he were stating an utterly ordinary fact.
But every member of the Fire Feather Clan present knew that their Chancellor had probably already reached the brink of absolute fury.
"How could we possibly trouble the Chancellor to handle these people? Uncle Burns!"
Shick's face flushed crimson with rage, and he abruptly stepped forward.
"The Military Affairs Office will absolutely not tolerate anyone insulting our Chancellor!" Burns stepped forward, crimson energy engulfing his entire body. He swept his arm forward, and a large number of military officers rushed out, surrounding the Fire Worship Empire's delegation.
Seeing Burns strike first, Red Pupil's eyebrows shot up. "Burns, you—"
BOOM!!! But at that very moment, Red Pupil's expression shifted abruptly, his gaze snapping toward the northwest.
A tremendous sound rumbled over from that direction.
Crackling and groaning, the earth heaved like a plank floating on water, rippling outward in massive waves. Countless fissures split open, spewing vivid red lava and flames.
It was as though some colossal fire demon were marching beneath the surface. A spiderweb of fractured earth spread rapidly toward the city of Transas.
If the city were swallowed by this destruction, the enormous mountain upon which it was built would be buried completely. The whole of Transas would be no exception.
"Haha... Red Pupil, I, the Emperor, have come in person to offer my congratulations. Are you not moved?"
The earth split apart. From within, an enormous hand rose up, blotting out sky and sun, its surface crawling with flames and crimson lava.
Red Pupil's expression grew more grave than it had ever been.
"Archibald..."
Accompanying the giant hand came a terrifying fifth-rank aura of suppression. Many of the Flame Feather Clan members present found it difficult to breathe.
"Fifth rank! A fifth-rank powerhouse! Could this be the Fire Elemental Emperor of the Fire Worship Empire?"
Lin retreated several steps, using the shadows of nearby buildings to conceal himself. Under the overwhelming might of a fifth-rank expert's attack, his small movements went virtually unnoticed.
Red Pupil's face was somewhat grim. He knew that if the opponent's attack succeeded, all of Transas would suffer devastating damage, and the high-ranking officials and nobles present would suffer countless casualties. He had no choice but to act — he had to act!
"Yoooo!!!"
With a piercing phoenix cry, a magnificent Fire Phoenix wreathed in brilliant flames materialized in a flash. Its crimson wings collided violently with the giant hand.
BOOM! Earth and sky seemed to vanish in an instant. Everyone present was stunned into a daze, and only when their eyes could focus again did they behold Red Pupil's colossal Fire Phoenix locked in combat with a titanic flame giant that towered between heaven and earth. The two were fighting their way further into the distance, yet heart-stopping waves of energy still pulsed back toward them.
"Kill!" Burns shouted, his face dark and fierce.
A torrent of star-level energy flames erupted from his body.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! A mass of military officers and attendants charged toward the Fire Worship Empire's delegation on pure reflex, with soldiers and minor nobles following close behind.
Among the Fire Feather Clan's Atlantean Alliance, anyone who had truly risen to the rank of a great noble had cultivated the Fire Feather Technique to at least the eighth layer of the Sky tier. Not one of them was weak.
There were even several formidable experts hidden away at the Star tier keeping watch, but the Fire Worship Empire's delegation was no pushover either. Within it were several fire elemental beings that had already broken through to the Star tier. For a moment, the standoff held, flames and molten rock flying everywhere, utterly demolishing the Oath Square that had originally symbolized peace and victory.
"What do we do?" Leylin hid beneath the colossal statue of the founding monarch. The people nearby hadn't yet noticed that a military officer had actually fled the battlefield.
And at that very moment,
"Bide our time! Only the Fire Worship Empire's fire elementals have shown up so far—the Möbius Ring controlled by Thunder of Jupiter hasn't made a move yet!"
Leylin transmitted back calmly.
He had a premonition that this matter would be far more complicated than it appeared, and Red Pupil was clearly not such a shallow person as to have made no preparations whatsoever.
Which meant that once things shifted, the situation could change dramatically.
The three of them—Dawn Star mages—were far from the top tier of power in a upheaval like this. They needed to stay hidden all the more, waiting for the perfect moment to strike a fatal blow!
Moreover… Leylin glanced at the progress bar on his Chip.
The indicator for the Fire Feather Technique's fusion into his singularity had already reached a critical threshold—only the tiniest sliver of progress remained.
Inside his body, massive quantities of Fire Feather Technique energy condensed once more. But this time, saturated by vast quantities of dark-attribute energy particles, it had shifted from its original brilliant crimson to a deep, dark red—leaning even further toward the shadow spectrum.
The singularity and the nebula surrounding it materialized as well, greedily absorbing the dark-red Fire Feather Technique energy, continuously refining and cycling it.
After purification through the singularity, the Fire Feather Technique energy had grown far richer, though its color had darkened to an almost black hue, radiating an eerie, sinister quality.
"Leylin! What do you think you're doing?" Suddenly, a sharp, commanding shout lashed out, accompanied by a piercing gaze that swept directly over Leylin's position.
Burns's eyes looked as though they could kill him outright. "What are you still standing around for? Planning to be a deserter?"
"Damn it—why did he have to fixate on me!" Leylin stepped out with a helpless expression. When he saw the drastic shift in Shike's gaze, he knew he couldn't brush this off, or he would certainly face punishment.
"That Burns is getting harder and harder to stomach with every passing day!" Leylin took a deep breath, and at the ninth-layer peak, his Fire Feather Technique exploded from his body as he charged toward a fire elemental, blazing across the sky like a brilliant meteor.
"Our people have already acted as agreed. The rest is up to you!"
In a residential building not far from the Oath and Victory Square, the original occupants had long since vanished. Every surface of the walls was covered in blood-red runes that gave off a dark crimson glow. Some of the bloodstains had not yet dried, dripping down one drop at a time, tracing long lines of red.
And it was inside this residential building that several black-robed figures were watching the situation in the square through the windows.
The Fire Elemental delegation struck directly, clashing with a large number of martial officers and nobles, immediately causing tremendous chaos among the ordinary civilians gathered to watch.
The Fire Elementals' attacks naturally showed no restraint whatsoever. Ordinary civilians even grazed by lava or flame were instantly reduced to charred husks, and even the Federation's own martial officers and nobles were not particularly concerned with protecting the civilians in the moment. The crowds of onlookers were enormous, and casualties mounted almost instantly — shrill screams and faint cries for help intertwined, filling the air with the stench of terror.
Countless ordinary Federation citizens were screaming and crying, shoving and trampling over each other in a desperate attempt to flee the inferno of the square, which only spawned an even more horrific wave of chaos and caused even greater innocent casualties.
"Heh heh… Resent it! Screaming won't help! Blood and souls steeped in hatred like these are the finest fuel for our arcane formations…"
From within one of the black-robed figures' cloaks came a rasping, aged voice.
"Rest assured, my friend! Our Mobius Ring has always dealt in fair trades!" The old man's voice was as grating as a night owl's, almost enough to make one's skin crawl, but the Fire Elemental across from him clearly couldn't care less.
"The chaos we've caused won't last long — you must launch your attack as soon as possible!"
"Yes, yes!" The old man cackled, stroking a verdant green metal bracelet on his wrist.
"How are things on your end?"
A rustling sound crackled steadily from the bracelet, followed by a middle-aged man's voice: "We've collected enough flesh and blood, but vengeful spirits brimming with hatred are difficult to gather. We've only completed eighty percent of the charging!"
"That's enough!" The old man let out a cold laugh. "Pass along my orders — strike now!"