The Rise of the Black Plain

A few days after Minos' escape from the capital of Vogel, he and his wives were already in the neighboring kingdom to the east of that state, Rosser.

After his departure, Minos had no problems with potential enemies and had found a safe place from which he quickly went and returned to the Spatial Kingdom. With that, he and his wives briefly discussed the post-sacrifice events and then proceeded with their journey toward the Flaming Empire.

In sequence, they traveled smoothly, having been involved in minor messes, but nothing related to the Vogel family nor high-level powers. That power had more significant problems when Minos left that city, so this individual's group had not had to deal with the negative consequences of his actions.

So he and his wives arrived this morning in the city they were currently in, where they had finally received news of the shocking events in that state!

When they stopped at a coffee shop to have breakfast after days of traveling in the jungle, they found the local newspapers talking about the most popular topic of the moment.

The collapse of Vogel!

After Minos's departure, the Spiritual Church post battle in that state against the Vogel family had reached proportions rarely seen outside of times of war. On that occasion, the capital's core had been destroyed amidst the chaos generated by those involved.

Thousands of people had perished, most of them innocent citizens of the capital who had not been able to escape from the core of the conflict in time.

On the other hand, the battle that had lasted more than an hour resulted in massive losses for the Church post, which had lost half of its men in that conflict.

Several Spiritual Saints and thousands of Spiritual Emperors had fallen to prevent the enemies from escaping, who mostly managed to escape with the weaker ones.

Royal families were usually stronger than the Church posts in their states, so that had been the most likely outcome of the conflict!

In any case, House Vogel had suffered, even considering the many members of royalty who had escaped the Church's siege. Several Spiritual Saints had died to allow the weaker ones and the King and Queen to escape, those two who had suffered considerable damage in the battle.

They were undeniably the Church's primary targets since they led the organization that had committed the crimes mentioned. Thus, during the conflict, they suffered the most from the actions of the enemy experts.

Because of this, they had both been seriously wounded, having had to escape at the cost of the sacrifice of their men who either died in battle or were captured by the Church's survivors.

That was the battle's end, but only the beginning of Vogel's downfall!

After the conflict ended and the remnants of the Church withdrew, chaos spread throughout the kingdom due to the wave of fear that everyone felt.

The Church had declared the crimes of the Vogel family and the fact that it would temporarily keep the kingdom under its control. But even in this situation, instability and fear had already spread due to the news of what had happened.

Not having absolutist power to command the state was terrible not only because it meant that they were weaker in the face of their enemies but because, with the power vacuum, the greed of those with a thirst for power would lead this state into the madness of civil war.

All power relations before the Vogel family crime would cease to be valid, and new alliances would emerge, which could even lead to the de-supply of some areas.

At the same time, the uncertainties of what would happen next with this state already moved the external allies, who would now not want to get involved with this hornet's nest.

And with that, many in this state could already imagine the negative cycle they were initiating, something that, when the Church ended its temporary regency, would explode uncontrollably!

Because of all this, everyone was pessimistic. Some were already leaving Vogel, while many organizations had closed themselves off to the world, preparing for their movements.

Amidst all this, news concerning the matter spread, reaching not only allied and neutral states but also enemies.

Thus, the kingdom that still existed was slowly collapsing towards its end, with the Church, who had put it in this situation, being the only one helping it not to fall off the cliff.

Minos and his wives learned all this from the periodical they had in hand, reading while they finished eating their breakfast.

"Now we won't have to get involved in that subject anymore," Gloria commented as she looked at Minos. "Just this act of fighting by the Vogel family against the Church people will be enough for groups to be sent from headquarters to deal with them."

"They have shown themselves guilty and have committed even worse crimes with that action..." Ruth commented as she sipped a hot drink.

"Sigh..."

"I just hope the people we talked to weren't killed," Abby remarked as she looked at the part of the newspaper in her hands that talked about the losses from the Church post. "It says here that to prevent the escape of every one of that family, more than half of the Spiritual Emperors in that post died in combat."

Minos nodded in agreement. "Hmmm, it will be a shame if they all died... All our efforts will have been lost."

Abby then looked at Gloria and asked. "What happens now? Many Church experts in that state died in that mess."

Gloria made a profound expression and explained to her group. "Well, at this point, I believe that the reinforcements sent by Church headquarters are already in that state, as well as the Iron Hearts groups."

"Then the reinforcements will replace those fallen in combat and help organize that state during this regency period. Meanwhile, the Iron Heart groups will investigate the situation, interrogate the individuals who failed to escape, and pursue the enemies."

"Will they be able to finish off the Vogel family core in time? I mean, Spiritual Saints can escape pretty quickly..." Ruth asked in doubt.

"It's hard to say... As you said, experts of that level can move quickly. And since they had a few days in front of the investigators, they may already be far from Vogel." Gloria commented in a pessimistic tone.

Minos then said. "Don't worry. Even if the Vogel family manages to escape for a while, now that they have hurt the Spiritual Church, they will have to live away from human cities on the mainland for the rest of their lives."

"If they dare to show themselves in any city, it will lead the Church to them in the blink of an eye."

"Besides, the Church investigators will find a part of them, at least..." He pondered the chances of that family. "Unless, of course, they escape across the sea. In that case, they may escape."

"But anyway, that's not a concern for us in the short term. Now that they have killed members of the Church in public and even left witnesses behind, they will have bigger problems than us to worry about." He rose from his seat, ready to leave.

"Shall we go? Let's continue our journey."