The Rise of the Black Plain

After a few moments, the wedding of Minos and Isabella unfolded, with the bride being led down the aisle by Harold while the groom waited for her along with Patriarch Frost and the groomsmen and bridesmaids of the wedding.

Abby, Ruth, and Gloria also attended the ceremony, as this was no ordinary wedding but the union of an emperor with a princess in a family that followed polygamy.

After the bride arrived, the future husband and wife would exchange vows and receive the seraph's blessing in front of hundreds of people important to the empire.

After the groom kissed the bride, the post-ceremony celebrations would take up the rest of the day until Minos and Isabella would leave for their honeymoon, where only the two of them would be together to enjoy themselves for the next few days.

Some participants in this historic moment for the empire would remain in the capital after their departure, for there were many opportunities for conversation with so many local and regional leaders.

But many others would return to their towns soon after the departure of those two, happy for Minos and Isabella but more interested in returning home to take care of their own problems.

In the midst of this, Minos and Isabella would have fun in the Spatial Kingdom for the next three days, with her finding out about what she didn't already know but focusing on using as much time with him as possible to get pregnant...

...

While things were going well for the Black Plain Empire, the rest of the continent was experiencing the tension of war and its problems.

When a war was about to start, the powers that would be involved in the conflict prepared themselves by calling back their men, reducing external interactions, and also some of their consumption and sale of resources.

With this came the recession, lack of products, and the increase in the cost of various services.

Because of the expectation of a war starting soon, even states less related to what might start soon were already suffering.

In the last few months since Maximillian's resurgence on the continent, this man had fully updated himself on modern times, gained support within the Church, and begun to revise his plans for expansion.

The old plans needed to be adjusted to the current conditions on the continent, so he had been doing this alongside the men from the Blood Triangle Pirates group and Emperor Evergreen's faction.

But several things had happened in the meantime, even though the war had not yet begun.

With his update on the situation on the continent, Maximillian had communicated with Vico regarding the Crown Prince of the Eastern Empire and his bodyguards.

He had not freed those three, but he had assured Vico that their safety was guaranteed as long as their forces did not dare to leave the domains of their own state.

But even though that ancient man had not freed those three, a fight between Maximillian and Vico had not yet taken place.

Besides the relationship between these two, several continental powers were already positioning themselves in favor of one side and against the other, leaving few neutral states left on the continent at the moment.

The Flowers Kingdom had accepted Minos' recommendations, and after several conversations with Maximillian's group, Queen Mcbride had taken a position in favor of this man's group.

Her status was between the Eastern Empire and the Western Empire. Still, he had always been closer to the Church than to the Travisani family. So Hannah had chosen those she had more affinity with to avoid being neutral between two enemies who might soon use her territory as a battleground.

Amid this, the Supreme Pontiff of the Spiritual Church was yet to make a stand, not knowing how to stop the conflict between Maximillian and Vico.

Duncan did not agree with the plans of this Church ancestor. Still, against someone so powerful and who already had a group of followers to support him, his powers were limited.

Even elders outside the Emperor Evergreen faction liked Maximillian's expansionist ideas, so for someone near the end of his life, preventing this impending conflict had been very difficult for Duncan.

The more tempers flared, the more difficult it became to stop it from happening as more and more powers came out in favor or against, further encouraging each party to take matters into their own hands.

Thus, this man had been having headaches trying to extend peace over the continent as much as possible while everyone around him seemed to think only of war.

But while Vico and Maximillian were estranged and Duncan was stressing himself out in search of peace, Emperor Quinn was worried about the chaotic future that might come from the North Sea.

Maximillian's situation worried him, and he had been paying attention to it, preparing himself for the war that might start in a few more years. But with each passing day, he believed more in Minos and Grant's concerns.

After months of investigating the situation in the North Sea, this man had lost some subordinates dead in that area, and others were missing.

Even a Spiritual Demigod was missing after entering that region to investigate!

This emperor had not received any update from his men sent to the North Sea, so he had been suffering from the thought that powerful forces were gathering at that remote point.

With Grant's absurd ideas and the concern that even Minos had about the future of the continent in that area, Henry had reached a point where he had no more doubts about the danger of that area.

He had already informed his companions in the western region about these concerns and had even warned Vico about the risk of the prophesied catastrophe coming from that region to the north.

Unfortunately, his ideas seemed absurd, even though he was so powerful and had used the deaths and disappearances of his investigators.

Everyone was more concerned about the Maximillian threat and felt nothing in the North Sea could threaten them more than this peak cultivator.

At most, what was in the North Sea was at level 99. Otherwise, the entire Spiritual World would be aware of such a thing.

Therefore, even with a level 98 man worrying, the powers of the western region had not taken his feelings seriously and were leaving him alone regarding investigations and actions in the North Sea.

In this way, the Central Continent was approaching its worst crisis in a long time. At the same time, some feared the uncertain future to the north, others wished and feared war, and a few experienced a temporary peace that no one knew how long it would last.

Amidst this, each power was moving around thinking the best for itself!