NOTICE: PERSPECTIVE SWITCH END
Falshurx and Allies all had an Azurian lay the punishments and changes to them, these nations had lost their people. Falshurx in particular had lost its king and princes leaving only the queen as the sole ruler of the nation. Azuria sent a letter to these rulers containing a list of items they must compensate and a carrier to take whatever they had to cover it.
These nations had lights coming from their borders reaching the sky all around them. The lights were beautiful but also deadly, any citizen of these nations that touched the light died. Azuria set up checkpoints on a side of the borders for each nation, so one way in, one way out. They couldn't even trade with other nations unless Azuria allowed them. Some nations fell in such circumstances but Azuria did not dispel the lights, this is many years into the future.
But for now, the queen of Falshurx is in the main hall of the palace with the ministers discussing about the compensations. Their expressions weren't so bright, at least this made them obedient to the queen.
"Your highness," A noble speaks, "The cost for the compensation is too much. How will we ever make up for it? We've lost trade with other nations an-"
A minister who is a merchant cuts in, "We can't even communicate with outsiders!" He's in a ridiculous hat with bells for some reason, "The count and his family tried to flee the land, they turned into ashes the moment they passed the lights." He sighs heavily.
A baron speaks, "Your highness, what if we plead to Azuria to lighten our pu-"
"Plead?" An arrogant duke speaks, "We're the proud kingdom of the gods, you expect us to plead?!"
Another duke berates him, "What do you expect us to do?! The gods never came to our aid and they've shut themselves in their homes." He swings his arm in anger, "If they joined the fray, we could break this cage and make Azuria pay-" he got cut off.
"Enough!" The queen speaks looking down, "We've already lost so much." Sorrow evident in her voice but she holds her tears back, "Right now, our freedom is what I desire." She looks at them, "Is there a way for us to speak with Azuria?"
A noble speaks, "Yes, your highness. They have people at the borders, I believe we can speak with them through those people."
The head priest speaks, "Your highness, you not be rash. I'm certain our gods can save us, we need only wait."
A duke speaks up, "How long do you expect us to wait? Even after our troops left, they never showed up to even accept our tribute." He scoffs, "For all we know, they might not even be with us."
The head priest gasps, "Do you dare insinuate the gods to be cowards?!" The duke replies, "I'll say what I want. If they really have the courage then they should smite me! At least with that we'll know they're with us."
Unfortunately for these guys, if they barged into the temple of the gods. They'd see corpses and blood littered around and all artifacts gone. Fortunately, not all their gods are dead, one remained but this one was against the war in the first place. Falshurx had 2 homes for the gods, one on land and one on the clouds. The remaining god was asleep when the others fled so this god has no idea what's going on and still sleeping.
Back in the main hall, the ministers are now bickering.
A noble merchant, "We can still fight back. We have helpers outside the barrier, if they come to find out why we haven't sent any orders. We'll be able to give them a mission t-"
"To do what?" Another noble lady in very extravagant clothes cuts in, "You all saw just how strong Azuria's gods are and they only sent 50 people. It's possible they might all be gods."
The queen finally raised her hand and they all silenced, "I've decided to send a letter to Azuria's princess pleading for mercy. From what they said, the princess must have ordered them to not involve the people." A noble try to dissuade her but the queen continues, "That is our only path forward, even if our gods came to help us. A war between gods would destroy our countries." She gets up from the throne, "You're all dismissed." She turns and leaves the hall.
As the queen walks to her room, the scene of a little boy dying before their eyes repeats in her head. Her thoughts, "Monsters…..they didn't hesitate in the least to kill a child." She shivers, "I fear it will be our end if we fight back. Azuria has already caged us and we've already lost 300,000 people. Any more and it will be our end." Her eyes gets teary as she enters her room, she walks to her bedside and weeps. She mourns the loss of her family, her husband and children all died in the war.
The queen got up, washed her face and wrote letters to be sent to Azuria's princess. She believed the Azurian Princess can help her, she hoped to beg for mercy. She would have personally gone to search for her but the barrier killed anyone from inside but items could pass it. She gave the letters to a maid to give to messengers, they're to stand along the borders and hope anyone helps them.
The queen felt helpless in her room, she walked to the balcony hoping to clear her head. A figure had been sitting on the balcony the entire time but the queen did not notice, "I didn't think you people would be capable of sorrow." The queen is startled and turns to the direction of the voice. She sees a young man with silver hair sitting on her balcony. She didn't think to call the guards, her sorrow made her numb to her life.
The queen looks at the silver haired man and notices a crest on his chest like the Azurian flag, the man wore a red jacket with black pants. This is a Xeno.
The queen wipes her tears, "Losing the people you hold dear will drown anyone in sorrow."
The Xeno turns to look at the city below, the sun sets and the city starts to light up but like in the olden days. "You were elated to take from us, but when you were taken from you're filled with sorrow." The queen looks at the man and he continues speaking, "Did you wonder if you'd put Azuria in a state like this?" the queen is speechless and he continues, "Or, you just cared about what was dear to you." The queen couldn't reply, she felt guilt.
The man rubs his hand on the flowers on the balcony, "That Minerva went overboard when she got here." The queen looks at the man learning the name of the Azurian who came here, he continues, "She's not to blame." The man looks in the distance, "She hasn't gotten the attention she wanted ever since she got here...Everyone is tense trying to fit in. The war was the last thing we expected, so we chose a cruel method to resolve it." The moon light falls on the man giving light to his beauty, "This is not like us." And his thoughts, "Tying all loose ends would be best." He glances at the queen.
The queen lowers her head, "I realize we pushed you hand to this cruel act. I ask for your forgiveness." She bows, "It was wrong of us to try to take from you. I now believe we could have used a better way." And her thoughts, "He's a kind man, we were selfish to start an unjustified war." She has no idea what the Xeno thought just then meant.
"You wish to speak with the princess?" The Xeno asks but he speaks before the queen can reply, "Give me one of the letters and I'll personally give it to her, you don't have to make your people stand by the border."
The queen looks at him with a smile, "Thank you kind Sir." She bows her head, "Thank you." She looks back at him, "May I know your name, esteemed sir?"
"Ivan." The Xeno speaks. The queen bows again, "Thank you, lord Ivan." She goes back to the room to write another letter.
Ivan looks at the clouds in thought, "Lord huh, doesn't sound so bad." His eyes move apart and he scans the entire city and finds all those who thought of fighting back, "These people still wanted to fight back despite everything...They couldn't even see me when I was in their meeting, I even made suggestions on pleading to Nytri but they still couldn't see I'm not from here." He looks at his nails, "Should I make them disappear?...on second thought no. I think it's more fun to see what they do next." He grins mischievously.
The queen returns with a new letter, she hands it to Ivan and bows to the ground. "Thank you, lord Ivan."
Ivan uses TELEKENISES to make her stand, "In Azuria, we detest such degrading acts. We prefer you speak to us with your pride as a person, not arrogance." The queen is surprised by this, she bows her head instead.
Ivan floats and leaves the balcony, because his level is linked to Nytri and he's a Calamity himself. Using a little FLY skill made him leak a bunch of energy so a lot of people saw a bright light fly from the queen's room. But the queen saw her winged knight shrouded in light going to solve all her troubles. Seriously, Ivan leaked a lot of EP that he could only cover 50 kilometers before resting.
Ivan holds his knees breathing heavily, "Haaa haaa, we really need to fix this EP deprivation." He makes a sad face, "My FLY skill only cost 1EP per hour but I'm almost dr~y. From now onwards, I'll fly outside the earth and land when I arrive." He forces himself up and continues towards Azuria.
Back in Falshurx, guards and servants barged into the queen's room thinking she's in danger.
Guard runs to the balcony with his hand on his sword, "Your highness, are you alright?"
A maid runs with a worried look, "My queen, are you hurt?"
"No," The queen smiles, "I'm alright. Call all the messengers back and return the letters. Some has come to our rescue." The people are shocked but they obey her orders and call the messengers back.
At this moment, Ivan is wheezing for breath and is about to collapse. He doesn't have an EP recovery skill, he has an EP rotation skill. But energy dissipates too much so he can't absorb it back. Long story short, R&D on this issue sped up and a solution was found in a week.