As the first day of the Ethereal Realm conference came to an eventual end, the attitudes of the House of Silverthorne towards the House of Vaughan became softened after their failed efforts at pressuring Stark Vaughan directly. Instead, they turned their diplomatic attention toward pressuring the other houses and cutting their losses.

Some of the heads of houses returned to their evening session with their head held high, while the others looked dejected, and that alone was enough to inform others of whether they were successful in defending their own properties or not.

The outward appearance of the houses during the conference years just before the Ethereal tournament had always been unsurprisingly important, as it’s a sign of one’s likely strength in just one year’s time.

What’s even better than pushing back against the pressure from the higher ranked houses is to be able to do it in a matter without revealing much of anything. In Stark Vaughan releasing his stress on those poor souls, they were able to hide Ver’s true strength at this moment.

Well, at the very least, her true strength ever since their broadcasted final battle at the Infinite Academy. Though after what had transpired at the actual meeting of the upper twenty houses, the last thing Ver would think about was the bullies of House Silverthorne being greedy for some mines.

The matter of the country-level defensive Casts was grave enough to threaten the entirety of the Ethereal realm at the same time. Unlike the fully united kingdoms such as that of Talonia and Varous, the individual defensive Casts can easily be used as a convenient weapon against other cities once the individuals figured out how to fully control those defensive Casts.

Though when one city fires, the other will surely respond, thus leading to a cascade of attacks and counter-attacks leading to…

“Mutually assured destruction…” Wu murmured, “If the defensive Casts are distributed to everyone…”

“So you are saying it’s better for a single party to hold control over all of the defensive Casts?” Ver scrunched her eyebrows together and stared at Wu, “What’s stopping the House of Fisher from firing it off at…any moment?”

“Either you attack with full force and you ensure there is no possibility of fighting back, or you don’t.” Wu said, “anything in between is way too risky for the party with the initiative…and to the rest of us...a dagger dangling overhead.”

“What do you think we should do…?” Lera sighed, “This is partly PORA’s doing, yet there are also pathways for the Ethereal realm to handle these kinds of matter, right?”

“That pathway was the one you saw in the main hall.” Ver said firmly, “And the one you saw in our private room. That’s how things are here. On the surface, it’s like we are saving every single ounce of our aggression until the Ethereal tournament, but in truth, there are fighting behind the scenes all the time.”

“And PORA had just made themselves known as another major player,” Stark interjected after listening to everything Ver, Wu, and Lera had brought forth. The senior advisors were not invited to this impromptu private meeting, and the four sat in a tight circle around a pot of hot tea and a single candle, “I do not foresee those bigger houses giving way to PORA and the House of Fisher's demands, and they will be happy to push Fisher as far as they could.”

“It’s either the big houses accept Fisher’s deal of selling out the access to individual defensive Casts for a large sum of money, or they will concede to a far cheaper deal that supposedly will keep the larger houses happy…” Wu summarized it all before scratching his head, “And if neither deal came to pass, then it would be Fisher holding everyone hostage and the bigger houses threatening to combine their forces against them…”

“Toss in the lower houses, who will always want a piece of the pie.” Stark rubbed his eyebrows, “If they knew that there are ways for them to get their hands on those casts, there’s no way they are going to sit idly and watch the bigger houses bicker among themselves…”

"How strong are the lower houses if they were to band together?" Lera asked when Ver shrugged.

"Numbers-wise, they can make it up. Power-wise, not even close." Ver said, "Right now, their best hope is in the actual conference rooms."

“And the lower houses will be glad to pay for a single unit just to have it.” Wu added, “Those casts are powerful enough that’s the matter of power became a question with only two answers. Either you have it, or you don’t.”

“Could we disable all of them quick enough?” Lera asked, looking towards Wu who let out a sigh.

“It took months and a united effort in Varous to disable it all, remember…?” Wu sighed, “We…will just have to see what happens tomorrow, and step in before PORA took it way too far.”

“Keep an eye on them. The PORA man.” Stark glanced towards Ver, “He can’t be working alone. Let me know what PORA’s up to.”

“What are you going to do?” Ver asked.

“Try to keep everything together for the little guys when all hell breaks loose.” Stark sighed, “It’s not going to be fun tomorrow, that’s for sure. Now go get some rest. You will need it.”

As the next day arrived at last, the responses from the top houses were as expected. From the way Rache was stomping his way across the rows before taking a seat at the designated sections for the House of Fisher to the disappearance of Rote completely, it was clear that both sides had moved into the next phases of their plans.

“You two keep watch here.” Ver said, keeping the Whirlpool purple to the main hall open as the representatives of the other houses started to slowly fill the space, “I will go track down that PORA man.”

“We are coming with you~” Lera said, opening her mouth before casting a Scouting eye right over her tongue as Ver made a gagging face before shaking her head and chuckling, “This should be enough to keep a tab of everything.”

By sharing the same Cast output with the earpiece of the three, they would be able to listen in to the main session whenever they wanted while patrolling the main house and looking out for Rote, the PORA man.

“Seek out this..PORA man…” Ver murmured, extending out the Kraken’s tendril from her fingertips. Ever since reaching Perfect Synchrony, her sensitivity in the Wave had multiplied in its resolution and range, “Duplicate what we felt yesterday.”

“That wasn’t a lot to work with.” The Kraken replied sharply, “His most identifiable feature in the Wave is that he’s angry…”

“There are going to be plenty of angry people everywhere…” Wu glanced at the dark pattern around Ver’s eye as he scratched the back of his head.

“Thanks for the motivation. There, towards the garden around the Southern side. Found him.” The Kraken said as its little tendril stretched out like the arm of a compass in that direction, "A man that's exceptionally angry."

Wu, Lera, and Ver shared a glance, and they dispersed immediately, each taking a different path towards the Southside garden. By walking along the windows, Wu caught a glance of the views down the mountain as the rows of mansions with drastically different architecture and color schemes decorated the hillside all the way down to the river that wound around the City of Eternal Light.

And standing in the middle of the garden beneath them was the one man that was going to burn it all down.

Exiting from the East and West-side doors simultaneously, Wu and Lera joined up with Ver who emerged from a Whirlpool that formed and vanished along the wall. Sensing the incoming presence, the man dressed in the white cloak with red rose symbols gently placed the communication Cast down in front of him and turned around.

“Like I said, I am taking care of it.” He murmured before swiping a hand and disabling the communication Cast, “Worry about your own continent…”

Lera stopped a few meters away from him before leaning against the railings of the garden as the rising sun illuminated the land below from the East, “Great view, isn’t it?”

The man raised his eyebrows slightly, and he slowly turned around to see Ver standing with her arms crossed, and Wu also leaning against the other side of the railing.

“Your silly disguises aside…you presence in the Wave give yourself away.” The man twirled a finger as a roll of paper slipped from behind his arm sleeves, and he ignited it with a glowing red fingertip before taking a puff of the local smoke, “Lera Huten, Ver Vaughan, and…Wu Hui. You three troublemakers were on the island…and now, you are here to cause me even more trouble.”

“Were you up there?” Wu said, turning around to look at him, “Are you Mus Ongaku?”

“Him? No…” The man chuckled before fixing his red hair, “That glowing boy is doing whatever the fuck his girlfriends wants in the Western continent. I am Rote Zorn, and the matters of the Eastern continent belong to me.”

Wu and Lera shared a glance, and their eyes turned to Rote again.

“Now…yes, yes. I know your little ploys in Talonia and Varous…but frankly, the only country of any significance on the Eastern continent right now is Ethereal realm. When this place is under our control, then it will only be a matter of time until the other two submit.” Rote said with a smirk.

“You won’t get what you want here.” Ver said.

“And what made you think you can do anything about it?” Rote smiled, “Just like how you tried to save the Island, Mr Savior? I had my doubts before. How could a man without a single ounce of Wave in his body may actually be the supposed summoned one. But you have more than demonstrated your abilities on the biggest stages. I gotta say, I am impressed.”

Placing a pistol on the railing beside him, Wu then rested his hands on top of one another, “I don’t suppose you are revealing your plan to me…so I guess we will just have to…figure something out. I believe the Kraken can be rather convincing if need be.”

“You bet I am.” The Kraken’s deep voice spoke through Ver briefly before it retracted back into her body.

“Well, if you think you can fight out here in the open without becoming an enemy of all forty houses, go ahead.” Rote tilted his head and taunted, “By the way, I truly respected the way you worked around the whole Token ordeal. I knew Mus played that card too hastily, and now, there’s no way the Guild of Mercenaries will take back what they had declared.”

“Appreciate it.” Wu said, nodding at Lera when she swirled her finger as the Cast array she had set up around became instantly activated as the light around them became blurred out before the four of them were contained within a bubble separated out from the outside world.

A projection Cast of the environment replaced the scenes of their confrontation, and a Void domain shield layer made sure to cut out any presence of the Wave from here to the outside world. Rote looked around with amazement before turning to face Ver.

“Now, talk.” Ver said, the Kraken’s transformations covering her entire body before she dashed across the short distance between them as her claws slit through the air.