Imperial Capital, Dragna Empire.

Just like Miko said he would, he headed back to his capital to check on the extent of the damage caused by the attacks.

“So, give me a report of what happened.”

Miko sat on his throne and asked one of the person’s who was put in charge of protecting the city, Marcel Dragna. Marcel was the previous king before Darius as well as his, Rin’s, and Karim’s father, and Rouge’s son.

“Well, a few days ago the capital was attacked by unknown forces. They were quickly repelled but they were successful in killing a few citizens.”

Marcel reported.

“I heard that a few government officials were assassinated in the other countries under our rule. Did you verify this?”

Miko asked.

“Yes, my servants did. Several ministers were assassinated the same day all over the empire, many of who held critical positions for their individual countries. Other government officials have been reported missing as well. There’s a possibility that they were kidnapped.”

Said Marcel.

“Hmm…..Taking your report into consideration, Exsul might have been specifically targeted and didn't fall victim to a random massacre during war.”

Miko said after thinking for a while.

“Someone is clearly attacking important officials to weaken the empire, or that is what they want us to think that they are doing.”

“What do you mean?”

Marcel asked.

“I mean these attacks aren't as simple as they seem. While the people they attacked and killed are important to the individual countries, they aren’t to the overall empire. They are all people who I could easily replace.”

This included Edward as well.

Miko looked at the list of kidnapped officials in front of him.

“Even these officials they kidnapped have no common factor between them other than being officials. They all have different levels of responsibilities and all have different level of importance to their countries. It’s as if they were all picked at random.”

He deduced.

“In fact, that might be the case…..”

Miko nodded as if he figured something out.

“Marcel, call the others for me. There’s something I want to share with all of you.”

Marcel did as Miko asked and sent word that every important member of the clan and Miko’s team was to gather in the throne room.

After almost a hour, everyone Miko called for had gathered.

“First of all, I would like to thank you all for gathering here.”

“No problem. There was something we wanted to confirm anyway.”

Said Nero.

“What is it?”

“We heard that you apparently lost your mind and killed your emotions is that true?”

Everyone looked at Nero when he asked that.

He was probably the only person who could ask such a question so casually.

“It’s true.”

Miko was probably the only one who could answer so casually as well.

“Really? You seem quite rational for an insane person.”

“This is because I killed my emotions so that I can think logically and prevent my mind from crashing at the last second. If I hadn’t I would’ve probably ate half of you here.”

Miko replied.

“However, I believe that this is only a temporary fix. I might start committing chaotic acts for no reason at all at random times. For example, during our short conversation I have already imagined killing all of you here in 7 different ways….8 different ways.”

“Did you just think of another way to kill us?”

“Two actually, but I said 8 to make it less creepy.”

Miko replied.

“Anyway, there’s no need to worry since my sole objective is to finish this war.”

“Why? Is there any reason to continue now that you’ve literally lost your mind?”

“Because I want to leave my mark. Well, that was what I wanted but since killing my emotions I don’t really understand why I desired such a thing anymore. But it gives me a purpose so I’ll just go with it for now.”

He then placed his hand on his chin as if entering deep thought.

“Then again, after thinking about it some more I kind of understand the desire to differentiate myself from Augustus.”

He said.

“Oh, by the way I’m the reincarnation of Augustus Dragna the one who created this clan.”

Miko’s casual words shocked everyone. It wasn’t that none of them knew this, it was just how the way he revealed it. As for those who really didn’t know they were extremely shocked.

“When I had my emotions they got in the way of me declaring this, but logically speaking there’s no merit from hiding it. After all, I’m pretty sure that New Era knew from the incident with Alexis. They could’ve learnt from someone from my past life, whether that person is an enemy or ally I'm not sure. I’ve also figured that a couple if not most Higher Beings already had an idea who I was as well.”

“….You’re deduction skills are pretty impressive.”

Said Nero.

“It’s always been this way, it’s just that emotions such as fear and senseless optimism limited my thought process.”

Miko replied.

“Well, we already knew who you were.”

Nero smiled and said as if trying to provoke Miko.

“I know.”

But Miko was unfazed.

“But you didn’t know that Augustus is still a part of me. Meaning that, we can interact with each other whenever we want.”

“What?!”

This shocked everyone. If what Miko said was true, then the almighty progenitor of the clan was still technically alive.

“Miko, is that true?!”

Tia appeared and asked him frantically.

“It is. In fact he’s currently the one who’s ensuring that I keep my rationality as long as I can.”

“Can we meet him?”

Tia asked.

“No. Neither of us desire him to appear.”

Miko coldly answered.

“To be honest, I might have loved you all in my past life but I’m no longer capable of doing so. In other words, your feelings and desires mean nothing to me if there’s no benefit from me catering to them.”

He ruthlessly shut down any contact with Augustus without consideration for anyone’s feelings.

“You really don’t care about anything do you?”

Nero said with a wry smile.

“Not true. I care about a lot of things, just not what most people would care about.”

Miko replied.

“Anyway, enough about me. I called you all here to inform you of a major change in this war.”

He cut to the chase.

“There’s strong evidence to conclude that a third party has joined this war for the continent.”

“A third party?”

Miko nodded.

“I believe the acts on the capital as well as the attacks on the now fallen Exsul were done not by the Seven Moon Alliance, but a new third party.”

“Why do you think that?”

Jin asked.

“On first look, the attacks looked like well planned attacks carried out to weaken our empire by killing our personnel, but if you look closely with an open-mind the attacks have a different purpose. That purpose was to intensify the war with the Seven Moon Alliance by framing each side.”

“So you’re saying that the attacks were to promote aggression?”

Luka pondered Miko’s words.

“Now that you mention it, such a tactic would bring benefits to a third party that wants to conquer both sides. They get us all heated, wait until we’ve exhausted our resources and take us out at the same time.”

Miko nodded.

“The killings and kidnappings in the empire were random, but could serve its purpose of angering us and make us foolishly waste resources.”

He added.

“The attack on Exsul might have been the only one that had a different purpose. The attackers goal might have been to capture Edward, and extract all of our empires technological secrets from him. The fact that they sent only five people might be because they didn’t want to draw our attention before they completed their mission.”

When talking about Edward, Miko showed no signs of grief for his death as if it wasn’t important.

“In fact, if they were successful in capturing him not only would they obtain valuable information, but they would successfully anger myself and the empire to the point that we would recklessly attack the Eastern Region with everything we got. Them losing Edward was probably a miscalculation on their part.”

He said.

“I know his death was what caused you to kill your emotions, so he meant a lot to you, but could you not talk about him with such a uncaring tone?”

Kaido stepped out asked.

“Ah, I forgot. You and Edward go way back am I right?”

Kaido nodded.

“Yeah. He helped me out quite a bit in my younger days in the city. He’s also the reason I could live peacefully with Hana for so long. I’m grateful towards him, just I am towards you.”

He said.

“Hmm…..Since a fallout with you hold no benefits I’ll listen to your request.”

Miko said after thinking for a bit.

The more he talked, the more obvious it was that he had changed greatly.

“Since you’re certain that there’s a third party, did you check if the Eastern Region had suffered attacks like ours?”

Alexus asked.

“Of course, and as expected they were also attacked. The only difference with them and us is that they’re blaming us. Well, that not I can blame them. People tend to always try to stay optimistic during times of war, even if subconsciously. If we do this we can win, if we win this battle we can win, if we capture this city we can win, etc. They rarely would think of the possibility of everything going south, especially when they already have their back against the wall.”

Miko said with a chuckle. He only chuckled because he believed it would lighten the mood. He wasn’t really amused in the least.

“The tactic that this third party has used is as brilliant as it is classic. I applaud the one who came up with it.”

“You have an idea of who this third party is?”

Luka asked.

“Hmm…..I have some ideas but nothing concrete. However, I’m certain that it’s someone from the Western and Southern Regions, maybe both.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Because they want the destruction of both sides. If it was someone outside the continent their target would be just us. Then again I can’t dismiss the possibility that someone from outside the continent joined up with a force inside the continent with the purpose of using this chaos to take the continent for themselves. Possibly a global powerhouse wishing to expand their territory.”

Miko replied.

Everything he said were just possibilities but no one could deny what he said as nonsense.

“Now then, if I was this third party what would I need to require to gain enough confidence that I can take on both the Eastern and Northern Region that is currently crawling with monsters like Tyrants and Proxies?”

Miko leaned his head on his hand and said.

“If I was from a global powerhouse I would use the powerhouse’s military strength to aid me.”

He shook his head.

“No, mobilizing the military wouldn’t go unnoticed and I would definitely draw too attention, thus losing the element of surprise.”

He suddenly looked like he thought of something.

“Element of surprise? I see.”

“Did you think of something?”

Alec asked.

“Well, it’s something you should be able to think of.”

“So you agree then?”

Miko nodded.

“Um…could you explain it to the slower ones like myself?”

Ace asked.

“What is the most unexpected thing that could happen in this war?”

Alec turned to everyone and asked.

They all started to think, before they could find an answer Miko spoke.

“Think back to the purpose of this war. Why are the two regions fighting?”

“To conquer half the continent!”

Hina shouted after realizing it.

“Oi, oi, oi. You can’t possibly mean….”

Nero smiled wryly.

Miko nodded.

“There’s no way that’s possibly.”

Sora shocked his head in denial.

“Nothing is impossible just because you haven’t seen it be done before.”

Miko replied.

Ace finally picked up on what they were implying and shouted in shock.

“You mean to tell me that someone already conquered half of the continent without us knowing?!”

Silver Continent, Southern Region.

Just like how the Carpo was the star of the Eastern Region and Dragna was the star of the Northern Region, this Region also had a star and its name was the Lore Empire.

When it came to size the Lore Empire was smaller than the Carpo Empire, and had less military strength than the Dragna Empire. Because of this, the Lore Empire was seen as the weakest star of the four regions.

That was how it seemed, but as the old saying goes ‘Never judge a book by its cover’.

In the Imperial Palace of the Lore Empire a single man sat on the throne. In front of him was someone kneeling with a crown on his head. This was the Lore Emperor Travis Lore.

That’s right, the one who was kneeling was the emperor while the one on the throne was someone else.

The man sitting on the throne had long blonde hair, red eyes, a devilishly handsome face, and was dressed in green and black.

“I heard that a few of our targets slipped from our fingers.”

The man said.

“Yes. I received word that Edward Akabe died fighting our people.”

Travis said.

“How is the heavenly demon king taking the lost?”

The man asked.

“According to our reports, he was visibly shaken at first but suddenly became cold and emotionless. So far he hasn’t made any rash decision like we hoped.”

“I see. He’s either more heartless than we expected, or some great change happened with his mind. Either one won’t cause any problems, since we only did this to test the intelligence of our enemies. There were no need to act cowardly in the shadows, not when we have the strongest military force on the continent.”

Said the man.

“It is has you say, Lord Julio. Victory is ours because you, the Black Scriptures of Beelzebub are here.”

The man, Julio smiled.

“Just leave it to me. I’ll show the world how the Zebul Empire does things.”

The Zebul Empire, an empire founded by Demon Sovereign Zara, the Proxy of the Great Demon King Beelzebub. This empire is second only to the Morningstar Empire of all the demon countries in the world.

A true military Behemoth has entered the war!