Kye was awoken by Sebastian exactly three hours after he drifted off just as he requested. Kye had now changed into some neat casual clothes and took the car down to a small marketplace in the downtown area of the city. He was looking for parts at some machine stalls set up in the marketplace. Despite all of his plans, Kye still loved making things and tinkering with a machine was something of a past time for him. The current project he was working on would be something that would help him later on in the Divinity War. Mechanical assistance was forbidden in the battles that took place as part of the Divinity War, you had to rely on your powers and any weapons you were registered to use by the academic board. There was a very easily exploitable loophole to this rule though, in that technology activated by magic was allowed as they were classed as 'magic tools' and not mechanical. Kye was aware that the people who would side with him might not be the strongest warriors by themselves and intended to give them tools that would help them help him. The current project was a magically activated weapon that anyone with the faintest amount of mana could activate and would allow them to become an effective figthing force. It would be something equivelent to a 'magic gun' but that was underselling the project as a whole, though Kye struggled to come up with a better descriptor. It wasn't as simple as gutting a rifle body and swapping out some parts either, it was something that would be very expensive to make as all the parts would need to be custom built. While Kye wouldn't go so far as to adopt it to all his forces, it was a necessity for the Divinty War as he saw it.

After picking out some choice parts, Kye made his way back to the hotel to beign tinkering with a prototype. Sebastian was currently busy organising things for Kye so he didn't bother welcoming Kye home as his work took precident over the normal niceties. Kye sat down at the dining room table and pulled out a half-finished prototype and some tools before setting to work. It was all a matter of stripping what was unnecessary from pre-made parts and then re-assembling the stripped parts back into something workable. The real things would be made with custom parts but as a proof of concept, there was no reason to not build it out of other parts. Anything that didn't have to be custom made in the prototyping phase was money saved and Kye didn't get where he was financially by wasting money on his ideas. After putting in solid work for around 10 hours, the sun had well and truly set as they approached early morning in the Kingdom of Speria. Kye raides his hands and locked his fingers together as he stretched his back, making his fingers crack. Sebastian ahd placed a meal beside Kye but had already gone to bed as it was very late. The prototype was ready to be tested though Kye wasn't hopeful. The last project that he made blew up in his face several times even after rigorous testing of the parts. The unfortunate part of the rune system that Kye made was that it was shockingly unstable as they had to be made with hyper precision to avoid a crossing of mana streams that would overload the entire circuit. While Kye could make them stable about 30% of the time he made one, anyone other than Hephaestus had no chance of coming close to making a stable circuit. While this was great for Kye as there was no chance anyone could copy his devices, the bad part was that if any of the magic circutry was damaged, Kye would have to fix it himself.

Placing the now completed prototype in a sturdy case, Kye packed away his tools and re-heated his meal in the microwave. As the gentle hum of the microwave filled the kitchen, Kye leant against the island counter-top and tilted his head to look up at the ceiling.

"Sad part about all this is that it's gonna be the easy part." Kye muttered.

Kye knew that his plans would make a lot of people hate him and that he was unlikely to garner sympathy from many during the Divinity War. Ares had constantly reminded him that being ruthless was a fine line between honor and depravity and that if Kye wanted to be respected in the Divinity War, he would have to walk that line deftly. Kye knew this, and that's why he insisted that he take the lives of those spies himself. Killing them was something Kye didn't want to do, but the risk of keeping them alive was too great. Kye knew that it was the first of many hard choices he would have to take in the future as his path was not going to be a peaceful one. Once the fighting started, Kye's next steps could be some of the most psychologically damaging that he would ever face. The Lawless Cities would not be a peaceful place for Kye to spend some of his formative years in but it was something that he would just have to do. This was, to Kye, the only valid way forward to achieve his goals. This plan he had put together was the culmination of his four years of training put into action. He had to accomplish his goal through hell or high water, the top spot of the Divinty War would be his just as it was his fathers. As Kye mused on his future, the microwave beeped telling him the curry that Sebastian had cooked was fully warmed and ready for him to eat. Grabbing a spoon and the now hot curry, Kye dug in with gusto to fill his empty stomach. Now with a full belly and reaffirmed goals, Kye sat down to meditate. He would spend the entirety of the day working out at the hotel gym and meditating to restore his energy so that he was ready to face whatever Tyson would throw at him. Kye sat in the lotus position and began to breathe slowly, his mind melting into the blackness of unconsciousness.

-- Meanwhile, at an underground arena

Tyson was looking at the chained beast with a satisfied look in his eyes. It was a seven metre long scaled dragonewt. It's scaled shone a deep red and it's eyes burned a fierce yellow. It looked more like a massive axolotl than a typical fantasy dragon, but it's hard scales and strong claws earned it the name dragonewt over the name salamander which would normally be the name given to a beast that looks like this. It's jaw was muzzled to prevent it from spitting fire and its four meaty limbs and tail tied down to a metal cart. Tyson nodded and turned away from the lizard as he finished up the paperwork related to the beast's capture to be submitted to the gavernment. Tyson would have Kye fight the recently captured dragonewt as a show of strength. Tyson, even with his blessing from Tyr was not able to completely put down a beast like this with just skills alone. Given a weapon and some armour and he could make it work but taking on a C class beast like a dragonewt was usually done in teams of two hunters.

"Even if the kid doesn't win, I wanna see how he does against it."

Tyson was something of a battle maniac sure, but he wasn't dumb. He knew that Dillon had full faith in the plan and that he expected it to work, but Tyson wasn't convinced with just words. To Tyson, a leader had to be capable of leading by example, especially in battle. Tyson wasn't the strongest hunter in his gang, nor was he the smartest tactician. What he was to everyone in the Wild Mares, was an example of what they could be with effort. Tyson was a dedicated man and he didn't want to entrust his men to a man who couldn't lead by example like himself. It took Tyson many years to come to terms with his own shortcomings and work on them so that they wouldn't bring others down with him. He wanted to see if Kye was ready to lead a group like the one detailed in his plan. Tyson pulled out a small locket on a necklace and opened it, staring at the picture within. The picture was of his mother whom he lost at a very young age. His father had died in the dungeon years before he was born so he was forced to live on the streets after his house was taken by the bank. Tyson knew that he made very wrong choices on his journey and that if not for the friends he made during his time at the academy, he would be a very bitter shell of a person. He was worried that Kye would become exactly that if he didn't have what Tyson thought it took to lead a gang and if he thought this was the case, he would stop Kye. Even if it cost him his life. That was Tyson's resolve, to never let anyone become like he was at his lowest.

Tyson's resolve was about to clash against Kye's. The strongest would win this battle of wills, if any doubts circled in Kye's mind, he would lose to Tyson's test. But Kye had resolved himself many times to walk this path, not matter how bloodied his hands may be at the end. Tyson was about to see that resolve first hand