Silver Spear cut cleanly through the clouds in its path as it led the Tribal arks onward.

A month had passed since Leon received the tau’s request to pause his expedition, and he’d acquiesced to the request. The tau returned a couple times during the month to touch base with Leon, but otherwise, Leon had to rely on his own sources to learn what the tau was doing.

And the signs were good enough that even his more skeptical advisors had to admit that it at least seemed like the tau was following through on his promise. Both the Grand Druid and the Lord Protector readily informed him that while they’d been visited by the tau and persuaded not to directly interfere, they were watching everything that was happening quite closely. If anything happened to Leon, they promised, they’d raze the Sunlit Empire down to its foundations.

Leon was grateful for their statements of support, but the real surprise came from the Director, who revealed that his strange behavior had been due to the tau’s request to stay out of this matter. Leon was more surprised that he’d had to bring the tau up to get the Director to reveal this information, but he didn’t believe the Director had been maliciously holding back his visit from the strange bird. Still, he resolved to try and keep a closer eye on the Director going forward, just in case.

The most encouraging news he received was that not only had the Ilian and Sacred Golden Empires mobilized much of their militaries just in case anything happened, but most of the Sentinels had left the Sunlit Empire—apparently at the tau’s behest. Unfortunately, there was one key Sentinel who hadn’t yet left: the Keeper himself, who yet remained in Thunderhaven.

Leon wasn’t sure what to make of this, and neither was the tau, though the tau had tried to convince Leon to give Keeper the benefit of the doubt. Leon was less inclined to do so, but he supposed he could at least let an unspoken truce persist until Keeper broke it. That way he could maintain the moral high ground and test himself against Keeper without guilt.

The less important—though still incredibly important—news he’d received from his contacts was that many of the Sunlit army divisions were standing down. With his arks now drawing close to the Sunlit Empire’s frontline defenses on its southeastern border with the Azure Plains, that news was about to be tested.

He didn’t think his side would come out that much worse for wear if it was incorrect, though. He’d left Argos with almost the entire ark fleet in tow, along with all of the transport arks. More than sixty thousand troops were spread out amongst all of his arks; more than enough to take on just about any power on the plane that dared to stand in his way. The rest of the army he’d assembled for this task remained behind in Argos. They’d hold the city until either the expedition was over, or his arks ran into trouble, whichever came first. In the former case, they’d serve as a threat and a bargaining chip by occupying a strategically important city that all the Empires had a stake in, while in the latter they’d be constantly at the ready to deploy to support his arks if the need arose.

More importantly, he didn’t want the bulk of his ground troops to slow him down. With just the ark fleet, he was already drawing close to the border after only a day of flight.

With both his magic senses and Silver Spear’s sensor enchantments that projected its surroundings onto the walls of the bridge, he could easily see all that was going on. He could see the trenches, bunkers, Lances, and fortresses that dotted the hills at the eastern end of the Black Cloud Mountains. He could see the Sunlit troops scurrying around these fortifications, though not nearly in the numbers he’d have expected if they were preparing to defend themselves against his onslaught.

‘It seems like they really are just going to let me through,’ he thought as his arks drew ever closer to Lance range. He was gratified to see that his trust in the tau looked like it was paying off, but he had to admit that it had been quite the risk, whether from the tau being a Sunlit sympathizer to the local Sunlit Commander simply ignoring the creature and all its power and wisdom. That Commander had been the one to send the ‘diplomat’ to Argos to try and tie his people down in bad-faith negotiations, after all.

Fortunately, as Leon’s arks finally came into Lance range, not a single shot was exchanged. No one fired at anyone else, even as the arks passed overhead. Many Sunlit soldiers came outside to watch the arks pass, many of the younger ones looking on in awe as the great flying vehicles sped past in their hundreds.

Leon almost regretted leaving the rest of his army behind, if for no other reason than putting on an even better show with some of the flashier and more eye-catching war beasts that the Ten Tribes had.

The arks soon crossed the border and officially entered the Sunlit Empire. Leon smiled. Some part of him was disappointed that he couldn’t put the power of his Kingdom on true display by crushing these defenses, but the larger part of him was happy that no blood was spilled. He enjoyed a good fight, but he wouldn’t have enjoyed slaughtering everyone in his way.

As Silver Spear crossed into the Sunlit Empire proper, Leon noticed someone appear flying next to the ark—the tau in human form. He quickly ordered the man be allowed in, and after ordering Anshu to keep a steady pace, he met the tau in his quarters—Silver Spear was only a destroyer, after all, and was hardly palatially appointed by the Thunderbird Clan’s standards.

“How have things gone?” Leon asked, eager to finally get some details from the tau himself about what he’d been doing.

The tau took a moment to sit and rest, his aged face relaxing as he sighed and slowly sank even further into his seat. After a moment, he responded, “Quite well. Most of this Empire’s Commanders aren’t so keen on being purged and so threw down their weapons as soon as I asked them to.”

“Was it really that easy?” Leon skeptically asked.

“No,” the tau responded with a wry smile. “But few things can escape the eyes of a tau, even if they’re contained only in dreams. With my power, it wasn’t hard to show these individuals that their prospects of living a long, healthy, and wealthy life went up if they listened to what I had to say instead of dismissing me entirely.”

“That’s convenient.”

“For you? Yes. Do you object?”

Leon shrugged. “No. I do feel like there’s going to be some complication that springs out of nowhere, though.”

“Rare are the peace deals—or anything resembling them—to be fully satisfying,” the tau cautioned. “Only when an enemy has been fully and completely crushed can a one-sided peace deal be imposed and the other side appeased. I’ve long lamented the fact that when two sides go to war, tensions are often not helped by a quick peace. In your case, I assume you’re waiting for anyone in our path to take issue with us, despite my efforts?”

“I’d be a poor King if I placed all my faith in just one unproven bird,” Leon answered with a pointed smile. “My people are ready and willing to respond to force with greater force.”

“It’s wise not to place trust in uncertain things,” the tau responded, not insulted at all. “Have you given my offer any thought? I’m still waiting on your answer as to whether or not I’d be welcome in your Kingdom in the Nexus…”

“That depends. Are you willing to tell me who your ‘friend’ is who’s apparently waiting on me to finish my business here?”

“I’m ready; he is not,” the tau answered. “When he is, he won’t wait to tell me first; he’ll come directly to you.”

“Great,” Leon sarcastically replied.

After a moment’s silence, the tau said a little awkwardly, “So… does that mean you won’t give me an answer?”

Leon shrugged again. “I suppose I can tell you that I’m amenable to having another powerful being act as my advisor—assuming that’s what you want and not just a ride to the Nexus and a place to stay once we reach it.”

“No, no,” the tau replied. “I’ve been away from this sort of thing for too long. All the running around talking to people and convincing them to see reason and stand down has rekindled my love for this sort of thing. I’d rather join your Kingdom fully, to advise you to the best of my ability.”

“Like that time when you invaded my dream?” Leon asked with less sarcasm than he’d intended. Before the tau had given him the pearl now implanted in his armor, he’d entered Leon’s dreams and put him through various scenarios as part of a test. As part of these tests, the tau had pretended to be one of Leon’s advisors within the dream.

“If you’d have me,” the tau responded with a far more pointed look than before. As his eyes made contact with Leon’s, for just a moment Leon saw a deep and opaque well of power far in excess of his own. He almost fell over in his chair as a sense of vertigo washed over him, his eyes locked onto the tau’s.

And then the feeling was gone and he caught himself on his chair’s armrests before fully toppling over.

‘He’s post-Apotheosis!’ Leon realized. He’d known that the tau had strange powers, but the relative lack of aura he could sense from the man before him had him almost thinking that the tau wasn’t quite that strong, that his powers mostly lay in subtler forms.

But if he was post-Apotheosis, then that changed things. The tau was immortal and essentially untouchable. Leon shivered as he righted himself and more hesitantly turned his eyes back in the tau’s direction.

“That’s… quite the resume you’ve given me, I’ll admit,” Leon croaked. “I wasn’t expecting someone to put me in this kind of state so soon after reaching tenth-tier…”

“If you weren’t expecting someone stronger than you to appear, then you ought to be more attentive,” the tau said, any trace of its power or aura now gone, replaced with the grandfatherly smile of a kindly old man. “While I’m loath to do so, we can set aside moral arguments for the moment. Is it not safer and more prudent to always act as if someone could potentially pose a threat to you? Is it not wise to treat others well, for you never know who might be stronger than you even if you can see their aura? You could wind up paying an enormous price if you underestimate someone, if you mistakenly think someone’s beneath you.”

“True,” Leon quietly said, his magic now flooding his body, though not exiting just yet. He also had Iron Pride ready to go, just in case. “We never really know people, even if they’re right in front of us…”

“I’m an open book; ask me anything,” the tau replied.

Leon chuckled once. ‘Maybe later. And there will be a later, if you’re willing to join me. If you’re willing to acknowledge me as the King and final arbiter of the decisions that are made in my Kingdom.” Leon’s smile thinned and turned far more serious. The tau was stronger than him—for the moment, anyway—and while he wasn’t fundamentally opposed to having someone stronger than himself in his Kingdom, he certainly wanted them vetted first. He’d been reasonably confident in Iron-Striker’s attitude and intentions that having him in his Kingdom wasn’t as much of a risk as others had claimed. Leon hoped the tau would prove just as useful, so long as he didn’t introduce any kind of instability to his new Kingdom.

“So long as you do not infringe upon my right to leave should I ever deem it appropriate, I shall acknowledge you as my King,” the tau responded. “I will not ask that you always follow my advice, or even that you even once follow my advice. Simply that you listen and give it all due consideration. I will only leave if you ask me to, or if I believe that my advice is no longer being taken seriously.”

“A fine enough deal,” Leon said.

“Do you want this in writing?” the tau asked. “Will you ask me to bow to you?”

“In public, appearances must be maintained,” Leon said. “In private, though, I don’t care that much. I rather prefer the informality, actually.”

The tau smiled and rose from his seat before taking a knee. “I’m not so proud as to refuse to bow to Royalty,” he said.

Leon sighed a bit but accepted the gesture. It seemed that he’d gained another advisor, one he hadn’t been expecting.

---

Thunderhaven was a lovely city in Leon’s opinion. Aesthetics evoking storms abounded, with most of the taller structures built from smoky gray stone that flowed upward and were covered in beautiful natural patterns. Between these spires arced bridges of gold, like lightning bolts. These bridges were practically cities unto themselves with the number of substructures built atop and around them, to the point that Leon could hardly believe they remained intact despite the weight.

The smaller structures of the city were more lightly colored, with aesthetics more akin to the fluffy white clouds of a warm afternoon. The city streets were arranged in a circular spiral, reminding Leon of a top-down view of a hurricane, though narrower streets were running in a grid pattern like a semblance of practicality had been reluctantly overlaid over the main spiraling city. The suburbs were separated from the main city by wide parks and lakes, while a long river ran right down the center of the city.

Even from hundreds of miles out, Leon couldn’t help but admire the splendor of the city. Its layout was utterly unique, even amongst the other cities of the Sunlit Empire. It was also one of the most heavily defended, with several huge arkyards and army bases that he could pick out. Fortunately, it seemed that with Leon’s unchallenged push into the Sunlit Empire, no one wanted to defend Thunderhaven. The bases were only preparing defenses around themselves while the Imperial arks remained on their arkpads. The people in the streets were scrambling about trying to finish their business before he arrived—which would only take a matter of hours—and thousands were even attempting to flee, the city’s unique layout proving itself a burden as the winding, spiraling streets became heavily congested.

Leon kept all of this in mind, but his focus was reserved for the Imperial Palace at the heart of the city, sitting in the center of what seemed to be a massive park in the ‘eye’ of the city’s ‘hurricane’. It was a massive palace complex, not quite as tall or spectacular as Evergold’s palace-trees or the Penthesilea’s plateau that the Ilian Emperor now occupied, but Sunlit’s palace was still more than large and grand enough to serve its purpose as the capitol of one of the most powerful states on the plane.

It was also the only place that anyone seemed more than willing to defend. The army bases around the city were activating their defenses, to be sure, but they paled in comparison to what was around the palace—hastily raised stone fortresses blocking all road access to the palace, dozens of towers with Imperial Lance emplacements dotted the park around the palace, and five arks were in the air circling the complex. One of those arks, Leon bitterly recognized, was the Thunderbird heavy cruiser that the Sunlit Emperor had used as his flag ark during the campaign on the Sword. Leon wanted that ark, but he was afraid that it might not be possible.

Additionally, hundreds of mages were hovering in the sky to supplement the arks, and thousands more filled its many courtyards and dug in just about wherever they could.

None of it would help, Leon thought. His ark fleet was too strong and too numerous. If they had the support of the rest of the army, then they could maybe hold against him until he was forced to call up the reserves back in Argos, but it seemed only Sunlit’s die-hards were committing to defending the palace.

He morbidly wondered how many would stay once their fortresses crumbled and Lance towers were knocked down.

He sighed. His arks would stop about a hundred miles outside of the city for the rest of the day, then begin their attack in the early morning. They’d need that time to plan their assault and the aftermath.

As he sat on the bridge, Leon couldn’t help but smile. If all went well, the Sunlit Emperor would die come morning, and then he could finally take some time to relax in Kataigida.

Of course, he wasn’t expecting everything to go well, but it didn’t stop him from fantasizing. He was also prepared to do what he had to do to make that fantasy into reality.