Death... and me

Roan checked with the spies and scouts he had everywhere in Klintau but didn't find anything odd. Then again, there were still no antennas in Klintau, so the information Roan had was up to a few weeks old. The only thing that stood out was that the opposing side was losing its battles quite quickly.

Rean couldn't help but ask as he noticed this, 'Do you think they know something we don't?'

Roan nodded, saying, 'Probably. There's no doubt about us winning the battles. However, their forces are always retreating as soon as things go south. Simply put, they aren't losing too many soldiers. I think they're preserving their forces.'

'I see...' Rean understood. 'They're stalling for time.'

'Exactly,' Roan confirmed Rean's words. 'It seems like Klintau had never been that important to them. To be more specific, they were interested in the Space Bending Realm participants of Klintau, as I've confirmed that most of them surrendered.'

'After taking those ten regions, we got a total of 385 Space Bending Realm experts. How many do you think Locadeo has in their hands?'

'Should be less than us,' Roan answered. 'At most, they should have around as much as us.'

Roan then shook his head and ignored it for now. 'We'll need to wait and see what they're up to. I'll send some spies into Locadeo through the east side of Crimew. You have some antennas around that place, right?'

Rean snorted in response, replying, 'Hmph! We conquered that place years ago. There isn't a single centimeter of Crimew that isn't under the coverage of my communication system.'

'That's good enough.' Roan only cared about the results.

The battle for Klintau continued without an issue as Walfure's forces advanced from both the north and west sides for the next three or so months. Ultimately, the supervisor of the Klintau Region appeared and announced that Space Bending Realm experts could finally join the battle.

However, such a thing didn't happen. Instead, the armies that did not belong to Klintau made a full retreat, leaving the region free for Walfure's forces to conquer.

Roan didn't care, though. The plan was to attack Locadeo Region above Klintau from the very start.

However, just a few hours after Walfure took Klintau, the scouts Roan sent to Locadeo finally sent him some information. 'Locadeo has conquered two more regions on its eastern territories.'

Roan was surprised to hear that. He thought a lot of Locadeo's forces were here in Klintau, and well, he wasn't wrong. However, Locadeo's tactic of stalling for time worked, giving them the chance to conquer two more regions. Roan just didn't know how long ago it had happened since it took time to find the information and send it back.

Yet, he didn't have time to bother about it. That's because all the representatives of each region still in the competition suddenly called their participants back. In the case of the twins' group, it was Hilanshi who came out. "All of you, head back to Walfure as the Sect Master has news for everyone. All the regions received the same orders, so there's no need to worry about losing your territories."

Luina, Leticia, Olly, Rean, Roan, none of them expected to receive such a message at that point. After all, the regional wars were supposed to go on for 200 years. Only twenty years and a few months have passed so far. Nevertheless, Rean and Roan left the organization of the armies to the commanders of the System Sect and went back with everyone else.

They saw themselves back in the palace where they first heard from the Rambram Sect Master, Fosleve. It was in this place where the rules were explained back then. Sure enough, the enormous sphere above the meeting hall was still there.

The time necessary to warn all the remaining participants in the continent varied, so the twins and the Jamai Sect disciples had to wait a few more hours there.

Eventually, the giant sphere at the center of the meeting hall finally began to shine before showing the image of the furry old man once again. Naturally, that man was Fosleve. "Seems like everyone's watching now. The reason I called everyone back was that we've finally reached the point where I could release the last free region. My Rambram Sect was waiting for at least 50% of the regions to have been defeated, and it happened today."

Rean looked at Roan, asking, 'Could it be that Locadeo knew it was going to happen?'

Roan nodded, replying, 'Maybe. They took two more regions, so it might have been just a coincidence. Anyways, it's not like the other continents don't have some secret method to communicate with their disciples. It's just that it would be too risky to try it under the Rambram Sect's watch. I think that's exactly what happened for them to keep stalling for time like that.'

Fosleve hadn't finished yet, of course. "For the regions bordering the center, you've probably already noticed that it's impossible to enter. That's because that region was separated from the continent itself a very long time ago. There is a spatial barrier there that prevents anyone from getting close."

"Of course, there are means of getting inside. That's why we decided to leave it for the future. However, I was expecting that it would have taken at least 50 years for 50% of the regions to be conquered. Worst case scenario, up to 190 years were allowed. In short, everything happened way too fast. Not that it is a bad thing, though. It just means we have a few regions that excel in both strategy and strength. And that's what we were looking for."

"Now then, the free region at the center of the continent can be accessed through spatial gates. As for the spatial gates themselves, you'll be able to find one in every region. You can use those spatial gates to enter the central region and try to take it for yourselves. However, only the Space Bending Realm participants and their two subordinates are allowed to enter. Or the ones who survived, that is. Last but not least, there's a good thing there that could possibly make the Free Continent competition finish very quickly."