98 Chapter 98. War is over

Ugh...

A wave of emptiness swept over Leo's body, waking him up.

As he slowly forced his pupils to weakly open, he found that the sky had become night and countless stars filled the dark black night. The moonlight shone on him, basking it in a weak coldness.

Crackle!

Hearing some noise from around him, Leo turned his face to the side and he immediately saw where he was. He was at the grand dark oak tree and the noise had come from Vanessa and Mars who seemed to have gotten along extremely well. Both seemed to be engaged in a happy casual conversation with Wenella next to them, her whole body pretty much wrapped up in bandages.

Feeling someone stare at him, Mars suddenly turned around and saw that Leo was staring at him with his eyes completely awake.

"Hey!" Mars greeted.

Vanessa also immediately looked back after hearing Mars called out to someone and she also spoke out, "Leo! Your awake! Thank goodness..."

Leo slowly forced his body to get up and he slowly walked over to the others, "Yo! How long was I out?"

"About a day," Wenella answered with an extremely pleased expression.

"How did I get here?" Leo asked curiously. How did he get here? He had fallen unconscious on the Ruby lines so did Mars come and get him?

"Haha! You have the soldiers to thank for that. They were a few dozen soldiers who went out to look for you and they brought you here to us," Mars answered with a expectant smile as he stared at Vanessa's stew that was emitting an extremely delicious aroma.

"I guess I'll have to thank them," Leo spoke silently.

"How much of your strength have you been hiding from us?" Mars suddenly asked curiously, "Those arts were visible even from here."

"That few days of break really helped. Without that, I don't think the Lapis casualties would have been this low..." Leo simply answered.

"I wonder what kind of break you took..." Vanessa commented curiously as she brought over a few bowls.

"Dinner's ready! Let's eat up!"

The group then happily began eating the delicious stew. Leo spent about five minutes eating before stopping and excusing himself, "I need to go and recover my energy reserves as soon as possible. I'll excuse myself from here for now."

After saying this, Leo immediately made his way to the top of the tree and sat in a meditative position as he began taking in the energy in the battlefield.

Rustle!

A series of leaves rustling intruded into his ears after fifteen minutes passed and he felt someone jump onto the same branch that he was on.

Leo slowly raised and saw that it was Wenella who had come and an extremely guilty look appeared on his face as she slowly walked over to him and sat next to him.

"I'm extremely sorry for being so late..." he apologized.

"It's not your fault... Thanks for saving me," Wenella spoke out in a very 'hard to read' tone.

"Once you left, everything went terrible. Garrick..." Wenella began speaking as tears appeared in her eyes as she looked up at the sky with an extremely regretful look.

Hearing this a smile appeared on Leo's face as he looked at her and silently laughed, "Hehe... I'm glad that you worry about him but you shouldn't. Don't worry about that. He should be fine."

"Huh?"

"You'll see later..." Leo answered, not wanting to tell Wenella everything.

"Spend the next hour recovering. I want us to leave this place soon," Leo continued as closed his eyes and continued taking in energy.

The Lapis King stood on the balcony at the top of his tower looking down on his kingdom once again. His advisors and everyone else were visible through the doors that led to the balcony. And each were sat down at a large round table in a large room.

While the scene looked calm on the surface, deep under it was going berserk. It was as a volcano that was about to erupt.

Yesterday, they had seen the commander and each of the generals of their army's life talismans slowly fade out, implying that they had died. Immediately, they knew what this meant.

The king slowly walked back to the room after taking a deep breath of a complex myriad of emotions and sat down on the table. The suspense was incredible. Each minister and advisor did not want to speak out at all, they had no ideas on how to solve this without their king personally acting.

Sigh...

The king let out a downcast sigh before speaking, "The Lapis army has been defeated. The Ruby army must be making their way towards us as we speak. It seems my life will soon come to an end."

"Your Majesty! How can you say that? We will protect you! That is what we swore an oath to!" a minister bravely spoke. He had served the king for countless years and was one of the most loyal of his subjects.

"I will not be of much help in this war because of my sickness. I hope that all of you will do your very best with defending the kingdom," the king solemnly spoke, "Since they were able to take out Tyson, this means they either have an incredibly strong cultivator with them or the rumor of the scepter was real."

"But Your Majesty, the army itself reported that the scepter was fake and it was just a side plan," an advisor couldn't help but speak out.

After this, a deadly filled the room as the king scrunched up his eyebrows and placed his hands on his mouth, deep in thought.

"YOUR MAJESTY!" a voice suddenly called out loudly beckoning to the king. An arrogant haughty looking man immediately ran entrance of the room with an extremely urgent look on his face. But as he made his way to the entrance...

Shing!

The sound of spears and swords of the guards outside the room suddenly sounded, followed by a loud panicked shout, "I AM THE ENVOY THAT WAS SENT TO THE LAPIS FRONTLINES!"

"Let him in!" the king immediately instructed upon hearing the familiar tone of voice as confusion appeared on all the others around the table.

Immediately, the door opened and the man ran in hurriedly and he immediately knelt down in a bow once he arrived within a meter of the table. Despite being desperate, he had to keep mind of his status.

"My king! I bring news about the war from the battlefield!" the envoy loudly as he panted loudly and he had sweat pouring all over his body. It was clear that he had been running from yesterday.

The king realized this and a new deeper level of sadness appeared on his face as he spoke, "Rise... How quickly are the Ruby soldiers going to arrive here?"

"Your Majesty?" the envoy suddenly asked as a confused expression appeared on his face as he rose. The Ruby army?

"What news did you bring?" the king asked curiously. Judging from the reaction of the envoy, the news did not seem to be related to the Ruby army so what could it possibly be about?

"The war has ended. But no Ruby soldiers will be coming here, Your Majesty," the envoy answered.

"What?" the confusion of the ministers all peaked.

"We have won the war," the envoy spoke with a smile.

"How? We all saw that all the generals and commander Tyson's talismans fade out," one of the ministers asked in disbelief and a slight hint of suspicion.

"It is indeed true. All the leaders of the army died," the envoy replied, causing the confusion to rise again.

Huh?

"Then how have we won the war?" the king asked.

"The Ruby army has been defeated, sire. I did not see it clearly but there was a huge art that suddenly appeared and it destroyed all of the Ruby army," the envoy answered.

"What?!" the ministers broke out in shock.

Hearing this, the king fell into deep thinking. Who could have saved them? Why did they save them?

"Your Majesty!" another rushed voice suddenly sounded out from outside the door.

"Come in!" the king replied and the door opened and in came a old man about seventy years of age, about the same as the king.

"My king! There has been a large drastic change in the ranking system!" the old man spoke with a sense of urgency.

"What happened?" the king asked distractedly as his mind was focused on defending the kingdom.

"There is a name that suddenly rose up during the last day. The name was lowest in the ranking and suddenly shot up from last place to first with a total of ten million points!" the old man spoke with a tone of amazement as he himself was partly in shock at what he had heard.

"What?!" the whole table broke down into disbelief. Could they have really won the war?

"Indeed, sire. We are all amazed and in disbelief. The only possible way for this to happen is for the person to have killed all the soldiers on the opposition's side in one day but that sounds-"

Before the man could finish his sentence, the envoy immediately cut in and loudly spoke, "It must have been from that man!"

"Who?" everyone began asking.

"What was the name of the top ranker?" the envoy asked as he wanted to confirm his guess.

"It was 'Killing Cloud'," the old man answered.

"It must be that man!" the envoy spoke as disbelief appeared on his face.

He explained the whole story of who this person was and the king found out that he was the same person who was famous among the soldiers for saving countless Lapis soldiers.

That day, while Leo and his crew were travelling to the Southern mountain ranges, the name 'Killing Cloud' ran rampant and famous throughout the upper class of both Ruby and Lapis kingdoms and the news of the sudden end of the battle would be widely spread throughout the surrounding kingdoms.