Chapter 2285 Cross Elders Cross Elder Avan was absolutely furious. He remembered when he first met Leonel. He could have crushed that little shit immediately. Daring to steal the property of Shield Cross Stars, and such an important property at that, was unforgivable. To make matters worse, he had actually been a fugitive for so long. He deserved nothing but death. What others didn't know was that Shield Cross Stars had been targeting Leonel ever since he exited the Camelot Zone. The failure to claim that Zone for them was an unacceptable loss, and it was felt that the best way to gain the benefits they wanted was through Leonel. Unfortunately, there was only so much that they could do while maintaining the same level of caution. He had wanted to throw it to the winds, but he wasn't the only one making decisions. There were several other Cross Elders, each with their own factions and their own thoughts on the matter. And now look what happened. He had wanted to launch a full assault on Earth the instant Emperor Fawkes had thrown him out of their territory, but he had gotten word from above that it was unsafe. He had wanted to strike to kill during the Heir Wars, but he once again received word that it was ill advised. He wanted to send a lone Ancestor to ensure that Leonel would die during the Human Domain Invasion, and yet he was once again rebuffed. And now what? He was standing here, more than half of the most powerful forces of the Human Domain effectively crippled and fallen under the power of the Morales who were already gathering far too much power and it was already far too late to take any sort of easy, but drastic action. Leonel had somehow already gained the ability to protect himself from Ancestors, even setting aside his armies, there were those modified starships, and even setting aside those modified starships there were still the reports that over a dozen Ancestors had died in battle... and yet there was no use that Leonel had made use of them yet. The sight of Leonel resurrecting Ancestors of the foreign races and then slaughtering over 50 Ancestors under his own power was something that was burned into Cross Elder Avan's psyche. Now, Leonel had even more Ancestors than he had had back then, and they were a trump card in his back pocket that he could use at any time. This news was as bad as it could be, or so it seemed. Because what came afterward was even worse than that. This news was delayed, by several weeks at that. Leonel had immediately used the conquering of the World Spirits to restrict information moving in and out of the 12 territories. Although he wouldn't be able to use the full strength of those territories any time soon, this required almost no strain at all. If information wanted to get out, it had no choice but to move through more normal channels, and how long would that take? How vast was the Human Domain? How many families were there? How many would fear what it would mean to betray Leonel by leaking this information? And these families, who were cut off from the outside world as well, how could they know that they weren't the only ones to suffer at Leonel's hands? For all they knew, they were the only ones to suffer and sending this news out would do nothing more than expose the fact that they had lost their World Spirits, making them vulnerable as a whole. Ironically, then, those families actually helped Leonel keep a lid on his escapades for fear of what it would do to them until they confirmed that other families had suffered the same fate. No, not just until this, but until they understood that enough had suffered the same fate that it wouldn't be easy to target them all at once. It was only then that they allowed the information to flow smoothly and it finally reached the ears of Shield Cross Stars. And that was precisely what set Cross Elder Avan off. Each one of these territories had Shield Cross Stars branches within, but these powerful families didn't trust those branches as far as their youth could throw them. They were restricted to the outskirts, and Leonel had passed right through most of them without even attacking. However, the same wasn't true on the way back. Leonel left most of the outskirts of these territories unscathed. He used the expertise of the geniuses he had snatched to learn of the structure of their outposts and make it past them without any warning at all, and then he directly attacked their capital cities without any warning. But he didn't do the same for Shield Cross Stars. It was like he was provoking them, like he was spitting in their faces. He unceremoniously slaughtered them all, or so Cross Elder Avans thought. All he knew was that aside from strips of blood and flesh, their branches were deserted of people, strangled and practically wiped from existence. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶 He didn't respect them at all. He slapped each one of their faces and it was practically like he was taking a piss over their walls. Cross Elder Avan's infuriated roar echoed through the capital of Shield Cross Stars and it was like a call that brought all of the Cross Elders together at once. Some young, some old, they rushed into Cross Elder Avan's ravaged office as his eyes spit with flames... literally. Cross Elders, men and women alike looked around. Some sneered, some were somber, some found the situation amusing, and some were serious. It was clear by this meeting that the numbers given to the public for the number of Cross Elders was nothing more than a lie. In this room alone, more than three dozen had gathered, many of whom not a single soul in the Human Domain would recognize. "Do you see what you've all done?! Do you see what you all have allowed?!" Cross Elder Avan barked, the temperature in the surroundings skyrocketing.