1837 Peace [Just two chapters today, but I will upload three on Saturday] Earth's territory had been in shambles for a long while, only for news of its sudden stabilization to spread like wildfire. No one had ever expected that the return of a Sixth Dimensional prince would cause such commotion. When Noah heard the news, he could only smile somewhat bitterly. He had been back home for a long while already, but he had been entirely focused on increasing his own strength. He didn't believe that he was powerful enough to force Earth's territory into submission, so he had been trying his best to quickly reach that point. However, Leonel seemed to have flipped that notion on his head. When Noah last saw him, he was only at Tier 1, and yet he had already wiped out the four families. Now he was at Tier 3 and in just a few months had forced the Thrusting Skies Sector to bend the knee and forced the Viola family out. If Noah knew that Leonel was also responsible for the destruction of the Chaotic Water Sector as well, he might very well have to drink his sorrows away. He could still remember seeing Leonel that day. Despite having already stepped foot into the Seventh Dimension himself, he had still felt small. Maybe he really was too bogged down by tradition and doing things the right way. Leonel didn't seem to care about what made sense in the eyes of others, he simply acted to crush those who would deem to stand in his way. Noah could still remember that feeling of weakness after being captured as a slave by the people of that Zone. If not for Leonel, who knows what would have happened to him. The impact of Myghell had been especially exaggerated. In fact, ever since their return to the Human Domain, Noah hadn't seen Myghell even once, it was impossible to tell where he had gone considering the vastness of the universe, but that was definitely a blight on his heart that he couldn't get rid of easily. The gap felt almost too large. Shield Cross Stars had less complex feelings about this matter, mostly because there wasn't anything to feel other than rage. They had been booted out of Earth's territory, and just when they thought that Earth would suffer for their choice, what actually happened was its stabilization. With the contrast between the two states, how could they not be infuriated? Didn't this paint them out to be incompetent? What was even worse than this was that more and more everyday, Cross Elder Avan kept getting the feeling that he was being forced to do someone else's dirty work. "Graros'" laughter at his expense still echoed in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more he realized who benefited the most from the collapse of the Chaotic Water Sector, and the more the image of that annoying, smiling brat appeared in his mind. He didn't want to believe it, he refused to believe it, and yet it would practically wake him up in his dreams. His temper became so poor that most simply began to avoid him entirely, and things only became worse when it became clear how difficult it would be to get any sort of information out of "Graros". Rather than dealing with the methods of Shield Cross Stars, '"Graros' simply entered a deep hibernation unique to their race, cutting off his senses from the world and burying his mind. Not only did this make him immune to torture since he couldn't feel anything, it also made probing and reading his mind nigh impossible due to the complex maze that was the Cloud Race's Cloud Figure. The only drawback of this hibernation state was the fact that '""Graros" could only rely on another member of his race to wake him up as he couldn't do so naturally. But even so, he chose to take this route without hesitation, frustrating Avan to an extreme. This time, even the reinforced desks couldn't survive his wrath. In just a week, he went through three of them, each one worth tens of times the yearly revenue of a powerful Sixth Dimensional city. Shield Cross Stars weren't the only ones frustrated, the other Sectors eyeing Earth's next expansion and the remaining territories within Earth's who knew they were next were all frustrated. They had thought that they could just sit on the sidelines and reap the benefits when the time came, but reality was often cruel. The systematic oppression they faced under Leonel's leadership was suffocating, and the most shocking part was that Earth's core armies never made a single move, still silently improving themselves in the main region of Earth's territory. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢 Leonel utilized Shield Cross Star's flagship and many somewhat lesser quality warriors to completely rout them, leaving them no chance for retaliation. There was simply nothing to take advantage of, and those that remained within Earth's territory knew that they would be next the moment Leonel finished consolidating everything in the Three Pillar Sector. However, to their surprise, after crushing the rest of the Viola family's opposition and swallowing up their territories, Leonel came to a full and complete stop. Those watching from the sidelines felt their hearts go cold upon seeing this. Nat anh wae T.eanel vniino and nawerfiil hit hic cammand of the hattlefield wae ninlike anvthino thew had ever ceen hefare Vanno ctrateocicte nften let their cniccece cland their judgment and often pressed too hard once they had gained an advantage, not realizing that it only took a single mistake to lose everything. Compared to others, Leonel had even more of a right to be cocky. He had subdued two entire Sectors in just a few months, why shouldn't he feel arrogant? And yet, despite having a clear and strategic advantage, and having the momentum necessary to stake a claim onto the rest of Earth's territory, he did nothing of the sort, pulling back and retreating into the darkness in complete silence as though nothing had happened at all... However, in that silence, what rang the loudest was peace.