​"Are you sure he will submit?" Xanor asked, his voice a low gravel, his gaze fixed on the sharp, proud line of Shadow Eyes' back. The vast, lonely hill stretched out beneath them, hundreds of kilometers from the distant, squat peaks of the Ogre's nation. The wind, a biting, high-altitude whisper, whipped around their cloaks.

​"He won't... not willingly," Shadow Eyes conceded, a hint of something cold and amused in her tone. She didn't turn:

"But if he sees the Horror, truly sees what he can unleash, he will run. He will grovel and beg on his knees for his people's sake."

​"Ok... I have another question." Xanor shifted his weight, his curiosity momentarily overshadowing the grand strategy.

​"Is it my appearance?" Shadow Eyes finally looked over her shoulder, her irises a startling, unearthly violet, and her face perfectly, unnervingly symmetrical.

​"Yes," he confirmed, meeting her unsettling gaze.

"Is this truly your real look? It's... flawless, but you were so different before."

​"Yes," she answered, the word resonating with a deep, complex finality. She raised her head to the sky, her gaze now utterly unreadable, focused on something only she could see.

"We need his soldiers. We must replace our losses. The game has grown too large for small numbers." Her beautiful, inhuman face was utterly devoid of emotion.

​Xanor simply nodded. He understood.

__

​[The Next Day. Planet Gaia.]

​The sky was a flawless, dazzling blue—a deceptive backdrop for the tension that hung thick in the air.

Sunny stood motionless beneath it. His hands were clasped behind the rugged dignity of his posture, the luxurious fur of his overcoat rippling in the breeze like dark water.

​"When I received your message, I was truly speechless," Leonardo, the First Elder of the Immortal Council, announced. He descended gracefully from the heavens. Beside him, an eight-foot-tall Ogre, muscular and radiating barely contained fury, descended with less finesse. Both wore the long, pristine white mage robes of the Council, with the golden sun emblem blazing on their backs.

​Sunny turned, his golden eyes sharp and unrelenting, as they landed before him.

​"So tell me, why do you request an audience?" Leonardo asked, a crease of genuine puzzlement on his brow.

"I believe I provided a clear, direct way for you to visit the Council grounds." He noted Sunny's continued silence with mild impatience.

​After a few heartbeats—Sunny finally spoke. "You know about the Wendigos' stronghold I destroyed yesterday?"

​"Of course," Leonardo replied, his frown deepening. "I was there. I felt the aftermath."

​"My people were also held captive there. Tortured and used as slaves," Sunny added, turning his back to them.

​"Where are you going with this?" Leonardo asked, confusion giving way to a more acute alarm.

​Sunny turned back, his tone flat, devoid of theatrics, which made it all the more terrifying. "The Ogres are the ones who are working with the Wendigos. They kidnapped my people and sold them into slavery—for food and pleasure." His voice dropped to a lethal whisper.

"If the other rulers won't do anything, I will."

​"So you want to attack the Ogres' nation?" Leonardo's posture tensed.

​"I want to wipe out the Ogre race," Sunny corrected, his eyes drilling into the two figures. "And I am hoping your Immortal Council won't interfere."

​"You?!" The Ogre beside Leonardo, Aiden, exploded in a primal roar, his face instantly contorting with racial fury and disbelief.

​"Calm down, Aiden," Leonardo interjected, placing a restraining hand on the Ogre's arm. He fixed his gaze on Sunny, his wisdom battling with the sheer audacity of the demand:

"So you want to wipe out an entire race—millions of souls—because of thirty to fifty people? Can you genuinely bear the weight of that much blood on your hands?"

​"As I said," Sunny countered, utterly unmoved. "I have already killed a lot of people. More blood won't make a difference to me. My hands are already soaked." He paused, the finality of his decision hanging in the air.

"Where do you stand on this?"

​Leonardo was silent, his mind racing through millennia of Council Law.

​"First Elder! You shouldn't be hesitating!" Aiden bellowed, frustration and panic making him disregard protocol.

"Wiping a whole race is fundamentally against our rules! I am not saying this because it's my race—I'm saying this because if he wipes out a whole race, the whole lower world will lose its balance!"

​'So he also knows about the other worlds...' Sunny thought, a small, subtle confirmation clicking into place.

'It seems all those in the Immortal Council are aware of the greater cosmos.'

​"God Wolf," Leonardo began, choosing his words carefully:

"I know you are a very ambitious man. And I also know you never leave any stone unturned. You should already know the one behind this, right?" He looked up at Sunny, the realization dawning in his eyes.

​"Kidnapping and trafficking are also strictly against the rules of the Immortal Council. Those who break these rules will be dealt with. And, yes, wiping a race is also against the rule... but..." Leonardo fixed his gaze on Sunny, a difficult compromise forming.

​"If you kill the ones who orchestrated this—the true perpetrators—that will be acceptable. We can turn a blind eye to a necessary execution. But wiping out a whole race of millions... that I cannot accept. Calling us here shows you do not wish to cross us."

​"The one responsible," Sunny revealed, his voice turning cold, "is this Ogre's corrupt brother, and all their top leaders. If I follow your plan, Leonardo, I will eradicate all these people. But..."

​He delivered the punchline, a calculated, devastating power play. "The nation will fall under Eldoria's flag. I will take the throne."

​"...?!"

Leonardo and Aiden were completely stunned. The shock was palpable—a political move far more dangerous than the mass slaughter itself.

​"Not happening! I won't accept that!" Aiden yelled without hesitation, his defensive instinct overriding all reason.

​"You see that, First Elder?" Sunny challenged, staring at Leonardo.

"I followed your plan, but your man didn't agree with it." Sunny's eyes hardened, stripping away any pretense of deference.

"And Leonardo, you made a mistake: calling you here doesn't mean I can't cross you. This is simply a bit of respect I have for your personal standing. You are the one who won't cross me."

​He turned to Aiden, delivering his ultimatum with absolute, chilling authority.

​"This is it. You have two options, Ogre. Option One: Let me deal with the ones responsible and have the throne for Eldoria. Option Two: I wipe out the entire race from this world, and I still take the throne of the empty nation."

​"...?!"

Leonardo was utterly speechless, the sheer audacity of the threat robbing him of his voice.

​"And Leonardo," Sunny added, his smirk a predatory flash, "I can wipe out your council with only my Mercenaries. Trust me, you genuinely do not want to be my enemy."

​"Are you threatening us?!" Aiden roared, the killing intent within him bursting forth. His huge battleaxe materialized instantly, crackling with raw, aggressive energy.

​'This is worse than I imagined,' Leonardo thought, his mind working furiously to calculate the damage:

'If he takes over the Ogres' nation, he will have exponentially more power. He is already this powerful; if this continues, the Immortal Council will be nothing in his eyes. But, can we really afford to go against Eldoria now?'

The memory of Josephine's insane, world-shattering skill flashed in his mind— first proof of Eldoria's terrifying latent power.

​"Don't worry about your rules, Leonardo," Sunny said, sensing the elder's internal turmoil.

"As long as no one crosses me, I won't act. But the moment someone hurts my people or my nation... I will conquer their nations. As long as there is a valid reason behind it, your council won't intervene, right?" His smirk widened.

​"And trafficking my people for money and turning them into food and sex slaves is more than a valid reason. I am waiting for your decision. You have two minutes."

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