The Garudia Kingdom, Eastern Breeding Grounds.

It had been occurring for the past four nights in a row. Something mysterious would occur within these grounds as a thousand of the winged beasts would suddenly be killed overnight. There was not a single trace of any of the infiltrators. It was as if these beasts died from illness, but the bloodstains on the floor could be taken as proof that they were somehow slaughtered.

Every time they started gathering the dead corpses of these winged beasts, the next morning, all those bodies would inexplicably disappear as another batch of a thousand beasts would die! This was on the scale of a sudden epidemic and it had caught the attention of the people from the capital, including the king, who was now secretly a puppet of Louie.

He was now nothing more than an empty soulless bag of meat that is being used by the retained consciousness of Louie. Although this problem could be easily solved through night surveillance and increasing the guard on methods that outsiders could use to get in and out of the breeding grounds, the incompetence of Louie in being a king was showing. It was even more evident within a kingdom that was marginally larger than that of the Wolfenstein Kingdom.

It took over a week before they made a move on actually relocating the beasts that are already well trained to the barracks in the capital. They also began maintaining high security for those beasts that are still premature in their training. But all of this was a tad bit too late. Over 7,000 of these beasts had already died, not including those that had attacked the Wolfenstein Kingdom. It totaled one-third of the entire fleet that is capable of fighting. This obviously excludes those beasts that are not yet fit for knight riders to use.

The raw manpower within the military forces of the Garudia Kingdom only amounted to 120,000 soldiers, which are heavily lacking against the Wolfenstein Army, both in quality and in quantity. It was looking pretty pathetic. It seems that the plotting of Louie had short-circuited and nothing seems to have changed.

Although the kingdom was still working, it was now basically defenseless. Unfortunately, this did not seem to penetrate the thick skull of Louie, who had issued the deployment of those premature beasts to try and include them in their fighting force as plain meat shields. Luckily enough, it seems that Louie hadn't found out about the statue of the great Garuda, which was the source of the kingdom's 'miracle'.

The military officers and the Senate Council had been in deep thought as it seemed that their king had not been himself lately. They had blamed all this on the initial attack that they had hurriedly deployed. Yet now it had still not returned. It was 4 weeks already! Although this was all they had concluded, it seems that it was necessary to deploy the second one, even if only to find out the truth.

Lurking in the shadows was a smiling king... The abundance of General Exp, and this mysterious "High-grade Wyvern Scale" and "High-grade Griffon Feathers" from all these night raids, Feihren was satisfied with all that he had gathered, and he could smell the sweet revenge he was hoping for his kingdom.

...

The Great City of Bacumion, Capital of the Bainzen Empire.

It was a city unlike any other within the Shodan Continent. It had been secretly prosperous through trade outside the boundaries and into the kingdoms from the Omod Continent.

The entirety of the Bainzen Empire had been covertly undermining the prosperity of the other kingdoms, especially the Ranustin Kingdom. This was all to strengthen their already well established empire by stopping any pathways for merchants and traders to arrive at the other kingdoms without them using the western route, which leads directly to the Bainzen Empire.

Trade and other types of business that were venturing into the Shodan Continents from other kingdoms would then be monopolized by the Bainzen Empire, resulting in its fast-paced growth. It hadn't been like this a couple years ago. This was a tricky and devious plot laid out by the young emperor Jason back when he was still a prince. These barren plots of land within their territory had then become business barriers for them to abuse.

The city was bustling as peace was evident under the ruling of their new emperor, Jason.

As opposed to the lively city that surrounding it, the king's castle was eerily quiet tonight. It was as if no one was living in it in the first place. Atop one of the towers within this enormous castle, two figures could be seen secretively talking.

"It seems that the king of the Garudia Kingdom has found a new playmate..." One of the figures reported with a low laugh as he continued. "Although it seems that king of the Wolfenstein Kingdom isn't someone that could easily be broken, one of my spies had reported from Garudia. It seems that it has been weeks since they heard any report from their 'playful' adventure against the newly crowned king."

"Hmm... What else?" The other figure replied as he pondered the report.

"Ahh, it seems that the informant of that foolish King Ivan was the other foolish king of the Wolfenstein Kingdom, ah former king at the least... Louie the 3rd if I remember correctly?" The informant replied as he held a rolled parchment out towards the figure, "This is the comprehensive reports regarding the issue between those two? I guess it would be the best time to meddle with these things? They are both 'injured' at the moment."

Moving out of the shadows as he lit one of the lamps with a spark of fire magic, Emperor Jason then inspected said parchment as he shook his head. 

"No, I doubt that it is wise to meddle this early. We should still deal with this pesky natural boundary. Find an efficient way to traverse through these mountainous regions." Jason replied as he continued in a low voice. "It seems that my friend also brought a few tricks up his sleeves..."

"Should we send spies to the Wolfenstein Kingdom too? It seems that our previous scouting mission failed due them meeting their doom within a certain dwarven village just past those forests? But we could plot another route for them to reach the Wolfenstein Kingdom soon." The mysterious figure replied.

"The Wolfenstein Kingdom would be on high alert from the attack of the Garudia Kingdom. Sending spies right now would be utter foolishness. It seems that I have to remind you and the other 12 again. Be careful about anything that relates to that kingdom from now on. Tread lightly as much as possible. Their new king is not someone you can easily push around..." Emperor Jason answered with an uncharacteristically straight face.

"It seems that you know this new king personally? But I don't remember you hanging out with any middle-aged men, even back when you were younger?" 

The man pondered this as it seems that Jason had been acting differently when it was in regards to the topic of this new king.

"No... But it would not do any harm if we would just stay vigilant and not attract any large adversaries until we can guarantee that we are strong enough. Strong enough to trample even an entire continent..." Jason started smiling as he lightly snorted, looking at the horizon within this cloudy night sky.