BANG!

Almost the instant the Emberheart Lord returned to his Palace, it felt as though all hell broke loose. If not for the protective formations around everything, it was likely that the palace would have been razed to the ground at that very moment.

He couldn't even believe what had just happened. Everything was in hand in one moment, and in the next, it had all slipped through their fingers.

How did the humans have such a hidden expert? And why were they just magically present?

"Shut down all the teleportation platforms. I don't want a single fly escaping the Ma'at Bubble today."

The Emberheart Lord took a breath and forced himself to calm down. He strolled into his royal bedroom and sent his wife away before he pulled out a communication orb and contacted the Moonstone Lord who he had already "expelled" from this world.

The Moonstone Lord responded instantly, a brewing fury practically coming out in palpable waves, but despite what had happened, neither of them were actually enraged toward one another.

Obviously, they were brothers in the truest of senses, and the Moonstone Lord knew that if the Emberheart Lord hadn't acted like he did, they would have both been pulled down from their positions. At that point, the situation would be unsalvageable.

"We will avenge Thalion, brother. I already have the Bubble locked down, he won't be able to go anywhere."

The Moonstone Lord grit his teeth, but eventually took a breath and exhaled in an attempt to control his emotions.

"Do not do anything rash, even if it means letting this person escape, it's better to do that than to bring you into this mess."The people aren't fools. Most will suspect how I was somehow able to hide such a large formation from you and build it under your nose. Even if they believe it, they might think you incompetent. If you also force the issue and kill him on my behalf, it will cause problems."

"I understand," the Emberheart Lord nodded. "I won't keep the barricade up for long, I've used the excuse of your Kairo Bubble to justify it. But we will deal with him soon.

"I've also had others scour the video recordings of the event. We know who he came with and who he has connections to. It will be possible to connect some dots and potentially find out who he is this way."

"Yes, that's good. But the plan..." the Moonstone Lord's voice trailed off.

Their situation had gotten much more difficult because of Leonel.

Although Leonel had taken action, there was still one thing he didn't understand... and that was why?

Why were the Spirituals, who had always seemingly been inviting to other Races and humans especially, suddenly so hostile? It was like they had become cartoon villains overnight and he couldn't wrap his head around why.

He had felt that there was the potential that someone was manipulating them, but the Spirituals were not weak, and in the case that it was a Dream Asura like he thought, they weren't a very... united Race of people.

At the very least, the Dream Asuras would have no reason to put their full effort behind trying to deal with a power that was far beneath them.

In that case, it was more than likely just one or a few Dream Asuras, and in that case, the manipulation shouldn't have been nearly so easy.

As had been said many times before, even with Dream Force, you couldn't just make someone act outside of their already ingrained character, you could only take advantage of what they already were.

And according to history and everything Leonel knew... the Spirituals were the exact opposite of the side they were showing now. None of this made any sense at all.

"We have no choice but to see this through to the end. Somehow, this person is aware of the events that happened back then, and the Ancestors are already involved. If we don't take action now and follow their plans, we could end up in the same muddy waters as the humans, and we cannot allow that.

"We are so close to the Demi-God Realms. So long as we take that step, we will be able to secure a foothold for ourselves and might be able to pay them back for the harm we've caused them. But for now, we can only follow this person's wishes..."

"It will be difficult now. Before, we had a good excuse to meld our two Bubbles together, but without the Humans as a catalyst, it will be difficult."

The Emberheart Lord sighed. "This is all because of our Ancestors, we should have been brothers long ago if they didn't insist on separating us like this."

"It was a necessity. Only by creating two independent Pure Bloodlines could we then benefit from melding them together. If we grew together, it's hard to say if we'd even have the chance."

"Yes, but the process of keeping us separate has alienated our people from one another and it has made the integration difficult. If we integrate too forcefully now, it will lead to internal conflict and trouble. If the tensions are too high, then it will have the opposite effect and rather than the population intermarrying like we would hope, they might draw even fiercer lines of division.

"Today's gaff makes that worse. I don't even know if we'll have another opportunity for another several hundred years."

"There's still a chance," the Moonstone Lord said softly. "If we play our cards right, we can reverse the situation and blame everything on the human from today. We can highlight my sacrifice and save ourselves while pushing the responsibility onto his shoulders.

"But we need to first capture him in an above board manner.

"We might also need to contact that person."

The Emberheart Lord paused for a moment and then nodded. This was, indeed, a chance.

The two Lords clenched their fists.

This was what they had to do to erase the past...

The world could not come to know that the Spirituals had descended from Humans.