3 Alexi

"First item on the agenda: every power save for one has officially joined Henosis." Cheers and applause broke out in the meeting room, killing the serious atmosphere. The fact that Xasha came home early was a bad omen for most. Everyone had braced themselves for bad news.

"Calm down, don't celebrate too much. The larger provinces have already begun expanding their territory. Smaller provinces are actually packing up and moving now that they are no longer tied to a mana vein source. They are moving to places where they can expand unimpeded. The size of the west coast has almost doubled, especially with that Dan Avon, who has all but conquered the entire black plains that are almost as big as the original west coast itself. There is a truce amongst provinces as they expand their power and influence. Energy beasts are no longer a threat. Almost every province has a Thorium Realm mage and the Emerald Realm mages are the new elites in large provinces."

The council's eyes shone brighter the longer Xasha spoke. Their hearts were feeling content as it seemed everything was working out perfectly.

Xasha continued, "many discoveries were made in the last three years and were all shared with the member states. Including this Time Fruit discovered 2 years ago in the Lou War Province. Now that it's available, I bought quite a stockpile and even got a few seedlings that I've already passed to Verra. In a few years, we will have a time tree forest and the problem of our younger generation being stuck at the beginning of puberty for hundreds of years can be alleviated." He chuckled, remembering what happed with Xeik. "A few radical guys also came up with an interesting magic device. It performs calculations at unbelievable speeds. Its speed and efficiency impressed me. I bought a few. Maybe our guys can gain a bit of inspiration from it."

"Which province hasn't joined Henosis has yet?" Boman asked impatiently.

"I will answer all questions at the end of the report," Xasha stated absentmindedly and continued, "we are now under fire, kind of. It upset some provinces that we have benefited most from the creation of Henosis. Financially and otherwise, we've become too rich and too influential and they have banned us from recruiting in other provinces."

Xasha paused after saying this. "I understand where they are coming from. We have basically taken all the lower class, or rather working-class, people from the continent. This created a brain drain and skill shortage for other provinces, especially those with leaders who have mistreated their citizens in the past. To this day, we get a million new residents daily. If this continues, we will have the entire population of the west coast living in Stardust province within a few hundred years. When it was proposed, I didn't fight against it. Hope you guys can understand why."

The council all nodded their heads. They were not unreasonable people and understand the other patriarch's concerns.

"Good news is, due to the peace brought about by creating Henosis, many people have begun starting families, as you all know. So, this problem will not persist forever and the population will replenish in other provinces as well. The population of Stardust province will keep growing in the future without immigrants."

"Next item, we made a decision as to how we will colonize the wilderness. Through the black plains owned by Dan Avon and the Great Divide owned by us as the Endless Tundra is impassible for an entire army to traverse. The other powers, including the Devos Province, will gain access to the wilderness by marching their armies through our province. There is the issue of their territory being split between large swaths of land, making it impossible to be managed by a single person."

"So, we had each province pick out territory on the map. They will create an outpost in that territory from which they will expand. Each province has a limit to how far they can expand." Xasha used his mana to carve out a place on the map laid on the table and stated, "this is the territory allotted to Falling Stardust. The good thing is our territory is connected to the great Divide mountain range, so it does not mess with our plans. My concern is that the council members only care about their own benefits and are not considering everything else."

Xasha sighed in disappointment, "they seemed to think that they are going to capture uninhabited land or that the energy beasts, beastmen, and the environment there are no more powerful than what they've seen on the west coast. Their overconfidence will lead to their deaths several times over and this might lead to a butterfly effect for the rest of our efforts, as the beastmen will team up and expel us from the wilderness."

Everyone's faces became serious, Xasha may have said it casually, but everyone understood how big of a threat this was for the west coast. The overconfidence of those provinces might lead to the destruction of the west coast.

"What can we do about this?" Asked Bilimo in a nervous tone.

Xasha looked up at his council with a stern expression, "I don't know yet. With most of the member states biased against us, it will be an uphill battle convincing them because their minds are made up. I will think this over and I hope you all will brainstorm and come find me with your ideas."

"There were a few other things discussed and debated during the last reverie, but what I've told you are the most important ones. You can read about the rest in the written report. Now you can go ahead and ask your question regarding everything I've said. And Wanton, the province that is still refusing to join, is the White Tiger Mountain. They say they are not interested in invading the wilderness and will never allow outsiders within its walls or reveal any of its secrets to outsiders for any reason."

The people around the room nodded, as that sounded exactly like the beastmen provinces. It was more surprising that the other two beastmen provinces joined.

"It's been almost ten years since you've developed and distributed the breathing techniques and other mana manipulation methods. During this time, it has found its way to every corner of the continent and is solely responsible for the increased strength of Henosis. Even with this, have we not bought enough goodwill from the Henosis member states? Are their greed so strong that they will disregard even this?" Gin spoke in disbelief.

Xasha chuckled sarcastically, "it was twisted to say that we shared those techniques because we had to. We only released them early so we would have the member states owe us a debt. One that we will come knocking to collect soon. With that being the case, I didn't even dare to bring that up to invoke any form of goodwill as that would have backfired ."

"Ungrateful fools," Wanton commented.

"Well..." Xasha was speechless. He wasn't expecting his council to use this occasion to vent their emotional frustrations rather than think critically about the situation. He could hardly blame them as he understood this was human nature and rebuking them now would only gain their ire.

"How about we form a joint army and take over territories one at a time as a joint Henosis Amry of sorts? We have been doing joint training for the past 15 years. Is this not a situation that we have been preparing for?" Dana asked.

"Yes, that was suggested, of course, but we could not decide which province would have their territory colonized first. Tensions ran high and negotiations broke down pretty quickly after that. It got to a point where people were trying to buy their places in line. Fitzroy had to shut the entire thing down." Xasha took a seat and sighed. These responses disappointed him.

"What if we scale back the operation? Instead of an entire Henosis Army. How about we create joint armies with two or three provinces each? Provinces who get along can join hands and everyone can build their outpost sooner, as each group would only have to wait a few years to build their outpost instead of decades or centuries with the original joint army proposal," Davene suggested.

Xasha got up from his seat, his eyes sparkling, "this, now this is an idea I can get behind. While it may not be enough to ease all of our problems, it will decrease the chances of them being overpowered and overwhelmed."

A small smile etched itself on the council member's lips. Xara slid down in her seat. "That is a start, but it will not help. The only two things that can solve this problem are for the provinces to not enter the wilderness recklessly or for them to be more powerful than whatever enemy they may face."

"And how are we going to do that?" Asked Xander helplessly.

"Time, and knowledge," Stephen voiced absentmindedly.

"Stephen, you're right, you're absolutely right. We need to delay the invasion of the wilderness for some years and have the members states use that time to get stronger. However, the longer that takes, the more impatient they will get. As for knowledge, a few of the bigger provinces need to enter the wilderness and gauge the strength of those on the other side. With this, we can set a benchmark for the other powers, "If they are not this strong enough, they cannot enter the wilderness unless they are accompanying a member state who is qualified," I believe this will solve all our problems." Boman proposed.

Xasha sat down again, in deep thought. "The member states may never go for it. They are impatient as it is and asking them to hold off for however number of years is impossible. Moreover, the qualification for powers to enter the wilderness is also a hard sell. It means more rules, and if it's one thing those guys hate, it's more rules. Trying to enforce this may cause Henosis to break apart."

Frowns replaced the relaxed smiles. This problem was a thorny one. It was no wonder Fitzroy ended the Reverie early and had everyone head home before a war broke out. "A mountain with two tigers can never be a unified one and a mountain will over four thousand tigers is Chaos," Bilimo uttered in a gruff voice. He seemed to have aged several years throughout the course of the meeting.

"I think we should also call a pre-mature end to this meeting so everyone may go over ideas with a clear head. We will reconvene in three days to look upon this problem once more with fresh eyes." Bilimo sounded tired. Everyone nodded in agreement, then turned to their chairperson, who had a frown on her scarred face.

"Bil is correct. Let us reconvene at sunset in three days. I adjourn this meeting." Verra didn't leave the room after giving the order. She remained in her seat with a thoughtful expression. The entire council mirrored her expression. This might be the greatest challenge faced by the west coast in its history and its solution wouldn't come easily.

"I have a suggestion, "a voice sounding almost like a whisper broke the silence. The sound of furniture cracking and clothes ruffing followed as everyone turned their attention to the unusually tall, dark-skinned young man. His blue hair still had small bolts of lightning jumping from strand to strand and his stern face betrayed his docile demeanor.

"Stormy, why are you- I mean Alexi, you are a member of this council now, you should speak your mind as you see fit. No need to be so reserved here," Xasha reassured him with an encouraging smile. Alexi had reason to be nervous, forget that it was his first day, but throughout the meeting, the council members had been throwing him peculiar glances.

The council members also had good reason for their gazes. Forget the fact that he passed all one hundred trails and his being titled as Lithuania's most accomplished mage at his age. When they looked at him, the crowd could only see the Xasha's pet Storm Dragon flying around with his harem, showering them with mana rain. Ten years ago, the happy-go-lucky Stormy broke through the Thorium Realm, and this handsome yet stoic young man took its place.

Stormy wasn't an inappropriate name for a young man such as himself, so Ari took it upon herself to name him Alexi Von Creig.