Negotiation

James Bennet looked at Bruce with a smile. He was curious to see what the chosen one was up to. Unlike James, everyone looked at Bruce with a bewildered expressions.

"You had a hand in the attack on the people at this entrance?" Cormac Monet asked.

"I killed them all. Those who were too weak to take my punch died while those who are strong enough fainted" Bruce smugly replied. He held a hatred for the Dark Forces over the past 6 years, it was time for payback.

"Hahaha, good joke! An unnamed brat like you managed to kill two Divine King experts and all Soul Manifestation prodigies?" Cormac Monet stopped taking Bruce seriously.

"Old bones, why don't you call any Divine King from your faction to come here?"

"I'll make sure to smash their heads in front of you to prove my sincerity" Bruce had a mocking grin on his face as he watched the Great Emperors from the Dark Forces look at him with great ferocity.

"I can attest to everyone here that Bruce did indeed kill the Divine Kings that guarded this place along with 15 other Soul Manifestation prodigies" Sophia spoke up. As the priestess of the Church of Light, her words had more weight than those of Bruce.

The Great Emperors from the Dark Forces became grim when they heard Sophia's statement. Such an unprecedented prodigy born to the side of Alliance Kingdom, and they had never heard of him.

"Young man, what is your name?" Great Emperor Stinson asked.

"My name is Bruce Stellae, someone you assholes tried to kill 6 years ago" Bruce proudly declared. He no longer had any fear of the Dark Forces because he had a sufficient background to defend against them.

Everyone exclaimed in shock when they heard the name. Bruce Stellae was the prodigy with 4 elemental affinities. Unfortunately, he was assassinated before he got a chance to grow. Never would they imagine that he managed to survive the assassination and lived till this point.

"You…"

Great Emperor Stinson changed his expression for the first time. This was the worst news he had ever heard in the past hundreds of years. The Alliance Kingdom will do its utmost to protect Bruce from now on.

"Enough about the past."

"I still want to negotiate with that old bone over there" Bruce pointed at Cormac Monet.

"What do you want?" Cormac Monet no longer had the confident look.

"Teacher, what's an appropriate prize for a prodigy?" Bruce turned to Chef John.

All the Great Emperors looked at John with envy and hatred because he actually managed to snatch a legendary talent. It's been a while since John was the attention of the group, so he felt elated.

"Ahem, one million high energy crystals should do it" John lightly coughed as he came up with a nonsensical number.

"Fuck your mother, Cortez!" Cormac Monet screamed at John with all his might.

"What the fuck did you say to me you little bitch?" John cursed back.

These two men were not acting as dignified Great Emperors that everyone worshipped at all.

"John, you should give them a more reasonable price" Great Emperor Fargo chimed in before the Alliance Kingdom Leadership loses more of its honor.

"Fine, 250,000 high energy crystals!" John gave out a new price.

"You think we're made out of high energy crystals you bastard?" Cormac Monet never felt so terrible until today. His faction had lost one million high energy crystals to the Alliance Kingdom. Now, the other side is extorting them for more money.

"Return our prodigies now and we'll leave everyone alone" Great Emperor Stinson spoke up. The Dark Forces had already lost too many resources in this battle. Worst case scenario, they would forgo the prodigies and return to their bases. They cannot afford to spend more resources at that moment.

"Sorry old man, you don't have any negotiating power because we hold all the chips" Bruce didn't get fazed by Great Emperor Stinson. If anything, he wanted to pummel everyone from the Dark Forces.

"Then so be it, keep the prodigies and do whatever you want with them. We will not be spending any resources to obtain them back" Great Emperor Stinson ended the negotiation.

"Mika, what about my grandson?" Cormac Cortez asked in great distress.

"You may negotiate with the boy using your own wealth, but the faction will not fund the negotiation" Great Emperor Stinson coldly replied. As expected of the leader of the Dark Forces, he knew when to cut their losses.

High energy crystals were far too valuable as they are used to increase the strengths of their main military power, Divine Emperors. Using high energy crystals as payments for a bunch of Soul Manifestation kids was not something the Dark Forces could accept.

"Fine…" Cormac Monet gave up and reached into his own wealth to save his grandson.

"Why don't we make bet instead?" Bruce exclaimed as he saw the fish was getting away.

"What bet?" Great Emperor Stinson turned around.

"Send out an early stage Divine Emperor from your side. If I beat that person, you'll provide 250,000 high energy crystals to me"

"I will release the prodigies from your side if I win or lose"

"Oh…" Great Emperor Stinson looked at Bruce in surprise because Bruce was betting against the strength of an early stage Divine Emperor.

It's impossible for a Divine King at any stage to defeat a Divine Emperor because of one reason, elemental domain. It is like fighting against an opponent while the entire world is against you. The divine king would be fighting against two opponents at once. The elemental domain can sometimes wipe out the enemies without the Divine Emperor making any move.

Seeing that an opportunity to get rid of Bruce was right in front of him, Great Emperor Stinson smiled.

"Fine, you have my word."

"Teacher, you're going to kick his ass if he reneges on the bet, right?" Bruce looked at John.

John once again fell into everyone's attention and laughed heartily.

"Of course, your teacher is invincible after all. Muahahaha"

Great Emperor Stinson didn't take that comment too well because if his eyes could attack, there would be holes in Chef John at that moment.

"Alright, I feel reassured now." Bruce let out a sigh of relief.

"Please send out the early stage Divine Emperor"

"Hold up, we have to pick someone from our side"

"Don't you guys have them in your back pocket or something?"

"…."

The Dark Forces leadership ignored the words of the brat and focused on finding someone capable of killing him quickly in a fight. They planned to immediately eliminate Bruce and make a run for it.

"Are we sure we should let that kid do this?" Ancestor Solomon asked Great Emperor Fargo. Though Solomon didn't have a good impression of Bruce since he dragged his descendant across the ground like a common animal, he didn't want Bruce to die like this.

"Judging by John and James's reactions, I don't think we should have any worry" Great Emperor Fargo replied hazily as he felt something was amiss about Bruce. He wanted to see what miracle Bruce would bring today.

One hour later, someone from the Dark Forces came. A beautiful woman in a black dress with a sword on her waist. Her name is Mona Stinson, daughter of Great Emperor Stinson.

Mona Stinson is the greatest talent produced by the Dark Forces in the century. She had reached Divine Emperor at the age of 105. Killing Bruce quickly during the fight should not be a problem for her.

"Sorry, I don't accept this" Bruce didn't like his opponent at all.

"I am a gentleman. I refuse to fight women"

Everyone: "…."