Ascension of the elder

"I could really go for some cookies right now."

"Don't worry Susan we can pick up some on the way home, while I'm thinking about it could someone remind me to make Elena some pancakes when we get back. I'd promised her and forgotten till just now."

The group were chattering as they left the guild heads could only watch them as they left before beginning to move themselves. It looked like they would have some busy days ahead of them but maybe they would have brighter days coming if they survived the coming chaos.

Kyle and his group made their way back and got down to business. The first groups had been dispatched in the morning to the three cities on the edge of the demarcation zone and they should arrive in a couple of weeks.

Kyle spoke to his heads and they began planning which cities should take priority during their take over. Of course all of the hub cities needed to be seizes along with the border cities to protect their territory but there were others which would be needed to maintain transport routes.

This was going to be a logistical nightmare but they carried on crunching the numbers. Over the next few days they began cycling through different guard teams, placing each group under the secret seal.

Each of these teams were vetted by Landon or his faithful elders so there was a low chance of them turning while 'shadow hand' and 'steel lotus' continued thinning the herd as it was. Faye was heard complaining recently that regardless of how many people they free or kidnap there would always be more which was seconded by One.

Luckily this was all for a purpose and Kyle's three forces numbers were swelling at a fast rate now with former thieves and mercs joining them by hook or by crook. These people already had experience in combat but they lacked the artistry Kyle had taught his people so now they were training hard to catch up and to be useful in the upcoming fights.

There was an obvious difference between after their basic training and before as they had been taught as if they were brawlers, they would rush in swinging wildly relying on strength in numbers or those few who had them using skills to turn the tide of battle.

It would be safe to say that what they had been taught before let them fight were as what they had learnt now was the correct way to kill. Kyle was happy with their current progress as with the increase in numbers and the qualitative change in their combat potential they could fight and defeat a larger force.

Alena and Martin had also been working together, after he had given Kyle his list of personnel that needed recovering Kyle had invited him to work with Alena in his alchemy lab. This proved to be a good thing.

Currently they didn't require cultivation resources instead they would need medical and healing items. Martin had a wide range of recipes at his disposal and Alena was a prodigy when it came to finding alternative ingredients which would replace hard to find ones or in some cases even improve on the existing effects.

Kyle's crafting teams had stopped producing items to sell on the market and were now fully focused on producing arms and armour for his forces to ensure that all of the newly acquired members would have everything they needed.

Luckily they had already laid in a lot of lower graded stock from when they were training so they merely moved those items to the shop or re-forged them so they were up to spec for the new members.

The variety of weapons on display was ridiculous, everyone was training and using the weapons they were most comfortable with so when you saw everyone together it looked like just a rabble but they each of the forces had their respective armours so this gave a strange effect and it ended up just looking wicked and scary in the end.

The falcons had also finally had their time to shine with them being used to ferry a few members out with the letters and communiqués from the guild heads which got everything moving. A few people were shocked when over the span of a few days almost all the alchemists had disappeared from the northern territory and no one knew where they had disappeared to.

Kyle had also tried flying on his falcon and he had to say it was really enjoyable he had even taken Elena, Miranda and Clara up with him just for fun although they also had their own falcons. Clara's falcon had also laid eggs so in a little while they would have 6 more falcons if nothing went wrong.

Kyle had also been thinking about enlarging his beast contingent since he found that they don't need to eat all that often and instead drew most of their sustenance from the mana they absorbed. The beasts seemed to closer to true cultivators than the human cultivators seemed to be as they could use their mana to sustain themselves.

Time was marching on and Kyle had finally released Archie, Neil and Clyde from their crash training course but they didn't stop training with Kyle's household as they had seen the progress in their training.

Clyde and Neil had been discussing something between themselves over the last few days and finally they approached Kyle with determined expressions on their faces.

"Kyle can we talk to you when you have a minute?"

Neil was the one who spoke, even though Clyde had become more confident recently he was now just quiet rather than being introverted.

"Sure I have some time right now so let's grab a seat."

They walked over to a bench in the recreation area of the courtyard and Neil thought for a second before he spoke.

"Kyle we know that there is stuff going on you aren't telling us. With all the new people coming and going, some being guards and some appearing to be slaves and thugs we know that something is happening and it'll happen soon. Can you let us help you?"

"Please Kyle you've helped us so let us help you."

Clyde followed up with his shorter but just as passionate plea to help Kyle and the family in general. Kyle looked between them and decided to trust them, hopefully they wouldn't have to choose between those closest to them and the family at large but as time was going on it looked more and more likely the traitor was one of Kyle's uncles.

"There is a war coming, we think the first blow is going to be during or just after the harvest festival. We haven't spread out our knowledge of this attack to far as we have a traitor in our midst."

Kyle went on to explain his poisoning and the attacks he had suffered once he began to show his strength. Clyde and Neil listened to this with darkening expressions. They could see from how Kyle was explaining what had happened and that there was a traitor that he believed it was one of their parents who was the traitor.

"So you think it could be one of our fathers who betrayed us?"

Neil asked with an angry expression on his face, Kyle just looked to him calmly before he simply stated.

"That is what the evidence is showing."

Neil deflated at this simple statement while Clyde had his brow furrowed thinking of all the things his father had said and done but he couldn't come to any conclusion.

"Don't think about it too much, I know this probably doesn't help but no one believes you have anything to do with this. If we did why would we train you to be strong enough to protect yourselves?"

Clyde and Neil were happy when Kyle said this as they always cared for their younger cousin like he was their little brother. They were both still worried about their parents and in the few days they had left before the tournament they would try to find out if their parents had truly done something.

Everyone continued training and gradually the day of the tournament arrived. Kyle had prepped all of his people along with some surprises for his enemies when they showed themselves. He had been waiting for this for years now and with all the pieces in place now it was time for the games to begin.

Kyle washed himself and got dresses before heading down and gave his morning greeting to everyone in the kitchen like usual. Kyle took a seat as he had been told yesterday than Bruno and he wouldn't have to help with breakfast as they were the stars of today's show.

Miranda, Clara, Elena and Alena were already sitting down and Bruno arrived just behind Kyle so they all ended up sitting together and chatted about the upcoming tournament. Kyle was distracted when he saw Elena's plate.

"Oh did you finally get your pancakes?"

"No these are crepes *humph*."