1041: Coddling

Coddling

The location was the deck of a spaceship. However, to call it as such would be doing a great disservice to the true magnitude of the behemoth that hung among the celestial bodies of this particular solar system. It almost felt far more appropriate to call it a starship.  2

Of course, this would be an exaggeration. True Starships were at a minimum capable of rivaling a moon in size while the largest of them could lived up to their namesake and could stand side by side with suns. This one, however, was 'just' ten kilometers in length, hovering outside the Milky Way's Fold of Reality. 

A distance away from this junior starship was a planet that hovered on neutral ground. It wasn't currently claimed by any major powers of the Milky Way Guild and was actually meant to act as a relay station to the starship. 

Leonel, who had appeared on this planet with his brothers to his back couldn't help but chuckle. 

Before Leonel, a middle-aged man with a cold expression stood. His left eye had been replaced by a rolling bronze eyeball and his right was covered in a monocle. Currently, he was the one responsible for manning the teleportation station to the starship hovering overhead. 

This planet was an edge planet. It existed at the very border of a Fold of Reality and was valuable for its use as a jumping point. But, outside of that, it was quite barren and lacked in resources. So, not much unlike the asteroid gas station Heira had gone to for the sake of reporting Leonel, there was hardly anyone here. 

It wasn't just Leonel who had come. Noah and Jessica were present, along with Tyrron and the Moon people. However, they were all infuriated as well. 

The issue challenged by the Sixth Dimensional Galaxies was clearly a blatant provocation. Not only was it a ridiculous excuse piggybacking off of a rule that didn't exist, but they had even insulted the intelligence of the people of Earth a step further by actually placing so many hoops before them for them to jump through. 

Leonel held an amiable smile on his face even while realizing the situation they were in. Since he had chosen to approach every situation like this until he was forced not to, then he would follow through with that choice, even if it seemed blatantly obvious that the purpose of these people was not pure. 

"I don't think that this would be in our best interest. How about we meet in the middle?" Leonel spoke to the middle aged man. "Since we are already here, why not come down? We are more than willing to have this battle. However, stepping on your ship doesn't seem to be necessary, nor does it fulfill your original promise of a neutral sight."

The reality was that the fact that they could pick the location of this planet inherently made it not neutral to begin with. If they could set up teleportation stations here, who was to say that they hadn't set up anything else? 

Still, Leonel chose to attempt to compromise first. 

His thoughts from just a few days ago were still weighing on his mind. He didn't want to think of his enemies as 'others'. He wanted to think of them as future subjects that he would one day subdue, people no different from himself. He was consciously trying to fight back against his own human nature to form ingroups and outgroups. As such, he couldn't just come in guns blazing just because someone was trying to play hardball in negotiations. 

But, what Leonel was going to find out very soon was the fact that sometimes it simply didn't matter how charismatic or nice you were. Often times, logic was irrelevant as well. At a certain point, only those that were strong got a say in what could be deemed as reality and what couldn't be. 

And, as though to prove this… The middle-aged man's lip curled into a crooked sneer as though only a single half of his face worked properly. 

"We have already laid out the requirements to end this war with as little bloodshed as possible," he said. "However, if you don't want this olive branch, we'll directly use this planet as a springboard to send out Sixth Dimensional powerhouses into your galaxy. Then we'll end things our own way."

At that moment, Leonel came to an understanding. They hadn't called them here to battle or even have these peace talks. They had been called here as a display of their strength and also as another slap to Earth's face. 

It was as though they were coddling Earth, showing them their trump cards like they didn't have the ability to find these things out on their own or understand them. 

And the most disgusting part of it… Was that they were correct. 

"So, let me get this straight. You made up a bogus rule you thought we would be stupid enough to believe actually existed. You then made us teleport to this so-called 'neutral' ground. And yet, instead of this neutral ground being the location of battle you asked for, you want us to teleport again so that we can go to *your* spaceship?"

Milan spoke without a care for courtesy. Usually, with Leonel and Noah taking the helm as Princes of Earth, it wasn't the turn of others to speak. But, having been following Leonel for so long, a man who didn't really care about such strict hierarchy, Milan never hesitated to speak his mind, even in the face of these people. 

He was already infuriated at this point. These people, did they really think that they were stupid? 

The reason they had come here despite knowing that this prisoner competition was bogus was to prove that they had nothing to fear. Even if it was one on one battles, who cared? Since when were the people of Earth afraid of anything of the sort? 

But now they were very clearly taking it too far. 

The middle-aged man's bronze eyeball spun, landing on Milan. Without a word, a formless pressure shot outward, forcing Milan to retreat explosively. Even one of his energy shields imploded on contact, not being able to withstand even a single surge of aura. Before anyone could react, Milan had already been forced backward dozens of meters. 

"Tell your barking dog to watch his mouth. It's already beneath me to waste my time here. This isn't a negotiation. You either do it, or you face the consequences."

Leonel's smile slowly faded. 

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