It has already been a week since the last battle in the Ant Kingdom Forbidden Zone.
Klaus and his team are still inside the forbidden zone, waiting to hear from the others who are currently undergoing their training.
They are currently clearing the Tier 7 forbidden zone he had selected for them. Each team was assigned to clear one.
Naturally, he picked those forbidden zones just like he picked the Ant Kingdom. However, after seeing how dangerous the Tier 8 zone was, he knew the two weeks he had given them wouldn't be enough.
So he sent a message to all the leaders overseeing the training of the various teams to extend the time to three weeks. That would be enough for them to finish their task.
This also meant there would be more than enough moments since there would be many battles within the three weeks.
This means the data he asked to be gathered from all 606 would be sufficient to know how to proceed with their training.
It was a blessing in disguise.
He also sent a message to Queen Lunara was doing something rather important for Klaus. The triplets are under her care in a special place that was discovered recently in the Ice Union.
They are calling it the Elemental Domain, for it has regions for all the elements. Naturally, only the iverlords could access it, but thanks to his status, he managed to send the three ladies there.
They will also be brought to the badlands in three weeks, just like everyone. They are very important to him.
Despite it being a week after the battle, Danny and Mark were still not awake. Of course, Klaus wasted no effort pouring his energy into the immortal ice every single day.
He estimated they would wake up in another week, and then they would leave to meet the others.
Meanwhile, a couple of days after Klaus and his team left the academy, Hunter and his team also departed. This time, they brought their three siblings and formed a team of eight.
Although Klaus prevented Hunter and Kate, who were the legacies of the Duncan family, and Kim, Zaid, and Richy, who were also once heirs of three of the five great clans, he said nothing about their three siblings joining his recruiting trial held using Oracle AI.
But since they chose not to participate, it meant they didn't share a destiny with him and were only destined to be enemies forever.
So they left under the excuse of going on missions.
However, they didn't go on any mission. Instead, they met up with the mysterious figure who offered them the chance to help kill Klaus and his friends.
This time, they were taken to a remote location, far from the surveillance of all satellites.
This was where they would be transformed into the best versions of themselves—at least, according to the figure's words.
This begs the question: who was this person, and what was his endgame?
He first appeared when Klaus began gaining fame. He observed him for a moment, but he couldn't act against him immediately.
So he struck through the Dark Order. That day, when the high-priority kill order was issued, the Dark Order assigned the mission to one of their most trusted members.
That was how the woman who would become the key to the Dark Order's downfall was set in motion. Aya Middlestone—Luna and Nuna's mother—was the one meant to orchestrate Klaus's destruction.
But that plan failed, and what followed was a catastrophe for the Dark Order, leading to their complete annihilation a few months ago.
However, this mysterious figure—the engineer from the alliance that Klaus had dismantled—had been pulling strings from the shadows for a long time.
Many had died because of him, and even if one were to investigate, the truth was that he had been orchestrating his plans long before the apocalypse descended.
He was also linked to many deaths that shook the Earth in the early stages of the apocalypse. And now, he had started a new project—one that would become another thorn in Klaus's side.
But this time, something else was at play, and Klaus, who could sense it, knew that stopping it was impossible for now. It would come to pass whether he liked it or not.
The heavens are helping this mysterious man, for the mysteries around him are so otherworldly that even Klaus couldn't place his finger on them.
So, even though he knew letting Hunter and his team go was a mistake, he had to allow it, while keeping a watchful eye on them.
If there was a mysterious force pulling strings on Earth, then Klaus wouldn't waste time trimming its hair. That would grow back and perhaps be much more dangerous.
He would cut off its head entirely.
So he let them go, and now the eight youngsters are staring at a dark, cloaked figure. The figure was shrouded in darkness from head to toe, clad entirely in black.
Behind him stood eight large coffins.
"I already promised to turn you into Void Stage beings, and I intend to keep that promise," he said coldly, making the eight before him shudder.
"This is the process. It will take time, but you will be strong enough to battle and kill your enemies when you emerge.
I will also make arrangements to help you handle the changes that will happen to your enemies.
This time, you will finish what your parents couldn't."
Despite the fear in their eyes, they nodded.
The figure snapped his fingers, and the eight coffins creaked open, revealing interiors filled with pools of blood. However, something else in it would have made Klaus raise an eyebrow.
Those things shouldn't be on earth, or at least, they shouldn't be in the hands of such a figure. But since it's inside the box of blood, Klaus would find out later.
The sight made their bodies tremble, but their determination outweighed their fear—they knew what had to be done.
"Submerge your entire body inside. When the time comes, you will all be brought out. By then, the weakest among you will be Void Stage."
Hunter and his team stepped into a coffin without hesitation, and the lids shut tight.
The figure waved his hand, and a towering mountain rose, concealing the eight coffins within its shadow.
He stepped back and formed a series of hand seals when he was at a safe distance. A glowing spell diagram appeared in the air before descending upon the mountain.
"Soon, this world will know the pain of the lost ones," he muttered before vanishing.
However, moments after his departure, another figure emerged from the ground, eyes locked onto the mountain.
She retrieved a small device from her space ring. It's a rectangular item coated in green ice.
She planted it in the soil, and then silently merged back into the earth, vanishing with the dirt.
Naturally, this place would be monitored, and Klaus would make his move when the time was right.
But whether he would be able to catch the big fish—that would be determined when the moment arrived.
He could have tried now, but he knew the figure would be on high alert, so he would make his move when his project was ripped.
Danny and Mark woke up a week later, and Klaus left the Ant Kingdom with his team.
Their next destination: Monsterland—a place where even his eyes would be opened to the dangers they had never known existed.
But aside from that, his destiny is also waiting for him...