After the fireworks faded, large rectangular rooms with one-way gla.s.s windows on one side started rising into the air before slowing down at around 20 m above the ground.
These rooms were all decorated with beautiful patterns, and the words VVVIP were written clearly on the bottom.
As those sitting in the stadium looked up and saw these letters, they understood that these were the people who are rich enough to afford the VVVIP ticket.
Some rooms were closer to the ground, whereas others rose up a few more metres before stopping. Hence, everyone in all the rooms could clearly watch everything happening in the ground below.
In one of these rooms, the five rulers who had just teleported away appeared and took their seats around a table.
Just like in all the floating rooms, there were multiple mages standing inside who were responsible for keeping them in the air.
In this one, there was an additional mage who pointed his hand at the table between them to make a few words appear above it.
There were five horizontal rows with each of them having each logo of the Kingdoms that were partic.i.p.ating.
Six vertical columns were also present, with the heading of each being the names of the games that were going to be played.
The six games were:
Archery(Fighter)
Archery(Mage)
Wrestling(Fighter)
Duel(Mage)
Handball(Fighter)
Handball(Mage)
A communication eye was placed in front of the table, and it was connected to a large display trinket that had just come into being in the air in the middle of the ground.
Inside the room, the five rulers all looked at the scoreboard before glancing up at the Golden Flame which was now floating a few centimeters above the words.
"How did you even get the idea for the Olympic Flame?"
As the Black Raven King said these words, the other three looked at the King of Lanthanor who opened his mouth and answered.
"It needed to be a symbol that is acknowledged by all five rulers. And, I felt that the words "Olympic Flame" sound good."
The Queen of Arafell smiled softly in response, while Eldra simply raised her eyebrows and chose not to say anything.
The red-robed man however, replied.
"King, I already told you, at the first sign of foul play, we"re out of here. You better not have planned anything to cheat out a victory. The entire continent is watching, so there is no way that you"ll get away with it."
Shaking his head, Daneel replied, "This is the fifth time you"re asking me that, and my answer is the same: each and every game will be fair, and you can even watch everything to make sure that there is no cheating involved. Only the worthy will win."
"They say that the one who shouts fire is oftentimes the one who started it. Is there any meaning behind you asking this so many times, King Safiros?"
These words said by Faxul to the King of Axelor surprised even Daneel himself.
As the weakest individual in the room, his friend was actually picking a fight with someone who was rumored to be a warrior?
Hearing the insinuation, the red robed man stood up and pulled back his fist in anger, but he controlled himself at the last moment and said, "If it weren"t for that Raven hidden around you, you would be mincemeat by now. You would do well to remember that you"re just a puny Human if you"re by yourself."
Smiling wide at the response, Faxul said, "And you would do well to remember that you are decades older than me. If I"m still this weak when we"re the same age, then you can talk. Till then, the Raven just asked me to tell you to shut your mouth."
This response seemed to have blown a fuse in the kKing, as he no longer stopped himself and directly punched forward in the air.
Yet, the next moment, the enormous Protector Raven appeared in the room and raised a talon in defence.
"Stop!"
As the King of Lanthanor shouted these words, the man and the Raven who had almost launched another attack at each other paused and looked around.
"If you want to fight, fight on the ground using your soldiers. Personally fighting in this way won"t accomplish anything. King Faxul, please don"t speak in a provoking manner. And King Safiros, control yourself."
Faxul chuckled in response, while the King of Axelor humphed and sat back in his seat.
As for the Protector Raven, it once again blinked out of existence.
Daneel hadn"t expected that his friend had grown so fiesty in his absence, but he was actually smiling inwardly seeing this arrogant man taken down a notch.
As the ruler of the Kingdom which was the archrival of Lanthanor, he had been arrogant in the short meeting before when Daneel had given the instructions to appear in the air and also to shoot the trinkets into the fire during the opening set many.
"Is this meeting done? Can I leave?"
"I just called you here so that we can go over everything one last time. If you don"t wish to stay, I"ll ask someone to send the transcript of the meeting to your room. You can do as you-"
Even before Daneel finished speaking, the man teleported away, acting in the same rude manner as he had been since coming to the stadium.
Simply smiling in response, Daneel asked, "Would anyone else like to leave?"
As the others just looked at him without saying anything, he nodded and continue to speak.
"The main thing I wanted to address was the security for the event. Have you all placed the lookouts that I asked you to?"
One of his main concerns about this event had been the fact that the Church might use the opportunity to snuff them all out in one go as they were all gathered in one place.
Having no wish to see this happen, he had asked the other Kingdoms to place lookouts in a radius of 100 kilometers around the stadium, quoting that it was so that no rival forces would dare to attack. After all, there were still smaller forces on the continent which might try to make trouble.
The only problem was that millions of people were trudging in constantly to spectate, making it impossible to keep track of everyone.
Hence, the only thing they could do was to keep guards everywhere on the lookout, hoping that the combined forces of the five kingdoms would be enough to repel any threat after stopping it in its tracks before it did too much damage.
After the others nodded, Daneel said, "Well then, good luck to you all! May the best Kingdom win! I have some things to attend to, so you can contact me at any time you want. Once again, thank you all for partic.i.p.ating in event."
"It is my pleasure as well, King Daneel, and I also wanted to thank you for sending out the invitation for us to partic.i.p.ate. Excellent work so far, and I really admire you for having the capability to pull off something so amazing. Arafell is glad to be allied with you."
"I agree. And just like you said, may the best Kingdom win. But I think I can guarantee right now that the mage events will definitely be dominated by the elves. I shall take my leave."
As Daneel nodded at the two Queens who said these words, both of them teleported away, leaving Faxul in the room with him.
Yet, surrounding them were mages who might gossip, so Faxul also only said "Good luck," before disappearing.
Just as Daneel was about to go down to the place where all the partic.i.p.ants were waiting, the communication trinket in his pocket vibrated, signaling that someone was trying to contact him.
Seeing that it was actually Sister Xuan, he teleported to a floating room which had just two inhabitants: Sister Xuan and Molan.
There were also no other mages, as these were two individuals who didn"t need others to keep the room afloat.
This was actually the first time they were meeting personally since that statement given by Ssiter Xuan, but she still seemed to be remembering it as she just looked down without saying anything.
Seeing this, Molan shook her head and said, "Sister Xuan wanted to tell you that she will also be taking care of the security for this event. Like you asked, if there is any sign of something untoward happening, she will immediately contact the Matron as she has already told them about what is happening. They have agreed to intervene if necessary, but only if things get too dire."
"Thanks a lot, Sister Xuan. And regarding what you said before, I"ll definitely find you later with a response."
Leaving these words and making Sister Xuan blush an even deeper shade of red, the King of Lanthanor teleported away and went to meet his soldiers who would soon be competing on the ground.