Chapter 1092: Djoser
The pirates’ arks had largely been left where they’d been parked during the sack, leaving the arks of Strategos Djoser little option other than to land in the forum in front of the Temple of Leth—there was simply no other place large enough for all of the vehicles to land alongside one another.
By the time the arks were touching down, Leon, Clear Day, and the city’s Assembly had already gathered in the chamber within. Leon’s Tempest Knights were left outside, flanking the temple’s entrance, while Anzu stood right in front of the doors, an almost arrogant look in his blood-red eyes.
Soldiers streamed out of the arks, all wearing simple, though well-made breastplates, morion helmets, and bright doublets beneath colored red, green, yellow, and blue. In each soldier’s right hand was a long halberd, while on their left was a black glove fitted with dozens of enchanted gems that Leon guessed held power for some kind of offensive or defensive spell—a brute force approach to his modular gauntlet system, but one that was undoubtedly effective, if expensive.
Only after a hundred of these powerful—on average, they were seventh-tier—soldiers exited their arks and secured the forum did the more important men come walking out. First was Asa Hamil-Untar himself, dressed all in bright purple with a golden diadem about his brow that glittered with amethysts. His tenth-tier aura was radiant, though it only filled the forum for a moment before it was drowned out by the man who exited next.
Tall and well-built, Strategos Djoser cut an imposing figure. The dark-skinned man wasn’t particularly handsome, with weaker features than one might’ve wished for, but he wore upon his face an easy smile that lent him no small amount of roguish charm. His black hair was shorn close to his head, while he wore pure white loose-fitting robes. Around his neck hung more than a dozen pendants of gleaming gold and glittering silver, while every finger bore at least one ring, several of which Leon noted were made of Lumenite, and one of an orange-goldish material that he suspected was Aurichalcum if he remembered the metallurgical texts Nestor had had him read correctly.
Djoser’s aura lost in no way to Leon’s, and from the way he strutted down the ramp, it appeared that he had no doubts whatsoever that he was the strongest person in the city. It might’ve struck Leon as rather arrogant if he wasn’t waiting for these two men in a temple that had been heavily warded against outside surveillance.
Following Djoser came more than a dozen men in formal suits of the same garish color scheme as the soldiers, and one woman stronger than them all at the eighth-tier. She was dressed similarly, though she was armed only with a pen at the moment. She had severe features, and severely did she look around the forum, glaring at Leon’s Tempest Knights and particularly at Anzu.
“What is this?!” Asa shouted as he approached the Tempest Knights, though he notably didn’t dare stare at the two Ulta pilots for long. “Who are you? How dare you impede my progress into this great temple! I am the Speaker for this city! You will let me pass!”
Asa’s aura flexed and pressed against Anzu, but the albino griffin-in-human-form weathered the pressure spectacularly, neither budging an inch nor letting the smile on his face flicker for even a moment. That smile, however, did turn slightly more vicious when he responded to the self-proclaimed Speaker.