Kneel

The serpent who was currently being tamed felt a warm sensation spreading from its head throughout its whole body. It instinctively felt the urge to resist but ended up calming down when it realized it should just be grateful that it was still alive. Not to mention that Maxene gave it a familiar feeling.

As soon as the serpent was tamed, it was given the necessary healing that it needed to recover to full health. As for being mentally scarred every time it saw Luna, that would take some time.

"Hmm, now what do I name you?" Maxene rubbed her chin as she thought deeply.

Luna looked at the snake with pity. "Let's hope she gives you a name you can be proud of," Luna thought to himself. He knew how notoriously bad Maxene's naming sense was.

"I'll name you Sneaky Snake!" Max said out of nowhere. Luna rubbed his forehead as soon as he heard this and the serpent's eyes bulged so much that it felt as if they would pop out of his eye sockets. "It's because you tried to ambush us! You tried to be sneaky, you sneaky snake!" Maxene gave her reasoning.

The serpent looked at Luna with pleading eyes, completely ignoring the trauma he experienced with Luna earlier.

Luna shook his head as he said, "Sorry buddy, you're on your own." to that, the serpent dubbed as Sneaky Snake could only resign herself to her fate.

"Alright, let's go. Emil should be waiting for us." Luna said as he silently communicated with Paco, "Take control of this area. There's no way that this serpent got to that high of a level for no reason. I'll ask Max to command the serpent to help you out."

"Yes, Lord Luna," Paco replied back.

***

At the Gala event, Angry Bakunawa finally landed a short distance from where Emil and the rest were waiting to welcome them. With Luna at the forefront, everybody took their places behind him.

Ha-eun, in particular, was pleasantly surprised. She saw Yu-jin and Sang-hwa and was immediately delighted.

"So he also has a Korean faction within his nation? Is this Luna's hold over his nation not as secure as we thought? How strong are those two to obtain their position?" Multiple thoughts immediately ran through her mind, but being as intelligent as she is, she soon calmed herself down. She just saw what Luna was capable of and none of them were sure just how strong this man actually was. It would be wise to show sincerity in front of him. She also realized that her thoughts were too optimistic.

She was correct in thinking so. Yu-jin and Sang-hwa were incredibly loyal to Luna. The moment she presented any form of rebellion to them, the two wouldn't hesitate in pretending to cooperate before stabbing her in the back. The same was true for Elise, Hana, and even Paco. Even if Emil demanded Paco's cooperation under his authority as the President of the Philippines, the Ranger would just scoff at him.

As Luna and the rest were walking towards the location Emil was at, nobody bothered to hide their auras. Everyone instantly sensed a feeling of dread. Even the two elite squads following behind Luna felt a bit uncomfortable. Despite that, it only made them even more proud to walk behind this man. They were used to being around the same soldiers who had domineering auras gained through constant slaughter and being around their superiors who were even stronger than them.

President Emil and the other high-level officials felt as if everything just became gloomy and that the world lost some of its colors.

This was the pressure that the unleashed auras brought. It would affect them in various ways depending on their level. Emil himself who wasn't that experienced in battle due to him getting power-leveled for most of this time felt the sudden urge to kneel down and worship everyone in Luna's entourage. It took all of his might to keep himself upright.

"So this is the aura Greg was talking about, eh?" Mascardo thought to himself. If his friend was already suffering while Luna was holding his aura back before, one could only imagine the effect it was having on them now. Not to mention Luna wasn't in front of them yet.

The moment he arrived in front of them.

*BANG* They were all brought to their knees.

Everyone including Emil felt as if the world was coming down on them.

*GASP*

Each and every one of Emil's citizens was absolutely shocked.

"Whoah... Why did President Emil and the rest kneel?"

"Even that bastard criminal Mascardo knelt down?"

"What the hell is happening?"

"Who gives a fuck, check out that girl! Is that... D-DIWATA*?" One commenter said after seeing Alea.

"Check out that morena chick! Look at her eyes!" Another said after seeing Tala.

"Is that Luna's wife right beside him? Damn it! He's already taken?"

"Yeah, it looks like he even has a daughter, look! Although they don't look very similar."

While it was quite shocking to see their leaders kneel, there were still some who were more curious about this "Luna" they've all been hearing about since the beginning of the new world.

Confusion was the most prevalent thing in their minds currently. Luna knew how badly it made Emil look in front of his people, but he could care less about the reputation of a man who wanted to ambush him.

"G-Greetings, Luna. I'm g-glad you c-c-could make it. Now if you p-please could r-retract y-your aura." Emil heaved as soon as he finished speaking. It was hard enough for him to breath as it is.

Luna smiled and signaled for everyone to retract their auras. The sudden disappearance of the weight on their shoulders made Emil and the rest almost fall over.

"My apologies, I'm not used to people not being able to handle my aura," Luna nonchalantly said.

This was him basically telling Emil and the rest "Our regular soldiers are stronger than you."

"It's not your fault at all, Lord Luna! I apologize that you have to exert the effort to retract your aura just for us." Mascardo quickly replied. He had finally decided that he would join the Sovereign Nation without any schemes. The same could be said about everyone besides Emil. Even those who were not Mascardo's cohorts and were loyal to Emil finally began to waver.

"Was it truly wise to keep being on Emil's side?"

Everyone shook each other's hands. As Luna was shaking Emil's hand, he was all smiles as he whispered "Unfortunate that your little ambush didn't work. Be a good boy and don't make any unnecessary actions, or I'll kill you where you stand." As far as the citizens were concerned they could only see Luna smiling while saying something on their screens.

Emil could only smile back and nod. The rest of the officials heard this as well and could feel their backs sweating profusely. The ones who weren't aware of the plan looked at Emil incredulously. "Was this guy suicidal? If so, don't drag us down with you, idiot!" They thought to themselves.

Emil maintained his appearances as much as he could and gestured for everyone to take follow him to the venue nearby and take their seats.

The event's emcee took the mic as she started her introductions.

Every single one of the citizens listened intently. The image of their leaders kneeling in front of this man called Luna was still fresh in their minds. Some hadn't even processed it yet.

To them, Luna and the rest felt and looked like Gods that descended from the very heavens themselves. While they couldn't feel the pressure from such a distance, the visuals alone made them endlessly curious about this Visayan Overlord from the South.