Beacon Destruction

"We have no other choice… It may seem like having these soldiers is a good thing, but it's the opposite. They're like hot potatoes, we've got to get rid of them before they hurt us." Asumi explained.

"How could they possibly hurt us?" The Eighth kept asking.

"Haven't you already seen? Taiki, haven't you noticed one of your men is missing?" She suddenly asked.

"You must be talking about Ilgon. Truth is I sent him out after Minos left in an attempt to catch him." Taiki explained.

"But shouldn't he have been back a long time ago?"

"... You're right, I guess I've been lying to myself, but it's likely he's already been eliminated."

"And how do you think that happened? With how vast the kingdom is, unless someone had already revealed the news, how could he have been captured so easily?"

"Are you saying those outside soldiers have revealed the news?"

"Exactly, and their plan is to eat us piece by piece, slowly nibbling away at us without causing any harm to themselves!" Princess Asumi explained, causing everyone to look towards her with shock.

"... That may be true, but if that was the case, why didn't Minos notice it? He doesn't seem like the type to overlook such a critical flaw." The Eighth Prince couldn't help but ask as he rubbed his chin.

"You're right to have your doubts, and the truth is, Minos already knew." Asumi explained.

"He knew? Then why did he go through with the plan anyways!?" The Ninth Prince shouted.

"He had a deeper plan at play, unfortunately he was eliminated before it could be unleashed…"

"Bigger plan? What was it?"

"Not sure, even when I asked him he refused to explain."

"Wait a minute, if Minos had a bigger plan at play, it means this may not be a bad thing for us, we just have to figure out what Minos wanted to do!" The Ninth Prince exclaimed.

"And how exactly are we meant to do that?" The Eighth Prince asked with some amusement.

"We just have to retrace his thoughts…"

Saying that, the Ninth Prince began pacing around the room as he thought intensively, but no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't figure it out.

"Dammit, what was his plan?"

"Give it up, if his plan was so easy to see through, he would have never come up with it. Let's get back to the main point, how to eliminate the op-" Princess Asumi responded, but before she could finish, she was cut off.

"Wait a second, Miss… The truth is, Minos revealed his plan to me in advance." Nissor suddenly said, causing the shock that had barely left the room to return.

"He did!? What was it?" Princess Asumi asked ecstatically, having never expected such a twist.

"He called it 'Plan Beacon Destruction' and what he wanted to do was to gather all the teams together and eliminate them in one go!"

"How could that even be possible?" The Eighth Prince asked with uncertainty.

"It requires some manipulation of the rules…" Nissor explained.

"Manipulating the rules? What do you mean?"

"You should all know about the border rule, essentially anyone who leaves the borders of the kingdom is automatically disqualified."

"Of course, that's among the first rules listed." The Ninth replied.

"Since you know, then that begs the question, what qualifies as the border?" Nissor suddenly asked.

"Isn't it obvious? Anything beyond the kingdom walls is considered outside the border." Zasro took the chance to say, finding the question foolish.

"You're right, but what about above and below? How high does one have to go, and how low?" Nissor kept asking, this time causing the entire room to go silent, no one sure exactly how to answer.

"I'm not actually sure… I guess I've never thought about it." The Eighth Prince said honestly.

"Exactly, and the fact is most people don't, and it's this ignorance that Minos wanted to take advantage of." Nissor said, before continuing.

"Minos had studied the rules quite thoroughly, and he had found out that anything below a hundred meters isn't technically within the kingdom's borders anymore, at least according to the rules."

"From that, he began studying the kingdom's layout inch by inch, before finally finding exactly what he was looking for, the Zafronium Industrial Plant."

"Given the toxic nature of Zafronium Ores, the Zafronium Industrial Plant is required to work deep within the earth in order to avoid any spillover, and Minos discovered the exact depth was around 200 meters…"

"In simple terms, Minos wanted to gather everyone in the Zafronium Industrial Plant before collapsing the floor, causing them to fall the two-hundred meter length, eliminating everyone instantly…"

"My heavens, what an insidious plan!" The Eighth responded, though the shine in his eyes made it clear that he was quite fond of the idea.

"Genius! I knew Minos wouldn't let us down." The Ninth said with uproarious laughter.

While everyone else was excited about the plan, Princess Asumi, being the realist she was, immediately noticed an issue.

"It's a good plan on paper, but how exactly are we meant to gather everyone?" She asked, spilling cold water on the others.

"To be honest, that's where you come in, Princess…" Nissor replied.

"Me? What do you mean?" Asumi asked in confusion.

"Truth is, you are the Beacon. Minos wanted to use you to gather everyone's attention before eliminating you all at once, securing his victory." Nissor said with a long sigh, as if forced to say this.

"That bastard! I knew he was up to no good!" Princess Asumi replied in anger, slamming her fist against the table before taking a deep breath.

"It's a good thing he was eliminated beforehand, otherwise he may have really led me into the fire without me even knowing… But still, that doesn't exactly explain the question."

"That's because that was only the second part of the plan, the first part is what he called 'Plan Beacon Making,' which is where we come in."

"You guys?" Asumi asked.

"That's right, as for what we need to do, it's to become the biggest threat in the game."

"And how are you meant to do that?"

"You don't need to worry about that, just know that we have the capability. The only question left to ask is, do you want to complete the plan?"

"Of course!" Asumi replied immediately, the answer being a no-brainer.

"Good, but it requires that you give us your absolute trust, otherwise it won't work." Nissor said.

"Rest assured, you guys can operate as you please, I won't say a word." Asumi assured them.

"What about us, do you need our help as well?" The Eighth immediately asked, not wanting to be left out.

"The more the merrier, but again it requires absolute trust, so those that join us must listen to us word for word."

"That's no problem, my men will treat you no different than they treat me, is that understood?"

"Understood!" The Eighth's soldiers said in unison.

"My men as well!" The Ninth also jumped in, Zasro, Taiki, and Getu also joining in rapid succession.

Soon enough, everyone had joined under Nissor's banner, amounting to around sixty men in total, which was enough to wreak havoc.

"Then leave the rest to us." Nissor said with a satisfied smile, immediately heading off to finish his planning with the others.

…

Nissor wasn't one to disappoint, and it didn't take much time for his past words to come to life.

How exactly he and his men operated so efficiently was a mystery, but everyone was just so happy at the results that they didn't ask any questions.

With the massive amount of intelligence he had on hand, Nissor and the others could easily weed out the soldiers who operated on their own, rapidly destroying the other teams bit by bit.

Of course such action didn't go without notice, and it didn't take much time for the other teams to notice their men being eliminated en masse.

It eventually reached the point where they had to recall all their soldiers, otherwise it was only a matter of time before Nissor eliminated them.

To immediately lose all their reconnaissance was akin to being struck blind deaf and dumb, making any operations near impossible, which was completely unacceptable for the other factions. Though fortunately for them, they soon figured out who was causing such a ruckus.