Oswald’s confidence and rage began to crack once more under the pressure of a power he did not understand. Max was too powerful, forcing him to swallow his pride and finally accept the taste of defeat.

He wanted to scream that one day he would return this humiliation ten times over. He wanted to swear that Max would pay for every insult, every threat, every piece of pride he had torn from him today.

But he was afraid.

Terrified that this madman would kill all of his people and drag them into an early war. Yet if he allowed Max to take so much of his army, his empire was already doomed to fall.

For the first time ever, Oswald did not know what to do.

"I agree to your terms..." He bit his tongue and swallowed his rage. His body could no longer hold his dragon form, forcing him back into a humanoid version. His eyes returned to blue, staring at Max with hatred and restraint.

Max canceled his attack. A thin layer of his void armor began to crack, barely noticeable to the naked eye.

"The exchange will take place now. I also declare that from now on, the Voidstar Kingdom holds the territory all the way up to your borders, including the buffer zone."

He spoke firmly, his earlier arrogance fading, replaced by a serious tone. Everybody watched the agreement unfold with reluctance in their eyes. Some did not want to join Max. Some did not want to leave him. It created chaos among both sides, but the law of power was something those without strength could not challenge.

Before the exchange could fully take place, Max requested a stone table and chairs for the three of them, which his people quickly gathered.

They sat in the middle, all in their humanoid forms.

A map lay on the table, sparking a debate between the three rulers as they struggled to draw the borders of a new order. Thor’s remaining hand rested on the edge of the stone table, his fingers digging into it with barely restrained anger. Oswald sat stiffly, his jaw tight, while Max leaned back as if the whole world already belonged to him.

"We need at least some buffer zone for our merchants to travel to other lands. You can’t just absorb everything..." Thor spoke calmly, but his voice revealed his annoyance.

Max’s greed had no bounds.

"I can leave this place, then." Max traced a line from the borders of the Elven Forest in the south to the mountains of the Orcs in the north. Yet the strip of land he offered was painfully thin, barely more than a narrow passage.

"You’re pushing it. Can’t you spare some more land?" Oswald punched the table, but then quickly forced himself to calm down, remembering how expensive his anger had become today.

"No, I cannot." Max crossed his arms. "Instead of that, if the two of you don’t want to negotiate on the land itself, I can offer fair trade through these territories. I only request a five percent tax at the gate posts along the safe routes."

Thor leaned back, his tense fist relaxing slightly. "One way?"

"Both." Max shook his head, making their faces pale.

Oswald’s fingers pressed against the stone table. "You want to tax us when we enter, and tax us again when we leave?"

"I’m giving you a safe route through my lands." Max smiled lightly. "If you don’t want to use it, you can fly around. I won’t stop you."

"Your lands?" Oswald almost laughed from fury. "You took them barely a moment ago."

"And now they are mine." Max tapped the map with one claw. "That is what happens when you lose."

Thor stared at the thin line Max had drawn. It was not a large piece of land, but it was placed too well. It connected the south and north, touching trade routes that merchants would have to use sooner or later. It was the kind of small road that looked worthless at first glance, but could bleed coins for generations if controlled properly.

"You truly are shameless..." Thor muttered.

"I prefer smart," Max replied.

"If we agree to this, your people cannot suddenly change the rules," Thor said, forcing himself to remain calm. "No fake crimes. No random charges. No raising the tax whenever your mood changes."

Max clicked his tongue. "You make me sound like a bad ruler."

"You are," Oswald spat.

Thor did not deny it either.

Max chuckled, clearly enjoying their anger. "Fine. Five percent tax in both directions. It will stay fixed unless all three rulers agree to change it. Merchants can pass through the safe routes. Armies cannot, unless they have permission. Spies caught pretending to be merchants will lose their heads. Simple enough?"

For a moment, silence pressed over the stone table. The two emperors looked at each other, both hating every word that came from Max’s mouth, yet neither could deny that he held the advantage.

"Fine, we agree, only if you agree to pay the same tax when passing through our lands." Thor led the debate.

"That’s fine by me. I’m not a greedy person." Max chuckled, but that made the two emperors almost puke blood.

Max truly knew no shame at all.

"Begin the exchange!" Max roared, and the Ice Dragon warriors moved to organize the exchange.

The battlefield quickly turned chaotic. Warriors were ordered into lines. Families were separated and counted. Children cried, elders shouted, and soldiers from all sides kept their hands close to their weapons, afraid that one wrong movement would turn this agreement into another massacre.

The Thunder Dragons were counted first.

Six out of every ten warriors were pulled toward Max’s side. Some lowered their heads in shame. Some looked back toward Thor as if begging him to stop this. But Thor stood still, his face hard and pale, knowing that if he spoke now, he would lose even more.

The Wind Dragons were even worse.

For them, it was not six out of ten.

It was eight.

Oswald’s people looked at him with confusion and anger. Their emperor had lost. The man who had brought them here with pride now stood there wounded and silent, forced to watch as most of his army was cut apart in front of him. Every time another group of warriors was sent to Max’s side, his fingers tightened harder around his spear.

Max watched it all with cold eyes. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

He kept more women, more young workers, more strong warriors, and more craftsmen for himself. To Thor and Oswald, he gave back more elders, wounded men, tired soldiers, and those who would be harder to feed than to use. It was still called an exchange, but everyone could see what he was doing.

He was crippling their recovery.

It took them more than ten hours to finish counting every person, until the three parties changed drastically in size. Now, the Wind Empire’s numbers were comically low, almost pitiful compared to what they had arrived with.

Both Oswald and Thor knew that to recover their old numbers, they would need at least a hundred years of rapid reproduction.

But that would be hard to achieve due to the lack of food and women, as Max kept more women for his side than he gave back to them.

The cruelty of the exchange was clear to everyone, but nobody had the power to challenge it.